Texas Lou

It’s starting to feel like fall!

After the sweltering heat that we’ve endured this summer, I’m welcoming the autumn season with open arms.

Fall always reminds me of new beginnings: starting school, starting a new job, entering into a new relationship.  These significant events in my life have almost always happened during fall, so the familiar smell of the air and feel of the breeze cooling you as the sun warms your skin perfectly always makes me happy and nostalgic.

Tomorrow, I’m attending the Harvest Wine Festival At The Plains and will happily be sipping local wines while enjoying the company of friends and the feel of the grass beneath my body.  Next weekend, I’ll be attending and “starring in” the autumn harvest themed wedding of two dear friends.  I can’t think of a better way to welcome the season!

Today is my two year anniversary of working at VGT!

I still miss my old job and everyone who I had the privilege to work with at Albemarle County Public Schools, but I also am so thankful for the opportunity I was given two years ago.

I have learned so much related to programming, communication, teamwork, design, and analysis and I’ve met so many wonderful people!

I feel very blessed to have a job, especially a great job that challenges me and provides such wonderful benefits, and I hope to have the opportunity to work at Video Gaming Technologies for many years to come!

Robert:  “This is Robert!”

Patsy:  “And this is Patsy!”

Both: “And we can’t come to the phone right now…”

Mikey: “Oh my God, they killed Kenny!  You bastards!”

All:  Snickering and giggling ensues.

This is the voicemail message that people would hear when calling my home phone number for a couple of years when I was in high school.  The idea of a teacher calling to talk to my mom and getting this voicemail message always cracked me up!

My mom and step-dad had been trying to set a new message on the answering machine when my brother decided to bust in and ruin their efforts with a notable quote from South Park.  It was so funny and we all couldn’t stop laughing so my mom and step-dad decided to leave the message.

I wish I could hear it again just for shits and giggles!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog!  It’s been an extremely busy summer with lots of traveling, special occasions, and activities!

Recently, I’ve been helping my friend Sarah get ready for her wedding that is two weeks from tomorrow, but once things calm down some and the slow and relaxing air of autumn is here, I will share all of my adventures!

While we were on vacation last week, one of my besties, Sarah, brought some Trader Joe’s salsa verde for us to snack on.  I LOVE salsa verde, but living in Virginia, you don’t find a very wide variety of salsas available.

On a completely different topic, a few weeks ago, I watched the movie Food Inc., which was highly recommended to me by my friend Dana.  The movie, which emphasizes the importance of getting our food from less processed and more natural resources, was excellent and inspired me to try and do my best to be more “green” when it comes to the food I eat.

So, on Saturday I made my way to the local farmers market to try and live up to my new found goal of eating naturally.  I bought chicken and eggs from local farms, fresh raspberries, beautiful, big, red tomatoes, and a giant ripe onion!  I also found tomatillos, the key ingredient in salsa verde!  I didn’t think I’d find them, but I searched each and every booth until I feasted my eyes upon a large basket of tomatillos for only $2!

Last night I was finally able to make my very own salsa verde for the first time and WOW, was it D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!

Here’s the recipe:

• 6 or 7 ripe tomatillos
• 2 fresh jalapenos
• a handful of cilantro
• 1/3 (or about 1/2 cup) of a large white onion
• a splash of lemon juice

I washed the tomatillos and blanched and peeled some of them.  I also threw a couple of them in there with the peeling because I got lazy.  I washed the jalapenos and removed the stems.  I left the innards and the seeds for a spicier salsa because I like it SPICY, but you can remove the insides and seeds if you like your salsa with a little less kick.  I then washed and de-stemmed the cilantro and chopped the onion.  All of this was thrown into my Cuisinart food processor (courtesy of my wonderful mom) with a splash of lemon juice and blended to perfection!

Ben and I ate it with fresh grilled zuccini, portabello mushrooms, and Mexican rice.  The best part is there was enough left over for tonight AND I still have enough ingredients to make another batch!

So props to me for eating green in more ways than one!

If you know me well, then you’ll know that I absolutely LOVE to go to the dentist.

I know most people don’t enjoy going to the dentist and actually despise it so much that they go several years without seeing one.

I’m different and I’m strange and I love going to the dentist.  Maybe it’s because I have very healthy teeth and rarely have a bad experience at the dentist.  Maybe it’s because I have a weird obsession with cleaning (I tend to think the cleaner the better, but I know this isn’t always a rational belief).  Maybe it’s because my dentist has a massage chair and a TV in each one of his check-up rooms (although I vaguely recall loving the dentist experience before I was seeing my current one).  Whatever the reason is for my abnormal love of the dentist, I figure there can be worse unusual enjoyments, like trimming your cuticles until they bleed (ok another strange one that I am guilty of) or plucking out gray strands of hair (I no longer am a victim of this strange obsession).

Today I get to go to the dentist!  I get to have my teeth cleaned and will put off eating afterward as long as possible so that my teeth will remain sparkly and white like Edward Cullen (for you Twilight fans out there)!

So I know the above sounds a bit crazy, but we all have our crazy quirks and characteristics that make us unique and this just happens to be one of mine!

Today is a perfect day at the beach filled with waves, sand, sunshine, watermelon, and surf fishing.  I wish this vacation could last longer!

Well it rained all day yesterday here in Chincoteague, but the good news is that’s all the rain the forecast is calling for while we are here.

Above are some rainy day pictures from the first day of our summer vacation.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I’ve had blogger’s block (or writer’s block for the traditionalists out there).

I’ve also been contemplating starting a new blog.  Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean that Texas Lou will be retired.  This blog will continue to be my personal blog.  But I’d like to start more of a professional blog dealing with a specific topic or project.  Deciding on that topic is the hard part, but I’ve been letting a few ideas marinate.

I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July and a great long weekend!  Just 4 days until I get to go to the beach!

I now subscribe to 280 blogs through Google Reader!

I think my hobby of blog following may be turning into an obsession!