Posts Tagged ‘his n hers’

This weekend, Jared and I started to tackle the retaining wall.  It is a five-foot by 16 foot wall in our back yard which has failed due to (1) a tree growing right next to it and (2) initial installation was not done properly.

 

 

Saturday we spent the day taking apart the wall, block for block.  We got about mid-way when we noticed a huge tree root.  We paused for about an hour to go to Lowe’s to get the following supplies to help us out…

 

We also had the following to help with the job: wheelbarrow, shovel, and lots of sweat.  Jared picked at the root until it was split.  That didn’t necessarily mean it was going to come out, but the “root” was about 50 pounds. 

The root itself was half the battle.  Once we got that out, we had to get the stump out.  My “little axe” did a good job of clearing the rocks out.  Oh the rocks!  There are so many rocks.  Not retaining wall rocks either, just rocks!

By mid-day two, after clearing all of the earth (Jared kept making fund of me because I was calling it earth instead of dirt) we were able to start uncovering the remaining 15% of wall stone (different from actual stone) but not without a fight.  There is earth dirt everywhere!  After shoveling wheelbarrow loads full of earth, we were finally back down to the ground and attempting to move the final stones.  Or so we thought…  The one thing the former builder did right was make a sub-base where you lay the first stones a few inches under the freeze point for stability.  Unfortunately for us that meant more digging….

 

You can sort of see in this picture the wall stones are nicely stacked, but the random rocks are thrown into a big pile near the right hand of the shed,  Oh, this isn’t all the stone, either.  This is only half.  The other half can be found under the deck (which is where I took the picture).

Sunday was a good day to get everything organized.  We had pulled tons of stone out and we regrouped.  Next is digging the trench.  In fact, we are thinking of throwing a retaining wall party to recruit some help . 

 

Suffice to say our pale skin is sunburnt.  In fact, we are burnt, sore (those rocks are heavy), but feeling accomplished.  This is a pretty ambitious undertaking, but it is going pretty well.  In fact, we have sweat equity to show for it…

(1) Tree Removal: $45 (two axes) vs. $Hundreds of Dollars

(2)  Tearing down wall:  $0 (time) vs. $Cost of Backhoe

We will also get a “nearly free” patio out of this project as we were both thinking how to use all of those pesky rocks.  We are thinking of making it into a patio and building a fire pit!  One thing at a time, though!

Jared and I needed a nice Couples Day this Valentines Day.  We spent the day doing things a little differently than normal…

We started off by exercising together…  We headed to my gym where they let him with my guest pass.  He belongs to Gold’s Gym downtown, but froze his membership due to his schedule.  It was fun to lift weights with him and we did a total body circuit. 

We then did a running interval on the treadmill:

• 1 minute at 7.5 mph
• 1 minute at 5.8 mph / incline 5%
• 1 minute at 6.0 mph

 

Afterwards, we headed to Janoski’s for breakfast per his request.  No pictures, but it was delicious!

Then we got into the third part of couples day: homemade art work.

Semi-inspired by Joe and Betsy, I thought it would be fun to create a piece of artwork together.  The house desperately needs some art work so what better way to add some color than to do it ourselves?  I wasn’t sure what Jared’s reaction would be but he was totally into it!

 

 

We set off on a mission.  Since we are certainly no artists, abstract was the way to go .  As cheated a bit and traced the design onto the canvases.  The design basically split between the two and we were both responsible for one side.

 

We both got really into it. Each shape had a particular color assigned to it.  Jared picked the colors and I picked the shape they were assigned to.  I was very particular about my edges, making sure each shape was sharply defined.

Our end result is neat.  We used primary colors with a dark background.  For not being artists, I’d say we did really well. 

 

Our final activity of the day was to eat dinner together.  Not that this doesn’t happen often, but you know what I mean.

I made salad with spinach, tomato, and pepperocinis.  I also made angel hair pasta with shrimp, broccoli, and asparagus spears.  

The pasta was super-easy.  I used Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta (high fiber but still “white” for Jared) , fresh asparagus, broccoli florets, and shrimp.  I lightly sauteed the veggie and shrimp in garlic and garlic olive oil from Market District.

 

Dinner was really good.  I love shrimp with fresh veggies. 

 

And no V-Day would be complete without dessert of some kind…

 

Brownies!  These were seriously so easy to make.  Butter, sugar, cocoa, loads of walnuts.  I didn’t add extra chocolate to the mix because I didn’t have any any I wanted to try them in their true form.  My only complaint?  I prefer whole walnuts instead of broken-up pieces…  That was still my error though!

 

Hope you had a nice Valentine’s Day!

Hi out there.  I have been a bad blogger lately.  I apologize, as I am feeling rather unmotivated with displaying pictures of my food.  Also, life has been pretty boring as of late, so I guess it just goes to show.

Yesterday, Jared and I spent most of the day power cleaning the house.  Nothing was left uncleaned.  I even made a spice drawer for myself as the tiny bottles were taking over a cabinet.  Now everything is tidy and accessible to the oven.  Perfect.

 

Part of the reason for the power cleaning session was that our real estate agent was coming over.  Jared wants to buy an investment property and she came over to chat about the ins and outs of rentals.  He wants to buy an REO and/or a cheap property and start to rent it out.  I’m not totally into the landlord thing, but I can guide him a little with some do’s and don’ts (do pay the tenants water bill, don’t buy in X Y Z neighborhood). 

By the time she left it was well past the time to begin making an “elaborate” dinner.  I.E., we both didn’t want to “mess up” our freshly cleaned kitchen.  Leftovers to the rescue!

 

Notice our boxes of tile in the corner.  Can’t wait to install them!

I reheated the broccoli soup from Friday night.  I thought the soup was okay, Jared didn’t like to because of the carrots.  I also baked a hunk of leftover steak and some taquitos from Costco.  Jared wanted them fried but I said they were unhealthy enough already.  They actually seem easy enough to make at home, but we both and 2, he can take the other 4 to work for lunches.  Veggies and dip rounded out the meal a little more.

 

I have a horrible confession to make.  We never eat at the dining room table.  We usually eat in the living room in front of the TV.  Mainly because I do the cooking (which includes setting the table), I am too busy cooking to think of the table! 

I am going to try to fix this.  Though, my weeknights this week are a balance between meetings (yuck) and going to look at the property.  I can’t believe its Monday already! 

 

On another note: I am going to attempt to do a true “food blog” over the next few days to give you all a snapshot of what my eats look like.  Generally, I don’t take a lunch (rather, eat while working), dinners are a mix between eating at my desk (yes, some days I eat all my meals at work) or getting home late and nuking food. 

Well simple plans for a coffee & Costco trip got detoured quite a bit…

After the run, I had a bagel with pnut butter and honey. Loads on vitamins on the side to distract any loss of nutrients.

After that, we ventured to Blue Horse Coffee. I should say I’m partial to this coffee shop as I worked there in college, but I also worked at a chain, and consider myself well versed in Pittsburgh coffee.

We stopped because I wanted something good to drink on the way to Costco, and it was the perfect day for a cold drink. I had an iced chai. Their chai is amazing. It’s not sweet like other chai concentrates. It’s spicey, but light, and just tastes like heaven. So refreshing.

They were also the store to turn me onto Vitalicious and the Alternative Baking Company. So I was excited to try Liz Lovely’s Gluten Free Ginger Molasses Cookie. So. Good.

I snacked on about half of one cookie on the way to Costco.

Ginger sprinkled on top? With my amazing chai? Heaven. I love Blue Horse Coffee for that reason. Oh, and their coffee? Best in Pittsburgh. I think they may still be the only shop in the Burgh to use beans from Counter Culture. BHC’s product is just superior, hands down, with everything they sell or craft.

Here’s where it starts to get interesting. By the time we were near Costco, I was starving. We decided to go to CiCi’s Pizza (what a change from BHC). We wanted something quick and I refused fast food, but I guess CiCi’s and fast food are one in the same…

So I had a salad, and about 1.5 slices of Pizza. The hunger was gone, but the pizza was not good. So I guess we met the objective.

Then we went to Costco, picked up a few things. I needed dog food and gatorade, we left with that and Cereal, Granola, Arnolds Sandwich Thins, and a few samples

Here is where it gets interesting….

Jared decided he wanted to go to Guitar Center. I agreed and said I would go to TJ Maxx. Well, about 15 minutes into my browsing thru the schtuff, Jared came over and I asked if he was ready. He kind of hesitated and I asked him what was going on. He said he wanted a guitar. He proceeded to explain some type of Fender this, and electric that. And he said, but I told the guy I’d have to ask you (me). Okay. I said okay. So we both went back to look at it. I don’t anything about guitars, so I took his word for it. I also made sure they gave us new strings, put them on the guitar for us. They were very nice there. This is Jared’s late birthday gift (if you remember the iPhone incident) and its also his Christmas Gift. Best. Girlfriend. Ever.

Then I decided if he was getting a guitar, I was getting a desk. So we went to Ikea (told you plans derailed). We ended up agreeing that $230 was too much to spend on Ikea furniture, so we went with half of that cost and got half of the price.

After that, we came home, assembled the darn thing, and finally got to relax. Whew!

Yesterday, Jared asked me why I keep taking pictures of my food lol. I explained to him that I’ve started a food/running blog. He asked me what I write about and I said, “I donno, stuff. Not just food, but running, life, work.” And he said I should do a comparison…

We eat very different diets. He is meat & potatoes, and I try to keep it healthy and pure–most of the time.

I do the majority of the cooking, so generally during the work week, I try to keep it simple & quick. By the time we are both home from work, done with supper, and walk the dog, it’s almost 9:00… Last night the theme was Italian.

I had a doctor appointment last night, so I didn’t get home until 8:00. By that time, I wanted to nuke something and be done. Sad, but such is the life of my new endeavor (i.e., awesome job). I nuked some frozen meatballs and sauce to make meatball hoagies (Pittsburgh!) for him. I wanted to use up some of my large batch of couscous, so I grilled one of my Veggie burgers from Costco, added some spaghetti sauce and a LC Cheese. Not totally Italian, but it was good.

To further this comparison, tonight was another quick and easy dish. I grilled him two burgers that I purchased at the deli (I will not make homemade hamburgers. The texture of raw ground beef really creeps me out). Made them “special” by adding mushrooms and topping with swiss. I didn’t have any hamburger buns so he ate it on Arnold Sandwich Thins. No, that isn’t a fancy Mac N Cheese, either. That’s K-R-A-F-T. Ha!

Mine was lentil curry with couscous and peas. Again, a unique combo that works for me.

Although, I believe I’ve had my fill for the week. And I will admit, our dinners usually aren’t this pathetic, but I have been busy this week