Wednesday, February 25, 2009

New House!

Yes, Bob and I are now officially new home owners! We closed on a house yesterday. Bob says that we are helping the economy :-)
After a few episodes of uncertainty from the home inspection, we did finally sign those papers yesterday. It was good that the sellers were able to fix everything, otherwise we probably would have walked away from this one. After renting from city to city, it will be nice to finally call a place our home.
Let the packing begin!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

All done!

Ok... maybe 99.9% done. The last couple things are the frame hooks and wire. Bob will be able to hang it in his office this weekend! Yay!!! Yay me! :-)

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day this year, Bob offered to cook me a three-course meal. The last time he cooked for me was waaaaaaaaaaay back in China - Feb 2006, when we just started dating! That was 3 years ago!
I did take him up on his offer, of course knowing that I did have some immodium, just in case, as well as some leftovers in the fridge if dinner didn't turn out that well :-)

We started out with tomato mozzarella salad - my favorite! And then, drumroll... Bob's own creation called "Moses' Boat" - grilled chicken topped with barbeque sauce with onions and peppers and a lot of garlic! He may have overdone the garlic but nonetheless, we ate it all! And for dessert, Bob's first baking experience... chocolate lava cake! It was yummy! Ok, he did make it out of a box but he was able to pull it together, thanks also to the proper measurement of a "tablespoon". You're welcome, honey :-)
Bob did clean up the kitchen as well, which was a really nice treat as well for me. Speaking of treats, I did bake some shortbread cookies, but looks like you can't skim on the real stuff! I decided to use some sort of 50/50 butter blend and blah...!!! The cookies didn't turn out anything like the ones I made during Christmas!

Friday, February 13, 2009

New Picture frame!

So the idea started when I bought the World Map for Bob during Christmas. I started working on the frame last week but it was a disaster! I ended buying the wrong length of wood and was trying to compromise a few things here and there. Needless to say, my first attempt for the new picture frame was in the dumps! The only way it would work was if it was just framed on the ground and never be picked up again. Yup, it was THAT bad!!! Somehow, the execution was not quite what I envisioned. Hmm... sounds like my golf!

Anyhow, Part 2 of the project - I ended up going back to Lowe's for more material earlier this week. I was tempted to buy more wood but figured I would deal with what I already had. I did get a big piece of plywood as the backing of the frame. And of course, it wouldn't fit into my car! So I had to cut it into half and that just lead to more carpentry complications! I have to say, it was quite fun using the circular saw though, but what a mess! And of course who knows how much saw dust I inhaled during the entire process! After some progress, I decided to take a break and figured I needed to go back to Lowe's for more "artillery". Yes... artillery meaning duct tape!!! Everything can be solved with duct tape! It was quite embarrassing though to seen at Lowe's so many days in a row as I'm starting to know the employees there!
And finally... today was Part 3 - after spending about 4-5 hours in the garage and probably about 80 nails later, my picture frame is all done! There are a few crinkles here and there, but overall, I think it's a pretty good job for an amateur. Needless to say, I'm sore from hammering and my neighbors are probably glad that I'm done with all that noise! See honey, I think a nail gun would be so nice!
All I have to do now is stain and of course, sign off at the back of my masterpiece. I haven't attached any hanging hooks to the frame yet, so hopefully when that's done, it will actually stay on the wall!!!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Tulsa's first tornado warning of the year

I don't think I've seen so many red boxes on a weather map before! There was a tornado sighting in Oklahoma City yesterday, but thankfully, none in Tulsa. I'm still trying to figure out where to hide out in the house when one does touch down!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Only ONE fingerprint!

Yesterday, I had to drive out to Oklahoma City for another biometric, i.e. fingerprinting for my new Employment Authorization. A 2-hour drive and can you believe it... all they needed was the fingerprint of my right index finger! Pha!
But since it was an earlier appointment this time, I decided to spend the rest of my day driving up to Carrier, Okla. to visit my friend Stephanie. She recently tied the knot to Ryan, who is a true farmer! I was able to see their horses, check out the ranch and play with their new kittens :-) I was suppose to go see some cattle, but that didn't work out. Instead, we had lunch in the next town, Enid and her new father-in-law was actually having lunch in the same restaurant! He insisted on paying for our lunch on his way out, which was really nice.
After hanging out for a couple more hours, it was time to head back home for dinner. It was a slightly longer drive back to Tulsa and I was sleepy! It's going to tough when I get back on tour later this March!