proud to be a nebraskan...

after reading this impressive ny times article on omaha... i learned that our beloved fred astaire was born in omaha. somehow, it makes me feel more at home.

a yummy recipe when you're wanting comfort food!

I've never made the marmalade sauce to go with it, so if someone does, let me know how it turns out!

charlie, brandon and me

here are a few show pictures. about the same as the last ones, just different clothes :)

Joseph has helped with Invisible Children

JOSEPH MUKISA
Joseph's Pay phone

Location: Uganda
Activity: Phone Use Sales
Loan Amount: $150.00
Loan Use: Buying a phone set and airtime
Repayment Term: 5 - 8 months
Partner: Life in Africa Foundation (LiA)

Joseph Mukisa is a young unmarried man whose parents died and left him at a tender age. He started coming to Life in Africa by serving the community food. Through that business, he became interested in the activities at Life in Africa. Due to his good services, he was invited to join and become a full Life in Africa member.

He started by counting materials and then later making bracelets for the Invisible Children campaign. His lifestyle has improved because he earns a lot more than what he made from the previous business.

Since he has sisters who are still jobless at home, he wants to start a pay phone business to help them.

it's been a long trip...

but we finally made it

YOU'VE GOTTA CHECK THIS OUT!!!!

Restaurant.com is having a sale right now -- 60% off the discount price. I just bought $195 worth of gift certificates to restaurants in State College for $30.40!!!

To get the discount, enter the code "madness" (it's for March Madness) into the coupon box on the checkout page. Then you can print out the coupons right then. (Lindsay, I bet California will have quite a few options for you!).

The sale ends March 31st.

cakes, concerts and couch surfers

i put the recipe for the cake below. you can mix up the pudding/nut flavors (the original recipe is actually a lime pistachio cake!) so you'll have you let me know if you get any other flavors to work well. tomorrow is another show with charlie and brandon so i'm looking forward to that. this one is much more low-key than the last since we haven't really practiced much for this one. i had a couple friends from jbu in town on friday which was nice. no one i was particulary close to in college but they were coming back from spring break in nyc and one of them had an interview at uva law school. it was nice to see some old faces though and to catch up on all the jbu ongoings. in nyc, they used this website called couchsurfing.org to find a place to stay and it seemed like an interesting idea. i haven't been able to check it out much but i thought it sounded like a cool idea. lynne's parents are in town today and tomorrow so we are going out to eat at basil tonight! woohoo! i always love an excuse to eat there :)


lemon pine nut cake

3 cups bisquick
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 vegetable oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon or lime peel
4 eggs
1 small package lemon instant pudding
1 cup coarsely chopped pine nuts
juice of two limes or two lemons
powdered sugar to make glaze

mix bisquick, sugar, water, oil, lemon or lime peel, eggs and pudding together by hand for about a minute. (the orignal recipe says to beat it with an electric mixer but i don't and it always seems to come out fine) mix in the pine nuts and pour into a greased and floured 12-cup bundt pan. bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. let cool, remove from pan. mix lemon or lime juice with enough powdered sugar to make a thick glaze and pour over cooled cake. enjoy!

Spring has Sprung!

The trees around our apartment have just bloomed so we are surrounded by white flowers up here. It looks gorgeous, but it's not so great on my sinuses. We have had a little bit of rain recently, but today is beautiful. I think we'll take Pete to the dog park later. How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Number Six

Hey everyone. Jamie competed in his first ever trail-running half-marathon today in Charlottesville. The course criss-crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway several times so it was quite hilly and rocky. Jamie had decided that he would not push himself too hard since the coarse was tricky and unfamiliar. But, that said, he still came in sixth!! And he won his age category!! There were 75 runners running the half-marathon and 130 running the full marathon.

He said that he enjoyed the whole run (crazy man!) and he'd like to keep doing this sort of thing. So it looks like I may be headed for the life of "runner's crew" -- meaning I travel around the country and catnap in the car during races, making sure I've stocked up on ClifBars and bananas first. I'm really looking forward to it. :)

In other news, I resigned from Reese Engineering on Tuesday, accepted a job at Penn State, turned it down on Wednesday and asked for my job back on Thursday. Since I hate change, it's been a bit of a crazy week for me. It all turned out well, though, in that it helped me figure out what I want to do, as the next step, and I was able to communicate that to my supervisors at Reese. . . and they are supportive about it. So the next step is that I'll be starting massage therapy school in October. Jamie wants to open a running store in State College in the next year and a half, and I've wanted to do massage therapy for a while now, so it looks like we could combine our passions into a really great resource for runners and other athletes (and the best part is that we could work together!). I also found out that Reese has thought about having an in-house massage therapist as part of the fitness room. So maybe I could even stick around at Reese part-time once I'm through with classes. They are letting me stay on full-time until classes start, and then very part-time while I'm in school. Thank you, Lord, for working that mess out!

living room re-do

here's theIKEA COUCHwe're thinking of getting on our california trip if we can tie it on the roof of the van. see it with the cloud grey slipcover or the woven whimsy slipcover from Bemz. let me know what you think

pray

i don't know if any of you ever met lou's roommate jen but she and her husband steve found out last week that their 4 month old daughter, amelia has leukemia. she's been in the hosptial on the vent for over a week now. here's the blog that is updating her progress.

update from paul

hey guys. it's been a while since i've written anything here. this blog is such a cool idea. anyway, it's 3;08 in the morning and i can't fall asleep. linds and i are doing well. we finally painted the hallway down to the basement last week. other than that, just doing a lot of phone calls and emails for the band. we are going to be traveling a lot the next few months so we've been busy with booking and stuff. anyway, i miss you guys. i need some of that homemade pizza, tai food, turkey, eggs benedict, and numberous other things.

lynne's birthday

these are two pictures from lynne's birthday party at the apartment. the first is the table (which took up most of the living room!), the second is of everyone there and the third is from south street brewery where we went after dinner. i look like a buffoon but it's a cute picture. it was such a good time though. i made edamame, homemade miso soup and mom's mandarin salad for starters and then liz and john's red curry from christmas and then a lemon-pinenut cake for dessert with pomegranate margaritas! it was a big undertaking but it all at least turned out edible :)

restaurant.com

I wanted to let everyone know about a good deal on the internet. If you go to www.restaurant.com, and enter your zip code, it will bring up restaurants in your area that are offering discounted gift certificates. For example, you can purchase a $10 gift certificate for $3, a $25 g.c. for $10, etc. There's usually a stipulation like your total order has to be $35 in order to use the $25 g.c., or that you can't pay for alcohol with the g.c., etc. Jenelle Kidd first told me about them, and then my supervisor, Sue, here at work has started using them. I have yet to purchase one, so I don't know if it is something that you can print off, or if they mail you the certificate. But it seems like a pretty good deal. You are getting the meal for a little more than half the price.

Lindsay, I haven't checked if The Oven is on it, but I hope it is! :)

and baby makes TWO...

nephews (or niece) that is. Dan and Anna announced yesterday that they are ten weeks pregnant. she is due October 10th so let's plan a vacation!

"One is the loneliest number. . ."

Lindsay asked for an update a while back on Toby, so I thought I'd give you a quick update. About a week ago, we called Deb, Toby's foster "mom", and told her that we wouldn't be able to take him back. Jamie was up for the challenge of civilizing him, but I wasn't. Between the Scotland trip, a friend's wedding, and several races that Jamie's running in, we'll be gone half the weekends between now and the end of June. Not a whole lot of time to train a dog to like other people. It was a hard decision, though. It felt like another loss.

So Hunter's back to being the solo canis in the house. With all this leaving that's been going on, I think he's a little unsure of his own status in the Kidd household. He was pretty darn clingy last weekend at Mom and Dad's house. The offer still stands if anyone wants to come visit and give him some company.

As far as another buddy goes, I think we're going to wait until after the Scotland trip and look for another friendly black lab. :)

thai tofu dish

liz, can you post that recipe for the thai dish you made at christmas? i thought it was on here but i couldn't find it. thanks!

It's Coming Along. . .

Jamie giving a 'thumbs up' on the floor.



Dad working with "The Edger".

Hopefully we can post pictures of the finished product soon. . .

these are a few of my favorite things

this yogurt is amazing. it's probably my favorite food item along with fat free organic refried black beans from whole foods. i could live on these two products..what are you guys eating and loving these days. pass it on.

a find....

these are the chairs paul and i found at goodwill for $5 each. we're going to repaint and recover the seats.

More Pete

Here's Pete on his new bed. You guys have created a monster, asking us for pictures of him.

Straining to type over Pete

Pete is sitting here in my lap watching the cursor on the computer screen move around. He seems mesmerized by it, but he's very suspicious of the typing. He turns away from the screen when I type and stares back at the screen out of the corner of his eye, ears moving like radars. Very funny. I'm looking forward to introducing you guys to him someday. He's the friendliest dog you'll ever meet. We've only heard one slight bark out of him (at a squirrel) in the two weeks we've had him.

west elm

i bought this vase on the far left yesterday at west elm. it looks kind of plastic-ish in the picture but it looks really nice in person. i put it in my black bookcase and it looks really nice! between my wine & champagne glasses, the sushi plate set i got for christmas and this new edition, i'm starting to fill up the shelves with nicer things than just pictures and dvds.

Hello Blogosaurs

I feel it is time to make my cook girls debut. You will notice a picture of Pete directly below. I regret to inform y'all that we did not get Paola after all. We decided that 2 dogs would be a bit much right off the bat, but we're still thinking and looking. I'm looking forward to posting more. What do you want to know?

Pete

A short film on KIVA

Here's a link to a short film on KIVA from Weta's Frontline show. I loved seeing a little more closely how Kiva works. If you have an extra twenty minutes, I highly recommend watching.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/uganda601/video_index.html

We're pulling for you Akoelevi!

When I read this I decided to support her. It sounds like she may have a 'bum husband'.:(

Born in 1971 in Fongbe Apedome (Zio Province) Mrs. Akoelevi LIASSADJI left school in elementary school. Since then she has sold donuts (beignets) along the main autoroutes in her area. She is married and has two children and cares for two other persons. Her family lives near the absolute poverty level, her husband contributing very little to the family income. Her exceptional managerial capabilities and the skill level at which she runs her small business will allow her to repay her loan of $750 within the scheduled time frame. Such an opportunity will enable her to get out of her and her family's dire circumstances.

how are you abby?

due to abby's recent comment, i am just wondering how you are doing abby?

hello march!

we were supposed to head to chicago today but after meeting at phil's at 5 am in a total blizzard we decided to cancel the show and stay home. here's a pic from our front door.
on another note, i want some blog updates. how's the floor coming along in c-ville (pictures would be nice) how are things with tobias? with pete and the unnamed? i feel so lost as to how all the exciting events are turning out. please post with updates ASAP