COLLECTIONS

Just a shot of pottery and art I collect. I love Japanese RAku pottery and I love this Vietnamese potter that does this beautiful organic sea-inspired vaseware. I used to collect art and photography from this studio in Paris that I bought items from infrequently when I went there for work frequently. Nice souvenirs from a wonderful time in my life.

JULY 4TH COOK OUT

Quiet July 4th. We indulged making our favorite holiday food. Gourmet grilled bacon cheeseburgers, mac salad, baked beans, and tator tots. Sometimes the best meals are so easy.

THINKING OF MY PARENTS

Standing by the grill and thinking of my parents. For years, my parents would hop in their little RV camper and make trips over to Louisiana and Houston and Galveston for getaway weekends from the exhausting world of New Braunfels, Texas. They used to go gambling at this casino quite a bit and would always get these free gifts for frequenting the casino. They would always get grill equipment and camping equipment for gifts and then mail them to me. I have spatulas, tongs, lanterns all branded with the Casino's name on them. I went to look for a pair of tongs in the basement and came across the pile of casino accessories and decided that it was time to use them. My Dad loved to grill. My favorite memories of him are the Sundays when he loved to put on a couple T-Bone steaks and baking potatoes for us for dinner. I miss them terribly. I hated souvenir shopping when I traveled. However, I always would look for something for them when I was out and about. My Mom wouldn't travel cause of her heart but this was their way of thinking about me when they ventured out and about. I love that. I am glad I stockpiled all of these things for weekends when I can grill and stand here looking at the yard and sky and think of them with so much love.

BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBORS

BIRTHDAY MEAL

Talking about ethnic take out. We don't need it as long as we have Tim's amazing cooking. I was craving some good Thai food. It's unfortunate but we have been reading that a lot of restaurants in our city neighborhood have closed. Our favorite thai place, Pam's Real Thai and it's sister Encore Thai both closed. So, for my birthday meal request, I asked Tim to make me a Thai dinner, Chicken Pad Thai, pineapple fried rice, and a Thai cucumber salad with of course - German Chocolate Cake for desert. A little bit of a disconnect between the exotic dinner and my favorite birthday cake. It was all delicious thanks to Tim.

TITOS PINE HILL NY

There are very few local take out places around here that we would venture to. A couple pizza places within a 30 mile radius and a burger place nearby but the chinese take out up here is just awful. Growing up in Texas, I miss tex-mex food from San Antonio something fierce. There are tex mex restaurants on every corner there. However, they are few and far between up here. We feel fortunate that we have a really good place to get decent/delicious TexMex locally despite a bit of a drive and that is Titos in Pine Hill, NY. We usually treat ourselves on a Sunday and hope for a sunny day cause it's a nice drive. Great food! Great service too! We hope they make it and stay. The nachos are incredible, the margheritas yummy, and an array of taco options that are great. Perfect on a Sunday afternoon and some Netflix streaming - it's almost as good as San Antonio.

DIY Turntable

I am very late this year to posting pics and have some serious catching up to do. It has been a crazy year. We have so many old albums from our pasts and then inheriting a ton of albums from both our parents so we couldn't store them any longer. We needed a turntable stand where we could store our albums/vinyl and play them using a new turntable and an old receiver. Still using old wood shelving that I had from a Restoration Hardware furniture delivery debacle from a few years ago. Just adding some legs and with some new hardware and a little paint, voila a turntable record player is ready to go. Miss listening to my parents albums and all my records from the 80s and 90s. Tim's parents amassed this unbelievable classics collection that is categorized and tabbed and labeled for us.