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I will be having wine for dinner tonight. That is all.

*Addendum-This wine sucks*

Free

I'm cheap. So I like trying to find amusing things to do that are cheap as well. Not everyone is the museum going type, but maybe try and get your learn on sometime, The kids will dig it and besides it's free. Here is what I found.

 Free Museums in Seattle
Free admission on some days or evenings of each month:

• Seattle Art Museum (first Thursday)
• Seattle Asian Art Museum (first Thursday and Saturday)
• EMP/Sci Fi (first Thursday evenings)
• Bellevue Art Museum (first Friday)
• Museum of Flight (first Thursday evenings)
• Museum of History and Industry (first Thursday)
• Burke Museum (first Thursday)
• Wing Luke Museum (first Thursday and third Wednesday)

These Seattle museums are always free to the public:

• Frye Art Museum
• Coast Guard Museum
• Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park - Seattle Unit Visitor Center

Ha!

Gives good head

Damn!

Easter

Easter has come and gone. Wine was consumed, food was eaten. Watching Koen open his first Easter basket, freaking fantastic! certainly the best part of the entire day.

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This weather is like soft core porn, just when you think you are getting to the good stuff we get cued back to dry humping. We are just being dry humped everyday with all this rain with no actual penetration (meaning, sunshine) it blows...no pun intended.

Watch out for "Hurricane Charlie"?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/23/bath-salts-a-growing-drug-problem_n_812693.html

http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/28409/teens-get-high-on-bath-salts/

Apparently there is a new drug of choice amongst today's youth....Bath Salts? Have you heard about this? Kids are snorting bath salts to get high. It's effects are compared to that of methamphetamine. Wow, really? What ever happened to the good ol' days where kids just smoked pot and listened to Pink Floyd? No body wanted to kill  themselves or had anal leakage from smoking pot. I have included two separate articles. I couldn't decide between the two. The second one is more of a humorous take on the situation but you gotta admit the picture of the "Clean Freak" looks just like Beavis from Beavis and Butthead. Give them a read. It's really kinda sad, what are these kids thinking?...Really?

Pinecones & Camo

He also tried to eat the pinecones. But pinecones don't taste good. So he put them back in the grass.

Feed em' grass

The Perennial Plate Episode 23: Thousand Hills from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.

Since Koen was born both my husband and I have really changed the way we look at our lifestyle and eating habits. What I put into my body and feed my family is important and I care about what is in it, where it comes from and how it is made. I really appreciate what this rancher is trying to do, and I hope that more and more ranchers follow his lead. Here in America we eat a lot of beef. Let me throw out some numbers just to give you an idea. An average American eats about 67 pounds of beef annually. There are about 305,000,000 people in the U.S. Discounting 7.8 million for all the vegetarians/vegans in the U.S., and maybe even another 22.8 million for "vegetarian-inclined" Americans, that totals to about 20,404,400,000 pounds of beef annually. That is a lot of beef. That is a mind blowing amount of beef. So with beef in such high demand doesn't it just make sense to do what we can to ensure the meat we raise and eat is healthy? I'm going with yes.

Beer 30

The beer is flowing at the Haines residence! with the Tigers Blood finished and chilling in the beer fridge, the stout is bottled and almost ready, it's very exciting! We have an IPA almost ready to dry hop, and we just brewed a strawberry blond ale that should be perfect for summer.

Here is a pic of the stout. Black Dynomite. This hefty guy is rich in flavor, and gives those taste buds way in the back that swift kick there looking for. With over 6% alcohol by volume this guy doesn't mess around.It's the only way to interrupt your kung fu. Can you dig it?

*Also notice that sweet Microsoft Tag on the label, when scanned, you will get a super rad description of the beer, along with all of the beer stats.*

Boots revisited...

That's totally where they go.

Cutting the cord...



I finally took the leap, and  got rid of my iPhone. Now those of you who know me, know that I love my iPhone. I sleep with it next to my bed, (yes, I am one of those people). I went with the new WP7. and to all you haters out there, this phone is pretty awesome, and with a new major update coming this fall it will be even better. The OS is really cool, it's fun and different. the display is amazing, and the camera is instant, which is great for me since I use mine all the time to take pics of Koen, and he's fast so I need my camera to be quick as well. For everything that I want to be able to do on my phone, this does the job. My biggest complaint is the FB app. But I have high hopes, that with the big update will come major changes for that as well. This phone is cool go check out. I still dig the iPhone but the WP7 is wooing my heart to the other side.....Woo away WP7.

Meat on a stick

I am craving some meat cooked on a grill.... Oh, and on a stick.

Orange Beef Kabobs with Grilled Fruit

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 1 pound top sirloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 large red onion, cut into wedges
• 2 large red bell peppers, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups 1-inch fresh pineapple cubes
• 1 large navel orange, peeled, sectioned
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon rum

Directions

1. Combine yogurt, cayenne pepper, ginger, orange zest, and sirloin cubes in a large freezer bag. Massage bag to mix and coat beef well. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat, and lightly oil the grate. Remove beef from freezer bag; shake off as much marinade as possible. Thread onion, red pepper, and marinated beef cubes onto skewers; brush with olive oil.
3. Place the pineapple and oranges in the center of a large piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Dot with the butter, sprinkle with brown sugar, and drizzle with the rum. Bring together the long sides of the foil and seal well; fold up and seal each end. Place fruit packets on grill and cook, covered, for 10 minutes.
4. Place kabobs on the grill with the fruit. Cook, turning occasionally, until meat is done to your liking and fruit is soft and glazed, about 10 minutes.



Zoo-tastic!

Haven't been to the zoo in years, and Lucas and I thought it was time that Koen experienced all the greasy food and animals that the zoo had to offer. Koen loved it! the animals amazed him over and over again. It was really awesome to watch him experiencing something, like seeing an elephant, for the first time. He was mesmerized by them. here's a few pics from our zoo adventure.

This last shot would have to be one of my favorites. Nothing says first time at the zoo quite like a set of Bengal Tigers bumping uglies for all to see. We let Koen use his imagination on this one.

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Excuse me neighbors landscaping dude- That's really awesome that you show up once a week and make their lawn nice and neat, but I don't want their yards sloppy seconds. So as much fun as I'm sure your having wearing your little jet pack pretending your from the Jetsons, stop blowing all that shizz into my yard.

Friday

This is the best version of this song. Morgan Web from G4 said it best. No one can make this song any better so it must end here. Enjoy!

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"If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like, "hey look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" "that's right it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice!." then everybody'd get real quiet and ashamed. Then I could probably hit them up with a free drink. Because they made fun of the soldering iron of justice."
                                                                            
                                                                         -JH

I have taken on the role of Cinderella today. No one person should have to clean this much....Ever. Where are my singing and dancing rodents? aren't they suppose to help me do all this crap?

Das Boot

Koen is obsessed with my rain boots and putting them in random places throughout the house. I'm still looking for the other boot.

The Emerald City

http://www.smartdestinations.com/seattle-attractions-and-tours/_d_Sea-p1.html?pass=Sea_Prod_Go

Whether your a tourist or not, Seattle is an awesome city with so many great things to see and do. Many people I'm sure have heard of the GoPass, but it really is a great deal, it gets you into over 35 different area attractions throughout Seattle! what a great way to see the city. Now that we have kids I find myself always looking for something fun for us to go do. We happen to house out of town guests quite frequently and this is always a great way to spend a weekend.

Blast you devil clouds with all your rain!

I am dreaming of sun sand and surf right now.... How I would love to see some sunshine! perhaps if I wave my magic wand I will be wisked away to this wonderful place....nope still here.

Pasta? Yes please.

It doesn't get any easier than this! takes minutes to make, perfect for when you don't have a lot of time. Would probably be great as a side too. I found that using fresh garlic and tomatoes is definitely the heart of this dish.(as apposed to canned or jarred) Since there is not a lot of ingredients, going fresh makes a big difference on this one. I love making big meals, but sometimes you have to go quick and simple. So this dish certainly fits that bill. And for all of us meat lovers, this pasta is  just screaming throw in some sausage or chicken!


Pasta Pascal


Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pound angel hair pasta

Directions

1. In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, saute garlic in oil 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in onion and cook 2 minutes more. Stir in tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. Toss hot pasta with tomato mixture. Serve.

*Side note- I would add an extra clove of garlic, it makes a lot of pasta so depending on how garlicky you want it....red pepper flakes are good too... don't be shy spice it on up!

99 bottles of beer on the wall

My husband and I recently started brewing our own beer. We both have an unnatural love for a good quality brew, So it only seemed fitting that we try our hand at it. I had no idea how much fun this would turn out to be! It is no easy task to make beer, it is quite a process, requires lots of patience and there is a lot of room for error. But we have bottled our first batch which is an Amber Ale we have our XX Stout ready to bottle and an IPA fermenting as we speak. and there is much more to come. The Amber is quite red in color and is so amply named, Tigers Blood, ha! This beer will have you Sheening in no time!

More updates to come....Duh!

Not just ANY basket

The Easter holiday is almost upon us. This will be my sons second Easter, and yesterday while at the store I decided to go by all the holiday stuff. This will be mine and my husbands first time making an Easter basket so I gotta scope out the goods, Koen is only a year old so the Easter bunny won't be loading him up with candy. so as we walk around, at the end of an isle are a variety of these felt Easter baskets, Koen went crazy! he saw this particular one and I swear to you my son turned into the Hulk trying to get out of the little seat in the shopping cart. I'm thinking WTH? is so exciting then I notice the robot Easter basket, brightly colored in orange, green and blues, Koen wanted that basket and would stop at nothing to try and reach it. Even if it meant hurling himself out of the cart he would find a way! But this was not necessary, I grabbed this magical robot basket and handed it to him. His eyes grew huge his smile even bigger and he shook the hell out of that basket swinging it furiously, The sacred Easter basket had been chosen.

Best two bucks I have ever spent.