yeah, nothing really comes to mind for a proper title as I plan on writing about whatever is on my mind. also, i am going to try to use pictures and referring links (i think it’s neat to see what other people are talking about via links to their local places) for this entry. We’ll start the entry around 12:30…

the first item on our list for this weekend was to take Greg’s car to NTB for new tires and an alignment ($300 spent). i followed Greg in my car so we could do our other tasks while the car was being worked on. so, once the car was dropped off we headed to lunch

i’ve lived in the glen burnie area for about four years and never ate at this little pizzeria until today. I remember when I first moved to this area with Adam that I wanted to try the place out but we never did.

amelia liked the pizza…

greg liked the pizza. but not me, so much. it wasn’t fresh nor hot enough for my liking. the cheesecake on the other hand was delicious! it’s been a long time since i’ve had a slice of cheesecake and i now believe that cheesecake is my favorite dessert (the real cheesecake) and i prefer my cheesecake plain (no sauce and no fruit, unless it’s fresh fruit without sauce). amelia LOVED the cheesecake!

she literally took the fork from me, stabbed a chunk of cheesecake, brought the chunk to her, took the chunk off the fork and shoved the chunk in her mouth! and i let her do it! she was being too cute to stop. after she took a few bites she decided to squish the cheesecake chunk in her hand and then rubbed the mess on my face, which you can sort of see in this picture:

but i find the expression on the lady’s face behind me more entertaining. the lady was nice and very chatty.

Once we were done with lunch we headed to the grocery store to do some much needed shopping (as it’s been a little over two weeks since we did any real shopping). yeesh, we spent $200 on groceries! i picked out a lot of meat (chicken, pork and beef) and have plenty of dinner ideas (a couple roasts for the crock-pot, chili, and plenty of chicken to experiment with) and new spices to try out. greg and i love to flavor our meats with exotic spices (just wish the spices were much cheaper) so it was a lot fun to look at all the spices and marinades and pick out some that we’ve been wanting to buy for a while. also, greg and i have begun to shop healthier (and have been doing so since we moved in together but we’re going to be more serious with our grocery selections); we’re buying all whole grains and wheat products (such as pasta, breads, rice, snacks) to aide in our goal of being healthier (and hopes of loosing some weight for 2008); and finally during our shopping, greg’s car was finish so it was nice to be able to stop by the car shop on the way home rather than having to go back out later in the day, as we were expecting.

amelia was being a little bit… unhappy at the store. she was difficult to keep happy and occupied. we knew she wasn’t hungry as we fed her before we left the house and she snacked on some pizza and cheesecake so we chocked it up to being sleepy and cranky. and, sure enough she fell asleep in a matter of minutes once she was in the car and remained asleep for a good hour and a half!

the rest of the day was uneventful. greg and i talked a little more about our plans with the money and about next weekend. My Mom is taking amelia for a week (she was practically begging me to bring amelia down for a week long visit) and the plan is to meet with Mom, my brother and my cousin April for lunch to celebrate my 29th birthday. I believe we’re meeting at Longhorn (the one in Waldorf); i’ve never been there before.

i don’t know what the plans are once we’ve dropped off amelia with my mom - it’s all going to be a surprise; originally we were planning an Ikea trip (the one in College Park) but I don’t know it that’s still going to happen. Also, the weekend of my birthday, there is a huge bridal expo at the Baltimore Convention Center that I’ve been thinking about attending (mainly because I have free passes). Greg doesn’t want to go because he thinks we’ll run into his ex there; i have my doubts since it’s a huge expo and it’s two days long (what are the chances?); as a compromise, greg suggested we visit the Maryland Science Center to see the Body Worldsexibit. We’ll see - after all, it’s only a week away!

moving on… 

this evening, for dinner, i cooked two steaks. i bought a family pack of NY strip steaks, which, by the way, are my all time favorite steakes and I was so happy to see that they were on sale (even though I had to buy large quantities).

and the steakes were cut nice and thick! so i decided to try one of the new marinades/sauces that we bought (and i’ve been eyeing the bottle for a couple weeks now):

so i took out 2 (of the 5 steaks) and placed them in a ziplock bag with the above

the sauce has loads of nuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and other nuts) as well as a good amount of kick for spice ( and it’s a slow kick that you don’t feel right away). I let the steaks marinade in the bag for about 2 hours. Due to the thickness of the steaks, i decided to do a quick broil (about 15-20 minutes) and then bake.

while the steaks were broiling/baking, i fed amelia and then she was bathed. after amelia’s bath (and this has become routine) the three of us laid in bed (ours) and goofed off until amelia was on the brink of passing out (again), which usually takes about 15-20 minutes. Amelia is getting to be so funny! Right now, she’s mimicked me when I flap my tongue (kinda like going ‘la la la’ but really fast) on my lips but the way she does it and how it sounds cracks greg and me up! I am going to try and get a recording of her doing it tomorrow. oh! and amelia walked across the living room all by her self!  pretty soon she’ll be running all over the place.

once amelia was asleep, i started some more laundry (which, by the way, our washer/dryer is acting up! the dryer isn’t drying and the washer makes this horrible screeching noise when spinning - going to need to dins the warranty info on the item and call for service) and checking on the steaks. they’re ready!

and they turned out perfect! they were well done and juicy as ever! to complete the meal, we had a spinach salad and garlic mashed potatoes. the marinade had a nice flavor but i was expecting more. when the steaks were cooking, it smelt like i was baking bread (probably due to all the nuts). I am going to use the marinade on chicken (with a few added spices) next and see how that turns out. In the meantime, I have a few more new spices to try as well:

be sure that there will be more pictures of my cooking experiments later.

for now, it’s after midnight and I am pooped. I’ve been ‘working’ on this for over three hours (with a lot of interruptions and distractions). I was hoping to finish this by 10 and play some Diablo II or do some internet shopping for new games, but that never happened.

Tomorrow is up the in air. I don’t really have anything planned as of now, but Greg has to go into work for a couple of hours (he’s meeting Tim around 5, i think, and they are going to try and catch-up from the nightmare of a day they had this past Friday). I don’t want greg to go and i might join him (along with Amelia) or do a little window shopping in Columbia while he and Tim work.

Also, I want to show the wedding dresses that i’ve found and are seriously considering but that’s going to have to wait. in the mean time, enjoy this teasing:

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