Updates!

#9: I had a dish of Giada's shells (aka, Husband's favorite dinner) in the freezer that I thought had been in there almost a month, so I cooked that up last Tuesday and am counting that as my weeknight cooking. K claimed that he liked them more cooked after being frozen, but I think he was just really hungry for his favorite.

#51: I finally finished converting all of my CDs into MP3s, and loaded them on my nano. This was a huge project for me--not because I have a ton of CDs (I have a little over 80), but because I wanted to try and take the time to only convert songs I like. I've been working on this project a few CDs at a time for about a month, and thought I was finished on Saturday. Of course, I found 9 CDs in my car that I had missed, and quickly went through those on Sunday. Now I am going to pick and choose some selections from K's (huge) CD collection to convert and add to my iTunes. I also have started a list of songs I want to either buy from iTunes or purchase on CD. And, I'm thinking about selling a lot of my CDs. Esp. the random ones that I suspect came from old roommates who left behind CDs after moves and didn't ever want to pick them up. (Josh Groban?!?)

#4: I got to spend some time with the nephews early this month, when the families gathered to celebrate my mom's birthday. Nephew #1 (turns 3 in May) is in a mischevious stage. I have to be sure not to watch him too closely while we're eating dinner (he sits diagonally across from me), or I'll start laughing and that only eggs him on. Can I help it if a little kid with his cheeks crammed full of food is funny to me? I know I used to do the same thing at his age--fill my mouth with all the food left on my plate so I could be excused to go play. As I got older, I found the bathroom trashcan an excellent repository for what I didn't really want to finish in the first place. But, I don't think the little guy is quite that advanced yet. Little Nephew #2 (turns 1 in March) was adorable as usual. He was taking a late nap when we arrived, so Brother woke him up after we finished eating. At first the little guy was confused and sleepy, but soon was warmed up to playing with K. He is fascinated by K's tiny beard (a small triangle just below his lower lip), and will stare at him and try to mimic the faces he tries to make. This time, N2 became interested in trying to touch the little beard, which was very adorable. K really enjoys playing with him. . .hope we have one of our own soon to amuse with the weird beard.

#33: When I started a diet after getting engaged, I weighed 10 pounds less than I weigh now, about four years later. I lost 20 pounds in the year before my wedding, and I would love to get back there. As a step in the right direction, I decided to give up sweets for Lent. I had a good week until Sunday, when K and I were out for lunch and I was a few bites into a brownie sundae we were splitting before I remembered my sweet-free agenda. I got right back to my plan after that, and have even been strong in the face of the Thin Mints K bought on Saturday. The next part of working on #33 (Lose 15 pounds and keep them off) will be actually exercising, bleah.

#43: Well, I've finished writing out a home improvement list, but I have not completed all the items on it. I'm going to keep this one as "incomplete" until the house is ready to sell.

#52: Part of my Christmas gift from K was additional hardware to hook up to my computer which would enable me to print from downstairs (where my laptop usually is; printer is at desk upstairs) and also electronically store photos & documents in a drive/server (?) that is seperate from my laptop. So, I copied all the photos on my laptop over this weekend, and am also going to burn them to DVD to keep in our safe. Eventually, I'd like to scan all of our non-digital photos to keep an electronic version of those, but that's a very long-term project I'm not ready to tackle.

#9: Weeknight Dinner: Fajita Night

Sunday when we met K's friend R and his new girlfriend E for drinks, I invited them for dinner on Wednesday night. I almost immediately regretted my impulsive invitation; when was I going to have time to really clean house & make dinner for 4 the day/night before Thanksgiving? They weren't sure of their plans, since they'd already decided to take a short day trip to Fredericksburg. But R called on Tuesday to accept, and a plan was in place. Luckily my office closed at noon on Wednesday!

I gave K 3 suggestions for dinner, which he allegedly talked over w/ R. They ended up choosing fajitas, which weren't even on the list! Not sure how that happened--I guess it was a combination of my make your own tacos bar and chicken enchiladas choices. The last time we had fajitas at home, K cooked them on the grill. Well, now was not the time to take on that part of my 73 in 730 list (learn how to use the grill and actually make dinner using it), so I got the pre-seasoned chicken fajita meat from HEB & cooked it on the stove. It was good, but fairly fatty. I didn't think to trim off the fat before I cooked it, and regretted that when we were eating leftovers for lunch the next day. Rubbery! I also made corn, black beans, queso and guacamole, and bought pico de gallo and salsa. E (who is visiting from London) had never had fajitas before, and loved them, especially the guacamole. Apparently, avacados aren't very common in England. She said she thought guacamole was mashed up peas!

For dessert, I made a cake from Smitten Kitchen--Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake. I halved the recipe, since there were only 4 of us, and cooked it in my 8x8 pan. It was delicious. I love cinnamon, and the cake tasted deceptively light from the folded-in egg whites. Yum!

This had been a busy week of working on my list, so I will have several updates when I have a chance. I've spent time with the nephews, gotten my car serviced, and K & I crossed something big off our house "to do" list. I'll also report on our midnight shopping at the RR Outlet, which only barely corresponds to the list, but was a new experience to record.