Happy St Paddy's Day!

hey all,

well, it's here again....Chris' favourite day....Irish Day!! Woohooo.....heheheeh

So there is currently a whole lot happening in the kitchen. There are two gigantic pots of corned beef and cabbage, with a bunch of other veggies, cooking. Soon to be baked soda bread....and a fridge full of beer....I really hope lots of people come over tonight so I don't end up eating it all for 4 days.....can you imagine Chris and 4 days of cabbage?? Well, double that....and then some....smelly!! hehehehe

It has been a lot warmer here lately, and it's that time of year.....Blossom Festival time.....!! Which reminded me that I started this blog about this time last year, with my first time seeing so many beauty queens..."oh Miss Fried Chicken! She's so lovely, and not at all greasy!" heheheehe

All of this unfortunately means pollen season, so Chris has been sneezy and wheezy, and we are both heading to the doctor on Monday to get doped up....should be a good time.

Not long now until Mum and Dad make it over here. They have the countdown going, but I think it's about 7 or so weeks to go. We are starting to plan things, and I am trying to get the house ready in time...got to impress them!! hehehe It looks like we will be heading to Atlanta (with a stop at the outlet mall, especially Osh Kosh), Savannah, and Florida....with bits in between. If they are lucky I will subject them to all things Southern...should be a blast!

Also, Chanty and Kurtsy are moving to the US....near us!! YAY! I am really looking forward to having one of my friends from home close. I can't wait to see them, silly buggers that they are. Also, Gosia is thinking about moving to Atlanta next year. Which would be excellent. I hope to influence more people to move closer to me, and then I can do it again in 6 years when we move back to NZ....hint hint....hehehe

We have had a few projects going on here lately. We have recently sealed the floor of the screened in porch, to hopefully avoid the stains from the Georgian red clay...lovely stuff. Chris built and I stained a bookcase, which is now all done and in it's space, covered in books. I love it, looks great. All of our herbs that I have potted are all taking off and I finally used some last night for dinner. I made chicken pies, sometimes you just have to have a pie! hehehe

We also now have a few cucumber plants to pot, courtesy of our lovely neighbours Glen and Sarah. Glen has been constructing their veggie garden, and we have been watching and admiring....before we have to start our own! Our friend Will, who is renovating his house, recently ripped up a few rose bushes and they are soon to be replanted in our front garden.

All this domestic goddessness! hehehe. Which reminds me, I am making a recipe book, made up of my favourites or some I want to try. I steal a lot from the Cuisine and Taste websites (gourmet magazines from NZ), and from watching a lot of Food Network on tv here. I will try and put it online soon, or if you want a copy I can email to anyone....not for a while tho....it's a definite work in progress.

An update on Charlie and his poop eating. He has stopped rolling, thank goodness...I think the direct result of being washed (which he hates) afterwards stopped that. But the eating....we bought him a muzzle. He figured out how to get it off in 4 minutes. So that was the end of that. I have resorted to bribing him with bikkies on walks, and that seems to be doing well. He has now picked up whining from one of his girlfriends, which is not cool...and yeah...the poop eating....which results in the puking...I have cleaned up 6 piles in the past 4 days, and I am not happy about it.

Let's see, what else......Chris will be deploying soon, not sure when or for how long, but isn't that the military way?? Right now it looks like I will have a lonely summer. We tried to use this as a reason to rush my greencard, but no such luck. Apparently as long as my paperwork is in I can hang out here tearing my hair out from boredom. Good times. Thanks a lot. I am working on my patience issues.

Oh, our couch!! We got a new couch, a lovely big brown one. We got most of it delivered at one time, but the chaise wasn't available until a couple of weeks later. When we got it, it was the wrong one. Instead of being a right side one, it was a left, effectively making a wall between it and the rest of the couch....the funniest thing about this was that the delivery men left it with us. Hilarious...they have since delivered the correct chaise and taken the other one back. The couch is complete.....enormous as it is....!

I think that is all for today...I will put up some piccies next time...I hope all is well with you all.
Love Anna xxxxxx