Showing posts with label Ali. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ali. Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Getting Goosed Post
Last weekend Sarah and I went over to Leesburg to hang out at Ali and Bob’s and see Nana and Papa during their week stay with them. We also got to meet the newest member of the extended family ‘Goose’. Goose is Ali and Bob’s new dog, he’s four years old and full of energy. The special thing about Goose is that he is stone cold deaf. Trained to respond to hand commands and pulses from an electronic collar, he is one of the most trained dogs I’ve seen, and you honestly wouldn’t be able to tell that he had a disability from seeing him romp around the garden with his tongue and ears flapping behind him. He gets his name from the way he likes to great you. Getting ‘Goosed’ is the now trademarked act of him sneaking up behind you and pushing through your legs from behind. It’s quite funny when he catches people by surprise. Binti is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to having another dog running about the house, but I’m sure she’ll adjust. Getting to wear the Alpha-dog hat will surely help deal with the new whippersnapper.
The Il Fornaio Post
Nana and Papa are in visiting from Scotland this month. They spent last week with Ali and Bob out in Leesburg, this week with Lel right across the street in Reston, and plan on spending their third week over with Mum and Dad at the house. Last night we all met up in Reston Town Center at Il Fornaio, a really nice Italian restaurant in the Midtown area of the town center. I hadn’t been down that end of the block in a good while, and the new fountain area is really nice now that the majority of the construction is over and done with- I definitely want to make a point of wandering down there again once the weather gets consistently pleasant. The restaurant was really nice, very clean and open feeling. The food was fantastic and we all definitely ate more than our fill! Somehow we made it thought three courses and a fair few bottles of wine and left the restaurant after the sun set, rubbing our bulging bellies. It was a really pleasant evening. Sarah and I are having N&P over for dinner on Thursday so we will have time to work off the massive meal by then.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Perverted Puppets Post
After our DIY dinner at Ali and Bob’s on Friday we decided to head down to the Tally-Ho theater in Leesburg (it’s a quick walk from their house) to catch the improve comedy show that was going on. The show started D-Cup, a comic troupe specializing in off-color comedy. We came in halfway through the first act which was…lets say…a little terrible. Ok, a lot terrible. We had been there for about 15 minutes when they took an intermission to set up for the second half of their act. We where debating if we wanted to stick it out but ultimately decided to give it a shot. Fortunately for us our perseverance paid off because the second part of the show centered around ‘Simon, Simon and Simon’, three eerily decrepit ventriloquist dummies with a tendency to say the most horrendous things you can possibly imagine.
I am no comedy connoisseur, but when you have awkward situations and an abundance of vulgar references it’s just not very funny. However if you have the same references and foul mouths coming out of puppets…well then it’s instantly hilarious. Some of the lines from the night had us all in absolute stitches, and one comment in particular became the quote of the evening for us long after the show is over…no I won’t repeat it, for fear of loosing my bloggers license. That and out of context it would make no sense…actually come to think of it, in context it makes even less sense…maybe that’s why its so damn funny! If you get a chance to catch the Simons with D-Cup I’d recommend it (least the Simon-portion of the act). That is if you have as poor of a sense of humor as I do, and can stomach puppets doing and saying things that puppets should never do or say....
I am no comedy connoisseur, but when you have awkward situations and an abundance of vulgar references it’s just not very funny. However if you have the same references and foul mouths coming out of puppets…well then it’s instantly hilarious. Some of the lines from the night had us all in absolute stitches, and one comment in particular became the quote of the evening for us long after the show is over…no I won’t repeat it, for fear of loosing my bloggers license. That and out of context it would make no sense…actually come to think of it, in context it makes even less sense…maybe that’s why its so damn funny! If you get a chance to catch the Simons with D-Cup I’d recommend it (least the Simon-portion of the act). That is if you have as poor of a sense of humor as I do, and can stomach puppets doing and saying things that puppets should never do or say....
The GWFD-Dinner Post
On Friday Sarah and I headed over to Ali and Bob’s for the first official “Guests, What’s For Dinner-Dinner”. Ali and Bob suggested the idea a few weeks back and we’d been looking forward to giving it a try. The concept is pretty simple, but makes for a really interesting dinner event. Guests bring 4-5 random ingredients over for dinner which will have to be used in some way to build the meal everyone will be eating. For every ingredient brought an additional ingredient can be added. So for example if I brought over a lettuce, we could add some tomatoes to the list of items and make a salad. Necessary extras like seasoning, salt and sugar are free passes. Sarah and I brought over the following for the trial run:
After deliberating around the table for a while thinking about our options we eventually settled on what we where going to shoot for and what we needed to add as the 5 allowable ingredients to add to the mix. After some thought about what we could and count leave of the list Ali and Bob added the following ingredients:
The evening was spent working away as a team building the meal out of what we had. I am not a cook by any stretch of the imagination, so working with Sarah, Ali and Bob was fun and educational for me. I learnt the best way to chop chicken (against the grain) and methods of determining when certain foods are cooked properly. When the dust settled we where left with a three course meal starting with a tasty Feta Salad, followed by a zesty dijon chicken dish served with toasted peppers over rice, and followed it up with a baked apple log drizzled with chocolate. It worked out really well and the meal was very tasty. If definitely didn’t taste the like the random assortment of ingredients that where splayed on the counter top a few hours before. The whole evening was a lot of fun and definitely something we’d like to try again. Hopefully any future attempts will result in as tasty a meal. Bob’s tagline for the event is ‘If the Dinner Goes Badly You Can Blame the Guests’- so we’ll have to be sure to pick wisely next time!
- Chicken Breasts
- A Cucumber
- A packet of English Muffins
- A bottle of Morimoto Soba (Beer)
- Dipping chocolate
After deliberating around the table for a while thinking about our options we eventually settled on what we where going to shoot for and what we needed to add as the 5 allowable ingredients to add to the mix. After some thought about what we could and count leave of the list Ali and Bob added the following ingredients:
- Apples,
- Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Rice
- Feta Cheese
The evening was spent working away as a team building the meal out of what we had. I am not a cook by any stretch of the imagination, so working with Sarah, Ali and Bob was fun and educational for me. I learnt the best way to chop chicken (against the grain) and methods of determining when certain foods are cooked properly. When the dust settled we where left with a three course meal starting with a tasty Feta Salad, followed by a zesty dijon chicken dish served with toasted peppers over rice, and followed it up with a baked apple log drizzled with chocolate. It worked out really well and the meal was very tasty. If definitely didn’t taste the like the random assortment of ingredients that where splayed on the counter top a few hours before. The whole evening was a lot of fun and definitely something we’d like to try again. Hopefully any future attempts will result in as tasty a meal. Bob’s tagline for the event is ‘If the Dinner Goes Badly You Can Blame the Guests’- so we’ll have to be sure to pick wisely next time!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
The Delightfully Piney Post
This morning the family, Sarah and I met up with Ali and Bob out at Ticonderoga for the annual Christmas tree selection. The last few years we have gotten some really nice trees from the tree farm out there, and used Bob’s trailer to lug them back to the house. After wandering about scoping the options (and freezing our buts off) we settled on a really nice shaped one that we where all pretty happy with. Except Sam who was torn between a few other trees- I think she came around in the end though.
Bob’s trailer proved to be invaluable again, as we ended up picking a 14 footer that wouldn’t fit on any of our vehicles by a long shot. Ali and Bob picked out a tree for their house too and tethered the greenery to the trailer securely before making the trip back. As usual getting the sucker inside and standing upright was a bit of a task, but with the extra hands proved to be pretty painless. No lights or decorations on yet, as we want to let iot settle and see where the branches fall before sticking any adornments on it. We’ll probably have to trim back in a few spots and possibly rotate it so the nicest side faces the room, but right now its looking pretty good. I am loving how potent the tree is. The whole house smells delightfully piney, which is putting me more and more in the Christmas spirit. Mum took some snappies and has them up on FaceBook.
Bob’s trailer proved to be invaluable again, as we ended up picking a 14 footer that wouldn’t fit on any of our vehicles by a long shot. Ali and Bob picked out a tree for their house too and tethered the greenery to the trailer securely before making the trip back. As usual getting the sucker inside and standing upright was a bit of a task, but with the extra hands proved to be pretty painless. No lights or decorations on yet, as we want to let iot settle and see where the branches fall before sticking any adornments on it. We’ll probably have to trim back in a few spots and possibly rotate it so the nicest side faces the room, but right now its looking pretty good. I am loving how potent the tree is. The whole house smells delightfully piney, which is putting me more and more in the Christmas spirit. Mum took some snappies and has them up on FaceBook.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Thankfull Post
This Thanksgiving I have a lot to be thankful for. Beyond having friends and family all together for a celebration at Ali and Bob’s tomorrow I am also looking forward to December 1st because that is my first day on the job as the new Marketing Designer at Avectra. I received the offer yesterday and have accepted the position. I’m really looking forward to getting started.
In other progress related news, Sarah and I have been approved for a terrific apartment in Reston. We are getting a great deal on a 2 bed, one bath (or 1 bed with den depending which floor plan you look at) right down the road from Reston Town Center. Avectra is based out in Tyson’s Corner so I will have to contend with the traffic to some degree, but Sarah’s commute will be less than 5 minutes. The apartment has all kinds of shops and the bike path within walking distance, as well as extremely easy access to Route 7 and Reston Parkway. Getting around will be easy. I am particularly excited about being a 1.6 mile cab-ride back from the Town Center (we measured it). There are so many new and interesting bars and restaurants out there I am sure Sarah and I will be taking advantage of the social scene there a lot after the move. As it stands we have a hold on the apartment and will be moving in on the 15th of December. Making the move right before the holidays is not the best timing but the special rates we where offered made the offer to hard to pass up.
I am really excited going into the holiday with all the progress that has happened these past two days. It seems Virginia is finally come around and is ready to have me back.
In other progress related news, Sarah and I have been approved for a terrific apartment in Reston. We are getting a great deal on a 2 bed, one bath (or 1 bed with den depending which floor plan you look at) right down the road from Reston Town Center. Avectra is based out in Tyson’s Corner so I will have to contend with the traffic to some degree, but Sarah’s commute will be less than 5 minutes. The apartment has all kinds of shops and the bike path within walking distance, as well as extremely easy access to Route 7 and Reston Parkway. Getting around will be easy. I am particularly excited about being a 1.6 mile cab-ride back from the Town Center (we measured it). There are so many new and interesting bars and restaurants out there I am sure Sarah and I will be taking advantage of the social scene there a lot after the move. As it stands we have a hold on the apartment and will be moving in on the 15th of December. Making the move right before the holidays is not the best timing but the special rates we where offered made the offer to hard to pass up.
I am really excited going into the holiday with all the progress that has happened these past two days. It seems Virginia is finally come around and is ready to have me back.
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Doner Time Post
Last night I went to hang out with Ali and Bob out in Leesburg for the evening. A local German restaurant called Hamburg Döner was having an Oktoberfest celebration so Bob and I wandered over to check it out. The place was teeming with people chowing down on German grub and drinking from their extensive collection of import brews. There where people wandering around in full lederhosen getups and a couple of St. Paulie Girl looking ladies, which I had a hard time determining if they worked for the place, or where just German enthusiasts. There was a polka band playing in the back and tents setup outside. Bob grabbed us some gigantor beer steins loaded with tasty goodness…a full liter to be exact. We got to keep the steins too which is cool, as neither of us could manage a refill on the monster. The things are so big it’s actually hard to drink out of them. Bob kept splashing himself in the face every time he set his down, and I swear my wrist popped out of its socket trying to tip that thing for a sip. Good times, lots of fun and a wonderful atmosphere on a Sunday evening.
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