Gotta get a present!

My mom's birthday is tomorrow and I need a present stat! We spent the weekend at the cabin, with Grandpa Fischer, Granny, Vera and my parents. It was fun, the kids were a little bit sick and had a tough day yesterday. Hopefully today will be a bit better, we are having a BBQ at our place tonight, so that should be good. Phil's (ViviAnne's dad) birthday is also tomorrow, so I need to get something for him as well. Busy, busy week!

Peace

Back to the Northwest

Well, I am back from San Antonio. It was a good trip and I am pretty sure that I will be going to Hawaii next May to help with the SSR Annual Meeting as well. Ya, trip to Hawaii! It is in Kona on the big island so that should be a lot of fun. ViviAnne is planning on meeting me after the conference is over and we will spend some romantic days and nights together on beach. I got a pretty desent picture of the last evening dance, here it is. These people are really great and love to party, plus they had a fantastic band that could play just about anything. I added a picture of the Alamo, I didn't take it though, I stole it from Google Images, Ha!

ttfn

At the Alamo

Well, my hotel is just a block away from the historic Alamo in downtown San Antonio. It is just a tiny winy little fort, not too much to look at really. I think that most people who have never been to it hold it in such high regard, as a place where Texas nationals held back the forces of Mexico, if only for a short time. I don't think that I have every really been impressed by it. This is a bit odd as I grew up in Texas and the whole educational system is bent on teaching kids that Texas is the biggest, bestest place on earth. It is ironic that they failed with one of their most iconic historical sites. Such is life.

San Antonio is very nice though, I spent the better part of an hour last night walking through the River Walk area and checking out the places to eat, which there are a lot of. Tonight the SSR reception is at the Institute of Texan Cultures. Pause. Not to sure what this name implies. Pause. Or why Cultures is plural, but I will find out tonight!

Texas Ho!

I am off to spend the weekend and the better part of next week in San Antonio, TX. I work a nice little gig for the Society for the Study of Reproduction. Each year they call me out to help with their speaker presentations and trouble shoot any speaker related issues with their talks. It is great. The people are great and fun to be around. I have been doing this now for four years and look forward to next year as it will be in Hawaii. The only down side is that I miss my family quite a bit when I am away from them, especially for a short week.

My grandfather (dad's dad) will be coming to visit us from AZ, on the day I get back. He flies in as well, but I am on a different flight from him. I was hoping that we might have ended up on the same flight out of Seattle, but we didn't. I am really looking forward to seeing him, it has been several years and he has not seen our youngest yet. So it will be fun. We are going to head up to Schweitzer Mt. at the end of next week to spend some time at the cabin with everyone. Here is a pic of my parents place at the ski hill. Not so much a cabin as a lodge!

Have a good weekend!

A Fruitfull Garden

Our garden has finally started producing for us. Over the past couple of weeks I have been watching the lettuce and spinach grow into some beautiful produce. Right now we have two rows of green beans at about 5-6 inches tall, a row and a half of carrots that have just started to sprout, a long row of corn that I hope will pollinate, some summer squash, winter squash, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, basil and peppers. The peppers have barely gotten above the ground though, so I don't think that they are going to be doing much. The tomatoes look great as does the rest of the veggies.

Here is a pic of ViviAnne with a couple of bunches of lettuce.

We spent this last weekend with some friends of ours from Seattle. They drove over on Thursday and we went to the water park on Friday and the river on Saturday. I forgot to take pictures, oh well, next time. ViviAnne and I are planning on going back to the river sometime this next week in the evening. It is really nice at sunset. We will try to make a date out of it.

Till next time, enjoy the sun!

4th fo July and my best hamburger

Happy 4th of July. We pretty much always do a cookout on the 4th. It is one of those American traditions that I love to do. We cooked hamburgers last night for dinner. I love hamburgers, more specifically, cheese burgers. I like them in pretty much any situation with all kinds of different toppings. Cheese, ham, pickles, tomato, onion, avocado, bacon, pineapple, mayo, mustard, Ketchup, lettuce, mushrooms, whatever. Your mouth is watering isn't it?

Here is a great hamburger recipe.

1.5 lbs of Hamburger. (I use an organic meat from a wygu cow, it has a pretty high fat content)
Cheddar Cheese (about five thick slices)
Lettuce (whole leaf)
Tomato (sliced)
Pickles (sliced)
Avocado (mashed)
Spreads (Mayo, Mustard)
One packet of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
Worcestershire Sauce
BBQ Sauce
Hamburger buns

In a bowl, put hamburger, onion soup mix, Tbsp of Worcestershire sauce and 2 Tbsp of BBQ sauce. Mix well and mold into 5 med sized or 4 large sized hamburgers. They should be a little bigger than your palm.
Put them on the BBQ and cook. A high fat content meat will cause a lot of flame up, so be careful when turning them. Place the cheese on just before they are done. Cook till done (med rare is my preference).
Put your buns on the grill to toast them, it won't take long.
How to layer your burger:
Bun, mayo, burger (w/ cheese), avocado, tomato, lettuce, pickle, mustard (I like to use a cipotle mustard), bun.
Put it on your plate and take it to the table, sit and enjoy!