I figured it was time to get a refreshed look on the blog.

I realized that I choose gray/muted oriented themes for my blog.  My psychoanalysis of this is that I see lot’s of gray in the world and not a lot of black and white.  I think I grow more comfortable with the ambiguity of life all the time, and in a weird paradox that makes me happier.  Maybe it makes the good things in life stand out more.

I threw a little red in to help focus, and of course green because it’s my favorite.  Hope it works.

To close I will throw in a clip that Damon found.  I see this guy as the soviet union response to Lawrence Welk and Frank Sinatra.  The Cold War was crazy times, and I think both sides had tons of fear about nuclear holocaust, but Americans had more things to keep them distracted and somewhat happy while Soviets didn’t have much…of anything.  I think this is what they came up with to ease the suffering of their failing communist country:

One week ago Liz and I made a kick ass meal for Valentine’s Day.  Both of us consider it a pretty bullshit holiday, but like anything you need to make your own fun.  We love to cook, so we decided to pull out all the stops and do a multi-dish menu.  Here is what we landed on:

• Meat: Porkchops with sauteed onions and mushrooms
• Veggie: “Feisty Green Beans”, courtesy of Pastor Paul Eugene Goatcheese (the guy’s food blog is awesome)
• Starch: Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Drink: Barefoot Pinot Grigio
• Dedirt: Turtle Cheesecake

I was in charge of finding recipes for our dishes.  I think I found some good ones.  Liz is very smart and organized so she came up with the idea of taping the recipes to the cupboards to keep the counters clear.  I prepared the chops, she did the feisty green beans, and we tag teamed the taters.  The night before we tag teamed the cheesecake.  I would post the recipes for all these dishes but I am lazy and don’t want to retype them at the moment.  Here is a general idea:

• Chops: Season each step to your taste. saute the mushrooms then onions, remove.  Sear chops, remove.  Make a reduction/sauce with alcohol and chicken broth (I made a cocktail using Dickel, scotch, and some shiraz.  It worked).  Add chops to reduction and bake in oven for 20-30 mins.  Add onions and mushrooms toward the end
• Garlic mashed: Roast a 2-3 cloves of garlic (not 2-3 bulbs, don’t need to ward off vampires).  Use any basic mash potato recipe, add roasted garlic when you mash
• Feisty Greens: Follow Paul’s recipe linked above
• Turtle Cheesecake: 4 cups crushed chocolate grahams with melted butter for crust, bake.  Toast chopped pecans.  Melt package of caramels in evaporated milk on low heat, stove top.  Set some aside for later use, 1/3 cup-ish. Pour remaining caramel over cooled crust, top with toasted pecans.  Mix 4 bricks of cream cheese with cup of sugar, vanilla, and 4 eggs (add one at a time).  Swirl in 1/2 c. melted chocolate chips.  Pour over caramel and crust. Bake for forever.  Let it cool for forever (about 12-24 hours).  When ready to devour, top with chocolate sauce and reserved caramel sauce and pecan halves dipped in reserved caramel sauce.

It was a blitzkrieg but we got it all made, and it turned out pretty good.  We will probably burn of the calories by June I suspect.

Here are some pics:

It’s been about 4-5 years since my last visit, a ridiculous amount of time.  Liz hasn’t been in a year or two so we decided it was time.

Liz has a clean bill of dental health.  I, on the other hand, got ploblems.  A few cavities and a possible root canal.  All these dental problems stem from pure laziness, only brushing once a day, flossing only a few times a week, and not seeing the dentist in 4 years.

I will end this post with an upbeat ending.  Here is a classic Monty Python clip that I have loved ever since I was a child.  At the age I should have been watching Disney crap, I instead was raised on Monty Python and other comedic material more suited for an older individual.

2009 was a blast. It went fast. It’s in the past. Yizzle.

5 reasons 2009 rocked (no order):

1. Engagement
2. October 9th
3. Home purchase
4. Lady Fingers
5. Nebraska football back on track

5 reasons 2010 will rock (no order):

1. The arrival of Lil’ Ridpath.  Lance and Holly conceived their first child 4Q 2009 (nasty!). Lil’ Ridpath will join the Ridpath Family Late July 2010.  Uncle Grant and Uncle Reido have one job to do: show Lil’ Ridpath how to properly blow shit up.
2. Reid and Liz painting extravaganza.  Gonna paint this hizzle.
3. POP will pack 1.5 million meals with FMSC.  We will feed a few thousand kids for an entire year.
4. Dog. Oh yeah.
5. Date Night. 1 down, 51 left.  Wholelottalove.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Raisin Waffles is what I made for breakfast.  They were awesome.  Topped them with honey instead of syrup, which, in my opinion, always tastes better than syrup.  I am looking forward to Liz awakening so I can feed her one.  I know she will like them too.

November has been unusually warm.  Definately making up for October weather.  I rode Lady Fingers last night.  I hadn’t been on her in many weeks.  It was like riding a bike…I mean…yep.

House projects continue to be fun.  Yesterday I installed a new programmable thermostat.  Works beautiful.  Today I am going to attach the trim to the shelf I am building.  I stained both pieces this week, now I just need to nail and glue the trim on it and then put the final coat of stain on.  Gonna look beautiful.

Huskers are finally putting it all together.  They play the K-State Wildcats tonight.  If they win, they will play Texas in the Big 12 Title game.  They will win.  Man, College Football is awesome.  I wish there was 1/1000 amount as much hype for college wrestling as there is for college football.  This will be a very interesting season for the Hawks and Cyclones.  They are #1 and #2 respectively and will be all year.  December 6th will be nuts when the Hawks come to Ames.  I think whatever team wins that meet wins it all. I love sports.

Take care everyone,
_Reid