moving on

heyo!
so, you may have noticed i'm a terrible blogger. my posts are too long, too detailed and have too many pictures of all different varieties. sometimes too much variety is a bad thing. so i'm moving - to flickr! more photos that can be separated by subject so you can skip the ones you don't care about. they will have captions as necessary and i think it will be MUCH easier to keep up with. find me here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sammiches18/

start with the new engagement section - it's the best part :-)

see ya!

oh my god, it's already july

Seriously, I cannot imagine how this happened. We've been up to so much good stuff lately, but the time is flying by!

Since I've last blogged, I've gotten a new trainer at my gym. She's fabulous and much tougher than the last guy. I attended a two-day marketing conference that was pretty good, but a fun and interesting bonding experience for the company. We were nearly swept away in a "microburst" (mini tornado) in Charlottesville, Virginia the afternoon of June 24 and were without power at the hotel until the next morning. It was like something straight out of a horror movie, but luckily we all survived.

While in Charlottesville, I had the opportunity to present to our group the "really fun project" I've been working on for a few months. I presented them with the preliminary steps in the NXL Branding Experience, as I'm calling it. I made these really fun posters to show what is in store for everyone and gave them the first few pages of their new Graphic Standards Manual to follow. Everyone has been really excited and receptive to the little changes we're beginning to make around here!

Let's see, what else? Scott and I saw the fabulous and always sensational guitarist Tommy Emmanuel at the newly renovated Carpenter Theatre. If you haven't been to a show there yet, get on their website and find one. The space is really cool!

Us before the show:

Last weekend, Scott performed with (my favorite of his bands) the super fun jazzy/Americana band Stump Hole Water here in Richmond and then the next night up in Reston with the Upper East Side Big Band directed by Samson Trinh. My table-mates at Clyde's were amazed by Samson's energy. And personally, I thought the horn section rocked socks (as Jessy would say), but I'm partial. It was one of the only nights in recent weeks where the evening temperatures dropped below 80, so that was certainly an added bonus.

Vocalists, Allyson Mills and Adrian Duke:

Horn section, Scott third from the right:

I also spent a bit of time at Dewey and Rehoboth beaches last week. We were surprised to see that our favorite pizza joint Nicola Pizza has expanded after at least my entire lifetime's worth of pizza being served from their older, smaller location. My how times change! But don't worry, they still have the old place too, and Joan was still in there when we went!

And we went on a boat ride!

And of course, last but not least, we had Fourth of July fun with Andi and Dustin and some of Dustin's friends. We set off the Leaning Tower of Piza, thanks to Ben!

veggies, fishes, gardens and jazz

Hi everyone. For those of you interested in what we've been up to other than vacationing, I thought I'd post some recipes and things.
I've been trying to use as much of the bounty harvested at the Saturday farmer's market by my house as humanly possible. Before Jamaica, here are a couple of things I was noshing on...

Cabbage Salad (VEGAN) (made from all local veggies!)I took this over for a Sunday Supper at our friend Carver's house and it was a hit. Also it's really pretty!
Salad mix:Local purple cabbage, spinach, carrots, green onions
Dressing (to taste, I didn't really measure):Sesame oil (go easy on this one), ume plum vinegar (rice will work fine!), agave nectar, just a bit of lite soy sauce, 2 cloves freshly minced garlic, chopped cilantro

I just diced up all the veggies and mixed in a bowl and then in a small mixing bowl i combined all the dressing ingredients (about 1/2-3/4 c total) and threw it on top of the veggies. I let it sit for about an hour in the fridge, covered, before serving and the picture below is the leftovers. I used the whole small head of cabbage and ab0ut 3 carrots and a cup of spinach, so the yield was pretty big.


Spinach and Chicken Quesadillas (OMNI w/ VEGAN SALSA)
I made two options because I'm really not taking to the meat eating again as much as I thought I would. So I'm mostly vegetarian again and mostly vegan at home. But this was a non-veg dinner for sure.

The chicken was hormone-free, vegetarian, all-natural (couldn't find decent organic!) chicken breasts from Martin's that I roasted for awhile in a covered Pyrex dish on 350 with adobo seasoning and chili pepper powder. I then shredded the breasts and added it to low-carb, whole-wheat tortillas (folded in half) with green onion and low-fat mozzarella and a little more chili pepper. I accidentally left the jalapeno at the grocery store, that was supposed to add some heat. The spinach quesadillas were the same (fresh local spinach) but without the chicken. I cooked them, un-oiled in the cast iron skillet to melt the cheese. Less calories than with butter!

On the side, I made a salsa/salad:
12-ish cherry tomatoes
1 avocado
1 tomatillo
1/3 c chopped cilantro
Squeeze of fresh lime
2 cloves garlic
1/4 c diced yellow onion
1 tb olive oil


Oh man that was good. Scott said he could tell they were made with healthier ingredients, but he really liked them anyway. Score!

Salmon Salad (OMNI)
For lunch a week or so ago, I made myself a salmon salad. The greens are from my garden! And supplemented with the last bit of lettuce left from a bag my Tante Karin brought me from her garden. Local cucumbers (so much flavor you never knew a cucumber could have!) and topped with cashew pieces and olive slices. Salmon was just baked with a little olive oil and salt in foil in the oven. I cheated on the dressing and used Trader Joe's Soy Sesame Ginger dressing. It's like 35 calories in a 2tb serving. Love.


For those of you not familiar, the best salmon for both your health and the environment is the wild-caught Alaskan salmon. Those fish have lower levels of toxins in their systems than do the Atlantic ones or farmed and they have higher heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. Did you know the older and bigger the fish, the more of those good Omega-3's? I just learned that in John Robbins' Food Revolution that I read on vacation. A good read, though not as fluffy as some of the other vegan books I've read (and preferred). More on that at a later date.

Also, if you're interested in learning which fish to eat more of and which to stay away from, see a comprehensive seafood selection guide HERE. It's good to be informed. Many seafoods now are deemed too full of toxins to eat, especially the prized Yellow Fin which collects more toxins than nearly any other in it's very long life. Gross.

And speaking of toxins, how do cars like this pass inspection?!

That was on Semmes Ave the other day coming home from work. The smoke it spewed when moving off a red light enveloped an entire mini van. Crazy bad for us all, man!

The last recipe is a drink recipe that I cannot take credit for. I went to a bridal shower for the lovely Alice hosted by the lovely Jess and she made these:

Mountain Mojito (VEGAN)
Rum (optional, blackberry rum, but I was told it was much sweeter and less refreshing)
1/3-1/2 c mint leaves
5-6 large blackberries
2 lime quarters
simple syrupclub soda (or tonic)

So easy and so good! Muddle mint, berries, lime quarters and 1/3-1/2 c simple syrup. Strain and pour over ice. Add the rum, and top with tonic. Mix and serve!

Here are a couple hilights from the festivities:


Goat cheese rolled in crushed hazelnuts there on the blue plate up front. Heavenly...

Bride-to-be opening presents there on the right. Momma-of-the-bride to her left in the white wrap. Unfortunately I failed to get a pic of our wonderful hostesses!


A quickie garden update. Mind you, these photos were from 2 weeks ago, so everything is the same but MUCH taller now. And I ate my first Sungold cherry tomato off the vine but did so too fast to take a picture!

Morning Glory!

Mimosa Tree in bloom with new hostas on the back fence. Let the bog gardening commence!


Squash blossom... something keeps knocking the blossom off when it's done blooming, but before the blossom can make a tiny squash. Makes me very angry! I might have to see about creating a fence for the beds.


Tomato/pepper cages are in! Both kinds of plants are making flowers and tiny green veggies like crazy. I can't wait to get a whole bunch of treats.


I know I've heard some comments that my posts are way long, but I just have so much exciting stuff to tell you guys! This is the last thing, I promise!

A few weekends ago I went to hear Scott play with the Richmond Jazz Collective (I cannot find a site for them, sorry) at Muse Creative Workspace downtown. It was a really cool recital for
the students of the Jazz Composers Alliance program (not sure of the formal name) and so the RJC was the featured professional band, following the kids' performances. Those kids were fantastic! I love that the RJC was part of the program. I think it was really cool for the kids to see what you can do with music beyond K-12.

Some pics:


The space is an old warehouse, very industrially and accurately remodeled to fit the needs of all kinds of artists.


Trumpet section, Scott is the second from the right. (The good-looking one!)


Done!

Jamaica Up Close

A little more detail. I miss photography. I'm going to dig out some of my old favorites from back in the 35mm days this weekend because I won a gift certificate to a place (whose name I can't remember) that puts photographs on canvases really big. How do I choose just one?!

Return from Paradise

Hello Blogland, and sorry for the delay. I might have failed to mention that the Manfriend and I were off to Jamaica for the last week...oops. This post will be pretty cut and dry: The Highlights.

We stayed at the Hotel SamSara in Negril for a week. It's a boutique resort/hotel that has an all-inclusive option that we didn't partake of. The pools/bar/main hotel overlooks these cliffs. This one is BST: Before Sun Tan.


The other half of the hotel is across the street and is a collection of cute little bungalows. This was the view from ours. (Sorry Dad, no picture of the other bungalow where Scott slept...)


Our wake-up alarm:
The pools - the hot tub where we spent many evenings is just out of the picture on the right. The nice part about Jamaica this time of year is that it's "off season," leaving us with a lot of quiet time and fewer people. We mostly had the pool/tub to ourselves in the evenings.


Our hotel offered a nice setting for this:


We sampled the local brews at a Negril bar/hut/wonderful place...


And visited with the local wildlife...


Backside of Negril Crafts Market


We spent a day driving out and back to Ocho Rios where we decided to sample some Jamaican fast food - the Juici Patty. As best I can describe, these are sort of like Hot Pockets with your choice of several fillings - we sampled the vegetable (mainly cabbage), curried shrimp (the best, in my opinion) and the "cheese" which was really like a ground beef and Velveeta-ish mixture, but not too bad.


Mine was hot. Also, we bought hats in Ocho Rios. Awesome ones.


On the way back we broke into a Sandals resort somewhere along the A1 between Ocho Rios and Negril. I really really really wanted to go to the beach.


Scott drove on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road all week. Crazy former-British colonies...


And he managed to do it in this kind of traffic:


He also found a new musical instrument...


We headed out in the country on the pothole-ridden A2 road to YS Falls. It was spectacular. Scott jumped off their rope swing, but I was a weenie and scared of Leptospirosis (thanks Boyfriend). But I did do some swimming.


There were lots of older local ladies who were clearly out there just to hang out in some cooler weather. They had some picnic baskets and mainly left the old men at home. And them some other older ladies and men were doing some bathing in the water behind me here:


Some lovely scenery on the south side of the island.


We spent a fair amount of time at our local beach park (Long Bay) just on the MoBay side of Negril. It was about $3 US to get in for a whole day for both of us and afforded some of the best swimming by our hotel. And we basically had our own private stretch of beach for two days. Amazing!


We headed for gift shopping at a small crafts stand near the hotel. I was distracted by the local wildlife. Their "owner" fed them a sloppy mess of something they loved right after this. She was officially the highest person I have ever seen in my life.


And the Jamaicans do love them some Obama. There were lots of little Obama relics around the island.


And we did more of this:


Scott really got into the local groove...


After much talk, we finally decided to sample the homemade variety of the Juici Patty at Miss Sonia's Patty stand. They were so much better! And they came with her homemade sauce. And we got to hang with Miss Sonia herself. Unfortunately my picture of her and her grandchildren didn't come out too well. Scott had chicken and I had vegetable and a little chicken. So good!


Definitely a trip to remember. And no we didn't elope!