Thankful for Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Utah with Candice's family. We had a great time and ate a bunch of delicious food as well. Here's some picarooneys.

Salumi plate with roasted tomatoes, fresh figs, boarshead salami, procuitto di parma, blue ribbon brie, olives stuffed with almonds, grapes, mimolette, gouda and crostini (not shown)

The bird turned our beautifully. I know people get crazy with nouveau Thanksgiving recipes but I kinda like sticking to traditional flavors. We rubbed this baby with a compound butter composed of butter and fresh sage, rosemary and tyme. This was applied under the skin and then plain butter and white wine were used to baste every 30 minutes until done. Also, the cavity was filled with fresh lemons. Simple but moist and delish. Won't bore you with the rest but all the traditionals were represented. If you haven't made your mashers with a potatoe ricer, you need to try it. Consistantly produces the best taters period.

The adorable Grandmas

Mike in need of turkey.

We made a banana cream, chocolate cream and an apple. Denise made two pumpkins and Ali made a cherry cheesecake. All were fab. Thanks to the Farringtons for such a wonderful time and for helping us lose any hope of stomach definition in the near future. Now onto Christmas.

In case you haven't heard, we've got some major travel deals going on right now. The huge frustration I have is that I can't take advantage of said bargains because my lovely wife has already spent most of her vacay time entertaining our beloved troops abroad. I recall a time when we both had super-flexible schedules that allowed us to vacation for several months a year. Unfortunately, with Candice's current job (which she loves) we also have the sinister face of two to three weeks of vacation/year staring us right in the face. For most, when the travel bug bites, it bites pretty darn hard. I'm kinda yearning to go explore this fascinating world we find ourselves in but find the man holding me back, again. Here's a list of places we've been and places on our radar.

Places we've been together on vacay (some of multiple occasions):
France (honeymoon)
Italy (honeymoon, broncos)
Thailand (lived there)
Cambodia
Indonesia
India
China
Germany
England
Austria
Czech Repub.
Australia
Fiji
New Zealand
South Africa
Zambia
Botswana
Mexico
Japan
Hong Kong (China)

Places we've been individually

Matt:
Egypt
Spain (lived there)
Switzerland
Israel
Jordan
Morocco
Canada

Candice:
Kuwait
Iraq
UAE
Micronesia (Guam, Kwajalean, Hawaii, Marshall Islands)
Okinawa (Japan)

Places we want to go:
Galapagos (Ecuador)
Brazil
Peru
Kenya
Tanzania
Zanzibar
Ireland
Scotland
Sweden
Finland
Norway
Holland
Russia
Congo
Uganda
Costa Rica

There are tons of places that we'd like to go back and visit. Every time we go back to a country we usually have a different experience. We're thinking of hitting S. America this next spring for three weeks. Until then we'll just have to sit back and watch handfuls of travel bargains slip through our desperate fingers. There are tons of people who have traveled more than we have but we feel incredibly blessed to have seen some of what the world has to offer.

Matt's gonna kill me!

I'm gonna get creamed for writing this blog, but I'm so proud of Matt that I'm going through with it despite the consequences. I'm sure he's going to be really embarrassed, but I think it's cool, so... here goes.

Matt had been stuck bench pressing 315 lbs. for a while, and in the last month he hasn't had a lot of time to work his chest to try to up that poundage. So last week he put on 315 and pressed it at least 8 times. So the next set he upped it to 335, pressed that 5 times, next set upped it to 355 pressed it one and a half times. It was awesome - he got over that plateau, enjoyed it for two seconds and quickly set a new goal to press 400 lbs. That's my guy.

Thought this was hilarious - Matt was too "lazy" to take his weight off to get a drink between sets, so he just waddled down the hall like so. It works well that my ipod is also a camera so I'm ready to capture such shots at a moments notice.

300% hard

If you want to look like this

Try doing this

Apparently, the actors in the movie 300 (who portray the doomed spartan army at the battle of Thermopylae) did this workout to look the part. To complete the look, I recommend healthy doses of both airbrushing and CGI animation into your daily routine.

Candice and I have done it a few times and it's pretty hard. She just lifts the 45lb bar instead of the prescribed 135lbs. The second time we tried the workout it was noticeably easier but I was still sucking some serious wind. If you want to shake up your workouts, try doing this one. Obviously the faster you do it the harder it is.

Also, we did the best we could but sometimes had to split the exercises up into a few quick sets. In addition, I held Candice's legs on the pull ups but she's still an animal and can almost do chin ups on her own.

All Hallow's Eve

The wind howled, the black cats roamed, the vampires stalked, and we had a "killer" time! Halloween came (and went) this weekend. Ginger, Matt and I saw a play of Dark Tales at the Victorian Theatre - after giving candy out to the kiddies. It's this cool little community theatre and their performance was done like it was a radio show. We saw "Sorry, wrong number", "The Hitchhiker", and a version of the original radio program "War of the Worlds". All the while we were dressed as zombies (we got ready in about 15 minutes).

Then, we went to Parallel 17, a delicious Vietnamese restaurant that had a DJ and were giving out costume prizes. Their entire staff was dressed like carnies, actually it was more cirque du soleil. We came home after that and attempted to watch Dawn of the Dead, being unimpressed we fell asleep. Until next year...woohaahaahaa!

Ginger, or Vietnamese food... it's a toss up.

Matt getting his groove on, zombie style

A very creepy couple in deed. I needed more blood on my shirt, but tend to be a pretty clean eater - what can I do?

Halloween Haunts

October has been an eventful month full of Halloween fun!

We stayed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park about two weeks ago. This is me attempting to pose like one of the twins from The Shining. We had a few creepy moments, like when our alarm clock - that we didn't set - went off at 11:50 pm, and when we came back to our room after dinner there was water draining out of our bath tub. All in all, it is a gorgeous hotel - and we had a fun time anticipating be scared and wandering around the hotel at night.

Matt looking quite mysterious as he posed on the staircase at the Stanley.

Matt's mom throws a sweet Halloween party every year, and had the annual last weekend. This is me in lizard form.

Matt prefers the scary, evil variety of costume, and sure enough - this year was a freaky zombie.

Side view so you can see the 'hawk

This year's jack 'o' lantern - the killa cobra.

Last weekend we had a Halloween dinner party at our house, and we ate "jack" for dessert.

The party's place setting

"They're coming to get you Barbara!"

Halloween is finally here and there's so much to do in such a short amount of time. On our list of things to do in October.

1. Go see the on-stage adaptation of "Night of the Living Dead" at the Bug Theater. $5 off if you dress like zombies-obviously we're saving $10 bucks that night.

I wish we could take credit for these but we bought them from bakery sensual. They can do amazing things with marzipan and fondant!

2. Make as many fattening, Halloween themed treats as possible. We've already made a couple of apple pies (fall themed) to be made: jack o' latern cake, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin chocolate cookies, cupcakes, maple praline ice cream etc...

3. Stay in a haunted location. We actually have a night booked at the Stanley hotel in a week or two. We are supposed to stay in either rooms 408, 418 or 217. Yes, these are the most haunted rooms in the hotel. If you're not aware of it's history or infamous reputation, read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stanley_Hotel or check out the Halloween episode of ghost hunters on youtube (I actually haven't seen it) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynF0Bi_F2Rc. All you need to know is that most paranormal geeks consider this hotel to be within the top ten haunted locations in the country. Also, it is the hotel in the shining. We're going to try and capture some evidence with our camera's infrared-stay tuned.

4. Watch as many scary movies as possible. As many of you know, we only watch Halloween related material during the month of October. We've been busy but so far, we've watched 30 days of darkness, the original house on haunted hill, x-files season 1, disk 1. Does anyone have any must watch halloweenish movies to recommend? I'd love to screen some new material. On the list coming up is: Ginger Snaps (werewolf flick), Fido (comedy/zombie), Frankenstein (Di Nero), monster squad- "wolfmen don't have nards!" Maybe some Dexter? I used to love the original Halloween but I've seen it so many times, it has lost a bit of it's edge. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

5. Parties. Last year threw three Halloween parties. We had an awesome time but that was a lot. Still considering if we're going to throw another this year.

I know, I know, but I didn't have time to finish my hands!!

6. Costumes. Candice has a sweet lead to go on. I on the other hand am struggling. I usually try and stick with something evilish but who knows.

7. Haunted houses. While the Denver area does have haunted houses, I haven't been too impressed. Mostly, it's a bunch of nerdy/dungeons and dragony teens in black trash bags jumping out at you. If anyone knows of anything, hook a brotha up! We are going to the haunted house at elitches, we're just going for the rides though.

8. Reading Poe.

Kinda went with the whole "devil" theme of last year.

9. Jack O' Lantern Fabrication

10. Listening to the sounds of the season-a lot. Our ears will be filled to the brim with the likes of the misfits, nekromantix, tiger army, horror pops and the cramps but not that crappy werewolf in London song-it has always put me in a bad mood.

So those are our plans so far. I'm sure we'll keep you updated as the month dies away.