Carne Asada

We have this great little taco shop around the corner from us and we had it a couple of weeks ago and I got Carne Asada tacos. They were so yummy and I wanted to find a recipe so we could make it at home. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and oh my goodness is it amazing! The marinade is to die for and made the yummiest tender beef. The salsa was pretty good too.

We ended up grilling the meat and cutting it up and Matthew even loved it and wanted seconds. I also cooked our tortillas in a little oil just for 30 seconds on both sides. This makes them so they don't fall apart. I learned that trick from another book and it works really well and adds just a titch of additional flavor.

If nothing else make the marinade and cook up some meat. You could definitely use this for fajitas as well. I rate this 5 stars and Jordan rates it in the high 4's (let's not even talk about his dumb rating system).

Here is the link to the Carne Asada recipe. I'm telling you it's well worth it. Yum-o!

Cautionary Tales

I've had a very busy work-wise, and as a result I've been really bad about posting pictures/video. Work appears to be getting back to normal somewhat, so I'm going to try to catch up on everything I've neglected during the long summer (which seems to have ended everywhere else in the northern hemisphere expect here in Arizona). I decided it was time to get going again when I came into the kitchen tonight to find Matthew laughing about as hard as you'll ever hear him laugh. I guess Karin dropped something she was eating, and he thought it was pretty funny, so she kept doing it. He was eating something chocolate at the time, so sorry about the state of his face.

While I'm at it, here's another one from the beginning of August. The audio is horrible, but it's too late tonight for me to bother fixing it (I may re-post this tomorrow). I mainly like this clip because Matthew decides about halfway through that a spatula he dragged into the living room would make a good guitar.



I'm glad I live in a time when we can capture all of these little moments, but I'm also glad that I am fairly consistent at backing all of them up. Our computer crashed over the weekend, and had I not been backing everything up, we would have lost a lot of stuff - pictures, video, Karin's projects. Twice during my MBA within about a two week span, I suffered through late night computer crashes with assignments due the next morning, so I learned my lesson. If you haven't had this happen before, learn from my experience. It's well worth the cost of an additional hard drive, an external hard drive, or a network storage box (I actually have all three, probably the result of working in a storage products division) to have a little peace of mind.

While I'm at it, let me pass along another lesson learned from the weekend. At some point in the past year or so, we started playing this little game with Matthew where we'd pretend to be asleep, and he'd sneak up on us and yell "Wake Up!". It was funny for a while, but today I was deep in the middle of a quality Sunday afternoon nap (which I don't take often enough) and awoke to a 2-year-old yelling about 3 inches from my face. In retrospect, it was kind of funny, but at the time I wasn't too amused.

One last word of caution. The other day a "friend of mine" sent me a link to this video on YouTube, and now it's been stuck in my head for two days. I would argue that this is simultaneously the low point in the history of Christian music and in the top 10 of all time (regardless of genre) in terms of catchiness (sandwiched between "Ice, Ice Baby" and the theme to "The Greatest American Hero."). It's evidently real and seems to have been well-intentioned, but watch at your own risk.

Word World

Our friends Ray & EmmaLee and fam gave Matthew this cute little cow for his birthday that is magnetized and comes apart. I didn't realize it was from a show until a few weeks ago when by chance flipping through the channels I saw this show. It's on PBS.

We finally started taping it and Matthew LOVES it. It is the cutest show I've seen about spelling. It has cute characters and their stories are just so good. I'm hoping that how words are made and spelled will eventually make sense (I know, I know, he's only 2, but I want him to be s-m-a-r-t).

Here's a link to their website http://www.wordworld.com/

A link to the opening song http://www.wordworld.com/watcho.html

And Matthew's C-O-W he was given.

Dyson

Have you heard of a Dyson? We first heard of Dyson's when we lived in the UK, but really didn't think much of it. It's been getting rave reviews all over the place and since our vacuum has been acting up and not sucking very well and we've had it for 4 years we finally decided to call it quits. We bit the big one and decided to invest in a decent vacuum cleaner. We had some friends that bought one recently and were raving about how clean their carpet was.

I've been wanting a Dyson for 4 years, but we have had other pressing expenses and kept putting it off. We finally decided since we have crappy carpet (basic that came w/the house) to at least get it as clean as we can. We bought a Dyson this weekend and boy do I feel like our house is clean. After 1 passing of the living room, hallway, and Matthew's room the dirt holder was filled to capacity (mostly from our crappy carpet fibers that suck up easily). We had vacuumed with our old vacuum recently so I was surprised with the filth that it picked up. Also the other cool thing about it is that you can turn off the spinning brush and use it on your hard floor and the brush won't kick dirt back at you. Our kitchen floor feels pretty clean.

If you can save and buy this little vacuum I swear it will change your cleaning. I love it already and wanted to pass it along. There are several models and some are cheaper than others. Of course we had to have the one with all the attachments and gadgets. :)

5 technologies that only Dyson Vacuum delivers (from their website)
-Patented Root Cyclone™ technology
No loss of suction.
-All floor performance
Excellent pick up on all floor surfaces, not just carpet.
-Cleaner exhaust air
Dyson uprights are certified asthma & allergy friendly™ by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
The air expelled from a Dyson vacuum has up to 150 times less bacteria and mold than the air you breathe.
-No extra costs
Lifetime HEPA and washable filters, and no bags to buy.
-5 year warranty
Parts and labor guaranteed