Happy Halloween!

The daintiest little ladybug.

Where are all the Trick-or-Treaters?????

Bob Villa's Little Helper

I bought a DVD cabinet from Overstock recently to prepare for the day when we would finally toss the enormous, beat up entertainment unit in our living room.  It always annoyed me that your first focal point when walking into our living room was tons of DVDs in a beat-up old stand.  I can't complain too much about the entertainment center, because it has served us well for five years, ever since that fateful night when Brent and I spotted it in the dumpster of River Ridge and painstakingly drug it into our apartment.  That sucker was heavy.  And then we moved it again into our new house, and there it has sat.

So my plan was to put our DVDs in this little beauty:

And replace the entertainment center with one of these:

My plan is finally complete, thanks to two people.  The first is my dad, who tore apart the entertainment center while visiting two weeks ago and assembled my new shelves.  The second is Bonnie, the Helpful Little Terrier.

Here we are putting the DVD cabinet together:

You'd like to sit right there, huh?

Don't mind me...I just need to rest my head here on your door.  What a day I've had!

There's really no sense trying to move her.



 

Chicken Pot Pie

I love a good batch of chicken pot pie.  I am always whining about the fact that it is only available at Cracker Barrel on Wednesdays for lunch, and we don't work close enough to a CB to make that happen.  The truth is that even when I do go to restaurants that serve it, I won't order it.  Why?  Because it's loaded with fat and calories, of course!

It's such a complicated relationship between the two of us. 

I made this recipe from Annie's Eats last night, and oh.my.word.  She's not kidding around - it was worth every bit of the effort.  I even had to run to Williams-Sonoma yesterday morning to buy the individual serving dishes, and I would do it again if I had to.  It made six generous pies for us.  We ate two last night, have two in the fridge for a leftover night, and have two fresh, unbaked pies in the freezer waiting for another busy week.  Brent was alarmed about the 3 1/2 sticks of butter I used in the making of these pies.  I explained to him that it wasn't really that bad since it made three whole meals...it's not like we were eating that all at once!  That's not really a very good argument, I know, but he bought it.  That's why when you make these, remember it's best to just keep the butter quantity to yourself.    

Tasty pot pie, ready for the oven. 

As you'll see in the background, I used my dough hook for the crust instead of doing it all with the food processor.  I did use the food processor to crumbled the butter and flour together, and then transferred to the Kitchen Aid.   

Read Between the Wine

I am excited to report that the inaugral meeting of Indianapolis' hottest new book club, Read Between the Wine, went off without a hitch last Wednesday night.  We were unfortunately missing half of our members, but we'll catch up with them again in November and get another real group picture.    

We met at Rachel's and discussed Litte Bee by Chris Cleave.  The general consensus was that we liked the story, but weren't particularly fond of many of the characters.  It's a good depiction of the clash between the Western world and other cultures and the exploitation of Africa.  We may hear about the struggles of others on the news, but until it stares us in the face - like it did for a British couple on a Nigerian beach - it's hard to remember what reality might be for other people.  It's also a great reminder to appreciate what we have.

   

Next month we'll be meeting at our house and reading The Devil in the White City.  I can't wait!
 

Oh the People You Meet...

On Friday night, we attempted our first Bonge's Tavern visit with our friends Jeremy and Ashley.  We had all heard awesome things about this hole-in-the-wall up in Perkinsville and were pumped to try it.  A major selling point of the restaurant is that everyone tailgates in the parking lot while waiting for a table.  It's a small restaurant, so the wait is usually pretty long.

We got there around 7:30 and were told that they weren't taking any more names for the night.  Waaaa-waaaaaa.  We stayed awhile, because what else are you to do when you've got nowhere to go and a cooler of beer in your trunk?

And that's when we met him - Creepay.  He was just a passerby who we asked to take our picture, and when he said, "Sure, you want me to take my pants off?" I just knew we were in for a treat.

Apparently, he had a reservation for four under the name of Creteaux, Carteaux, something, and kept trying to get us to take it.  (See how the nickname Creepay evolved?  Ashley and I both didn't feel the need to make it officially French when discussing the spelling for the blog.)  There were never three other people with him and he seemed to just be hanging out.  He told us the Corvette we parked next to was his, but then he said the party bus down the street was his, too.  We weren't buying it...until he popped the hood of the Corvette to show Brent the engine (like he cared, but you know Brent - he's always polite when being held captive with a boring story.).  This guy was just...out there.

Brent - "Ohhh wow, awesome.  Mmm-hmmm, wow, that's quite the engine.  You don't say!"

Jeremy - "Enough with this guy - I'm checking my email."

So we didn't get to actually eat at Bonge's, but we'll be sure to return.  And when we do, my sincere hope is that Creepay is there again to take our picture (pants on) and entertain us with his stories. 
 

2nd Time's a Charm...

Lady Antebellum came back to the Midwest this week with a stop at Purdue.  My very thoughtful husband bought me another set of tickets after the concert in Springfield was called for lightning.  The show was on Thursday night and was very awesome.  I loved them before, but now I really, really love them.  They started with I Run to You and played everything I wanted them to play (a.k.a. - everything I know the words to).  Even though they only have two albums out, they supplemented their sets with a couple of tunes from Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt...always appreciated.  I can't wait for them to come back next year!

    My friend Carrie and me.  We were out pretty late for a school night, but made it through the drive home with gas station slushies.  WILD!

Westies on Parade

Last weekend we took Bonnie to her first Westie Walk.  Our sweet neighbors saw it advertised somewhere and put a card in our mailbox about the walk earlier this summer.  140 Westies registered for the event.  There was a lot of personality in Broad Ripple that day, yo.