Mitten Medley...DONE!

I crossed the finish line today in the Mitten Medley!

Here are my Curling Mitts.

The yarn is super soft by the dye bled all over my fingers during knitting.  Hate that.

I posted my project on Ravelry in the Ravellenic Games 2012 (Knitting Olympics). 

 Not sure if I'm receiving a medal...I'll post if I do.  These mitts fit great and were fun to knit.  Well written pattern too...to be expected from Knitspot (Anne Hanson).  Love her stuff!

Now I'm working away on my matching cowl.  That event is the Cowl Jump.  I'm having a blast watching the Olympics, too.  Hard for me to stay up late so I usually go to bed normal time then wake up and watch events from the night before (usually when everyone is still sleeping...I'm an early riser).  So raise your hand if you cried along with Jordyn when she didn't make the cut for the All Around in gymnastics?  Poor thing. That rule sucks...it should be top 24 in competition, not 2 per country. She's the World Champion for goodness sake! I'm sure she'll pull it together and win a medal in her other two events.  

Chopped Challenge...Pirie Style!

Alan had a great idea to do a Chopped Challenge! We decided to give it a try...

 So to keep things simple, I suggested two teams and one meal, instead of the usual three as they do in the show.  Please tell me you've seen this show!  If not, go to Food Network and watch an episode of Chopped.  So it was the girls against the guys and dessert was the meal! Desserts will be judged on taste, creativity and appearance. JUDGES: Mom and Dad...between the two of us, we've cooked a few means so for this challenge, that's enough qualification.  Well, at least we're more qualified than Gracie! Although she did volunteer to be a judge! 

Chef Veronica and Chef Justine get ready to open their "basket" of ingredients!  They're poised and ready to kick some kitchen butt!

Chef Alan and Sous Chef Joey look ready to tackle their ingredients and show these girls just how cooking is done!

Here's our time keeper...kidding!  I kept the time on my ipod which was a little more accurate (and not as goofy). 45 Minutes in the clock please!  (Due to all the Chefs using a shared kitchen, we extended the time from the usual 30 min. allotted for the dessert round in the show.)

OPEN YOUR "BASKETS" PLEASE!  

Ingredients:  Crescent rolls, almond/toffee chocolate bar, 1/2 brick of cream cheese and Cheerios.

 Let the cooking begin!  Chef Justine chops apples, not an ingredient, but anything in the kitchen was fair game for the contestants.  And doesn't she look cute in her apron!  No points awarded for cuteness, unfortunately.

 Chef Veronica is using all her finesse to plate the dessert just so! 

 Chef Alan shows off his keen knife skills!!  Watch those fingers!

Sous Chef Joey is looking very confident...but I think Chef Alan wants him to get his butt back to work.

 Chef Veronica and Chef Justine present their dessert:  chocolate filled crescent roll, cream cheese/apple filled crescent, slices of apple with jack cheese and chocolate sauce for dipping with a Cheerio sprinkle on top.  Please notice the cute apple garnish in the chocolate!  Those girls really worked hard!  

The judges tasted the dish...All in all a good dish, the raw apple slices were a nice palate cleanser, the chocolate crescent roll was wonderful but the cream cheese/apple crescent roll was a little dry.

 Chef Alan and Sous Chef Joey present their dessert:  Crescent wedges; one with chocolate/cream cheese spread and Cheerio sprinkle, one with peanut butter spread and chopped bananas.  For garnish they added squares of chocolate and chocolate dipped candied popcorn.

The judges taste the dish...The judges enjoyed the combination of flavors on both wedges, but both agreed it was a little too much to eat for a dessert.  The chocolate and cream cheese spread was a great combination of flavors...and who doesn't like peanut butter and bananas?!  A crowd pleaser!  Both judges agreed that the garnishes were too much to an already too big dessert.

At this point the contestants were asked to leave the room while the judges decide who will get Chopped and who will be the first Pirie Kitchen Chopped Champions.

We're sorry to announce...Chef Veronica and Chef Justine:  YOU HAVE BEEN CHOPPED!

 This was a difficult decision for the judges.  Both dishes were tasty, but the boys had a little bit better flavor.  The girls did have the best presentation. Chef Veronica and Chef Justine we ask you to leave the Chopped Kitchen.  Better luck next time girls!

HERE ARE YOUR CHOPPED CHAMPIONS!

The winning prize is the losing team has to do the dishes!

Hope you enjoyed our Chopped Challenge...we sure did!!

Biking in the Hood

 Mike and I rode our bikes to Sandy Point State Park.  It's a short ride from our house.  I had NO idea it was so big and so nice.  Here's a pic of the beach (not sandy as the name might lead you to believe, but more like dirt).  The bridge in the background is the Bay Bridge.

 Here's another view from another part of the park.  We rode after Mike got off work, so it was around 5:30pm and cloudy. There was someone fishing off that far point.

 I made the mistake of wondering out loud if the water was brackish...so Mike had to taste the water and find out.  Yup...brackish.

 See the deer?  Crappy cell phone photo!

Really wish I had my good camera for this photo.  It's was much darker and the trees overhead made it look cave-like.  This was an adjacent neighborhood to the park that we explored.

New Deck

Joey bought a new deck today.

For those of you who are wondering what that is...

It's the board part of a skateboard.  The wheels are called wheels but the part that attaches the wheels to the deck are called trucks (this is what Joey is doing in the photo...attaching the trucks to the deck).

This is a skateboard.  Not to be confused with a longboard or a pennyboard or a cruiser.

Got it?

There will be a test later.

Oh crap!

 Godzilla strikes...I unpacked by ENTIRE kitchen, put EVERYTHING AWAY.  Discovered last night that I totally forgot this cabinet!!!  It's just to the right of the sink...how could I have missed it completely?! We've been in the house, what, 2 1/2 weeks and this is the first time I've opened this cabinet only to discover it's totally empty. What a Godzilla I am.  Now, what the heck do I put in it?! 

View through our back sliding glass doors to the river. Can you see it?k

Alive in Maryland

 I'm back!!  Yes, we got all moved in.  Man, was it painful.  We arrived to a dirty house (floors, carpets decks...all filthy), no electricity, no hotel...I'm not kiddin'; it sucked.  I was ready to take the recommendation of my neighbor who suggested I give Maryland the middle finger and high-tail it back to Florida!  Then she told me everything would be fine, and she was right.  We had to clean the house as best we could without our stuff (took two tries to find a Target with power and buy cleaning supplies).  Our power was restored on Sunday (day before move in).  The top AC unit wasn't working, but AC guy came out and rigged it to "work" till part came in to fix it fully.  Then bottom AC unit broke.  Both are fixed now (along with the dryer which didn't work either).  Now, I think we have wasps in the attic.  Good Friggin' Grief!!!  Anyway here are some photos from our first week or so...

 We hung out in the garage marking off numbers for the movers as they climbed stairs after stairs and put our stuff in the house.  Bless their hearts.

 My house was a sea of boxes and black trash bags FULL of packing paper. 

 Took a while to figure out the furniture layout.  This isn't it.

 Takin' a break on the deck with my furry girl.

 Veronica made chocolate covered strawberries over the weekend...yum! Things slowly getting back to normal.

 There's a skate shop with a small skate park (ramps, half-pipe, etc) around the corner from the house.  Perfect for Joey!

Now we're talkin'...shoes and blankets all over the floor, knitting all over the table and kids zoning out infront of the TV.  Sounds like summer to me!

We've done some exploring, mostly shopping.  Even went to IKEA last week.  To get there you have to travel under the Chesapeake Bay in a tunnel...you know...under the water!  Very cool.  And expensive, too; $3 each way.  The girls and I found grocery stores, Trader Joe's, Michael's, Joanns, and the mall.  Not the DC Mall, but the Annapolis Mall.  They even have a Nordstrom (and Nordstrom Rack...yeah, bargains!).  Mike is working on getting the cars registered.  You have to have two inspections, one for emissions and one to make sure your car is in good working order (fix this light, tighten that screw and all that crap).  Not an easy (or cheap) task, but the man is on it! 

More pics of the house to come when it's cleaner and I'm not in the middle of doing laundry.

On a sad note:  Our outdoor kitty, Jake, is missing. He ventured out and hasn't returned yet.  We're hoping he will someday. I hope he's safe where he is and told our neighbor in Fleming Island to keep an eye out for him.  He's probably living it up on someone elses couch.  All other animals, including the kids, are doing fine. 

Anyone out there feel like wrestling a few wasps?