Murphy tackles the stairs

Murphy has some trouble with the stairs - both up and down. I need to keep my camera ready, because this is not at all the funniest time he went down. But, I do love the fall at the bottom.

Officially Registered...and tired!

After a hard day of playing, Murphy is officially tired! He is also officially registered as "Royer's Mighty Riverman Murphy" (aka Murphy for short).

New Puppy Announcement!

Well, I have lots to catch up on as usual! Work has me way behind on lots of things, not just blogging. It doesn't help that we left for the weekend with one dog and came home with two! That's right, we are now a family of four as Murphy has been added as a new "kid."

It has been an interesting weekend as we are trying to get Murphy used to his crate and learning how to potty outside. I'll have lots of stories in the coming weeks, but let's just say that Lucy is more than a little jealous. Yet, there are moments when they play together and sleep cuddled up. So, I am sure they will be best friends in the long run. Now, if he sleeps a little more at night, I'll be happy!

Murphy is 9 weeks old. He is a light deadgrass color Chesapeake Bay Retriever (Chessies). There are a variety of Chessie colors. Murphy's color is perfect for pheasant hunting because he will blend in with picked corn and hay fields during the fall. He has already been in water and he can retrieve a toy duck that has been thrown just a few feet. So, hopefully he will be ready to hunt next year. The vet said he is surprising very social with us and others, which is not always the case with Chessies. Some can be very territorial and without proper socialization they can be a assertive and reserved around strangers. But, Lucy is over-socialized in some respects, so I don't think we will have a problem with Murphy.

More pictures of Murphy can be found online at our Picasa site. More stories to come (he and Lucy have some seriously funny interactions).

A need for barrettes?

So, what is the deal with all the barrettes these gymnasts wear in the Olympics? It isn't so much the United States, but as I have been watching I noticed all the girls from teams like China and Romania have like a thousand barrettes in their hair. Seriously, do they need that many to hold back a few hairs?

Late (Olympic) Nights

I think I am going to try to go to bed at a decent time tonight without watching the Olympics. I doubt I can do it, but I have stayed up way too late watching them every night and I am tired! The problem is that I start watching just for a few minutes when I get into bed and then get totally sucked in. I was so upset last night when Nastia Liukin did not win gold on the uneven bars. She stuck her landing and had a great routine - definitely better than the girl from China who won the gold (and barely looked a day over 12). Anyway, since I have been up past midnight watching, I have noticed my caffeine and candy intake has gone way up in the last 1.5 weeks. I need extra sugar to keep me awake during the day and going for the next late night. But, the summer games are my favorite, they only come around every 4 years, and my favorite events are swimming and gymnastics, so it has been worth it. I just hope that someday I get to actually go to the Olympics. My friend April (who is also the biggest fan of the Olympics I know) is thinking about London in 2012. I might have to join her...

Domestic Diva

This past weekend was spent in the kitchen! With the summer semester over, I now have some time back to do a few of the things that I enjoy. One of these semi-hobbies is trying new recipes. I am not a great cook by any means. In fact, a fair share of what I have attempted to make has ended up in the garbage. However, our garden is overflowing with vegetables and since I hate to waste anything, I figured I would try a few new recipes. Heck, it cost next to nothing for most of the ingredients, so time was the only potential loss.

Most of what I did turned out great. I am now dubbing myself a Domestic Diva. Not only did I make all of the recipes below using mostly ingredients from our garden, I also did four loads of laundry, tons of errands, and went running. We also had neighbors over Saturday night. Outside of catching up on personal email and blogging (which I am still working on), I did a heck of a lot of stuff in two days!

On Saturday, I used up all of our old frozen bananas to make three loaves of Banana Chocolate Chip Bread. I highly recommend this recipe. It was so good! I think Todd liked it, too, since we ate 1.5 loaves in three days!

I also boiled, peeled, and cut up about four dozen tomatoes. We have so many in our garden and I wanted to be able to use them. So, I decided to make homemade marinara sauce. I looked around for a recipe I liked, but didn't find just the right one. So, I combined two different recipes to come up with my own creation. It was pretty good. Todd loved it because it was sort of a spicy marinara.

Christan's Spicy Marinara

• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 tablespoons crushed garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper powder or chilli flakes
• ~2 pounds ripe tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoons dried basil

In a large pot, bring 2-3 L of water to boil. Place the washed tomatoes with cross slits in the water. Bring to a boil. After 5 minutes, switch off the gas. Remove tomatoes from water and let cool. Once cool enough to handle, peel of the tomatoes and quarter them.

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil and saute the chopped garlic for a few seconds. Do not brown. Put the chilli flakes/powder in the oil and immediately put in the quartered tomatoes. Season with remaining ingredients. Stir around the contents of the pan until the moisture has evaporated and continue to cook until the tomatoes make a nice thick sauce. If it is too runny, you can add tomato paste. This recipe doubles well. You can add other ingredients to taste if you like. Examples might be mushrooms, onions, meat, etc.

And then I made even more stuff...

Sunday night for dinner, I made Stuffed Green Peppers using more vegetables from our garden. Todd wanted them without meat, so filled them with chopped mushrooms and tomatoes instead of meat. The turned out okay, but not great. If we make this as part of a meal again, I would definitely try a different recipe. Below is a mixture of the stuffed pepper before they were baked. I added the marinara and some cheese just before putting them in the oven.

On Sunday night, I boiled, peeled, and cut up even more tomatoes to make salsa. I wasn't sure how this would turn out, but it is freaking awesome. I feel like I could sell this stuff to the local Mexican restaurants. We made tacos for dinner this past Monday and had chips and salsa, too. Between the two of us, we ate almost 3 cups of salsa. I highly recommend the recipe for D's Famous Salsa and if you don't want to use fresh tomatoes, you can even buy the canned kind to make this.

Another Iowa Visit

One of the posts I have been meaning to catch up on is when we visited Todd's family in Iowa the weekend of July 26th. Todd actually took time off from work and went to Iowa early to visit his grandma. I was not able to do the same, so headed out after work on Friday. It was a busy weekend! We spent time with family Friday night and got up early on Saturday for me to run the Bix. It is a crazy 7-mile run near where Todd's family lives. I have done this race for several years. I did fairly well, finishing in 67-mins despite the crowded streets and humidity. Around 15,000 people run this race and it goes through local neighborhood, so it is hard to navigate, but fun to run along and watch all the people and crowds lining the streets. After that, we hung out with more family, went swiming, grilled out, and made smores around the firepit. It had been a long week for me, so I was happy to relax and take nap in the lounger by the pool. We had to drive back on Sunday, each in separate cars, which was hard for me since I was so tired. It was a short weekend, but it was also fun to see everyone.

Todd with his Grandma (she turned 102 in June!!)

Me nearing the finish line at the Bix (and not looking very pretty after 7-miles)

Ben playing in the pool (Todd was having fun throwing the kids)