We got a Christmas card from our friends the McArthurs that said “looking forward to 2010. . .what? 2010, are we robots?”  Hilarious.  I will say 2010 is already shaping up to be a year from the future.  Crazy stuff has been happening here in Austin.  We made the news with this guy: Joseph Stark.  Yeesh.  Only in the future does a man get so mad at the world that he Blogs about it before hopping on a plane and driving it into a building.  It is so sad.  After that we had the most GORGEOUS Sunday of gardening in t-shirts and the first taste of a tan.  Two days later. . .Snow Day in Austin.  It was really weird, but more so, awesome.  So, no we are not robots. . .yet.

Not that our pictures of Snow day could compete with wrenandjane.  Our props just aren’t cute enough.  But still, here they are.

Dave spent a big chunk of his Sunday mowing and weeding (I helped, but he did most of it).  This typical homeowners stuff still makes us giddy.  Also, we both decided mowing a lawn gives a great sense of satisfaction.  Talk to us in a couple of years, we might be singing a different tune, but I hope not.

Part of Dave’s yard work was pulling some native, invasive elephant leaves.  The funny thing about these “weeds” is that i like them.  It was hard seeing Dave dig up these huge, prehistoric looking leaves.  The reality is these plants spread when a piece of them fall on the ground.  Yes, a piece!!!!  Can you imagine how they would take over.  Getting rid of them is like surgery!

We also have some pretty flowers popping up as the temperature is dropping:

Our rose bushes are going crazy, so crazy that I have no problems cutting them off and putting them in a vase.  Bountiful!

Dave brought these home the other day.  Not the cat! just the wine and the flowers.  He got me the Texas marigolds because they were orange and funky.  Love that guy.

Dave and I have been taking pictures of my latest kitchen creations.  Sometimes I go crazy!  Fish sandwiches!  yeah!  Kate got me baking my own bread with the artisan bread: 5 minutes a day.  Each one of these recipes use the bread in one form or another.  Pizza crust, croutons and of course sandwich bread.  So here are some pictures.

Pizza Rolls

Fish Sammies

Spinach Soup w/ garlic croutons

GO BREAD!

Dave and I are both pretty comfortable saying that we are made for each other.  We truly feel blessed by God to have found one another and had that epiphany: “ooohhhh, ok, now I get it. . . this is right.”  With that it mind it is pretty hilarious to think that, if we were made for each other, would we have known that when we were nine?  Were we made for each other starting at birth and just go through life like that until we find eachother, or do we change and move around until we lock in (like a slot machine)?

I am not saying I know the answer, but I am going to share some photos from Dave’s childhood that make me think, it was just a matter of meeting up.  Enjoy!~

I don’t think I would have ended up with the boy who had the “no absences” award, or the “best science experiment”.  However “doodle king” strikes me as attractive for one reason or another.

This is a grenade one of Dave’s friends gave him to communicate, “you are the bomb!”  I am not sure if this makes me like Dave more or the girl who gave it to him.  Can you imagine how cool it felt to be told you are the bomb with an actual hand grenade in 1996 or when ever he get this?  Either way, Dave was part of this transaction and that is endearing to me.

This one is a real heart stopper for me.  Maybe because I am pretty sure my little brother Tim would have been right next to him making a clay oozie.  It is comforting he would have fit in the family, even then.  The fact that Dave needed to clarify it was not just a gun, but a GAT, well, it just shows he is a man who strives for excellence and details count on important issues.

Last but not least.  His Cabbage Patch Cat.  He assures me that Xavier Roberts gave the cat a terrible name in true Cabbage Patch fashion (I got a CP cornsilk who’s name was Dorcus).  This cat has been loved, therefore I love this man even more!  Wouldn’t you?

I hope this post didn’t make anyone sick to their stomach.  I just took a romantic spin on some pretty hilarious stuff of Dave’s I just had to show you!  Really though, it does drive home the point that Dave is too perfect for me!

We are finally putting up a real post.  Not due to lack of trying, it just seems like everytime we start a post something comes up and then when we finally get back to it, it is OUT OF DATE.  I am not one to be, “so five minutes ago.”  so you will most likely never see those posts.  Enough apologies.

The HOUSE!  It is starting to feel familiar.  Moogs is still struggling, we have sleepless nights of hearing him meow for his old neighborhood (I feel you bro).

Dave and I have only made a few changes, but the house really feels like we made it our own.  The people who had it before us “made it their own” for 48 years so I find it surprising that new floors and paint can transform a house and make it seem new.  We are still in process in the kitchen, the demo was easy, but finishing it off has proved to be a struggle.

Come visit soon!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!!!!

Currently, Dave and I are desperately trying to use up the rest of our “card” at Pilates Eagle Rock.  A “card” is one of those deals when you pay for 20 classes up front and have one year to use it up.  The mentality behind these cards is something like, ” That means, let’s see, three classes a week, 4 weeks in a month, Dave and I are splitting the classes, so they’ll get used up faster, but still i won’t have to buy another 20 sessions for at least a month!” 11 months later, we still have 14 of our original 20 classes left and the card expires at the end of April.  So Saturday, Monday and Wednesdays you will be able to find us down at the studio engaging our cores.

Tonight’s episode at pilates started by placing a small ball under your sacrum.  It may sound relaxing, but all I can think of is, ‘What if I pop it?.  How shameful would i feel!  I would be so embarrassed!’.  This evening as my mind is racing with these insecurities I hear a long “pshftssssssshhhh”.  Bless Dave’s heart.  Being the loving wife I am I pretty much lose it and everyone else is trying sustain from laughing knowing they themselves where just running through the horrors of popping their ball in their mind.  Our instructor, who is so cool, quickly calmed Dave’s mind, saying it happens from time to time.  It was a short lived event, but a lasting memory.  How sweet.

I hope there are more pilates stories to come, because that means we are using up the classes we already paid for.

On Feb. 14th, Valentine’s Day, we went to Nina Lucas Presents Winter Ball 2009.  It was put on by Char’s hairdresser, Nina, to raise money for 826 a non-profit organization that Dave Eggers helped get started.  I read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius in college and LOVED it.  It was maybe the thickest book I read until Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix.  Needless to say I loved A.H.W.O.S.G so I love Dave Eggers, so I love 826, so  I loved going to a Ball that raised money for the organization.  

As if the cause wasn’t motivating enough, you get to dress up!  Adult prom, full on!  Dave put on his charcoal suit (very Mad Men-esque), too handsome. . . barf if you want, he looked good!  Fun friends, open bar, music, dancing, and so on.  It really was a treat to do it up.  Pictures are worth 1000 words, so I will spare you. 

Boiling hot, blue skies.  It is mid January and we ran our air conditioner yesterday.  sheesh!  It is gross how hot southern california is right now.  To all our friends and family in cooler (straight up cold) climates, DO NOT BE JEALOUS.  Also, do not be jealous of my ability to tie in the title of my post to the content. . .

And now presenting “Blue Skies” (there is my mad pun talent) recorded by the generous Dave Lockett.  Dave (my Dave) and I recorded it for my Dad for Father’s Day which was also our wedding day.  Enjoy.

Download

Right Click to Download “Blue Skies”

. . .to television. 

There has been some concern as to our t.v. post and RIGHTFULLY SO!  Let me explain.

The Ruperts LOVE their television, but never at the expense of hanging with friends or making out or BBQing or other stuff.  Luckily with the wonder of DVR we can squeeze in hours and hours of television into 45 minutes. Commercials. . .gone (a thing of the past, see ya, sayonara!), or as Dave likes to say, “commercials? what is this 1997?”  Also, these television shows are “of interest” but not necessarily seen on a weekly basis, or even a bi-weekly basis especially Mythbusters and Time Warp.  

With all this TV I still manage to find time to do many crossword puzzles, read the latest young adult fantasy (Edward Cullen. . .), knit washcloths and whatever what not’s.