The Recent Haps

Hello! Now that the winter quarter is over, I hope I can get into some regularity with my blogging. That will, of course, mean that I have to break out the camera more often than I have been doing, but I can probably handle that... maybe.

First things first... I want to give a shout-out to my peeps living it up in cold-weather states. I feel for you, really! It was like fifty degrees outside today and I actually felt cold! It is the truth, though, that if you look up Irvine, California on Weather.com today, you will see about five different weather advisories. How Irvine can have a greater number of weather advisories than I ever saw in Michigan or Minnesota, I will never know... but it's true. And the worst part of it is that there is almost a one hundred percent chance of rain (which is surprising, given that it has only sprinkled three times in the three months that we have lived here) and I have misplaced my umbrella since I never use it! But anyway, enough of my complaining about our weather... I'm sure you all have horror stories that go way above and beyond a little bit of rain, so I'll shut my mouth....

Anyway, a few weeks ago my sister came for a visit from Chicago. Matt had yet to upload the photos that he had taken with his Blackberry while my sister was here, but after I got sick of working on my protocol for the Institutional Review Board (Katy, I know you feel my pain), I thought I would find his pictures on the computer and do a little posting for you!

As you may remember, I went all out and made a huge Thanksgiving feast for my sister, Matt, and my friend Joanne. The turkey turned out simply fabulously, as shown in the photo below.

My sister and I, with the famous turkey creation. We even cooked the turkey neck, as we always do in Wisconsin, and it was pretty good. Finding those giblets, man... that's tough!

The next night, we went to Anaheim to pick up my sister from her hotel to go to The Boiling Crab. I think I gave you some details about this place before, so today I will just show you some pictures. Check it out: you purchase the shrimp (or crawfish, or whatever other crustacean you would like to eat) in these huge bags that contain one pound of food each... and then you can get it spiced with one of their three or four selections (we got two bags, each in a different spice). Anyway, my sister could not believe it when the shrimp came with their little heads attached. Let me just say that eating this was crazy messy... the spice made all of our fingers burn because you had to "prepare" each little shrimpy before eating him.

The little shrimpies in the bag... spicy, messy goodness.

Matt and I actually loved the shrimp, though. I mean, it was totally an adventure in eating... and it was tiring as well! We haven't been back to this place since my sister left, but next time we will have to be sure to get a seat in the restaurant instead of taking it to go... my sister said that her hotel room was not the same after we left!

Matt and I enjoying the shrimp... I think my sister had given up on them by this point.

Alright, in case I don't update this thing again before the holidays (and we all know that that is a very real possibility), Matt and I want to wish you and yours the best ones yet! If you are around the Wisconsin or North Carolina areas, give us a call... because at least one (if not both!) of us will be in those places in the upcoming weeks.

Take care!

Angie