Catching up! Sharkathon, State Fair, Crock Pot, Garden, Politics, and Clutter...EXPOSED!!!

Welcome to what will DEFINITELY be the longest blog ever. I'll start with today's garden pics. We have a fall garden for the first time ever this year. Here is Goku chillin' on the porch watching the birds.



The vertical rows from left to right are brussel sprouts, broccoli, then cabbage on the higher tier. They are doing pretty well! It's nice not having to water everyday. We need to mulch though...


Closer look at some rockin' cabbage. Some of our plants are getting eaten - we're going to look for a pesticide at wal-mart today.


We got some sweet basil (top right) and cilantro (bottom) in some pots, and I threw a spare broccoli plant in one too. They are all doing pretty good.


We left a couple pepper plants in the garden, and they are still putting out like crazy. Look at all these!


Tom, Clint, Reade, John, and Greg headed out to Sharkathon the weekend of October 3rd. It's a huge, land-based fishing tounament on Padre Island National Seashore. I am definitely going next year. A woman won the whole shebang this time!

Here's John - love the shirt. LOL


The beach and our kayak trailer.


Clint staying wrapped up good so he doesn't come home purple (from sunburn!) like last year.


Reade acting like he knows what he's doing.


Tom and Greg and the camp.


The guys didn't catch any good fish during the tournament, but Tom won the best raffle prize, a $2500 gift certificate to have one of these fishing stands fitted for the truck. It will have 8 rod holders, cup holders, and a place for an umbrella. One advantage of being up higher is your lines stay out of the seaweed better. We are going to pick it up the weekend after finals and staying 4 nights in Port Aransas to try it out.



Tuesday, I ditched class and went to the fair for Dr. Pepper Tuesday. I found out from my friend at school Jessica that you can get in for $3 with a Dr Pepper can on Tuesdays, and Tom and I figured saving that much was worth skipping class. Here is Tom and his favorite Egyptian thingie, Anubis. If Tom ever gets a tattoo, it will be Anubis. (We picked a beautiful day, as you can see. It only rained on us on our way in though, the rest of the day was nice!)


We revisited fried queso, one of our favorites from last year. Can you tell that one that I bit into is still a little frozen inside? Ugh!!!


Here were some cool carved pumpkins. That dude did demonstrations on the weekends, so we didn't see him.



Here is Tom's friend the fountain, which he famously ran through after many beers and a visit to the whisky tasting area at the Irish Festival this year.


Next, we tried Fried Grilled Cheese, one of this year's featured foods. We weren't thrilled with it. We expected more like Monte Cristo style. I think this was breaded with potato chips because it was SO crunchy. And it was too greasy. The pidgeons got a good bit of mine. I thought it was cute serving it with tomato soup to dip in.


Neat train setup on wooden tracks under Big Tex


Some sand guy made this King Tut themed display. It was cool! I had the urge to knock it down and play in the sand, but I'll wait til our December trip and knock down my own sandcastles.




Tom is patiently waiting for me to take a picture of the Chicken Fried Bacon so he can eat it. This won "Best Taste" at the fair this year. We liked it OK, but it was nothing to write home about.



Here is the deep fried truffle (after I bit into it). When they say "deep fried truffle", they really do mean a singular truffle. LOL We were a little surprised. But it was a tasty snack. Oh no! I didn't take a picture of the fried banana split! It was good too.


We watched the dancing dogs show, which was pretty cute. We also saw birds of the world.


We saw a cool golf cart.


The highlight of the fair was probably this, the last float in the parade, full of singing Shriners. LOL


Finally, here is a shot from the pyrotechnic show. It was pretty neat, I think I would've preferred a good ol' fireworks show though.


Let's take an intermission from the pictures. Another cool part of the fair was looking at cars because we've been considering selling GiGi for a small SUV of the Ford variety. We loved the Edge, but I'm not sure I can justify not buying the cheaper Escape. The Edge is more comfortable, but it's also more expensive and has worse gas mileage. It's like Tom said, that's why we got the Dodge truck even though the Fords were fancier. The Dodge was $10 grand cheaper, and we just couldn't justify the extra expense for a fluffier seat.

Crock Pot Monday was messed up this week because Tom's friend's birthday was that day. He originally planned to go out Monday, so we didn't have dinner at home. Instead, they went out last night. We ended up having Crock Pot Wednesday with this recipe: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/07/crockpot-peppercorn-steak.html (I just figured out how to get the links to work again!!)
It was tasty, but I thought the Worchestershire sauce was overwhelming, and the recipe didn't, ahem, sit well with me both nights I ate it.

Did you see McCain and Obama roast each other last night? Again, you'll have to copy and paste the link, but here they are:

McCain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ql1RLDVWzY

Obama Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKv7a9Om7cs
Obama Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SkFjTCscM4

They were both pretty funny, but if the race were based on hilarity, McCain wouldn't be the underdog! He was SO good!

Finally, here is one blog segment that I have on schedule this week. Clutter...EXPOSED! *insert dramatic news music here* Today I'm featuring my mantle. Right off the bat, you'll notice a bottle of water that's been there so long I don't even remember when we put it there.


Here is a baggie full of new pics of Emma and Alex that I need to put up, and my temporary drivers license from when I had my name changed.


That's a Christmas ornament there on top of that candle - might as well leave it there until we drag the tree out again this year! Also a case for glasses, and a box of long matches for lighting the fireplace.


Who doesn't need a map of Ray Roberts State Park on their mantle? I also have Jonas Bros tickets from July up there.


Finally, dental floss and an empty envelope that used to have my NYC plane ticket from March.


*sigh* I know, I know.

Anyway, school is good, work is good but crazy, and overall, life is great for Team T&A. Have a great weekend!