Errol vs. the Vacuum Cleaner

We've had a couple of rather uneventful weeks since our last post. Our weekends have been spent cleaning the house and doing laundry (sorry, no exciting concerts or travels to report) and our weeks have been the normal routine of work, gym, and quiet evening at home, with a little Wednesday night church thrown in here and there, and a couple visits from Joella.

We did get to hear the columnist Cal Thomas speak at our church last Sunday night, and we enjoyed that. We didn't really know anything about him before we went other than he was the most widely syndicated columnist in the nation (or something to that effect). His talk essentially focused on what the Bible teaches us about our role as citizens. One of the most important reminders he gave us was that it is ultimately God's will that is going to determine which candidate will win the upcoming election, so even if your favorite one doesn't make it, we are obligated to pray for the one that does. (No, that doesn't get you out of going to vote.)

Now, lest you think we have no fun around here while spending our weekends cleaning, I give you...

Errol vs. the Vacuum Cleaner

No, we don't know why he does this. He only started doing it about a year ago. He managed to have a civil relationship with the vacuum cleaner for the first three years of his life, and then he apparently just snapped. He doesn't particularly like the hand vac, either. I will admit to a teensy weensy bit of encouragement of this particular quality in Errol because it really does make this chore more entertaining. :)

The weekend so far

We started the weekend with a Michael Buble concert on Friday night. It was great - the guy really can sing. The best, or perhaps most pleasantly surprising, part of the show was his band. He had a backup band of 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, 3 saxophones, a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist and a pianist. They were all outstanding musicians, and the orchestration of each piece was quite good. There was one trumpet player in particular who just blew us away with his talent. If these guys are ever in your area, you should definitely check them out. The show can be a bit irreverant at times, but the quality of the music was just phenomenal.


We spent much of the day Saturday cleaning our house, fun, fun. We didn't finish, so we'll get to do some more of that next weekend. We took a break late in the afternoon to see a couple of the houses in this fall's Parade of Homes. We toured a nice $2.5M home (that's a lot here in Wichita) with a nifty wet bar in the basement that looked quite similar to what I have planned to install in our basement sometime in the next 20 years. The house also had amazing trim work throughout and some very nice faux painted ceilings. The weirdest thing was that it had a warming drawer in the bathroom. Yes, a warming drawer. It wasn't disguised in any way, it was just this appliance sitting in the middle of a bunch of built-in drawers in a cabinet. We assumed it was for warming towels, and the builder confirmed that it was. We wondered why he didn't just install a heated towel rack, and he looked at us like we were crazy. The house also had a wine cellar area behind the wet bar in the basement that was about 12 feet by 5 feet. I'd venture to say that you could put 1000 bottles in there if you were smart about it. Unfortunately, they weren't, and had installed mostly regular cabinets and a few diamond racks in there for a bottle capacity of about 30. Sigh. What a waste.

After the house tour, we stopped off at the grocery store to pick up a rack of lamb and some other ingredients for dinner. Jeff's been wanting to "cook" all week (apparently weeknight meals don't count because they don't take as long). We made a yummy mushroom dish that we've made before, but this time we served it over some gnocchi. It was a nice accompaniment to the lamb and our green beans. Here's a picture of the mushrooms (note the use of our new dishes!) and the recipe:


Mushroom Stuff, adapted from a Tyler Florence recipe:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds assorted mushrooms (cremini, oyster, shiitake, chanterelle, or white), trimmed and sliced
Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
1/4 cup reserved beef broth or drippings from whatever you're roasting
Splash of heavy cream
1 tablespoon minced chives

Place a clean skillet over medium heat.
Add the butter and a drizzle of oil.
When the butter starts to foam, add the mushrooms and the thyme, then season with salt and pepper.
Stir everything together for a few minutes.
Add the red wine, stirring to scrape up any stuck bits; then cook and stir to evaporate the alcohol.
When the wine is almost all gone, add the beef juices or reserved drippings.
Let the liquid cook down and then remove from the heat.
Stir in the cream and the chives, and adjust the seasoning as needed.

We serve this sauce as an accompaniment to beef or lamb roasts, or over gnocchi.

A weekend with my grandparents

We spent the weekend with my grandparents at their house in Manhattan. We drove up there Saturday morning, along with all the KSU football fans. They lost, hah hah! We arrived in time for a spaghetti lunch with my grandparents. We spent some time in the afternoon walking on the Hudson Trail that runs behind their house. After an early dinner, we went over to Meadowlark, a retirement community, to hear my grandfather give a presentation on a trip to Tunisia that he and my grandmother took along with several other couples, one of whom now lives in Meadowlark and organizes Saturday night presentations like this one. This morning we made it to church, then had lunch together, and drove home this afternoon. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Walking on the trail

Errol

Fang

Flowers at my grandparents' house

Flowers at Meadowlark

My grandmother (on right) with her good friend, Wy

Grandfather lecturing

Grandfather again

Errol is doing much better now. The bleeding in his tummy seems to have stopped. He never showed any signs of feeling ill, so we're confident that he'll be okay.