Alpine, WY

End of Summer Updates

What have we been doing with our lives lately?  Oh, how nice of you to ask, internet.  I will tell you.

First things first.  I started a food blog a week or two ago, and for the time being I'm super into it.  Pretty random, I know.  I'm not looking to be a "real blogger" or become a chef or go to blog conferences or host giveaways, but I like to cook and I want to share my findings (and have a gloriously organized place to find all my stuff) and I feel quite strange doing so here, so two blogs it is!  If recipe websites are your sort of thing, head on over HERE and see how I attempted to make a grilled, brown banana peel look appetizing for my first post.  Go big or go home right?

So anyway, there's that.  In other news, Scott is now in a new position at work.  He's now managing part of the production side of the business instead of estimating, which is a totally new job pretty much.  So far this means more time spent at work, but he got a fancy new office and it'll be a good opportunity for him.  See you next year, honey!  Kidding, but see you tomorrow at...9?  Seriously?  Meh.

Sorry this turned into a public message to Scott.  Moving on.  We just got back from a trip to Wyoming which was really great.  This trip probably deserves its own post, but just in case that never happens!  A photo!

In our spare time, we're forcing ourselves to hand sand a coffee table.  It is a lot harder than the kitchen table we did, but we really want a coffee table upstairs so here's to hoping we can motivate ourselves to finish.  Must. Keep. Sanding.

Things have been a bit too reminiscent of school lately.  I'm testing to get a couple letters after my name and wow, this whole studying-in-the-evenings thing is not something I've missed.  I know there are those people out there that could just go to school forever, but does that include standardized testing?  If so, please blot my name out of that group forever.

Ok, last thing.  We went to the Davis County Fair!  Apart from seeing prize hens, there really wasn't much to do.  Also, it was too hot to want to be there for more than 20 minutes, but we did get to take the Davis County Fair Bible Knowledge Quiz.  9/10, so whatever that means...

The Coconut

On Thursday we discovered that we'd never survive if we were stranded on an island.

Exhibit A:

Last week at the farmer's market, they had such unique things.  I was in heaven!  Lychee, Filipino eggplant, brussels sprouts?  Unique foods at basically no cost is my love language.

One of the less exotic things I got but was still excited about was a coconut. Scott and I spent an hour or two looking up how to open one and then what to do with it once we got it opened.  This is a high maintenance fruit (is it a fruit?), let me tell you.

The following are methods we considered when breaking open this coconut:
1. Place it in a tea towel and swing it like an ax on the concrete (a website recommend this, believe it or not).
2. Slam it in a car door.
3. Take it to a baseball diamond and beat it with a bat.
4. Use leftover 4th of July fireworks.
5. Put it in a box.  Put that box in another box.  Mail it to ourselves and when it arrives, SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER.
6. Do what "normal" people do, and break it open with a flat-head screwdriver.

Of course, to save on postage, we went with method 6, and the cracking/draining part of this experience was actually quite fun!

Then we got to the part where we had to actually use the coconut for something and that was significantly less fun.  Extracting the coconut flesh from that yucky brown shell is pretty much miserable.  Neither of us escaped the experience without large scratches, not to mention the bits of coconut shell that were flying around the kitchen that I had to clean up.  Then we ended up with about one cup of coconut milk when it was all said and done.

Was this worth it?  Absolutely not.  Haha.  If we're ever lost on a tropical island, there better be bananas because otherwise we will STARVE. On the plus, side bananas are my other love language, so I would be quite happy in that situation.