I killed my Rice Cooker

I don't cook rice very often nowadays,

and I certainly don't have the conventional ubiquitous rice cooker that is in just about every Asian household any more. BUT I did ( *sigh* ) have a microwaveable rice cooker that was every bit just as good.. till a few days ago, when I killed it.

Like I said, I hadn't cooked rice in a while - at least not from scratch - a lot of what i do with rice nowadays comes from the Ready-in-5-minutes precooked brown rice or wild rice form. Feeling somewhat nostalgic, I thought I would try to cook some rice from scratch.

Bad Idea.

I overestimated the time and underestimated the water, and the result was a meltdown in our microwave - forget the noxious fumes that came pouring out of the microwave for a moment, or the now black charcoal rice that was left over - David was totally horrified when he smelt something burning ( I was in the other room ) and saw the rice cooker ITSELF bubbling in the microwave. EGAD.

At first we went running out of the house after turning the oven vent on, but after a while, David thought it was funny enough to blog, since I usually post something that I'm proud of, that I did for the Letti Thursday meals. So, here's the damage, in full its full digital glory...

On a more successful note, I made Pecan crusted fish and fried rice for Letti Thursday.

Genesis 1:29
And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

A Short Trip

Getting together with Kin Folk

Last Sunday, David and I brought David's dad to the funeral of his cousin's wife. He had lost touch with that side of the family and had not seen this particular cousin in over 70 years! He had seen the obituary in the Abilene Reporter News and decided that he would like to make a trip over to Throckmorton ( a small town with a population of about 905 ) to offer his condolences.

All in all it was a great family reunion even though it was on a solemn occasion. His cousin knew immediately who he was and it was touching to see the two men catching up and renewing ties.

Matthew 6:19-21

Treasures in Heaven

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Flooding in Abilene & New Slipcover & The Richmond Tans are here!

It rained so hard in the past few days

that many parts of Abilene, as well as the outlying towns, were flooded. Some people even had to be evacuated temporarily. Thank God our place is up on a little hill and although we did receive some rain, there wasn't any damage.

Photos courtesy of Abilene Reporter News Online

Also, we got a slip cover for our big A$$ couch from good ol' Walmart, and it'll probably have to have the "cat comforter" on top of it until we have company.. !!! We are sooo excited that my brother and his family will be here TODAY. WOOHOO!!!!! I'd never used a slip cover before and our couch isn't the usual conventional style couch, so it was quite a challenge to tuck all that material into the right nooks and like that. Hehe.

Edit:
9:44pm

My brother and his family arrived safely at abilene in time for.. *drum roll*.. Taco Tuesday!! We checked them into the hotel after dinner and spent time lounging by the pool with them. It was awesome. Pictures to follow :)

Acts 18:8

Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in
the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were
baptized

Periodontal Visit

Had an appointment with the Periodontist today

to get all the gunk out from beneath my gums. Yuck. One session down, 3 more to go.

*KACHING!*

Man, dental work is expensive. Sheesh.

Anyway, the dentist/periodontist ( or is it periodontalist? ) was a very nice guy who shared a practice with his daughter, and he comes in with his hawaiian shirt and all smiley. Sweet guy.

Oh, and we caught this year's Perseids. Magnificent :)

Daniel 12:3

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

We bought a giant couch

It's been long enough without a blog post.

Things have just been so wildly crazy that I haven't had time for a whole bunch of things. BUT I still have my trusty camera which I take everywhere I go, and so here's a brief recap of stuff that's been happening...


1. Spring Cleaning

My dear brother, Carter and his family are coming to Abilene ( from Richmond, Virginia ) in a little over a week and we've been trying to get all kinds of stuff in shape - We've had unprecedented rain and everything's overgrown etc etc, so there has been a bunch of outdoors stuff that needed to be done, as well as spring cleaning in the house etc - Carter and family coming only sped things up a little. LOL. It's all very exciting though, coz I get to see my little one year old niece Eliza, for the first time! And I hadn't seen any of them since our wedding, so everyone's all goosebumpy.


2. Exercise/Diet

Had been putting on weight slowly but surely since the wedding 2 years ago, and so I decided that it was time to put a stop to that. David's been really supportive, and one of the things we got for me was an MP3 player from Walmart, so that working out on the treadmill wouldn't be such a drag. It's worked well so far. Coupled with "sensible eating", I've lost 8 lbs in the last 3 weeks, so HURRAH!!


3. Letti Thursday

It's still going on, and we had planned 2 weeks ago to grill some chicken outside in the yard, but it started to rain, so we had to do it inside with the indoor grill, but the Honey BBQ Chicken was yummilicious. David requested fried pies with Fuji Apple filling and it was really good. Talk about having a tough time sticking to the diet!


4. Estate Sales

Judith, David's older sister, has been working at some estate sales during the summer, and we had gotten some real bargains at a couple of them, but by far the best bargain is the couch that we got at the last estate sale, a Baker Furniture ( Claremont Collection ) couch, which is priced at MSRP $6365 on their website. We got it at a very modest $250. Khamazing. The couch is so long ( David's 6' 2" frame can lie flat on the couch ) and deep ( my legs dangle over the edge if I sit with my back against the cushion ) that we just love it to bits.

5. Rachel's Puppy Shower

Rachel, a sweet girl who goes to the same bible class as I do, recently adopted a little chocolate lab puppy and Denecia, our teacher, decided to hold a puppy shower for her. Rachel initially was supposed to have one of our puppies, but we're just as happy for her that she has a new chocolate lab, just like Henry!

6. Trip to Fort Worth

We had to drive down to Fort Worth to pick something up last week and came across this MONSTER truck sitting at one of the filling depots at the gas station where we stopped to gas up. David talked to the owner guy, and the story was that he had just purchased the truck OFF OF EBAY for $140,000, had it flown from wherever it was, and he was driving it back to El Paso. One kid stopped us and asked if it was the truck from the Transformers Movie. I don't think Optimus Prime was yellow. LOL.

Micah 6:8

He has showed you... what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.