It's a contest and cooking fun

As usual, my blogging has been sub par, and I'm a wee bit behind. It wasn't until recently that it was brought to my attention that Ryan's, Jennifer's, and my parents read all of our blogs. It's kinda funny....and nice. It makes me want to be a better blogger though I feel as if I'm losing an unspoken contest of who is the best blogger with Ryan in the lead, Jennifer not too far behind, and me, well, I'm about to be lapped. I guess I'll just have to focus on my stronger qualities like how beautifully decorated the upstairs kitchen now is and how I always manage to have chewing gum and that I always generously share.

On a different note, Jennifer and I have been living in Stanley Road by ourselves for awhile. It was rather scary at first. Jennifer lives all the way on the first floor, and I'm in the penthouse, so we're living with two flights of stairs between us!!! Whew, makes me tired thinking of it! It's been nice though, just the two of us. We went grocery shopping the other day and bought tons (about 7 pounds) worth of food each. We bought bread, and vegetables, and cheese, and most excitingly of all....potatoes!! Jenn and I have been looking through cookbooks and the Internet searching for new ways to cook our potatoes, and it has been fun! Yes, it sounds as if we have simpler tastes than we may have once had, but believe me, cooking at Stanley, even with our minimal amount of ingredients, is one of the highlights of my break! I've discovered the wonder that is pesto, and pasta will never be the same! And seriously, the versatility of the potato is mind-boggling! We've mashed them, sliced and baked them in seasoning, boiled them, scalloped them, and made french fries and hash browns!! If this isn't fun, then I don't know if I can handle what is!

However, this week, Jennifer's parents are coming for her, and Tyler is coming to see me, and I fear we cannot subject them to the all-carb diet that we're used to. It's really something you need to ease into, but once you get used to it, you'll never go back.

On a side note, I really miss Mexican food and sweet tea.

My first European excursion

So Bobbie Jo, Jennifer, and I made it back safely to Oxford. Amazingly there were no major catastrophes. In hindsight, the thought of us three backpacking through foreign cities with Jennifer's street smarts, Bobbie Jo's ability to blend in a crowd, and my sense of direction, it's truly a miracle how successful our little trip was. We didn't lose anything permanently (there was a good couple of hours that we lost Jennifer in the Vatican, but I'll go more in depth on that later), nothing was stolen, and good times were had by all. I absolutely fell in love with Italy especially Venice. I just wish that we could have stayed longer. However, I'm thoroughly exhausted and quite excited of the thought of doing nothing for the next few days. Bobbie Jo went home this in the wee hours of this morning, and now I have a good five days before Tyler's arrival, so I have no choice but to blog, facebook, and reminence. I really don't know where to begin recalling our adventures. I suppose I'll post a "few" key pictures first then tell later.

Barcelona










Venice












Florence
















Rome