Supercooled Water

On Saturday morning, Nate and I left on a day trip to explore the Cape. Since I keep a bunch of waters in the trunk for my trips to the gym, we decided to grab a couple. When Nate opened the trunk, he noticed they were still water, not ice, which surprised both of us since they have been sitting outside for days. Nate remarked that he was excited because it was probably the "coldest water ever." As he sat down in the front seat he said "it's turning to ice!" and I turned my head and before my eyes the entire thing turned to ice from the top down, with insane speed. At first, we thought no one would believe us if we told them the story. But, it turns out that others have experienced it and you can even recreate it at home. Pretty cool that it happened by accident with us though and that the conditions were just right. Check out someone else's video:

Cape Cod

Since we both have Presidents Day off, Nate and I both took Friday off as well to give us a four day weekend together. We decided to head to the Cape. What's better than hanging out with my parents, ocean air, lobsters, antiquing and watching the sun set together? Not much that I can think of off the top of my head...

Let the photos speak for themselves.

Sonia

We drove to NYC for the day with my parents because this special little girl was turning 1:



Her little dress and bow were to die for. Can the kid be any cuter?

We all played with her while we waited for her guests to arrive:



A really great musician came and played for the kids. Even the babies really seemed to enjoy it:







Sonia with her great Aunt Susan:



Dad brought out the cake:





Sonia with her nanny, whom she absolutely adores:

Only listen to fortune cookie

We got together with my family at my favorite Asian restaurant this weekend. Always so good to see them. At the end of the meal, we got chocolate fortune cookies and I opened mine to read this fortune:

"Only listen to fortune cookie, disregard all other fortune telling units." Creative. How does one aspire to be a fortune cookie writer? Because this one was definitely created by a genius.

Anyway, a couple of random images. First, I always see funny, random names of wireless networks in our area. Since I just figured out how to print screen on my iphone, I snapped a shot because this one has two winning names (see the bottom two). Check it out:

And then a random image I snapped with my iphone this morning of my husband with the love of his life. These two are just too cute for words:

Superbowl

Nate and I decided that we needed a special "dinner" to eat while watching the Superbowl. We decided to make nachos with ground beef, jalapenos, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and guacamole, salsa and sour cream on the side. Delicious, but probably not heart healthy. But, who cares. It's Sunday and it's the Superbowl. You're not supposed to eat healthy.

Before:

After:

Ikea

After we purchased our new tv, we realized that we also needed a new tv stand. I looked online at my favorite websites (overstock, amazon) but I just couldn't find anything I liked. We decided to go to Ikea to see if we could find something that would work. Now, I'm not a huge Ikea fan, but I have to say that I'm pleased with what we purchased considering the price.

When we got home and took everything out of the box, I was floored by the amount of pieces/parts. My husband loves a challenge and dived in. Thank god for awesome husbands, or I would probably be calling my dad for help.

Before:

And after:

I do have to say though that I regret not buying a bag of their frozen meatballs.

Favorite Wine

My husband brought home my favorite bottle of wine last night. It's from Michael Pozzan Winery and it's called Annabella and is a 2009 Pinot Noir. The price is a little bit higher than what I like to pay (ok, I love $3 buck chuck from Trader Joe's) but let me tell you, this bottle is worth every penny. As a matter of fact, I'm researching how to get a case of this stuff delivered to our door at a discount because it's that good.

So what's your favorite bottle of wine? I need some suggestions. The cheaper the better because I'm cheap.

Chicken Soup

I've learned a new secret. You can make a whole chicken in the crock pot. It's genius and SO EASY. All you do is wash the chicken and pat it dry with paper towels. Then you season the sucker any way that you want. Roll up a few balls of foil (3-4) and throw them on the bottom of the crock pot. Then, place the chicken on top. Cook it for 2 hours on high, then 6-8 hours on low. If you don't like plain old roast chicken, you can use it for just about anything else -- shredded bbq chicken, chicken salad, etc etc. You name it, you can do it. Anyway, we ate "roast" chicken last night, so I used the leftovers to make chicken noodle soup. Sooo good.

Stegocarus

Just got home and saw this car parked on our street:

A different kind of snow

I went outside to take the trash out just now and little snow pellets were falling from the sky. The ground looked like it was full of Dippin' Dots. By the time I thought to stick my hand out to catch some, they were smaller and melting as they hit my warm hand.

Taxes

So, we owe taxes this year. To the tune of over $1,500. Yikes. I can't remember a year where we've received a refund. We seem to always either break even (best scenario) or owe a small amount. This is the first time that we clearly underpaid in taxes.

Now, I know that it's better to owe than to receive a refund because you if you are getting a refund you are giving the government an interest free loan with your money yada yada. And yes, you could be taking that amount home, putting it aside and investing it. But, let me tell you, I'd rather give them a loan and get a lump sum back every year rather than to owe. I filled out new M-4/W-4 forms for us to make sure that we will receive a nice, juicy refund next year.

For those of you who are getting a tax refund, are you doing anything special with it? Banking it? Vacation? New TV?