Cookie #1

although not Martha's cookie, my old roommate, Sandy's

PUMPKIN COOKIE

like a small cake,
these are perfect for the season,
retain their moisture very well,
do need frosting (sugar or cream cheese)
disappear fast
overall rating: 4.6
*note: overall cookie tastes better than dough*
"needed a more cream cheese frosting"
"have delicious aftertaste"
"mmmm small cakes! take them away before i eat them all"

COOKIES!

as everyone probably already knows, i have a "small" love for cookies. "cookies" was my nickname on the swim team growing up, i make them when i'm bored, when i'm stressed, when i'm happy, when i'm procrastinating, whenever we go somewhere i'm asked to bring:
cookies!......
so it only makes sense that i should too, blog about cookies.

someday when this is more up and running i'll have a seperate cookie blog. but for now, this will do. everyone has heard of "julie&julia" the movie and the book. basically julie makes all of julia's french cooking recipies in 1 year. i am going to make martha's cookies. i really don't like a lot of things that martha (stewart) does (theyre just a little too fancy for me) but i will say, her cookie book looks absolutely AMAZING.

here's how it's going to work:
1) i make the cookie
2) designated cookie testers rate it on a scale of 1-5. (right now i have specific people that are rating the cookie. if you would like to be a tester (local, or not) please contact me and we'll talk about adding you to the list.)
3) i post any fun info about the cookie, comments, and picture on blog. hopefully this will be happening at least on a weekly basis.

***please note that i do NOT like cookies with frosting, so if you're into the whole "tulip shaped sugar cookie with green frosting stem and purple flowers" it won't happen . just fyi.

i will not be posting recipies because, well, i don't want martha suing me for giving her entire book away on the internet

happy birthday!

gwen, or wonderwoman as we call her on the laser tag court, had a super fun birthday party this weekend! we all played laser tag and then ate pizza somewhere downtown-ish that started with a "p". yes, i know, very specific.

here's to another great year, friend!
gwen, accepting her laser tag score card on the lasertag podium while a dozen kiddos screamed happy birthday at hermmmmm pizza (and gf noodles)!

thank you for all your color help, but i have finally decided,
out with the tan and gold!

since packaging up the comforter set and shipping it back...
i bought a new one locally w/ coupon, of course!
have been to home depot 3 times
painted the room
got some awesome lamps

things are finally starting to shape up.

now if i just had that much motivation to do the laundry.
takers? anyone?

snowy days!

it was killing ez that we didn't go out for a walk first thing this morning. i let it warm up to a whole 22 degrees, put his little doggie jacket on him and we made it to the neighbor's house before he stopped walking, ran back to me shivering and then clearly decided himself we were not going on a w-a-l-k.

he hates cold days and is making it known via pit-iful (ha!) eyes that he is completely miserable today.

fall things, like raking leaves!

what is the difference picture A and picture B?

pictureApicture B

yeah, i know, not much. so when ez gives me this look:as in "throw the ball lady!" i can't even figure out where the ball is at! so looking for it, trying to throw it (which takes forever since i'm such a girl-thrower) and then raking leaves as fast as i can before he comes back is quite the task. fortunately you solo leaf rakers, there is an efficient way to transport the leaves to compost, as ez demonstrates:
don't worry guests-- this is one of our old queen sized fitted sheets (which work better than flat, by the way), so any of you staying here won't have to worry about finding this under the covers.

we really want our patients to feel comfortable in the clinic. i do think having a reading magazine in the bathroom is a bit overboard. we really don't want you THAT comfortable :)

its only taken 11 months to get to this point...

color help, par favor

once upon a time when we first got married we got a really cool comforter on sale. we really liked it a lot until i decided to wash it (without reading directions, of course!), which resulted in all the insides balling up into several large and small lumps, and we have now called the blanket LUMPY. lumpy is scheduled to be picked up by the garbage truck today (after not giving up on it all summer) so i had to buy a new comforter..... triggering me to re-do the entire bedroom.

since you all did so well with the bathroom color i'm giving you another task. i ordered a comforter set from overstock and thought it was just tan. turns out it is tan AND gold. this is fine because the metallic reflects light down there. anyway, i'm very torn about the color since there is virtually no natural light down there. please, please, vote on the color of the bedroom and help me decide--- you only have until sat.

things to take into consideration:
a) again, like, NO light down there
b) i REALLY don't want to turn into my mother and have a tan and gold room (no offense mom!)
c) i'm scared that a light smokey grey color will be periwinkle
d) just return the comforter set?

(yes, i do realize that there are pillows that match each other [along with decorative pillows,] which may be a bit much for us. )

THANK YOU!!

!

a little FYI for all you cyclists:

a little advertisement for the powerbar gel/gu things-- you can put these thru the wash AND dryer and they're still intact!....phew!!

today for my chemistry class we went to the argo mine in idaho springs. i somehow talked chelsie into going with me, as misery loves company! :) it was actually pretty interesting, if yo'ure into the whole chemistry thing.

the water coming out of this tunnel flows around 300 gal/min and it has a pH of 2.5-3. this is the same acidity of your stomach acid. underneath the water are extremophiles. in order to survive, extremophiles are bacteria that do not live where normal aerobic bacteria live. (other examples of extremeophiles are really cold places, really hot places, really basic [pH basic, in the OH- sense] places...). The rust color is from metal that is in the water, oxidizing from the acidity (this is the same rusting that happens to metals in every day life, like your car). to avoid this water going directly into clear creek, it goes to the argo water treatment plant first.
the water treatment plant:
gathers 1200-1400 lb of metal/day from the water
20,000 lb/day are turned to non-hazardous waste

it was an awesome fall day!
did you know that the man who donated the water wheel to the town of idaho springs attributed his good health to never bathing and never kissing girls......? just fyi

also for those of you wondering what dallas actually does for work (because even i really don't know exactly what he does....), this was in the water treatment plant. a part of his work deals with making computer programs that run the plants. he makes screens like this:

does anyone else have this problem?!

you have to look closely but my phone is always between 12-15 minutes behind. yes, its VERY annoying!

is there a fix for this?

NEW HOUSE

.......someday!

the other day dallas was out in our backyard shed and stumbled upon plans to pop the top! we're talking real professionally drawn up architect plans. actually, it is more or less adding on to the garage and popping the top on that....at any rate, it was exciting at first, until we realized that it will be costing a LOT O MONEY......

which is why i have been entering the HGTV $75,000 house improvement sweepstakes every day for the past month. i've actually waited to blog this because, i'm sorry, but i'm competitive and although i do realize that it's based on luck, i don't need any more competition than is already out there! contest ends tomorrow, or maybe the 2nd, i'm not sure.

so if i win, you can count on seeing this beauty on our street someday!

Adam (my brother) has always liked william. so much in fact that he actually wanted a cat exactly like him. this is a lesson that you should always be careful what you wish for. i stole this pic from Chelsie's (Adam's wife) blog, doodles & co. their cat doodles is slowly transforming into the fat furry creature that adam has been wanting for a few years now

resemblance?
uhm, yes!


doodles

william
.

last night, william was more pathetic and annoying than ever.
out of the ENTIRE couch, enough for at least 7 williams to spread out and sleep, he can only sleep curled up on top of my bag (i'm sure this is NOT comfortable). ..... because i like going places and realizing once i get there i'm COVERED in william hair. not
when i approached him to talk about this little problem of his and how this kind of hinders my social/professional image at work......
that little kitty is such a tease

yes, you'd never believe that dallas' old college dresser, made from only the finest walmart quality laminate, looking similar to this.....
is now this!

a big shout out THANK YOU to kim for sending us authentic tour de france stuff from their trip! it makes it extra special that you tore the sign off while the police wern't looking! i wish i was there with you! i suppose the only thank you good enough for such a great surprise is a visit over to see you!

(we actually got it yesterday but it couldn't trumph my mom's birthday! you also have no idea how long it took for us to get this shot!)

happy birthday mom!!!
we won't tell anyone that yo'ure *COUGH* years old.

tonight while i was flunking my chem 2 test,

dr. ez decided that mr. purple tennis ball belly bear needed decapitation and bilat arm amputation
william decided his time would be better spent perusing the grocery ads for gluten free product price cuts

driving home from work today i spotted this:
Christmas lights on the tree.
i'm really not a humbug grinch but ......

dear over-anxious christmas tree light put-ter uppers:

just yesterday was still considered summer, and
i realize that today is the first day of fall,
and it is supposed to snow tonight,
and that you feel since you have less than 182.5 days left before Christmas
it is ok to put lights up a good month before halloween.
but last i checked it is still september, i still have raspberries on my bushes out front and i did
get sprayed on by the building's automatic sprinkler system
getting this shot.

maybe next year you shouldn't be so antsy-in-your-pantsie and maybe we could wait till at least thanksgiving for some holiday spirit, perhaps?

waking up to 40 degrees and raining...
i'm with william on this one.

HAPPY 30th DALLAS!!

today is dallas' true 30th birthday.

i really didn't know what to get him but thankfully the big guy upstairs helped me out by sending over a quest high fiber optic guy. it really took at lot of coaxing (not) for dallas to sign up for 12 megabit/sec fiber. (phew! shopping for nerds is rough. thankfully the present landed right on our doorstep!) in order to completely get rid of comcast he got the other half of his birthday present today, apple TV. now we can save about $60 a month by getting tv and internet through our fiber.

happy birthday dallas!

fri night i was wiped out
and sat i had a bad race and then we got to hang out with......

MR. ROOTER all evening!
how exciting! we found out that our sink has not been draining because one of our pipes broke in our back yard. long story short we can fix the problem with about $40 worth of pipe, thankfully not thousands by having to dig up our back yard

it's friday?!?

hats off to the single mom's out there. it's a lot of hard work. 2 weeks of single mom-ing: dog walking schedule + ball, school, work, house stuff, trying to find things to eat and training has definitely taken a toll on me. you know it's bad when the other dog walkers at the park (that see me at most 2x/week) ask,
"andi, are you ok? you look like ****"

well, here's a small week of recaps. sorry for no day to day.... i was busy acing my first lab exam

william has slowly been getting day to day haircuts with the goal to eventually have all his dreadlocks removed. (you really have to sneak up on him). needless to say this wears him out and he has no sympathy for mei feel bad for neglecting ez (who right now is laying at my feet "humming" at me because he is bored and wants to do something.) i got snake, so dr ez now has a new patient to work on for the next monthsomehow i managed to kill my 2nd set of mumms that i was so hopeful for. i really put forth an honest effort to water them (blue circle) but the plants i don't water (red box) look much better, ie not dead. next year that's all i'm plantingbeth, i have thourghly been enjoying my cocoa gluten free cereal! i'm thinking these + melted marshmellows will be the ticket. even if you aren't gluten free these are still delish

i've been squeezing my crazy intervals in at night. right now apparently my coach is trying to kill me, break me completely down and then build back up. i'm broken! thankfully dallas hooked up cable in our tiled room so i don't feel bad sweating on the floor
i got a kick out of this. at school they were handing out flyers for their bbq they were having. although it was free food, i had to pass the opportunity to get, what!? my face painted!?!? is there a petting zoo too? i'd be up for a henna tattoo but facepainting, really? i saw the flyer and couldn't stop giggling.

this weekend: racing on a combined 5hrs of sleep/night and exhausted legs. oh yes, and studying. i'm also hoping that dallas can fix our kitchen sink that has somehow filled up with dishwasher water from it's last run cycle. its lovely.

happy friday!

for ye of little faith
(which is most of you!)

most thought that william's mouse was already dead, but i think he actually kills them! (it could be via smothering them). this morning i found another "present" inside by the stairs.

seriously, what are the odds?


also, cross season is here!
i've only been waiting all summer for it!
i would deem this weekend pretty successful for the season starter

one down

only a few to go

please meet Dr. Ez,

helping stuffed animals lose weight
since 2008

no pics, sorry!

today:
got my hair cut and highlighted and pedicures with chelsie!
ate out with dan and cindy

preparing for our first cross race of the season tomorrow! i'ts gonna HURT! i'm not in shape this year!

highlight of the day: being asked at the pedicure place if we were going to homecoming this weekend. i got mistakened for a high schooler! thank you, that is flattering, but no, i won't be going this year. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

also, for you dog lovers out there,
i'm pretty sure that the best toy on the market
for dogs that love ball is the chuck-it

unfortunately when we play in our back yard
ez drops it in the wood shavings. the only downfall
to this is, when i throw it particles of shavings go everywhere!

so far this week i'm 2/2 for finding >1 wood shaving particles
stuck in my hair. i'm not really sure this is the
right professional image i'm supposed to be portraying

i just realized that today is dallas and i's 3rd anniversary!

yeah for us!

dear mom:

i am up and running.
i need a new battery and hope to make
it down the block and back!

love,
little red,
the jeep

dallas and his jeep, that is finally moving! from andiburnum on Vimeo.

i ordered a new bag for dallas' adventures (from steep and cheap, where else!?!). i really have a problem visualizing how big things are from dimensions.

holy moley.... this thing is huge!

ez might be trying to impress a girlfriend or something.
he's had his beauty mark for a good week or so now.

for labor day weekend we decided to skip the mtns as i get grumpy when they're crowded and even worse when we get stuck on interstate

fortunately my brother adam, who now works for the air force (civilian) was able to hook us up with some almost 50-yard line tickets!

the holste clan looks pumped here, but as the day wore on and the score ended up being 70-something to 0, a few of us (me included) got a little tired sitting in the sun. i'm not going to lie---we went for the "fluff" of the game and were not let down by their cool traditions!