New Rav4! Our first car - financed by US!

So, for a while Char has been borrowing a car from her parents - but recently she has had to return it so that her brother could use it while he gets set up in life. We decided that we needed a vehicle to replace it and so we went car shopping and chose THIS! It's a 2010 Toyota Rav4 Sport. It will be mostly Charlene's to drive as it will be safer, plus the 2000 Dodge Neon has aways been considered mine.

Next vehicle we get will be mostly mine though!

We're way excited about it! I'm not sure about Char but I've never had the privilege of being able to have a brand new vehicle - but yeah, it's very affordable and it has everything we were looking for in a vehicle: It's got 4 wheel drive for the crazy North Dakota weather, a moon roof for awesome-ness, 6 disc cd player, iPod hookup, and all that good stuff.

Yes, this is the exciting thing in our lives at the moment

Adirondack Chair Project and Outside Stuff

So, it's been a while... sorry. Charlene and I have been very busy lataley - I know, not busy enough to not be able to take 20 minutes and put together some new pictures and write some stuff down on a blog - but busy enough to stay continually stressed out about school and such - and whatever Charlene gets stressed out about (I've been in an NDSU/Subway black hole the past 2.5 weeks - I don't know these things right now.) Fortunately I have 2 dead weeks before finals so I've been able to focus on some hobbies - both productive and completely useless ones. One of these such projects (one of the productive ones) is an adirondack chair that I'm building from scratch. I found some plans online, collected the tools, and then the materials and now whenever I have free time and the weather is permittable I'm usually outside building this thing - the part I'm working on right now is the curve on the top of the chair.


Charlene said she would help me today so at the time I was cutting this she was sitting on the chair to keep it steady. Charlene has many talents and being a giant paperweight I guess is one of them. Taking this into consideration she has such a bright future! Just wait until she's pregnant - she'll be able to hold down so much more! Anyways here's another picture or two...

Annnnd here's the finished cut - fancy, eh? (yeah, I'm not Canadian but we're close enough to be influenced by them.)
So, if any of you come and visit us we can grill some wonderful vegan food for you and you can sit on these wonderful chairs! So, all of you can consider this as an incentive to come and see us! We'll have another blog up when the chair is finished.
So yeah, unfortunately there was rain coming our way so we took a picture of ourselves - Char couldn't keep her eyes open for the picture so when it finally worked she over-corrected and instead looks like she's about to shout something crazy, such as "THERE'S NOODLES IN MY SHOES!!!!" (just an example)

Here's a screen shot of the radar. It was hailing as I wrote this.
OK, that's it for this time.

Barcelona otra vez

One of the raised walking paths at Parque Guell in Barcelona. Gaudi park essentially!

La Sagrada Familia is HUGE, unfinished, and in the end will have two more towers twice as tall as those in the photo now!

Inside La Sagrada Familia.

Casa Battlo. I want this house!

Barcelona

Olympic Stadium!!!! and me!!!
Castle is in the background of the sweet looking flower.
Olympic Museum of Sport!!! They had sweet mugs around....but I never found a gift shop to buy one.

Luke and I are now in Barcelona, Spain. We got up at 3 AM (8 pm central time i believe) in order to leave by 4 to get to the airport Hahn (far north of Frankfurt) by 540 to get in line for our plane that left at 640. Flying Ryan Air was an interesting experience. Not having an assigned seat was ok. What almost got really really really annoying was the guys directly behind us leading cheers on the plane. I can only guess that they were soccer related. I think they spoke German. Fortunately they quieted down during the flight though there were a few cheers as we started landing. We landed in Girona, Spain and left the airport to find the buses to Barcelona...which was easy! So was getting into and around Barcelona! Itś nice to be in a foreign city and be able to get around easily and not worry about getting back before dark or youĺl get robbed (Venezuela...).

Today, we visited an awesome market, Castle Montojic, took the cable car up the hill to see it, went to the Olympic Museum of Sport, Olympic Stadium, and Contemporary Art Museum of Catalonia. We covered a lot of ground in one afternoon. Restuarant hours havent corresponded at all with Luke and Iś stomachs so weve always ended up just walking until we find something acceptable thatś open. Hopefully tomorrow goes better!

Deutschland - 1

Man playing accordian for money in downtown Obereussel
The sky cleared for a moment so we headed up the mountain to get a view of the entire city...but bz the time we got there it was all foggz again and the gates of some huge militarz looking thing were frostz! z=y bz the waz

Paul! We ate dönner! Kind of like a gzro

downtown Obereussel

Char and Jana

Another Amazing Vegan Recipe

Luke has fallen head over heals in LOVE with Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stirfry. "It's the best thing I've ever eaten" - Luke. So here's the recipe for you all to try. It really is great. There's no reason not to love it! Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stirfry

Ingredients

QUINOA

• 1 cup quinoa (best if 1/2 red and 1/2 plain)
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1 cup cold water
• 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce

STIR-FRY

• 4 ounces raw unsalted cashews
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 scallions, sliced thinly
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 hot red chili pepper, sliced into very thin rounds (I used 1 Tbsp crushed red pepper)
  
• 1/2 inch piece gingerroot, peeled and minced (I used 1 tsp ginger powder)
  
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, sliced into thin shreds
• 2 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped (I used dried mint leaves)
  
• 2 cups fresh pineapple, cut into bite-size chunks
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• lime wedge (to garnish) (optional)

Directions

1. PREPARE THE QUINOA FIRST: Combine the quinoa, juice, water, and soy sauce in a medium-sized pot.

2. Cover, place over high heat,and bring to a boil.

3. Stir a few times, lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 12 to 14 minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa appears plumped and slightly translucent.

4. Uncover, fluff, and let cool.

5. For best results,place the quinoa in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight.

6. If you're in a hurry, chill the covered quinoa for at least an hour.

7. When ready to use, break up any chunks of the cold quinoa with a fork.

8. PREPARE THE STIR-FRY; Use the largest nonstick skillet you have (at least 11 inches in diameter) or a wok.

9. Have ALL of your ingredients chopped and easily within reach.

10. Place the cashews in the dry pan and heat over low heat, stirring them, until lightly toasted, about 4 minutes.

11. Remove the cashews from the pan, raise the heat to medium, and add the peanut oil, scallions, and garlic.

12. When the garlic starts to sizzle, add the sliced chile pepper and ginger.

13. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, then add the red bell pepper and frozen peas.

14. Stir-fry for about 3 minutes, until the bell pepper is softened and peas bright green.

15. Add the basil and mint, and stir for another minute before adding the pineapple and quinoa.

16. In a measuring cup, combine the soy sauce, vegetable stock, and mirin.

17. Pour over the quinoa mixture.

18. Stir to incorporate completely and coat the quinoa.

19. Continue to stir-fry for 10 to 14 minutes, until the quinoa is very hot (it helps to use two spoons/ spatulas to scoop the quinoa around).

20. Serve with lime wedges and additional soy sauce, to season individual servings to taste.

first subbing job!

I have my first sub job tomorrow! It's for a Chemistry teacher I met while student teaching. We're apparently doing an activity! I'll be at work earlier than I got up this morning....but I get to sleep in on Saturday so all I have to do is survive! Busy days go by fast...