Some Like It Hot

One year ago this evening, we loaded our last things into the truck* and headed for Colorado. We stayed in Vegas a couple of nights with Mom and Deb, and landed in The Promised Land on our 15th anniversary.

*I guess that's not exactly true. A LOT didn't fit into the Pilot, the U-Haul, or the POD. We had to leave so much behind. Our expensive loss, and the new homeowners' delighted gain.

Man, that year went by fast.

Ro got the computer going again, as you can see, and it's better than ever. It cost us $69 for a new router, but man... one cannot live on dial-up alone. Well, I've heard rumors that some of you out there still do - but I just don't see how. ;)

He also worked a day of overtime today. We have been working on our finances for the past month or so, getting a budget - oops, I mean SPENDING PLAN - in the works. So I started PC as I mentioned the other day and he is working OT from time to time so that we can increase our income, and we've been working hard for the past few weeks on reducing and eliminating some of our expenses.

Sometimes cutting those expenses isn't easy - like the conscious decision to quit eating out. Boy, we sure gave a lot of money to a lot of restaurants! We have eliminated about 90% of our spending in that area. It's cool, but it's hard.

But sometimes cutting expenses is relatively painless. I turned up the thermostat with the a/c - even with our scary heat wave the other day. We've hardly noticed a difference. And, we've committed to taking shorter showers - 7 minutes or less (and would you believe it's a piece of cake for me, but Robert likes to take 30 minutes in there - or more! HAHAHA) and J and G are using less water for their baths. (After an awesome dinner tonight, I really felt like jumping in the tub with a good book. Ro called me a dork because he found me in the tub with no water and fully clothed. I know, he's right. But I saved water and energy, not to mention bubble bath!) I've also finally become my dad - yelling at the kids to turn off lights and the TV. :P (Reminds me, too, of David - aka "Mr. Kilowatt.") And we've turned down the water heater.

Don't worry, future houseguests... I won't police your energy- and water-using activities. You're a guest here, so you may do as you wish.

Little things. We haven't seen a difference in the bills yet, but it's still early. I'm just trying to remember that something is still better than nothing. Baby steps.

We're getting there.

On another note, I just have to brag on my awesome husband tonight. A couple of weeks ago he barbecued some brisket - a huge ol' thing that I got on sale but you had to buy a ton of it, you know? He'd never made one before, looked at a couple of recipes, and just did his own thing. Now the meat was good, but the sauce he made ROCKED. He didn't write anything down, so I can't share the recipe, but essentially I think you just look in your pantry, your refrigerator, and your spice cabinet and throw in a little bit of everything. If you have less than 462 ingredients, you're probably off somewhere.

So he made a ton of sauce, and we put the rest - probably about 4 more cups of it - in the freezer. Last week steak went on sale and I picked some up, and he grilled them tonight when he got home from work... and yep... you got it... we used some of the leftover sauce. Mmmm... I ate and I ate and I ate... obviously I was full some time before I quit eating, but man, that sauce - it was awesome. Slightly sweet, very spicy. Mmmm...

We found a barbecue restaurant here (back in the day when we were eating out, ya'll, like around May) that we really like. It's called Biggins and their sauce is VERY good. I gotta say, though... truthfully... that Ro's sauce kicked Biggins's butt. Mmmm...

I'm sitting here now, at 9:13 p.m., with the smell of it still lingering in the air, and I'm wondering just how piggy it would be for me to go back downstairs for more.

Pretty piggy, huh?

Oink.