New Wheels!

On Saturday, we went to get a new part for Martijn's bike.

The sprocket that the chain goes around was in pretty bad shape. By bad I mean: "Wow, it's a freaking miracle the chain could even still catch on this thing."

We went to the bike shop, and left with a little something extra.

Yes my friends, that is indeed the most expensive bicycle sprocket you will ever see.

Now I have a bike that's actually the right size for my crazily long legs!

Menu Plan Monday- August 10, 2009

There weren't any deviations from the menu plan last week, so I'm pretty happy about that. The experimental crockpot chicken was good, in case you were worried.

click the banner and "Menu Plan Monday" for more menu planning ideas

Farm-Style Green Beans, Chard and Chicken Schnitzel

Squash Chili- This calls for yellow sqaush, which doesn't seem to exist in this country... but we have a zucchini the size of my arm from the in-laws garden, so I think we'll be okay there!

Potato, Green Bean, and Tuna Salad

Blueberry Pancakes

Lemon Chicken and Fried Rice- I picked up a lemon sauce thingie from the Oriental store, so hopefully it's good!

Friday Fragments- August 7, 2009

The melons this year have been fantastic. Sometimes you get them and they're flavorless and blah, but this year they are GOOD!

We were watching Mythbusters and Martijn commented that he didn't like the "new voiceover" guy. I had to break it to him that the "new" guy was actually the original guy. For some reason, Discovery Channel does different voiceovers for Europe and America but this new seasons episodes have the American voiceover guy.

One of my recipes was featured over on Meatless Monday.

Martijn likes weird music. Imagine Madonna... only to polka music. I'm not kidding. Though, I will admit to liking the GreenDay bluegrass covers.

Tomorrow will be a day of errands and more bicycle repair. We get to take the sprocket off of Martijn's bike and replace it. I'm optimistic that it will go smoothly, but don't be surprised if you start seeing some blue air around the Eindhoven region. You might want to plug your ears if you have a nervous constitution.

I HATE WORD VERIFICATION! I don't often post comments on blogs that have word verification on. I really really dislike it.

While we're on the subject of blog comments, I really hate it when I get a comment from a fellow Blogger user and I try to reply to it via e-mail and get the EVIL noreply-comment@blogger.com e-mail address. It makes me cry. Here's how you can fix it.

I got my organization project done this week. I'm so impressed with myself.

I am ALSO impressed with myself for knowing that the neighbor was asking me for a bottle opener when she came over earlier. I'm not sure if I could've figured it out this time last year.

There were several comments on my 10 Random Facts post wondering how I managed to burn my head on a refrigerator light bulb when I was little. You know the side by side fridge/freezer units with the split freezers? Well, I'm telling you those half doors look like doors to a secret wonderful place. A secret wonderful place that will BURN YOUR HEAD if you walk into them. Don't say you haven't been warned.

I'm sure if it wasn't a billionty percent humidity and HOT that I could figure out something else clever to say here, but my brain is a puddle and I still think my sinuses are filled with crud. Therefore, I shall end this posting with links to Friday Fragments and Friday's Freewrite.

Airing the Dirty Laundry!

My Week One goal for Operation Organization was the laundry room. Now if I'm honest, I don't really have a laundry room. It's more of a laundry, food storage, workbench, and miscellaneous stuff storage closet. Since it serves many many purposes it's important to keep it somewhat organized. That's also the reason that oftentimes it looks like complete and total mayhem.

I spent a little while each day on sorting through some things and general tidying. Now, I can actually walk to the washing machine without tripping and falling on my head!

As you can see, I have a few plastic baskets for things, but I'm also using a lot of cardboard boxes from products at the supermarket because they're readily available and FREE. I also discovered that we have enough haircare products and bodywash to last until 2032.

I know the shelf above the dryer doesn't actually look very improved, but I went through a bunch of things and found a huge empty storage bin that I can use somewhere else for something. I was hoping it would be huge enough to store our down comforters in, but it's just a tad too small for that.

I think for week 2 I will be going through some of the clothes cabinets in the bedroom. I asked Martijn if he'd help me go though some of his 900 million tee-shirts and see if there are some that can go! I have plans for some of the discards... maybe I can use the giant storage bin I found to store them in until I get to that project. We'll have to see what happens.

If you missed week 1, you can still join in! Click the picture below to find out more about Operation Organization, hosted at Coming Clean- Confessions of an Imperfect Parent!

10 Random Facts

Lynette over at Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground is having a blog hop party today. The idea is to link up your blog and, if you'd like, write 10 interesting or fun things about yourself.

Here we go:

1. I like British detective series! Right now we're on a Midsomer Murders kick, but I really like A Touch of Frost, Lewis, and Morse as well. I think the US is seriously missing out on something with these.
2. When I was a little girl, I burned my head on the lightbulb of a fridge. Impressive, eh?
3. I am a clumsy clumsy person. I've usually got at least one bruise somewhere from running into something... Don't get me started on how often I drop things. It's ridiculous!
4. I get really frustrated when I go shoe shopping. No one who takes a size 12 or 13 shoe needs a 4-5" heel!!
5. I really like monkeys. I would like a helper monkey, but Martijn says no because it might bite my face off.
6. I knew some of Martijn's friends before I met him, but I didn't actually know that until I started feeling interested in him. I mentioned it to one of them and they said "OH! I know him quite well!"
7. I like to give things strange names. Well, maybe not "strange" but overly obvious. Usually the name ends with an "y" or "ie". We got a little dustbuster vacuum and his name is "Little Sucky." Oddly enough, I haven't named my mobile phone or camera... but pretty much everything else. It's partially Martijn's fault though, he helps me come up with horrible names!
8. I enjoy historical fiction. If you've read anything good in that genre lately, I'd love suggestions!
9. The wedding present that I use the most is... My Nintendo DS Lite. I'm so being serious. My co-workers got it for me and it is awesome.
10. When I'm filthy rich and have a giant house, I'm going to have a bathtub that's at least 7 feet long.

Menu Plan Monday- August 3, 2009

I was a little bit of a slacker last week. I knew I wasn't going to need to cook more than a couple of days so I didn't plan a menu. I can't be a slacker this week though, so here we go!

click the banner and "Menu Plan Monday" for more menu planning ideas

Bistro Dinner Salad- I really liked this when I made it before, so we're going to have it again. I will probably make mushroom soup to go along with it.

Tuna Melt Pitas and leftover soup

Crockpot Salsa Chicken- I am going to wing this, I've found a couple recipes I will combine and if it's good I'll post about it next week. If it's not good, we shall never speak of it again.

Tortilla Pie- Martijn batted his eyelashes at me and requested that I make it this week, how can I refuse that?!

Rainy Sunday Stroll!

I was reading Friday Fragments last week and came across Unknown Mami's blog. She does a feature called Sundays In My City. The idea is to get out and share something about the place where you live.

So, I decided to take a walk this morning... in the rain.

First off, we have a pretty common sight- the bike paths!

I wandered past this garden near a church and one of their planters was a bathtub. I thought that was pretty fantastic.

It was nice to see some pops of color on such a grey day.

Here are some of the houses and buildings along the way.

I love the colorful brick on this one!

I loved all the flowers on this person's balcony.

Of course, after I got home it stopped raining and the sun came out, but it's a more interesting story if I can tell you that I managed to take all these shots while standing under my umbrella.

You can check out the rest of my photoset on my flickr HERE.