Tony and Meg's Blog

This past week we spent on the East Coast in Boston and Maine.  We had a blast!  Tony and our friend Brad had a conference in Boston and since I didn’t have to work, I went along with them.

Tony’s conference was on Wed, Thurs and Fri…so on Thursday I set out to explore Boston on my own after a ridiculously expensive room service breakfast of french toast.  (I can still make better french toast than that)   I figured out the subway routes, (which is a feat for me, as I have never ridden on any form of public transportation before), and rode to down town Boston.  I toured the Boston Common Gardens, visited all the statues, examined all the old churches, and admired the architecture that creates the atmosphere in Boston, and took pictures of it all.  (I was disappointed to find that taking pictures is not as easy as Michelle makes it look:()

Crazy Building at MIT:  We loved this building by Gehry..this picture might even make it on our picture wall.  This building was a sort of museum of history about MIT.  Very interesting to walk through, I am not sure there was a logical way to get from one floor to the next or from one of the building the other.

Trinity Church (2nd picture and last)-This was a beautiful old church, I was very disappointed that I could not see the interior, however it did remind me a little of National Treasure….

Longfellow Bridge-This bridge was within walking distance from our hotel.  It looked like it was undergoing a major restoration.  It will be even better when they finish.

Sailboats in the Charles River Basin-Apparently, it is all the rage at MIT for students to learn to sail.  This class has a 2 year waiting list.

Meghan and Tony  on the Charles River Basin-Yup, family picture!

Typical Architecture of Boston-People live in buildings that look like this.  UNFAIR.

Boston Commons-This was the park in the middle of the city.  It was beautiful, full of memorial statues, duck ponds, quaint gazebos and of course tourists.

Clam chowder for lunch…yum:)…and also oysters.  Not so yum.  In fact, Tony was lucky I didn’t gag (or worse) all over the place as that slimy, salty, sick piece of raw animal slid down my throat, since we were eating with all his work associates.

That afternoon I visited the Boston Museum of Art, which was fabulous.   I wandered through exhibit after never ending exhibit, amazed at all the art they had compiled in one building.

That evening I barely made it back to the hotel and into bed.  I was exhausted.  Tony had enjoyed the conference and looked forward to exploring Boston and Maine.

Friday we checked out of our hotel and rode the subway to the beginning of the Freedom Trail, a 3-mile walking tour guided by guides dressed in period styles.  We  decided to create our own guided tour- Tony downloaded the freedom trail app that told us where to stop and provided blurbs of info about each attraction.  It was only sprinkling when we started, but poured down throughout.  Despite the rain, we were able to complete the whole tour, stopping at Mike’s Cannoli’s (amazing), climbing the Bunker Hill Obelisk complete with 296 steps which was a LOT), seeing old churches, Paul Reveres old House and where he hung the lantern, and ending with a tour of the USS  Constitution.

Massachusetts State House-We were able to go and tour this building, it was amazing!  Marble lined the floors and walls all over and the ceilings had coffers and gold leaf through out the entire building!  Wow!

Granary Burying Yard-Many of the founding fathers are buried here, as well as many unknown people.  It was interesting to see a cemetery in the middle of a bustling city.

This is Brad, Tony and I inside the church in the 5th picture.

Other Pictures-Stops along the Freedom Trail

Saturday we rented a car and started our journey up the coast of Maine.  We stopped at lots of lighthouses and forts on the way.

The Harbor at the first Light House/Fort that we visited…it was pretty foggy that day.

The next two are pictures of the fort that we visted.

Light House on an Island-The only way to get to this lighthouse was to climb in a little bucket and ferry yourself across on a rope.  Needless to say, nobody was allowed to go over to the island.

We stopped at a lobster shack for lunch.  This was an experience!  You order next to a tank full of live lobsters, and then you pick which one you want to eat and they throw it into a bag and into the hot water.  It is then served to you at a picnic table adjacent to the water.  I got fish and chips and Tony the lobster.  He had tons of fun cracking it, seeing all the green slime that came from its stomach splash all over everyone, and then eating it.  In town, we found a cute shop that sold Balsamic Vinegar and olive oils.  We bought a while balsamic and a blood orange olive oil, great for salad dressings.

(Sorry these pics are kind of dark, I took them with my phone..)

That night we stayed at The East Wind Inn, a homely Bed and Breakfast, which was just like Grandma and Grandpas house.  This quaint place had a great view of the ocean and harbor and served an amazing breakfast.  However, it had a bit of a structural problem…the middle picture is the bottom of the door.  At least a 1.5″ gap on one side…wow!  We were pretty sure that in our room the floor sloped down at least 5-6 inches.

In Rockland, we visited the some of the little shops and found the Farnsworth Museum.  We are FAMOUS!

Sunday we visited the Rockland, Maine branch, which was extremely welcoming.  They were so excited to have visitors, we were the stars of church that day.  As we drove back to Boston, we stopped to see the Boston Temple and the Harvard Campus, both absolutely beautiful.

All in all, this was a great trip, and we would recommend the places that we visited to everyone!  So much fun.

Hello All,

This weekend was a blast!  We took rides on our motorcycle, relaxed, did laundry, cooked, watched shows and read.  Hmmm…I guess these kinds of things become exciting when you get married.

We also took a trip down to Lulu’s Cafe.  For those of you who have never heard of this, Lulu’s is famous for it’s chicken fried steak and it’s 3lb cinnamon rolls.  Yes, you got it.  3 pounds.

As we drove down, we fantasized about a yummy, gooey, frosting loaded roll of yumminess.  After putting our name in, we were asked to wait outside, which wouldn’t have been such a terrible idea, except that San Antonio is having the hottest summer in 15 years and there was no where to sit.  Shoot.

At last we were seated and looked at the menus.  I got the club sandwich, which had an unnecessary third piece of bread in the middle of all the sandwich ingredients.  It also had kabob sticks through it in order to keep it from falling apart.  It was amazing, minus the fake waxy sheet of fat they called cheese.  Tony of course got the chicken fried steak-(sick)-he loved it.

We also got one of those legendary 3 pounders to go.  After realizing that this cinnamon roll was slightly ridiculously priced, I asked Tony if he wouldn’t rather have a little bit of something amazing (like my homemade cinnamon rolls, which, even before I tasted Lulu’s version, I knew would blow the 3 pounder out of the water) or a lot of something that is mediocre.  He answered like he usually does, with an answer completely unrelated to the question.  He said, “We HAD to get the cinnamon roll, because you didn’t get the chicken fried steak”-(sick)-.”  WHAT?  ”You can’t go to Lulu’s and not get either of the things that it is famous for.”  Granted he is right…but was that what I asked?

Anyways, we came home, warmed up 1/8th of the cinnamon roll, and split it.  Wow…this guy is going to be around for a while.  Good thing Tony likes to eat ridiculous things for breakfast like steak and potatoes and cinnamon rolls.

So-We recently bought into a farmer’s share group in which you get a portion of a farmers harvest each week.  I was ecstatic about this until I realized you have to have a family of 10-12 to be able to consume everything that they give you.  So, I am frantically trying to think of creative ways to use vegetables.

We have already tried the following:

-Stuffed zucchini: not bad.  kind of like a quiche with a zucchini crust.

-Minestrone Soup: amazing.  never knew this soup could be so good.

-Pickles: interesting…good thing Tony likes them…

-Shredding up Zucchini and putting it in the freezer: great for year round zucchini bread!

-Pasta with eggplant, basil, pine nuts and roasted tomatoes: so so so so good. mmmmmm.

-Dried basil: still waiting for this stuff to dry…I guess SA isn’t the driest place on earth.

-Grilled Chicken with Mozzarella, basil and tomatoes: pretty darn good for a made up on the spot recipe if I do say so myself:)

-Salsa:  let me tell you, home grown tomatoes have a much better taste than store bought.

However, I have about 18 summer squashes that I have absolutely no ideas for.  That is my project for the week.  Utilize 18 summer squashes.  Maybe I should just start trying things like bird food, or base ball bats.

Well, I think that is about it for this week…

Oh..PS..Tony and I are SUPER excited to come see Brookie and Sam get married.  We can’t wait to see them off to start the best journey of their life.  We love you!!

Wow…it has been too long:)  I have made a new resolve to keep up on our posts.  Angie’s blog totally inspired me.

Last weekend was pretty fun-Dinner at a Mexican restaurant, that looked Greek, (great food)and a night of Pro Wrestling.  The non-denominational church near our house had been advertising a free Pro Wrestling night.  Thus we thought:  We have been married for more than a year and are officially boring.  We need to start doing more interesting things.  This was first on our list…and it was an experience.

After some religious rapping, and some AMAZING sign language/interpretive dance, the wrestling finally commenced.  The ninja came out in spandex pants and a white tank top…after cheering him, the Rioooo appeared, fully spandexed, complete with a bright red cape and a painted face to match.  While standing on the ropes in the corner, he shot playing cards out at the audience.  As you can imagine, the children present went wild.

Riooo and the Ninja began intensifying the mood of the crowd, insults were vollied, and the less than pro quality wresting commenced.  I wasn’t counting, but I am pretty sure that the two wrestling parties spent more time out of the ropes than in.  Needless to say, we left after one match.  However, we realized we  may have missed the best part when a friend texted us and told us Nacho came out and stole the show.

We are finally nearing the end of our 1980 Suzuki GS750E restoration project.  And it has been a project.  Here are the pictures to show the process.

The Bikes Come Home

We borrowed a friend’s truck to get these babies home-it was a task to get the into the truck and then back out again.

Up close, these were not the prettiest things in the world when we started…however, Tony somehow saw the potential for our bike.  The other was motard??  (Meant for both the road and the dirt.)

Multi-Colored Beuaty

Our bike had a myriad of colors on it…this had to be fixed before I would even sit on it.

The first step was stripping the bike and sending the parts off to get painted.  Tony went through the mechanics of the bike to make sure everything was in good shape, while I went through and cleaned.

Cylinders

Tony worked his magic on the engine while I replaced all four spark plugs by myself and created and placed a gasket.  (After Tony told me what a gasket was:)  This was enough mechanical work for me…I was getting impatient to ride.

Painted Parts

We got some of the parts back…the guy did a great job for what we paid.  It was beginning to look attractive…

Putting together the motor and Tuning it

Tony tuned the bike, and it now it runs beautifully.  Since it didn’t have a gas tank at this point, we did a little ghetto rigging.

All said and done

Mmmmm.  I got to ride it for the first time yesterday.  That day probably made my top five favorite days list.

We still plan to get a new seat for it because it is high for both of us.  We are super excited to finally be able to enjoy out new toy:)

Here is the past month of ours lives…

September

This week Tony replaced the brakes on the Miata, and I learned how to replace a wheel on a car, (which theoretically I had learned many times, just never done.)  All in all I would say it was a productive day:)

Last weekend we attended our first real ward activity since we have been married.  The ward held a chili cook-off.  Amidst the 40 different pots of chili available to choose from, Tony was able to find a meat filled, overly spicy chili, while I was able to have a white bean chicken chili that I wanted.  As we walked in, stickers with names of famous people were stuck on our backs.  The idea was to play 20 questions to figure out the name on your back….the only problem was that we had no idea who 3/4 of the names were.  At this point we were reminded that we are still a bit young to play these kinds of games.

That Sunday we had a couple and their two year old son (that we had watched in Nursrey) over for dessert.  I had thought our house was pretty child-proof.  Hahaah…I obviously forgot the real definition of “child-proof,” which is

made free of hazard for a child: a childproof home.

made safe from damage by children: a childproof living roomfree ofbreakable objects.

Eric, (the little boy who visited) was drawn to the lights on the computer connected to the TV..the dishwasher and the oven.  At least we have a padded ottoman:)  We loved having this family over, it was a blast.

For dessert that night we tried this new molten chocolate cake recipe…soooo good.  Here is the recipe, in case anyone needs something chocolate this week.

Molten Chocolate Cake
1/2 cup unsalted butter, plus more to butter the molds
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, preferably Valrhona
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons flour, plus more for dusting

1. In the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, heat the butter and chocolate together until the chocolate is almost completely melted. While that’s heating, beat together the eggs, yolks, and sugar with a whisk or electric beater until light and thick.
2. Beat together the melted chocolate and butter; it should be quite warm. Pour in the egg mixture, then quickly beat in the flour, just until combined.
3. Butter and lightly flour four 4-ounce molds, custard cups, or ramekins. Tap out the excess flour, then butter and flour them again. Divide the batter among the molds. (At this point you can refrigerate the desserts until you are ready to eat, for up to several hours; bring them back to room temperature before baking.)
4. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Bake the molds on a tray for 6 to 7 minutes; the center will still be quite soft, but the sides will be set.  (This is true-it will still jiggle like it is not done at all in the center….)
5. Invert each mold onto a plate and let sit for about 10 seconds. Unmold by lifting up one corner of the mold; the cake will fall out onto the plate. Serve immediately. (I found that it was beneficial to let the cake cool in the pan for 8-10 minutes before tipping it over onto a plate.  It seemed to be too fragile and break when I tipped it over too soon.  I then let it sit while it was tipped over with the pan still attached for a while also.  This allows the cake to fall out by itself.  I also did these in small one portion sized dishes, which seemed to make the liquid inside the cake tons more manageable.)

I got a calling last week!  I am very excited to feel like an active participant in my ward.  I was called to the compassionate service committee.  I am not sure exactly what this means, besides look for service opportunities within the relief society and ward, and take dinner to women who have babies.  I am sure this will be a great experience, I am very excited.

Last week Tony showed me the old Star Trek TV series.  For some reason I though it would at least be similar to the new Star Trek movie, which I loved.  If anybody was wondering, there is a world of difference between the two.  I lasted about 30 seconds into the Old Star Trek show:)  However, we did watch the newer of the old Star Trek movies, Star Trek first contact, and besides the woman with snakes growing out of her head that tries to kiss Data, it wasn’t to bad.

October

Project Miata

Project Miata has finally drawn to a close. We have upgraded the brakes, installed a new lowered and stiffer coil-over suspension system and heavy sway bars to improved handling by leaps and bounds. We have added a polished roll bar, and I hand polished the old dull wheels to a new shine. We have installed new speakers, New interior lights and replace the rear window and now we get to enjoy the fruits of our labors during our great sunday drives. It not only looks great but handles like a slot car on rails.

New Brakes, Coil-over shocks and Beefy Swaybar

Wheel After 6 steps of Polishing

The finished product "Dont mind my thumb

Seaworld Fun

Here is the past month of ours lives…

The Saturday before Cancun we visited Sea World.  We realized that neither of us had been on a roller coaster in a long time, and that our bodies did not respond as they used to.    However, we were able to watch one of the animal shows that Sea World puts on.  I was a little hesitant to go, since I am not an animal person, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Shamu!

Cancun

Our week in Cancun was wonderful.  It was relaxing, exciting, and sunny.   All anyone could want in a vacation.  We flew in Monday night, and spent Tuesday and Wednesday enjoying the sun and the pool and the never ending gourmet food available at the buffets.  (yum:)

Thursday we took a tour of the Mayan Ruins in Chitchen Itza.  I loved this-they were beautiful.  It amazed me how exact these people were with their architecture, and how influential it was in the architecture of the following periods.  The Mayans believed that the world would end on December 21, 2012.  I guess we will have to wait and see on that one:)

On our way to the ruins, we stopped at a sink hole.  You could swim in it, and there was a 20 ft high cliff you could climb and jump off.  Tony did his fair share of jumping:)  The water was a crystal blue color and you could see all the fish swimming…(when I saw this, I was glad I had chosen not to get in…I don’t like to share my swimming water with slimy creatures.)

Friday Tony and I rented a wave runner and rode on the ocean.  We both decided that this was fun, but we liked lakes better.  The ocean was just rough enough that you couldn’t go too fast, but did not have enough waves to make it exciting.  However, it was still a blast.  We rode on the beach in front of the Hilton, which was about 5 hotels and a long stretch of beach away from our hotel.  We took a taxi down the Hilton, and ended up walking the 6 hotels and what became a very long stretch of beach back to our hotel.  That afternoon we went sailing on a catamaran.  This was my first experience ever sailing, and I loved it.  It was great to just sit in the sun, and enjoy the water and the family.

Well for those who dont know weeks after i was married i bought a 2005 Harley Davidson Sporstster. It was a great bike but after 4 months of riding it… i have decided to get a new car insted… and by new car i mean a older car. We bought a 1991 cherry red mazda miata. This car is in amazing condition runs like a champ and the best part is that it cost us 1/2 what i sold my motorcycle for. What does this mean? (besides the fact that its more economical and safer than a bike) It means i have a project car. This will be a lean mean better handling than a new corvette machine.

Our New 1991 Mazda miata

Look at Her Shine

Our two little red Mazdas next to each other... Can you say Red mazda?

My Miata History

For those who dont know my history of miata’s  let me tell you about it.  Summer of 2005 i got home from my mission and my dad had a brand new 2005 mazda miata car he leased from Ford.  This is when i realized that these cars handle so well and i love this convertible thing that allows me to jump in the car without opening the door. This car was just flat out fun to drive. That spring i went back to school and my brother in law Scott asked me to take his 1990 red mazda miata to school with me so i could fix it up. New Brakes, tires, convertible top you name it. This is where i realized how cheap and easy these cars were to work on.

When all is said and done

So now i have one of my own and a small budget (which will go along way) to make this car the Miata that i will never forget. The best part about this is that i get a project car and Meghan gets a brand new reliable safe car (the Mazdaspeed3) to take to rexburg in the winter.

P.S. This cars 20th birthday is on September 14. We are so excited! And meghan will be making a car shape cake that the miata will blow the candles out on… these cars smile in case you didnt know (see below picture)

Wow-  It has been to long.  Life has been crazy the last couple weeks.  Tony has been put on a new ipad app project at work, which he absolutely loves, but they have asked that his team complete the requirements in an extrememly short amount of time.  He works crazy hours-sometimes 7am to 6:30 pm, but still manages to come home and be a great husband.  He is learning lots on this project, so it looks like it will be a great experience for him.

As for me, I love work.  It is a blast.  I spend most days drafting, going to bases to talk to clients about what their needs are, and measuring rooms.  Their is tons of work, as military is feeling pressure to spend the rest of their budgets.  Funny, I seem to work more efficiently when there is stress-I enjoy it.

On the weekends we have been enjoying our down time-one weekend we went to Steve and Bethany’s reception, (Steve was Tony’s roommate at college and then before we were married).  It was a beautiful reception and they were both soooo happy.  (It brought back fun memories for us:)

Steve and Bethany's Wedding Reception

Yesterday we went boating with Paul and Debbie and their kids.  We had a blast.  Ryan knee boarded, everyone wake boarded and water skiied.  Tony impressed everyone by jumping the wake on the wake board, and skiing with only one ski.  I was able to learn to water ski, as I had only wake boarded before.  We enjoyed the company, the activity, and the sun.  We had a blast.  However, we are definitely paying for it today-we are both sore in places we didn’t know we had.  (Not so fun.)

Last weekend we went and saw Inception- I was thoroughly impressed.  I love those kind of movies where you have no idea what is going on until the last little bit.  We also celebrated Bethany’s birthday at BJs, (YUM:)  BJs apparently makes their own soda using beet sugar…weird, but good:)

The past three weeks of church have been an adventure to say the least.  We were asked to sub in Nursrey….ahhh.  I realized I haven’t been around little kids like that forever!  We walked in the first week and I had no idea what to do.  Tony, however taught me a thing or two about how to play.  He sat right down and dug into the pile of toys in the middle of the floor, while I watched in amazement as the kids crowded around him seeking his attention.  I was so proud:)  We got really good at running Nursrey-there is a schedule.  Play time, lesson time, singing time, snack time, drawing time, second round of play time, and bubbles.  We were not too excited about it, but being subs in nursrey wasn’t too bad at all.

This weekend we visited Coldstone.  :)  We got these amazing cupcakes; cake on the bottom, a layer of ice cream above that, and then real frosting that tasted good on the top of that.  The whole cupcake was encased in a shell of dark chocolate.  I am not sure you can get any better than this…unless I had made them of course:)

Well, life has been rather slow these past two weeks for this new Farnsworth Family.  Two weeks ago I worked my first full 40 hour week:) Finally.  And I enjoyed it.  I was happy to discover that I was excited to go to work in the morning rather than just having a feeling of dread (I only worked SUPER boring minimum wage jobs previously.)  That weekend we visited Red Robin (YUM), forgot cash to tip the waiter, no worries though-we scrounged up enough change to equal about 1.50 and gave her a buy-1-get-1 free movie ticket.  We felt kind of bad about that one.

We also went to an Art exhibit down town.  It was in an old, non air conditioned building, with several different artist’s work displayed.  It was all modern work, which I love because it has the ability to show so much emotion.  The event was a wine and cheese event, but needless to say we did not partake of either, as we don’t drink wine, and we don’t eat cheese that has been sitting in a 85 degree room for longer than 30 seconds.  This was a blast.

Some of the art at the show

Last week Tony was out town in San Jose area at a Velocity conference that focused the problems that cause the internet to be slow, which of those problems it was most effective to fix, and how to fix them.  He really enjoyed it, and took more notes that I ever did in all my classes in one semester combined.  (I am not a light note taker.)  I was very proud of him.

While Tony was in CA, I stayed here and enjoyed myself.  I did not eat one dinner with meat in it (I grew up eating less meat in a month than we do now in week:)  I had pancakes with peanut butter and syrup, after which I did not feel like an adult.  I exercised, did yoga, read my book, and sat in the sun at the pool.  It was wonderful.

I also had an icecream swap with Alisha-Tony and I had made cake batter ice cream with gummy bears, (using fun-fetti).  YUM:)  The next night we had a girls night out to a Mexican Restaurant.  My week was great, but I was really happy to have Tony back-life at home was pretty boring without someone to share it with.

Wedding Day: Meghan And Tony at the Portland Temple

YES WE ARE FINALLY MARRIED. And with this recent life event comes a change and re-dedication to posting what use to be my blog but is now OUR blog Meghan and I were married april 24 2010 in the Portland Oregon Temple.

Well Meghan is a champion trophy wife becuase with this new marriage comes… you called it THANK YOU NOTES! and Meghan has them done and i want to publicly thank her for them. (see picture below)

Holy Thank you notes batman!

Our LED Lamp Project

We threw in the towel for attempting to buy a lamp we liked and decided to make one. It was a process but boy was it fun. We decided to make a lamp for our living room (due to the darkness it did contain). It involved lots of eBay shopping, tiles glue’in , led soldering fun! Follow the pictures below to see the process…

Step 1: soldering the LEDS together

Step 2: Meg glues all of the mosaic mirror tiles together

Step 3: Assemble the structure

Step 4: Install LED's

Step Last: Plug'er In!

This was a great project, great product and a good team effort. It took about a week to build and included alot of trial and error but we are able to draw many parallels from what we learned on this project into our married life it is an investment of a lifetime! this light will shine long (because they are LED’s not bulbs) just like the love we have for one another will

Wow that last paragraph was “AWESOMELY CHEESY” and pretty much sums up our married.

Thanks for visiting our Blog and Stay turned for more FUN 2 COME!

WOW! I’m pretty sure the world is a happier place because of this video