Oh sleep walking dogs...

This made my morning when Eric showed me this:

Cheese making and EATING!

On Sunday Eric says, "ooOOOo!  Shall I cut the cheese?!"  This was followed by a silly Eric laugh and off he went to the living room closet where our two pound wheel of cheddar has been aging for the last month.  To see the cheese press Eric made click here.  So a month had gone by.  He had dutifully flipped the block everyday.  It was quite delicious.  

In other news the old Casa Dea roommates were back together again in February.  This was the crew that was together when I started dating Eric.  So much fun to sit around and eat things with friends who have lived with Eric and know how silly he can be.  

Robbie:  "Have you rescued Eric from being paralyzed after a nap yet?!  You know when he is all (Robbie makes a crazed face and gurgling noises in his throat)?"

Me:  Ahh yesss, many a time.  

Eric:  (Looking at Robbie)  Rescued?  You never rescued me!  I woke up and I couldn't move!  You walked into the living room and I looked up at you from the couch, trying to get your attention.  I was looking right at you!, and cursing at you too.  Especially when you just walked away.

Robbie:  (Laughs)  I thought you were having a seizure. 

Eric:  (Laughing)  So you walked away?!

Good times. 

Note:  For those of you that don't know Eric does the opposite of sleep walking.  When you sleep there is a part of your brain that shuts off movements to your body so you don't act out your dreams.  People who have problems with this sleep walk.  For some reason, if he takes naps during the day, sometimes his brain will wake up and he can open his eyes but his brain hasn't turned off this mechanism yet so he can't move.  This is when I hear loud gurgling noises and have to rush in to the bedroom pounce and shake him.  Haha.  All in a days work.  

For your viewing pleasure...

There has been a lot of time spent in discussion lately of where our lives are going to take us in the next six months.  Recap:  Husband finishes classes in April, defends thesis in (insert month), I finish my degree at (insert university) and we live in (insert city) that we move to in (insert month).  You get the idea.   At present Eric has been looking at currently open positions for hydrogeologists across the country to get a taste for what is going to be available here in the very near future.  Today's job posting of interest was one for the state of Maryland.  My guilty pleasure as of late has been to hop on craigslist and see what apartments might be available that we could afford.  Also, craigslist is just a joy in general and so I had to share this with all of you.  When facing uncertainty it's posts like this that brighten my day.  Please, please check out the whole post here.   Prepare yourself for leopard print carpet, horse shoes, and short shorts wearing mustached barbecuers!  Here's a taste:  

(Caption reads:   "Jacuzzi tub!  Jets are ON!!!")

Ice Fishing

Our President's Day was spent on a couple inches of ice. Eric's list includes ice fishing and good friends of ours invited us to go. We went up to Deer Creek Resevoir and there were lots of people up there camped out on the ice in 20 degree weather, braving the elements for the unlikelihood of a nibble and maybe even a bite. Some of them were right up there with "Grumpy Old Men" in their little fishing shacks. Sadly we didn't catch any fish BUT we got to spend most of the day outside. It felt good to breathe fresh air and not be cooped up inside. We made hot chocolate and ate yummy sandwiches while watching for a bite on our line. The thing I forget about going fishing every time is you really just have to forget you are fishing. Take good friends and good food and you are set.

Eric auguring a fishing hole.


Me making the "it's so fun!," face and wearing five pairs of pants.

Sleep hobbyist

Cheesemaking

I have a lot of weird hobbies I guess. The latest one is cheese making. I got a book called Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carrol and tried out the recipe for cheddar. It's really not that hard, it just takes time and attention, but check it out! It's for real cheese! The first one is the pressed cheese wheel drying. The second one is after it was waxed. The third one is the cheese press I built to squeeze out the extra whey. Pretty cool.

Saturday morning wake up call

Saturday morning I woke up to lots of commotion in the house (Eric rummaging around to find his camera), and the door swinging open and slamming shut. I got up to see what all the fuss was about and upon peering through the blinds I see Eric standing in our backyard in the snow in only his pajamas (shorts and tshirt) and his slippers. Then he runs full speed down the drive way all the while taking pictures. Naturally I put on my coat and scarf and gloves, grabbed his coat and the keys and sleepily ambled out to the car and tracked him down on the sidewalk so we could go chase this balloon that had flown over top of our house. Ahhh wonderful weekend.