I have Issues

My love of my Kindle has grown substantially. From my first post about it, to today, I have found joy that I can not explain. I know this sounds dramatic and over-the-top, but it's true. 


The one issue I have with Kindle and Amazon is their sneaky little trick to get me to buy more eBooks. Whenever you buy a book, a new screen opens with "recommendations" of more books you can buy. "Recommendations"=brain washing. I can't help myself and Amazon is the only one to blame. You know when you walk into a book store and there are all of these beautiful, glossy covers just calling out to you? Is is just me? Yes? No? Well that is how it is on Amazon, except they go one step further. Since I am already logged in, they have my credit card on file and kindly give me the "Buy in 1-click!" feature. That is just wrong! Today, I bought 4 extra books I didn't initially intend to buy. Example below:

When I am broke from all of these eBooks, living on the street and eating out of the garbage can, I am coming after you, Amazon.

LAstros/DisAstros

::sigh::


I am obsessed with the Astros. My family has had tickets since before my parents were married (30 years in May-Congrats!) so the 'Stros have always been a part of my life. I have gone to multiple games every year and I could not imagine being without my beloved baseball team. One of my favorite pictures of my family is the shot (circa 1986) of my dad holding my sister and me in our Astros gear. (I'll try to find it, scan, and upload.)


With all of that said, we are certainly living up to our nicknames shown in the title above. Come on 'Stros... Even though we are 25 under 0.500 or something, I still believe! I know we have some doubters in our presence. While I understand where you are coming from, I will kindly show you the door. 


I'll leave you all with my favorite view in the world:

Memorial Day Crawfish Boil

Over Memorial Day Weekend, we partied like freshmen in college. It was awesome... and exhausting. We spent the weekend hanging out with friends and family. Because I had to work Monday night, my family decided to celebrate on Sunday with a crawfish boil. I did this a few weeks ago with some friends from work. It is actually really easy to do! The hardest part is getting all of the equipment and supplies together, but after that, you are set! There are about a million recipes, theories, and ways to do it. You should probably ignore all of them and do what looks easiest. It will all turn out fine. Trust me, this is a hard thing to mess up! We served 8 people. Here is what we did:


Ingredients

• 3-5 pounds crawfish/person. Suppliers usually use 35 lb. bags. We used one.
• 1 box salt
• 1 bag crawfish seasoning
• 6 oranges
• 6 lemons
• 6 onions, peeled and cut in half
• 6 large cloves of garlic with the top of the head cut off
• 1 medium bag new (red) potatoes, whole
• 8 ears corn, shucked and cut in half
• 30 mushrooms, whole
• 2 lbs smoked sausage

1. You'll need to rinse the crawfish of their nasty dirt. Some say to then pour salt on top and rinse, some say not. Just do whatever. 

2. Fill up your cooker 1/2 way with water, bring to a boil, add seasoning.

3. You'll cook everything but the crawfish next. Place the strainer in the pot. Add the lemons and oranges (squeeze the juice out first), onions, and garlic. Wait until it returns to a boil and add the potatoes. They will take about 25ish minutes to cook. When you are half way there, add the corn, in another 5 minutes, add the mushrooms and sausage. You can fish one of each of them out and make sure they are done.

4. Take them out and put them in a bowl, cover with foil or place in the oven to keep warm.

5. Place the cleaned crawfish in the strainer and add to the water! I think they take about 8 minutes to cook. I was too busy cooling off inside.

6. Our friends brought this crawfish table from crawfishtables.net to use. It is so neat! You place the table over a round trash can. It has spots for paper towels, drinks, condiments, and (duh) crawfish.

 7. On our way!

8. We borrowed my dad's t-shirts to wear over our dresses. Crawfish can get messy!

9. Table all set up!

10. Digging in.

11. We got full and had to take a break.

12. Our YUMMY desserts from Sweet in City Centre.

Winston supervised...

Shopaholic and Baby

Book of Choice

Shopaholic and Baby

By: Sophie Kinsella

Background: I have read all of the Shopaholics and have loved each and every one. They are light-hearted, fun, and an easy read. I was so excited to see this new addition while searching Amazon! FYI: These books are based in London. That tidbit will come in handy at the end of this post.

First Thoughts: Becky Bloomwood Brandon (the main character) can be the most frustrating character in the world! But, she's funny and makes for a good read. This particular Shopaholic is about Becky getting pregnant and her incessant baby shopping. She has a scare when she thinks Luke is having an affair and does some funny investigation. 

Final Thoughts: After getting used to the words "nappy" (diaper) and "pram" (stroller), I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It probably took 4 days to read. I'm really excited about Mini Shopaholic!