A Sickness

Our Car is sick.

photo credit











She has been very gassy lately......

and slow to start.

Some may say it's old age, but I'm not convinced.

Chloe is at the car mechanic's office today, being inspected and trying to figure out what is wrong.

On the other hand, it's SUNNY OUT and I had blueberry almond oatmeal for breakfast w/our wonderful french pressed coffee. So.....it's a good day!

Have a happy Wednesday :)

Jenny G

Two Things

EeeK!

Here I am again, neglecting you.

I'm sorry.

Jenny Gill has been working!!!

(saving lives....in case you didn't know)

But....just a quick note to let you know of two things.

#1 Mr. Gill gave an awesome performance at The District Coffeehouse last Friday. He performed most of his original songs including BOTH of the songs he's written for me (Mrs. Gill....in case you didn't know).  So many people came they had to get more chairs out of "storage" which is actually one of the dudes who volunteer's apartment next door;) But, there were a lot of people there.....woot!

Here are some photos of the event

Walking in to set up

Rockin out

The Crowd

#2 We had a tragedy at the Gill house last week. I got home from work on Monday and our French Press from IKEA had decided to spontaneously combust!

Or.....just break.

But still-it was not very nice because I really REALLY like coffee in the morning. 

um

almost I depend on my coffee in the morning. 

It may be my #3 reason to wake up....just sayin'

I did though visit my favorite people at my favorite coffee shop in Boise though to get my cuban americano! 

photo credit

anyway-we ordered and received this! 

It's not teal-but it is STILL beautiful and *hopefully* break-proof.

Mr. Gill and I have only kept a press for about a year and then something awful happens....like spontaneous combustion. 

OR the press tries to cut Mr. Gill in the sink. 

We're hopeful that polyurethane binding will keep this press in check. 

Anyway-Much love to you all this Easter weekend!

Jenny G

My First Time

It has been a while my friends.
Sorry.
I've been, well-doing other things.

But now I'm back, and I have several exciting things to share with you.

Mr. Gill and I took a trip last weekend into the Idaho wilderness! 


Or we just drove up to Stanley......but it was WONDERFUL and I saw a lot of wilderness outside of our car windows.

The sun setting behind the Sawtooth Mountains

This is where we stayed and it was fabulous. So, if you are in Idaho and need a neat place to hide away for a day or two, this super cute hotel would be the place.

The greeter at the hotel

Our road trip to Stanley is also the event I've decided to use as my first iMovie experiment!

So, after a couple of days playing around w/my Mac....here you go, wise and discerning audience.

Remember that it is my first time making a movie before you make me cry.

I hope you enjoy our movie and tell me what you think :)

Jenny G

Confessions

I am a terrible housewife.

Really.
I am.

Just ask Mr. Gill.

Actually don't ask him, because he loves me he'll say that I do well and I try to keep things in order.

But that's not really true.
If you've lived with me than I don't have to really explain....but, I am pretty sure most of you that read this don't currently or have ever lived with me so I feel like I need to prove it.

I took photos of our place one day after I cleaned the whole downstairs (which is rare, let me tell you) so I could show people what our place looks like in general.

When you first walk in you see this! Clean Kitchen.

Kitchen

Clean Entertainment Area

Cleanish Living Room

Living Room

And now the proof.

Real Life

This is just a small example of normal-ness of messy that is our house...and is my lack of house-wifeyness. I WANT our daily lives to look like the super cute pictures you saw earlier. But, I am pretty much super distracted ALL THE TIME and really struggle with putting things where they go, and cleaning up after myself. Nor do I have dinner on the table waiting and open the door w/a cold beverage and a cute 40's dress and high heels and wearing immaculate make up when Mr. Gill gets home. 

Mr. Gill doesn't seem to mind though, which is nice, it works out that his expectation of house-wifeyness is pretty low. He likes clean (relatively) clothes to wear and um....for me to love him so-I've got that down. 

Also more confessions-I hate popping blisters and zits. And I have both of them right now, one of my foot and one on my face. I'll let you guess where the zit vs. blister is. (Blister on the face? YUCK)

And I HATE running. But I like how I feel afterwards-so I have this internal battle always before I go on a run....and lots of times the hate of running wins. 

One last confession. There is a puppy that comes to visit us at The District every so often and I LOVE HIM! He's so soft and cuddly and I want to steal him and make him mine. But, only if I can keep him as a puppy always. One of the guys I work with has an idea called perm-a-puppy....permanent puppydom (!) not to be confused with a permed puppy. When they have that process finished I'll perm-a-puppy that dog and he will be mine FOREVER!

Confession Friday...there you go world.

Jenny G

Faking It

Mr. Gill is going to play a show of his original songs at The District, a coffeehouse here in Boise that we've been hanging out at recently.
He's been talking with the guy in charge of booking the acts for the coffee shop and he asked Mr. Gill if he had any promotional photos.

Promotional Photos......um.....okay.
We can do that.
So...during practice one day I got to play Promotional Photo Photographer.

Which, I think Mr. Gill found a little annoying because I was a little bit in his face for over an hour.....but I had fun.

Original

The Contemplative Singer Songwriter

I took some interesting shots-but praise the LORD for The Pioneer Woman and her downloadable PS action sets.

Original

Vintage-loving Acoustic Guitar Man

My Husband the Rock Star

They make me look like I know how to use PS.

Original

The lovable (yet talented) Mr. Gill

Which really is amazing because I pretty much only know how to open the program. Someday I'll learn how to be um.....effective at PS....like....how to do something, or anything really.
But for now-the Pioneer Woman not only teaches me how to make tasty butter-laden masterpieces in the kitchen, she allows me to produce Promotional Photos.

Thanks Pioneer Woman.

Sincerely,

Jenny G. (& Mr. Gill)

ps-the link takes you to PW's page for PS downloads and I HIGHLY encourage you to check out PW Cooks also-I love it, although my ever getting larger thighs do not. Plus, she's pretty much hilarious so-GO GO GO Check it out. Here's the link to her site again, incase you are too lazy to scroll up to the top of the blog.....like I am.

New Life

So I was walking home on friday afternoon and I saw the most wonderfully surprising thing.

Joy

Isn't it lovely?

Spring is coming my friends.

New Life

What a reminder in this season of Lent that out of death comes BEAUTIFUL NEW LIFE!!

*Jenny G

Obsession

I have a new obsession.

PoachEgg2.jpg

Poached Eggs.





A little weird I know, but let me tell you a story.

I was never into eggs much growing up. My dad LOVES eggs and would whip up a batch of scrambled eggs w/tobasco sauce and onions and peppers. And, they were good.....but I usually could take it or leave it.

A couple of weeks ago my new friend Lindsey introduced me to the wonderful world of poached eggs! (Disclaimer: My mother has poached eggs for us every Christmas w/out Eggs Benedict Christmas Breakfast Tradition....but I don't know if I'd experienced Poached w/out Cheez Wiz)

Lindsey did not intentionally introduce me to these amazing eggs, she just happened to be eating one over a salad when I came over one day.

And it looked AMAZING. So the next time I made lunch for myself I gave it a try.

I used Deb's tutorial and successfully made myself a spinach avocado poached egg topped salad and it was WONDERFUL! And now, I have it almost every time I cook for myself. I've had several different combinations....I think currently my favorite is mixed baby greens, two little red potatoes, scallions and poached egg w/a little evoo and vinegar and salt and pepper! The golden deliciousness that is the yolk drips into the salt and peppery potatoes with a little bit of bite from the vinegar and creamy nuttiness of the evoo....YUM!!
It totally rocks!
Mr. Gill is not supposed to have eggs often.....silly cholesterol, but I did make him a salad for dinner one evening when I needed food asap. He LOVED it (and will only have it as a treat) and it all came together in 10 minutes!


Thank you Miss Chicken for changing my eating habits! :)

Jenny G