In-Laws, Craigslist, and Plasmas, Oh My!

Okay, so I missed my January posting. I have lots to catch up on. I also admit that I am really bad at taking pictures so I have no interesting photos to include.

Things have been going well around the Caballero house lately. Starting in January I started a new job with Boeing as an Intern. Once I finish my Master's I hope to secure a permanent job with them. I am a "Human Factors Engineer" which basically means I help test and provide feedback for new designs on the Apache helicopter that Boeing creates for the US Army. We are working on the newest production of the Apache which probably won't be out in the airfields for another several years, but has some really exciting additions. Even though I am a lowly Intern, they have been giving me tons of responsibility (the pay isn't too shabby either).

A couple weeks ago we were having dinner at a neighbor's house and Felipe tells our neighbors (much to my surprise as well) that his parents are arriving from Mexico in 3 days. My excitement must have been obvious because our friends broke the long awkward silence with a tense chuckle, "Sounds like this is news to you Christy." I nodded trying not to choke on my dessert while we all proceeded to finish our homemade ice cream. From the shock of unannounced in-laws I felt a sudden urge to shop. Having just finished spooning homemade vanilla ice cream into my mouth, I had the perfect idea. My very own ice cream maker. Now I could drown my stress by spending and eating. I did some research and found that there is a Kitchen Aid ice cream maker that attaches to my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. This is the perfect solution to my desire for a high quality ice cream maker, and my low tolerence for the shrinking space in my kitchen due to infrequently used appliances. By the time you read this I will have already made vanilla ice cream, and it turned out excellent. The attachment was extremely easy to use and the ice cream was much better than any premium ice cream I have ever tried. I put a little malt flavoring in it to make it "vanilla malt" flavored and it turned out as well as I had imagined.

All my moaning and groaning about my in-laws coming isn't really about the in-laws themselves. I love them. I really do. (Just in case they are reading this). It's more the fact that I don't have enough time to get the house perfectly ready to impress Felipe's mom. I want the cereal boxes alphabetized and the linen closet shelves labeled with bows around the towel sets. For this visit I was very fortunate: I had only 2 boxes of cereal to alphabetize. On the morning The In-Laws were to arrive I called Felipe every 15 minutes for their arrival status. When they arrived, I greeted them with my hair in a 1980's scrunchie, sweat pouring down my face, and a one-armed hug while pushing a vacuum and hollering hello over the noise. If the house wasn't going to be clean, I was at least going to pretend that I was trying. My mother-in-law arrived with a wonderful gift for me from Mexico. She brought me an authentic handmade tortilla press. It was carved from beautiful caribbean wood. I am not a big fan of corn tortillas, but homemade corn tortillas are simply amazing. They are even better than flour tortillas, which is saying a lot. I was pleasantly surprised to find that making corn tortillas is incredibly easy. All one has to do is buy a masa mix (sort of like flour), mix it with water, roll it into balls, and set it on the press. We have been having some wonderful meals with homemade corn tortillas. I actually made my very own tortillas from start to finish while my mother-in-law watched, and I think I finally made her proud. Unlike the gift she brought me last year, which currently is a beautiful decoration above my kitchen cabinets. Last year she brought me this amazing copper pot for cooking carnitas. Recently I went to Williams Sonoma and found a pot not as well crafted, 1/3 the size, and costing several hundred dollars. Now that I have been able to see it is worth something in Williams Sonoma's eyes I might be able to consider its value and utilize it.

A few months ago our TV started to go kaput. It started with flickering into black and white mode, and we merely tolerated it. Then it went completely black and white and we considered limiting ourselves to old movies on the A&E network. Finally it reached its death by giving us great sound and no picture at all. The biggest disappointment was that we purchased the TV in 1999 and at the time it was the best of the best. I expected it to last us 30 years. You know the drill - in 10 years Jessica and Alisa will still have to point an ancient cancer causing remote control at the TV while everyone else telepathically controls the television. Similar to me in 1992 manually dialing into UHF mode while the rest of the country used remote controls. But I digress. After some research on CNet I decided that a 50" Panasonic plasma would be our best choice. For those of you who haven't yet discovered CNet, I suggest you check it out. It is great for reviews on electronics, and not only do you get professional reviews, but users like The Jones's will post their particular experiences with high priced gadgets. I count on reviews from the regular Joe Schmoe even more than those from the professional Techie Geeks.

Of course in order to have such a nice new TV in the house, we had to change our furniture in the family room. We had formal sleek shiny leather which boded well for dog hair and popsicle spills, but not great for loafing around and watching movies. One night, at a little after midnight, I tiptoed through the house, turned on the lamps in the family room, took some photos of the couches and posted them on Craigslist. We awoke the next morning to phone calls of awaiting buyers, much to Felipe's surprise. Unfortunately I had no plans for a replacement so for the next week or so we sat on barstools facing the TV. In order to eliminate the barstool scenario ASAP, I had to limit my sofa shopping to stores with stock on hand, which is basically Costco or Sam's Club. Luckily I found a theater style sofa that I really liked at Sam's. The ottomans lift up for storage or pinching small fingers in the hinges. I love that feature.

Okay, well I better save some good gossip for the next posting. Hopefully I'll be able to make it for March.

Thanks for tuning in.