So thanks once again to the power of E-bay, I picked up a set of Stainless Steel nerf bars of the Jeep.  They were sold as as is with some rust spots on them, but it also ment I got them for 1/2 the price of new ones.  Fortunately there was only a couple of small spots and my metal polish cleaned them nicely.  They also took under 1 hour to install.  They look great, but  I have no clue why they are called nerf bars cause they are like the complete opposite of the Nerf foam products.

So last weekend I cooked lots and lots of food for some of my friends.  Everyone not only had a good time but ate themselves stoopid.  They dinned on 7-layer dip, grilled stuffed porkchops, broccoli slaw and some white chocolate macademia nut ice cream(which was extra yummy in my opion) The only mistep in the cooking process was the sweet potato chips, had some issues with the oil and should have made them in advance, but the ones that came out were snarfed up quickly.  The whole event did make me wonder if I could switch professions and go into catering or a home cooking service.

So in classic us style Melissa and I did stuff near each other. We went to the county park next to the nuclear reactor(yep I said nuclear reactor) Melissa broke out her new camera and I dusted off my moutain bike. The result… Melissa has pictures and my legs are a bit tired and I came to the realize how long in the tooth my bike has gotten.

Well I am now at the tail end of another visit to NM. A couple of our friends are expecting their first child next week, and thanks to some great last minute deals at hotwire I was able to swing out and help cook for the shower. They are definately among our geekest friends as the shower was Cthulu themed.(no pink bows or fluffiness at this shower) All the guests help craft a moble with with little creatures made of yarn and goggle eyes.

And I was able to stop in and touch base with another couple of friends who are getting married in May(yet another trip we already have planned)

And I found out of yet another wedding in Sept with another set of friends.

So if we don’t move out here soon we are just going to need to buy an airplane.

always good to catch up and see everyone again. I was also able to use the time to start looking for realtors and job hunters so we can make the jump.

So I guess all serious jeep projects take 12 hours for me to complete. The 1″ body lift took almost 6 hours and I had 2 people working on it.(thanks james) Today taking advantage of the fantastic weather I installed the 2″ coil lift on the jeep. And yep 12 hours latter I finally finished. I took pictures of the various stages of the install.
I am a little worried of my next project which is either the new 33×12.5 tires(which will be done by a tire store) or the air filter/throttle body upgrade.

And for the all thats good and wise in the world someone either recomend a good set of mechanics gloves or remind me to buy some before the air/body upgrade.

Sitting in my freezer right now is 2 quarts of soft serve mint brownie ice cream(mushi picked it).  What’s so amazing about that you ask?  Well as of Noon today it was just some eggs, sugar, half/half, whipping cream, vanilla extract, peppermint flavor, green food dye and brownie mix.

Through a carefull process of cooking the creams, tempering the eggs, chilling the mixture and using our brand new ice cream attachment for our kitchenaid mixer.

This is a big step in my cooking evolution, for now I contain the secret of tempering eggs which opens up a whole word of custards and the like to my cooking repertoire.  Look out Creme Brulee I coming for you next.

Not being content with making just ice cream, I also whipped up some home made chocolate syrup, using some dutch-processed cocoa powder.  Now for those not familar with that elixir, it is product made during the proccess of during cocoa beans into the chocolate we all know and love.

Unfortunately I made my wife plow through lasagna, which was 2/3 good, 1/3 fair(Noodles and Cheese yummy, but not enough meat sauce)

Boy am I am mean house husband or what.

Well I am not know where I am headed at the moment, but I can atleast know where I am.  I picked up a GPS, thanks in large part to the amazon gift certifcates I got for my birthday(thanks again everybody)