Lunch Day! WOOHOO!

Well today is Wednesday and for those of you who don't know, this is Genevieve and I's day for lunch together.
Every other Wednesday we both have to be at work. While this is disappointing because the kids are not able to be with us :-( It is also great beacuse the kids do not have to be with us :-) Cam is at school and Miss Mac is at the babysitter. So this gives us the chance to have a bit of time for US!

Usually we take it in turns to decide where we want to go, unless one of us is particularly craving a certain place. Although it may not seem like a big event to most folks, I am sure those of you reading this who have kids, esp younger ones, will know only too well why we get excited about this.
We get to have a nice lunch without 101 questions about everything that is going on in the restaurant and about the food (compliments of our inquisitive 9 year-old) or continuous squawks of "more" from Mac who will insist that she is still hungry despite having eaten a meal which could satisfy the appetite of a compulsive eater.

So today we went to the Flying Star Cafe (one of our regular favs) cos they do FANTASTIC desserts (Me: French Silk Pie, Genevieve: Raspberry Blackout Cake as usual :-p) and enjoyed our peaceful lunch before going and doing a little bit of xmas shopping.

Well I say xmas shopping but as many of you who know anything about Genevieve will know that "we" are VERY organized and that "our" xmas shopping is completed (in reality Genevieve probably had 95% of her gifts bought before the clocks went back but I only finished this week!).

However this year Genevieve is volunteering at the Children's Winter Carnival at Intel next Monday. This is where kids in the local community who may have recently lost a loved one, are from financially needy homes or in foster care get to come on site and have a fun day of crafts, games and get to meet Santa.

Each of the kids is "sponsored" by an Intel employee. Each sponsor gets some information about one of the kids and buys them a few things to make their Christmas a little bit more enjoyable. They also volunteer their time to go with them around the carnival with them and help give them a really fun time. Genevieve found out she is sponsoring a 10 year old girl so we went shopping to provide a few toys and some nice cute clothes to help her have a nicer Christmas. I thought it was a lovely idea, esp at this time of year, where we can all get caught up in the gift buying frenzy and take for granted all of the wonderful things that our families and kids have and others may not. I am very proud of my wife in many ways and this is just another of the reasons!

Now what are you doing to makes someone else's Christmas a little bit more special this year?

K

The Cold Weather Has Arrived. Mac is Ready!

Well the cold weather has finally arrived in NM.

Today it is rainy and cold outside.

As you can see from the pic below, Miss Mac is all ready for this change and is wrapped up in her nice woolly sweater (as knitted by her Granny in Scotland) and is ready for some cold weather.

They say there will be snow here tonight but we will just have to wait and see.

Have you thought about your grave??

Is it just me or does the event promoted at the one of the local senior centers here in town seem a little bit sick? See photo. I mean, I am sure they are all aware that they are closer to the grave than their teenage years but to rub it in like this by holding a talk on graves????

Does the beginning of the presentation go something like this?:

"Good afternoon and welcome, I know you are all thinking about your impending inevitable life event, but have you been wondering about how you can leave your mark on this mortal earth after you're gone?. Well wonder no longer......today we are going to review some of the famous and unusual graves from around the world to give you some inspiration so that you can make you own intentions clear to your loved ones! In addition our very own memorial co-ordinator will be in available after this event to help you look at your options and assist you in the final (sorry, poor choice of word) decision making process (for a small fee of course)."

Anyway after passing this sign for few days I had to get a
photo of it. This then prompted the conversation between Genevieve and I about graves. We said that if we were to be buried maybe we should get matching headstones ....... however, my suggestion of the gravestones being both the same as below was not thought to be a winner....... I don't know why........Hmmmm?

A busy week.....as usual.

Well another week (or so) goes by in Black household and it has been a busy one as usual. Both Genevieve and I have had a hectic week at work but at least it always comes to an end. Good news is that Genevieve now has a full week off work for Thanksgiving and it is also my long week end off so I don't return to work till Thursday (Thanksgiving Day). Woo hoo! :-) So we get to spend some well earned time off together this week.

As for Mackenzie and Cameron, both are doing well. Mackenzie just seems to be running about, talking and generally getting into everything more and more each day....but she is so cute how can you get upset. As for Cameron, he is doing well at school and got another 100% in his weekly spelling test (obviously getting his brains from his parents....I'll let you the reader decide which one!). Cameron helped to make a pizza for dinner the other night from scratch and it was delicious (no doubt who he gets the cooking skills from....I'll give you a hint......it is not me!)

This week's big event for me was Horrorfest 2007.....(scary movie festival check out this link for details of the movies). Each year movie company "After Dark" releases 8 horror movies that did not get widespread releases for a 10 day period only. There was a good mix of movies last year and the line up this year looked good too. Last year I went to see a couple of the movies and thoroughly enjoyed them. This year I have managed to squeeze in 3 films so far this week (and may try and go to another tonight). So far I managed to see Tooth and Nail, The Deaths of Ian Stone and Borderland. Will see if I can get along to see Mulberry Street tonight.........but only if my lack of sleep this week does not catch up on me today. Since these movies are shown at a regular multiplex cinema, they are showing a lot of them at unusual times and I have been home long after midnight on a couple occasion this week trying to see the one I want, so sleep has been at a minimum for me this week due to this, but obviously I deserve no sympathy becasue it all self induced

Last night Genevieve had a load of girls over to the house for a Pampered Chef party in the house. (NB: For those more ignorant of what this is, or more commonly known
as "men", Pampered Chef is a line of fancy cooking accessories and
paraphenalia which is sold only thru party plan type sales. Check out this link
for more details). She made some nice food for everyone who came, including a Crab Rangoon dip which was delicious (this was of course according to others, since I did not try it as I am not a seafood lover). From what I heard it seemed to go well and all in all it was a fun evening. I must also admit it was nice for me to come home after a long day at work and "help" clear the other leftover food (using my over active appetite of course LOL!) which was also very tasty and included a fantastic pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting that tasted even better than it looked......and that is saying something cos it looked awesome!

Well that is about it. Just looking forward to a nice (and hopefully more relaxing) week ahead. Tomorrow we are having the family over for dinner at our house, since it is Jane's (Genevieve's mum) birthday week and we want her to have e nice break from Sunday cooking and enjoy her birthday celebration. I am going to see a band on Monday night called "Suicidal Tendencies" (check out the link). (they are a skate punk band who were big in the 80's and 90's when I was a proper skateboarder) Hopefully they will be up to par and not some old crusties just trotting out some old songs just for the money....but we will see. Obviously on Thursday it is Thanksgiving, and we are all looking forward to a delicious Thanksgiving meal over at the Jewell's residence and eventhough I am working that day, I will be making sure I get over there on my break to get a nice turkey dinner too.(Mmmmmm!)

K

Genevieve's "Birthweekend"

I know it is a little bit late posting this but as I said before, I am gonna try and keep this blog updated so here goes.....albeit a bit late.

So the weekend of Friday 2nd November thru Sunday 4th November of this year was Genevieve's "birthweekend". No that is not a typo.....it is a new word which I had to create to describe the 3 days of festivities that we enjoyed to celebrate Genevieve's "birthday" on the 2nd Nov. Of course we could never disclose the age of a lady, but suffice to say that she will always be significantly younger than her hubby and leave it at that.

Birthweekend - Day 1 (aka "Birthday Classic")

It started early on the morning of Friday the 2nd when Genevieve had to get up for work (Yeah I agree, what a bummer to have to work on your birthday.....In my opinion they should pass a law where everyone gets their birthday off work/school each year.....that would be cool.....write to your representative now!). Anyway, after getting up and opening the cards and pressies with Cameron and Mackenzie (since I was already at work before the birthday girl awoke), Genevieve went thru her work day morning routine. On arriving at work she was greeted by her office being decorated with balloons, streamers, glitter confetti and a big Happy Birthday banner. Which I think got her birthday off to a good start and got a big smile, if not even a tear or two. I had sneaked over to her office cubicle the day before and basically went as crazy as I could with decorations and it seemed to get exactly the reaction I was hoping for. :-) That evening, Genevieve was under strict instructions not go over to the Pengelly's house (our next door neighbors. We had planned to go over for a birthday dinner, but Genevieve was unaware of the surprises planned. I managed to get away from work early and headed next door to get ready. Rachelle (from next door) and I had planned to decorate the place with pink balloons and streamers all over the place and set to work. Rachelle had also got a load of Disney princess stuff to decorate the place too which was pretty funny. Once dinner time arrived I escorted the birthday girl to the neighbors house where upon she was greeted by about 10 adults and kids in Disney princess party hats shouting "surprise". The look on her face was priceless (and may be posted on this blog as soon as I get a copy of the pic).

We all then dined on lovely meal of nice steaks and Alaskan king crab legs followed by a homemade chocolate brithday cake (Mmmmm!). After dinner we got all the kids off to bed and played Pictionary (one of Genevieve's brithday presents). We played boys against girls and I was paired up with Darcy (Rachelle's husband) and Genevieve partnered with Rachelle. The girls well and truely beat us (at least 3 times just to be sure). I think Darcy and I's talents obviously lie elsewhere.....but not sure where. Well after several hours of this and a number of hands of Euchre (a 4 player card game) it was well into day two of the "Birthweekend" and bed time came around.

Birthweekend - Day 2 (aka Birthday 2 "The Birthday Strikes Back" )

Well the highlight of Saturday's festivities was the evening. Our good friend Don, with whom we always spend time with esp on each of our birthday's, had something good planned. Genevieve had a babysitter for Cam and Mac and got dressed up in our "fancy" clothes and headed out for a more sophisticated evening. We picked up Don and to begin the evening headed to the Gruet Steak house ( the old Monte Vista Fire Station) on Central in Albuquerque. Check out the menu at this link. Anyway we had nice bottle of Gruet Brut with a delicious cheese plate to start. We followed this with the delicious steaks (10oz Filet Mignon for Don and I with the birthday (day 2) girl having stuffed roast tenderloin with wild mushrooms and garlic spinach together with a coldwater Australian lobster tail) and we all shared a nice bottle of Gruet red wine.......(Jeez...I am drooling on the keyboard as I type and just think about it again.) . The meal was rounded out with 3 great desserts, one of which included the obligatory birthday candle of course!

The evening the proceeded to Popejoy Hall to see the musical based on Billy Joel's songs called "Movin' Out" (see wiki link for more details) since Genevieve is a fan of Billy Joel's music and piano skills. We all enjoyed watching the show and the dancing which accompanied it and played out the stories told by the songs was amazing, and even I have to admit (not being a Billy Joel fan and preferring punk to piano) the show was great and good fun. This was despite the fact I could not join in with the singing of every song word for word like Don and Genevieve both seemed to be able to do, I have to admit my foot was tapping rhythmically all the way through it.

Birthweekend - Day 3 (aka Birthday 3 "Return of the Birthday")

By the time Sunday came around we were both starting to feel the wear of the festivites on us and were glad to enjoy a (little) bit of a lie in bed to start the day. As 11:00am approached folks started arriving for the "football birthday" day. We invited friends to come over and watch the Bills (of Buffalo of course), have some pizza and hang out. Quite a few folks showed up (even including one of my old friends from Ireland who was in town that weekend) and we had nice relaxing enjoyable afternoon watching the football. Even the Buffalo Bills helped the birthday celebrations along by providing a runaway 33-21 win over the Cinncinati Bengals.

After the football we headed over to the Jewell residence for sunday dinner and as is the tradition, the birthday person get to decide what is for dinner that week. I have to say that Genevieve made a fine choice by selecting chile with a raspberry trifle for dessert. (Have you noticed a theme for enjoying good food all through this weekend yet????....hard to miss eh?).

This rounded of the final day of the "Birthweekend" and with full tummy's we all headed home to sleep off the overindulgence before the work week arrived again.

New "Blak" Website

Well I know this blog is supposed to be about the NM Blacks but I promised Calum (Kenny's brother) that I would post a link to his all new website for his small design business which he has just put online.
Go check it out and see some of his very cool artwork. Of course he would love it if you would pass it on if you know of anyone who is looking for some cool funky design work!
He is based in Scotland but can work on anything remotely (gotta love this whole internet thing eh?)

Here is the link:
www.blakltd.com

K

Blacks are back on the blog

Well it has been just over 6 months since I set up this blog. Full of good intentions to update regularly with loads of info and pics and well...........it never happened :-(

So after much jostling by folks to make more of an effort and go update it regularly I am giving it another try, so we'll see how it goes this time.

Halloween 2007
Well last week was Halloween (everyone say "Oooooohhhhhh!!!") and we all dressed up as usual. This year the cast of characters was as follows:

Mackenzie - Pumpkin (just too cute.....and no need for any carving or candles)

Cameron & Mufasa - Superboy & Superdog (....to the rescue!)

Genevieve - Prison inmate (Wanted for pumpkin theft!)

Kenny - Freddy Kruger (Mommy can't help you now!)

We headed down to the Jewell residence together with the Pengelly's (our next door neighbors) and began our trick or treat trip round the River's Edge neighborhood. It was a cool night but we all had a lot of fun and the kids got a good haul of candy. Mackenzie was a bit weary of approaching the houses to begin with but once we had been to a couple of them and she understood that candy was going to come her way simply by going to the door and looking cute, she soon understood....LOL!

Anyway after a good while out in the cool air we headed back to Dave and Jane's and all tucked into some delicious soup..........and the kids started to make a dent in their candy mountains. Maybe they will be able to eat it all before next halloween. But only if Mum and Dad can help them of course !

A Trip To McCalls's Pumpkin Patch - Oct 2007

Today we took a trip to McCall's Pumpkin Patch. We went with a bunch of our friends. It was a very cold and windy day, but we all had a blast. We went looking for pumpkins and ate a yummy lunch. The kids fed the animals and played around the farm.

Here's the gang!

On the way to find a pumpkin!

Mackenzie found a pumpkin she wanted to take home (of course...she wanted to take them all home, even the ones that were brown and mushy! )

Cameron quickly found a pumpkin that he liked. Not too big...since we told him he had to carry his own pumpkin back to the van!

We found some yummy corn on the cob. We were going to try a bite of Kenny's corn, but it didn't even make it back to the table. We sent him right back to go and get an ear of corn for each of us!

"Look Mom, a chair just my size!"

"Okay Mom, I'm ready to go home now"

Trip to New York - Oct 2007

You can see the spray from Niagara Falls behind us. What perfect weather for seeing the sites around New York!

One of the main reasons for our trip to NY....going to the Buffalo_Dallas NFL game. The "Mother Ship" was calling me home. Poor Buffalo ended up losing by only a point. I wasn't sure Kenny (decked out in his Cowboys jersey) was going to make it back to the car in one piece. Sorry...no pictures of Cowboys gear on this blog...only Bills lovers here!

We also went to a hockey game while we were in town. GO SABRES!!!!!!!!!!

Here we all are at the Anchor Bar - Home of the orginal Buffalo Wing! Unlike Heather (according to her blog they only claim to)...I think they did originate here!

Cameron thought the suicide wings were a bit warm!

Savy was in charge of the register at the museum. She made sure everyone paid for their groceries before we left the store. It looks like Savy might have over charged Cameron.

Miss Mac loved shopping at the "Kids Wegmens" at the Strong museum of Play in Rochester. Mackenzie carefully picked out 7 boxes of mashed potatoes and 4 cloves of garlic (even though there were strict instructions to only have 5 items in her cart). She follows directions as well as her Mother.

The family in front of the famous Charlie the Butcher in Buffalo, NY. He is most famous for his Beef on Weck! YUMMY, YUMMY!

Here we are on the Maid of the Mist boat ride at Niagra Falls. Mackenzie thought being sprayed with water was GREAT. She started to stick out her tounge and catch the water in her mouth!

Our new house

Well today was the day we go our first official walkthrough of the new house we are building in the Northern Meadows area of Rio Rancho.

The house is being built by Raylee Homes and it is a model called "The Trap". Let's hope that the name is not an ominous premonition.
The house is about 2600 sq ft, 2-storey detached house in a cul-de sac.. It has 4 bedrooms 2.5 bathrooms and we have chosen lots of nice upgrades so it is going to be nice once it is completed. It is the first house in the street to be built so we are sitting with dirt all around us as the moment. Hopefully that won't last too long.

We have had a number of frustrations with the process so far, so it nice to see that we are getting closer to finishing. We heard today that the house should be ready for move in late in June or early July.

The house has now got all the framing completed, all the electrical cable install and plumbing is also now done so we had to check that everything was as we had planned. We are glad to be able to say that all is well so far so it is on to completion now. The next steps are the sheetrock (drywall) of the inside followed by the stucco outside. Once this is done the interior finish and exterior work such as front landscaping driveway etc. get going simultaneously.

Let's hope that all go smoothly from now on !

Here we go!

Since everyone else is doing it, let's give it a go.

Hopefully this will be a fun record of the memories of our family for all to enjoy

K