Latest creations

I just wanted to share some of my latest cake creations for friends in the Austin area.

Curious George cake:

Dr. Suess themed baby shower for twins (Thing 1, Thing2):

Massive cookie cake (yes the "30" was pure chocolate)

Sorry for any of you who read this before lunch...

My Field Work

I realize that it has been WAY too long since I have posted a blog on here, so I thought I would write about my field work today. For those of you who do not know, I am employed as a Natural Resources Specialist. With this title, I am blessed with many opportunities to work in various areas around the country, but I primarily stay in Texas. Today, I conducted a field assessment on one of those only semi-enjoyable sites south of Houston.

After we parked the truck along an isolated dirt road near the western boundary of my job site, I opened up my mapping software on my laptop and studied the general layout of the land surrounding the actual site. As I started my pedestrian survey within the actual limits of the site, I initially noticed a decent amount of poison ivy along the dirt road. I am quite allergic to poison ivy, so I attempted to avoid this dreaded species as much as I could. After I crossed the welcome mat of poison ivy, I journeyed through multiple thick patches of dewberry, which is a vine that I consider to be slightly evil. This vine that basically extended across the entire limits of the site seems to actually grab your arms and legs with thorns that seem to tighten once human flesh is first touched. I have worked around dewberry enough to actually be used to the bodily impact that it creates. Once the field reconnaissance was coming to a conclusion, I attempted to bush whack my path through this thick site. As I found a fairly accessible trail, I soon noticed that I was pushing my body through large poison ivy vines. I believe my long sleeve shirt and jeans protected me enough from poison ivy's itchy sap and I made a strong effort not to touch my face until I completed the survey.

At this time, all I had to do was find two more corner points, take a few notes, take several pictures, and then vacate the area. I found another opening (without poison ivy this time), but the area was thick with dewberry, lantana, and honeysuckle (which actually smells quite nice). I could even see my fence line and road that marked the finish to my day of field work.

As I am waiting on my co-worker to finish taking a few notes, I looked down within the honeysuckle. I noticed something dark that appeared to be reptilian in nature. This long dark object made a slight move and a head raised up on it's end. I was probably less than 2 feet away from this creature and then noticed that this specimen was a Cottonmouth, a famous venomous Texas snake species. Luckily for me, it was slightly chilly outside at the moment, so the serpent was not moving too much. I calmly inquired with this three foot long venom filled species if it would be appropriate for me to back up a few steps. No response was provided, so I took a few small steps backwards. I wanted to snap a photo of this great species; however, the vegetation was quite thick and I was unable to get myself into a position to capture any worthwhile picture. Please enjoy this attached picture of a Cottonmouth taken by one of our contract biologists.


I promise to try to be better about posting blogs in the future. Have a great day!

Patrick

The IKEA Adventure

Patrick and I were in the market for a new entertainment center and decided to go through IKEA to see if they had anything that would fit our needs. We walked about 75 feet into the store and found exactly what we needed and so the adventure began. First task was sifting through the crowd on a Sunday afternoon, and second was ensuring that this new 65'' long entertainment center fit into Patrick's car. We got through items one and two just fine, but we knew the most difficult task was ahead. We learned very early in our relationship that we should never attempt to put together IKEA furniture together. Regardless of moods, it always leads to a fight. I always have my set idea on how the furniture should be put together, where Patrick likes to take his time to read the instructions. So this time, I left Patrick with project. He kept complaining that this piece of furniture had more parts than anything else he had ever put together. (please remember that Patrick is an extreme exaggerator) Here was the first thing that Patrick showed me, and I actually started to believe him....

As he was about to take a break, he mentioned that he couldn't believe that he had to put 37 nails in the back of this thing. Sure enough, 37 nails were required:

After a day of hard work, the entertainment center looks great, and I learned not to be so quick to think that Patrick was stretching the truth.

Urban Farmer

Just wanted to do a quick post on Patrick and I's new garden. We were inspired after seeing peaches on our peach tree for the first time:

And going to the home & garden show where we learned that we could grow a garden in our backyard. So being the typical type A person that I am, we set out with a plan. Patrick is learning about my "do-it-now" habbits, and he came up with a diagram of what it was going to look like and an estimation of what we needed. After just two weeks, we have our mixed greens and carrots sprouting. Here's the first look at the garden (yes that's Ranger's butt in the picture- It's hard to keep him out of there right now):

Puppy-hood

Apologies for the delay in posting, but we've been busy as I (Kim) work to finish school and Ranger continues to keep us very busy. I did want to post an update on Ranger's most recent mischievous act. When Brinkley, who was adopted by me from Town Lake Animal Shelter in Austin, was adopted, I found that she had a habit of digging in my couch. Yes, you read correctly, she dug holes in my (previous) couch, when left unattended. Seems that Ranger has continued the trend in tearing apart furniture....

Exhibit A: (our chair in the office)

Yes the culprit (Ranger-shown below) was caught red handed digging and ripping through the seat portion of our chair, and he was having a blast doing it. After he got in trouble with Patrick, you would have thought Ranger's world had ended. He would not even get close to Patrick that evening. Needless to say, after one evening he is back to his normal self of viciously barking and terrorizing the neighborhood, but I do think we can officially say our dogs have a furniture fetish.

A new addition

This weekend we adopted a new little puppy, and we would like to announce Ranger Kainer that we welcomed into our home weighing a whopping 7lbs. The first night we adopted him, he slept in his crate for 7 hours, and I thought that it was too good to be true. Well it was, since Ranger is only 3 1/2 months old, it was a fluke that he was able to sleep that long straight through. Saturday night after 45 minutes of crying he went to bed at 11PM and proceeded to wake up at 2AM, 5 AM, and 8AM. So far he's enjoying getting to know Brinkley, but the feelings haven't quite been reciprocated, as Brinkley is learning how to share her toys in her toy box and deal with something that's 30lbs smaller than she is. After lots of play time, he snuggled with Patrick for a nap as they both watched football. I snapped this one just as Ranger was waking up this afternoon.
We are enjoying the new puppy, and learning how to constantly keep a watch on him. He's already taken a nose dive from the couch to the coffee table, pulled the bathroom rug completely out of the bathroom, learned how to bark (it's a tiny bark) back at Brinkley, and pull every single toy out of the toy box. I know that this is just the beginning, but we're enjoying the moment!

Christmas a learning experience (by Kim)

We departed for our first official Christmas as the Kainer's with our first stop in Dallas. We had a great time spending time with my folks. For years I wrapped all of my dad's Christmas presents to my mom, but as I got older he began to attempt this task on his own. Ever year dad gets a little better at wrapping the gifts, but this year I noticed something strange. Dad had picked up the birthday gift tags instead of the Christmas tags, so I couldn't help but capture this. All the gifts that he wrapped to us and my mom had some form of birthday tag on it. Here's an example of what our gifts looked like. With Christmas wrapping paper, everyone of them had a Happy Birthday tag. After a good visit with my parents in Dallas, we loaded up the car and headed to Louisiana to visit my 94-year old grand father.
My grandfather was always know for finding new uses for everyday appliances around the house. Despite being in a retirement home, we realized that he still has his touch. We first noticed that he had replace the switch on his desk lamp because the switch was getting too hot, the second thing we noticed was he had twisted a hanger into an over the door hook for his clothes.The third thing we found was that they use was the chains used by the dentist when you get your teeth cleaned make great napkin holders to make a bib. At lunch my grandfather put his on, so that he wouldn't get anything on his shirt. Little did we know that he had one for each of us:
The final thing that we learned from my grandfather was that the bungee cord that my parent's gave him for Christmas could be used for a belt. I actually gave him the idea, and the next day when we came by, he was using his new bungee cord as a belt. Notice that the bungee cord actually comes above his waistline, but it still does the trick. We had a great visit with family, and are excited about spending many more Christmases together!