raining non-stop

It has been storming pretty hard the last 2 days. I couldn't sleep very well last night because of all the noise from the rain and wind. It's supposed to clear up a little bit tomorrow, and then start back up again on Thursday. I can't wait for the sun to come out.

Last Sunday Lisa and I took our kids (except for my little one who stayed home with Papa and Grandma) to see Nemo on Ice. We all enjoyed the show, and it was nice for Lisa and I to get out with the kids. The show tickets were a present from my mother-in-law's friend who works at the HP Pavilion. She got us great seats -- we were only 9 rows from the front. Before we went to the show we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown San Jose for lunch. I love that place, especially the free spumoni for dessert!

I made up my own recipe for dinner tonight and it came out pretty good! Here's the recipe for my Cilantro Beef:
1 bunch of cilantro
1 pack of stew meat (~1 lb)
1/2 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
3 small zucchini, chopped
1 bunch of broccoli

Blend the cilantro, chopped onion, and garlic in the food processor, drizzling in the 1 tbsp of olive oil. In a deep pan, brown the outside of the meat. Pour cilantro, onion, garlic mixture into the pan with the meat, and simmer on low/medium-low for 2.5 to 3 hours until meat is tender. Add the chopped zucchini and broccoli florets and cook until vegetables are tender. If you want, you can thicken the sauce by mixing a spoon of flour with some water, and pouring into the pan. Serve over rice! It's good comfort food during this rainy weather...

Papa's in the office right now working on the remodel plans. He's making good progress on the drawings. He's been working on it off and on for weeks now, trying to come up with floorplan ideas. Once we have an idea of how we want the house, we can use the drawing to estimate the cost of all the materials.