Thomas and Gina

Dear faithful readers,

2009-10-19T15:12:00.010-04:00

Friends and family, strangers, random people who found us on the internet when you felt like baking and googled Toblerone Cake (hello Swiss people!):

We are moving up in the world!

We are pretty bad at using Blogger. We can't move pictures around in a post and it's hard to get the spacing right. Things keep getting randomly underlined and then we can't get the underlines to go away. It's time for this craziness to end because we are very busy people with dissertations to write.

So we moved. Our new site is:

www.thomasandgina.wordpress.com.

Please come visit!

Fall Break

2009-10-18T10:15:00.007-04:00

We work so hard in all our jobs and of course on our dissertations too.

So we were really ready for a long weekend - classes were cancelled for Columbus Day and we went to the zoo. We haven't been there for a year and a half! Lots of things are the same. Do you see any animals?
But they did put in a few new things. For example during the really long hike from Africa to North America (1:1 scale) they put in a geyser! Beat that Steffi and Dietmar! And in the dome where the monkeys and meerkats and little tiny deer animal used to be, there is now an exhibit of African Violets. Psst! You wanna buy some gold watches?

And this here is just a nice flamingo with some feathers in his mouth.

A Great Quiz

2009-10-08T22:46:00.003-04:00

What does this spider look like to you?

Birthday Cake

2009-09-29T23:37:00.006-04:00

Gina's Famous Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (first time!)
Recipe: follow the directions on the box. But be smart and buy two cans of pineapple, not one. As you can see here for yourself, Gina had to learn this the hard way.

32

2009-09-29T15:33:00.006-04:00

Ouch, that's a big number. But look what you get for breakfast on your birthday around here!
This afternoon Thomas took Gina to our favorite restaurant for lunch. She got spanikopita and he got a gyro. The most beautiful bouquet Gina ever saw... you know what makes it so pretty? There are CABBAGES in it! Seriously, someone is a genius (and it's Thomas).
Gina came home from teaching to find this surprisingly large stack of presents on the table. Winnie is included here for size comparison.
It's been a terrific day.

More pictures of plants

2009-09-21T11:27:00.004-04:00

A few weekends ago we did some gardening in the front yard, but never got around to posting pictures. Here they are!
The hydrangeas and holly bushes have been there for several years but just about everything else is new.

A few years ago Gina planted some ornamental cabbages along the front walk. You know, for fall, like a harvest-time kind of thing. She thought it looked cool but Thomas made fun of them! So she was pretty surprised when he picked these out at Lowe's.

Gina's favorite place in the house right now is the front porch. She brings her laptop out and does her lesson planning there. It will be so sad when it's too cold to sit out here anymore.

Bye, summer.

Birthday Girl

2009-09-14T20:31:00.006-04:00

This pretty lady is Gina's Oma. She is Gina's mama's mama and she was born in 1915. Isn't she lovely? She tells the best stories (what a memory!) and always has a hug for you. She bakes amazing cookies and she can beat almost anyone at Wii golf.Happy Birthday Oma, we love you!

Some backyard improvements

2009-09-14T19:52:00.007-04:00

We took a little break from lesson planning last weekend to do some work outside. Here's the end result: a new border to the right of the walkway. Hopefully those poor half-dead grasses will survive... we bought them several weeks ago but didn't have time to plant them right away, so they just sat out in the blazing sun in their little plastic pots until they were extra crispy. Gina has killed lots of plants this way. We added a stepping stone. See?

Things we grew that we are going to eat

2009-09-07T15:23:00.002-04:00

This little fig tree just looked like a stick when we bought it so were surprised when it actually grew three figs.
These cantaloupes here are the size of a tennis ball. We'll have to keep Winnie away from them.

What a delicious granola bar

2009-08-29T12:35:00.004-04:00

Perfect for this time of year, when nobody has time to sit down and eat breakfast.Preheat oven to 250.

Combine 7 cups of dry granola ingredients in a large bowl. Of that 7 cups, about half should be rolled oats. The rest can be what you want: dried fruit, chocolate pieces, nuts, seeds, wheat germ, trail mix, coconut, whatever you like. A spoonful of cocoa powder is good in there too.

Warm one can of low-fat sweetened condensed milk in the microwave for 30-60 seconds, until it is thin enough to stir easily. You can add a giant spoonful of peanut butter too.

Add the condensed milk mixture to the granola and stir well.

Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish and press the mixture down firmly with a spatula. Bake for 45 minutes. Let it cool completely before you cut it up. Have a great day!

Goldfinches

2009-08-28T09:35:00.002-04:00

Deal on Gum

2009-08-21T21:03:00.000-04:00

Thomas never passes up a good deal. Today it was 22 packages of gum at Target.

Bugs

2009-08-21T16:00:00.004-04:00

A Greensboro Grasshopper

Thomas and his happy feet

2009-08-20T21:02:00.008-04:00

This is the story of Thomas and how he came to acquire these beautiful new mandals.
One of his mandals was destroyed in a violent attack a long time ago, and the other one died last weekend.

But that sure didn't stop Thomas from wearing them. These "Faded Glorys" from the WalMart's were discontinued, and they were all he had.

We searched and searched for a replacement pair. Thomas tried on fake Birkenstocks everywhere he could. He tried on women's sandals. We even looked for them in Canada. But nothing matched the comfort and price of those busted-up, 9-dollar mandals.

And then.....

A pair of generous patrons of the arts suddenly came to town and took pity on poor Thomas. Now he is a proud owner of genuine German Birkenstocks. The lady at the store said they would last 30 years.

He couldn't be happier. The end!

The other Professor P

2009-08-18T13:03:00.004-04:00

Today is Gina's first day back!
She's teaching 2 music appreciation classes here. Her bag actually has wheels, but she carries it because everyone will laugh at her if she rolls it.

Professor P

2009-08-17T09:51:00.003-04:00

Here's our handsome professor on his first day of school.
Thomas is teaching 5 college classes this semester: music fundamentals, class piano, and three sections of music appreciation. Isn't his bag awesome?

Handy Winnie

2009-08-16T11:24:00.001-04:00

Helping fix the disposal.

Things we bought

2009-08-08T16:16:00.006-04:00

A $20 laminator from Aldi. It smells very stinky while it's on, but we love having it. Look how professional our studio calendar looks now!
Gina's new shoes that Thomas bought her for only $15 a piece. She loves them.

Toronto Zoo

2009-07-27T10:07:00.004-04:00

It has been almost a month since we went to Canada for Isabella's 2nd birthday (she's the adorable little nose-picker from a few posts back). We were terrible about taking pictures but we did get some at the zoo. For more pictures from Canada, check Gina's parents' blog here.
Hi Steffi and Dietmar!

Gina's favorite animal at the zoo

This one's for you Erika!

Rhino

Zebra

A very rare Canadian bird

Some other kind of Canadian bird

Snake

Petting stingrays. They are so soft!

Easiest Bread

2009-07-26T20:38:00.004-04:00

Maybe it's wierd that we post so much about bread. But this new recipe that Gina found is so easy! You cook the bread in a dutch oven.
Almost No-Knead Bread from Cook's Illustrated

3 cups (15 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

generous 3/4 cup (7 oz) water, room temperature

generous 1/4 cup (3 oz) mild flavored lager *we used Yuengling! or you can use fake beer!

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1. Whisk flour, yeast, and salt together. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Stir with a rubber spatula until a shaggy dough forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8-18 hours. *or 20... Gina forgot about it while she was out shopping

2. Lay a sheet of parchment paper in a 10 inch skillet and spray the paper with cooking spray. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface 10-15 times *that's like 30 seconds yall, this is so easy! Shape into a ball and place it on the parchment in the skillet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours. It will rise into a nice shape because of the shape of the skillet underneath.

3. About 30 minutes before baking move your oven rack to the very bottom, place your cast iron dutch oven pot and lid in there to preheat, and heat the oven to 500. Flour the top of the dough and make one slice in the top.

4. When the oven is ready, pick up the dough using the parchment paper and lower it in to your hot dutch oven. Put the lid on the pot (let excess parchment hang over the pot edge) and lower the oven temperature to 425. Bake for 30 minutes.

5. Remove the lid from the pot and continue baking for 20-30 minutes. Then remove from oven, lifting the bread out by the edges of the parchment paper, and let it cool on a wire rack for 2 hours.

Look!

2009-07-11T09:42:00.000-04:00

I picka my nose.

You know what today is....

2009-07-01T21:18:00.005-04:00

Gina fixed this for dinner.But Thomas had something else in mind!!! June is OVER!

Thomas' First of July feast. It was a long time coming.

There was a nice combination of flavors and textures. The more colors on the plate, the healthier!

Thomas really did it! He went the whole month of June without eating a single piece of candy. He also estimates he ran between 80-90 miles this month.

Gina on the other hand only worked out on the Wii fit 3 times and she also ate a whole roll of Butter Rum lifesavers. She kept those in her purse because they are more like eating a mint, not candy really.

Since we are admitting everything, we both ate cupcakes at Heidi's shower, a Klondike bar and some pie at Gina's parents' house, and we shared an entire chocolate cake too. And 24 snickerdoodles, 11 of which Thomas ate straight out of the oven. None of that was candy and it was all baked with love. Except for the Klondike bar but that was low sugar.

Boom!

We eat a lot of bread

2009-06-29T16:23:00.002-04:00

Today Gina realized that she could double her usual batch of bread and make six loaves instead of three. This should last us a few days.
Parisian Daily Bread from this awesome cookbook.

Go Hoppers Go!

2009-06-28T11:15:00.010-04:00

Thomas surprised Gina and asked her out on a date to the baseball game! We had never been to a game together so she was very excited. He sort of forgot to mention that we would be attending with his favorite student's family, but it was still very romantic.

Thomas greeted fans with the mascot before the game.
What's Bella doing out on the field? If you enlarge the picture you can see that the batter from the opposing team has just gotten hit in the head with a pitch. He was ok though.

Speaking of getting hit, we noticed that lots of balls got hit in to the bleachers. This could kill you! A fan lost an eye here last summer (it's true). Thomas assured Gina that he would protect her. When a foul ball did actually come in to our section Thomas ducked but that is beside the point.

There were fireworks at the end! They set them off from a cart in the outfield.

What a fun night. Thomas liked his first baseball game. He felt like the pace moved along nicely and he was impressed by how dangerous the game was.

Finally

2009-06-28T11:07:00.002-04:00

Fresh tomatoes and green beans from the garden. Yum!

Today's masterpiece

2009-06-26T11:36:00.006-04:00

We wanted something more permanent than the masking-tape floor staff, which we had to rip up because it kept peeling away from the floor and getting dog hair stuck to it.

We found this bamboo rug for $20 and today Thomas is painstakingly marking in all the lines with a black Stabilo. It has to be perfect!
This might take a while.... we might have to make a trip to Target for some more markers. But we're passing the time listening to Michael Jackson so it's all good.

Hummus

2009-06-23T13:26:00.005-04:00

Do y'all like hummus? We do!

We wanted to share our recipe with you. Here's what you need:

1 can chick peas (aka garbanzo beans), 1/2 of the water drained and set aside
juice of 1 lemon
half a clove of garlic... trust us, you don't want any more than that
2-3 spoonfuls of tahini
2 spoonfuls of olive oil
salt and pepper

Put everything in the blender and mix it up! If it's too thick, add some of the water from the can of chickpeas. You can also add some roasted red pepper.

We had to figure out this tahini business. It's expensive and hard to find (we located it near the peanut butter in the store) and it but you only use a few spoonfuls at a time so it lasts for months and months.

Enjoy your healthy snack.

Delphi did something bad

2009-06-15T22:30:00.005-04:00

She broke in to a bag of muesli while the rest of us were upstairs watching tv.

Our best student

2009-06-07T20:01:00.009-04:00

Hi everybody, what note am I on?

Thomas made this big staff on the floor with masking tape and our students have been using it to learn their notes. They love hopping from note to note.

The Candy Man

2009-06-03T21:02:00.001-04:00

Funny that this should air on day 2 of our no-candy campaign. Click here to see Thomas' idol.

Rorsach Test

2009-06-01T21:44:00.001-04:00

Thomas wants to know what this looks like to you. We'll tell you what it is later.

Reunited

2009-06-01T18:25:00.004-04:00

Ah, the Wii fit! Gina got this cheerful message when she stepped on the old balance board today. A little stalkerish right?It turns out that the Wii fit remembered her original fitness goal from last year, and that she never met it. Then it told her that her Wii age was 40!! Ugh. But she's gonna stick to it.

Candy-free June

2009-05-31T21:58:00.007-04:00

So, we decided to give up all candy for the entire month of June. Why, you ask? Well, Gina just announced it. She says there is no nutrition in candy. Lemonheads are no friends of ours, at least not till July.We decided this a few days ago and we have been enjoying our last little bits of happiness. Thomas is determined to finish a big box of Nerds and giant bag of Strawberry-Peanut Butter M&Ms before tomorrow.

It's harder for Thomas to give up candy than it is for Gina. He really loves candy. So in solidarity Gina has agreed to give up something she really loves: lazing around in the morning while Thomas goes for a run. So she has to work out on the Wii fit every week day in June.

By the way if any of you are feeling healthy, Aldi has awesome deals right now on fruit.

Wedding Sponsor PD

2009-05-26T14:10:00.005-04:00

Thomas and Gina went wedding suit shopping for Daniel and Elizabeth's wedding today and surprisingly enough we found the perfect suit at the Pineapple Dictatorship Outlet....actually that's the only place we looked....Thomas got the suit for free as he was immediately signed as the new face of Pineapple (just kidding....he found it in his closet).

International Copyright Secured

Gina's worst nightmare

2009-05-21T13:57:00.004-04:00

Mmm, fresh green lettuce, just picked from the garden! How delicious.
But wait, what's this floating up from the water? A disemboweled pincher butt bug with its guts trailing behind it, and a slug!

No more salads for Gina, ever.

It's love

2009-05-21T11:51:00.003-04:00

Just another lazy morning on the couch for Winnie.
Then big old Bella joined him for a snuggle.And they fell asleep like this.

T's flower pics

2009-05-19T11:43:00.002-04:00

Strawberry blossom
Iris

Fiveleaf akebia

Sunflower closed

Sunflower open

What's for breakfast

2009-05-19T11:28:00.003-04:00

Wow guys, you should try eating couscous for breakfast. The recipe is a little wierd, especially the part where you steep a tea bag in the simmering fruit...
And you have to get past the idea of eating dinner food in the morning. But it's delicious! We've had it a couple of times now.

For his breakfast, Winnie ate an olive pillow.

Bad cookie

2009-05-13T23:25:00.003-04:00

The cookies we made tonight did not turn out right at all.

Strawberry eating

2009-05-13T11:12:00.003-04:00

It's going to be strawberries at every meal this week. The other day we made strawberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream.
And this morning, we had a big puffy baked pancake. Thomas called it Croc-off-loff. Best breakfast ever! You all should try it. It was like Freya's once in a lifetime breakfast, but quick and easy. We used salted butter in the pan which made it taste even better.

Topped with strawberries, powdered sugar, and lemon.

Thomas put a little more sugar on his...

Berries

2009-05-11T17:46:00.003-04:00

Today we went strawberry picking. We had planned to buy tons (like 40 pounds, seriously) but realized we forgot to bring our checkbooks so we just got $20 worth.
It was cold and a little rainy, so the place was deserted. We had the whole farm to ourselves.

Surprisingly, we didn't eat many while picking. Gina ate one but Thomas refused. He thinks that foxes piss on them and that's how you get rabies.It just took a few minutes to fill 4 buckets.

This one here is the best one we got. Hello!

Soon they will all be smoothies. Or this.

Concert at Elon

2009-05-09T22:44:00.006-04:00

Gina has been rocking some hard core heavy metal this week. We can't say what the music was or we'd get busted for breaking the law. Especially Daniel who was a major criminal. Anyways, that's how fierce this concert was.

This was a first at a gig: we were given costumes to wear. Gina's costume was a little on the "roomy" side.There were a bunch of video screens onstage and we were sitting up there behind those windows.Thanks Meaghan for getting us hired! And Daniel for doing the music... you did an awesome job.

Lunch

2009-05-08T18:36:00.003-04:00

Gina's sister and niece have been in Virginia all this week but we were so busy with concerts and rehearsals that we couldn't go up to see them. Until today! We arranged to meet them in lovely Lynchburg VA for lunch at Panera.

Here we have Thomas, Isabella, Katrina, and Gina's ma.
And here is Gina's sweet Oma.
Isabella giving her mama "puppy kisses."

Poor Katrina lives in a country with no Targets. After lunch we all headed across the street to our favorite store.

We only had a couple hours to spend with them, but it was great. See you again soon Isabella!

Would you eat this?

2009-05-04T10:14:00.004-04:00

Gina made a disgusting breakfast this morning: Cornmeal Mush. Thomas ate it though, because he is nice.

Our new website

2009-04-29T19:50:00.004-04:00

Our new teaching website is almost up and running. We're using new software to manage our music studio and we're redesigning everything. Here it is:

southside.musicteachershelper.com.

If you have a minute, we would sure appreciate it if you let us know what you think - or if you see any mistakes!

Donations please

2009-04-27T10:39:00.004-04:00

Dear friends and family, could you loan us 1.5 million dollars to purchase this house? We like it.
We saw it on the Parade of Homes tour yesterday with our friends Kevin and Shawn. It was fun to drive around and visit these crazy huge brand-new houses.

The bottom floor of that tower on the left there is a great big closet.

Overall, seeing these houses made us feel very much like we are broke. We will probably not ever have heated floors, a movie room, a lake view, or a toilet with a silently-closing lid. However we do have the same refrigerator as the one in the "basement kitchen" of the $1.5 million house. Wow!

Move over Lemonheads and Friends

2009-04-24T19:43:00.002-04:00

We have a new favorite candy: Giant Chewy Nerds. On the outside it's nerds, then a layer of sour, and in the middle it's like a gumdrop. It's so good we almost died!

Call for Recipes

2009-04-20T19:04:00.002-04:00

Okay, some of you may be thinking, "enough with all the crock pot business," but Gina is just getting on board with this whole cooking method. This morning she dumped some chicken and 2 cans of soup into the machine, and when she came home in the afternoon, it had turned into this. Astounding!

So, we'd like to request some recipes of yours to try out in our shiny new machine. Do you have any favorites? Just post a recipe or two on your blog and leave us a comment with a link when you do.

Thanks and have a lovely dinner.

Busted

2009-04-19T09:54:00.003-04:00

Gina broke Thomas' beautiful crock pot while he was in Utah. She didn't mean to... sorry Thomas.
She fixed it and now it's good as new.

More Wild Beasts

2009-04-18T11:58:00.007-04:00

We have a bit of a wilderness situation. This baby tarantula was hopping around the back porch.
There are at least two baby boa constrictors underneath the porch.
Every time we try to go outside we are assaulted by these animals. We also have giant killer bees and hornets that have been coming in to the kitchen.

Happy 28th Birthday

2009-04-16T00:03:00.006-04:00

And this is Oliver

Snow...or is it salt!

2009-04-15T17:16:00.004-04:00

Last night Suzy jumped up on my lap to watch the Jazz-Laker game. Don't show this to Winnie!
It was snowing this morning, when Daniel and I got up to go to the gym
Daniel's been giving me some pointers on how to shoot the NBA 3

Look at all the snow! This was taken around 2pm.

Park City and Energy Solutions Arena

2009-04-14T19:02:00.005-04:00

This morning we drove up into the mountains a bit to visit Park City. These are the ski jump ramps used during the Winter Olympics held here.
It was a cooler, rainy day...a perfect day for some shopping at the Outlets! Banana Republic (aka Pineapple Dictatorship) had a 40% off sale for the entire store. Needless to say we all found something we liked.
For lunch I was treated to a Salt Lake City specialty: fish tacos, which we enjoyed back at Baba's, where Daniel has been staying. She is lots of fun! They have fish taco stands all over the place here.
This is Suzy
This afternoon went back to the Energy Solutions Arena to meet up with Elizabeth's dad (Daniel's future father in law) John, where he works. He was the one who gave us the tickets for last night's game. Today he took us on a wonderful tour behind the scenes of the arena.
Here we are in the Jazz locker room
Some stats up on a white board
Walking to the arena we saw all these semis and buses lined up outside the arena...about 30 semis and 20 buses.
This is why:
Whenever I perform there are 0 semis and 0 buses, just me in my purple Dodge Neon 'Prince'
They were working hard at transforming the place for Britney's Circus show. Guess where we'll be tonight?

Flowers in front of the arena

Go Jazz Go

2009-04-14T11:16:00.008-04:00

Nothing like a delicious dinner before the big game
Best salad ever
From dinner we took the trax to the arena
Anyone recognize this guy?
Warming up before the game

Boozer
Baron Davis and Deron Williams talking before the game

This is a good shot to practice
Jazz legends' retired jersey
National anthem
This bear mascot is crazy
Kosta Koufos sang the anthem...not really
Tip-off
The first play. Basketball is a non-contact sport, in case you didn't know
I love the look on Camby's face
Jazz dancers
Debatable
The bear walks around stealing babies and handing them to the referees
Parachuting Tacos

There was even a little fight, between Harpring and Davis
Kirilenko
Oh yes, the Jazz won easily 106:85. Seeing NBA basketball is like hearing a world class symphony orchestra. It was so much fun.

Salt Lake City

2009-04-13T18:10:00.013-04:00

Yesterday I arrived in Salt Lake City Utah to visit Daniel and Elizabeth. For dinner they treated me to Elizabeth's famous yummy chicken BBQ pizza.

Today we went downtown to see the sights. It was such a beautiful day.
Daniel taking on John Stockton
We received a really nice tour of the temple ground. Our tour guides were friendly California Mormon sisters.

At noon we got to hear a little recital in the tabernacle. This is where the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearses and performs.
Next we went to the newly constructed convention center. It seats 20,000 some people and also has a large organ.

The roof of the convention center was truly amazing. It was one big terrace, complete with fountain, flowing water and landscaped with wild flowers and native plant life. It felt like standing on a mountain.
The view was absolutely beautiful from the roof.

We stopped by Trolley Square to see where Elizabeth works.

Then we had the most amazing lunch at Lunaberry. We had chicken-mango crepes and mango frozen yogurt.

Tonight we'll see if the Jazz indeed do have the x-factor. Can't wait to go to my first ever NBA game.

Horrible beastly creatures

2009-04-09T21:42:00.004-04:00

The Rudys are here and they must really think we live in the jungle. Turns out the black widow spider is not the only beast lurking in the inky shadows of the backyard. Here are some other monsters we unearthed yesterday.

Does anyone know what kind of snake this is by the way? Does it kill you by strangulation or by poison?
Gina really has a hard time with this one. There are a lot of legs here. This is much worse than the snake.

And this.

Even this bird is freaky.

This might be our last post.

Isn't this so wierd?

2009-04-07T12:30:00.001-04:00

The dryer turned a load of clothes and sheets into a burrito.

You guessed it

2009-04-06T21:05:00.003-04:00

Congratulations Varners and Germany Pappases: Da-Lite, Warsaw, Indiana. Thomas remembers when a tornado hit the factory. He was there and he had to take cover. He says the sky was green and very impressive... most impressive.
Your trophies are in the mail.

Best Day

2009-04-06T17:45:00.008-04:00

We're having such a fun day here. We started with a great breakfast.
We waited about 3 years for the the Ikea in Charlotte to open, which it finally did in February. Then we had to wait to go until we both had a day off. Today it happened and we went!

The last time we went to Ikea, in Toronto, we got a little carried away. We bought so much stuff that it didn't all fit in the car, and we had to leave some of it in Canada for Katrina to bring down later. This time we set a $20 budget each.... and we stuck to it. This is most of what we bought. There is some other stuff that is hidden... Meaghan, we got you such a cute birthday present!!

And this package was waiting here for us when we got home. It was full of amazing exotic treats from Hawaii. Mahalo, Daniel and Elizabeth!

Thomas' big idea

2009-04-04T17:22:00.006-04:00

Thomas' wind quintet is giving a big concert tomorrow. He is in charge of the slideshow so he went to borrow some video projection equipment from school. He needed to figure out how it works so he set it up in the house. Gina thought he was crazy.
The first screen he tried to use was bigger than our house. There's a fabric screen that you're supposed to snap on to a metal frame, but he couldn't get the frame folded out all the way. No go.

So Thomas got out a different projector screen and set that one up.

Ta da! It fits nicely in the dining room don't you think? We realized we could hook the projector up to our DVD player and some speakers and sit on the couch and watch movies on the huge screen. Suddenly Gina didn't think it was so crazy. It was awesome.

PS: Thomas is curious to know if anyone can guess the place the screens are manufactured.

We love avocados!

2009-04-03T18:35:00.000-04:00

Yum, avocado and feta pizza. We eat it here when we're in Charlottesville and re-created it at home. To make it, brush a thin-crust pizza shell with olive oil and top with tomato, avocado, feta, and some pepper jack cheese. Bake at 450 for 7-10 minutes and enjoy.

Operation Dirty Pantry

2009-04-02T16:18:00.010-04:00

Our pantry was nasty. It hadn't been cleared out in a year or so and you can see here that we were storing vegetable fertilizer next to the Cap'n Crunch.
This was a common sight. Winnie liked rooting around back there for crumbs and pieces of dog food.
So this afternoon Gina took everything out and dumped it on the kitchen table to organize it.

There actually wasn't much that needed to be thrown out. Besides these poison pistachios.

Now everything is back in its place and things are neat and tidy.

We could have died!

2009-03-23T20:44:00.007-04:00

We've had such nice weather that we decided we'd go out today and clear out the vegetable beds that we built last year. First of all, we needed to rip out and throw away all the carrots that were still there. It was kind of a waste. They just rotted.

Next we mixed in compost and fertilizer with the old dirt. For that you need a pitchfork, which Gina helpfully agreed to fetch from under the crawlspace. Even though it gives her the major heeby jeebies to go under there.

Well just look at what was lurking there in the hollow handle of the pitchfork. A deathly dangerous black widow spider who was waiting there to bite us at the first sign of spring. Smart Thomas, he looked inside the handle before he grabbed hold of it and saw the spider there. Otherwise he would have been attacked for sure. He poked it out of our pitchfork with a stick and took pictures of it before squirting it with spider spray. Then, we went back to work. We divided our beds into square-foot sections to cram a lot of plants in (kind of like this) and Thomas' reed thread works perfectly for the job. These chives here look like they survived the winter.

We planted seeds for radishes, snap peas, beets, rainbow chard, broccoli, and carrots.

We also planted baby lettuce seedlings. Just one more month until we can put everything else out!

Gina's best chicken

2009-03-22T15:53:00.004-04:00

Most of you probably already cook chicken this way, but Gina just learned and has to share! You need a crock pot (good luck finding one as pretty as this one, though...).Take a 4-5 pound chicken and rinse it out and throw away the bag of guts. Pat it dry and sprinkle it with salt, pepper, and paprika. Chop an onion and put it in the crock pot. Then stuff the chicken in (ours is a tight fit) and pour in a 1/2 can of chicken broth. Cover and cook on high for a few hours. Halfway through, flip the chicken over so the white meat is facing down, in all the juice.
That's our little guy waiting to be dinner. He's ready when he starts to fall apart. Yum!

Relevents Germany Trip - Day 3

2009-03-20T11:27:00.017-04:00

While two from the group took the train to an early instrument maker near Lake Constance to purchase a baroque flute, the other four of us hopped on a train to Stuttgart. It turned out to be a very sad day for Germany as there was a school shooting killing 16 people near Stuttgart. We were not aware of this though until we got home after a fun day visiting museums and shopping.
First up was the new Porsche Museum that just opened in January. Following are just a few pictures of the 80 some Porsches on display (it was hard for me to narrow it down).

Porsche fire truck (1912)

Ferdinand Porsche designed the VW Beetle in 1934

a couple of old race cars (1924 & 1947)

Porsche 356 A 1600 S Coupe (1956)

Porsche 356 A 1600 S Speedster (1958)

Porsche tractor (1959)

Porsche 911 2.0 Coupe (1964)

Porsche 956 C 1600 SC Cabriolet (1964)Era 917 (1969-1970)
Porsche 911 S 2.2 Targa (1970)

Porsche 911 Turbo 3.0 Coupe (1976)

Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 Cabriolet (1985)

Porsche 944 Turbo Cup "Pinky" (1987)

Porsche 968 Cabriolet (1995)

Porsche 928 GTS (1995)

Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe "Polizei" (1996)

Porsche 911 GT1 (1997)

Porsche Carrera GT (2003)

Porsche RS Spyder (2008)

Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet (2008)

Porsche on the ceiling

cross-cut of a Porsche

After the Porsche Museum we visited the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, a wonderful art gallery. The gallery contains art from the 14th century to the present. Among the artists represented there are Rembrandt, Rubens, Manet, Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Gaugin, Matisse, Kandinsky, Dali, Picasso, Pollock, Warhol. Leaving the museum was the only time we saw a blue sky and the sun during the entire trip. After a pit stop at a cafe and a little bit of shopping it was time to head back to Aalen.

Relevents Germany Trip - Day 2

2009-03-18T17:26:00.008-04:00

One of the most beautiful places to visit in Germany is the castle Neuschwanstein. It is located at the foot of the Alps which makes for a scenic drive.Once we arrived and parked at the foot of the hill upon which the castle sits we had lunch at a lovely restaurant - I ordered Kaesespaetzle. Then we climbed the 'mountain' through thick snow. At the top we were given a tour of the castle's few finished rooms, including living quarters and a throne room. The elaborate decorations throughout the castle were inspired by Wagnerian operas. This was particularly interesting to us as musicians.Before heading home we decided to take a quick detour across the border into Austria. On our way there we saw a couple of swans swimming in the water - how perfect.

Relevents Germany Trip - Day 1

2009-03-18T16:42:00.004-04:00

After being picked up in Frankfurt by my dad we arrived in Aalen and enjoyed a wonderful meal prepared for us by my mom - featuring Maultaschen. Then we decided to head downtown Aalen to see the sights and do some shopping. This photo of Aalen was taken off the Protestant City Church 'St. Nikolaus' which dates back to the 14th century.
The city of Aalen has a long standing tradition of 'city pipers' and 'tower blowers,' originally a guild of musicians responsible for all the music making at the church and for the city. To this day it is custom that weekdays at 6pm and saturdays at noon a group of brass players climbs up the tower and plays a hymn off all four sides of the 'City Church' tower. While waiting to hear them play some members of our quintet introduced themselves to the brass players waiting at the bottom of the tower. They were such a nice group of guys, they invited us to climb up the tower with them. The highlight was Luke (our horn player Mary's husband and trumpet player) getting to join in with them.

50 packages of candy

2009-03-17T13:20:00.005-04:00

Thomas is home from Germany! His quintet tour was a huge success and he'll post more about it later. For now, here's a little taste of what he brought home.

We're not worried about getting fat from eating it all because Thomas says German candy is good for you and it doesn't make your butt get big.

Bug

2009-03-17T11:05:00.003-04:00

Ugh! Thomas took this picture of a bug on our ceiling and Gina was hoping he wouldn't post it. Do you like this picture?

Gina and her Ma drive home

2009-03-15T20:56:00.006-04:00

We had such a wonderful time with Katrina, Steve, and Isabella. We don't get to see each other very often so it was really nice to spend a few days with them. Here we are in our matching shirts.

Poor sweet Stella the airedale got very sick while we were visiting and had to spend the night at the emergency vet. She's feeling much better now.

We were so sad to leave Canada. So we stopped at the outlets in Pennsylvania to cheer ourselves up. Gina obtained some very nice things including a green dress and some orange shoes here:
What a long drive! It was interesting to see the trees and grass get greener as we drove farther south. Maybe it will be spring in Greensboro. Right now it's cold and rainy in Charlottesville. Afton mountain was foggy.
Gina's looking forward to returning to Greensboro tomorrow with the dogs (who stayed home and got spoiled all week by her daddy) - can't wait to hear all about Thomas' trip to Germany!

A big project

2009-03-12T22:16:00.003-04:00

Gina here - Today my sister Katrina and I decided to dive right in and make a quilt. It's a little one.
We didn't really have the right tools, or any expertise in quilt making, but we had some gorgeous fabric. Thanks Pu! There's a lot to learn, but we think we figured it most of it out today. It was easy! This is the front of the quilt. The next steps are to put the backing and binding on it, then quilt it.

Isabella

2009-03-11T20:30:00.003-04:00

Gina and her ma are in Canada! We had to drive over this scary high bridge to get here. No trucks were allowed to cross because of the strong winds so they were all just waiting there at the bottom.
This adorable little person - Gina's niece - was waiting for us in Bowmanville. Isn't she a cutie?

Our Robin

2009-03-03T10:27:00.002-05:00

Pu, check out this fella.

Blizzard

2009-03-02T09:24:00.002-05:00

Look what's out the window this morning!
We haven't seen snow this deep in years and years. Even Thomas (who grew up in Germany) is impressed. We thought about going for a walk or making a snowman, but neither of us owns any boots.

Everything in the city is closed or cancelled, but we both had the day off anyways.

But if we do go out, we're using your car, Daniel.

Our tent on our back porch collapsed and died. It never occurred to us to take it down.

Boom!

Does anyone have a show shovel we can borrow?

Things around the house

2009-02-28T18:35:00.005-05:00

Most of our seeds have sprouted and they are so cute. Our little broccoli plants wish they were outside in the sun.
These tulips have been cheerfully adorning our table.

Our newest healthy idea: berry breakfast bars. We got this recipe from You've Got Supper this week and they're delicious!

Things Winnie Did Today

2009-02-20T15:22:00.006-05:00

1. walked on Gina's face while she was resting

2. ate receipt

3. ate contact lens case

4. ate pencil

5. stuck nose in Meaghan's purse (looking for gum)

6. got a cracker wrapper out of Gina's purse

7. barked during Timothy and Caleb's piano lessons

8. stole 2 bites of Gina's lunch

9. stole 1 bite of Gina's dinner

10. licked the dirty dishes in the dishwasher

11. ate some shards of a plate that Bella broke

But we still love him.

You've Got Supper

2009-02-20T14:30:00.006-05:00

We love to cook and try new recipes, but we both dread sitting down and writing up a shopping list. This website is great! Each week you get an email with some easy recipes. We just click on the ones we plan to cook, then print out the recipes. The best part is that you can also print out a shopping list for your selected recipes which is organized by store aisle. Last week's Kickin' Chicken was especially good, and we also loved the pasta we had on Valentine's Day. It is free, so sign up and give it a try. Thanks Katrina!

Valentines

2009-02-15T11:13:00.003-05:00

We had a lovely Valentine's day. It started out a little busy - Gina taught lessons and Thomas had a symphony rehearsal - but we had plenty of time to relax and have a delicious dinner in the afternoon.
We tried a new salad with feta, orange, and pistachio. It was so good.

And Gina's famous sundried tomato pasta with roasted red pepper cream sauce and shrimp.

For dessert: chocolate covered strawberries.

After dinner we attended (well Gina attended, Thomas performed in) a pops concert of Rodgers and Hammerstein show tunes.

Here's our handome oboist after the show.

It was a fun day. We love being together.

Seedy

2009-02-13T14:31:00.007-05:00

With 60 degree temperatures all week, it sure feels like spring around here. We did a little research online and saw that the frost free date for Greensboro is April 22, and that's only 9 1/2 weeks away. Time to start planting seeds!

You need vegetables to survive, so this type of project certainly takes precedence over dissertation writing.
You can see one of our future delicious dinners right here.

Mmm....

2009-02-06T15:17:00.007-05:00

Spanakopita! Gina made this recipe for lunch today. She used spinach instead of swiss chard because what the heck is swiss chard?
Thomas, there will be lots left over for you.

UPDATE: Gina didn't actually taste this spanakopita until later. Unfortunately, it turned out sort of gross. It looked and smelled great, but the spinach inside was really squishy and juicy. Yuk! Anyone out there have a better recipe?

Peace and Love

2009-02-03T09:56:00.002-05:00

For your information, this is the amount of snow it takes to close everything down in Greensboro. Gina's music appreciation students will be thrilled because they had a test scheduled for this morning.
With the whole morning freed up Gina decided to try cooking granola for breakfast. Like a big hippie! We didn't have maple syrup so she used a combination of molasses and Hungry Jack, which gave it a wierd taste. It was good though. We feel healthy.

3 Years

2009-02-02T20:32:00.007-05:00

Today is our 3 year anniversary. Instead of going to the zoo or taking the day off or having a nice dinner like a normal couple, we decided to stay home and get a bunch of work done. So, we rang in the new year with laundry, grocery shopping, a few hours of dissertation writing, and - this was horrible - consolidating our student loans.

But really every day is romantic when you're on Team P. We actually like eating leftovers and burnt pizza in front of the tv. Even better, there's a show on in 3D. What more could you want??

One last recital

2009-02-01T22:09:00.004-05:00

Tonight Gina played in her last performance as a UNCG student! She played Debussy's Cello Sonata and Dvorak's Piano Trio in F minor. With this last hurdle behind her, both she and Thomas are now "officially" ABD.

Truly, Gina's biggest concern was how she was going to manage turning her pages, because it was a little tricky. She should have taped her part up months ago, but she couldn't figure out how. Thomas solved the page-turn puzzle.
Getting ready for the Dvorak

After the concert with all the other recital performers: Deb (pianist), Dan (violin) and Andrea (soprano).

These pretty tulips were a gift from Thomas.

What a relief to be finished! The concert went great.

Happy Birthday Suzan!

2009-01-27T22:31:00.002-05:00

Gina's ma has a birthday today! She's relaxing on the beach in Mexico to celebrate. Mozart's birthday is also today, though he is much older and never went to Mexico. Happy birthday, you two!

Look here doubters!

2009-01-25T14:51:00.003-05:00

We are working on our dissertations for real. Check out our tidy desks. This is where Thomas does his great thinking.
This filing system keeps him organized.
Gina's desk is in the tv room. For all you scholars planning to write dissertations, it's definitely a bad idea to set up your dissertation desk in the tv room. Put the remotes out of reach.She has a filing system, too.
And a lavender candle provides stress relief.

MLK day

2009-01-19T12:33:00.006-05:00

This is a big day in our neighborhood! We walked up the street to watch the Martin Luther King day parade. It's a tradition.
Ronald McDonald was definitely the biggest celebrity in the parade.

There were some men in tiny cars Followed by some even smaller cars

Overall, Winnie enjoyed his first parade. He liked everything but the drums in the marching bands.

Delphi decided to stay home. We tried to bring her a couple years ago, but she got much too scared and she lost control of her body functions. Now she guards the house while we're gone.

We love how random people just ride in the parade

Motorcycle dudes

And the best part, the NC A+T marching band!

Daniel specially requested this video of the dancers.

The Big 1-00000

2009-01-15T20:09:00.003-05:00

Thomas' car has been getting close to a major milestone. All week long we found ourselves running unnecessary errands, hoping to land at 100K right in front of the house. Gina achieved this very same impressive feat of timing 2 years ago when she was driving back from Hilton Head and the car clicked over just as she pulled up to the house! Well, mission accomplished for Thomas. And congratulations to Prince the purple Neon. Thanks Varco for a great car.

Toblerone Cake

2009-01-10T13:55:00.007-05:00

Thomas found a good deal and bought 24 bars of Toblerone. To use some of it up, we baked this Toblerone cake, which was delicious. The warm gooshy chunks of chocolate inside the cake were the best part.

Christmas is over

2009-01-08T16:43:00.004-05:00

So we said goodbye to our beautiful tree.

Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

2009-01-07T18:37:00.003-05:00

Today it has been very windy and dark and dramatic outside. For most of the day we have been locked up in our rooms practicing, lesson planning, and thinking about our dissertations. Look what appeared in the sky!

Transatlantic Siedler

2009-01-03T20:27:00.005-05:00

We are embarrased about how dorky this is but it was fun. Today we played Settlers with Erika and Zach in Germany using Skype. We are technology wizards!

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T17:55:00.004-05:00

On New Year's Eve we played a concert of big band music with the symphony, then Thomas drove to the airport to pick up Daniel. He'll be visiting for a few weeks while he takes his comp exams.
Our first meal of the year at 2 am: Chocolate fondue and fresh fruit!

Sweet and Sour

2009-01-01T13:34:00.004-05:00

Just three days ago we were flipping through garden catalogs and Gina announced to Thomas that she desperately wanted to own a mini fruit tree. She wanted one so urgently that she thought about going to the nursery to purchase one right away, but she has a bad cold and felt too sick to go running around town. So she folded the page corner over and resolved to order one in the spring.
And lo and behold look at what arrived in the mail yesterday! A baby lemon tree from the Rudys! All packaged up in a fancy box with a heat pack so it wouldn't feel cold. How did they know? We are so delighted. We will be squeezing fresh lemonade from our new tree in no time.

Team P 2008 Year in Review

2009-01-01T10:43:00.005-05:00

Best new recipe
G: Sourdough bread from scratch
T: Rice pudding

Favorite meal
G: Giant wiener schnitzel in Vienna
T: Every meal

Least favorite meal
Broccoli rabe. Inedible for Thomas

Flavors of pie eaten
Apple
Peach
Cherry
Pumpkin
Cherry Supreme
Chocolate Chess
Chocolate
Pecan

Things we were surprised to learn that Winnie will eat
Christmas tree, grapefruit, orange peel, banana peel, coffee

Worst smell of the year
December 26, 2008. Bella, after sneaking in to the kitchen and eating a plate of Christmas cookies

All the places we went
Charlottesville, Virginia
Salzburg and Vienna, Austria
Munich, Germany
Orlando, Florida
Bowmanville, Canada
All over Quebec, Canada (Gina)
Columbus, Ohio

Favorite new gadget
A three way tie: the Wii, the single-cup coffee machine, and Thomas' touch-screen phone that you can watch tv on

Favorite game
Tie: Settlers of Catan and Mario Kart

Favorite new hobby
T: photography
G: sewing

Best career news
G: Getting a job teaching Music Appreciation, going on string quartet tour with great salary
T: Subbing as principal with Winston-Salem Symphony, becoming a founding member of Relevents Wind Quintet

Pounds lost: 20 (all by Thomas)
Most miles run in a row: 14 (again, Thomas)

Favorite outfit
T: flannel shirt and 32-waist jeans
G: grey raincoat from H+M

Number of music students
4 piano
6 cello

Best home improvement
Adding a vegetable garden

Head count
People: 2. Thomas and Gina
Dogs: 3. Bella, Delphi, and Winnie
Fish: maybe 20? And 1 shrimp
Frogs: 4. Scheidt, Schuetz, Meaghan, and Scott
In memory of many fish, a newt named Fig, and several frogs

Favorite blog post of the year
Click here

Funniest moment of the year
Winnie blowing himself over with a big sneeze

What we're looking forward to in 2009
Ikea opening in Charlotte
Thomas' quintet tour to Germany, Switzerland, and France
Daniel and Elizabeth's wedding
Graduating for real

We're hard at work on our dissertations!

2008-12-28T11:38:00.005-05:00

And also installing shelves, working on art Sudoku,
and completing a puzzle of Greece.

Ho ho ho!

2008-12-25T20:23:00.002-05:00

Our famous Christmas eve dinner featuring ham, corn, rice, greek salad, and greek bread, along with Coke and apple-mango sparkling cider. Delicious and original!

Our giant roast beast.

The smokey man joined us for dinner.

Santa brought the dogs the best bones ever.

We spent the day today at Meaghan and Scott's. After a great brunch and fun gift exchange we played Settlers and Gina won.
It was our first Christmas in Greensboro. We missed seeing both our families (and we also missed going here), but we still had a wonderful day. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas Eve!

2008-12-24T10:15:00.003-05:00

Our plans for the day include all of these materials. Who can guess what we're working on?

Takin' it easy

2008-12-22T17:01:00.004-05:00

We're finally done with all of our holiday concerts and we both have the next few days off. It feels wonderful to relax a little.

Christmas with the Pezzolis

2008-12-22T16:47:00.005-05:00

This weekend Gina's parents and Oma came to celebrate Christmas. They brought tons and tons of gifts which made the tree look very festive.

On Sunday morning we feasted on Gina's famous breakfast casserole. Bella made herself comfortable while presents were opened. And Oma looked very cute in her new puffy coat.

Piano Recital

2008-12-15T22:53:00.008-05:00

On Saturday morning we had a recital for our 4 piano students. We didn't get any pictures during the recital because we were running around, but it was a big success. Our students were great little performers and they played beautifully.

We filled the living room with chairs and moved the piano so that the parents could see their kids' hands.
It was short and sweet! After everyone played, which took 10 minutes, we had a little reception.

We gave the students CDs of piano music so they will be inspired to practice more.

It was a nice way to mark the end of the year. Thanks Monica for your advice and thank you Meaghan for the punch bowl and holiday tunes!