Heart Breaker

I was looking through some photos Lisa shared with me from her graduation. She took the time to scan in many pictures (Thanks!) for a memory board. This one in particular is just awesome. This is Scoter when he was just a little puppy. What a little heart breaker!


Oh, and this marks post 100 - I guess that counts as a significant milestone.

This is probably a good time to take a pulse on how we're doing in the rat race.

• Jessi is working part-time as a teacher so she can focus more energy on her business, Univera. Like any start-up it's a slow start, but Jessi is making progress. Thankfully we have a team in place to provide moral, tactical and spiritual support.
  
• We're deep in the process of looking at real estate (know of any good duplexes?). We've really only looked at 30 or so places, so we still have a ways to go. According to Dolf de Roos, the law of large numbers is 100-10-3-1: look at 100; submit offers on 10; have 3 actually considered; and buy 1. Our goal is to purchase something in '08 and with October just around the corner we need to pick this up.
  
• I still have an unhealthy level of enthusiasm for creating a profitable website business.
• I'm slowing down with Bob the Autographer. I met my goals for the company and don't think I have the energy to scale it to a level where it becomes a self-sustaining business. The rat race is about creating passive income and the economies of scale required to reach that level are quite daunting.
  
• 401Ks and IRAs are going strong
• We're both eating healthier and exercising more
• We've both been able to volunteer at our church.

Overall, I say we're making progress, though it seems slow from day to day. We have a great foundation set and we really need to start focusing on our projects to help them grow.

Top ten cookies

After dinner tonight James and I got into a discussion of our top ten favorite cookies. Not together, but we each had our own top ten lists...It was deliciously fun to talk about the best cookies in the world so I decided to share them. Here it goes...

Jessi's top ten favorite kinds of cookies

(Keep in mind this list could probably go on forever. These are just the kinds of cookies I could eat mountains of.)

1. Danish butter cookies with sugar crystalsThese cookies are so buttery and delicious. I find myself always saying, "Oh, I will just have one or two" and before I know it the whole tin is gone :)

2. hot peanut butter homemade

I pretty much love anything with peanut butter in it. My favorite food is banana's with peanut butter, but these cookies are so good when they are just falling apart. I like to wash them down with icy milk.





3. fudge stripe cookies


For store bought cookies these are probably the ones I buy the most of. I like them cause they are slightly crunchy but still smooth.







4. pecan sandies

Crunchy, sweet, nutty, great dipped in milk. Nuff said.





5. fudge dipped oreos

I actually haven't had these in years, but I remember as a kid always wanting to buy them and we only got them one of two times. And I probably ate most of the package by myself. I don't even know if they make them anymore...but I should look for them...yum.





6. mexican wedding cookies

My sister used to make these when we were younger for potlucks and bake offs...they are so powdery and tasty. I think the recipe is pretty much butter, flour and powdered sugar...nothing bad about it.





7. warm, soft molasses cookies

This is probably the one cookie I am particularly picky about. I like them only homemade and they can't be overdone or underdone at all. It has to be the perfect thickness and chewyness and I only really like them just out of the oven. But if all those things are just right...it is totally worth it.





8. girl scout samoas

I know most people think I am nuts, but this is the only girl scout cookie I really like. That's all I have to say about that.








9. safeway cookies with inch of frosting

I can really only eat about one of these cookies before I feel sick...but it was totally delicious while I was eating it. I think it is the excessive amount of frosting on the top. I wish I could eat more...it is just too good.







10. circus cookies

Circus cookies...classic...I could eat a whole bag of these if I wasn't paying attention.






So, there you have it. The best cookies in the world according to Jessi Furlo.

Thanks for reading.

Jessi

Transparent Screens

Jessi was using Stumbleupon this evening and came across a cool slide show where this person had images continuing out of a computer screen. It's very well done and Jessi wanted to know how it was done. So, we decided to play around and following are our two results. Not bad.

Our first attempt:

Our second attempt:

Here's the link to the original art. His is much better.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/w00kie/sets/180637/show/

Lasagna mania

Ok, I know that when I post I really post...this is the last one for now...I promise.

I was just going though some pictures on the camera and noticed some that James had taken of me making lasagna recently.

This is not just any old lasagna though...this is lasagna from "My Treasury of Recipes" Volume 2 written by James' Grandma Furlo. I was so excited to get the collection of recipes when James and I got married...I felt like I was truly being initiated into the Furlo clan. I did not however, fully experience the initiation until I actually opened the cookbook in order to cook something.

On first glance I noticed several things about the recipe and the cookbook in general that tipped me off that this was not going to be a "novice recipe".

Number one, after each line in the recipe it said "see instructions on attached page".

Number two, the red sauce to be layered in the lasagna called for "1 gallon of tomato sauce (pureed tomato could be substituted)" as well as several other things. At this point I stopped and thought to myself..."oh my gosh, how much lasagna is this going to make?"

Number three, there were no step by step instructions to be found anywhere...not even for other recipes in the book. James' response to this one was, "by the time you get to the level of cooking in my Grandma's cookbook she assumes you already know how to cook."


Having never made lasagna before I was a little worried by this time. I decided to throw all caution to the wind and try it anyway. After going to the grocery store and buying enough lasagna supplies for what seemed like would feed 30 people, I began putting the ingredients together. I am still not sure if I did everything "correctly" but the lasagna turned out to be delicious. We were able to share it with our good friends for dinner that night. And I can say with confidence now that, yes, I am truly a Furlo and can't wait to try the next recipe.

Thanks for reading,

Jessi

p.s. No, I will not share the lasagna recipe with you...you will have to become a legal Furlo (with proof) before you will get anywhere near these recipes...believe me, I know.

Art day

Since beginning to work part time I have officially claimed Fridays as "art days". This could mean a variety of different things but in general it means I get to research and do things related to painting, ceramics, sculpture and pretty much any other form of art that distracts my interest. On my first art day I researched pottery wheels and kilns. Let's just say I will have to wait a few more art days in order to save up for the equipment that I want. Which for the time being is ok since our apartment is kind of small and I really would like a separate art studio before I go all out.

I have currently been entertaining myself with two on going projects. One is a scrapbook of our trip to Paris...I must thank one of our good friends, Kellie Parry, for getting me into scrapbooking...I always watched from a distance when others put together projects like these while secretly hording paper memorabilia in hopes of someday making something great with it. I have started down the long and addicting path of scrapbooking and don't feel compelled to leave it anytime soon.

My other project is a series of miniature black and white acrylic paintings that focus on religious clip art. I noticed the clip art in one of the bulletins from James' church in California a while ago and I liked the idealized images that represented passages of scripture and messages throughout that week's bulletin. The images were simple, concrete, black and white and yet somehow they looked so broken almost like a puzzle that was not quite put together all the way.

Anyway, I just liked looking at them and thought it would be a fun project to capture some of them in paint for a small series. I am sure when I am finished I will notice more profound things about the images and how they go together, but for now it is just nice to be painting again. The pictures are a preview of two of the paintings I have finished so far.

Jessi

The haircut

Hi...

I guess it has been a while. You might go as far as to say that I am a new person since the last time a wrote. I got married. I am working part time. I got a haircut. That's what this post is supposed to highlight. So without further ado...pictures of the finished product. That's if for now. I better add some more blog posts to make up for lost time.