A whole lot happening!

The past couple weeks have been crazy (mostly the past week I suppose). A couple weeks ago I took advantage of a 50 dollar price drop and sprung for the Xbox 360 I've been drooling over for a year. I briefly considered the PS3 after the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, but in the end I think I made the best choice. Yes, I realize the picture of me with my new baby is frightening, and yes - I am topless. It was over 85 degrees and humid, gimme a break!
Unfortunately I haven't had much time to play with my new toy because last week Friday we closed on our house! We're finally all moved in and now it's a huge mess. We haven't moved anything into the upstairs yet, and won't until I (with some help from Steph and her brother) refinish the floors upstairs. We ripped up carpet and the wood up there is painted, so it might take a week or so to get all that done. I'm excited to post more about the history of the house, the neighborhood, and all of our home improvements; but for now you should check out this little blurb on our new neighborhood - Eastown!

house pictures

We've got a tentative closing time of this Friday at 2 pm. We're thrilled, of course. Here are some pictures of the vacant house. The owner left us some nice surprises- A t.v. in the kitchen (which Steph hates), mounted kitchen radio w/ cd, some area rugs, porch chairs, a few tools, work bench, and a bunch of other stuff. Not bad. Here are some pictures!
For those of you reading this on Facebook, you might have to click on "view original post" above to see the pictures. That'll send you straight to the real blog.

The latest from our vegan kitchen

We got the Real Food Daily cookbook a few weeks ago and now we finally own more than one vegan cookbook. Dozens of vegan meals and goodies continue to flow from the Vanderzee kitchen. The following are a few I happened to have the camera around for.

This was a delicious tempeh meat loaf (that crumbled apart completely) with mashed potatoes and the best gravy I've EVER had (golden gravy from RFD).

Potato and kale enchiladas from Veganomicon with black beans -- don't worry it's Tofutti sour cream :)

Steph made a Falafel sandwich for lunch one day and said this tzatziki sauce was to die for. I had some leftovers later and agreed.

My own creation - mix a reuben sandwich with a smart dog and you get a reuben dog. Canned sauerkraut, and fresh rye bread from the Wealthy Street Bakery. Not bad. We also made the tempeh reubens from RFD a few days later and they were amazing. They were topped off with the homemade tofu ricotta and homemade thousand island dressing. Sadly, we didn't get pictures of those.

One of the only vegan feasts we've cooked for Steph's parents. These seitan enchiladas, black beans, and Spanish rice all got the meat-loving in-law seal of approval.

Giant Bombcast

Several months ago Jeff Gerstmann lost his job at the popular gaming website, Gamespot, under some very shady circumstances. Fortunately for gamers, he took some of his colleagues with him and started a new website and podcast that is much better, and much less in the pockets of game publishers. It's called Giant Bomb, and I've really been loving it the past few weeks. My favorite part is their podcast, called the Giant Bombcast, which is basically four or five "gaming experts" sitting around talking video games for an hour or two. It doesn't get much better than that.
In other gaming news - The Xbox 360 Pro is going down 5o dollars in price (to 299.99) very soon. See this for proof. I told Stephanie the good news, and she didn't seem quite as excited as I am. Oh well.

Happy Birthday Lola (and U.S.A.)

We've had our adorable little mutt for about 9 months now and we're not sure exactly how old she is. When we first got her, they told us she was about 3 months old, which would put her birthday around early July. I decided she certainly must have been born on the 4th of July because she has such undying love for America and all that it embodies. Here's to you Lola!

Coming up for air . . . and a house!

Yesterday I got home from work at 2:30 and the storm blew in about that time. After a few loud cracks of thunder I panicked and started to batten down the hatches (close the windows). While I was surfing the net, wasting time in the wonders of cyberspace, I heard a loud slamming door and the screen went blank. The power was out and I was submerged into a world of darkness. In some ways being without power can be a good thing. I was forced to light a candle, sit by the window and study Spanish (something I desperately need to do before my July 12 test). I suppose its nice to be reminded that we can survive without power, and it forces me to find other ways to waste/spend time. As for now, I'm cozied in at Kava House using he internet; feels like coming up for air.
A lot of this time has also been spent dreaming about or new house! We made an offer on one we really loved on Tuesday and later that night we heard that they had accepted our offer. Last night we had the inspection and it all went well. We should be closing sometime in the next few weeks. The place is a 100 year old 4 bedroom house in the East Town neighborhood of Grand Rapids, and we love it. It's one block from the main drag of East Town (Lake Drive) which is full of cool businesses and also major bus route. We talked to the owner for a while last night and he filled us in on some of the great neighbors and history of the house. It was really nice and we were grateful for his time and kindness. Obviously I'll be posting a lot more on this in the near future. 507 Norwood, here we come!