Bird's Nest

On our porch.

You know I don't like birds.

Don't know what I'm gonna do when they hatch.

But they sure are purty for now.

Black Bean Salad

Black bean salad is one of our go-to weeknight meals. We make it at least once or twice a month. And I always take leftovers for lunch the next day. It's pretty much the only meatless meal that Lee will consider an actual meal.

And it's pretty darn healthy. I have no idea how many calories is in it (the tortilla chips and sour cream don't help), but eating all those veggies makes me feel good.

There are lots of different variations, but here's how we make it:

2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can of corn kernels, drained

1 or 2 bell peppers (any color), diced

1 tomato, diced

1 avocado, diced (optional)

Chopped fresh cilantro

A healthy splash of lime juice (my splash is more like a steady pour)

Salt and pepper to taste

Just throw everything into a bowl and stir. Serve with tortilla chips and sour cream. In this pic, Lee has also added salsa and guacamole to his bowl.

Memorial Day in Pictures

We spent the first half of the long weekend at the river and the second half at the beach. Beautiful weather. Good food. Quality time with family. We're both now sunburnt and 5 lbs heavier.

Please catch me a fish!

There is nothing more relaxing than riding bikes at Jarvis Landing.

Dad made THE BEST barbecue beef for Mom's birthday. This is him, doing what he loves best, in the place he loves best.

Umm, we'd like some please!

Beaufort dog

Lee is smiling in this picture after spending the day at Big Rock catching dolphin. But what you don't know is that he's still seasick from vomiting ALL. DAY. LONG. (They stopped counting after 12 times.) Deep sea fishing and Lee Wade = not so much. Also, his shorts are very short and his legs are very burnt. Love you babe!

Nice Rock

This is the current state of my car.

You see that thing there, in the bumper? That's a rock. I mean boulder.

It came bouncing down I-40 on my way to work one morning and decided to lodge itself into my bumper.

Also please notice that half of my hood emblem decided to peel off a few months ago. Lee ordered me a new one about two days before the rock incident. Now I think it's safe to say we've got bigger fish to fry.

My car is officially ghetto.

And will remain that way until at least next week, when the new parts will be in. In the meantime, you can find me on 40, rockin' the rock.

Tightwad Tuesday

Two tightwad items to tell you about this week:

1. Last week was "super double" coupon week at the Teeter. Usually, Harris Teeter doubles coupons up to $0.99, but every once in a while they do a promo where they double coupons up to $1.98. This makes me really excited to use my $1.00 and $1.50 coupons. I think I like super doubles even more than triples. Here's some of what I got:

• 2 free bottles of Vitamin Water
• 2 free Yakisoba ramen noodle meals
• 1 free Wholly Guacamole
• $0.55 bottle of Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce (normally $3.55)
• $0.50 bottle of fancy Girard's salad dressing (normally $4.29)
• $0.65 bottle of Pert Plus Men's shampoo + conditioner (normally $3.65)

Total before coupons was $62.24, price after coupons and VIC savings was $22.52 (I bought 20 different items). Not too shabby.

One thing to note though -- I don't normally shop at HT unless they're running one of their coupon specials. And even then, I usually buy only the items that I have coupons for and whatever other necessities I might need. But we buy the bulk of our groceries for the week at Walmart because it's so much cheaper there.

2. Have you heard about Chick-fil-A's new spicy chicken sandwich? It debuts next week and you can reserve your FREE sandwich now. Just go to http://www.getspicychicken.com/, enter your zip code to reserve your sandwich.

Of course, I used two different email addresses and reserved a sandwich for both Lee and myself. It would be nice if you didn't have to specify when you're going to go get your sandwich, but I can understand where they're coming from (trying to avoid a KFC Oprah coupon fiasco perhaps?). I'm not a huge spicy person, so I have a feeling I'll be sticking with my classic #1 sandwich, but for free I am sure willing to give it a try.

Say Cheese

We welcomed this bad boy into our home this weekend:

We have a pretty nice Sony point-and-shoot camera that Lee gave me for Christmas two years ago, but I've been wanting to upgrade to a digital SLR for a while now.

With our Australia trip coming up in the fall, I wanted to get a new camera in time for the trip and with PLENTY of time beforehand to actually learn how to use the thing.

Lee wasn't too keen on the idea of a new camera, but I am pretty persuasive and there was a PowerPoint presentation involved. He went from being pretty much against it to more excited than me when it actually came time to buy it.

I've been doing my research and talking to lots of SLR-toting friends and coworkers and had it narrowed down to pretty much two choices -- the Canon T1i or the Nikon D5000. I wanted to compare them in person, so off we went to hhgregg. For various reasons, we decided on the Nikon.

Being the cheapskate savvy shopper that I am, I was fully prepared to pick out what I wanted in-store and then buy elsewhere online. But hhgregg's price was only about $25 dollars more than the cheapest price I had found online, and they offer a really good protection plan that I couldn't get online. They wouldn't match the online price, but they did meet me halfway and with the shipping I would have had to pay, it came out to be about even.

We went for the protection plan -- if the camera gets dropped, broken, eaten by a kangaroo, you bring it back in and they give you a new one -- that peace of mind is worth every penny of the $79 we paid for the plan.

We've only had her for two days, but one thing is certain -- I have a LOT to learn. I'm off now to start reading the 500 page owner's manual, wish me luck.

Sunday Funday

This was the first weekend we've been home in what seems like forever, so I was excited to get some things done around the house and crossed off the To Do list.

But I ended up having to work this weekend, so I spent most of yesterday working and the rest of the day cleaning up the house. When I went to bed last night with the house finally clean, the laundry done and my work project in a somewhat stable condition, I was determined to get the most out of my Sunday: a little relaxing, a little fun and getting some projects done.

We woke up to the sound of thunder this morning, but it was actually kind of nice to lay in bed and listen to the storm (even though I wouldn't have minded sleeping in a little longer). The storm passed and we decided to get out and about.

We hit up HHGregg, Lowe's, Panera for lunch and then the NC Ag Fest at the state fairgrounds. The Ag Fest was pretty much a lot of people milling around for free samples of barbecue sauce, but the petting zoo made the trip totally worth it.

This thing had the longest neck ever:

I'm not sure what this is but I want one:

Sally the camel has two humps:

He was cute too:

But these little piglets were the cutest:

And, we're flying halfway around the world to see one of these guys when there was one here in Raleigh all along:

After the Ag Fest, we hit up The Meat House, a new fancy butcher shop in Cary, for some delicious marinated meats (we had a gift certificate). We also picked up two cold glass bottle Cokes there -- they were the best.

For dinner Lee cooked the marinated steak tips, along with asparagus and bruschetta.

And, if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may already know that our day also included a purchase I've been plotting for for a long time. More on that tomorrow...