Ode to Frank

It was a very sad day a couple of days ago at the Tom & Chelsea Kruger household. A couple of years ago, we bought a beta fish at Walmart. He's been our pet for the past 2 years and unfortunately that time has come to an end. Frank has died and been put to rest in the big toilet bowl in the sky. This picture is a good representation of his living quarters for the past couple of years, except Frank was red not blue!

Frank used to be so fun. He was so active in his bowl. He would swim around like crazy, especially when we were in the room. A few months ago he started to slow down. I knew that was not good news. I knew it was getting bad when I cleaned his bowl and he still kind of sat there not doing anything.

We weren't allowed to have a dog at our apartment, so we chose Frank instead. He's been a great addition to our household for the 2 years we've had him.

My Soul Mate Sweetie

Earlier today I read all about my sister Ashley talk about her husband David. It was a lot of fun. Since most of the people that read this blog also read Ashley's you know exactly what I'm talking about! Now I get the same opportunity to talk about my sweetie!


What is his name? Thomas Juergan Kruger

Profession? Senior at the University of Utah. He will be graduating with his Mechanical Engineering Degree in May & will be starting a career soon after that at the Puget Sound Naval Base.

How long have you been married? 3 1/2 years now! We're not really newlyweds anymore, but we still act like it! Ask any of our family!

Who is older? (this question was added by Ashley, but I kept it in) I win more than anyone I know, even though I know a lot of girls that could answer yes to this question. I am 4 years older than Tom almost to the day. Tom's birthday is only 3 weeks after mine!

How long did you date: This question is a little tricky and I had to think about it. It all started with my 28th birthday (Jan 20) and we got engaged in July. So that makes it about 6 months, but Tom was living in Seattle for about 3 months of that time. Then we were engaged for about 3 months more. I guess it's your call of 3, 6, or 9 months!

Who eats more sweets? Well, right now it would be Tom, but only because I'm on a diet. Usually we both have the same neverending sweet tooth. Nummy! I wish we didn't.

Who's taller? Weeeellllllll, we're both kind of short. I always tell Tom if we ever end up with kids they stand no hope. But they'll be cute shorties! Tom's still taller than I am though, by several inches.

Who has more speeding tickets? I think him, since I only have one. But I'm not very sure about that. He's not here right now to ask.

Who can sing better? No idea. Based on the number of times each of us gets asked to sing it would be Tom, but I've been singing longer so who knows.

Who is smarter? That would be Tom as well. I married a very talented and intelligent man. He's very smart and hard working. I'm not a slouch in that department either though, if I do say so myself.

Who does the laundry? Me usually, we've gotten into kind of habit with that. Tom helps me put it away and he does mid-week loads though. He even cleans the bathroom and does the dishes. A saint among men!

Who pays the bills? That would definitely be me. We've learned there needs to be one person in charge of that particular responsibility or things get forgotten. I do it because I have the time and I don't have other distractions.

Who cooks dinner? This one is definitely half and half. We both do this depending on who has the time and the desire. Our favorite thing though is neither of us! We both like to cook on occasion, but not all the time.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I always hate this type of question. From which direction? The right side when we're in it or facing it? When we're in it, it's me. If you talking about when we're facing it, it's Tommy.

Who drives? Tom drives most of the time because he enjoys it so much. It's one of his relaxation mechanisms. Since I really don't care, I let him do that. It's actually kind of nice when we're traveling. I get to sleep, which a driving car puts me into very quickly. And Tom doesn't mind, good for me.

Who is more stubborn? Definitely a toss up. We're both hard headed, but we respect and love each other enough to be willing to compromise.

Who proposed? My loving romantic husband. Such a sweetie.

Who has more siblings? Me. I have 2 sisters & a brother, Tom has 2 brothers.

Who wears the pants? I'm lucky enough to say neither one of us or both of us. We work more like a team. This goes back to the stubborn thing. I'm way to stubborn and hard headed to allow anyone to tell me what to do, but I will make a joint decision.

Well, that's it. Tom, you know how much I love you. You make me very happy!

Tom's Birthday Week

Many of you might wonder, why I would title this blog "Tom's Birthday WEEK". The reason I say this is because I started celebrating his birthday at the beginning of the week. I started singing happy birthday to him on Sunday even though his birthday wasn't until Friday. Luckily for me and him he's used to me making a fool of myself with singing. I do it in the middle of Walmart sometimes. He is such a patient man with me. I'm just glad he loves me!

Tom told me previously that he wanted the first season of a show called Samarai Jack. This of course is a cartoon (those of you that know Tom won't have to ask why). Tom enjoys this show, but it is not terribly common or easy to find. I had to do a bit of looking to locate it in town. I didn't really want to have to order it, because I wanted him to be able to open it on his birthday. Well, I found it and it was a hit. Buying a present is so much easier when someone requests something specific!

For dinner on his birthday we went to a place called Cafe Rio. It's one of our favorite places to go for dinner. Tom loves mexican and I love their salads. I have a salad every time I go. I was very careful this time because of my weight loss goals. I was very careful with the dressing and I didn't eat the tortilla (even though they are freakin' nummy). I had my normal Pork salad & Tom had a burrito served enchilada style. I think we both really enjoyed it.

We then headed over to REI. This is an outdoor store, that sells anything outdoorsy. It's nirvana for Tom. He loves outdoor sports and entertainment. It turned out they were having a huge sale. So Tom got to buy himself a bike riding jacket. He wants to ride his bike when it cold outside. Nutty if you ask me, but I am totally supportive of him staying healthy in a way he enjoys.

Last but not least, was our trip to the U to shoot some pool. This is an activity that Tom has always enjoyed. I've become okay at it, although I'm still far from good at it. But we had a lot of fun teasing and cheering each other on. It was amazing how much time both of us spent chasing the last little ball around the table. It was kind of hilarious!

Well, happy birthday Babe! Here's to another year! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Thaifoon

On Friday Tom & I finally had our first taste of Thai food. This is something we've been wanting to try for a long time. Ashley used to tell me how much she liked Thai food and ever since then every time I would pass a Thai restaurant I would say the exact same thing to Tom: "I want to try Thai food sometime". After 2 million times of hearing the same thing over and over he finally got the hint. Just kidding....he wanted to try it too. It was a lot of fun. Plus it is suppose to be free. Tom's boss promised to buy us lunch because of all the help Tom did with their office move. We'll see if we ever see that money.

First of all, it's very important to know how much I love oriental food. It's one of my favorite things to eat. It doesn't really matter what version of oriental food we're talking about. I love them all. So, we walk into the restaurant and they have an indoor waterfall. By waterfall, I actually mean there is falling water coming down a transparent glass wall. Guess where we got to sit. Right next to it! Very cool. I love running water. Very cool ambiance.

Then there came the food. I got to try some soup, Miso Soup. Now, I don't know exactly what was in this soup. I know there was Tofu in it as well as some miscellaneous stuff. We have no idea. I would compare it to chicken broth with other stuff. I know, I'm great at the English language! We both had different individual dishes. Tom had "Firecracker Chicken". I think the name said it all. I tried a piece and had to drink my water and Tom's water to cool off my tongue. It was a bit much for me but Tom loved it. He'd order it again in a second. I had Pad Thai, which was chicken and shrimp over rice noodles. It was very good. I enjoyed it a lot.

For those of you that visit Salt Lake City, this restaurant is located at the Gateway mall near Barnes and Noble. It was a lot of fun and the food was very good. I would recommend it. The name of the restaurant is Thaifoon.

Of course I have no idea how genuine this cuisine is.