Dog Tales

Happy autumn! While the season has officially changed, the weather seems to be a bit undecided still. We've had some very chilly mornings (in the low 50s, probably), followed by some very warm afternoons and evenings (mid 80s). Though today felt like a gorgeous fall day...so maybe the temperatures are starting to even out!

Our biggest news this week is that Peanut has been quite ornery. It started on Thursday night while he was getting a bath. Peanut was in the tub and, after Kim sprayed him down, she turned to get the doggie shampoo. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a wet dog go flying through the air, land on the tile floor and shake all over the place. Ugh. Keep in mind this dog has never, ever gotten in or out of the tub himself...he always gets picked up.

Not an hour later, we finished eating dinner (burgers) and were cleaning up. We heard a commotion by the table and low and behold, the last burger was miraculously gone. Any guesses where it went? Apparently that wasn't enough to eat since about 15 minutes later he ate a band-aid off of the coffee table. Needless to say, he got thrown in doggie jail for the rest of the night. He knew he was in trouble, too, because he actually walked himself to his crate and didn't make a peep until we let him out at bedtime.

Since he was on such a roll, he decided to continue the naughty streak today. We spent some time at the Garlic Festival this afternoon (this area has such great festivals...and food!), and we came home to find our white out pen in approximately 100 small plastic pieces. Peanut must be an engineer at heart and is just curious to see how things work. Luckily for him, it's impossible to be mad at him. Just look at this face!



As for the rest of our week, it was pretty uneventful. On Saturday, Kim went to see her friend Barbi. They had a great time catching up and chatting...and keeping an eye on Evan, Barbi's two-and-a-half year old. Evan is lots of fun (and full of energy)...not to mention adorable :) While Kim was gone, Eric got his oil changed and found a new stereo for his car radio. It took him awhile to get it installed, but it's working now!

After going to the Garlic Festival today, we've been watching a lot of football. The Bears play the night game, and we're hoping for a win. We realized that we'd flown both of our Bears flags the first week of the season (when the won), but not the last two weekends (both losses). So even though it's dark, the flags are both flying tonight. Keep your fingers crossed!





Edited to add: The flags worked! Go Bears!


Current gas price: $3.74/gallon

Blackout 2008

What a week! In our post last week, we mentioned that our power had been flickering all day, but we had survived an actual power outage. Wrong. We joined the 300,000 people in town (and over 2 million people in the region) without power.

Rather than rehash the story, here are some excerpts from e-mails we sent to family earlier this week:

Monday night (9/15)
We lost power at about 6 p.m. (as dinner was in the oven) last night, and we were one of the "lucky" ones as most of town had been without power since 2 p.m. The power company is saying it could be several days before everyone is up and running again...I guess we'll see! Eric and I both went to work today. His office is apparently powered by a grid that wasn't affected, and my office is running on generators.

Tuesday morning (9/16)
Still no power here. They're now saying it could be well into the weekend or even next week before everyone is up and running again. Our area had also sent several crews to Houston to help with the Ike aftermath before we had problems here. Needless to say, those people are headed back now and several hundred electricians from surrounding states have descended in the area to help with repairs. I'm so thankful for the crews -- apparently they're working 16 hour shifts, followed by 8 hours of rest, and then they're on for 16 hours again. We cooked chicken on the grill last night, but that in and of itself was an adventure as the grill started spilling flames out the front. Eric's going to stop at the store on the way home and see if they have any grills in stock. Keep your fingers crossed! We're trying to delay eating peanut butter sandwiches for as long as possible :)

Tuesday night (9/16)
Great news -- power was restored to our neighborhood this evening. We ended up throwing out most of the food in our fridge and freezer since power had been out for about 48 hours, so we need to do a grocery trip before too long. We had actually planned to go shopping Sunday afternoon before the storm started...and I'm so glad we decided to wait!

Update as of today (9/22)
About 30,000 people in town are still without power...including some of our friends and coworkers. Frustrations and tensions are high, especially as the power company announced our rates will be increasing to cover some of these costs (because clearly it was our fault Mother Nature blew in and wreaked havoc).

And now for the rest of our week...
We had planned a get-away for this weekend long before our power issues. However, the timing worked out well as we were glad to get away for two days! We dropped Peanut off at the doggie hotel early Saturday morning and headed north to Chicago. We ran into one detour along the way as I-90 was closed due to flooding (thanks again, Ike). But, we made it to the city safely and in pretty good time. Our first stop was to the Oriental Theatre to see the Broadway musical Wicked. The costumes and music were wonderful, and we really enjoyed the performance. (Eric was a bit irked that he was one of the most dressed up people in a shirt and tie...fortunately, he survived.)

Sunday was time for the Bears game! We left our hotel bright and early so we were sure to get to Soldier Field on time. Since we were early, we took a stroll down by Lake Michigan and enjoyed the beautiful day.




Then it was game time! It was unseasonably warm (10 degrees above normal), so we were pretty warm. To keep cool, Kim bought a Bears hat while Eric wore the free "headset" given out at the door :) Guess who got more sunburned!



We cheered the Bears on all game (and our lack of voices prove it), but unfortunately it wasn't enough...the Bears blew a 10 point lead with less than five minutes to go and ended up losing the game in overtime. While we wish the outcome

Current gas price: $3.87/gallon.

Car problems and a windy weekend

In typical fashion when it comes to problems, when it rains, it pours. We spent most of the week dealing with some problems with Kim's car. On her way home from work on Monday, the check engine light came on. She dropped the car off on Tuesday, and the car people didn't seemed too concerned about the light since she hadn't been experiencing any problems with or noticed any noises. She got a call later that the problem was worse than they thought: the gaskets needed to be replaced as they were letting too much air into the engine, making it run hot. They ordered the parts, but it wasn't a big problem...Kim could drive the car until the parts came in.

So, Kim picked up her car after work and headed home. Then as she was stopped at a stoplight at a busy intersection, and the car completely died. After a few (scary) minutes, she was miraculously able to get it started and made her way to the nearest parking lot. Eric left work early to come rescue her, and a tow truck finally arrived two (yes, two) hours later.

The next day, the car place determined an air flow sensor was also malfunctioning, which is what caused the engine to shut off. We finally got the car back on Saturday, and it seems to be driving great so far (knock on wood)!

Of course in all this mess, we still had to go to work, attend a wedding rehearsal out of town, and then go to the wedding yesterday. *phew*. We had a great time at the wedding, and we're so glad that we could help Allie and Ryan celebrate their big day.

Today we're recuperating from the week -- and of course, watching football. Even Peanut got in on the festivities!



Thanks to Hurricane Ike, we've also had to deal with gale force winds today. We're having constant winds between 25 and 40 MPH, with gusts over 60 MPH. So far, we've lost one of the trunks to the white birch in the front yard, a branch to the new zelkova in the back, and a couple shingles. We also lost power for a few minutes, but we're back on now. Keep your fingers crossed that's the extent of the damage.



Current gas price: $3.99 (boo on Hurricane Ike!)

Updated kitchen and weekend fun

The work week was pretty uneventful as we spent most of our time prepping for a big BBQ at our house on Saturday. We did, however, get hardware installed on the kitchen cabinets. We love the new look, as it really seems to modernize the look. Unfortunately, now it really makes us want new countertops! We had planned to buy new lights for the kitchen, but that didn't end up happening. When we went back to buy them, we decided we didn't love them as much as we originally thought. Oh well, plenty of time for that! Here's an after picture of the cabinets (see last week's entry for a before photo):



As we mentioned, we had a big BBQ at our house on Saturday, and we invited friends from both of our offices to join us. One of Eric's coworkers actually flew in from Florida and another drove in from Cleveland. Apparently we're popular :) Since there were so many out-of-towners, Eric and some of his coworkers decided to hang out on Friday as well. It was a late night for them!

We spent all day Saturday cooking and cleaning before the party. We also took a few minutes to christen the new cornhole set:





Everyone seemed to have a great time at the party, and we were glad that we were able to get everyone together. We had waaaaay more food and drinks than necessary, though. Looks like we'll be eating hamburgers and drinking soda for several weeks.

Today we're meeting up with two other couples for dinner and to see the Journey concert. Unfortunately, the concert doesn't even start until seven, so it's going to be a late night for us. And we're going to miss the first regular season Bears game. :( Go Bears!

Current gas price: $3.51/gallon.

Canoes and Barbecues

I guess technically we're a day late with our blog, but since it's still the long weekend, it counts!

Kim's dad stayed with us until Tuesday, so we got to spend the early part of the week with him. Our new stove was delivered and installed, and we love it. Okay, fine, we haven't actually cooked out it yet since we've had other activities every night this week, but it looks great in the kitchen!



Saturday we cleaned the house and finally mowed the lawn. Since it's been so dry, it's probably been a month or so since we've done that... Although there are still some huge brown patches, at least the "grass" is all one length now! We've also been watering it a few times a week in hopes of getting it to green up before we have a cook out at our house next weekend. It's probably futile, but oh well. On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Danielle's house to celebrate her law school graduation.

We woke up on Sunday morning to the great news that we're now Aunt Kim and Uncle Eric! We're very excited and can't wait to meet our new niece...who has yet to be officially named :)

We then decided to do something spontaneous and find a place to go canoeing/kayaking. We lucked out and found one about 30 minutes away and we took the two hour canoe trip down the Little Miami. (They also offer four hour and all day rentals...might have to try one of those next time!) We had a great time floating down the river, and there was only one spot that was so low we had to get out and push. (Did we mention that we could use some rain here?) We hope to get a group of friends together to go again soon!






Last night we went to an office cookout at Kim's coworkers. He and his wife throw great parties and make delicious food, so we ate really well! There was a cornhole tournament, a bonfire, and lots of laughs.

Today is probably going to be house project day. We need to get longer screws for the hardware we bought for the kitchen cabinets, and we need to go buy the new lights we picked out for the dining room and living room. Unfortunately, we're probably going to have to find someone with scaffolding to install them...the cathedral ceilings are great until you have to attach something at the peak! We're also putting our last coat of paint on our cornhole set, so hopefully we'll have pictures of that soon.

Current gas price: $3.61/gallon.