Summer lovin'

This weekend seemed to be the perfect summer weekend. We had so much fun...and it's hard to believe it's time to go back to work already! But before we get to the weekend, here's what the rest of our week looked like:

Tuesday: Kim organized a puppy play date for all the office dogs (and their owners) at one of the local dog parks. Of course, it was 87 degrees on Tuesday, but there was a decent breeze, there was shade at the park, and they finally installed a doggie water fountain. Peanut had a good time playing with Doc, Duke, Ninja and Bailey. At one point, he "disappeared", and when Kim went to find him, he was taking a cat (dog?) nap. As soon as he realized Kim was standing there, though, he bolted across the park - as if to say "Mom, I'm not ready to go yet!"

On the home front, Eric was working with our favorite HVAC guys on the a/c. Yup, it still wasn't working correctly. It's a long, boring story, but the short of it is that after spending an hour in our sweltering attic they identified and solved the problem, and it's working like a charm now. The problem was apparently original to the house; it just never got caught until now.

Wedesday: After work we had our friends Mike and Katie over to grill out and play cornhole. Unfortunately, we lost. Guess we'll need to have more BBQs so we can practice!

Thursday: We met our friend Danielle for dinner. Since she's been busying studying to take a bar exam for a neighboring state, and we haven't gotten to see much of her lately.

Saturday: Ran errands in the morning, and did exciting home projects like cleaning out our dryer vent (you know you're jealous). Then we headed to Mike and Erin's to hang out, eat delicious pizza from a local pizza place and play Wii.

Sunday: Eric headed to his first soccer game (they lost) while Kim went to her parents' new house to help her dad unload some boxes. Afterwards, we jumped in the car and headed to the river to meet up with some friends for a 3 mile canoe trip. We had a blast! I definitely think that's an excursion we'll plan with friends again. Then Julia and Tony invited us to their place to grill out and go swimming. Needless to say, we're a bit tired tonight!



Current gas price: $2.43/gallon

Happy Father's Day!

Wow, here we are nearing the end of June already. Not sure how that happened so quickly!

Kim's parents were in town on a house-hunting mission last week. As it turns out, their search was successful, and it's likely they'll be our neighbors next month. Well, not technically our neighbor (or even in our neighborhood), but that's a minor detail. We enjoyed spending some time with them last week, and are looking forward to seeing them more often when they get settled. (We'll also get to see plenty of them next month as we've already been recruited to do some painting and tiling!)

This week, the weather finally decided it wanted to feel like summer. So on Thursday night, we decided to suck it up and finally turn on the a/c. It kicked on, we went to bed, and thought nothing else of it. Until we got home from work on Friday and it was hot in the house. And we mean HOT. Air was coming out of the vents, but it was lukewarm at best. Not a good sign. We called the guy who installed the new unit for us in the fall (a friend of a friend), and he suggested replacing the fuses in the a/c. So we ran to the hardware store, found the right fuses, came home, installed them, and waited. No dice. Fortunately, between the fans going full blast and the "cooler" night time air, we were able to fall asleep.

Saturday morning, we call the a/c guy back, but the earliest he can come over is after dinner. No problem. Kim worked in the flower bed and yard while Eric worked on some projects inside. Then we went to see The Hangover at the movie theatre. The movie started off on the wrong foot as all of the previews were for freakishly scary horror movies (No really, even Eric thought they were bad.). Who goes to see a comedy and wants to see trailers for scary movies? Shortly after we got home, the a/c guy came by. Unfortunately, he had an idea of what the problem was but wasn't equipped to fix it. He promised to send a co-worker over in the morning.

Bright and early this morning, two more a/c guys showed up. And an hour later, our a/c is working. Hooray! The problem had to do with the fact that it was a new a/c and sometimes too much pressure (?) gets in the line the first time it gets used, causing something inside the unit to trip. At least, I think that's what they said. But no matter...it's working now, and that's what counts.

We spent the rest of the day doing odd jobs around the house (recaulking around the sinks and bathtubs, cleaning the baseboards and other random things). Eric's at his first soccer game right now, but when he gets home, we'll be grilling steaks and enjoying the last few hours of the weekend. Happy Father's Day to all the dads, grandpas, and uncles out there.

Current gas price: $2.59/gallon

Whirlwind Weekend

The highlight of last week was our weekend - and our visits with family. Rather than use up a lot of words for this blog, we'll just share our weekend in pictures.

We left our house early Saturday morning and met Matt and Morgan for brunch at a quaint little cafe. Both the food and the company were excellent (Mmmm, berry crepes with chocolate).

Then we drove to see Eric's family, and got to spend a lot of time with our adorable little niece. Kim got to have a photo shoot with little Addison and ended up taking a LOT of pics. (With such a cute subject to work with, can you blame her?!).









On Sunday, we went to church and grilled out with family for lunch. Then all the girls attended Julie's baby shower while the boys...well, we're not quite sure what they did.









Current gas price: $2.65/gallon

Take us out to the ball game

The weather here was gorgeous this weekend; we hope you enjoyed the same thing! On Friday night, we met our friends Mike and Erin (and of course, little Leah) for dinner. Unfortunately, it was close to Leah's bedtime so we didn't get to hang out for long, but it was nice to catch up!

Saturday morning, Eric and Peanut headed to the vet while Kim headed to run errands. Peanut got a clean bill of health and four booster shots. He also has a shiny blue rabies vaccination tag for his collar. You can tell he thinks he's hot stuff ;)

After we both got home, we decided to go to The Greene for lunch. We sat outside to eat, and then headed over to the fountain in the square. We had a great time watching all the little kids run in and out of the fountain - and were amused to see some kids came prepared to play in the water (complete with swimsuits and goggles) while others obviously had not (in their frilly sundresses).

Not too much later, Kim's dad came by to pick us up, and we headed to the Reds/Cubs game. Kim's dad got tickets through his office and nicely invited us to join him. And boy are we glad we did! We didn't realize it until we got there, but the tickets were in the clubhouse, and it was a-ma-zing. There was a huge lobby area with free food (burgers, hot dogs, pizza, nachos, shrimp, pasta, pulled pork...you get the idea), so we sampled a little bit of everything.


Then we headed to our seats to watch the game. The starting pitcher was playing his first game in the major leagues, and he did a really good job.



And even better, he got a hit on his first at-bat, so his batting average was 1.000 (at least for two innings).


Today, we made our way to the Strawberry Festival - one of the biggest and tastiest of the season. Of course it was packed, but we managed to enjoy a wide variety of strawberry items (shortcake, ice cream, donuts, salsa, popcorn and lemonade are just a few of the many options).

[Editor's Update: Continuing with our baseball theme, Kim also got to have lunch with our friend Owen this week, who was in town for work. It was nice to catch up with him, and we're looking forward to seeing him again in October!]

Current gas price: $2.85/gallon.