The game that shall live in infamy

Last week seemed really busy at the time, but of course, we don't remember why now. So, we'll just assume it was really interesting. (Actually, I think it was more like: work late, work late, grocery shopping, pick-up basketball). But we'll leave it to your imagination instead.

Eric's parents, as well as Matt, came to visit for the weekend. On Saturday, Eric and his dad installed a new water heater for the house (which turned into an all day project), while the rest of us relaxed (I mean, supervised the home improvement project) and did some shopping.

Early on Sunday, Eric hung out with his family while Kim went to Laura's first birthday party. She was sound asleep for most of the party - and seemed very surprised at all of the people who mysteriously appeared in the house!


We went to the Bears vs. Bengals game on Sunday afternoon...but that's not a game we really want to mention. Good thing we took these smiling pictures before the game!



Current gas price: $2.51/gallon

Painting = success!

We did it - the exterior trim is completely painted! Even the 20 foot peaks. (Thanks in part to the handy extension pole we borrowed from Kim's mom and dad). We looked pretty goofy - standing on a 10 foot A-frame ladder with a 20-foot extension pole, but hey, it got the job done. We're hoping to be out of this house before it needs to be painted again...and with any luck, we'll move into a house where they've just painted so we don't have to!

Yesterday, Kim walked 3.1 miles for the American Cancer Society's Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk. She went with two of her coworkers, and walked the loop across the river and around downtown with several thousand other people. It was a very neat experience - and great exercise early in the morning!

While Kim was walking, Eric went over to her dad's to work on a woodworking project (insert manly grunt here). The two of them are building a workbench for dad's garage, and Eric really enjoyed playing with all the power tools we don't own.

It was c-o-l-d here this week, so we're looking forward to seeing temps in the low 60s return this week. Might as well enjoy it while we can!

Current gas price: $2.55/gallon

Painting overload

Maybe a better title for this post would have been "rain, rain, go away". It was a pretty wet week, and we got over three inches (according to our handy rain gauge) in a 24-hour period. Needless to say, we spent most of the week inside.

Back to the actual title of our post...we spent the better part of the weekend painting. The good news is that we're about 75% done painting the exterior trim. The bad news is we're really tired of scaling ladders and holding paint brushes high over our head.




We saved the three highest peaks for last (bad idea), and even with our ladder as high as it could safely go and an extension rod on the paint roller/brush, we couldn't quite reach the top of the tallest peak. Guess we'll be calling in someone else to take care of those last three feet. The good news is that we only have one peak to go...and hopefully we get that done (except for the top three feet!) next weekend before it gets really cold.



As for the rest of the weekend, Kim and her mom went to the Sauerkraut festival on Saturday morning and spent about two hours walking through the craft and food booths. While they were there, Eric helped Kim's dad with a woodworking project.

Congratulations to our nephew Ty on his baptism today. Wish we could have been there!

Current gas price: $2.49/gallon.

Octoberfest

October? Already? How is that even possible? Autumn has definitely arrived in the Midwest, with morning temperatures in the upper 30s/low 40s and afternoon highs in the 60s. While it's chilly (especially considering we were in the mid 70s a week or two ago), it's a nice change - it's brisk, the leaves are turning and the starry nights are gorgeous. But I digress from our week.

On Wednesday afternoon, Kim left for a conference (yes, another one) in the middle of nowhere Ohio (seriously). It was about a three hour drive, but traffic was decent so she made good time. Wednesday night was a meet-and-greet and a dinner with a speaker. Thursday was full of sessions, including one Kim presented at. (No one fell asleep, and there were several questions, so we'll take that to be a good sign). After her presentation, she booked it home so we could go out to celebrate Dad's birthday.

Saturday morning, we worked on painting more of the trim (yes, again - it's a slow moving project). We got the 20 foot ladder up and got the big peak above the den. And as we were climbing onto the roof, our neighbor yelled "Got your insurance cards handy?" Ha. He's hilarious. Though, he did offer to lend us his 32-foot ladder when we get to the bigger peaks. I think we'll have to take him up on that. (In case you're counting, we have 3 peaks to go). Saturday night, we went to a local comedy club, and we laughed ourselves silly (at the comics and the heckler in the audience). Sunday, of course, was all football - all the time.

Current gas price: $2.21/gallon