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

Baltimore and house projects

We have two separate updates for you this week. From Wednesday through Saturday, Kim was in Baltimore for a conference. She had a great time meeting other people in her field, attending socials/networking events and enjoying Baltimore. Her hotel room was right on the inner harbor, and this was the room out of the hotel window - gorgeous!



She also got to listen to a steel drum band play along the harbor, eat a LOT of fresh seafood and discover this gem:



While she was gone, Eric held down the fort at home. His big project was working on the attic. There was only plywood down on the floor over half of the attic, so the other half was unusable (not to mention that the drywall wasn't installed on the ceiling very well). So we decided to expand our usable storage space - and fix the drywall in the process. Eric and Kim's dad got most of the work done on Saturday...until Kim's dad got in a fight with a roofing nail (and lost). Five stitches later, he's fine...and he's even on speaking terms with Eric! They were able to finish the project and install the drywall today, so now we just need to tape, mud and paint the seams.

This morning, we also got some more painting done on the exterior trim. Kim painted the "low" parts (i.e. everything but the peak) on one side of the house. Now we're down to the four peaks: one over the garage, one over the den, and the two sides. Wish us luck with that.

And of course, we cheered the Bears on to victory this afternoon. It may not have been pretty, but a win is a win. Go Bears!

Current gas price: $2.35/gallon

Wedding weekend

Not sure how it got to be 10:30 p.m. so fast... Must be one of those weekends!

As for our week, Kim went to an appreciation dinner for her office on Thursday night. She enjoyed having dinner with her coworkers - especially since they served filet! Eric worked from home on Thursday since the exterminator came to check on the nest in our attic. It turns out it was a massive yellow jacket nest...but it was dormant. I'm not sure who was happier to find that out (Eric or the exterminator!). They also sprayed a bee's nest in the backyard, so hopefully there won't be as much activity out by the patio.j

On Saturday, we got up early and worked on painting more of the exterior trim. We got one of the peaks finished, as well as the trim around the garage door. We still need to do both sides of the house, and two more peaks in the front. With any luck, we'll be able to finish it all before it gets too cold to be outside.

After we finished painting, we quickly got ready to go to a wedding for our friends Julia and Tony. They had a beautiful ceremony and reception, and we had a great time celebrating with them.



This morning we had brunch with Kim's parents and grandparents (who are in town for a few days). Then we watched football and cheered the Bears on to a win over the Steelers! Definitely a good day in our house. Kim also (finally) finished her 2008 scrapbook, so she's caught up to the current year...just need to get caught up on the last nine months, now.

Current gas price: $2.49/gallon

Festival weekend

The weekend after Labor Day is a famous one around here. Afterall, what's not to like about several huge festivals (including Greek, Italian and Popcorn) all in a 48 hour period? So like any good citizen, we took it upon ourselves to visit (i.e. eat at) several of the local festivities. The food at the Italian festival was amazing, as you'd probably guess, and there was also a live band, so it was fun to wander around, eat pizza/calzones/cannoli/pasta fagoli and enjoy the atmosphere.

We didn't spend all weekend eating, though! We noticed the exterior trim on the house was looking pretty faded - and worse in some places. Given what we know about how the rest of the house was maintained, it probably hadn't been painted in 15 years. So, we made a stop at the store to get our paint color matched and then set to work. We got the entire back of the house done, as well as the walk way to the front door. Of course, that leaves us with the hardest part to paint - all the peaks. Oh well...that's what next weekend is for! (And maybe the next few weekends after that...)

The highlight of our week, though, was the voicemail that was waiting for us on Friday morning - our nephew was born on Thursday night! We've seen a few pictures, and he's a cutie. Can't wait to see more.

Current gas price: $2.43/gallon.