another.recap

so i know i havent been quite as faithful as id hoped and promised id be in the last post, but, eh, you know how it goes...

when i last updated we discussed a number of different things and i suppose the best route here would be to update you on the ones that need updating and then subsequently discuss any additional topics.

well first let me say happy brithday to both jeremy and josh [my brother-in-law and brother-in...blood] who've both turned another year older in the last few days. i dont know how old jeremy is to be honest, but josh is now 24 and well, taking stock of his accomplishments so far in life, id say hes doing very well for himself. hes finished school, gotten a good job that pays well and doesnt seem to be too affected by the economics of the present, just bought his first house with his new wife and theyre getting settled in... over-all pretty amazing for 24 id say. congratulations josh! jeremy is back over seas for the time being. hes working contract work out in iraq or kuwait or something or other and only gets to come home to kimber [sister] every so often. she misses him, but seems to be staying busy and doing alright. i hear rumors she might even be going back to school in the near future. so... i think that about wraps up family.

um... ah, yes. workout routine. well... for any of you that cared last time around and still care for an update, theres only good news to report. ive been disciplined and have managed to keep it up even despite having the "mothers collective" staying with me and distracting me, and other weekend adventures and such. ive been going about 4 days a week consistently, although i try to go more like 5 or 6 when i can, but sometimes i just need a day off to let my muscles repair themselves and well, just for sanity's sake i suppose, haha. for the first couple of months i didnt actually see any change in weight although my appearance was changing noticeably. i was getting much leaner, but it seemed the numbers werent really changing, i was just exchanging the bad weight for good weight. which is fine, whatever, the number is meaningless to me. however i got on the scale again last week because, i just hadnt in a few months and it turns out that somewhere along the way i actually dropped 10lbs, so i guess thats good. if you lose weight and youre working out as much as i am, then you know its only the bad weight youre losing, not the good stuff. =] anyway, the workout routine is going well overall. i have more energy and im making plenty of improvement from week to week in my actual workouts, and then theres always the much better mood after working out. so all in all, its all good.

hm, i guess we cant forget the "mothers collective." well when anne was here by herself she got TONS accomplished, the transformation was really just, unreal. but then my mom got here and as a team they accomplished even more. the yard looks pretty spectacular, honestly. i think i can pretty assuredly say that we now have the nicest yard on the block, well, in my humble opinion anyhow. additionally they got some painting stuff, some wallpaper removal, and a little organizational stuff done inside the house as well. overall id say they seemed to enjoy the trip and the result was definitely an awesome and appreciated one. thanks! =] oh and for anyone that wants to see pictures of all the transformation, theyre up on my photo site here and here.

lets see... what else can i update you on... oh, the competition. well we were able to get everything turned in just fine for the competition and then a few days later there was judging and they had a little banquet for the results. well, i ended up having to work late that night, and then just didnt feel like going, but mike (the partner) popped his head in at the end to see what was going on. apparently they had clearly marked a winner, and it wasnt us. however mike said that in talking to some people our project was definitely one of the judges top picks. according to the competition outline there were supposed to be 3 places in the competition, each with a cash prize but so far we havent heard anything about that. he said the winner was the only one marked and that in his opinion their project wasnt better than ours, they just had a "prettier" presentation. which is fine, i dont know that i expected to outright win this thing, especially considering that i wasnt sure how we were progressing a lot of the time. i emailed the guy running the thing after the banquet and he said that they would soon be posting all the entries online and the placements and whetever else but so far i havent seen or heard anything more about that either. honestly, from the way mike described everything its very likely that we placed in the top 3, possibly even 2nd place, and id really like to see the other entries and find out for sure! so yeah... still trying to be patient, but its been 3 weeks, so... im probably going to email him again today, haha.

hmm... what else.... oh, we celebrated mikes birthday on august first and that was certainly something for the history books, lol! he had was basically amounted to a themed party/bar hopping and most everyone dressed appropriately. and what was that dress you ask? well... hahahaha... well mustaches were part of the theme so most of the guys that could grow one had some kind of terribly tacky mustache, haha. i shaved mine into some pretty awful handlebars and it was all pretty hilarious. imagine a really bad 70's cop movie and youve pretty much got the gist of things. honestly, it was pretty scary for me, i hadnt seen my bare chin in about 6 or 7 years i think, and i wasnt sure what it might look like, lol! thankfully, its all pretty much back to normal now a week and a half later, lol! but we had a lot of fun and partied our butts off to bring in mikes #29.

hmm... what else... well this last weekend i took a trip down to tennessee to see my friend/ex-advisor from a&m, james. it was kind of a spur of the moment thing, and i drove down on friday and we basically just hung out all weekend. watched a bunch of horror movies [james is getting a phd in horror cinema or something of the sorts] talked a lot, just had some good fun. also...although im not sure i really want to even add this part...james is now a fairly serious photographer and well, hes been bugging me to let him shoot me for months now [i really cant imagine why, im NOT very photogenic in my opinion...] and so i finally caved and let him. i dont really know how the pictures turned out, ive only seen a couple and im sure nothing will come of it, but yeah, that was part of the weekend too. mostly, it was just nice to get out of the house and our of cincy for a little while, even if it was driving through kentucky and tennessee... [both of which have some of the WORST drivers ive EVER come across... geez...].

so, i guess thats about it. the only other news thats of any significance is that my estranged wife is FINALLY coming home this week. =] shes had a lot of fun out in san francisco, but i think shes starting to get home sick, and hopefully a little husband sick as well ;] at any rate, she flies back on wednesday night/thursday morning and i really cant wait to see her. not to mention, i know shes excited to see all the changes at the house in person! [theres probably one or two that we havent shown her pictures of yet, hehehe]

well, i know its not my usual epic blog post, and i know youre all terribly disappointed about that, but as you can see, the last couple of weeks just havent really had a whole lot to talk about. work is work, its very much the exact same as it has been for months now, nothing to report there. other than that, without karen around its just been working out and hanging out watching movies or tv or something to keep me occupied in my "spare" time... oh, i guess thats one other thing... i did go see the new harry potter movie a couple of weeks ago. honestly, it was a fairly decent movie, but i was pretty disappointed with the ending. and the more i think about it, ive been disappointed with the last 3 endings of those movies i think. they keep building up for the entire movie to this big thing, and then the climax is about 2 minutes long and then it just drops off leaving you feeling very unfulfilled... or me at least. i do want to go see the new g.i. joe movie, but im trying not to get my excitement up too high for that. it looks really cool from the previews, but these things tend to be a bit over-hyped.

alright, well i hope you all have a great rest of the week, i doubt ill be updating again before the weekend. just a thought, but if anyone ever had a suggestion or a request for a blog topic that theyd actually like to hear my opinion or perspective or experience or whatever on, feel free to leave me a comment, id love to entertain the idea.

until next time...

when.the.circus.comes.to.town [the.conclusion+]

well first off i'll say that i completely forgot to take pictures last night for you all [y'all]. the reason for that, well... we'll get to it later on i suppose. =]

[wednesday]

so wednesday morning we got ready for work as usual and said our goodbyes and i love yous to mom and dad. i forgot to mention in the last post, but only mom and dad stayed the extra day, kimber had to get back for school or something, so mom had taken her to the airport for her original flight on tuesday while dad and i kept working on the electrical. well, when the night came and we finally quit for bedtime we'd gotten damn near everything finished. there were only a few things left to do: a few light fixtures to put back together, a few outlets and switches to put back in the wall, our two lovely 3 ways that had been wired wrong were still in need of a little tlc, and there were still two wires we hadnt hooked back up to the panel yet, but that was about it. pretty light relative to the previous days work. 

[1]so while karen and i were at work, mom and dad got those last little things finished up, mom did laundry and dishes again i think, and even took some time to make us cookies, lol! but by the time they left the house was in great shape and we'd gotten so much accomplished it was pretty extraordinary. thanks everyone for all the help and hard work, karen and i cant even express how appreciative we are!

[2]well, our contractor also made a little visit on wednesday while the 'rents were finishing up, and they got a ton of work done too. they were able to cut out and replace the bad wood in both of the other two joists, cut holes and dig out for the footings, and put in place all 3 columns before the day was up - awesome work! and fast! 

so when wednesday evening finally came upon us we were exhausted, haha. but we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate all we'd gotten done, and also to celebrate karen's new job! i think i mentioned before that she was going to try to find some part time work while she was taking classes next quarter and well, she had an interview that dfay and had gotten the job! basically shes going to be doing general office work 12+ hours a week, and shes getting paid the same thing shes making now, so its really a dream come true! she even has the option of working more hours if she feels like she can handle it, theyre extremely flexible, and even more great news, the office shes working in is in the same building as all of her classes, so she doesnt even have to walk across campus to go to work! =]

[thursday]

well thursday was a pretty normal day, and i wouldnt even bring it up, except to say that the contractors were back again and poured all three of our footings and finished putting some steel in the joists as well. so at they point they were pretty much finished with the basement minus a little clean-up and letting the concrete cure for a few days. thursday night we did nothing but hang out and relax - finally!

[friday]

nada on projects. we were supposed to meet some of our friends for dinner and drinks, but something came up and they had to take a raincheck, so we just did it on our own. we had a nice night out and went to bed pretty early =]

[saturday]

saturday i wanted to do nothing, and thats exactly what i did, hehe. i needed an entire day off with nothing but rest and relaxation, and thats what i got. i stayed in bed half the day and basically just watched tv and movies all day, it was awesome! karen bummed around with me for a lot of the day, but she was restless and wanted to get stuff done, so in the afternoon she went to run some errands and then in the evening went to a "all girls craft party" at a friend of hers and had a good time. im still not entirely sure what all happens at a party of this sort, but i know she made some sort of crafty thing that she didnt bring home, lol, so whatever. 

[sunday]

well, sunday was a pretty busy day - considering we got nothing done on saturday of any real substance, lol. we went to church in the morning and then made the rounds to a few stores. first was target because my sweetie needed some new clothes for school [its like august 2000 again, lol!]. then we had lunch and it was delicious. then we went to michaels where we got some thread and yarn and possibly some other things, i cant remember now. 

then it was next door to bigg's for the weekly grocery store trip. by the time we were finished with all that it was about 5pm and we unloaded groceries and cleaned out the fridge while we decided what to do next. 

well, given the newly renovated rooms we decided we needed to get some new furniture, haha. so we went to ikea and spent a couple of hours browsing through the store and trying to decide what we really needed and of that what we actually wanted to buy and well, we ended up getting some great deals! for the office we got 4 shelves - 2 wall mountable shelves that are essentially a bookshelf turned sideways, so we can not only store stuff inside the shelf, we can also put stuff on top of it, so with 2 of them, we're actually getting 4 - not bad at all, and they were a pretty good deal. the other shelves stand on their own and they have 4 shelves each, so we got a ton of storage for the price. =]

also, we got karen a desk chair for her new desk that was on sale for pretty cheap and shes really excited about it. and lastly we got 4 dining room chairs that are the right height for our real dining room table. i know i mentioned before the vintage dining room table we have now with the legs i had to fix, but the plan is that that table is going to end up in the kitchen as a little nook type table, and then our other "real" dining room table can finally take its rightful place. its a pub-height table we got as a wedding gift and its really beautiful, but the problem was that we didnt have any pub-height chairs so that we could actually use it. so at ikea we found some chairs that arent the optimum solution, but they were very reasonably priced and they'll do the trick in a pinch, so to speak, so that we can actually use our fancy table, heh. 

so when we got home from ikea we had dinner and then i spent the rest of the night putting together the new dining room chairs - which proved to be a serious pain in the ass, lol. they were probably some of the hardest to assemble furniture ive ever gotten from ikea, but i finally got them all put together and they look good!

[monday|yesterday]

well, if you hadnt guessed it yet, the reason i didnt get around to taking pictures last night, is because i got distracted with putting together our new ikea shelves, lol! i love putting together furniture, so i just get caught up in it and thats all she wrote. anyway, we got 3 of the 4 shelves put together last night and karens new desk chair with pretty much no problems at all =] other than that the day was pretty normal, work was trying, make dinner, and watch heroes!

actually, s long as we're talking about tv shows ill say a few things.

[1] the new season of heroes is bugging me a little. im still enjoying it, but does anyone else feel like its really just dragging along very slowly? i guess last season just had so much going on so fast that i kinda got used to that momentum, and now we spend half the show watching the characters having conversations and not really doing a whole lot. but maybe thats just me. 

[2] does anyone else watch fringe? can i just say i love this show? i dont know what it is, but it really just grabs the nerd in me and gets me so into everything going on that i cant help it. and honestly, i cant believe im saying it, but i really like joshua jackson's character. i mean, given his dawsons creek make-me-wunna-puke background, i was expecting to be annoyed with him very quickly, but im not! so kudos there. also, the italian guy from the black donnely's whos name i cant remember, really like his character on this show - i just wish theyd give him more of a primary role! 

[3] so ive started watching fox's two new prime time shows as well this season. lie to me i really enjoy, i find it hilarious and it keeps me very entertained. dollhouse on the other hand... im not sure yet. the advertisements for the show made it look really cool, and i thought it was more of like an assassin type thing, but now i find out its more like super-escort service? hmm... i think theyre trying to develop the backstory and really get to the good stuff, but its taking a little while and im just not sure how i feel about it all just yet. its got potential, especially if they do take the espionage|assassin route - not to mention you really cant go wrong with eliza dushku! so we'll see how those two play out, haha, in my one night a week internet tv veg-outs, lol!

[4] how i met your mother is still awesome. thats really all i gotta say about that. virtual high-five!

anyone else watching something good i should pay attention to? anyone seen any good movies lately? ive got a short list of summer blockbusters i want to see [star trek!!!!!] and theres a few coming out in march i know of that look interesting, but i really havent been keeping up lately. 

well guys and dolls, i think thats it for now. i really should be working, but its been a really... really... slow morning so far, and i honestly dont have anything to do. guess i'll go dig something up! have a great day!

welcome.to.the.working.week[end]

hello, hello there. seems like its been a while since i updated you, so i thought id take my lunch break to do just that. although... [if youve guessed anything from the title of this post] theres not as much to report as usual. 

[02.07.09|saturday]

well i woke up bright and early at 7:30 on saturday morning and hopped in the shower. why would i be up at such an un-godly hour on a saturday? glad you asked. because i had the pleasure of having to go in to work on saturday. i found out friday afternoon that i was going to be working this weekend, and although i wasnt thrilled about the prospect, i made my peace with it. so saturday morning i got up and got to it. well by the time i got out of the shower karen informed me that id missed a call, and as i checked my voicemail i discovered that the window guys had called about installing the new [and final!] window in the "project room." well i called back a few times, but to no avail, theyd skipped us and gone on to the next house. bummer. oh-well, i had to get to work. so karen and i discussed our days, made coffee and then i was out the door with one last kiss. 

i made a quick detour through wendy's to pick up a little breakfast and made it to work at about 9:15 sharp, and got right to it. around 11 the window guys called back to make sure someone would be there, and then went and did their thing - we now have all our windows! woohoo!! and yet... i remained.. at work. around 1:30 the bossman ordered lunch and i grabbed a quick bite before getting back into my work. all in all i worked about 6 and a half hours on saturday [this after id already pulled a 14.5 hour day on thursday....] and by the time i left for home, i was drained. there was no way i was getting much accomplished that evening. well i got home and found that my lovely wife had done some cleaning throughout the day [while she was hopelessly depressed missing me, im sure] and had also started prepping the rest of the dining room - good girl. but i wasnt going to be doing a ton of painting, not in my current condition. so we discussed the rest of the evening and she told me about a craigslist item we were picking up later and then started baking dinner while i did just a little painting and had a nice adult beverage to unwind from a long start to the weekend. 

soon enough we went to pick up the new craigslist item - any guesses? haha, i know its impossible, we got a grill! karen has been wanting a grill since... well, before we even got married, lol! and saturday she found one for 20bucks - only 2 years old, in working order, one mostly full propane tank, and one spare tank [empty], only a little rust - overall a hell of a buy! oh and did i mention it came with a bearcats grill cover as well? [i think on some level she was more excited about the cover than the grill, lol!] well it was fun to go pickup the grill - and im shocked at how light it was! on the way we had a long drawn out discussion about karen's thesis and what direction shes taking, topic, etc. [i wont go into the details, you'll just have to bug her if you want to know] and then on the way home we had a spirited debate on doing a thesis project and if it should be required, and what requirements we thought were appropriate to be a professor... and apparently what the definition of a professor even was. shes a fun one, my wife. =]

anyway, the rest of the evening we relaxed, ate some delicious dinner prepare by chef karen - her own little gourmet creation: mexican cornbread casserole - ole! [heh, just had to throw that in there] it was awesome, she did a great job! and we also watched life as a house. a+ movie, one of my favorites, if you havent seen it, you should consider it. i swear, i almost cry every freaking time at the end - almost.

[02.08.09|sunday]

well i woke up bright and early at 7:30 on sunday morning and hopped in the shower. wait... deja-vu? yes... sadly... i was going to work, yet again on sunday morning. ugh. [karen wasnt exactly delighted by my absence this weekend] well she dropped me off this time, and then went to run some errands [mostly grocery shopping and filling the truck up with gas - for 44 cents a gallon baby! woo-effing-hoo! thats right! 44cents! eat that big oil! - how, you ask? have i mentioned the bigg's pump perks program before? well if no,t google it, its pretty self explanitory] i ended up working for 4 hours on sunday before id had enough and called it quits for the day.

karen picked me up at 1:30 and we decided that it was a beautiful day [low 50's, sunny, just gorgeous!] and that it was perfect weather for margaritas - haha! so we decided to hit a local "mexican-food" place on the river [don pablos - not real mexican, but itll do. they do have pretty good margaritas!] for a nice relaxing lunch. so while we over-indulged on our "mexican-food" we also started a list of projects that we could possibly attempt when the entire family shows up next week [list to follow at the end of the blog...]. after lunch we headed home and were so full we didnt want to do much of anything - so we started to watch a netflix: righteous kill. about halfway through it karen really wanted to take a walk [i think she was feeling like a fatty, haha!] so she made me get off my lazy arse and go walking with her. it was actually a really nice walk, the weather was still great, and we had fun sliding on the remaining patches of ice, haha! not to mention, it was just nice to get out of the house and stroll around our awesome little neighborhood. we lazily looked in all the windows of the different buisnesses, and i woke up a sleeping cat in the local art gallery, haha! he seemed a little pissed that i woke him up and wasnt able to scratch his back as he so clearly wanted me too - sorry! anyway, it was a nice sunday afternoon stroll through the park [literally at one point] and then we went home to finish the movie. 

i dont know if ive just seen too many movies or if the "plot twists" really were that predictable, but i figured it all out halfway through the movie. overall it was okay - i give it a solid b i suppose. it was a little slow going, and i was thoroughly unimpressed with robert deniro, carla gugino, & john leguizamo's performaces - ive come to expect more from them. donnie whalburg was at about par id say, the true godfather [al pacino] was great as always, and 50-cent was... actually a little better than i expected - kudos. but again, it was pretty slow - even the intense parts. see it if you want to, you'll probably enjoy it. anyway, after the movie i was feeling super-lazy so we retired to the bed to watch some tv on my laptop before turning in for the night...

[02.09.09|monday]

...until 6am this morning, when we had a little scare. at 6:03am our alarm system went off and in full force. i hadnt heard anything before it went off, like glass breaking or pounding, etc. but none-the-less it was blaring and i was a little caught off guard. i slowly put on some pants and grabbed the flashlight as karen and i discussed what i should do - we decided shortly that i was going to go check it out while we waited for the alarm company to call me. well, ive got to say, im not entirely impressed with their response time, it was probably a solid 2 minutes before my phone finally rang, at which point id turned on half the lights in the house and was finally arriving at the first floor. i told the girl on the phone i wasnt sure what was going on and she told me it was the dining room sensor that had triggered, so i de-activated the alarm and checked things out while she was on the phone ready to call 911 if necessary. well, after thoroughly checking out everything - i couldnt find anything out of place. all the windows and doors were in their normal condition, nothing obvious had fallen over, there were no signs of someone in the house, nothing. so i thanked her and said goodbye before turning the alarm back on and going back upstairs. the woman said that sometimes it could just be a large particle of dust that sets it off, so i really dont know. maybe some of the tape on the walls fell loose and caused enough movement to trigger it. or maybe it did its job and whoever it was was on the front porch or side of the house and was scared off by the alarm picking them up. either way, im glad it worked, but it was an unsettling morning getting ready for and going to work, lol. but we're fine and the house is fine and our alarm system is obviously fully functional. =]

anyway, im at work now and thats about all there is to report for recent events. i ended up working half the weekend and we didnt get too much accomplished because of it. a little disappointing, but im sure we'll survive. hey, we did get a pretty good list going for next week!

and here it is[for those of you that are excited about what you'll be getting to do soon!] ;]

general house stuff:

electrical 

exterior doors [replacing, repairing, & weather-sealing]

caulking any remaining windows

paint various furniture

basement:

clean floors, walls, & rafters

board up walk-out & weather-seal

mortar walls

paint & weather seal walls

insulating foam @ exterior walls?

patch & seal hole @ north end

entry:

put up crown

touchup paint on baseboards

parlor:

thoroghly clean fireplace

clean, patch, & prep walls & ceiling

paint walls & ceiling

window treatments

bookshelves

dining room:

powder-room entry

powder room:

i dont even know... it needs help - tiling?

kitchen:

halfwall

dishwasher & garbage disposal installation

2nd floor general:

strip any wall paper

clean, patch, & prep walls & ceilings

paint walls & ceilings

unpacking and organizing [at the appropriate time]

2nd floor bedroom:

clean & strip fireplace [then figure out what to do from there]

run electrical for and install light

window treatments

2nd floor closet:

repair heating duct

acquire & install closet systems

window treatments

2nd floor office:

assemble and install shelves or bookcase [if acquired by then]

assemble and install desk [ditto]

put up artwork?

2nd floor bathroom:

acquire & install new faucet for tub

install new faucet for sink

remove shelves

re-finish tub?

new cabinets?

new tile?

2nd floor project room:

remove wall board

other...?

2nd floor hall:

pull up carpet & refinish floors

stairs...

3rd floor closet/bathroom

install towel rack

install closet hardware

patch walls...

um, thats all we've thought up so far. i doubt we'll actually get to all [or most even] of it. and depending on the electrical situation... well, that might be all we end up working on, who knows. 

either way, its sure to be a busy & fun-filled family time, haha! cant wait!

hope you all have a great week! talk to you again soon! =]

little.victories

1.30.09|friday

well when last we spoke of current events it was friday afternoon and if memory serves, we were discussing the new windows, the inspections|permits situation, and my parents had just informed us of their impending visit. for those of you who actively read the comments as well, you already know that i mentioned in one that amanda was coming to town friday night, that was the basis of our evening's activities.

so after work karen and i called up amanda and we arranged our schedules for the evening and planned what we were going to do. amanda had some meeting to attend when she first arrived in cincy and we werent going to meet|eat till after 8pm, so karen and i decided to make our first stop dinner [seeing as we were famished post-travieller] and after a short debate on what sounded good we ended up at deweys for a nice big salad and a nice big pizza. it was delish as always and after dinner we headed home for a little hard work. 

we got back at the house around 6:30 and the place was a disaster so we spent the next hour and 45 minutes cleaning any and every-thing from one room to the next. just general tidying up, straightening, putting things away, organizing, and where necessary some good old fashioned cleaning of floors, surfaces, etc. at 8 amanda notified us that she and pay-trick [thats patrick in "amanda speak" - her boy... well, im really not sure what they are technically...] were at hideaway [another local northside restaurant that has some pretty delicious food and a funky-eclectic atmosphere that karen and i find pleasing and humorous. they also have the most awesome appetizer called creamer potatoes with special hideaway sauce - if you ever venture to hideaway you HAVE to try them... mm-mmm, delectable!] and were ready for our arrival. so we finished what we were doing, bundled up for the cold [high teens to low twenties i believe] and drove the 4 blocks to meet them, lol! [it was cooold!] soon after we arrived a few more of amanda's friends from cincy joined us as well and the 6 of us waited for a table and had a few laughs. eventually we were seated and had more robust conversation and some of the fore-mentioned creamer-potatoes, and eventually main courses [i was still full from deweys so i abstained from a main course, haha]. we had a good time hanging out and having dinner and eventually it was time to hit the road so we said our goodbyes and then amanda and pay-trick followed us over to the house so that they could be the first of our friends to see the new place! how exciting!

well for the next couple of hours we gave them the tour and then enjoyed more conversation and laughs [not to mention a little wine and some of my mother-in-law's AWESOME fudge! which we all thoroughly enjoyed! thanks mom!] before they ultimately said their goodbyes and headed home for the night. it was a ton of fun getting to have a social life for a night and we loved being able to finally entertain at the house - even if it was only for a short while and the place was a disaster, lol!

1.31.09|saturday

saturday morning we slept in a little, but eventually were pulled from our warm cozy bedding by our desire for sustenance. i was the first down and got coffe started and then decided to make some of my famous breakfast burrito concoction that i can only refer to as "breakfast mix-up." i wont divulge my secret recipe, but i will say its always a pleasing meal for karen and i and will surely fill you up! for us it made a quite satisfying brunch [as it was nearly noon by the time we finished] after which we decided to relax on the dining room sofa for a while and watch some west wing. [i LOVE west wing!]

i honestly cant say how long we vegged out, but at some point we decided it was time to get something accomplished for the day and the first thing we did was unpack and put away a bunch of boxes that were still in the dining room. satisfied with that project and ready for the next, we decided to move all the furniture away from the walls and get started prepping the dining room for painting. it was the next room in line and we were anxious to get the ghastly sponge-painted catastrophy that was our dining room out of sight and out of mind. so for the next few hours we cleaned, taped, and plastered the walls on 2/3rds of the room. [we've decided that the only way we can really do these rooms and live in the house at the same time is to do half a room at a time until completion and move all the furniture from one side to the other, but still have it in somewhat of a useable arrangement. such was the case with the dining room as well.]

eventually karen decided to call it a night [without telling me, lol, i thought she'd just gone upstairs to use the restroom or something] and i did a second run-through of plastering before assisting a neighbor in freeing her car from the snow and then eventually a nice-hot-shower and bed. [karen had passed out pretty quickly, so she didnt even notice my absence until i made my way upstairs and woke her, lol!]

2.1.09|super-bowl.sunday

haha, super-bowl sunday indeed... 

karen and i had decided the night before that we were going to get up early sunday morning and get one coat of paint on the dining room before church so that by the time we returned it would be ready for the second coat. well as arranged, we got up early and did some painting and were really excited about the new color. its kind of a sagey-olive-green [although it reminds me more of what i consider to be army green than anything else] and after the first coat we were quite pleased as we headed upstairs to get ready for church. the paint went on very well and thr room looked a trillion times better after one-wet-coat. [that sponge paint was horrific!!]

well, as it often seems to happen, we finished getting ready for church at about 10:05. church usually starts at 10am [although this weekend for super-bowl sunday they were starting at 10:15am. regardless...] it was obvious we werent going to make it to the 10am service, so we resigned ourselves to doing a once over of all the shopping lists before treating ourselves to a breakfast at ihop before attempting the later service. 

well i dont mind telling you we were very pleased to discover that ihop had all you could eat pancakes! hahaha! i enjoyed the hell out of some pancakes and was quite proud of myself for putting away 3 plates of them =] however, in light of the all-you-can-eat situation, the plates they brought you were about 2/3rds the norm. at any rate, we were nicely filled to the gills by the time we waddled out of ihop, however it was only 11:30 and the next service wasnt starting for another 45 minutes. at this point we decided to make the quickest shopping trip on our list, a quick run to walmart for some lightbulbs and license plate covers [we finally got our license plates for the new truck last week!]

well... haha... things never quite go as planned. we got to walmart after 15 minutes of traffic [which was pathetic because it was only across the freakin bridge from ihop! where did all these people come from?? and where were they going??] but were sure we could get our few items and still make it on time. so we went in and found the lightbulb section just where we'd left it the last time we'd been there, however this is where we ran into a slight problem. we were getting lightbulbs because we had some cupons from our energy company that were going to expire soon and we wanted to take advantage of them before that happened. however the cupons were very specific about which lightbulbs [all cfl's of course! woohoo!] each cupon was for. well you wouldnt think that would be too much of a problem except that the specific packaging was shown on the cupon and the packaging of the lightbulbs in the store had changed since the things were issued. i wasnt sure if it was going to be a problem or not, but looked for the ones pictured for a while. 

to make matters worse, haha, while i was being anal retentive, karen got distracted by the adjacent fabric section and wandered off. it was an awesome find though, all the walmarts in denver, and im pretty sure texas as well, have stopped selling fabric and i assumed that it was a nationwide thing. recently karen and i have been looking for fabric to redo the new couches and chairs with, and joanns was a disappointment to say the least... whooo-expensive!

well we found all kinds of cool fabric and eventually i even found a sales associate [who was totally clueless about the lightbulbs anyway, so i just said screw it...] and got the closest thing i could find - oh and we also found some license plate covers, haha. anyway, by the time we checked out we looked at the clock and it was 12:30pm... so much for church. meh, they were doing some super-bowl sunday special thing anyway, and i was hardly interested in what that would turn out to be. i didnt mind missing it and we got to continue our sunday shopping anyway. 

after walmart we went next door to the depot [february had finally arrived!] to get a few things on our list - it was actually quite short considering how long it had been, 4 or 5 items total i think? followed by a quick trip to home emporium to pick up one specific item [more to come on that at a later date however], then next door to lowes for an additional supporting item to the one at home emporium, then finally next door again to bigg's to do our grocery shopping for the week. [whew!] after all of that we finally got home just before 4pm and were pretty tired, lol! well after unloading and putting away everything we decided to get to work, and jumped right in to the second coat of paint. it went on very smooth and we were really loving the color - it had only gotten better as it had greated us when we got home - fully dried and to its real color!

well after that coat of paint we were hungry again [although i dont know how!] and had a snack|supper and watched some more west wing [yeah!] and just relaxed for a while. however, around 6:30pm i was motivated again and we decided to tackle another project - re-covering the dining room sofa. 

well, after discussing our approach and testing some fabric and batting options, we searched the house for karens staple gun only to discover that it was pretty dinky and was NOT going to get the job done. we were both pretty revved up at this point so we made the decision to make a trip back to the depot to get a real staple gun and various staples and brads and such, and then continue the project. it was a very quick trip - we stayed focused: get in. get out. get home. - and before long we were stretching fabric and experimenting with the sofa. im not sure how long we played with that but we got half the sofa re-covered and so far we're really happy with it! i dont have pictures yet, im going to wait till we're finished with the transformation, but im really hoping it turns out well! =] after that i talked to my mom and brother for a little bit before bed and then karen and i passed out exhausted from our weekend.

yeah, we totally forgot about the super-bowl in the midst of all the projects, but then again neither of us were all that interested in it anyway - i didnt even know who was playing - nor did we have tv to watch anyhow. oh-well. 

2.2.09|monday

well, thats today. and youd think that it being only lunch time i wouldnt have much to report, however i do have two victories to add to this update! this morning on the way in to work we stopped off at the city building & inspections office and officially obtained our permit for the wall! woohoo!! so now that we have all our permits in order, i just need to schedule a couple of inspections and hopefully we can get the certificate of occupancy soon !

secondly, about 2 hours ago i got a phone call, and i was shocked to find that it was the window people calling. theyd already ordered the correct sized remaining window, it was being fabricated this week, and would be ready for installation this weekend! so we're getting the last window installed saturday morning! woohoo again!!!

i love little victories! =]

this week is starting off pretty good so far, but now, ive got to get back to work. hope you all have a great week too! ill try to keep you updated on any more progress we make on the house this week - although i certainly cant promise anything, lol!

cheers! [and go... steelers?? where my cowboys at??]

the.chronicles.of.decembria[2.of.x]

well, i know i promised more, and i like to be true to my word. however, given the length of the last post and the time period it actually spanned... ive been rethinking my options as far as the time line vs. content situation in my storytelling and i think ive decided that straying from the literal time line approach to update everyone would be the best option for us all. [me for time put into narrating, and you for time put into reading, heh]

with that, we're going to pull a throw-back to the old days when i blogged by topic instead of simply chronologically. and to start us off...

christmas | x-mas | festival of lights [or whatever else you call it]

well christmas day was a lot of fun. we slept in seeing as we went to bed pretty late the night before, and it felt great! we did the normal christmas stuff in the morning, breakfast/coffee/presents and boy did we have a nice haul! we got all kinds of awesome presents from each other, friends, and family and we are so very grateful to all of you! [thank you notes should be arriving any moment now!] after the presents and all the excitement, picture taking, record keeping, etc. we called our respective families to discuss the mornings festivities and share some love. and after that we got started on the rest of the afternoon - karen cooking a holiday feast and making the house smell delicious while i... stayed out of her hair. lol! 

well our holiday feast turned out spectacular, its too bad we had no one to share it with[especially considering all the food!!] and heres the menu breakdown:

[appetizers] we had cheese and crackers and some pretty amazing devilled eggs - and more mix!!

[first.course] we had a yummy salmon salad that karen wanted to make. it was really good, but i have no idea what was in it youll have to email her for the recipe if you want it. 

[main.course] well the main dish was a glazed ham drizzled in a peach sauce that karen concocted. now you may be hesitant about the sound of that, but i assure you it was quite flavorful and tasty!

along with the ham was a large dish of broccoli rice casserole[my favorite!!] and it turned out amazing! sooo good. again, mom, im afraid my wife has outdone you - shes got a knack for making the best ive ever had of my favorite dishes! and lastly for the main course was some nice light and fluffy rolls with honey and butter - mmm.

[dessert] now we cant forget dessert! trust me, we saved the best for last... oh man... now karen and i were both extremely stuffed after only one plate of all the delicious first 3 courses, so we had to wait till much later that evening when our stomachs had settled before we indulged in our dessert, but man oh man oh wowie!! have i mentioned how much i love my wifes cooking?! are you ready for this? a made from scratch, chocolate mousse with a chocolate graham cracker crust. oh. my. god. it was.. there arent even words. so light, so creamy, so rich, so chocolaty... i was in heaven. this dessert had to be a sin, and im so glad i indulged in it. by taste buds are singing just thinking about it!

well anyway, while karen was busy creating her masterpiece in the kitchen, i spent those hours nearby in the dining room working on our website. for those of you who remember, we went through all the excitement of naming our firm with you guys on the blog a little while back. well since its inception, the name evolved slightly and in middle to late november we set up our very first version/attempt[failure] of the website and launched it for the worlds unsuspecting eyes. i was never happy with that version of the site and decided [after contemplating on it for weeks] that it was time for a serious upgrade and spent the day creating new graphics, working with a new layout design and adding slightly more content than the... well... lets just say meager origins. anyway, not long before karen finished her feast i launched version 2.0 of the website - the holiday edition. i believe i sent an email to all those on my blog-list about the launch, and hopefully you all got the chance to have a look at my creation. this version, i was actually quite pleased with and maybe even a little proud of [although pride is not something i express very often - but thats not a subject for the present time]. 

anyway, the rest of christmas was spent enjoying each others company and taking some much needed relaxation time from everything that had been going on with the house, moving, work, etc. [all of which will be covered in future topics] i think we may have even watched a few more episodes of nip/tuck online during our christmas festivities, hehe - love that show! [probably not parent or grandparent appropriate... a bit gory at times...]

crap. even trying to do it by topic i still got too long winded and my lunch break is over... grr... maybe ill sit down tonight and finish this, the rest should be a little easier to do on a topic by topic basis, lol!

miss!

the.chronicles.of.decembria[1.of.x]

well it appears i am once again playing hooky on blogging, however it has been for us [just as the rest of the world] a very busy holiday season and as a result blogging was moved down on the priority list rather considerably. however, i fully intend to try and earn retribution with the best of my ability over the next series of posts and try to get you all caught up to the new fun and exciting things going on in our lives at present. i do apologize for the lack of communication, but hopefully you can all understand and forgive me. if not, well, thats okay too. ;]

ill admit that when i sat down to write this post [seeing as its lunch time at work and all, lol] i honestly had no idea where we'd last left off and had to do some re-reading of my own to find myself. in an attempt to save you all some of this, ill quickly recap for you.

basically, i last posted on dec. 23rd, and karen and i had just partially moved into the house. wed had a bumpy first morning with the plumbing but after the second night in the house we'd gotten some of the kinks worked out and things were going much smoother. we'd also moved completely out of the storage unit the weekend before and were about 70% moved out of the apartment. as i said before, it was dec. 23rd, so christmas eve was the following day and at that point we'd decorated for christmas for the most part at the house and had gotten the majority of our presents for each other wrapped and under the tree as well as sending off all of our presents to tx for the fam. we'd had some advancement on the roof and it was looking pretty good so far, and the temperature here had been quite cold to say the very least - making moving and life in general that much more fun, haha! i think thats probably enough at this point to catch you all up and from here we can get back to the story telling. 

[tuesday | december 23, 2008]

well ill b frank and honest with you all, its been some time since ive last posted and theres no way im going to remember all the details exactly and times exactly but i can touch on as many of the milestones as i can possibly remember for you. 

on the evening of dec. 23rd, i know that karen and i did recieve a couple of presents in the mail and were able to wrap those and get them under the tree. other than that, i couldnt say for sure. i believe there had also been some work done on the roof that day, but again... its been a while. lets skip to christmas eve.

[wednesday | december 24, 2008 | christmas eve]

well like a lot of unlucky people out there, karen and i both had to work on christmas eve. however, i only had to work a half day. why, you ask? well, in the morning i had arranged with the dodge dealership we bought the truck from to finally go and get that drivers side mirror installed. theyd gotten it in on monday i believe and we were excited to get it on, so i was taking a half day to go and get that done. considering they were only open during regular business hours [the same ones i work] i was going to have to take off from work to get it done no matter what, so why not christmas eve? so in the morning i dropped karen off at work and then got on the highway for the hour drive out to the dealership.

 [ - let me add to this that i just remembered that the evening of dec.23rd proved to be an extremely icey event. in the afternoon that day it started drizzling and the temperature had dropped enough that by 4-ish the roads and sidewalks were a mess. we had to salt our sidewalks at work and everyone was very worried about the roads. karen and i made it home okay, but we did encounter some icey conditions that we're glad we'rent too bad for us. however, there were terrible conditions all over the tri-state area and there were reports all over of accidents and people sliding off the roads, and boy it was not a great way to start the christmas festivities.-]

well on my way, you would not believe the number of cars littering the sides of the road. there were cars, trucks, you name it, [some even piled high with packages] all just abandoned on the side of the road or in some ditch half over-turned. it reminded me of something out of one of those environmental catastrophe movies... luckily the weather had warmed up considerably since the night before [somewhere in the low 40's] and the roads were no longer icey at all. the weather however, was less than ideal. the entire day it rained. sometimes it drizzled, some times it poured, there were times it let up and was just barely coming down and youd think it was going to clear and then a torrential downpour would come along and dash your hopes... it was a dreary day. so anyway, i drove to the dealership in the rain, in awe of the roadsides, but with no problems whatsoever. when i got there i ran inside to try and stay as dry as i could and the guys met me at the door. theyd been expecting me and were ready to go as soon as i got there. so i handed over the keys and waited for about an hour as they replaced the mirror and decided to repair some seals on the windows that they noticed were loose. by the time i was ready to go it was about 10:30 and i got back out into the rain and on the road home. the drive home was again un-eventful although i did see a few wreckers attempting to pull up-ended vehicles from ditches on the way back. right about 11.15 i was getting close to the oh/ky border and my phone started buzzing. it was the wife looking for a status report. so i told her about the morning and how fantastic it was to have a mirror on the drivers side and we discussed the rest of the afternoon. 

well i was planning to go home and relax for a while and have lunch and then go to work around 1 so that my half day would end at 5 when karen was getting off work. well apparently people in her office were leaving early so she was thinking we could leave at 3:30 instead. well that meant i didnt get to go home and relax for a few hours, but it was still do-able if i went straight to the office. so i headed into work on got there right about 11:30, perfect. 

well work was slow, very slow. half the office had taken the day off, and the work load was very light to say the very least. well after 2 hours i was bored out of my mind and there were even less people still in the office, so i said my goodbyes and ditched work early. at first i was looking forward to going home to take a nap, but when i got there i changed my mind. the house was a wreck. we'd moved everything from the apartment and storage unit into the house pretty quickly, and while a lot of it got relocated to a suitable place in the house, a lot didnt. so i decided as a christmas gift to my wife id do what i do best, organize. i spent the next 2 hours cleaning, straightening, and moving furniture around the house to try and get it suitable for a proper christmas in the new home. im pretty pleased with how well i did to be quite honest. i was able to clear out the parlor almost completely, the only remaining items were the christmas decor, a coffee table, a couple of chairs, and a stack of boxes in one corner that were full of books [that were going to be living in the parlor permanently and were waaaay too heavy to be lugging around all over the house for vanity's sake.] the dining room got cleared of almost all the clutter which included a very large amount of remodeling supplies that we'd just been keeping there temporarily while we worked on projects. so all the paint, paint supplies, base & crown mold, and other various material clutter was all relocated upstairs to the "craft room" [heh, just for you cassie] and i also moved into place our cabinets and hutch that were to store a lot of our kitchen items. and lastly, in the kitchen i was able to unpack a few boxes and move a lot of stuff into the cabinets and hutch and clear out some of the clutter in the kitchen as well. well by the time id done all that and rearranged furniture a little i was worn out and it was time to go get karen from work anyway, so thats what i did. 

so i picked her up right on time and my wife was very pleased to see me [as always] and even more excited to get home and start the christmas festivities! well, i dont condone lying to your spouse, but for the sake of keeping the surprise i told her id just taken a nice nap for the last 2 hours and when we got home, wow, her eyes lit up. she was so confused, lol. she noticed almost immediately that everything looked different [and almost immediately is really really good for karen to notice anything, lol!] but i could see the confusion of her face. "wait, what happened here, did you clean?! i thought you took a nap, you did this and took a nap??" haha, i love her so much! after explaining that i hadnt taken a nap at all and that was just a lie to keep the surprise and about 30 seconds for all of that to register the look of confusion faded and i got big hugs and kisses. hehe, shes really cute sometimes. and my early present was a big success. she was very excited to have all the clean space - organizing is definitely not karens gift, lol! [so much so in fact, that her nickname around the house is quite often "path-blocker" because she is constantly moving stuff around to get to whatever she needs or to move things from one room or the other and 100% of the time will put everything directly in what would be the path of movement. a lot of time shell actually stack things in a semi-circle around a door opening and when you walk through it youre immediately stopped by a wall of objects, lol! the best part is that she doesnt even do it consciously! lol! shes really adorable, and very much a path-blocker...]

well that evening we had a great time making grandma's special recipe party mix and some home-made spiced rum while we watched some nip/tuck and relaxed a little for the evening. we had agreed that christmas eve and christmas day were going to strictly be relaxation days and give ourselves a break from all the projects and remodeling for at least 2 days. [oh and also, the mix turned out amazing! its a christmas tradition in my family, we have it every year and my dad always does a great job making it. well this year i wanted to share that tradition with karen and im so glad it turned out sooo good. id never made it before but it ended up being an especially good batch and karen loved it! shed never had it before, but after she got used to the spiciness of it shes totally hooked. i think we're actually making another batch tonight because weve polished off the first one, lol!] well we got entranced by our nip/tuck episodes and ended up going to bed after midnight after losing all track of time, haha. it was a great night and the rain still pouring outside was nice and soothing on the skylight and put me to sleep very quickly. 

well... with that... my lunch break is over. if i keep going at this rate, this series is going to have a lot of parts until im caught up, lol! ill try and get more in on the next round, but for now ive got to go! merry christmas eve!

frozen

howdy all,

so its that time again for another weekly update. sorry ive been so quiet lately but things have been pretty calm and we havent had a whole lot to write an entire blog about. but now i guess ive accumulated enough over the weekend to put together something with a respective length. 

last week.

the only real thing to report from last week is on the roof situation. for those of you that are only reading this for the first time or have just forgotten everything previous to this post, we're doing a lot of roof work at the house. the entirety of it i cant even begin to tell you and the seriousness of it all, well, fairly severe considering the fate of the certificate of occupancy is hanging in the balance and all. so anyway, recently weve hired a roofer for a hell of a deal, they got of to a huge start and then because of weather conditions and material availability the work all but came to a complete halt. however, last week things finally picked back up. on monday i talked to the roofer and he was going to get us some shingle samples to look at and leave them at the house for us to make a decision on color then call us on tuesday to get our answer and get going. well we went to the house monday after work and there were no shingles. hm. maybe he got busy or something. we decided to check back tuesday and still nothing, and hadnt heard from him either. wednesday for some reason i cant remember we got busy and didnt get a chance to check at the house, but having still heard nothing we just assumed they wouldnt be there anyway. thursday we went by after work yet again and aha! not only were there shingles but there was finally a change in the state of the roof!

well we looked at the shingles, the choice was between a green and a grey [karen wanted the green and i wanted the grey] and after looking at the actual color of the shingle [as opposed to a picture on a website that was fairly small and not very detailed] we decided to go with the grey. as for the roof itself they stripped almost all of the slate down and had put up fresh felt paper over the areas they had removed the slate on. it was really exciting to see this huge progress, not to mention the huge piles of slate scrap and dust! friday i actually got another call from the roofer asking if wed made a decision on the shingles, so we told him what we wanted and he said great, theyre starting today. awesome! so friday after work we checked out the progress and while it was getting pretty dark out we were able to tell instantly that we had shingles on the front half of the roof! amazing!! needless to say we're pretty stoked about the progress of the roof at the end of last week and we really hope to have the more of the same this week as well!

the only other thing worthy of much mention from last week was that we went to see quantum of solace for one of karens classes [city&film something or other] and i left with very mixed feelings. actually, last week i watched a few movies [because we finally switched our netflix from tv series for a little break] and ive had a lot of mixed feelings about them. i might have to dedicate a blog specifically to this topic later this week, but for now we'll jump into this weekend's status report.

saturday.

well... saturday we woke up a little late. we'd been up till after midnight the night before watching episodes of the office on netflix online and cuddling up on the couch with hot chocolate. its been getting cold out and friday had been the worst yet at that point. the high had been in the lower 30's and the low was somewhere in the upper 20's - which makes for a frozen karen and warrants lazy nights on the couch with hot chocolate and lots of blankets. anyway, we'd been up till nearly one and we were exhausted [karen had actually not slept the night before, pulling an all-nighter to finish a paper before work that was due friday - she actually passed out at about 11, lol!] and probably got our lazy butts out of bed somewhere between 11-11:30am.

to our surprise we woke up to somewhere around a solid inch of snow covering everything outside and still falling at a pretty constant rate. aggravated at the weather conditions, cold, and turned off from going outside in that mess, we decided to continue our couch-mongering from the night before. now i dont take pride in admitting this, but we didnt leave the couch till 4:30pm, lol! at that point we finally made ourselves venture outside to test the weather and for karen to build some miniature snowmen in the now 3inches of snow that had accumulated and was STILL falling. annoyed, but determined to get SOMETHING accomplished that day, we ventured to the grocery store in the "blizzard" as karen put it. [she exaggerates a little sometimes, heh.] anyway, we went to the grocery store and came back and when we got back it had actually let up a little finally and was clear out now that it was dark outside. well by the time we finished putting away the groceries that had changed and it was now falling out harder than it had all day long. ugh. we retreated back to the couch, lol! anyway, that was pretty much the remainder of our night. ;]

sunday.

after saturday's disappointing [but oh-so-fun & relaxing!] day of getting nothing REAL accomplished, we were determined to get a LOT done on sunday and still have a little downtime sunday night before the work-week began.

first things first [obviously... ive never understood this adage...], we made sure to get up and make it to EARLY church. i think we were 2 out of maybe a hundred that made it to the early service, so we were quite proud of ourselves. keep in mind this church is easily a 2 or 3k attendance every sunday. anyway, after church we decided to hit the target nearby to pick up our gift for the child we're sponsoring [see last weekend's post for more]. it was actually a lot of fun [and frustration] going through all the toy isles trying to find the right gifts. we ended up getting some pretty cool stuff [at least in my opinion] and we really hope the little boy enjoys his new toys. =]

after target we headed home for lunch, to change quickly, and to drop off the target stuff. and then it was straight to the storage place to pick up the first load. the major goal for the near future is getting out of the storage unit because we dont want to throw money away on it again [and its due the 15th] when we have tons of space at the house. so anyway, we loaded up the first load for the day which only took about an hour - not bad really, especially considering the weather was still gross and freezing even though it had stopped snowing. so we took that to the house and started unloading. which actually proved to be rather difficult considering the snow we were tracking into the entry-way turning it into a make-shift [and completely un-necessary!] slip-n-slide. i just about busted my arse so many times i cant believe i didnt dis-locate a knee or something. we tried putting down some carpet wed torn up from the stairs a few weeks earlier, but that just got wet and then started sliding all on its own. ugh.  luckily we finished unloading fairly quickly and took a break from hauling stuff to clean things up. if we were going to get another load we had to clean up the sloshy mess in the entryway anyway. we ended up taking a couple hours to clean up the entry, take-down the painters tape that had expired the week before[did i mention that the paint STILL looks like $h!t after 3 coats on top of a primer coat?! ugh!! so aggravating!!], and then karen started giving the kitchen the first of several needed cleanings while i got the shop-vac busy on the second floor & stairs - so we didnt slip on any of the left-over demolition debris that was currently covering, well... everything. 

after about an hour into it karen went and got the laundry to get it going while i continued my battle with the shop-vac [which has been by far the most useful wedding gift at the house so far, lol!] at about the 2 hour mark id finished and she had gotten to a stopping point with the laundry and the kitchen so we decided we needed a real break before the next haul. we went home to cook "supper" at about 4 and rested for about a half an hour before venturing back out for the second load of punishment. this one loaded up pretty quickly as well and we were back at the house by 6pm. well im pretty sure ive mentioned our cool neighbors, now let me upgrade their status to awesome! they decided to come out and help us unload this haul [completely unsolicited, theyd just seen us unloading the first one and volunteered!]. well i will tell you what, it probably took us 20 minutes to unload everything with the extra hands - and lucky too because the temperature was seriously falling fast! after thanking them profusely and giving them a short updated tour of the house we decided that we were done for the day now that we were frozen and sore. we changed out the laundry and then headed back to that couch for the evening. it ended up being a really pleasant evening - we got home around 7pm and actually got our downtime! not only did we get our downtime, but thanks to the internet we were able to catch up completely with the office and we're now anxiously awaiting the next new installment! haha, i know thats not really of any real importance, but it is pretty fun for us ;]

well then. i guess that about does it for last week and the weekend. good thing too, because my lunch time is up and its pretty hectic around here today!

stay tuned!!

tg.madness+

well happy belated turkey day to you all, i hope everyone gave thanks for the invention of stretchy pants, haha, i know i did!

well when last i left you, we had just had some pretty fantastic news, my truck was broke again! awesome! [anyone sense the sarcasm dripping off that?] anyhow... tuesday and wednesday were normal days, nothing to report really, we didnt do anything special, normal week stuff. all i can really say is that we came to the solid conclusion that we did not want to put anymore money into the stupid piece of sssssuh... truck and we were definitely going to find something else. we spent a little time here and there looking at trucks on craigslist, autotrader, carmax, and other various websites to see if we found anything in our price range [not to mention deciding for sure what our price range was] that matched what we wanted. 

tg.thursday[11.27.08]

well turkey day had finally arrived, gobble-gobble! we spent the morning looking up trucks online determined that we were going to try and buy one thursday if possible [which it totally wasnt, nothing is open on tg] or friday if possible... if neither of those worked out... well this weekend we had to get it done, there were no options there. we'd called wednesday night to extend the car rental through friday and we really didnt want to keep renting it after that. 

so around 11am wed exhausted ourselves looking at trucks and making phone calls to no avail. it just wasnt going to happen. oh-well, theres lots to do on thanksgiving, haha! so while i had been making phone calls, karen had been researching all the recipes that she was intending to use to cook the thanksgiving feast extraordinaire and which items we needed to get from the store. 

so around 11:30 we went to the grocery store - except not just any grocery store, we went to the brand new kroger in kenwood. and wow... this thing was nice. there was literally a wall of cheese wheels that i know my father-in-law would have loved to have seen. [if we'd had the camera thered be pictures, i assure you.] well, we spent the next hour and a half and waaaay too much money at kroger getting all the little goodies that were going to be prepared for me when we got home. [i was so excited! and so was karen!] the last little stop on the way home was at walmart where i got to spend a little birthday money on two dvd's - hancock and iron man [thanks mom & dad!] so now i was totally set for the afternoon, haha. 

so we went home from there and both got started on our tasks for the next 4+ hours. karen got busy in the kitchen, and i got busy staying out of her hair, lol! i had a blast watching hancock and iron man and karen was really having fun, totally in her element baking and cooking in the kitchen. occasionally she'd bring me a little snack or a fresh beer [i really do have the best wife ever!] while i sat lazily on the couch entranced in my movies. 

well what ended up being closer to 5 hours later, karen finished dinner [i have no idea how she had the energy!] and we were ready to go. this was our first thanksgiving alone together and the first one karen had ever made and it was really spectacular. she went all out, even making a nice little menu and printing out for me with all the items of the nights dinner. there was turkey and stuffing [obviously], some redskin+garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, two kinds of cranberry sauce [one was her mom, anne's, recipe for what she called a cranberry relish], honey-butter rolls, my grandmother's recipe for sweet potato streusel, two pumpkin pies from scratch [we decided to make one to give to our new neighbors that have been so sweet to us!], mulled wine [which id never had before and i have no idea really how to explain it, sorry], and last but not least - a from scratch cherry cheese cake that was omg delicious! [sorry mom and grandma, but karen's cheesecake has got to be the best ive ever had!! and sorry to jello too, you cant compete, youre way out of your league here...] so without further adieu, here are a few shots of our thanksgiving feast extraordinaire! [click to open the full-size, mouth-watering image]

by the time we finished eating we were totally stuffed [after only one serving each!] and spent the next hour and ahalf together cuddled up on the couch watched the remainder [id started it when karen needed more time on dinner] of superman returns - kevin spacey is awesome as lex luther, i dont care what anyone says. after that it was time for bed, there was still a lot of weekend left ahead of us. 

black.friday[11.28.08]

well friday morning we woke up a little late, but we really cant be blamed for that, its all the turkey's fault. but immediately got started on the truck hunt. this proved to be quite a long day, but for the sake of brevity i'll only touch on the highlights. [youre welcome josh...]

first we looked up all the trucks we knew we wanted to see and mapped them all out on google and printed everything out. second we went to the bank to see about getting an auto-loan. we decided what our budget was and were going to stick to it, and we had the funds available in our savings account. but because of all the house repairs we're currently involved in as well the combination of the truck and the house repairs is going to completely wipe us out of our savings, so we thought putting half down and paying the rest off in a small auto-loan would be the best way to go. well the bank went fine, they took all our information, it was painless enough, but the manager couldnt tell us immediately if we were going to be approved, it had to process through the central headquarters [or whatever evil empire lingo the banks use these days] and she's call us as soon as she heard from them. 

so we got on our way to the first location, map in hand, we hit the road. haha, well not 15 minutes later my trusty navigator informs me that she thought we'd missed one of our turns and it turned out she was right... so where it should have taken us 20 minutes to get to the first stop, lol, it took about an hour after we detoured way out of the way on what ended up being a two lane highway with road construction for a large chunk of the trip, lol! oh-well, theres no one else id rather be lost with, heh. 

so we got to the first place on our list and man, this truck was a beauty [well, at first anyway]. it was a blue 2003 dodge ram 1500 crew cab & short bed and boy it was pretty. it had 70k miles on it and it was the one i liked the most on the list. however... the tiny little lot it was on was closed... so we called the numbers and got one of the owners but he was out of town and was going to call his partner and call us back. well... half an hour late we still hadnt had a call so we gave up and moved on to the next one on the list. on the way we decided to stop at a dealership that was across the high-way and see if they had anything in our price-range, because after all, they were right there. 

well they had 2 trucks and i didnt like either of them for various reasons, so we said thanks but no thanks and got back on our way. no sooner had we gotten on the on-ramp than the phone was buzzing and it was the bank. however, it was not a great call. wed been denied the loan because neither of us had a job as long as they liked to be considered steady. [2 years! are you kidding me?!] great, oh-well, we'll figure it out as we go... so i hung up and by the time we were getting off the highway to go up the road a little for the next truck my phone was buzzing again - it was the other owner from the first lot telling me he'd be at the lot in about 20 minutes. haha, alright, well i told him we'd moved on, but we'd keep him in mind. so we go to the second lot and after a few turn arounds to actually find the place we check out the truck - a white[gag!] 2004 dodge dakota with extended cab. the guy was really nice, offered us financing with only 5% interest [awesome!] and let us take it for a test drive. so while we were out i looked at karen and told her i really didnt like this truck even though it was nice, how did she feel? well she agreed. we both felt it was too small, especially compared to the "hearty and robust" as karen put it, dodge ram we'd just looked at. so we went back, thanked the guy and decided we'd head back to the first lot and take that ram for a spin. 

well, we got there and the guy handed over the keys, so we popped it open and got on our way. however, we soon started falling out of love with this truck. after seeing the dakota which was in great shape, we noticed the ram's tired were pretty much bald - ugh, not good. secondly, it didnt have automatic doors and windows which my 95 freakin truck had, and was going to be a but of an inconvenience. we also noticed other little qwerks with it like the interior, some scratches on the exterior, the lack of a tow-package[which we've used more than a few times recently on my 95 and has come in really handy] and a few other things... well crap, now what? there were two other places on my list but they were in opposite directions from where we now were. one was in indiana and about an hour and a half away, the other was in kentucky and an hour away. well believe it or not after all this driving around and only having looked at 2 trucks seriously, it was already passed 3 in the afternoon... 

so i decided to call the place in kentucky and find out what they had available while karen talked to the guy at this lot a little longer. i found out that the kentucky place was an actual dealership and they ended up having 3 other trucks that were in our price range besides the one we knew was there. not to mention the one we knew about had some of the things this blue one was lacking according to the guy on the phone. so we said our goodbyes, got on the road, and headed to kentucky. well, about an hour and 15 minutes later [we had to stop for gas] we arrived at the dealership and found the guy from the phone he took us out to the truck and we carefully inspected it from the outside having already done this twice. well this thing was immaculate, if youd told me it was brand new, id have believed you. he handed us the keys and we took it for a test drive, and now i was determined to really test it. so i gave the breaks, engine, and other features a thorough test and we were very satisfied with the way it ran. 

when we got back to the dealership we were sold. we looked at the other options on his lot that were in our price range just to make sure, but we were definitely sold on this truck. so a few hours later after all the paperwork, we'd gotten he process started for financing, but the banks were all closed for the night. we ended up writing a check for the full amount up front pending the results of financing on saturday morning, and at a little after 6pm i drove off the lot in our new truck with karen right behind me in the rental car. at this point we were headed straight back to columbus to return the rental [3 hours away] and then back home again [another 2 hours]. we finally got home at about 1am and we were both completely exhausted and just collapsed into bed for the night. i think i still had some of my clothes on, lol!

so at the end of the day [yeah i guess i went into a few of the finer points, sorry josh, deal with it] we had a new truck!! so here are the details. its a 2004 dodge ram 1500. bright red [shiny as can be!], crew cab, long bed. it has 80k miles on it, tires with over 60% tread, a tow-package [and it even includes a towing drive setting for hauling stuff, sweet!] it runs like a dream and everything on it works like new! so we now have a new[to us] "shiny, and hearty, AND robust!" truck! [which we have aptly named sahara because of - look at it for a while and youll figure it out...]

so again, without further adieu, here are the pics! [again, click for the full-size, mouth-watering image, heh]

some of you may notice the mirror on the drivers side is missing. the deal with that is that it was cracked and they were in the process of ordering a new one when we bought the truck, so when it comes in theyre going to replace it for us. other than that, the only little downfalls with sahara are that she doesnt have power doors and windows and she needs a bed liner. but thats okay! id like to put in a security system anyway, and i think you can get power windows and locks as an option with those now-a-days, and we can get a spray in liner pretty cheap too! no worries!

well, thats all for now! check back soon for our saturday and sunday adventures!

gobble-gobble!