Paula and I took a summer vacation with my niece Kierstyn to Paris last week. We had a great time, did the expected tourist sights. Kierstyn was great and tried all kinds of new foods and experiences.
We would go to the market every night to gather up food to have dinner at the apartment. I think this was Kierstyn's favorite part of every day, and it allowed her to practice her fledgling French language skills!
Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/PurduePaula/Paris2009#
Vince spent the week at Puppy Camp (Dogs Day Inn) and came home completely worn out! He slept for 2~3 days straight. He's back to normal today though. We were cleaning up the accumulated dog hair when Vince started feeling brave about attacking the "big noise machine."
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Two Weekend Project
As most people who have been here to the house know we have a rooftop deck where we entertain all summer long. One portion of the deck was built by the original contractor and we built the larger portion ourselves. We finally determined that the original "contractor" portion needed replacing.
In truth the frame completely rotted away and the boards were coming apart; we had no choice but to replace it. During the construction process we actually stepped through our neighbor's deck when we walked on it, so we weren't the only ones with issues!
Anyway, we started last weekend with demolition, which was not fun. The best part of demo was buying a new large crowbar. Paula wouldn't let me use an axe to chop it up; nor would she agree to letting me by a demolition tool called "The Annihilator." What does she know about fun?!
This weekend we framed and decked the entire 9x16 area. We were able to frame out an extra foot or so onto the width deck, which doesn't seem like much but really feels like a lot once you put it in place.
Here is a photo of the first plank being screwed into place!
In total we hauled up the four flights of stairs:
4 - 8ft 4x4's
10 - 12 ft 2x4's
20 - 12 ft 2x6's
We were pretty worn out by Sunday night, but the results are going to be worth it this summer!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Big Weekend in Chicago
We had a great time this weekend with friend's in from out of town. Stacey, Thomas, Emma, Jen, Tony, and Felix the Fetus all came in to town. (Felix is what Jen and Tony call their unborn child.) It was a fun weekend just hanging out around town and at the house. We found out one thing for certain, Emma is probably the happiest baby we have ever met. Emma's blog is linked below if you want to see her.
On Saturday we headed over into the old neighborhood around Clark and Diversey. We had a fun time roaming up the street and then took the bus back down to Pizza and Oven Grinder, talk about a heavy lunch! We then walked down the street to Old Town to check out the second (and now closing) location of one of our favorite art galleries. (Check out the link below.)
http://www.mimigalerie.com/index.php
We bought our first Mimi in 2006 and have given some thought to buying another, but just didn't feel we could justify the expense. Well, they lost the lease on their Wells Street location (a hair salon is going in there) and they were having a HUGE sale. We decided that we would go ahead and take the plunge and ended up getting a large painting for downstairs and a small one for upstairs.
Saturday night I got the chance to cook for everyone, which I just love to do, and we had a pleasant evening just sitting and talking. The dinner was great if I do say so myself. We were up a little later than we probably should have been, but it all worked out fine.
We awoke this morning to a snowstorm. We ended up with about 2 inches all told. The weather was a real downer all weekend, cold and windy instead of spring like. Since the observation deck at the Sears Tower was clouded in, we decided that the Art Institute would have to be the activity for the day. We saw the Edward Munch exhibit and of course toured the Impressionist Wing.
We had lunch in the Cafe and for the first time in years I fed a baby. Emma was a little confused it seemed and I could only relate it to baseball of course. You see, Emma's parents are rightys and I'm a lefty, so the food was coming at her at an odd angle! Eventually we had to call in Mom to finish the job!
All told it was a great weekend, though you'll have to watch Jen and Tony's site for pictures, I think they are the only ones that took any!
On Saturday we headed over into the old neighborhood around Clark and Diversey. We had a fun time roaming up the street and then took the bus back down to Pizza and Oven Grinder, talk about a heavy lunch! We then walked down the street to Old Town to check out the second (and now closing) location of one of our favorite art galleries. (Check out the link below.)
http://www.mimigalerie.com/index.php
We bought our first Mimi in 2006 and have given some thought to buying another, but just didn't feel we could justify the expense. Well, they lost the lease on their Wells Street location (a hair salon is going in there) and they were having a HUGE sale. We decided that we would go ahead and take the plunge and ended up getting a large painting for downstairs and a small one for upstairs.
Saturday night I got the chance to cook for everyone, which I just love to do, and we had a pleasant evening just sitting and talking. The dinner was great if I do say so myself. We were up a little later than we probably should have been, but it all worked out fine.
We awoke this morning to a snowstorm. We ended up with about 2 inches all told. The weather was a real downer all weekend, cold and windy instead of spring like. Since the observation deck at the Sears Tower was clouded in, we decided that the Art Institute would have to be the activity for the day. We saw the Edward Munch exhibit and of course toured the Impressionist Wing.
We had lunch in the Cafe and for the first time in years I fed a baby. Emma was a little confused it seemed and I could only relate it to baseball of course. You see, Emma's parents are rightys and I'm a lefty, so the food was coming at her at an odd angle! Eventually we had to call in Mom to finish the job!
All told it was a great weekend, though you'll have to watch Jen and Tony's site for pictures, I think they are the only ones that took any!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Boilers in The Sweet Sixteen!
The Boilermakers are heading to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in 9 years! Go Boilers!! We had a small gathering at our place to watch the game. Since the local CBS affiliate was showing the Michigan game and not Purdue we had to watch on the Internet. After much consternation and two trips to the electronics store we were able to push the image to our HDTV. Let me tell you, if a sales guy says that pushing the image is as easy as hooking up cables, they are totally full of it. We ended up having to purchase a converter kit of some kind and we barely got things running in time for tip off.
Chris and Eileen were over with Mary Kate and Grady and Anna came in from the 'burbs. We were really glad Anna felt like coming over, as she is due with their first child in less than 10 days. As you can see here the father to be is practicing a very important skill: balancing a baby while holding a pint of Guinness in your lap!
Mary Kate was great throughout the party, but did eventually get a little fussy. Chris was calming her by carrying her around the living room in the "football carry" that parents use today. Chris even topped it off by giving us his best Heisman pose.
As you can see in the background Vince was intently following and watching Mary Kate. Chris and Eileen were good with letting him investigate her a little more this visit. He sniffed her over and gave her a little lick on the hands. You could tell he was really wanting to give her puppy kisses on the nose, but Mary Kate wanted nothing to do with that. Once he decided that he liked this little bundle Vince was her new escort, following whomever was carrying her all over the house. All that patrolling eventually tuckered the little guy out and he spent the majority of the evening snoozing away.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
St. Patrick's Day
In addition to it being St. Patrick’s day, it was an “Irish Day” for Vince as well. Our neighbors across the courtyard in Michigan City have a black miniature schnauzer named “Irish” who is Vince’s best buddy in the MC. Yesterday afternoon was so beautiful that I went home to give Vince some outdoors time during my lunch hour. Turns out Irish was getting the same thing so they got some “puppy time” running around the courtyard.
Irish’s owner said something funny though, she said that they don’t let Irish off leash unless he’s with Vince because he doesn’t come back otherwise. She went on to say that she was impressed with how well Vince listens to us. I was shocked to hear that somebody thinks he minds well, as he can sometimes be a spaz, especially when meeting someone new.
I hit the local pub – McGinnis’ – in Michigan City for my Irish fix for the day. The Guiness was a little flat, but the Murphy’s Irish Stout was perfect and the Shepard’s pie and soda bread was scrumptious as usual! The only downer is that they are still allowed to smoke anywhere in bars and restaurants in Indiana, so the bar and dining area of the pub was nasty. However, I lucked out and got an upwind seat out on the patio to sit and have my dinner!
Irish’s owner said something funny though, she said that they don’t let Irish off leash unless he’s with Vince because he doesn’t come back otherwise. She went on to say that she was impressed with how well Vince listens to us. I was shocked to hear that somebody thinks he minds well, as he can sometimes be a spaz, especially when meeting someone new.
I hit the local pub – McGinnis’ – in Michigan City for my Irish fix for the day. The Guiness was a little flat, but the Murphy’s Irish Stout was perfect and the Shepard’s pie and soda bread was scrumptious as usual! The only downer is that they are still allowed to smoke anywhere in bars and restaurants in Indiana, so the bar and dining area of the pub was nasty. However, I lucked out and got an upwind seat out on the patio to sit and have my dinner!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Spring Break Pictures
Here are a few pictures from our sojourn to warmer weather.
Eric and his Cuban.
One day Eric, one day you will make it all the way to Cuba.
Cheers!!
Eric's affinity for the shrimp cocktail on Celebrity is never ending.
Who doesn't love the muster drill? Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Spring Break 2009! WOOOOOOO!!! Party!
OK, so it wasn't spring break like that, but Paula and I did get away this weekend for a little fun in the sun of the Caribbean. We left on Thursday from Miami on the Celebrity Century, which is also the first ship that we ever cruised on back in 2002.
The ship itself has been upgraded and the new martini bar is something else, with an icy waterfall behind the bar and an iced section in the middle. The crew and staff was spectacular, much better than our last cruise in the Med. (We were a little disappointed, we felt the staff was well below Celebrity standards.)
Our first stop was Key West, a place that we love. Unfortunately the excursion that we had booked got cancelled because of lack of interest. Truly, it shouldn't surprise us that the kayak/snorkel/swim with wild dolphins wasn't really popular with the Celebrity crowd. (The crowd tends to be a bit older, which suits us normally.) The excursion being cancelled was kind of a blessing in disguise, as we had a great time just bumming around town. We went to the southernmost point, had breakfast at Blue Heaven, and then did a mini pub crawl from Margaritaville, to Sloppy Joe's, to Captain Tony's, and ending up at Hog's Breath. A great time, and as usual I managed to get myself into a fun conversation with a couple of people who were a hoot and a half while sucking down margaritas! (Turned out they were on our boat as well, though we only saw them at the end.)
Our next stop was Cozumel for some of the best diving we've ever done. Both dives were drift dives where the current pulled us along the reef where we saw all manner of sea life. It was truly my personal best set of dives, I was able to make it to depth with little or no issue with my ears, and reached a new personal "deepest" dive of 90 feet! I was even able to make the first tank last 40 minutes, which is crazy long for me. (Though it was almost dry by the time we got to the surface, I had less than 100 psi.)
The second dive got a little dicey when Paula's tank ran low very early in the dive (we don't think they put her on a full tank at the changeover) but our excellent training kicked in and we did buddy breath for the remainder of the dive. Buddy diving isn't all that uncommon, we actually saw a couple doing it the entire time in Egypt, but it was a new experience for us.
The last day at sea was really nice weather, a little windy, but sunny and warm! I managed to burn my backside because I didn't reapply sunblock when I "turned." Apparently I managed to sweat off all of that SPF 8 off of the back because the front is still white and the back is all red!
We'll get a few photos posted at some point, I'll leave that to Paula! (Everyone knows I can't do a thing with a camera.)
Vincent was apparently very happy to be picked up from Puppy Camp, Paula said he bounded out to greet here and has been sleeping since he got home.
The ship itself has been upgraded and the new martini bar is something else, with an icy waterfall behind the bar and an iced section in the middle. The crew and staff was spectacular, much better than our last cruise in the Med. (We were a little disappointed, we felt the staff was well below Celebrity standards.)
Our first stop was Key West, a place that we love. Unfortunately the excursion that we had booked got cancelled because of lack of interest. Truly, it shouldn't surprise us that the kayak/snorkel/swim with wild dolphins wasn't really popular with the Celebrity crowd. (The crowd tends to be a bit older, which suits us normally.) The excursion being cancelled was kind of a blessing in disguise, as we had a great time just bumming around town. We went to the southernmost point, had breakfast at Blue Heaven, and then did a mini pub crawl from Margaritaville, to Sloppy Joe's, to Captain Tony's, and ending up at Hog's Breath. A great time, and as usual I managed to get myself into a fun conversation with a couple of people who were a hoot and a half while sucking down margaritas! (Turned out they were on our boat as well, though we only saw them at the end.)
Our next stop was Cozumel for some of the best diving we've ever done. Both dives were drift dives where the current pulled us along the reef where we saw all manner of sea life. It was truly my personal best set of dives, I was able to make it to depth with little or no issue with my ears, and reached a new personal "deepest" dive of 90 feet! I was even able to make the first tank last 40 minutes, which is crazy long for me. (Though it was almost dry by the time we got to the surface, I had less than 100 psi.)
The second dive got a little dicey when Paula's tank ran low very early in the dive (we don't think they put her on a full tank at the changeover) but our excellent training kicked in and we did buddy breath for the remainder of the dive. Buddy diving isn't all that uncommon, we actually saw a couple doing it the entire time in Egypt, but it was a new experience for us.
The last day at sea was really nice weather, a little windy, but sunny and warm! I managed to burn my backside because I didn't reapply sunblock when I "turned." Apparently I managed to sweat off all of that SPF 8 off of the back because the front is still white and the back is all red!
We'll get a few photos posted at some point, I'll leave that to Paula! (Everyone knows I can't do a thing with a camera.)
Vincent was apparently very happy to be picked up from Puppy Camp, Paula said he bounded out to greet here and has been sleeping since he got home.
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