Wow, it’s our first Christmas on our own as a married couple. (well, us and Matt anyway) Jess and I took this past weekend to venture out with our old roomies (Jon and Mel) to cut our annual Christmas Tree. We drove out to this great little tree farm near Verona, WI. They offer a cut-your-own-tree style of Christmas Tree shopping where they provide a saw for cutting and a sled for pulling your tree back to the entrance. As we did last year, Jess and I had a great time hand picking our very own Christmas Tree. And there are a few pictures below to prove it.

We were also able to check-off our 237th untraditional item able to fit in Jess’s Mini Cooper. That car never disappoints!

Sadly, this year we will not be able to launch our tree off our 3rd story deck as we have done in years past. …Sorry Jon.

Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year to all our friends and family!

Boone and I got a nice treat this weekend- a getaway! Boone was in Chicago for a conference all week, and I decided to drive down and join him for the weekend. We stayed in a beautiful place near Wrigley field and had a great dinner at a tiny French restaurant known only to a few locals. Saturday, we bundled up and took the ‘L’ downtown to the Art Museum, which we browsed around in until lunch time. My favorite exhibit was a photography collection on adolescence, specifically girls. It was amazing to see how the photographers took such an awkward phase in life and turned it into art! After that, we walked to Millennium Park and Michigan Avenue, which was packed with holiday shoppers. We had lunch and decided that we should walk back to our place, so we could enjoy the city from foot. It took us a long time, but it was worth it to check out the city, and a few stops for food and coffee helped the time pass.

We left early on Sunday so we could get ready for next week and do some Christmas decorating around the condo and cut our yearly Christmas tree with Jon an Mel. I’m generally not a “city” fan, but it was really neat and I think we’ll have to make weekend trips down there more often.

 

 

 

As many of you know, this weekend was the first really big snow storm of the winter season. Boone and I ran a few errands in the AM, got some supplies, and then decided we needed a snow day project to keep us busy.

So, we painted the downstairs bathroom and put up a new mirror. For those of you who have been to our place, you know of this room as the black hole; a small half bath painted black. Now, it includes a new framed mirror and is a rich green color called “Italian Olive.” We had our house guest Matt earn his keep with a little painting- little meaning two coats of primer to cover the black and two coats of green. Painting is not necessarily my favorite activity, but we had some good wine and hot cocoa to keep us going. That, and the fact that we really couldn’t step out of our front door until the sidewalks were plowed.

We also picked out some new slate flooring and talked about getting a new light along with staining the current vanity. I think those projects will have to wait until the next snowy weekend. Here are a few pictures until then!

Before – Previous Owners:

During – Phase 1 Bathrooom Remodel:

After – Phase 1 Bathroom Remodel:

We have our first real, long-term house guest! Our Matt (he is the Jesus look alike in the Halloween pictures and he was our wedding photographer) got a job here in Madison and is staying with us until he finds an apartment. We are really excited to show off our city and some of our favorite places, like the Essen Haus, Olbrich Gardens, State Street, and the Great Dane. Hopefully the condo won’t get too crowded with another person in it…

Who ever said that Halloween is not for the workplace has never met Terry Tate, Office Ninja. After a month of binging on Miniature BabyRuths, Black & White Nerds, and delicious York Peppermint Pattys today was the culmination of the sugar coma Wednesday. I hope everyone had a stealthy Holiday. For more Ninja entertainment, check out Ask A Ninja.com. I work with the internet everyday…and this is still one of my favorite sites. Enjoy!

So our former roommates and best friends Jon & Mel are engaged, and have decided to have their July wedding in Hawaii! Since Boone is the best man and I am a bridesmaid, that means we get to go to Hawaii for a third time. Crazy! They’ve decided on the island of Maui for their ceremony, so it is nice that we get to visit a new island. We may even make a vacation of it and stay there for an extra week!

Until then, we will no doubt pass our wedding experience onto our friends and help them plan out their day. We are really excited for them (and not just because of the tropical trip) and look forward to parties and dresses and favors and invites.

You can check out pictures from our last trip to Hawaii by clicking on the links to the right!

Despite Jess’s massive Oktoberfest head-cold, we departed this weekend with Jon and Mel and headed to Mel’s home town, Indianola, Iowa. We slept most of the way but 6 quick hours later we arrived at Mel’s parents’ farm. We had a great weekend, fishing, tromping around, and relaxing by the fire. We even got to play with Mel’s parents’ new Australian Cattle Dog Puppy, Bloke. He is super cute and makes Jess and I really want a puppy.

All-in-all, Jess and I had a blast. Thanks Jon and Mel for a fun weekend away!

This past weekend my grandfather passed away. You can read his obit here. He was a really good grandpa and a pretty cool guy. I learned so much about him over the weekend and everything he did. He built up the farm, raised 6 kids on one income, keep current on politics and baseball, and knew a ton about the area and the families in it. He was amazed that his grandkids could accomplish so much, but I think we are just taking the traits he had like intelligence, work ethic, honesty, and duty, and putting them to use in our current world. I hope that as we all start families, we can keep those traits and traditions going.
His funeral was wonderful too. The Sons of Norway where there, David Fischer sang one of his favorite songs, and we drove the funeral procession past the farm. It was so personal and really reflected his life and our family. Here’s a copy of the speech that my family put together and that I read at his funeral. Grandpa Ernie’s funeral speech When it’s our time to go, I hope we all have such a warm and loving send off.

A few months ago as a wedding gift, Caleb and Amanda Olson (Newlyweds and Best-man in our wedding) bought us tickets to see Monty Python’s SPAMalot and a weekend get-away in St. Paul Minnesota. Yesterday was the culmination of the two month-long wait.

For those of you not familiar with SPAMalot, it is the musical rendition of the classically hilarious movie, Monty Python and the Search For The Holy Grail. This show debuted on Broadway in 2005 but premiered in England before landing in the Big Apple. Included in the all-star cast was Tim Cury, Hank Azaria, and David Hyde Pierce.

This musical is absolutely fantastic! All the classic movie characters remain the same, new characters are added, and all the characters that you wished had greater character development, get their chance in SPAMalot. (aka. Not-Yet-Dead Fred, the Tower-Trapped Boy who wants to sing, The Frenchmen, and more)

WARNING: The songs will get stuck in your head for weeks!

If you have the chance to see it GO.

Thanks Caleb and Amanda for a SPAMtastic weekend!

Alright, I need to post this before the hilarity is lessened.

I begin by posing this question, “If I were a dead thing where would I be?”

Apparently in the life cycle of buying a house (condo) there comes a brief hazing period for new homeowners. Jess and I can attest to this first hand.

We have had this …well, odd funk coming from our basement for a couple of months now. The smell comes and goes and is more noticeable at certain times than others. As our cat hides down there during thunderstorms we assumed that the smell was coming from …well, her. However, this weekend Jess and I went on a “Find that smell” adventure.

We searched Hi and Low in that basement. We re-organized, swept, swiffered, and washed the floor. We thought we were in the clear… that is until last night when we were doing laundry.

The smell was back, and like a Bruce Willis film, it came with a vengeance. That’s it. I had had enough and I put my nose to the grind-stone in hopes of winning the “finding that smell” game. I had noticed a faint smell when I went to fill the dryer earlier this month. I assumed that with our cat, Katie, and wet clothes, 1 plus 1 = 2. This made sense considering I described the smell to Jess as remotely like “wet dog” or “wet animal.”

This brings me back to my original question. “If I were a dead thing where would I be?”

The answer…as you probably have already guessed…The Dryer.

We stopped the laundry and pulled up the lint trap to find living “bugs” and a few small hard white things in with the dryer lint. “Are those… bones?” asked Jess.

After a slight freakout, I with tools and Jess with a gloves & a bucket-o-chlorine, we attacked the dryer. Yes, no need to call the coroner, at 10:30 last night Jess and I removed not 1 but 2 WAY dead (we think) chipmunks, their “bug” friends, and more fur than I care to discuss from our dryer.

Gross…freakin aye, yes.

Apparently they had crawled into the outside dryer exhaust vent, traveled down the air chute, and got stuck at the base of the dryer exhaust. I could not tell you how long they had been there…but it was pretty aweful. Jess and I spent 2 hours removing dead parts, chlorining, scrubbing, and washing the Bejesus out of our dryer and surrounding floor. In fact, it was a good thing that today was garbage day, because we were able to get everything out of our house, including a few dryer parts that won’t be missed.

Needless to say, I will be making a home depot run after work so we can finish our laundry….animal free.