Movies, Air Conditioning and Basements

Eric and I had a good weekend. Good in that we were relaxed, not that we got a lot accomplished. But that is ok, it was too hot to really do anything anyway. As we sat huddled in the basement with the cats on Sunday, we decided two things. 1) We need to get central air. 2) We are going to finish the basement so we have a nice place to huddle until we get central air. The girls didn’t seem particularly pleased with this plan, especially Smidge, since it is going to require walls going up in the basement. That will mean that both of her favorite pastimes will have to stop; sitting on the water heater to look down on everything and throwing up on the floor...but I think they will like the carpet. That concrete gets chilly in the winter.

We got inspiration to finish the basement (again) when we went to Eric’s friend John’s house on Saturday for his graduation party. He has almost the same basement as us and has a family room in it. The trick is that instead of framing out the walls (which are also braced) and putting up drywall, they just painted them and put down carpet. And it looked good. It didn’t look awesome, but honestly, it isn’t going to be a showroom. We just need the extra living space! Maybe then we will feel comfortable enough to have people over for parties if they don’t all have to scrunch into the living room.

Otherwise, we spent a lot of time this weekend at the movie theater or shopping. We saw Over the Hedge and X-Men. Over the Hedge was actually really good. I thought it would be more of a kids movie, but the end was actually hilarious. Eric, Vanessa and Dan enjoyed it too. X-Men was pretty good. I was a little disappointed at the huge departure from the actual X-Men storyline, but I will get over it. The special effects were really good. Maybe I am just getting used to seeing CGI stuff finally, but I thought they really made the fight scenes look real.

That is all, we will keep everyone updated on our attempts to actually begin and finish a large house project. Our track record hasn’t been very good in the last year….

Today was one of Eric's most hated activities: shopping. We have Melissa's wedding coming up in a few weeks, so it has finally dawned on him that he is going to need a new outfit. We went to the Prime Outlets in Kenosha and found absolutely nothing. Well...maybe a few things. I found two pairs of shoes and some heat-resistant plastic "spoonulas" at the Le Creuset outlet store (They have an outlet store, can you believe it?!?!?!). But Eric had no luck. Ah well, more shopping for me!

Here is us almost getting the Boy graduating. D'oh! 

For everyone who missed my "Tooth Day" party a month ago. Check out the great new chompers!

Playing catch up with pictures...this is from St. Paddy's day. Hooray for the green beer on the Miller Tour!! 

Crabby Zoe

Mini-Burgers and Graduation

Busy weekend. Saturday I was at Melissa Miller's wedding shower in Janseville with Vanessa and Sue. It was fun. Melissa's aunt made all kinds of cute mini-food and there were lots of drinks. The combination of small food and big drinks made for some interesting conversation. I had to duck out at around 5:30 to pick up Grandma (Sarah!) from the train station, so I didn't get to stay for the "bachlorette party" at the end. Which was sad, because I heard they were going to break out the penis-shaped jello shots at the end of the night...rats...

Meanwhile, Eric went golfing with Scott and Tom and got sunburned.

That night we picked up Sarah from the train station and went out with the Boy and Kristin. We had dinner at the bar Tracks on Humbolt and Locust where Kristen works as a cook. Tracks has a Saturday night special of $1.00 "Castle Burgers", which are awesome. They are supposed to be similar to White Castle's burgers, except these are actually good. I ate three, and would have eaten more if I wasn't also consuming the other Saturday night special, a 24 oz domestic tap beer for $2.25. Mmmm...burgers and beers....

Next morning we went to the US Cellular arena for the Boy's graduation. It was crazy-hot and packed with people. The commencement ceremony was crappy and the Boy threw us all for a loop by being the second name called out of 2,100 graduates even though the program listed him as the 43rd graduate. Eric and I were still fumbling with the camera when Sarah said, "He's already gone you guys, you missed him." God, Sarah! Oh well, we took a picture of him walking down the stairs, which I will post later. Afterwards, we went to Oakland Trattoria and had pizza followed by cake at the Boy's apartment.

...And Then It Was Too Late

Hello Everyone!

Since everyone who is cool seems to be doing it (this means you, Patrick and Lindsay), we decided to start a little blog of our own. These are our goals: 1. To let everyone know what we are up to, since we are too lazy to email people individually, 2. To force me (Ruth) to write on a regular basis, and 3. To brag about our cats! Hooray!

In any case, stay tuned for more info.