Holy shit i'm full

Do you ever get the feeling like you will never be hungry again? If so, welcome to my Thanksgiving. I don't know exactly how much I ate in terms of poundage but over the course of the day it was probably a good 170-200% my normal intake.



But I did manage to learn few things about cooking this year. I learned that drinking hot cider all day can be hard on your teeth and I learned that brussel sprouts are not as bad as I had thought they were, but still nearly inedible. By far the most useful information, however, came from one of the many online recipe sites:
"Separate the skin over the breast to make little pockets. Put 3 tablespoons of the butter on both sides between the skin and breast meat. This makes for very juicy breast meat":



Everything was so delicious. Thanks to Brian, Britta, Matt and Laura for contributing to a fantastic meal.

New baby, new floors

Two weeks ago my mom came out for a visit and we went on a road trip to Missoula to see my best friend, Julie, and her new baby boy, Ian. While we were gone, Jim went to town on the rest of our flooring. We got back Sunday afternoon and he was only a few feet away from finishing. The floors look fantastic, and Ian is the sweetest baby.

I've known Julie since we were both 5 years old. We met on the bus on the first day of school.

Ian was such a sweetheart. My mom and I fell in love at first site.

I think Ian looks like Julie, but even while we were there he seemed to change and at certain angles you could see his dad, Clayton.

Beautiful floors!!

We also had new window blinds installed this week. They are fantastic! Especially in the front window.

Just in time for winter...

"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since". -Salvador Dali


I think about this quote every time my home improvement ideas seem a little too far fetched. Saturday morning was one of those times.

When we moved into our house this spring the first thing that I recognized as needing improvement was the lack of access to our 3/16 of an acre of backyard (we were being forced to go through the garage). So in June, about a month after moving in, Sara and I ordered a new patio door from an acquaintance of mine in the window and door industry. It finally arrived from Germany via Chicago, Denver, Nova Scotia, etc, last week. If I had known there would be an 18 week lead time I probably would have gone domestic. Oh well, it is basically the Audi of patio doors, so the delay is mostly forgotten.

I enlisted the assistance of my friend Josh and we went to work making a huge hole in the back of the house where our lame bay window had been.

Before:


An hour or so later:


We then hit the store for lumber and caulk, made a quick stop at A&W and got back to work installing the door.


With the help of Pat and his multiple trips to his house for tools that I do not own we pressed on, getting the door level & plumb.



And as evening settled on Bozeman and the Wolverines were completing their fourth quarter comeback victory over the Spartans, Bill took his first look out from the house to his yard/toilet. He seems happy.

Bill’s Modeling Debut

Today at work we needed a dog model for a project we’re rushing to finish up. The email went out to the office, a few people offered, but we needed a dog fast and a good looking one too. Since I probably live the closest to our office and have the best looking dog in our entire company, I was told to “go get him.” He was a natural as the picture above proves. We have some concerns that he looks so good we may need to ask for some money . . . look for Bill in Murdoch’s advertising and branding in the future.

bride, groom, wedding, awesome

If you noticed out recent absence from blogging you will (hopefully) be pleased to know that we're ok and we have basically been partying our asses off for the last 2 months and, therefore, unable to post anything coherent. We've had lots of visitors and a few trips squeezed in, the most recent of which was in northern California for the wedding of our beloved friends AV and Sonia (below).


Congrats to the happy couple!
Sara and I were thrilled to be able to take a short vacation and spent our time eating, drinking, dancing, meeting new friends, catching up with old friends, making toasts, sitting in the hottub, playing horseshoes, eating, drinking, and basically smiling nonstop. What a blast!



Sara and Jim, mid-reception



Sara and the bride, looking lovely



Andrew Alt, John Volckens and Jim, post reception

Award Winner pt 2

This project is a little older but a project that I helped design and build while at Montana State just won an AIA Honor Award. Pretty exciting stuff...

Award Winner

Our wedding was the best party EVER! We're still talking about it and what a special day it was. For those who may remember our wedding invitations we thought you'd be excited to know we won an American Graphic Design Award for our invitation design and the small booklet that was included in the guest bags at the Radisson. Pretty awesome!

Wood Floors: Part 1

Two weekends ago we started the process of laying hardwood floors. We tackled both bedrooms and part of the hallway. We won't finish the rest until after we receive and put in our patio door. It should be here in a few more weeks. I came to the conclusion that I am NOT a fan of carpet after spending hours pulling up carpet nail strips. They suck! The floors look great. We still need to finish the trim and reattach it, but what a difference already.
Here's the stack of flooring.

Jim started to rip up the carpet in our guest room and we found a very special surprise underneath . . . .

Glitter tile flooring! Wow! It's almost too pretty to cover up again. Just kidding. Pretty sweet, though.

Ahh, the carpet nail strips. They look so easy to just pull right up. Oh, so not the case . . .

The chisel and hammer going to work on those nail strips. Some did come up pretty easily, while others (like this one) disintegrated into split pieces of wood. Not fun.

Next step was laying the tar paper. Not a must, but the manufacturer recommended it for some noise reduction and moisture control. It smelled bad.

Wooo hooo! Look at those floors going down so pretty! The color is really fantastic. There's lots of variation.

Yay! Guest room done (almost, except for the trim). My grandma sent the quilt on the bed. It looks so cozy :) Come visit!

Bill’s (other) Girlfriend

Bill is a playful soul. He loves to make friends. Especially with the ladies. Triga is our friends the Caldwell’s labradoodle. She and Bill could play together for hours. Maybe even days and weeks. They especially enjoy tug-o-war and fetch, although Triga is faster than Bill (we’re working on that).

BBQ Fun

We received the most fantastic gift from our friends Sarah & Jason—a personal branding iron! We put it to the test a few weeks back and it worked like a charm. Steaks anyone??

New (old) Chairs

I've had these café chairs for a few years. They were given to me by my aunt and uncle. They used to be in a Barnes and Noble. They're great little chairs, but we wanted to jazz them up a bit. We found this great oil cloth at Reproduction Fabrics downtown. We got a staple gun and went to town. They look great with the table too.

Happy 1/2 Anniversary!

Friday was our 6 month anniversary and Jim surprised me with these gorgeous flowers at work. Everyone in the office was jealous. They're beautiful, as you can see. We celebrated later that evening by going to see "Superbad". It was hilarious. You must go see it.

Thinking BIG

We decided to go bigger in the garden patch in the back yard. This meant we had to dig up the grass. It wasn't easy, but Clay helped out when he was in town and we got down to it today and finished it up. Holy smokes I can't wait to plant!!

"Fine" Furnishings

Over the past couple of weekends I have built a few pieces of badly needed furniture for the house. I started with a new SportCenter holder (TV stand):


I then moved on to a cocktail and crossword puzzle holder (end table):


My most recent piece is a dining table for the patio. This is the one that has all of us really excited. Since we moved in we have been dining at a 30" square camping table that is extremely wobbly - especially with a 70 pound clutz vizsla hanging out at your feet. I found a great book that details plans for patio furniture and this is my first attempt, I have to say it turned out pretty good. Now I just have to pick the perfect meal for its inauguration.


During all this carpentry mayhem we also found strings of lights to hang above the patio. The ambiance feels almost...no, exactly, like Italy. 95% of my experience with Italy is from watching Godfather II.


I am not sure what is next. Brother Clay is on his way into town tonight, perhaps he will build a chaise lounge or gazebo.

It was recently brought to my attention (thanks to AV) that anyone wishing to post a comment here must first open a google account. I am not sure why this was the case, but it is now fixed and any and all of you can comment away. I probably check the blog 25 times a day hoping in vain that someone has posted a comment. Now I know why you have all been so quiet. We cannot wait to hear what more of you have to say!

Bill's Girlfriend

This is Bill with his girlfriend, Eva. They are totally in love.

Eva belongs to our friends Josh and Kiza.

We love our Bill

Bill really knows how to relax, take a load off and beat the heat :)

Airshow extravaganza

Sorry these pictures kind of suck. We forgot our cameras so I took a few shots with my phone. I know they aren't that spectacular, but the airshow was. We hit the air show this past Saturday and saw some super cool stunt flying, some older planes and the Blue Angels . It was awesome and (I think) worth sitting in the hot sun all day :)

More planting

We decided some hanging planters would add some interest and color to the front of the house. So I went out and bought some, planted them and hung them from the railing. It's a bit late in the season, but I'm hoping they'll fill in some.