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.