Our first game at Lambeau

Where else does anyone in their right mind leave their house with the car loaded at 7am, open the tailgate in a frozen parking lot at 10am to drink beer and eat chili and sausage, dress in layers and strategically placed hot packs to sit for several hours on metal bleachers in 20º weather?

Our first game at Lambeau was awesome.
Packers 48, Seahawks 10

New Artificial Tree

With limited storage space and the wish to simplify holiday decorating,

we decided to create a flat artificial tree.
2 yards of tan cotton,
1 yard of green fleece,
two 36" dowels
and about 100 green buttons later...

Per tradition, the 'ugly ball' was of course the first to go on the tree

Artificial trees just aren't the same without that fresh pine scent,
so I crocheted an ornament holder for a 'Scentportable' refill from Bath & Body Works. The how-to is on hdwu's blog.

Christmas is almost here!

Paint is (almost) done!

We still need to paint the house number on the front
and choose an interesting color for the front door.
But the painting is mostly done:

Red House, Wrong Trim

The house is red!
Unfortunately they used the wrong paint for the trim,
which makes the house feel really dark and depressing.
The painters will be back today to fix it...

Primed!

Forecast for the next few days is 'partly cloudy',

with 60% showers on Saturday.
Hopefully the rain can hold out for just a few more days...

Paint colors:

(brown for fascia, red for most of house, gray for trim)

BEFORE New Paint

After 5 years of waiting,
the house will soon no longer be dirty pink & cream!

BEFORE:

142 Miles

Heather participated in the Bike MS ride this weekend- an organized bike ride benefitting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. 74 miles (~3,500 feet total climb) on the first day, 68 miles (~2,300 feet total climb) on the second day, camping at the fairgrounds in the evenings.

Update-8/17

After a month of heat, lots of watering and lots of pruning back the crazy tomato plants:

Finally- a few are turning red

The new monkey sculpture has found a home

Fred installed the new lights on the front of the house

Garden-7/13

WHOA! Watering + sun + 'suckering'= huge tomato plants.
Just as we knew we would, we planted way too much.
It seemed like so much space when it was just dirt and tiny little seeds...

Fred's little cucumbers finally getting bigger...

Garden-7/6

Progress! Tomatoes staked and growing, and all the seeds have sprouted.
Heather's zucchini sprouts are growing WAY faster than
Fred's cucumber sprouts.

Herbs all seem pretty happy- the cilantro and dill took off.

Fred's cute little baby cucumbers.