i have a floor!

so i can't promise any of this is in order and i probably missed a bunch of stuff (ongoing lack of sleep = severe short term memory loss), but i'll do my best.

bryan labored through the long weekend to get the new tile down. save for a few pieces around the door jamb in the backhall (which will need all sorts of weird cuts), the floor is in! it looks so fantastic. i love the color and the look of the natural stone. some of the pieces even have botanical fossil imprints, which is something bryan was hoping for. it now needs to be grouted and sealed, which will take a few days. bryan will also use a pumice like stone to soften some of the edges; since it is a natural stone, not all the pieces are the same size or thickness, and many have variations of thickness within the same tile. so some corners may be a little higher than others. while he did his best to set them in the grout evenly, we'll want to soften some areas just to be sure we're not stubbing our toes. the sealant will make the colors appear more darkly.

it's exciting to see the kitchen starting to take shape. i just remembered i need to buy a sink before june 15th too. that would be good to have. washing dishes in the bathroom sink is even less fun than is sounds. thankfully we've been able to run some through mom's dishwasher. and i bought paper plates because keeping up with cleaning real ones is just not feasible at this point.

additional pictures of the various stages of tile install are in the projects gallery.

we've agreed on cabinet hardware, so i'll be ordering that in the next few days to ensure it arrives by the time we have our cabinet install (in less than 3 weeks!). we're going with a fairly simply oil rubbed bronze pull, which will match our oil rubbed bronze faucet. i'm thinking of going for a similar look in the light switch plates and outlet covers, and our light fixtures will be in the same tone as well.

no word yet on whether the granite we ordered is in stock. *fingers crossed* i'll be calling tomorrow to see if there is any word. if it's sold out, we'll need to decide between our 2nd choice of granite (very similar colors as the flooring), or the icestone. we'll probably be bugging shannon to take a look and see what she recommends. we both really like the granite, but bryan worries that it will be too similar to the flooring (i think the cabinets would do well breaking it up). we both like the idea of the icestone (green = good), but it's a totally different look than the granite AND we're worried dealing with the vendor here in milwaukee will be a royal pain (they're incredibly forgetful and slow hippies). so it's hard to choose, especially since it's kind of comparing apples to oranges.

that decision will drive our selection of backsplash tile and paint. since we want to paint prior to the cabinet install, we really need to get that nailed down! we also need to remove the upper cabinets, the soffits, replace drywall where the soffits were, remove the old tile backsplash from behind the stove, and spackle and sand everywhere before we paint. which needs to be completed by june 15th. just a few things, yea? :)

last thursday oliver and i headed to my parents' house for dinner. shannon made curried beef pot pie. unfortunately, it took a little longer than expected and oliver began having his evening melt down earlier than expected, so he and i had to head home before it was ready. lucky for us, though, mom brought the leftovers to bryan and i to enjoy. and boy are we glad she did - this was SO GOOD. i'm generally not a fan of yellow curry but i couldn't get enough of this. i had 2 helpings, and not 3 only because i wanted to save enough for bryan. shannon made her own crust rather than using phyllo as called for in the recipe, and served the mango chutney on the side as she forgot to mix it in before baking (which i think was a happy mistake, as the flavor would have gotten lost inside). we ate the rest of the pie (which was 2/3 of an entire pie). shannon made *2*, the other of which is on tonight's menu of leftovers. i may have to send bryan over there while i put oliver down to filch some...

oliver decided to go on strike against naps for most of the weekend. so THAT sucked. lucky for him he is cute so i still love him. he did take a 2.5 hour jobber saturday afternoon, which means he slept until 6, which is too late for napping... but as i also was conked out, he got away with it. i'm not sure if his allergies are bothering him, or if he's teething again, or if he has an ear infection, or if he's just being a normal 7 month old (his new trick is rolling onto his belly and getting up on his hands and knees, which i keep catching him practicing in his crib)... but it was highly uncool and i hope he is napping better at day care today. one of the baby sleep books says that infants with sleep problems tend to be more intelligent. if that is the case, our baby will think rocket science is child's play.

since he napped late that afternoon, he and i skipped over to my parent's house for a quick dine and dash dinner. shannon made zesty tilapia with grilled zucchini, grilled corn, and mango sticky rice. scrumptious. oliver tried some of the grilled zucchini, which he enjoyed very much.

saturday, the weather was nice. not too warm, but not cold either, so not complaining. oliver and i took a nice walk through the park, and stopped to play on the playground for a little while. he had his first swing ride!! he *loved* it. we also went down the slide a few times, which he thought was a riot. we walked again on sunday, but skipped playing (too many kids running around), but we stopped by the park again yesterday for some more. the weather was amazing both sunday and monday, so both days were perfect for strolling around the park. i even got a little pink sunburn, go figure! i hope ollie has his daddy's skin in that regard.

mmmm, zwiebak.

monday afternoon, mom and dad had some family over for grilling for memorial day. oliver and i almost didn't make it due to his unwillingness to nap, but at the 11th hour he took a just under 1 hour nap (i managed to catch a few zzzs during it was well) and we made it just before the food came off the grill. shannon made grilled pizzas, turkey legs, and polish sausage. she also made a delicious spicy cashew dip with crudite and crackers; i'm not telling where that recipe came from because, as good as it was, we'll never admit we used one of this person's recipes. ;) oliver tried some more zucchini, this time raw, as well as some graham crackers. both were big hits, but i think he still prefers his toes.

we bought oliver some new toys. it was time to move up to the next learning bracket! i picked out a little baby laptop for him, which has various settings, lots of buttons (he loves buttons), and flashing lights (another favorite). he works very hard on it, as you can see. he is also doing much better at sitting up - hardly any teetering at all! he can right himself if he starts to tip, unless it's too fast, then the momentum of his not unsubstantial weight gets the better of him. he takes it all in stride though, and has perfected the rolling fall.

many more new pictures are in the may gallery. i took a LOT of cute pictures this weekend and a few cute movies (including one giggling in the swing movie!).


we tried benedryl for oliver's allergies wednesday, thursday, and friday night. while it wasn't a perfect cure, it did seem to help. he did not wake up freaking out because he was so stuffy. it did not make him sleep as well as i had hoped for, though (we had some gas problems which preempted that). silly me for wishing. saturday morning when we went for our walk, being outdoors seemed to aggravate him a little bit, but not as bad as previously and no where as much as on sunday - the poor kid looked terrible when we got back from our walk! red, watery eyes with purple bags under them and red splotches all over his face. he immediately started looking better once we got inside. there's no way you can tell me that is not allergies! i left a message with his doctor this morning, so hopefully he'll agree and prescribe some zyrtec or something. it's not the end of the world, but i'd like him to feel better!! i gave him a small dose of benedryl sunday night, and that seemed to help again. he wasn't too bad off being outdoors yesterday. this morning it seemed to flare up again while he and bryan were hanging out before leaving the house (the window was open and he had a stuffed animal he had against his face, so who knows).

i think that is it. it's a short week (WOOHOO) and i'll even be working from home on friday as oliver's day care provider has the day off.


if that doesn't make you smile just even a little bit, you're cold hearted and mean.

demolition break - reconstruction!

so, bryan has been working hard to get us a new floor. he completed rebuilding the sub floor, and he and dad have worked the past two nights to get the cementwhateverboard down in order to prep for tiling, which should commence this weekend. i can't wait to see the new floor.


then, it's back to demolition - removing the upper cabinets and the soffits.

then, reconstruction once again - drywalling over the holes from removing the soffits, and repairing the walls with spackle in prep for painting (just need to settle on a paint color).

the countertops will hopefully be ordered today, presuming they have our color. the sample we chose is no longer listed on the maker's website, so we'll see. i have all my fingers and toes crossed, because we really like it. if they don't have it, we'll go with our second choice, so it's not the end of the world.

i've yet to order things on the list as well - butcher block island, butcher block cart (i'm trying to figure out how to afford john boos, which is probably in the top 3 of Ultimate Kitchen Porn, but that quest is moving slowly), cabinet hardware, a pot rack... but seriously, those are all such finishing details, and i wouldn't even know where to put them if i had them (the living room and dining room are full of appliances, after all).

ummm what else...

OH the eddie izzard show!

so friday night bryan and i journeyed down to chicago after work. aside from a slight bit of congestion (due to some migrant workers and a chinese circus truck being pulled over), our drive there was pretty easy. we arrived in plenty of time, and relaxed in the beautiful chicago theatre. i will admit, once the lights dimmed and the music started, i was on the edge of my seat, heart beating faster, just in anticipation of seeing him. i don't think i've ever been so excited just to see someone! the show overall was good. unfortunately, the people sitting around us were pretty horrid. the guy to bryan's left laughed every 15 seconds as loud as he possibly could. someone around us STANK to high heaven. we also think he dumbed his down down a bit. he has gained a lot of popularity in the states in recent years, with more exposure in movies, and more recently, his network tv show the riches. so that was a disappointment. all in all, though, we had a good time.

oliver now weighs 20 lbs 15 oz. we had a dr's appt yesterday to see about seasonal allergies (we're testing with benedryl to see if that helps). such a big boy. he's nearly crawling - he can scoot around (he goes backwards and sideways the best), and he rolls everywhere!


shannon is in town for the summer, woohoo!! she had us over for brunch sunday, and made DELICIOUS bananas foster french toast. and bacon. mmmmm pig. ollie and i went there for dinner tuesday (peanut chicken salad with cashews) and we're heading there tonight as well (curried beef pot pie).



monday is memorial day, which means no work (yay!), and bbq and mom and dad's house. i am praying the weather is warm - at least in the 70s. it's practically june for crying out loud!

surely i am missing something but i am too tired to remember, seeing as how i haven't slept in 7 months.

gas mask baby

as promised, here is bryan in his asbestos mask. :)

demolition: day 9

so, bryan got all of the asbestos ridden flooring out. unfortunately, the asbestos company wasn't able to lend bryan the machine monday, so oliver and i spent the night at mom and dad's again that night. luckily, oliver slept like a champ, especially considering i had a migraine and fell asleep on the couch at 7:30pm.

bryan got the negative air machine tuesday, and was able to clean the room of any asbestos in the air. since the machine was rated for a room many times the size of our kitchen, we're very confident it was cleaned. bryan also swept, vacuumed, and washed everything down multiple times as the machine was running. the asbestos guy was also very impressed at the job bryan did sealing up the room, and said we shouldn't have any problem with air quality. good job, manly man! they hauled away all of the materials, and we got our kitchen back! well, not the kitchen, but the room at least... and oliver and i get to sleep in our own beds, which is a relief.


bryan has bought the plywood he needs to begin rebuilding the floor (it's kind of scary to walk in there right now just on the slats - my heel went through an open spot this morning!!). he'll be working on that this weekend. saturday, we plan on going to the tile store and dropping a pretty penny on all the tile and tiling supplies. we've decided to go with a mocha slate tile, which has gray/black and brown tones. it's very pretty without being overly busy.


which is good, because i believe we've selected a countertop material. we still haven't gotten a quote on the icestone, and finding the time to get to the granite gallery has been tough, not to mention we'd then have to find someone to install it, since they just sell the stone. so we really needed to get moving on a solution. i did some research and found some additional stone home depot sells that they do not carry in their store; it is "specialty." and really, really pretty. much more variation in the pattern, and larger patterns. i had been scared of the large pattern, but looking at slabs side by side, i could see that the smaller patterns just end up making the stone look too uniform in color. the larger patterns look much more elegant and classic to me. so i believe we're going with alabaster viole, which will look great next to the white marble as well. i feel a great weight lifted off my shoulders having that figured out!

here are the other 2 stones we were looking at (saffron gold and emperador mocha, respectively). would you agree that we made the right choice?


we also we able to decide on a sink (we think). we definitely want to go with a granite composite in black, just need to decide on the style. we both really like the look of a large, single basin, but i think we'd really miss the 2nd basin, so we'll probably go more standard on that. it will be an undermount, which will make for easier cleaning, and look slicker, in my opinion. we are thinking a burnished bronze faucet and accompanying fixtures with it, to show less fingerprints and water spots, plus coordinate with the cabinet hardware we're currently eyeing.

so what is next? nothing critical, luckily. we need to figure out paint and backsplash tile, which should be more fun than stressful. shannon gets home from school this weekend, so she'll be able to help with that, along with settling on a lighting design. oh, and plumbers - bryan got an off the record quote from a plumber and it's really sort of disgustingly high. i suppose it makes sense for labor and parts, but we're not asking for much... bryan is going to get a few more quotes. it's too late to turn back now, though, so whatever it costs, we will be paying. so: new floor, tile, then the waiting game for the cabinet install starts, during which time bryan gets to mess with the upper cabinets and the unspoken dread of the soffits.

WFD: going to mom and dad's. adrianne invited us over but i don't think told mom, and mom is in class until 5pm, and i won't be able to get there until 6pm due to an appt at the chiro (3rd reschedule so i better go), so that leaves adrianne in charge of dinner... i told her i could walk her through a spaghetti sauce, so we shall see. :)

mother's day + demolition: days 4, 5, & 6

happy mother's day to my hero, an angel and saint: my mom. i had a pretty blessed childhood. both my parents were loving and supportive. we had a great education, a huge organic fruit and vegetable garden, and plenty of family time. the biggest complaints we probably had at the time were the child labor we were forced into (that garden didn't tend itself), and not going to florida for family vacations like everyone else we knew (a side effect of paying for private school for 4 children). instead, we went camping, spending 3 days in the woods with no tv and just our family, creating memories that make us laugh to the point of tears to this day. how my mom raised 4 kids, ran the household, and, after the birth of my youngest sister, went back to school, got her teaching degree, and taught middle school kids - all while still taking care of the 4 of us and the house - is beyond me. i have one child and i can't manage to get the laundry washed and folded in one weekend to save my life. she is my inspiration, who i strive to be. she is my supporter; the first one i call when i have a baby question. she gladly watches the baby so i can get a much needed nap, do the grocery shopping, or even go and have some adult time with my husband. she insists on making me breakfast or lunch (i usually request grilled cheese) whenever i stop by. she immediately and warmly welcomed my husband into our immediate family, and then into our large extended family; a man who at the time had no family of his own. she became his friend and supporter as well. at our wedding when he was debating taking out his earrings so as not to offend her, she told him she would in fact be angry if he did take them out - because they are an expression of who he is, and she loves him for who he is. she is my best friend. now that i have a child of my own, i finally understand her love for me, for my sisters. the love of a parent is steadfast, strong, and given freely without a thought. i can never thank her enough for what she has done for us. and i can only hope and try to be as good a mother to my children as she is to us girls.

for mother's day, adrianne, mom, and i had planned on lunch and a movie. however, as i was baby wrangling while bryan dealt with asbestos, we nixed the movie and just did lunch. to our dismay, singha thai was closed, but we headed down to ghengis khan mongolian bbq. not as good as singha thai, but it was fun nonetheless. hannah called to wish me a happy mother's day and recite some poems she wrote for me. she is such a sweetie. :)

oliver and i spent the majority of the weekend at my parents' house in order to let bryan make as much noise as he needed to, and to avoid the asbestos. saturday, oliver napped pretty much like crap all day. he, mom, and i hit up the mall to get him new clothes since he's outgrown nearly everything current in his dresser. we got some CUTE stuff. now the weather just needs to get warm again so he can wear it!! sunday he napped much better (i pulled the playpen up to shannon's room, where it was darker and quieter, so i think that helped). last night, i helped dad sort through boxes of old pictures. it was a blast - so many cute and funny photos of us as kids!! dad may take on a rather daunting project to scan them in and put them in an online album so we can all access them. oliver and i spent the night there last night, as bryan had been ripping up the flooring. he was definitely up more than usual, but between not being in his own bed and having terrible allergies, i think he did alright in the end. hopefully we can sleep in our own beds tonight.

so on to the demolition!


saturday, bryan ripped out all the base cabinets in preparation for pulling up the floor.

he spent all day yesterday working on that floor. he has the room completely sealed off - doors, vents, etc. he wore a lovely asbestos certified mask as well. he worked until about 2:30am. he is THE MAN.



today, he went to pick up the negative air machine and hepa vac so he could cut and bags the pieces of flooring to ready for them for disposal. unfortunately, the rental place didn't have them and has to order them; he thought in talking with them friday they would ready the equipment for him, but not so. unfortunately, that means they won't be available until wednesday. bryan called one of the asbestos removal companies, and they agreed to haul away the material AND loan bryan the negative air machine overnight - for hardly more money than it would have cost to rent the equipment. AND bryan doesn't have to cut the boards, so it will definitely save time, effort, and blisters, not to mention avoiding cutting the flooring and thus putting lord knows how much asbestos into the air. SCORE. so i should get to sleep in my own bed tonight, which will be much easier on ollie. DOUBLE SCORE.

then the contractor who is installing our cabinets called, and he is going on vacation around the time our cabinets will arrive. IF they come by the end of this month and IF he finishes the job he has scheduled for the first week of june early, he can come do our cabinets before he leaves. if that doesn't work out, he won't be available until june 16th. and then it's another 4+ weeks for countertops after the cabinet install, which means the reno will bleed into hannah's visit here.

two steps forward, one step back.

there are multiple more shots in the projects gallery.

next up: new subfloor, tiling, removal of upper cabinets and ugly tile backsplash. painting. and MUST PICK COUNTERTOPS!

WFD: seriously, you don't want to know. i'm trying to decide between ordering a pizza or getting fried cheese from culver's. it's one of those kind of days.

demolition: day 3

so, our asbestos scare has turned out to not be such a huge scare. bryan got an estimate on having it removed, and it's not ungodly. however, in doing research and talking to folks (turns out our neighbor is certified in asbestos removal, how handy is that?), he will actually be able to remove it with no extra risk. the removal companies actually just take up the entire sub floor, which bryan was planning on doing anyways. provided he cuts the linoleum instead of trying to rip it up, he'll greatly minimize the amount of dust he kicks up. he can rent the blower/fan/filter equipment to help clean up the air, and he'll wash down the room several times once he is done. he will wear the full hazmat gear (i'll be sure to get a picture of that). ollie and i will stay clear of the house. it's not going to be a small job, that's for sure, but we have a plan and it's not going to greatly derail our timeline.that being said, it does move our demo deadline up to pretty much now. the cabinets need to be out so he can pull up the flooring (and the floor needs to be rebuilt so we can tile so they can install cabinets early next month). the linoleum isn't underneath the cabinets, but since it will be exposed there it will give him a good place to lever underneath to lift it up. he is hoping to get the counters and at least one set up cabinets out today so that he can do the floors this weekend. muscle man!! once he gets down to the floor, we'll be able to decide if he'll go ahead and do the work, or if we'll get someone in to do so.

adrianne is driving into town today - wait until she sees how big her nephew has gotten! :) oliver and i plan on shopping with mom on saturday; he needs tons of new clothes since he is such a growing boy and i can no longer pretend he fits into his 9 month pjs comfortably. sunday, adrianne and i plan on taking mom to see a movie and out to lunch for mother's day. other than that, i plan on keeping ollie out of bryan's hair so he can work on the kitchen. keep your fingers crossed that the upper cabinets are easy to remove from the soffits!!

grinding halt

bryan began kitchen demo today. he emptied the breakfast room and began pulling up the floor. beneath the carpet, he found the original linoleum flooring from when the house was built, glued directly to the plywood. since our house was built in the 1960s there is a good chance that the linoleum, glue, or both contain asbestos. bryan immediately halted work and called the insurance company; he is on his way to a local lab to have them test a sample so we know for sure. the test takes a week. if it's positive we'll have to decide if we want to a) tile over it, thereby raising the floor level, which may make for an awkward 1" step into the kitchen, or b) hire someone to remove it, which costs god knows what.

like i said, grinding halt. i can't be too upset about it; i knew we would run into snags, and this is only the first (albeit hopefully worst) one.

** UPDATE: as soon as bryan handed the lab guy the sample, he said, "oh yea, that's asbestos. we get this exact tile all the time. we'll test it, but here's a list of removal companies." so that's that.

the kitchen diaries: prologue

so as you may or may not know, bryan and i have pitched headlong into a kitchen remodel. i say we have pitched headlong, and while that is true (the cabinets are on their way), we haven't gotten very far. bryan is going to start emptying out the kitchen so that we can demo over the next couple of weeks, in hopes that we can paint and tile the floor prior to the cabinets arriving. we have yet to choose countertops (we want recycled glass but are having a very hard time getting that solution to work for us - apparently no one in milwaukee is really all that interested in being eco friendly). that's our last major decision before being able to purchase everything else we need. we are both excited (to finally have a kitchen that we want) and nervous (this is no small project, with a price tag to match).

seeing as how we'll be kitchenless for a solid 2 months or so, you'll see the food posts on this blog drop off in favor of a more renovation oriented diary. we will post updates on the remodel, with pictures. so if you're in need of a good laugh, come here to read about our latest adventure or disaster. i have no delusions that we'll be lacking in either category as we go through this process.

so where did i leave off?

last thursday we had oliver's 6 month wellness visit. i expected him to have tipped the scales on 20 lbs, but he weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz - just a 4 oz gain in the previous 4 weeks. which is fine, considering he was 19 lbs to begin with. we had a barrage of questions for the doctor, which he fielded happily. he was also very responsive to bryan's alternate vaccine schedule, so that was pretty cool. oliver just got 1 shot that day. his new nurse is AWESOME and it was over before he started, so he only cried for about 3 seconds. though he did shoot the nurse a dirty look.

friday evening, i had a hair appointment after work. i was SO bored with my current style, and since my stylist is awesome, she came up with a new solution, which includes bangs. i haven't had bangs in forever!! it looks SO cute though! :) it's a very cute little bob and i am very happy with it. that night, bryan made red beans and rice for dinner, using some homemade polish sausage shannon's boyfriend, david, got from his uncle. helloooooo, deliciousness. bryan used brown rice, which isn't our norm, but it worked very well - it seemed more moist than white rice. he used the ham hock leftover from our smoked ham in the beans. the sausage was so very good as well. all in all, an awesome meal.

saturday, we went to milwaukee marble to see about getting a white marble remnant to top a lower piece of cabinetry, for pastry and pasta work. while they were able to accommodate our needs, and the price fell in our budget (though higher than i was hoping for), we think the sales person quoted us on a cut slab, not a remnant, as we were able to choose the exact size, edge, finish, etc. they also had some beautiful granite, which she said would be more expensive than the marble. i did the math when we got home, and the marble came to $118/sq ft... so no idea what the granite would be. bryan is going to get them to quote us on the job, and see if they have some ACTUAL marble remnants. we then headed downtown to future green to check out some icestone samples. unfortunately, they didn't have the color we were most interested in, but they did also have a similar local product, which was kind of neat. we're awaiting estimates on 2 samples, but we're not very hopeful. the seller is not a fabricator, so all they would do is order slabs from icestone and have them shipped to us. um, we could do that. we'd still have to find someone to cut and install it, and with seemingly no one ever having seen the stuff before, i wouldn't want to hire a GC to do it. le sigh. with the vetrazzo being out of our price range at $140-190/sq ft, it's not looking good on the green front. which is weird - you'd think people would be all excited to go eco. not in milwaukee, apparently!

that afternoon, bryan and i dropped the babe off with mom so he and i could head out to the fancy pants theater in waukesha to see iron man. on the way there, we were rear ended... at a stop light. luckily, we didn't have the baby with us, we didn't hit the people in front of us, and our car wasn't too messed up. we are fine as well. we were stopped, with about 3 cars in front of us, and the guy behind us was stopped, but the drunk in the isuzu behind him did not stop. we didn't find out until the police came that he was drunk. at 1:30pm. with 2 kids in the car. and an expired insurance card (which he swears is current). not his lucky day. the police got us all sorted out pretty quickly (minus the guy who caused the accident - he had to stay behind and fail a dui test), though, so we were still able to make our movie. ;) which was really good! i liked it a lot more than i thought i would. i thought robert downey jr was the perfect cast as iron man, and that the dialogue was very good. looking forward to the 2nd one, for sure.

sunday, we ran some errands to make sure we have enough food and diapers to last us at least a few days. we decided to buy oliver a brand new big boy car seat, since while he's got another 5+ lbs in terms of weight capacity before he reaches that limit, i think he's pretty well at the height limit. plus, carrying around a ~20 lb baby in one of those things requires biceps of steel. he seemed SO excited to be sitting in a big boy seat, which may have just been because he wasn't strapped and squished into the seat of terror (as i lovingly call his infant carrier). bryan had to pick up some sun shades though, since we no longer have the benefit of having the umbrella cover his carrier had, and he was unpleasantly blinded by the sun rising from the east (we drive west) on the way to day care.

last night, we had anaheim pepper burgers with avocado mash, corn & black bean salad, and coca-colas from mexico for dinner. we decided to pick up something ready to go while we were grocery shopping. bryan wanted me to try avocado, as i hadn't for awhile. it's not something i dislike, but it's something i never found very flavorful, just heavy and oily. we picked up some pre-made burger patties from their butcher, which he grilled on the cast iron griddle and topped with the avocado mash. ollie had some avocado with his dinner as well, and LOVED it. :) the avocado lent a very nice moistness to the burger, like mayo would, but richer. twas alright. bryan threw together a side salad of black beans, corn, tomatoes, green chilies, onions, and lime juice. i snagged a few coca-colas from the "ethic" aisle; the ones from mexico are made with real cane sugar still, as opposed to the corn syrup in the ones from the u.s. plus, if you can't get it from a fountain, glass bottled cokes are the next best thing. ;) we split a slice of key lime pie i snatched from the bakery for dessert.

the weather was pretty gorgeous all weekend. we watched mom and dad's dog belle yesterday, as they drove up to minneapolis to see shan run. moose loved having a buddy to hang outdoors with. yesterday was busy, and oliver refused to take his last real nap of the day, but i have to say, all in all it was a pretty awesome day.

i am sure i am forgetting something, but that is all i can remember right now.



WFD: pork chops. not feeling very inspired, so pretty boring ones.

paging craig from vetrazzo

craig from vetrazzo -

i was unable to respond to your comments on my last post, as your google account is set to private. i added a comment after yours an also emailed info@vetrazzo.com, though have not heard anything through that avenue. just want to trigger your google alert again to answer your correspondence. :)

thank you!