Day 210: Hello Games!

It's been a little over a month since our last game night, so we've been excited about tonight!  I went over to Ryan & Kristie's house around 5:30 and Eric showed up after he got off work, closer to 9.  Alison and I got to see lots of pictures and funny videos from their honeymoon cruise, then we had a delicious dinner of fettuccine alfredo with chicken, broccoli, rolls and jam.  Later we had cheesecake with caramel sauce.

We love playing games at their place because they go beyond the scope of Monopoly and poker into some really great games that aren't as well recognized.  We played a quick dice game called Cthulhu, followed by trying for the rest of the night to beat Pandemic.  Earlier in the day Molly had told me, on the phone, about this new game where you have a board similar to Risk and have to save the world from 4 different illnesses.  The neat thing about this game is the cooperative nature of it - you are trying to beat the game, not the other players.  It is a race against the cards to try and cure all of the illnesses before they spread too far.

 Kristie, Alison, and I all had an impossibly difficult time opening the cans of rolls!  They wouldn't pop when we pushed on the seam with our fingers or a spoon, or when we bashed it on the counter!

Kristie got Alison, herself, and I Powerpuff Girls silly bandz, and I finally got KU silly bandz!  Woo! 

Put simply...this is bad...very bad.  One of the 4 times we lost that night. 

Eric enjoying cheesecake with Ellen's jam on it!  Even I ate (and enjoyed) cheesecake!

Day 209: Goodbye Rone!

Tonight we went to a going away party for our friend Rone, at Dempsey's - a bar in Lawrence.  He'll be leaving for Shanghai, where he'll be teaching for a year!  We had some good conversations with a lot of friends we haven't seen in a long while.  I asked Chris Tomas what I should get to drink and he suggested a Gold Chuck - a shot of GoldSchlager in a pint of Woodchuck.  Unfortunately...the bartender had no idea what I was talking about and poured me a shot of GoldSchlager, opened a bottle of Granny Smith Woodchuck, and topped off the shot with less than an ounce of the beer, put the bottle of beer on the shelf behind him, and charged me $3 for the shot.  Granted the actual drink would have cost more like $7, this was one unimpressive drink.  I stuck with beer for the rest of the night.

Eric and I had some interesting, yet VERY gossipy conversations that I won't drag into our blog...for integrity's sake.  But I'm sure this topic of gossip will come up many times over the next few months, haha!  Later in the night, Tera and her friend from Perkin's showed up and we headed over to Tonic to meet up with another friend of theirs.  I met some fun new people, who I'll probably never see again, and called it a night!  Eric (completely sober) drove us home (slightly drunk) with a detour to Taco Bell and Dillons.  The stairs were still icy and I was, well, slightly drunk, and I ended up falling and bruising my knee.  Sad end to an awesome night!

 Naturally I forgot my Tough camera - so here are some dingy camera phone pictures!  Chris and Eric,

Me and Chris,

Me and Rone - Good luck in Shanghai, have fun!

Day 208: FPU Round 3

That's right, we're at it again. I've gone back to having Thursdays off for class during the upcoming semester, so I was there when Jess got home from work. We still had Andrew's car seat in her car, and he returns to the Wenberg household on Thursday's, so we took the opportunity to take it back out to Olathe and spend some time with family.  Of course we were prompted by Becky telling us that he is still sick and they need the carseat ASAP in case he needs to go to the doctor again.  As it happens, another Financial Peace University class was starting that night, with Ashley, Papa, and Kris all attending. We decided to tag along to see how they liked it and because Jess may end up going weekly since I'll be out there for class anyway. Anything "Dave Ramsey" has pretty much become her hobby. They all seemed to really enjoy the first class and the interaction with other people in the same boat. After FPU, we started heading home, but since it was Thursday we had one more stop to make. Boneless Thursday at Buffalo Wild Wings, where we got teriyaki, honey barbecue, and Caribbean jerk wings.

Alan was "cleaning up the trash" in the living room and decided to take Ashley with him.

Delicious, as always!

Day 207: Sleepy Day

Isn't it cute when Eric writes posts?  It's great!

Today we're recovering from my 2 snow days, and the day is dragging by.  I think the 4 day weekend must have thrown Addy for a loop as well, because I just found her snuggled up under 6 layers of blankets (by green blanket, heating blanket, and comforter doubled over) and a hoodie.  She had nuzzled up inside the blankets and the only indication her hiding spot was a paw...

Do you see anything out of place?

Oh!  There you are, my sleepy baby!

Day 206: 11:11 1/11/11!!!!!11one

Last week Jess added some textbooks to our Half.com inventory which has boosted our sales a bit. Today I wrapped one of my books from this last semester, "Philosophy of the Daodejing", in our new standard: brown paper bag. This one was going to Lawrence, so I thought I'd take it myself after work and save a couple bucks on shipping. One of our newer closers called in to work today, saying his face was leaking (which we judged to be a runny nose). But even working with the other new guy, and picking up face leaker's slack, we managed to get out roughly on time. It was about 9 degrees outside, and too dark to see addresses, so eventually I gave up and went home. Luckily, Jess had just finished making the macaroni and beef we got in our Angel Food Ministries package. We ate on the couch while she was curled up in her snuggie reading and I played The Sims 3. Kind of a trying day, but the end made it all worth it.

Success!

Day 205: Snow Day!

First, I must say, I wish it weren't a snow day.  We have 2 reserve days in April that get to be days off if we have NO snow days, and I really wanted those days off.  That said - hooray!!!  A snow day!

I received the automated call just moments after my 6am alarm went off.  It's a bit lame that Lawrence waited to cancel school until 6am, but it was easy to fall back to sleep!  Eric didn't work until 4:30, so we got a lot accomplished today!  We shopped around and found the best price for an oil change AND found out that my check engine light was just faulty and there was no problem.  We got some shopping out of the way for Mexico and made baked potatoes in the oven for lunch (the microwave is still broken).

Mystic didn't seem to mind the snow too much. 

Addy just wanted back inside. 

I suited up to go sledding while Eric took a video from the car. 

And Eric reluctantly agreed to have his picture taken in the snow as well, because everyone else in the family had been outside.  And no, Moony and the birds weren't forced to enjoy the snow :) 

I received a late call that school would be cancelled on Tuesday as well, so we had some celebratory spiked cherry-lemon-limeaide.  Addy just happened to walk into the picture right as it was about to take, so I scooped her up.  Yes.  We are wearing footie PJ's 

Eric was proud of all the people he killed in Assassin's Creed, oooooo, slaughter...

Day 204: Church, Birthday, & A House

Eric and I met Ashley at church this morning - where Andrew was good for daycare, but crabby for the rest of the day.  Ashley headed to work and we took Andrew home for lunch and a quick nap before we left for Sean's birthday party.  The family had pizza, Papa told us about his visit to Michigan, we watched the Chiefs get trampled and the Jayhawks squeak by.

Our trip to Sams Club with Mom & Alan got us excited about saving money - we bought a 25lb bag of jasmine rice and a 6lb bag of penne pasta noodles.  It also got us excited about Mexico because Eric bought his new sandals for walking on the beach!

P.S. Molly pointed out that we forgot to blog about the house!  The house across the street from Sean & Deb has been up for sale for more than 2 years.  We decided to look it up online and see how much it is going for.  Starting price was $140k, and now it's down to $99k.  We're still in no position to buy a house - but if it were to stay empty for another year or more, we would be able to save up for a down payment and the repairs that would be needed to make the place liveable (new carpets, paint, heavy cleaning).

Happy birthday and thanks for the cake!

Eric held Andrew while I was putting on my shoes and they just looked too cute together!

Eric would like to point out that he would make a great stay at home husband if cooking is the only qualifier!  He made us pork chops and green beans in soy sauce, and a side of rice - extra delicious!