The Tale of Kissy-face

Once upon a time, long, long ago (2001) a young girl was smitten with great passion for a young man named Kissy-face. Christmas was quickly arriving and she was out of ideas for the perfect gift that would convey her undying love. Kissy-face had always wanted a "real library" consisting of real leather-bound books and one day the young girl stumbled upon a catalog from a company called "Easton Press" that offered such a gift. With much haste, the young girl ordered the collection "The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written", thinking only of her passionate love for Kissy-face. "Imagine the excitement of Christmas Day when Kissy-face opens his present (Moby Dick)," she pondered. "And with one book arriving each month, Kissy will know just how much I love him for 8.33 years!"

8.33 years later (March 2009) the last and final book of the series (Gulliver's Travels) arrived. Kissy-face was so excited that he beamed with such joy that he looked like a 1st grader who just received a reward for perfect attendance (minus the cigarette)!

Isn't love grand?!

Exploring Kansas City

Joe and Sara finally left us on Monday and had to catch a plane to Chicago from Kansas City.  Of course, since we had never been to KC before we volunteered to drive them there. I love a good day-long road trip. We rented a car and left around noon and it only took about 3 hours. We ate at Jack Stack BBQ, which by the way has the most amazing coleslaw I have ever had, and then dropped Joe and Sara off at the airport. We drove back into the city to explore. We happened to stumble upon Kansas Cities Power & Light District and drove around there for a while checking out all the little bars and restaurants. As we climbed a hill, did I mention that it's really hilly?, we came across the WW1 Museum dedicated in 1921 by President Coolidge. 

We pulled over to explore the memorial portion of the museum and this was the view of the city that we had:

Can't tell you how we got there or where exactly it is at but it was a beautiful day so we walked around it for a while. I can't tell you exactly what kind of stone it is built out of but it is really a nice memorial. It's well-kept and quiet. 

The stonework on the obelisk part is really amazing. I couldn't help but take a few pictures of it. The details in the face are just beautiful! It always amazes me how much work and effort was put in but some crew of men to make all the stones fit in perfectly and hopefully stand the test of time. I think there are a total of 4 men standing/carved at the top of the torch/obelisk.

At the front of the museum there is an area listing hundreds of stone-carved names of individuals that served time in WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, and non-military activity like Police Officers. It is a real humbling moment standing at the base and looking across the area at all the different people who served this country. Each one meant something to someone. I've included a photo of a small portion of the WW1 area.

Afterwards we jumped back into the car and headed home. The ride back didn't feel as long as the ride up. That's probably because we've driven the road before and knew what to expect. We got home around 9 pm and turned in the rental car a little early. Overall it was a really nice day trip and now we can check that city off our list.

Good Times and Recovering Livers

We didn't leave the house a whole lot when Tommy was visiting, most likely because of all the projects that were being done, but also because we really don't have a lot of extra capitol floating around since Alex has been out of work since December. Funds are tight and we've been saving for the last year to afford all these little projects. But that's all icky adult-stuff that no one wants to read about- I'm sure you understand. I have to admit that we weren't really "fun" in the entertainment department this time, but we did manage to go out once to the movie theater to see "Watchmen" and down to Mort's Cigar Bar to have a few cocktails in Old Town. All of our other free time was spent making dinner, walking the dog, and trying to catch Tommy up on Season 1 of Mad Men. In the mean time, we took some pictures...

Tommy and I in the garage before the drywall was put up.

This is what the boys usually did after a full day of hard work... they sat on the couch drinking Coors Light and watched "A Band of Brothers" for like the 5th time. They only "cuddled" for the picture.

Here is the top shelf of the refrigerator that is usually stocked with left-overs, orange juice, and the occasional pitcher of iced tea. Miller Lite is a dead indicator that the LePore's had finally arrived from Las Vegas. I know that we really enjoyed having them stay with us for a weekend before they headed up to Chicago for a wedding. I don't think we really knew just how much we missed hanging out with such great friends! The only part of us that doesn't miss our friends and family is our livers! 40 Coors Light's, 80 Miller Lite's, a six pack of Hef, 4 Bud Light's, and a bottle of Absolute, Tanqueray, scotch, and Jagermeister later our livers called it quits and all the house guests left. Yikes!

Here's a picture of the 3 of us and the only one I have. We took tons of pictures but we must have used Joe & Sara's camera the most because I can't find a single one. Here I am eating dinner (yummy kabob's) after work on Saturday night. We always pre-plan what meals we're going to make when company comes to town and for Joe & Sara we made Bayou Chicken Pasta (see the July 3, 2008 post for the recipe), Beef Kabobs, and Italian burgers. I'm not sure why we spend so much time figuring out what we want to feed our guests. Maybe because we eat such a wide variety of food that we want to fix stuff that everyone would like to eat. Sometimes it's just to show off our culinary talents. Okay.... we always try to show off our culinary talents, who am I trying to kid?! But we do try to take into consideration what everybody likes to eat. 

In addition to eating... we did get in two great rounds of "Apples to Apples", a round of "Phase 10", "Cranium", and half a game of "Worst Case Scenario", and rented a movie. It's been a while since Alex and I have had so much fun. Thanks for all the great new memories!

The Last Day of Work

The very next day, the boys started to finish the garage. This is the only decent photo I have of the process because it was 20 degrees outside. They put up all the dry wall but it took all day because it was just so darn cold outside.

While the boys were taking turns screwing in the drywall panels, I was inside in the guest bathroom installing some hardware. The most difficult part was the measuring, which isn't difficult at all, but it does take a little math and some patience.

Maybe 10 minutes later I had all the holes drilled and the knobs on and tightened. The panels look a little pink but really the entire cabinet is creamy white, and the knobs are brushed nickel even though here they kind of look bronze.

That pretty much sums up all the home improvement projects that we did while Tommy was in town. Alex is in the process of finishing up the rest of the garage, but I'll have pictures of that later. I'm glad that Tommy was able to help us out because it saved us on tons of time and the cost of having to hire someone else to do it. Plus, it was nice having him around for a while.

Interior Upgrades

Alex has been wanting a large plant-like tree for the living room/dining room for a while now. While I was at Lowe's picking up some random supplies for the flower bed project I stumbled upon this palm of some sort. I'm sure I'll kill it or keep it alive as single palm leaf for ever and ever but for now it has found a home dividing our living room from the dining room.

Tommy thought he would take a break from hauling brick for the flower bed and instead I got him to install the under-the-sink Reverse Osmosis system. It took all of 10 minutes to install and I'm so happy that we finally got one. We spend $5.25 a week buying bottled gallons of water. That adds up to $273 a year in drinking water alone. The RO system cost $115. You know you're an adult (or border-line nuts) when you start costing out the expense of water! The water tastes great and it's made a nice little addition to our kitchen.

After the flower bed was done, the very next day the boys started on the garage door opener. This would have been lovely to have during the cold and windy winter days but I'm glad to have it now. It took a while to assemble it because the directions didn't make much sense and neither Alex nor Tommy had ever put together a garage door opener before. It's pretty quiet and it works great.

That night after dinner, Tommy put up the ceiling fan in the living room. We have vaulted ceilings in the dining room and living room and I thought that the space looked a little empty. I've been looking for a ceiling fan for a while and really couldn't decide on one until I spotted this one. It took Tom all of 10 minutes to have it assembled and wired. This will be one great asset when summer is in full swing!

Curb Appeal

On top of having lots of visitors in March, we have also been very busy with projects in the Home Improvement department. We took full of advantage of Tommy's electrical expertise while he was staying with us for 10 days. I took a lot of pictures but I think I'll break it up over the next couple of posts.

First we spent 4 days working on our flower bed. It needed a little curb appeal. Day 1 consisted of Alex and I scraping up the mulch in 40 degree weather and 30 mph wind. It took 8 fully stuffed out-door black garbage bags, 10 regular trash bags, and one garbage container to hold all the freakin' mulch that was compacted on our flower bed! 

Doesn't he look so proud? I call this one "Prince Alex in a Can".

Day 2 sucked. We were already sore from all the racking but we headed over to Lowe's to pick up 200 retaining wall bricks. Of course, we couldn't just load 2 complete pallets into the back of Tommy's truck because it was way too heavy. We had to hand load 50 at a time. I touched each brick at least twice. So 5 trips later this is what we had:

By this time it was close to 3 PM, but the boys decided to at least start on the first layer of the foundation. First you dig, then compact, then use the level and level it out, then place the brick to see if that's where you want it, remove the brick, then compact more, and level, and then add paver base (so that everything settles and drains correctly), then add the brick again and see if it's level, THEN you move on to the next brick. Repeat 200 times.

Day 3. Tommy slept in and Alex did most of it but he didn't mind so much because he likes most things to be done perfectly. Here's Alex creating a foundation:

A few hours later, Tommy woke up and joined the fun.

And finally, Day 4. All the mulch was put back into place and a few of the extra bricks were taken back. I think it looks great but I don't think we'll be taking on a project like this for a while. I completely understand why people pay to have others do it for them.

Miracles Do Happen

It's been a while since I've even had a moment to post anything new, but now that the busy season at work is coming to a close and mid-terms are this week (yeah, I'm back in school), I think I might actually have a chance to post some of the new things that we've been doing.

My brother, Tommy, is in town on a short visit and will be leaving on Thursday for Alabama. He brought his dogs, which are staying outside in the garage in their kennels. Alex disappeared for a good 20 minutes while we were watching an episode of Mad Men and this is where I found him...

Doesn't look like much right? This is HUGE! He swears up and down that 1) dogs are worthless, smelly, stinky, messy, foul animals that serve no purpose on the planet, 2) that it would be impossible for him to ever care for a pet, and more importantly 3) that he "allergic" to them. But what do we find here? Not only was he spending time with them, but he was talking to them, petting them, constantly wanted to give them a bath, and even walked them a few times and set them out in the yard on their leash. By the way, he's not even remotely allergic to dogs.  Oh, I'm definitely getting a puppy now.

Then, there is this...

That's right. It's my brother sleeping. More importantly, it's him sleeping in a BED! My gypsy-brother is infamous for crashing on the couch- permanently-and will sleep for 14 hours straight if you let him. With the exception of one night, because he won a bet, he has been nice enough to have slept in the guest room. 3 more nights to go! It just might be a record. :)