Small backyards…

So if you have been reading my blog, you probably know from past posts, that our backyard is really awful. Its small, it doesn’t get much sun, and its unattractive and muddy. With all of those things going for us, it’s still our project for the summer and should make for a great before and after picture.
Nicole started finding pictures of small backyards online. Its amazing what people come up with for small spaces. Some of the pictures could possible be out of our range, maybe not, but we will easily be able to create something awesome. I think we are still going to shoot for a style similar to what we saw in San Francisco last summer, with some of the ideas that we have seen from these pictures.

April 10, 2012 0

Easter Weekend!

Easter weekend was exhausting but fun. Nicole and I managed to enjoy two Easter dinners without exceeding our weight watcher point allowances. It was challenging but not impossible. What has actually become challenging to me is getting used to my new tolerance for alcohol. This weekend, I failed this test miserably! When I was 20 pounds heavier, I could throw back a decent amount of alcohol, and the following morning would be nothing. Now that I am 20 pounds lighter, it seems my new limit is like 3 beers max! Super embarrassing, this weekend brought me a morning that I spent partially on the bathroom floor, and partially on a couch laying down nibbling on oyster crackers and sipping ginger ale. It was total amateur day for me, super embarrassing. After a few hours I was feeling decent enough to leave and head over to Nicole’s mom’s house. When we finished up over there, I was in bed by 6:30pm….for the night. I feel great this morning after all of that sleep though!
Today, Nicole and I head downtown to get our marriage license. Hopefully all goes well!

April 9, 2012 0

Yesterday’s Brew

Yesterday I took off to spend the afternoon brewing my first batch of beer. I’ve been reading, watching videos, checking out forums, etc to prepare for my first run. Everything seemed to go smoothly, my only worry through the entire thing was that I didn’t contaminate anything and that everything was sanitized.

In the end my wart was really really thick, almost like caramel sauce. I started to freak out a little but continued to follow the instructions and put the wart into the fermentation bucket after cooling it, topped it off with water, and closed it off with lid and airlock. I then became obsessed wondering weather or not I messed it up. After texting with a friend of mine and then posting in some forums, everyone agreed that it would be OK, but that next time I could stray from the recipe and add more water to the wart. I have to say, the best part about my first experience doing this, is the smells that come from the pot while you are cooking. The hops smell amazing.
This afternoon I finally saw the airlock start to bubble which means I have fermentation! I’m a little more at ease now that its reached this stage. Now I just need to worry about it tasting good. Baby steps. If I mess up or it’s terrible, I’ll definitely be trying again.

April 3, 2012 0

Wrestlemania Sunday!

For millions of people, the most famous Sunday in sports is “Superbowl Sunday”. For me its “Wrestlemania” Sunday! This is an event many of us have been watching every year since childhood. Some of us (like myself) have traveled to different states to see the event live. I have attended two Wrestlemanias and have witnessed history. This weekend will be the first Wrestlemania that I host at our new home and I am pretty excited. Nicole most likely is not, but she understands the passion dudes like myself have for an event such as this.
I’m going to cook up some chicken on grill, kick back, and hopefully watch some great matches.

I took off Monday so that I wouldn’t have to work after Wrestlemania. I have decided to try my hand at brewing on this day. I picked up the last of the things I need so that I can do it. The liquid yeast I have has a shelf life, and the date stamped on it doesn’t allow me much time. I will start cooking Monday, hopefully I will be successful. This is really something I’d like to be good at. I discovered that we have a home brewing store in Buffalo. I went there over the weekend, it is totally awesome and will make it easier for me to pursue this hobby. I’m going to try and get some pictures from the process to add during the week!

April 1, 2012 0

Week 5 weigh-in

I crushed it this week. After a disappointing weight loss of .2 pounds last week, I strolled into the bathroom this morning, hopped onto the scale and looked down at a “196”, a loss of 6.2 pounds. I had reached my initial goal weight. When we first started, I gave myself a “realistic” goal to reach. I was going to get down from 212-196. This morning I set a new goal of getting below 190.
This is the biggest weight loss week I’ve had so far which makes me sit back and wonder what I did different this week. What I had done this week was simply eat more of my weekly bonus points and I stopped eating anything of substance after dinner. I pretty much have a routine down now where my breakfast is the biggest meal I have of the day. Usually hovering around 16 points, I have two cups of coffee with two servings of creamer, a sausage, egg, and cheese English muffin, and maybe some granola mixed in with some yogurt and fruit. Between breakfast and lunch, I may have an apple. For lunch I usually have a sandwich with rye bread, turkey, lettuce tomato, light mayo, mustard, turkey bacon. and fat free swiss. Sounds like a lot? Its a pretty big sandwich. 6 points! I may have a weight watchers ice cream between lunch, or some other 2 point snack, but I always have my serving of V-8 low sodium vegetable juice. Then for dinner I keep it around 3-6 points. I love eating fish because its so low in points usually. Then at the end of the night, I may have some fruit or a tomato w/ balsamic. I also usually have a beer or glass of wine. One thing Nicole and I like to do is have some Tea right before bed, its become sort of a ritual.
This program is awesome. Its not really a diet as much as it is just getting healthy. I eat more on this diet then I did when I wasn’t dieting, it just helps you eat the right combination of foods to boost your metabolism. I am sure next week I will lose almost nothing again (seems to be a pattern, every other week), but this week I’m feeling pretty good!

March 30, 2012 0

New Storm Door

Today after work, I installed the new storm door. I had never installed anything like this before, but for the most part it was pretty easy. I was able to find a video online from the window company itself. The video was simple and easy to follow so I had no real problems. We don’t get the screen for like 2 weeks because I took a chance on a 400 dollar door, marked almost half off at Home Depot because it was labeled “slow moving”. I asked the salesman what this had meant, and he said that it was because the door was returned and the box had been opened. He said there would be a risk of missing parts but that the door company would mail me any parts that were missing for free. I went for it. The door was too sweet to turn down, and without the discount it would have been just out of our price range. When I got home, there was an insane amount of things missing including the screen. I called the window company and they mailed me out everything. They said the screen would take longer because it was a big item and needed to be on the Home Depot truck. Today I got all the parts I needed to install the door so I went at it (I ran a little late, my apologies to any neighbors that read this).

Tomorrow is Friday, I am ready to relax and see plenty of this…

It’s so beautiful.

March 30, 2012 0

I love watching shows…

A few weeks back I started watching “Breaking Bad”. The more I watched it, the more I loved the show and I ended up tearing through 3 seasons. This is perhaps the best show I have ever watched. It’s amazing. I am now waiting for season 4 to show up on Netflix. In the past, I would normally find “alternative methods” of gaining access of the 4th season, but I will wait. I want the anticipation to build.

I now have space for a new show to watch. I’ve thrown around some options, two of them being “Walking Dead” and “Mad Men” however, tonight I decided that those shows will wait for a while. I randomly chose to watch “Twin Peaks”. My parents were heavy into the show when it was on Television, they even got married to the theme song. I was pretty young at the time and only remember little tidbits of the show. 30 minutes into the first episode, Nicole and I were drawn in. I think this is the next series we will be watching.

March 29, 2012 0

We have been busy!

A couple new items this week hit our shops and will soon be up on the website. The first is the new Thelonious Monk T-shirt. This shirt pays tribute to one of the greatest jazz artists ever and we decided to make it a onesie and a T-shirt. I love jazz so I wanted to do something for other jazz lovers out there.

March 27, 2012 0

Week 4 Weigh-in

A slow week for me this week. I went from 202.4 to 202.2. Not much of a loss but according to weight watchers, I am right on track. My average weight loss for 4 weeks has been 2.6 pounds a week and weight watchers says the average should be around 2. That being said, I’m not frustrated at all. 2.6 pounds a week is a healthy rate of loss, I’m just super eager to get below 200! This weekend, I’m going to try to stay active.

March 23, 2012 0

There are still good people around.

After work yesterday, I packed up my ratty old back pack with some orders that needed to be taken to the post office, stuck my wallet into my back pocket, and hopped onto my cruiser bicycle to go drop off the mail. When I arrive at the post office, I lock up my bike and reach into my back pocket to grab my wallet, only to find emptiness. My wallet had fallen out of my pocket during the ride. All of my credit cards were in there and my I.D. card. Luckily I never carry cash, but the panic soon took over and I started running the route that I took to get there, leaving my bike at the post office. After retracing my steps, the results were negative. It was gone. I gathered the numbers for all of my cards and cancelled them. This was a true bummer.
About an hour later the doorbell rang. A younger kid was standing at the door with my wallet in his hand. I was truly amazed. I never even imagined for a second that it would ever be a possibility. Thanks again.

The drywall work is moving right along in the main foyer. For the most part, it has been relatively easy, with only a few hiccups here and there. I ran in to one minor problem. One of the pipes in the wall was not pushed back far enough and it was pushing the drywall out. I had to shave down a section of the drywall so that it would lay correctly. With a little mud work, it shouldn’t be noticeable.