So clean!

We spent the entire weekend cleaning this filthy pit, and now it's a beautiful, shining beacon of perfection. I'm scared to cook in the kitchen for fear of messing it up. I removed everything from the fridge and cleaned it out, we mopped and vacuumed and swiffered and dusted until we were blue in the face and choking from cleaning product fumes. Dave's greatest accomplishment of the weekend was tackling the desk in our bedroom that had become a graveyard for old, useless papers. He did a wonderful job! We also got rid of no fewer than 3 old lamps and many non-functioning electronics, including a TV that was just taking up space in our storage closet. We set up my office so it can actually be used as an office! Tonight I'm going through all of my clothes and saying goodbye to those that don't make the cut. I'm sure that a younger, singler, thinner woman will appreciate my halter tops and mini skirts from college, cause they ain't going back on this girl!

Today is the Cubbies opening day, and I'm a really missing Chicago today. Here's hoping that the guys win big and don't get rained out!

Nice long weekend

We're finally back on schedule after a weekend that started on Thursday at noon and ended this morning. We had a great time at the Bruce Springsteen concert- at 58 years old, that guy rocked out on stage for more then 2.5 hours. It was impressive. The E-Street Band was great, too.

Friday morning we headed to South Bend, where we had a nice weekend with the family, less Cara who was home with a cold. Good news today on the Cara front though- she's feeling better, and she passed her board exam. Congrats, Cara!

The new and improved skinny Dave got lots of new clothes at Kohl's this weekend at very reasonable prices, courtesy of Mama Charlee. Thanks, Mama. If you haven't checked that place out yet, I recommend that you do. It's kind of like Target, but some of the stuff is nicer. I know, I thought I'd never blaspheme about Target, but Kohl's may be my new place...

Our Easter was lovely, if not the traditional one that most think of. We had breakfast in South Bend, followed by a long drive home and Easter sushi for dinner. I love Japanese and Chinese restaurants- they're always open when everyone else closes shop.

Not much else to report here- we're home for the next two weekends, so we'll be watching lots of movies and cleaning the house.... it's gross right now.

Very disturbing photo... but kinda funny!

Weekend fun

We had a great weekend, and visited with lots of fun folks! Friday night, we made a last minute trip to Indy to celebrate with Cara. She just finished taking her first board exam, which Dave can tell you is quite terrifying. She's really glad it's over. We got to see Jeff, Ryan, Michael, Marcie, Scott and more! It was a great time.

Saturday afternoon we headed down to Connersville to visit with Grandma B. We had lots of fun, ate many delicious meals and had plenty of great conversation. Plus, we got to see landmarks from Keith's childhood, which is always neat. We also watched the movie 3:10 to Yuma, which was very good! We never watch movies that aren't on the list anymore, so it's nice to see a newer film...

This week is shaping up to be a good time. We've got Jennie and James coming over for a St. Pattie's Day feast-ivul, and on Thursday we head to Indy to see Bruce Springsteen. Today through Wednesday I'm hunkering down and getting lots of work and laundry done.

Movie update- yesterday we watched The African Queen. It was wonderful. Hepburn and Bogart are really the best.

Have a great week, everyone!

As promised, photos from the weekend!

Movies, movies

We've had so much fun lately that I've forgotten to update ya'll on our movie progress. The best way I can describe the movies of the past week is to say that most have featured leading ladies in various states of craziness. The craziness, however, proved to be no impediment to their fabulous acting prowess. I sense also that, since these movies were mostly from the sixties and seventies, the worst kind of crazy had yet to come for many of them.

Notable films included Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?, featuring the always crazy but always lovely Elizabeth Taylor. Her character was so scary (Richard Burton deserves props here, too- he acted pretty crazy) that I had to put the DVD back in the mail as soon as we finished watching it to cleanse the house of the eerie feeling.

Network was a fantastic, funny satire, featuring a somewhat crazy Faye Dunaway. Loved it. Same goes for Cabaret, which we watched tonight. Liza Minnelli was really wonderful in it, and her craziness is understandable. I think being Judy Garland's daughter was rough.

So far the craziest movie was A Clockwork Orange. It was really well done artistically, and we both appreciated the film in all it's X-rated glory. But it gave me nightmares for a week- thanks a lot, Stanley Kubrick.

More on this later- tomorrow is The African Queen. Katharine Hepburn was a little crazy, wasn't she?

Great weekend, despite some issues...

So Bart, Mollie (of Cincinnati) and Craig (of South Bend) came down this weekend. When they called to check on the weather, I told them that the weather people here are liars and there's no way we'll get more than a couple inches of snow.

Well it turns out that the weather people are in fact liars, but it's because they way underestimated the magnitude of the storm that crushed Louisville on Friday night and Saturday morning. We got at least 10 inches! That's a big deal around here, and everyone was freaking out. The plows did a comical job of clearing the roads.... they'd get one lane under control and give up, so two way traffic wasn't really possible.

Despite the weather drama, we had a great weekend with the gang. We managed to dig out the Element and she got us around like a champ. We visited many interesting establishments, including barbecue at Bourbon Brothers and the drag show at Connections, an awesome local bar. A good time was had by all, and we thank our visitors for braving the storm to see us. It would've been a lame snowy weekend without them! Bart, pass along some pics when you get home and I'll post 'em right away.

Babies, babies...

Oh, where to start.... Nina and her Dave came over for dinner on Thursday night, where she announced that the baby was coming in the next few weeks- a bit sooner than her original due date. She was pleased, but not really feeling anything big on the horizon. Of course, on Friday morning at 8 am I get a text message that her water broke and she's on her way to the hospital. Her little boy, Luca, was born at 11:45 that evening (seems like a lot of pushing!), and he and Mom are doing great. We're going over tomorrow night to bring food. Since I don't know anything about babies, I show my love by making casseroles.... she seems to be pleased with that arrangement.

On to the next pregnant lady. We had Sarah's baby shower on Saturday in Lafayette, and it was a great time. Notable guests included friends-of-the-blog Grandma B, Mamas Charlee and Pam, and many more desireables. My sis-in-law Katie turned out to be my soulmate-in-party-planning. She really did a great job with invites, renting things, creating beautiful centerpieces and so much more. My job, which was tailored to my less organized skills, was to make food for the affair. I did soup, chicken salad and a couple desserts, and the food went over really well! I'm pleased that folks enjoyed it, plus I'm fairly certain I didn't poison anyone. Whew! Sarah made out like a bandit- she got lots of great gifts, so little Ukulele Whaley will be all set when he/she arrives.

Tonight I was so over cooking. I made frozen pizza and salad (although I'll admit that the salad was pretty fancy and required much chopping and dressing making), and after dinner we hit our favorite bar, Big Al's. This place is truly hillbilly, but we love the people there and they love us. We get a Cheers-like greeting whenever we enter and free beers from our peeps there, even though we don't go that often!

We're excited about the next several weekends. I'll give you a preview of our plans and update with longer posts later. This weekend, Bart and Mollie come in. Always a rockin' good time! Next weekend, we're off to Grandma B's. We never get quality time with just the three of us, so we're looking forward to hanging out with her. Following Thursday, we're going to see Bruce Springsteen with Mom and Dad Pip, plus Cara and Craig in Indy. After the show we're heading up to South Bend for our first weekend since early December. We're pumped. Four weekends in a row (counting last weekend!) with some of our favorite people.

People always say that it seems like we spend a ton of time away from the Lou. This is true, but what's a couple to do when almost all of their friends and family are out of town? We get in our Hondas and drive!