Before & After: Living Room & Dining Room

We have slowly been making changes in our house since we moved in mid-August. Our first project was the living room and dining room. We probably wouldn't have changed much right away, but the previous owners left lots of holes in the walls from pictures and the paint was chipped in a few places. We didn't have any leftover paint to touch it up so it turned into a complete do-over. Ultimately, it was a good thing we painted it. Looking back at the "before" photos, we can tell that we really neutralized that harsh mustard color into something easier on the eyes.

Living Room - Before (these photos are from when the home was on the market with the previous owners' belongings):


Living Room - After

Please excuse Max and his glowing demon eyes in this photo. He's just mad that he's not the mantle accessory anymore...





As you can see, Max would not get out of the way - so here's his Glamour Shot:


Dining Room - Before


Dining Room - After






Front Entry (no "before" photo)


We still have more accessorizing to do in these areas, but we'll probably move along to one of the bedrooms next.

Weekend in Chicago (October 24 - 26, 2008)

We took a road trip to Chicago in late October to celebrate a few things: our first anniversary, Nick's birthday, Erin's birthday, and a belated birthday for Zac.

Friday night in Chicago: Becca, Melissa, & Erin


Josh & Zac


Us at the bean in Millenium Park on Saturday: Josh, Melissa, Becca, & Nick


Millenium Park






Hazy skyline on Saturday


Zac, Becca, & Nick on Saturday night for dinner at Zac's place


Where we stayed downtown


On the Mile




Us having lunch on Sunday before heading back to MN.

The North Shore

This weekend we took a trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior in hopes of seeing some great fall colors.



We stayed in Larsmont, MN, just NE of Duluth, at Larsmont Cottages.



We arrived late Friday night after a three hour drive north of the Twin Cities. We settled in at Larsmont and mapped out our course for Saturday. On Saturday morning we woke up fairly early to grab breakfast and head to Gooseberry Falls and then over to the Split Rock Lighthouse.

Gooseberry Falls were beautiful. We hiked for several hours along all of the falls and took lots of photos.









After we finished hiking Gooseberry Falls, we drove out to Split Rock Lighthouse to check it out. You have to do some pretty serious hiking to get some neat photos of the lighthouse.









We headed back to the Twin Cities early Sunday morning due to rainy weather after a quick stop in Duluth.

We took lots of additional photos, which can be viewed here: North Shore Photo Album

Centennial Lakes Park, Apple Jack Orchards, & Woodland Hill Winery

Today we intended to have some fun and play miniature golf on an 18-hole course of real grass at Centennial Lakes Park in Edina, MN (http://www.centenniallakespark.com/). When we showed up today we found out the course is closed for the season. We walked around the park anyway and even saw a wedding taking place in the amphitheater.

















Since we weren't able to play miniature golf, I convinced Josh that we should find a local apple orchard to go get some Minnesota Honeycrisps (fun fact: Honeycrisp Apples were developed at the University of Minnesota - http://www.honeycrisp.org/herit.htm and http://www.apples.umn.edu/). We drove out to Apple Jack Orchards in Delano, MN (http://www.applejackorchards.com/)and it was insanely packed! We got our apples, apple cider, and a few other goodies and then got out of there!

On our way out of the orchard, we decided to stop at a local winery, Woodland Hill Winery (http://www.woodlandhillwinery.com/). On our way there, we saw a bald eagle!



We can't take credit for this photo (courtesy of Google Images), but we were so amazed that we saw one flying low near the road on the way to the winery. Apparently Minnesota and Wisconsin are home to the largest population of nesting bald eagles in the United States outside of Alaska. It was neat to see one.

We didn't spend much time at the winery, but we did pick up a bottle of red to share over dinner tonight. We might go back for one of their dinner events sometime soon.

Project: Basement

This weekend we (OK, well mostly Josh) worked on the basement. As a reminder, this is what the basement looked like when the house was on the market:




Here's what it looks like now, after adding our own furniture, some new curtains and lighting, & our computer and TV:







I think Josh tackled this so he had a nice place to watch football this weekend. :)

Poker with the Stars (kind of...)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Today I was invited to the Trent Tucker Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament (http://www.trenttucker.org/youthprogram.html). Having NEVER played a hand of Texas Hold'em before I didn't think I would hold out very long, but thought it might give me a good chance to see some famous people (http://www.trenttucker.org/celebrities_2008.html). I managed to last a good hour and a half at the table, until finally blowing it. Good night, great cause.





One of my few chances to actually see Michael Jordan at this event. It was cool that he was there, but even better that he got knocked out of the tournament by a Regular Joe (unfortunately not me!).

Here are some pictures of some other celebrities that were at the poker tournament:

JB Bickerstaff - the celebrity at my table.

Former NBA-ers: Brad Sellers, Ron Harper, Charles Oakley.


Minnesota Timberwolf: Corey Brewer


Me going all in and losing.


Me and Marcel Luske (professional poker player) after we both got knocked out of the tournament.