Road (A)Head

Too funny not to share this pic. :)

This weekend was a very busy and good one. Kara made it up here Thursday night for the Bret Michael's concert on Friday. I ended up taking off Friday to help Wade a bit with the deck and spend w/ Kara . Helped Wade first by shoveling what appeared to be a small amount of rock, but what felt like a very large amount of rock. My back is KILLING me now. After sweating profusely, I showered up and did some damage shopping with Kara at Southdale. We finished up just in time to get home and get ready to head out to catch the bus to Jackpot Junction for the concert. Met Pam and Paula, mixed up our bus drinks up and hopped aboard. We got to Jackpot with plenty of time to get great seats in the Gen Admin area and we were set. Sebastian Bach opened for Bret and I must say he was really good. Brings me back to junior high mixers dancing with my first boyfriend. Too funny. When Bret came on stage the crowd went crazy. This concert sold out in a week and was the fastest sell out ever at Jackpot. And I don't care what anyone says but Bret is hot. Rockstars just have something extremely attractive about them, and he is no exception. I thought the same thing when I saw Kid Rock in concert. Wouldn't give him the time of day if he were just some random at the bar, but seeing him work his shit on stage, there is something very sexy about it. Can't help it, won't deny it, leave it be. :)

Saturday was a pretty uneventful day since we didn't get home until 3 am from the concert. Kara and I slept in while Wade got working on the deck some more. When we finally got out of bed we saw this:

The post holes were dug and concrete was in and set. Wade was ready to start framing. After a quick run to Home Depot for some more screws and to DQ to get Wade and Bob a cold treat (total time approx. 30 min) we came home to this:

I think Wade and Bob were trying for a record in the fastest deck building time ever. They sure weren't fuckin around! By the time the rain started and they called it a day they had gotten most of the framing up and we could visualize just how big the deck was going to be. I can't wait!
Bob working hard for the money (or DQ) :)
Bob and Wade discuss what to do next
The side of the house
Most of the outer frame is up!

After cleaning up we headed to Eagan to help Amanda and Tony celebrate their upcoming 30th birthdays. Had some drinks, played some games and enjoyed the company and the much calmer night with friends. A welcome night in comparison to the concert the night before. We headed home around 1am to play a little Mario Kart and then crashed.

Today Kara and I decided we'd go back to Southdale real quick to take a look in one store we didn't make it to on Friday. Did a little more damage this time and then headed to Figlio's for their happy hour. As I've said before, they have a GREAT happy hour. We treated ourselves to the gorgonzola cheese fries, a sausage pizza for me and a pepperoni pizza for Kara and a beer each. Our total bill = $13. How awesome is that!?! When we headed home from happy hour we saw this:

Wade never ceases to amaze me. We were gone for only about 3 hours and he's got all of the middle boards in! It's crazy how handy he is.

Kara got packed up and said goodbye and headed home and Wade put me to work helping him with the deck. We purchased the handiest little tool ever made for nailing. The palm nailer.
Totally worth the $75. It saved us an unimaginable amount of time with this deck. Wade handed me the palm nailer and set me to work. I nailed like I've never nailed before. I felt like She-ra, the Princess of Power. I was totally kicking this decks ass. And suddenly I was done. And we had the framing complete.
Ta-da!

Now we have to wait to get it inspected before we can put the boards on. I can't believe how fast this deck is coming together. Wade is the best deck builder ever. And tons of thanks also to Bob, Keith and Mitch. They have lent a helping hand a time or two. :)

Now it is time for me to jump in the shower. I feel like I'm covered in dried boob sweat. Nasty.

Smell ya later.

Wind in my Hair, Beer in my Mouth

This last 4 day long weekend was wonderful. We started it off with a bang by hosting the 2nd annual 4th of July kegger. As predicted it was much calmer than last year, but still a good time was had with good company. We had a first time keg attendee, Livia, who seemed to enjoy herself quite a bit!
Travis gets fitted w/ all the proper safety gear to ensure no legal bills :)
After beer pong, bags and unicycling we ended up with only a little of the keg left. Thank goodness (and thanks to Tony & Steve who helped out a lot!).
And Birch (he really liked the keg)
Too funny to leave out... :)

Thursday Wade and I trekked to Home Depot and made a large purchase of decking material and new basement windows. Wade promptly discovered that with old houses remodeling never quite goes as easily as hoped and ended up having to grind down concrete in the basement to get the 1st window in! Luckily he’s gotten the 2 in that we needed to in order to move forward with the deck. The other 3 can wait for a bit.
The side of our house currently looks like a shit hole.
Kobe's keeping an eye on Wade to make sure he builds this deck to code. :)

Thursday night we spent out at Richfield’s Street Dance. Some good cover music played by Jonah & the Whales and we played some always fun “fair” games. I won a stuffed pink dog that I happily handed over to Jessica to give to her pooch, Stella. Stella has a weakness for fair animals. Haha… Then we headed home where we met Lance and Wendy, played some more bags and polished off the remainder of the keg. I crashed at 3 am, but Wade and Lance stayed up until the sun was coming up playing Mario Kart!

Two goofy guys

The 4th was a fairly uneventful day (since we didn’t go to bed until the wee hours). We slept in, got some late lunch and got ready to hit the 4 pm happy hour at Figlio’s. Their happy hour NEVER disappoints! $2 pints and $2 appetizers from 4-7 pm! And we’re talking AWESOME appetizers: Gorgonzola cheese fries, mini burgers, mini pizzas, mini sloppy joes, meatballs, etc. After the happy hour was over and Brad & Erika met us out we headed across the street to Drink. We thought their rooftop patio would be a good place to be able to catch at least a few fireworks. (That didn’t work out as planned) Not too many could be seen very well, but we still had a good time and then headed home for some more drinks, a bonfire and bags. The ride home was interesting and windy (and a lot of fun)!
Wendy & I enjoy the nice weather on our ride home (out the windows!)
Lance gets in on the fun too out the top of the sunroof


Saturday afternoon was spent doing my favorite hobby: shopping. We headed up to Bob’s Cycle Supply to look at motorcycle stuff. Wade got a new Troy Lee Designs hat and Lance and Wendy picked up some stuff as well. Then we headed to the Mall of America for Wendy and Lance’s first trip there. It was a successful shopping trip with everyone getting a few new items of clothing (and as always, I had a blast). I LOVE MOA! After all that we headed out to meet Bob and Amy at Uptown Bar for some dinner on their patio and then onto Champp’s to catch the UFC Championship fight. The fights were extremely bloody, but the main event was great! Forrest won! Yay, Forrest!

Sunday was a hot mutha out. Extremely humid and muggy. It was miserable really. So what do we do? We work on the deck and landscaping out in the heat. Ick. I spent my time taking back a hydrangea that didn’t make it through the winter (and was guaranteed for 1 year luckily) and exchanging it for another boxwood. Very exciting. Wade installed basement window #2 and got another piece of the decking wood up on the back of the house. Our neighbor, "Muscles" aka Mitch, came over to help Wade out for a bit (lucky for me since I was already dripping w/ boob sweat = gross). And we called it a day. Spent the evening watching “Ocean’s Twelve” and relaxing w/ my 2 main men.
There's my newest bush (on the right) Isn't it beautiful? :)
This is what our house looked like when we bought it!
A drastic improvement!
Wade and "Muscles" putting the 2nd board on the house
It's on!
One of the 2 new basement windows that is in
What a GREAT long weekend. Is it Friday yet? Haha…