Baby Shower Season?

November 6th was the kick-off to deer hunting season here in Minnesota. On our way down to Rochester we witnessed this buck strapped to the back of someone's Ford Taurus. Wow...

It was also the kick-off to baby shower season in the Merrill house! Adam's aunt Anne threw us a couples-baby-shower and we had a great turnout. A big thanks to Anne for throwing it and to everyone who came, we had a great time!!!

Anne had all of our favorite foods!!! BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, onion dip, snicker salad, chips and cupcakes. Yummy!

Grandma, Mom and auntie Debbie. And it was Debbie's birthday!

Yes, we are planning on brainwashing our child to be a Vikings fan. 

Grandma Nancy and Grandma Miller :)

My Mother-in-Law and Anne made this diaper cake all by themselves! Pretty crafty!

Adam and Marcus are being "Ostriches" here. (Marcus's favorite animal)

Fall Chores 2010

Until today, we have been enjoying unseasonably warm weather in Minnesota. Fall chores can brutal with over 20 mature oak trees. Luckily, Adam's brother Beau seems to enjoy helping with our annual leaf clean up! 

 
Beau and Alissa helped so much with all the yard work Adam had enough free time to get started on the Christmas lights. It just seems wrong to have Christmas lights and pumpkins out at the same time, but we had to take advantage of the nice weather!

Stay tuned for the  Griswald  Merrill family Christmas lights coming November 26th, 2010.

Bye Bye Bu

With Baby Merrill on the way, Adam decided we I needed a new vehicle. I really couldn't figure out why since the Bu was free and seemed to suit our needs just fine. I have had some good times in  this 2002 Malibu. It's the car I had when I first met Adam, the car that I drove to Arizona with my mom to start grad school, the car I then moved back to Minnesota in 5 years later (again with Mom) as well as the source of many close calls and lessons.

I thank my trusty rabbit's foot for not getting more dents and dings.

When the turn signal went out I learned I could punch the dashboard to get it to work. This was actually a bonus as it made me feel cool in a Fonzy-kind-of way. Eventually someone pointed out I could push on the circuit behind the vent to get it to work... not as cool.

I gained confidence in my mechanic-abilities when I figured out how to top off the coolant every month in addition to learning that the funny light on my dash meant "low coolant".

Apparently, parking your car in the scorching Arizona sun for 5 years straight can be rough on the paint job.

Good-Bye Malibu

Hello 4Runner, aka: mom-car!

The Best Thing I Ever Ate

The best thing I have ever eaten was a duck confit salad at Scallion's Restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York. This salad was so good it became legendary in my mind.  I figured there was no way anything, even the same salad at the same restaurant, could ever live up to it. While I was back in New York last February I begged these two ladies to go there with me again to put it to the test.

As you can see... I thoroughly enjoyed it. To this day the citrus duck salad maintains it's status as the best thing I have ever eaten. 

It's Not Easy Being Green... Ok Maybe It Is

Last Weekend's Project: Add additional insulation to the attic.

Goals: Reduce our gas bill, prevent another ice dam and save the planet.

Duration of Project: Approximately 10 hours.

Cost: $400 plus ancillary costs (AttiCat rental, insulation, staple gun, goggles, face masks)

Maybe I can bump the thermostat up from 67 to 68 and still save money this winter!!!

Fungus Amoungus

I know I sound like a weird-o saying this, but I like fungus. I've noticed some pretty crazy things cropping up in our yard this year and wish I would have taken pictures of all of them. Maybe I'll be one of those mushroomer-people when I retire. Here are some photos of our current fungal-situation:

What's that smell?

Oh that's right- it's our basement. In case anyone's been wondering what we have been up to this last week here is a quick update:

Last Wednesday night and Thursday day we had a huge storm. I am pretty sure we had at least a few inches of rain. Thursday Adam called to tell me the roof was leaking. Later he sent me a text that the basement carpet was soaked. Great....

The roof ended up not being a huge issue (yet) but the carpet was saturated. No matter how many times we ran the shop-vac, it was not drying up.

And the smell was getting worse by the day....

I tried putting down some baking soda. That failed.

I looked online and read that a cut up onion will eliminate basement odor. Nope.

I even tried using my trusty Sham-Wow to soak up the water under the carpet just like they show on the infomercial. Sham-Lame.

So Sunday night we finally gave in and tore up the carpet. The padding was completely drenched and had to be ripped up. We are trying to salvage the carpet and save a few bucks.

Anytime I do something stupid Adam likes to be a smart-ass and ask me: "Did you learn anything?"

Well, I suppose I did learn a few things from this experience:

1. Long leaders off your gutters are important.

2. Wet carpet smells horrible.

3. It is also ridiculously heavy.

4. We have some awesome friends and roommates.

 

5. A cut up onion is not as powerful at eliminating basement odor as you might expect.