The bathroom saga

All I can say is measure, measure, and when you think you have it right, measure again.

Our pedestal sink ended up being too wide to fit our vanity/buffet table. I don't know what we were thinking, because we found many suitable furniture pieces that were shorter. We bought a smaller sink, and that has worked out. The medicine cabinet needed to be moved when the sink needed to be moved, so we had to notch out a stud. I need to paint tomorrow, and that is the last really big hurdle.

We are having a New Years Eve get together on Saturday, which is the impetus for getting the bathroom finished. The new toilet is awesome by the way!

I have gone a bit crazy

with Christmas this year. I guess not having a 9-5 job allows you to do that.

I am feeling sad tonight. I took the dogs to the kennel for the weekend. It makes life a lot easier on us (and safer), but I miss them already!

I wish we could take them to my parent's house, but hell would have to freeze over before that happened.

Europe pictures

I finished these albums awhile ago, but never posted the link.

www.snapfish.com/share/p=674171134840341000/l=71478421/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

and yes, I was a little obsessive with the captions. :)

Oh my

It is Thursday already!

The Badgers did manage to win Saturday night's game 6-0, so we know that they don't completely suck. Bowling was a lot of fun as well.

The bathroom is tiled!! It really was an exhausting process. So exhausting that I haven't even cleaned the bathroom up yet. It is on the agenda for this weekend.

We got a ton of snow here yesterday. The trees looked pretty. It was pretty warm today though, so the roads are all slushy.

I am finished with my light ensemble for this year. I guess Santa and his reindeer are going to have to go on the roof next year. I will try to get a picture and post it. (some jackass did spray slush on my tonight and I was putting up something in the yard, and I don't think it was on accident)

I still don't haven't gotten the picture of the animals together, must do that soon.

I am a blog slacker

In my defense, I have been working on tiling my bathroom for the past three days.

We went to a UW Badgers hockey game last night. Somehow they knew we were there and proceeded to royally suck, even though they are 16-2-2.

Tonight is bowling! We are being very social this weekend.

I hope to get all the tile cut tonight, but Duane is fading quickly.

I forgot to mention

that I left some clothes at the Indian Lakes Resort last week. My workout clothes oddly enough. I called and called and called and finally got someone who told me they would ship them to me. We shall see.

I should get a picture on here of my Christmas lights. Duane thinks that I am insane, and I must apologize to Conor as well. I agree with you about wasting electricity, but putting up lights is something that really makes me happy.

My family has lowered the dollar amount for our gifts this year and we have the option of giving a white elephant gift. We pick names as well, so that really cuts down on the shopping.

A friend is coming up at the end of the week to help with the bathroom!! Duane as admitted that he has a mental block on finishing it up. Excuse me, but I want a toilet upstairs!

I am still trying to figure out how to get a picture of the animals with a santa hat and photoshop them together. I must work on that tonight!

Something infinitely more exciting

Wow, is that a lot to live up to. Cate's weekend was infinitely more exciting than mine, but here goes nothing.

Friday night I drove back from the crappy Indian Lakes Resort. I did make a wrong turn and drove the wrong way down a road wondering why I wasn't getting to the I-90 exit. Duane called me and asked me to meet him at Old Chicago. His new (crappier) office is right next to Old Chicago, so the boys like to gather for a beer after work. I did manage to make small talk with 4 guys about 5-6 years younger than myself, so go me! They were talking about where they were going out later and I was thinking about going home and going to sleep!

Saturday did not yield anything too exciting, some shopping if I remember correctly and breakfast at the Cracker Barrel (oh and lots of snow!). The Cracker Barrel is one of the few places where you can get swedish fish (and not just the red ones). Yum, yum!

I did an open house on Sunday at the weirdest house. It was custom built in the 60's with high end materials, which do not equal high end in 2005 btw. It had a contraption built into the counter-top where you could put a mixing bowl or a meat grinder (made by NuTone). In fact, there were many things made by NuTone in the house (even the combination doorbell/clock!). This house had a central vacuuming system as well (yes, made by NuTone!). The owner (who was also the builder) put weird cabinets in all of the bedrooms and the upstairs floors were all cork tile. I had one person come in, and they didn't seem to speak english. Oh, and the Packers lost again.

I went to the gym this morning, even though it was -2 degrees out! I also went into work and made some phone calls. I am committed and I will be succesful!

You can skip the Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale, IL

Cate has inspired me to post, as it has been awhile for me too.

I am posted from my hexagonal hotel room at the Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale (not to be confused with Bloomington) IL. The hotel website (www.indianlakesresort.com) makes the hotel look really cool, but don't fall for it.

The hotel design was inspired by Franklin Lloyd Wright and actually designed by Don Erickson. The hotel is shaped in a giant hexagon. He wanted to eliminate the stark, non-ending (straight from the information pamphlet) corridors of conventional hotels and the shoebox-like shape of the rooms. Instead of straight and endless corridors, it has twisting and turning endless corridors. The rooms are shaped like hexagons, which does provide you with more room, but also gives you a weirdly shaped ceiling. The lighting is also extremely poor in the rooms. My room faces a strange atrium, so it gets no natural light.

The conference area is also hexagonal and connected to the hotel by a LONG corridor. The corridor has large windows and very little heat. The swimming pool is also miles away from the hotel. I guess that eliminates kids running back and forth in their swimsuits.

They have a mini-bar that can tell if you take anything out of it. If you want a real refrigerator, you have to pay a rental fee.

The whole hotel recently underwent a major renovation. The bathroom has a slate floor. I did a better job of installing my slate floor!

The seminar is actually very good, but this hotel is just strange.

I promise to be a more regular poster!