The Nordmeyer Christmas

Aimee & I had Christmas for her side of the family this past weekend. Thankfully they live only 15 minutes away. It has become a family tradition to stay over night at Aimee's parents house when we celebrate Christmas. We all had a shot of Amber Macallan single malt scotch whisky to start off the night. This Amber liqueur is fantastic! Made with natural maple & pecan flavoring, it coats your throat with alcohol goodness. After we enjoyed a delicious meal.

Guitar hero madness occurred after Jason got Rock The 80's. These damn Guitar Hero games are more addicting than crack. We beat the medium level that night. I wish the game would have more songs for you to choose from. I guess Activision has to make their money somehow with all of the Guitar Hero sequels.

Laynie vs. Zoey Round 1: Zoey is a happy little pug for the first 10 minutes when she meets new people. After that she is as lazy as can be. Problem is Zoey gets a little jumpy and licky which freaks Laynie out. It was pretty funny listening to Laynie asking for Zoey all night but once Zoey gets in the same room Laynie freaks out. We would hold Zoey on our laps but Laynie had her eye on Zoey all night making sure she wasn't close. We did however make some progress as Laynie would give Zoey her toys and one time Laynie walked up to Zoey and touched her paw. Someday these two will be able to live happily ever after.

Thanks again to the Nordmeyer's for a fantastic time! It was great spending time with everyone!

Here are some pictures.

Chicagoland Christmas

Aimee and I are back in the great state of Minnesota after visiting my family in Chicago. The weather in Chicago was a warm 45 degrees when we arrived. All of the snow had melted and then it was raining. It did the same thing when we went to Chicago for x-mas 2 years ago. On x-mas there were some flurries so it was kind of a white x-mas. We arrived Friday night which gave us all day Saturday, Sunday & Monday with the family. We had to leave Christmas day because Aimee had to work on Wednesday. BTW do not ever travel on Christmas day. 3 words: Gas Station Sandwiches. Aimee & I hung out with the kids and did some last minute shopping on Saturday. Sunday was football day. We watched the Bears beat the Packers and then later that night the Vikings lose to the Redskins.

The big gift of the weekend for the kids (nieces & nephew) was the Nintendo Wii. Once that gift was opened you couldn't pry ME away from the TV screen. Of course not even 15 minutes into a game of bowling my niece Lexi throws the remote across the room hitting the TV. Classic. She had the remote strap around her wrist but that doesn't do much good if you don't tighten it. The kids were more excited about their American Dolls than the Wii. I told them if they didn't want it that I would be more than happy to take it off of their hands.

We got a nice surprise from old man winter on our way back just past Rochester. Last night I measured 5 inches of snow and another inch today.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Holidazzle My Nizzle

Did you see us? Yes? No? Maybe? Well you couldn't miss us since we were first Toy Soldiers inline walking down Nicollet Mall with the Best Buy sponsor banner. It all started a couple weeks ago when a saw a post on our internal corporate website saying they needed some volunteers for the Macy's Holidazzle Parade. I figured what the hell so I fill out the forms for Aimee and I. Couple days later I got the confirmation e-mail that we were in it. All we knew was that we were Toy Soldiers and at the time we only could guess what that involved because they did not have an example costume on the Holidazzle website. We had to be at the Hyatt by 5pm to get our costumes. We arrived a little early and were one of the first people to get our costumes on. Maybe not the greatest of ideas because now we had to wait around for an hour wearing these outfits which were very warm since you have to wear your warm weather gear under them. So we would stand outside, stand inside, then back out we go to cool off and you guessed it, back inside. Finally it was around 6:10pm and we headed down to the beginning of the parade. My biggest mistake was not bringing warm enough gloves. My fingers were numb by the time we started the parade. You look out in front of you, then all of the lights turn off down Nicollet Mall and you begin to hear the music play from behind you. It was a fun experience seeing all of the kids sitting on the curbs with a giant smile on their faces. Also I don't think I could stop smiling. I'm hoping Best Buy sponsors the parade next year because I really want to be one of those Xcel Energy light bulbs.

After the parade we were on a mission to find Pizza Luce. Aimee and I are not the most knowledgeable about where places are located in Minneapolis but we knew the general area. After going down a few one way streets and circling Pizza Luce twice for a parking spot we had arrived. Oh man was I craving some frickin pizza. We got some mozzarella cheese sticks, a caeser salad and then a delicious 16" pizza. Best pizza eva'!

Oh moron me forgot to bring the digital camera which totally sucks but we did get a Polaroid of Aimee & I in our costumes. Not the best of quality but it will do.

Zoey's New Trick

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Time To Vent

I don't know what it is but our townhouse which was made by Centex Homes is the biggest pain in the ass to get parts for. For example the spring loaded door hinges went out on the door to the garage. It requires a 4x4, 5/8" radius corner spring hinge with the off-set bolt pattern. I go to Home Depot, nothing. Menards, nothing. Ace Hardware, nothing. Fleet Farm, nothing. What the fuck!? None of them carried the off-set bolt pattern just the 'C' pattern. I have to go to web now to search. I found some at HomeHardwarePlus.com, fantastic! I get the package today...mmm...SHIT! They sent me regular non-spring hinges even though I ordered the ones with the springs. BTW I would have to buy a new door to get the "C" pattern to work.

Another example. I wanted to replace the bathtub spout because it's just nasty to begin with and when you pull up on the pin to engage the shower it shoots water out of the spout. I go to Home Depot and find a "Universal" tub spout. Universal my ass! Nothing is universal when it comes to Centex Homes. The problem is Centex welded a larger size thread on the pipe which new tub spouts will not fit on. Now I have 2 options; Find a specialty retails that might have this larger thread spout or have a plumber come out and weld on a new end.

FFF@#$%^&*(@#$R%^&*CCCKKK!!!
-MikeyB

Tile

Here it is. Waiting for the grout to dry then the trim will go back up tomorrow.

:::UPDATE:::
Tile is complete. Trim is on. Doors are on. Washer & dryer in place.

Productive Weekend

Since I worked Thanksgiving weekend I decided to take Friday through Monday (today) off. One of my main projects was tiling the laundry room. I started on Friday by taking the washer and dryer out into the garage. Next was ripping up the old linoleum which I was afraid was going to be glued down like the front entry way was. To my surprise they didn't use much glue and the linoleum came right up. Second order of business, raise the floor. Some people like to raise the roof but I prefer the floor. There was a height difference between the wood floor and the concrete. If I were to lay the tile to the concrete I would have to use a lot of thin-set mortar. Instead what you do is get some self leveling mortar, mix it up and lay it over the concrete. Let the mortar dry for 24 hours and shazam, you have just raised the floor. The tiling itself wasn't too hard, just hard on your knees and time consuming. I laid the last title yesterday afternoon so I can grout the title today. I'm hoping to get the laundry room back together by tomorrow night. While I was titling Aimee was painting the dining room. Its the same color that was in there before but maybe a shade darker. We just wanted to get it a fresh coat of paint. I'll post up some pictures once I am finished

We also picked up a Christmas tree at the local Boyscout troop lot. I think we bought a Fraser Fir. I'm not the greatest at tree identification. Either way I don't think the Boyscout troop will be seeing us next year. They are a little high on the price scale. We really don't have a good place for a Christmas tree in our house. We ended up putting it next to the TV. Aimee got it all decorated and ready for the holiday season. Here are a few pictures.