Busy weekend

We had the best day that our store has ever had the day after Thanksgiving. It was just crazy. I missed the big rush but they said that they had lines to the back of the store for the checkout and that the police were out ticketing people for parking on the frontage road.

Thanksgiving was at Nadine's with Erin and Robert and the Watson side came up too. Robert beat me twice in playstation football. Not so good.

We had a kid who had a lot of trouble showing up on time and we let him go. He was an awesome worker and really knowledgeable but he liked to stay up and play video games all night and didn't get enough sleep. So here I was without my best guy over last weekend and that really put a load on me. I guess that I don't have much sympathy about the getting to work on time. Everybody else does and he didn't have any kids to get him up at all hours of the night either.

Thanksgiving

We've been really busy at work getting ready for the seasonal sales. Been crazy with all the stuff moving around and pallets piling up. Came home yesterday and Olivia and I built a little fire outside. She would go from playing on the swingset to standing in the smoke of it. At least she knows that it is hot, as I was told countless times. Speckles took off on one of the trails and Olivia ran after him. I could see her little pink coat bouncing around in the tall grass. She ran a good hundred yards out after him then he backtracked and she tried to catch up.

Zach has been eating and eating. It is hard to keep him full. He drinks goat milk by the quart along with his baby food. He'll wake up from a nap and just be starving. He likes to play with Olivia in our sun room. They'll be surrounded by toys and just happy as peas in a pod. Speckles will walk by to provide a small diversion but then back to toys. They have a lot of toys.

We're off to Wykoff for Thanksgiving with the in-laws and the laws for dessert.

Weekend

Spent the weekend up at Erin's new house. She has a new condo in a development. Pretty nice. We put up a garage door opener. We watched Iowa beat up on Minnesota in football first. Erin and I went to Menards to pick up some parts and heard some of the game on our way back. Iowa had jumped out to a 35-0 lead and it wasn't much of a game but it was enough to put off hanging the opener a few hours.

Olivia is talking a lot more recently. She is saying sentences and getting better with nouns. She gives me headaches with her constant chatter.

Zach has not been feeling very well recently. He worked himself up in a frenzy this evening and puked all over Elena.

Mowed the whole yard

I had some gas left over in the tank and thought that I'd give our new house a good mow. I figured I had enough for about a 1/2 hour so I started up front and got around the front of the house and next to the neighbors. Still going strong so I mowed another section. Then another. Then another. Then I was just left with the main back yard. Holy crud the mower was getting heavy to push. So I started making big circles and expected to run out of gas any moment. Nope. It started to get dark out. I kept pushing. The blisters on my hands didn't pop open so that was a lucky break. Eventually the lawn was mowed and there was still gas in the tank. (I did run out of the mower's tank once but did have some left in the fill tank) We're investing in a rider mower for next summer that is for sure.

House is doing good. We're slowly figuring out how the electrical switches are connected to the lights and outlets. It seems they tried to be user friendly but right now it is counter-intuitive.

Lots of projects. Installed a third water filter in the house under the kitchen faucet. It seems to work well.

I lost my garage door remote when we were moving in. That sucks. I have to get out, go into the house, open the door, go back and drive in and then close it. Oh well, it'll show up.

Piano moving

I met the piano movers today at our old house. They came in all hustle and bustle. Two guys, one a guy around 45 and a helper about 25. The older one had shorts on and his legs were just phenomenally muscular. He hefted this massive piano like it was a big cardboard box. They put it on a pull sled platform then onto a dolly. They wrapped it up in a blanket and tied it with mesh straps. He tied a strap around his waist and pulled it out of our house, down the steps and up the ramp to his truck.

Off to our house and he does the same thing. They take it through the garage entrance and set it where we want it and off they went.

Moved in

Ahh... Reconnected to the internet

Well, all moved in except for Elena's piano. It's a big heavy thing that we're getting some movers to get over here. My mom and dad came up along with Ben and we finished up the move on Saturday. We had three trucks and Elena's car and made two trips from the house and one trip from storage. It was a fairly smooth move. No major headaches and we weren't trying to break any speed records.

We're really getting into the new place. The water here is really sandy and rusty. I've been tweaking around with different water filters to see what will work the best for the whole house and for the kitchen faucet. When I change the first one out of the ground it is just all red soup. It reminds me of the gold prospector's pan looks like when he starts sifting. No nitrates though.

The kids have weathered the change fairly well. Olivia has some issues sometimes but she likes her new room and the big sunroom that is full of her toys. Zach still just likes to play with whatever is set in front of him, take baths and eat.

I'm having trouble finding things in the kitchen. Mom unpacked a lot of our stuff for there and we still don't know what works best for us. I keep on opening doors expecting to see things but alas. Someday it'll get worked out.

We have lots of ground turned up from gophers I think. I don't know right now what to do about it having two kids and a dog. With winter coming it won't be a big deal but next spring I don't know about getting poison or a spring loaded spear trap.

We see deer quite often. Lots of does and a few bucks. Hopefully they won't destroy all the small trees. Elena has frowned upon firearms in the house.

Been moving

We have been moving with every bit of extra time we've had. Lots of trips in a borrowed truck over to the new house. Our new house has really rusty and sandy water. I changed two whole house filters in it and they were yucky. Of course they had been sitting unused for about 6 months. We brought the dog over tonight and he seemed to approve of the place. He ran around and sniffed everywhere. I think he'll really like it.
On the way over tonight I ran out of gas in the truck. It showed having 3/8 of a tank left but apparently it wasn't right. Fortunately there was a full alternate tank which saved a major headache. The truck I borrowed is a 75 Ford Ranger. Parents used to have one a few years older than that they used as a beater truck and then Mark and I used to get around. The break lights don't really work ever and there are some handling issues but other than that it's a great truck.