Birthday Class

For our birthdays, we treated our friends to a cooking class at Art & Soul. We made a kale salad, tequila shrimp, and salmon. Everything was super easy to make and it all tasted awesome! The best part was that it was all zero carbs. JP is excited to recreate the dishes at home. 

Super Chili

We spent Saturday morning cooking up a double batch of JP's awesome chili for the Superbowl. It starts with a few pounds of beef, pork, and bacon. Mmmm - bacon. We took the boys to the new 5 Guys burger place that opened this week. We ordered big over the top burgers and enjoyed them all. JP balked when she saw how big her double cheeseburger was, but had no problem putting it all away - it was yummy! We had to take a nap afterwards.

After a January without any snow, Mother Nature made up for lost time as she ushered in February. We were supposed to get an inch or two of snow. It snowed a heavy wet snow all day and all night. Now the wind has been turned on and it feel like winter. The storms that have been hammering the east coast have all passed us by with only wind. It will be interesting to see what this one dumps onto the east in the next couple of days.

Remodeling Season

We've had a warm January with temps in the 50s and 60s for the past two weeks. That, combined with no homework has a certain redhead thinking that it's time once again to improve our house. Her next project is to replace the nasty carpeted stairs and upstairs hallway with hardwood. 

In order to make it work, we need to paint the remaining golden oak white. The finish carpenter for our house did an amazing job, but all the oak is too much. I'm sure that sometime in the future a young couple will move into our house and be ecstatic at the fact that all the trimwork is solid oak. By that time, someone will have carpeted over the wood floors, too.

We were blessed with a beautiful January day and 50°. How often can you open the front door for fresh air in January in Nebraska?

Payoff

As I struggled with my classes, I promised myself that once it was over, I'd treat myself to a new bass. Over the years I've accumulated too many cheesy instruments and I was to the point that I couldn't keep up with maintaining them - strings and neck adjustments due to the Nebraska weather. I was able to trade in two basses and with the $$ I received for graduation (and a generous wife) I was able to buy a real instrument that should last a lifetime. Rock On!

Together Time

For the past few weeks, our Saturdays have been kid-free. GP is enrolled in a city-wide speech program and CP has his speech events. What does one do without having to wait on two teens? Go out for lunch! We hit Leadbelly's for JP's b-day. We went there a year ago and were not impressed with their burger-only menu. JP wanted a Cuban, but she couldn't get it without a patty. Since then they added a page of non-burgers to their menu and the food is delicious.

While enjoying our meal, we looked outside and it was snowing like crazy. That's normal for January, but the temperature was 50°!! Then it turned to rain, then back to snow, and then the sun came out and we went back to rain. Nebraska is having a strange January.

Ecuador!

Last weekend I learned that I have been selected to chaperon a group of UNL guys on a two week trip to Ecuador this spring!! We fly to Quito then go north to Otavalo and stay a few days with families in a the small farming community of San Clemente. From there, we go south to Banos and down to Puyo and then fly an hour east into the rainforest where we'll spend a week with the Achuar (former headhunters). Can't wait!

Knitting is Exhausting Work

The cats helped JP knit her collar. It doesn't get better than an endless piece of yarn that twitches for hours on end.

And it's a nice place to knead.

V finally gave up and passed out face down the sofa. I've never seen her this tired.

Blizzard? What blizzard?

We've been getting slammed by a cold front every other day for the past week. The cats couldn't care less that it's 5° outside and the wind is a steady 30 mph with horizontal snow. If we chucked them outside, then they would care...

Christmas 2014

We were blessed with gorgeous weather for Christmas this year. No blizzards, no ice storms, just nice cold weather.

As the boys are getting older, Christmas morning goes faster and faster. At the end, there was only one shopping bag full of wrapping paper rather than the normal 90 gallon trash can. This was the first year that we didn't need wire cutters and a jumbo pack of batteries.

Christmas Eve

Grampa treated us boys to a visit to the SAC Museum on Christmas Eve.

My favorites are the SR-71 and B-58. CP has a thing for MiG's. 

As the sun set, we retired to the basement and watched Elf and then Christmas Vacation and laughed and laughed.

Finally!!!

Finally, after almost 5 years, I got my master's degree. Two classes per year sounded easy, but it took more time and effort than I realized. By the time I had grown weary, I was in too far and couldn't stop. Not unlike drinking a spittoon.

The ceremony was held at the new Pinnacle Bank Arena. It was the first time that any of us had been inside. Gramma, Grampa, and Aunt M drove up from MS for the event. 

Afterwards we went to Brix & Stone in the Haymarket for dinner.

Graduation Party

We cleared out the living room and secured some cocktail tables for our graduation party.

In all, I think we had 20+ people. Despite our efforts to corral everyone in the living room, they all congregated in the kitchen.

JP rented some cheap wine glasses and a bartender. Now that we have all wood floors, not a drop was spilled.

Wreath Auction

The wreath auction was fun! I think the event netted $2,500 for the speech/debate team.

We were outbid all night on every item. Turns out our friends were one of the culprits. 

iPad Fix

Over Thanksgiving we had a mishap and smashed the screen on JP's iPad. Good thing I subscribe to the Jeff Spicoli school of life: "I can fix it!"

The replacement screen cost $16 online and the repair only took 70 minutes from start to finish. I think if we were to do it again, we could do it in about 30 minutes. 

Crafty

JP volunteered to manage a big fundraiser for the LSW speech team. This Tuesday at The Lodge at Wilderness Ridge, we're having a Wreath Auction shindig. Food, drinks, and Christmas wreaths!

JP had her faithful helper at her side throughout all the crafting activities. "Helping Mom sew is almost as much fun as helping her knit," says V the cat.

Our next door neighbor came over helped make birdseed wreaths.

I had to sew bells onto the pinecone gnomes' hats.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in IL this year with Nana & Walter and JP's cousins. We were blessed with good weather, good food, and fun family.

Walter the Cat

We enjoyed hanging out with family and Walter the Cat over Thanksgiving. He is nothing but a big fuzzball that likes to cause trouble.

Zombie Ammo

Scheeles is now carrying "Certified Zombie Ammuntion" from Hornady. Gotta be ready for the zombie apocalypse, y'know. I didn't see it in the store, but Hornady is also making it for pistols and rifles.

Here's a demo of it in action: 

XMas Lights

We were blessed with a beautiful day the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we put up the Christmas lights. This year we switched to some new colored bulbs instead of the white ones we've had for the previous 8 years. The LED lights are pretty, but they're only 1/10th as bright as our old ones despite having a light every four inches.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we had a record high of 75° which would have been perfect for light installation. A lot of my friends at work wanted to put up their lights then, but like us, they were busy with family and could not. Too bad for them, as the next day the high was only in the 20's with blowing wind.

Speech Time Again

CP went to his first tournament of the season this weekend. At 4:30 AM, we received notice that the debate event had been cancelled due to weather. We waited for word about the speech event, but it never came, so we went to school and loaded CP on the bus to Omaha at 6:30. During the day, we received 3-4" of fluffy snow. Just enough to cover everything. 

DONE!

Save the date for UNL's graduate commencement: Friday December 19, 2014. I finished my last class a couple weeks ago (!!!) and am now trying to get back into my life.

Go Big Red!

JP & I went to the Purdue game this weekend. It was a nice day (45°) but there was a bit of a 20 mph breeze that kept it feeling cool. The Army Golden Knights parachute team flew in. They dropped from a few thousand feet two miles south of the stadium and did a freefall to a few hundred feet. The lowest guy was barely visible above the rim of the stadium - we thought for sure that there was no way he'd be able to make it to the stadium, much less clear the bleachers. The winds aloft must have been blowing pretty good, because he made it with no problem.

We were invited by the dean of engineering at UNL. We had a great lunch at the Chancellor's pre-game party in the Lied Center. It's not your normal beer-soaked tailgate party. We thought we had pretty good seats in the 10th row at the 40-yard line, but our neighbor's daughter texted us and said she was on the 50, just 6 rows behind us. 

Despite fumbles and interceptions, the Huskers were able to pull off a win.

Fall Decor

While CP and I were in Utah, JP decorated the front porch for Halloween.

CP's 1st Road Trip

We left G&G's early in the morning and headed north to SLC. We spent the night at R&J's new house up on the mountain. 

The next day we headed east and crossed Wyoming and Nebraska. The speed limit is 80, and the constant up and down was a challenge for CP to maintain a constant speed. We went slow up the hills and fast down the back sides. 

We skirted a snowstorm that was pounding the Medicine Bow mountains west of Laramie. It was a sticky wet snow that stuck to every pine needle and branch. We were able to make it home by 9:30 PM. Not bad for an 890 mile first road trip.

Desert Rocks

We had a picnic lunch out in the desert by a butte that has some cool petroglyphs.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Sunshine, warmth from the sun, coolness in the shade, and every now and then, a vintage jet cruising overhead.