The Penguin

 

A while back (probably around Thanksgiving), Daniel's younger sister, Emily, and her husband, Josh, mentioned that they were thinking about swinging by our house on the way home from visiting Josh's family in Virginia. We are always up for company, so we of course said they should come.

Emily also mentioned that she had seen The Penguin featured on the Food Network and that she was interested in eating there. Daniel and I had never actually eaten there either, but had had many people recommend it to us so we figured it would be a good place to eat.

When they got here, we spent some time showing the house renovations and explaining the progress to them. Then we headed to The Penguin. We didn't have to wait too long (which is good since the line got kind of crazy after we were seated).

We started off with their famous fried pickles and were not disappointed. The food was great. Atmosphere was perfect. And we had a nice visit discussing our future hopes and dreams. Interestingly we have some similar thoughts on building future houses in the mountains but that is another story.
 

As always we love company and it is always a good excuse to clean our house. We are still plugging away at our projects and dust seems to reign supreme because of this. Realistically I am not sure when we will be finished with the house because Daniel has to take the Professional Engineering Test in April and is supposed to devote 20 hours per week to studying between now and then...

Weekend Recap

So, here we are, almost the middle of the week and I am just getting around to posting about my weekend. Julie and Luke came to visit for the weekend. I always forget how much I miss having my friends around. Granted, we have new friends, but it is somehow not the same as seeing your old friends.

For fun, we stayed up until after 1 a.m. (both Fri and Sat) - this is extremely late for me and Daniel, by Sunday night we were both exhausted.

Saturday morning, we all slept in (except for Luke who got up to do his marathon training). After we were all up we got ready and headed uptown to the Blues, Brews & BBQ festival where we were able to get some pretty decent BBQ. After BBQ, the guys went to the gun show while Julie and I hung out. Saturday night the Irvine's went to a seminar downtown, while Daniel and I were able to get caught up on some things.

Sunday we slept in, went for breakfast at the Not So Original Pancake House followed by church. Then finally we came home, hung out and then grilled out before Julie and Luke headed home to Richmond. After they left I ended up crashing on the couch for a 2-hour nap and I still managed to sleep all night.

Overall it was a nice, catching-up weekend. Wish we could have these types of weekends more often.

Weekend

Daniel's dad is here for the weekend. I had really planned on getting some cleaning done, but a severe Friday migraine kept me from taking care of cleaning. At least the bathroom was clean. Wesley doesn't seem to mind.

The weekend has been enjoyable so far. Daniel and his dad fixed our broken fence and have done some other projects in the yard. They bought some grass seed that is supposed to grow well in the shade. They are sowing it right now in the front yard because we have so many trees and the grass tends to be sparse or clover patches at the very least.

 

We went to see Vantage Point this afternoon at the dollar theater. It was a pretty good movie. I liked seeing how all of the pieces of the story fit together. And then we grabbed Chipotle for dinner (yumm... one of my favorites).

Next weekend I am headed to Searcy for Mark's graduation and then the following weekend is the final casting call of the year in Providence, Rhode Island. I am really excited because Daniel is going to get to go this time.

Affectionate Cat

Last night Daniel and I took Daniel's mom & grandmother to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I think we have taken almost all of our visiting friends and family to try the fabulous cheesecake there. If you have visited us and we have not gone there, I apologize. You will just have to come and visit again and we will take you.

Anyways we had a good meal and then split a slice of Adams Peanut Butter Fudge Ripple Cheesecake - one of our favorites. You cannot go wrong with Peanut Butter, Fudge and Cheesecake!

After dinner we wandered through SouthPark Mall and found our way to our favorite book store: Joseph Beth's where we spent some time browsing.

When we came home, one of the neighborhood cats was in our yard. This is not that odd as there are about 5 cats that seem to believe that our front porch is their personal domain. They are quite territorial and will scare off other cats at times.

Anyways, this particular cat has not been around as often and she actually had a collar and name tag. She came up and rubbed on our legs and I made the mistake of petting her. Then we all went inside. This poor cat tried to follow us in, which we promptly shooed her out. Then as we sat in our living room, talking, we could hear this pitiful meowing that lasted for well over an hour. At one point, Daniel went outside to see what her collar said so that he could call someone about her. However when we opened the door he thought she was acting strange so he shut the door again.

Daniel then brought up his concern that there have been 7 cases of rabies reported in Charlotte since July and he was concerned that this cat was acting too weird - she wanted to be petted, she wanted to come in, and she wouldn't quit whining outside of our door. I don't know, maybe she was just starved for attention.

I Googled rabies symptoms for cats and one form was that they act really aggressive and mean and another form they act overly affectionate and needy... so I have no idea. Maybe there is a rabid cat wondering our neighborhood. I do know that we got home around 8:30 and the poor cat was still meowing on our porch after 11 p.m. when I went to bed!

Dusting

Dusting is my least favorite chore to do. I normally just pretend that dust doesn't exist, but sometimes you can't ignore the dust.

If you know anything about installing drywall, you know that dust is part of the project. Dad did a lot of drywall work for us while he was here and now I have a lot of dust to clean up. Drywall dust gets everywhere - the floors have a fine coating of white that gets tracked EVERYWHERE, the furniture does as well. Clothes and sheets must be washed. But I suppose that is the price I have to pay for progress on the house. I am extremely thankful that Dad was able to help us, that makes less work for Daniel and I in the long run.

We are hoping to have the master bathroom completely finished in 5 weeks in time for a visit from Daniel's mom & grandmother...

Company

I love when people come to visit us. 1) I love to have company and 2) We always manage to make noticable progress on the house b/c we have a goal.

The house is starting to feel more like home and I have even ventured into the basement to try to find some "decorative" things that I had forgotten we owned. It is amazing how little things really make the difference and make a house feel like a home.

Mom & Dad will be here tomorrow and I am very excited. Daniel is taking TH/FR off so that he and my Dad can get some work done. They are going to tackle the master bathroom. The plan is for them to build the shower pan so that it can be tiled later. They will also have to move some of the plumbing since we are enlarging the shower. Then they can install cement board in the shower and there is a lot of drywall work to do - all of the closets and also the wall b/t the MBR and MBA. If they have time there are plenty of little things to work on. I am so excited b/c the end is seemingly in sight for the house!!!