Littlest

So Brian and Brooke couldn't make it back to Green Bay for Christmas, so Luann decided to have Little Christmas this weekend up at the Manttage.

We headed up on Friday lunchtime, and after Melanie and Dave arrived later that afternoon, the Christmas festivities got into full swing.

The main source of entertainment for the weekend were the dogs. Pugs x 3 = CRAZY! Brian and Brooke have two pugs, Rupert (3) and Wallaby (6 months?) and of course we have our demon.

We were worried that Hammond would be the geeky over-zealous very uncool cousin of the other two. Luckily though, after the initial introductions, he and Wallaby got on really really well. Rupert, being older and wiser, slept most of the time, with odd barking sessions to referee the others. Hammond and Wallaby, however, played solidly for 8 hours everyday! I imagine Hammond will be sleeping it off for the next week!


Friday consisted of yummy munchies for dinner (Dave and I sucked as our idea didn't work out so we brought frozen pizza, blah) but Brian (professional chef) would have shamed us anyway with his yummy tabouleh and satay chicken skewers.

After dinner we played the first of our 'scheduled' games. Luann was pretty excited about this weekend and so had picked three games complete with prizes. The first was a Nerf target game, which despite initial 'I'm too cool's was a lot of fun. Then we did a couple of rounds of the Fun Game, complete with Cosmos before finishing up the evening with ... more Cosmos!


Saturday we went out for lunch where I promptly ruined the big surprise of the weekend by insisting that Luann buy me a leg of lamb to make me feel at home. Which she had!!! So that night, after a couple more games, we settled down to a massive leg of lamb, roast potatoes, Guinness gravy, asparagus, carrots. And chicken for every one else! Now while it didn't quite meet my mam's 110% for lamb, it was pretty damn close. That Brian guy really knows how to cook. Mmmm yummy. The evening was spent digesting, watching the dogs play, and watching Harry Potter.

Sunday after pancakes, and a treasure hunt for Melanie's car keys (unscheduled!) we headed home to a yummy left-over lamb curry. YAYAY! Best Christmas present in the states ever!

More cute(ish) Pug pics? Woof!

Got Milk?

So one of the benefits of being unemployed is the unlimited time you have to spend doing stupid stuff...

Like training your dog.

So he got the sit and down super easy. It only took 1 morning to get him to shake and a couple more treats to turn that into 'high 5'. Wave was a little more challenging. Roll over was a cinch, but only in one direction. And his big finale? 'Spread 'em' where he goes to a wall and stands up against it with his face away until we say 'Bang bang' where he falls down and plays dead!

So the regular puppy class at the local pet store was a breeze for him. But he loved all the attention and playing with the other dogs. And Dave waived his 'no clothes' rule for the graduation...

Candy

So we're home sweet home after a fun week in Chicago. We were there from Monday to Friday and despite Dave being sick on Tuesday and me being sick on Thursday we had a great time.

While we didn't do a lot of sightseeing we did a lot of drinking(as you may have noticed), eating and shopping!

We got a wall mounted pot rack from the Container Store for when we FINALLY get something done with our kitchen.


We got lots of plates and bowls from CB2 (Crate and Barrel 2) ...








And a caterpillar coat rack (a late Christmas present from my mam)!


So overall a fun week and just what I needed, even if it was just as cold and snowy as up here. Now all I need to do is convince my family that Chicago is even better than New York!

Unspeakable

surprisingly enough we're drinking beer. at the nicest bar in the world, where everyone knows everyone's name. except ours. Still fun though

Dogfishes

Decided on a last minute trip to chicago because it was that or kill each other. Got a really cheap but nice hotel downtown thanks to Hotwire. We parked at O'Hare to save even more money and promptly spent it on great Japanese food and even better beer. Yum yum. Ok so I love my iPod touch but it's time to get back to my beer.

Resolute

Ok so I know it's been forever since I've posted but new year's resolution blah blah ;)

For new years, we headed up to Pete and Luann's new house about an hour north in Door County. It's built up on a hill, way back in the woods. The view is amazing.

However, we do have a little disagreement on the type of house it is. They say a cottage, Dave says a mansion, we say a manttage! Whatever the name ... Wow!


The Manttage


The Sitting Room


The Booth Area


The Kitchen


The Master Bedroom


The Pug/Bonus Room


The View


You can check out more pics over there

They are understandable very excited about it, hence the strange decision about letting us use it for new years!! But Sean, Dave, Hammond and I headed up at about 2 on Wednesday, arrived, unpacked everything, gave Sean the big tour and started business. Dave made sausage gravy for breakfast the next day and we made 2 and a half MASSIVE pots of chili.

Mel and Bob and Jay arrived soon after for the shortest Clue(do) game ever, dice, the fun game and Lips and Jess arrived just in time to ring in the new year.



The Chili


The next morning there were many sausage products, many waffles and many Advil! Then the others trickled home while Dave and I nursed our hangovers there for one more night.

It twas a great new year, and was one that I'd been pushing for. At one point we'd talked about going home to Ireland for new year but I felt that I wanted to see the year in where I was going to spend it. It was a bit sad and I needed a couple of hugs but the company and the wine helped tons.



The New Year


To all of ye, Happy New Year, and I hope it's the best ever.