Chicago Marathon

WOW!

Our Bestest Buddy Patty ran the Chicago Marathon this year.
It was her 50th birthday present to herself!
Damn doesn't she look good!
What an terrific birthday gift to yourself!
Her first Marathon and out of 708 women in her age group(50-54) she came in at 199!
HOT DAMN! IS SHE AWESOME OR WHAT!

We are so proud of her we just had to share

Most of you have met her at one point or another in our lives.

Posted by Tom & Martha at 5:17 PM 0 comments

Delayed NY State Fair Pics

OK, these were just too cute not to share.You'll definitely want to click on this picture grid to blow it up-she just makes you grin! Eva got her first purse from Auntie Martha at the fair & decided it was a great place for her pacifier & her O's (Cheerios). Aunt Donna & Mommy got new purses too-Aunt Martha tried , but nothing said take me home.
Dipping french fries in hummus is way better than ketchup! She even tried Aunt Donna's Felafel's, Aunt Martha's Gyro & decided Greek food is good.
Aunt Donna, Aunt Martha with Eva; Mommy made it into the next picture.
Eva, tired of riding in the stroller decided to help push.(And a big help she was!)
Her first ride on the dairy cow in the Dairy building.
First Cowgirl hat, she wasn't too keen on it.
Eva crashed after a hard day at the fair.
The rest of us were ready & raring to go (NOT)! After some good Greek food & a beer or two, cheesecake on a stick, assorted other nibbles & of course the 3 foot long fried dough...walking a few miles for quite a few hours, body slamming with a few thousand people, we were trying to figure out how to climb in with Eva.
Weather was beautiful though & the obvious lack of husbands certainly made shopping easier,the only one who complained was Eva if we didn't move fast enough, (Daddy did you give her tips before we left?) apparently crafts are boring.

Now despite you're political preference, The Clinton's happened to be at the Fair that day & Eva & Mommy got to shake his hand (we didn't see H-)not too many baby books have pics of the baby shaking a former President's hand.
Thanks Mandy for the photos!

Posted by Tom & Martha at 9:12 PM 0 comments

Septic System

dbl L click to enlarge pics

It's so hard to believe these tanks were put into the ground over a year ago (Sept 05) & we're still not done! Three truckloads of soil dumped & spread this week, then over the soil, two load of stone which must be washed & all the stone must be a certain size range,

3/4" to 1 1/4". Then that's spread & the pipes are laid for the leach field. In the picture grid, the year dates were cut off, the dump truck load of dirt begins the 2006 pictures.
The Engineer came to inspect on Saturday & called back on Monday, the pipe lay out needs some alteration. All the pipes were removed & the stone will need to be spread out a little more.
Apparently our bodily functions cannot quite make this long a run before they seep into the leach field. We need to shorten the travel distance.

Posted by Tom & Martha at 8:59 PM

Outdoor Progress!!!!

The lower stoned patio was finished on the 2nd of Oct., Mandy fitted the pieces in the last corner! Tom & Mandy started the upper patio on the 3rd.
That went quite slow after the 3rd though,Tom got bit in the wrist by the neighbor's dog, (not the love us, bought our house,feed us neighbors-the ones on the other side). If he hadn't thrown up his arm when the dog lunged at him, it probably would have gotten his neck or face. 4 Puncture wounds, took him to urgent care-took 2 hours to stop the bleeding, apparently the dog nicked a vein. In a sling to control the bleeding for 2 days, so he's not getting much done.
Needless to say, Tom's sore, pissed & looking at his options.
The dog is a pit bull/Rottweiler mix. Just a friendly neighborhood dog.
Obviously, our nieces & nephews are no longer allowed on that side of the house, in addition, we also have a concern for the workers.

In the mean time Coop & Larry actually started siding & it looks great! Got bored with siding, so, they installed the porch posts. The weather has been great & it looks good for the next week. So we should get a lot of outdoor work accomplished this week.

Posted by Tom & Martha at 8:23 PM

One Year Anniversary Celebration-Then & Now

October 2005-THEN VS. October 2006-NOW

NOW

Can you believe we have been in this house a year???
And we're still married....
In fact we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this year
AND
We Still Love Each Other!!!

We celebrated our first year in our new house & the neighbors first year in their new house on the 30th of Sept., together at their house.
We're thinking that they're happy they moved here & of course that they have us for neighbors, cause they pulled out all the stops for dinner!
Cocktails began @6 followed by a dinner of Cesar salad, Bob's homemade dressing put any others we've had to shame (I used to think mine was pretty good, can't hold a candle to his), then there was filet mignon, chateau brion, Judy's awesome shrimp scampi with shrimp the size of small lobsters, fresh crisp green beans, baked potatoes and the most delicious homemade garlic bread to eat with our salad & soak up the scampi juices that you can imagine. Of course, there was plenty of great wine to compliment the meal.
We toasted Tom's Birthday, which was the next day-the 1st of Oct. The neighbors didn't know it was his birthday & said if they had known ahead they would have done something.
Holy Smokes! Bob & Judy were already treating us like Royalty!
Tom & I looked at each other & wondered what more could they possibly do???
What a wonderful way to end our first year, with 2 people that you sold a house to, who are now your neighbors and also very special friends.
Life on the river is grand!

Posted by Tom & Martha at 7:28 PM