This weekend, our friends Jason and Niki came out from Pittsburgh to visit and help with some renovations on the house.




















Whenever we have company, we always take them to Chocolate World. How can you resist? it's got singing and dancing cows...and it's free!















See? Singing cows!















Niki shows off her Kisses after we got off the ride.















Here's a kiss for you!















Jason and i were WAYYY too impressed with the Reeses Pieces wall. We're like two 14 year olds when we get together.















SO...here's the REAL project for the weekend. Jason and I were planning to clear out this area and put a workbench in here. I guess the "large board sitting on a garbage can" just wasn't cutting it anymore. We hung new lights and got to work.















jason measures before we break out the saw.















Here I am cutting boards for the framing.















Wow..that came out good! It's solid too...we overbuilt it a little! haha.















Jason is proud of his work too.















To celebrate, he grabbed the Epyptian headdress off Ellie's mirror.















Once we got the headdress off Jason, we headed over to Tokyo Diner to REALLY celebrate. Our chef lights the grill on fire...ooooh...ahhhhhh.















jason and i indulged in sushi.... mmmmmm















Later that night, we grabbed the PS2 and broke out ATV OFF ROAD FURY 3! We played for a while, until the girls complained and we had to find a game that everyone could enjoy. So we played golf.















Niki shows off her impressive UNO hand.

Sunday it was the Daytona 500, so we all got together to watch some racin', play some darts and drink some drinks. We gamble on nascar every year, and there's a small trophy that's given to the winner. None of us won last year, but Tom hasn't picked up his trophy yet. so we decided to break it in and drink from it.















MMM....tasty.















Rally monkey got in on the action. Unfortunately, he got drunk and forgot to help me with my gambling, since my drivers all sucked.














It's bottoms-up for james
















and then Sketch partakes in the fun. I'm sure Tom will appreciate that we used his trophy!

Let it snow....let it snow...let it snow. Wow. we got hit pretty hard with snow and ice the last couple of days! My boss was nice enough to give me snow days, since i have a 35 mile commute, and the roads were bad. I didn't actually have a DAY OFF though... lots of shoveling to do!















Clearing the driveway.
















Wow...we got a lot of snow. the weather channel wasn't kidding!















Ellie pitches in to help with the shoveling.















Still working on the driveway....this snow got awfully heavy with all the sleet on top of it!















Its a winter wonderland in the back yard. Don't see any squirrels and bunnies out here today.















Finally got the driveway done! whew. now i've gotta do the sidewalk















The mailman will be happy that i shoveled the steps.
















There's just a little ice on the trees. ...and YES my christmas lights are still up. i just don't turn them on anymore.















The ice looks so pretty on the trees. can't wait til these come crashing down and leave me without power.
















Even the Jeep got covered in ice. it's easy to get it off though. i just punch the canvas top, and the ice cracks right off. it's very good at relieving stress.

It's tuesday night, and that means it's off to Red Crown for Rock-n-Bowl. There's no better way to relax in the middle of the week than with some pins and beers.
















Lauren (web goddess) and i getting ready to bowl.
















Rob Wilber prepares to rain down furious anger upon the unsuspecting bowling pins.
















Rob demonstrates his gangsta-bowler style. mad cool...yo





















Fear my 12 pound ball!
















If i stare at the beer long enough, will someone take the hint and refill it??















Carrie finally hits the pins. believe me, we're ALL this surprised.















Oh, i wish i had a fancy professional purple ball like Rob...
















Because he can convert a 4-10 split with his fancy ball. Here he is...savoring the glory after his accomplishment.

Lauren the web-goddess here at CC Harrisburg/Lancaster is getting all of us on the WeeMe bandwagon. So here, i've given in and created mine.

Another weekend...another project for the basement. Now it's time to make the room livable. That means i've gotta get the cable hooked up for the high-speed internet (and so i can watch the game later tonight!)
















Lovely smile. man i'm a dork.
















More cable. I went to install it, then realized i didn't have the right chuck for my drill, so i had to go BACK to Home Depot and pick up a $1.75 part. Then i was able to drill the holes and install the cable connections.

Yes...that IS a smurf looking over my shoulder. I've already explained that i'm a dork, and i'm also a child of the 1980's.
















Ok, so the cable is hooked up (that's extra in the middle of the room.). the desk is in place. the cat is in place. We're moving along here.

I have 7 boxes of crap to put up on the walls and display. Stuff like plaques, trophies, nick-nacks, statues, autographed sneakers (from Nelly). Lots of cool stuff. I'm gonna have to get rid of some of it, we're running out of room!

Also trying to figure out where to put my lava lamp collection. I've got 4 now, and haven't got a clue where to put them all. I took one to my office in Lancaster, but the rest are gonna end up in the rec room.
















Yet MORE of the CD collection. This time, we had to empty out the CD rack so we could actually pick it up and move it. Look closely, there's actually a copy of "Hampsterdance, The Album" buried in there. Yes, my shame is great.
















Now we're getting somewhere! Here's the wet-bar taking shape. Yes, there's a neon light and a LOUNGE sign. Still got a lot of little things to add (lights, artwork, etc). But it's gonna be nice to have a little corner in the rec room devoted to martinis! haha. Maybe we'll move Martini-Fridays to my house. that would probably save us money.















Finally got some artwork on the walls too. My EMINEM, JOAN OSBOURNE, and 50 CENT platinum records are on the wall now. Later, I got a few more of them hung up.

I feel bad though. we spent four days painting the walls...and now i'm punching holes in it!

Eventually, i got distracted by the Super Bowl and gave up on working. I guess i should have hooked up the cable LAST instead of doing it FIRST. whoops.

More renovations for the basement/rec room. I decided that the single exposed lightbulb wasn't quite classy enough for the bathroom.
















There's the before ...
















Kinda hard to see, but there's a spectacular fixture with three lights now. Now i've gotta finish up the rest of the trim in this room. It's coming along...slowly.