The Windy City

This weekend Justin and I took a little break from all the house projects and disorder and craziness that surrounds them to go celebrate his friend Tracy's 30th birthday in Chicago. We flew out Saturday morning, getting to Chicago in time to enjoy a little sight-seeing before the birthday bash..

We ate Chicago-style deep dish pizza...

We walked and shopped along the Magnificent Mile:

We went to a local favorite, La Scarola, and learned what exactly "escarole" is and how to eat it...along with ravioli, halibut, and spemoni ice cream!

And after dinner, we went to our friend Tracy's 30th birthday roast...two comedians were hired by Tracy's parents to roast their daughter and son in front of 40 of their closest friends...it was hilarious and crude and such a fun time!

Little did we know that the next day, Sunday, we would spend 7 hours in airports - yes, O'Hare AND Midway, trying to get back to Memphis. IN the middle of the morning, a flight was completely canceled, leaving 150+ travelers scrambling for the empty seat in any and all other flights. Needless to say, we were out of luck...so at 5:20pm, Justin and I hopped into a rental car (THANK YOU DAVE ROBERTS) and drive the 8.5 hours home to Memphis.

WHAT A WEEKEND!

Goodbye Mimosa!

Goodluck and happy-home-owning to the new owner! I am sad to sell this house, but we are soooo happy not to have the responsibility anymore!

Weekend Warriors

Lots of fun and exciting things are happening around the Lohman housebold on Normandy...we are working hard on making our house a home...especially for me as I am the newbie in the house and on the block!! Justin has been hard at work in the yard making sure that we have the trimmest, fullest plot of grass on the street. He is making good use of his birthday presents (an edger and a hedge trimmer) and the end result is stupendous! Here he is, hard at work...

We have a very unique fence in the backyard, which, unfortunately, is showing its age. From our deck, we can see the neighbor's nice even fencing, and we have always wanted to have an upgrade of our own...so one steamy July 4th, Justin and I demo-ed the old fence in preparation for a new one...Here are the before and afters:

Old fence, lots of character, lots of deterioration:

Demolition day...

New fence...evenly spaced, built for privacy, and perfectly in line:

And below is the dog-run, an area surrounded in chain-link fence, which we cleared of nasty vines and weeds.

And the view from the back of the yard, combining the deck and patio and new fencing.

We are so happy with the end result...we have hopes to continue the fencing in the back, but will probably save that sweaty work for another summer... For now, we can't wait for the weather to cool off so we can have people over on the deck and enjoy the great outdoor space! For now, we have moved inside to start other, more ambitious projects (i.e....stay tuned...more to come!)!!!