Go Boise State!

CJ and I attended the first Boise State game of the season on Thursday. We had decided spontaneously to buy tickets about two weeks ago when our coworkers were buying theirs.

CJ is a pretty big football fan, but I'm a nap-during football fan. The entire time we both attended Boise State, neither of us ever went to a single game, despite the fact that I worked in the ticket office and could have gotten us great cheap tickets.

But this year is a little different. Last season, Boise State had an unbelievable game at the Fiesta Bowl. That event marked one of the very first times in football history that I ever made it past the first quarter without falling asleep. And boy was I glad that I didn't! That game was so intense and had incredible action. Even a very unappreciative fan such as myself could not believe what I saw that night. CJ, Craig Sr. and I were sitting in the living room jumping up and down last season when they won with some amazing trick plays. So that incredible game made a fan out of me. And so we paid $84.00 and got in on the first night of the season.

The crowd was unbelievable. There were over 30,000 people there and there wasn't a spare seat anywhere. We had a great pair of binoculars that we borrowed and spent some time before the game looking at the foothills behind the stadium. It was SUPER hot outside and unusually humid. Sweat was dripping down my face, but I had a giant grin. How exciting to be able to see and experience this great team in person. I was so excited to feel the excitement post Fiesta bowl. The crowd didn't disappoint. The cheering was so loud and it was incredible to hear the gigantic roar of the fans.

The first two quarters were very intense. It seemed like there was a Boise State touchdown every few seconds. It was great and the crowd was going wild. I loved it! CJ explained a lot of the technical details that I have been missing all of this time and I watched intently with my borrowed binoculars.

Toward the end of the game I started getting a little restless. The action had slowed down quite a bit and lots of the fans were getting up and leaving. The game was a blowout, so I guess they figured they didn't need to stay and watch it all. CJ and I walked down from our high up seats and got a seat right on the 50 yard line for the last quarter. I wasn't quite as entertained as before, but it was fun to hear the die hard fans around us yelling at the ref's. One older man was really funny. He kept yelling and calling the referee names.

And that was it. Before I knew it the game was over and we were heading back to the car. I was exhausted from all of the screaming and sweating and just ready to go home and get some sleep. Now we have to see what we can do about getting some tickets to another game. As I understand it, the season is sold out...but maybe we can find some on Craigslist. I definitely want to experience that again this year if I can. It was great!

Happy Tuesday

This is most definitely the cutest dog ever! Who cares that he chases his tail nonstop? He's in rare form tonight which means he is being super calm. And he's being so adorable, that I had to take advantage and get this closeup. When he's acting sweet like this, his brown eyes look huge and very cute. It reminds us of "Puss & Boots" from Shrek. See the resemblence?

Couldn't we consider keeping him ?

This is most definitely going to be the subject of my nightmares tonight! Today when we came home from lunch, I looked up in the corner of our entryway to find....yes you've got it, A BAT! Now, I knew they existed out by our house because a bunch of them swooshed by me one evening while I was looking at the stars on our master bedroom balcony, but this is WAY too close for comfort. Of course I had to look closely at its creepy little beedy eyes and now I get the heebe jeebies every time I walk up to the front door. I'm sure this little guy is still sitting there, but I'm way too afraid to look up. And wouldn't you know it, the very first thing out of my hubby's mouth was "Couldn't we consider keeping him?" Well, you can just about guess what the answer to that was.

Weekend Plans - TO BE LAZY

After a crazy week or two of working hard, we have big plans this weekend...to sit around and be lazy ALL weekend long! We deserve it too. Last week we did 10-12 hour work days every day plus did lots of yard work and house chores. We're exhausted, even the dog is exhausted and currently sleeping as I write this. So this weekend, we're on a mission to do plenty of relaxing. My goal is to be bored at least once this weekend :)

Poker Night

Here's a picture of a bunch of the guys that Craig and I work with playing Texas Hold'em on Thursday night. We played in our boss Mike's shop and had a great time. The guy in the white shirt at the end of the table is the infamous "Scott". (Click here to see previous posts) We each brought $20 bucks, and the top three winners split the cash at the end of the tournament. I was one of the first three to go, but Craig made it to the top four. That blue fly swatter ended up being quite handy as there were quite a few flies in Mike's shop that night. I didn't take a picture, and should have because there were quite a few dead flies underneath the table where we played. It was a whole lot of fun, and definitely satisfied the Sweigart's gambling urge...at least for this week :)

Goodbye Metro Direct!

Metro Direct Real Estate...how did we end up with another STINKY agent? We wanted to save money on commission, that's how! This real estate agent let our listing expire and then hasn't returned our multiple phone calls for over two weeks! So for two weeks our house has been off of the market. No one answers if you call the agent's office. We're wondering if this is the same sort of thing that might have happened to a potential buyer trying to make an offer. Either way, we have NOT yet sold our house and we now strongly dislike both Assist 2 Sell and Metro Direct. Thank goodness we only signed three months with Metro Direct because they're fired.

We've hired Coldwell Banker to re-list for us and now we can wait and see what happens with that. She put a sign up in our yard the very same day we agreed to list with her, so we have high hopes. She also has agreed to stage our home so that it has a warmer feel to it. We're excited and hopeful, and at this time very easily impressed. Now if we can get ahold of Metro Direct to come get their sign!

Check A Biz is ALMOST done

Our part time project with Checkabiz is almost finished, so we decided to celebrate by making a midnight run to "Merritt's". Those of you who aren't local, don't know that Merritt's is a filthy little diner, open 24 hours, with terrible service, dumpy interior, and the BEST scones in Boise which you will crave on a regular basis once you've tried them.

CJ and I rarely if ever stay up past our bedtimes (11pm), but on this evening, we were up late working and decided to treat ourselves. Bachelor hopped in the back of the car and we drove for a late night scone run. It was great, but there was a bunch of rowdy teenagers in there, so we hurried and ate our food and left.

It was a great time though, and it was fun...even if we did stay up way too late on a "school night"...

Our Favorite Tree

So, the blog postings have been a little sparse lately due to some major business at work and at home. This and last week we're putting in 45-50 hours of work, plus working part time still on the Checkabiz project, plus just trying to keep up with everyday life. Its been crazy and thus I've neglected my blog. But I have been taking some pictures this week, so I'll have to make it up with a few quick blog posts. Earlier this week, we went to the old house to mow its lawn, which I find torturous after a long day of work. When we got there, we noticed that our tree had lost a huge chunk of its limbs. We have this really pretty Purple Robe Locust tree out front, that has super soft wood. Every year, we lose about half of it anytime a sizable wind comes along. But it is a super fast growing tree, so we always gain it back and then some in the spring. This tree is really symbolic to us because no matter what it goes through, it always sticks it out and becomes even bigger the following year. We call it our 'love' tree because we think it symbolizes our relationship and that we'll always be able to weather the ups & downs and come out better for it in the end. Well, this 'love' tree is also a major pain in the rear! We spent about 30 extra minutes trying to trim one half broken branch and gather up all of the loose branches. Here are some pictures of the mess...

Here's CJ sawing off the loose branch

This is all of the broken branches.

Here are two little offshoots from the big tree that we're hoping to transplant at our new house. Also, notice Bachelor is chasing his tail. :)

What we're up to

Here are the not-so-exciting details about what we're up to...

• Today CJ had to get some Checkabiz work done, so he went to work on that. I'm crossing my fingers that this will be one of the final weekends for this project. This part time programming work is really wearing thin on the both of us.
  
• I spent the entire day cleaning the house and it was AWESOME. I didn't really realize it before today, but I like cleaning. What I don't like is procrastinating that cleaning. But today was great. I got a day to myself and I was able to get all of those little things around the house that I was procrastinating taken care of. I definitely have a feeling of accomplishment, which is nice.
  
• When CJ came home, we assembled a patio bar for out back. We found this a few weeks ago on sale and we're just now getting it put together. It was frustrating, like assembling any piece of furniture always is, but now it is put together and my patio set is complete. It looks great and will provide some extra seating for some nice fall BBQ's.
  
• We're worried about Bachelor because he is having trouble eating. We noticed that he cried when we gave him a bone, and then cried again when we tried to open his mouth to see what was up. And it was a "I'm in so much pain" cry...so we're definitely concerned. We're going to serve him some soft food for the next couple days and monitor it, but its looking like Bachie gets a trip to the vet next week, which he hates.
  
• We scheduled our plane tickets for Seattle during Thanksgiving. We're really excited to see the family and be able to spend the holiday with them. I think this is the very first Thanksgiving we've spent with the Seattle Sweigarts ever as a married couple. I can't believe I'm already making holiday plans....jeez this year is flying by!
  
• CJ & I have been mountain biking a bit. Our house is about a mile away from some really great mountain biking trails up in the foothills. We hop on our bikes in the evening, head up a trail, and then we ride to Taco Bell to share a super sized diet-coke. It is a lot of fun and I am noticing that I am enjoying the summer a bit more when I am able to enjoy the summer late evenings on our bikes. The ride is really quite beautiful and the summer air smells great. Its very reminiscent of my childhood when I'd be out on my bike until dusk.
  
• I'm thinking about a new hobby. I've been scrapbooking/stamping for quite a while now and the last few times I've found it really hard to get the motivation up to get anything accomplished. I've thought a lot about it and I think that I'm going to start focusing my spare time on digital photography. I found this really great software where you can import your pictures & text and create a book. I'm thinking that I'll try to create some digital scrapbooks for a while and see how I like that. Also, I'd really love to become a better photographer, which means being able to do something more than just point & click.
  
• Next week is a mad rush for my website that I am working on at work. I've got just one week to pull everything off, and its going to be super challenging. I'm sure there will be some late nights mixed in there, but I'm really excited about the project that I am working on. I'll share the final product when the final launch takes place at the end of this month.
  
• And that is about it. There's nothing wild & crazy going on at the Sweigarts this week. We're just working hard (about 50 hours last week) and hanging out. We're getting SUPER excited for fall...we can hardly wait. There are so many great trees at our new house, we're excited to see them change colors. And CJ is really pumped about football. Me, I'm just going to be glad to get into some soft comfy sweaters again and have some nice cool fall weather. Happy Weekend Everyone!
  

Busy

Wow, we're almost halfway through the week already! We've been crazy busy this week at work. Monday we worked about 10 hours (which is unusual), today we worked about 9. Craig and I both have some high intesity projects we're working on, so we've been getting in early and staying kindof late. When we get home, of course we're on the computer doing various other things so it feels like I've been on a computer nonstop for days now.

Last night CJ made dinner for us...which was really sweet. He knew that I was exhausted. I'm not sure what it is, but when someone else cooks for me it tastes so much better than when I cook the same exact thing myself. He cooked grilled cheese & chili, and it was amazing :)

We just bought a king-sized bed from Craig's list for the spare bedroom this weekend. We've been sleeping there ever since because this bed is HUGE. The master bed is a queen and this bed is so much bigger.

Our house listing just expired, so we're working on figuring out if we should get a new agent, or go with the existing agent. Either way, we're thinking of lowering the price again which is a bit stressful. Now that we're nearly 3 1/2 months into trying to sell the house, we're starting to get a little worried. We're not hurting financially, but we'd really like to not have an extra house sitting empty for too much longer. And I'm REALLY not interested in renting it out, so we'd better find it a new owner soon. At least if it goes into the fall, we won't have to visit every week to mow its lawn anymore.

And that is our week thus far. Not too exciting, but we're both feeling really productive and happy.

FOUND: One mutlicolored wig

Last night CJ & I decided to head on over to Pengilly's bar to listen to a couple of coworkers performing. It was a great time and it was something a little out of the ordinary from what we usually do. The bar was really laid back and the music was really fun. We got to spend some time chatting with some coworkers and hearing some great tunes. Because we're not particularly used to the 'night life', we were especially surprised by some of the crowd that was hanging around downtown Boise last night. On our way out to our car, I noticed that it looked like there was a person face down in a bush...but it was only a wig. An abandoned multi-colored wig. We looked around for the owner, but didn't see any bald women around.

Finding something like this might be commonplace in LA or Seattle, but for us it was a rare treat.

Bachelor

This is Bachelor sitting angrily in his chair. He hates it when we send him to the chair, but it is the only way that we can keep him from chasing his tail all over the house. The other day he was whining in his chair and I saw this hat sitting beside him. It was a perfect photo opp.

My New Cat Buddy

Some of you know this about me, but some of you have not yet heard. Cats HATE Candace! I've had so many terrible experiences with cats peeing on everything I own, biting me when I try to pet them etc. My first cat experience was waking to find myself completely covered in cat poo the day after I bought my precious little kitten PJ. I had to be hosed down in the backyard it was so disgusting.

But years later, I've made buddies with this really cute little kitten from down the street. CJ won't let me give it some milk...but I'm secretly devising a plan. Oh...and can you tell by the picture why cat's don't like me?

Really, I wasn't choking her, it just looks that way...

Sweetest Person I Know...

Last weekend I attended a birthday party for a very sweet friend Juni. Juni is an amazing woman and is the mother of my dear friend Kendra. Kendra put together this beautiful party at her house with lots of yummy sweets. There were chocolate truffles and lots of decadent sweets. The party was decorated beautifully and I had such a great time celebrating Juni's birthday. Here are some photos from the party...

Haze

I don't know if you can tell or not from the picture, but you would not believe how hazy it is this morning in Boise. There are little pieces of ash falling from the sky. We've got some bad air quality alerts and it is one of the rare days that I wish that I didn't have a window seat at work...yuck :) But Happy Thursday!