Our friend Todd is out for the weekend. He likes to pose with condiments for fun. :) Here he is at Ted’s Montana Grill.

Damn, It Feels Good to be a Gangsta: A Pop-Culture Mix Tape

This is a great article about some movie-moment songs that you still associate with certain scenes even when you hear the song played years later. We all have our favorites. Ones I particularly agree with (from the article) are:

• Don’t You (Forget about Me), Simple Minds from The Breakfast Club
• Mad World, Michael Andrews & Gary Jules from Donnie Darko
• How to Save a Life, The Fray from Scrubs “My Lunch” (great song and episode)
• Wise Up, Aimee Mann from Magnolia

And a few more that I can think of off-hand:

• In Your Eyes, Peter Gabriel from Say Anything
• You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling, Righteous Brothers from Top Gun
• If You Leave, OMD from Pretty in Pink (I’m a John Hughes fan, duh)
• What a Feeling, Irene Cara from Flashdance
• Time of My Life, Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes from Dirty Dancing

Riesling sporting her very stylish mustache - her hair actually does this naturally, with just a little help from me from time to time. I think it complements her ears nicely.

I entered two paintings into a juried exhibition recently, my first one in a long while. Eric has naming privileges as he always manages to come up with great titles—the first one is “Center of Attention” and the second is “Kind of Blue” after a Miles Davis album.

Wish me luck! :)

This had to be the most stressful, ridiculous, and thrilling 20 minutes of football I’ve ever seen.

“I’ve never played so bad and won a game like that,” said the Bears quarterback (Rex Grossman), who threw four interceptions and lost two fumbles. “It was unbelievable.”

You can say that again. Hallelujah!

Not many of you had the chance to see Riesling’s profile on the rescue page before we adopted her, so in honor of the schnauzer fundraising event this past weekend, here are before and after photos of pup. We never saw her this scruffy as she was groomed while in foster care but she has also put on about 4-5 lbs in the two months we’ve had her. The second photo was taken two weeks ago—she certainly looks a lot happier and healthier now. :)

In further efforts to improve our home, we rented a powerwasher and washed the heck out of our deck this afternoon. The rental unit was fine, but while the guy made sure the gas tank was full, no one thought to check the oil levels. Eric started it up and everything was working great for about two minutes—then the engine shut off. After a quick trip back to Home Depot for oil (and to adjust our rental return time), it was smooth sailing.

The deck before we started…

We took turns powerwashing and scrubbing.

Green = eww… but the powerwasher clearly works!

The deck looks fantastic and Eric is planning to seal and stain it next weekend.

(L) Riesling looking rather jaunty with her fresh coiffure and Halloween bandana, although she’s really just ready to rumble. She has no idea how many other dogs are thinking exactly the same thing. (R) Half-heartedly posing in front of the NCSR banner.

(L) The triangle of terror - if a spotted schnauzer jumps into this picture we’re really in trouble. (R) NOT a schnauzer, but a nice costume, and a general good sport for a.) wearing the costume and b.) dealing with all the little yipping dogs.

Four years ago we spent this Saturday walking around downtown Athens and the stadium area on campus people-watching during Homecoming weekend. I’ll be heading back next weekend for a baby shower and I’m really looking forward to the trip. We’ve only been back once since we moved away two years ago and although I feel like we got everything out of Athens that we could in the five years we lived there, I still miss it a little more than I thought I would.

I was feeling domestic last night, so after laundry and picking up a little around the house, I started Alton Brown’s overnight cinnamon rolls recipe. I woke up early this morning to get the buns proofing in the oven before taking pup for her walk. Delicious!