Mora Visits

Last weekend my sister Mora flew in from Olympia to spend a little time with her big sister. Our Mom was here as well, fixing up the old house in Saint Paul before the renters moved in. We worked our butts off cleaning and preparing for their arrival. The house looks great and the people seemed very excited to move in. I should have taken some pictures! Oscar was happy to have his Auntie visit, and of course his best friends Edgar and Millie, and let's not forget Grandma Mindy too!

Edgar, Millie, & Oscar

The dogs tend to get exhausted after spending the day together. Looks like someone got kicked out of his bed.

Our friend Jay Cooke

Okay, so we don't really know who Jay Cooke is and he isn't really our friend, but we did go to the state park named after him and spent the night in his wild backyard. We put the Honda Element to good use and packed it up with our camping gear and coolers, picked up the Lockner newlyweds and hit the highway going north towards Duluth. Sam ended up taking over the driving midway (thanks Sam) so I could sit in the back with Sarah and look at respectable Hollywood gossip magazines. Can you believe Brad and Angelina used IVF to have twins?!

We were a little unprepared for our 2.5 mile hike into the wilderness of Jay Cooke State Park. I guess the best way to explain is by showing you a picture. Sam prematurely won the award for best sport, but then I had to revoke it since he threatened to leave me on the trail when my cooler busted open and would not close.

Somehow Sam got stuck with the largest cooler and two backpacks.

Tim may look more prepared than Sam, but you do not see the second cooler in this picture.

Note: This is not the trail, it is the park entrance. The trail was filled with cliffs, rocks, swamps, bogs and fallen trees. Oh and biting blood-sucking horseflies.

Once we got to our remote camping site (a strenuous hour+ later), we cracked the Sparks, explored our surroundings, cooked up some food and played a killer game of devil ball with a log bat and a perfectly shaped rock ball. Note: this is not a safe game, nor is climbing 20 feet into a tree on a cliff, and forging a rushing rapid filled river just for the sake of seeing what the rocks look like on the other side. Sassy boys!!!!

I also feel the need to mention how much we learned about each other while spending the night under the stars with just nature's backyard to entertain ourselves. The dominating topic somehow turned to super powers and we found out that Sam would choose to be invisible (I won't even go there, stay away from mysterious air-floating cameras) and Tim wants to fly. Sarah and I just want to destroy evil with our fire throwing and laser shooting selves.

What would your super power be?

Oh how beautiful you are Jay Cooke.

Pass!

I passed! I passed! My long awaited and longer feared CFA Level 1 exam results came out yesterday morning, and they were gooooood. This means I can enjoy football season and the holidays before starting in on Level 2, which will be June 2009 and a even deeper level of hell.

Special shout outs to my friends and family that put up with my erratic behavior and reclusiveness in the final months leading up to the exam, and a huge thanks to my lovely wife who not only put up with my zombie-like lifestyle, took care of all the house(I couldn't tell you where the towels go but I can now value a bond using spot rates and bootstrapping), but also made sure I was stocked with Twizzlers and soda at all times...thank you thank you I love you!

Oscar + Mona

Someone has a girlfriend. Mona the Doberman is Oscar's newest squeeze. She was shy at first, but after spending the weekend with Oscar at her house she is warming up to her new boyfriend. The only problem with this is that she is a quite a bit younger than him, and already his size.

Double Date

Last night we had a double date with our good friends Cortney and Matt. After a long day of working on the house (we are still in the process of moving our crap around) we thought it would be fun to treat ourselves to dinner and finally check out the much talked about neighborhood cafe. Matt and Cortney showed up around 7 with a bottle of wine and then we headed over to Cafe Maude and enjoyed a delicious dinner on the patio (note to self, always order the baby red mashed potatoes). What was supposed to be a couple of casual drinks after dinner turned into 4+ bottles of wine and a very late night on our deck.

Oscar was not pleased with our late night behavior. He was ready for bed hours before our night ended, but he couldn't turn in when his favorite buddy Matt was here.

Hamburger Hand

Well today was a learning experience for me (Tim). First of all, do not try to fight a saw, you will lose and it will hurt. I was over at our old house cutting up some random things when my handsaw attacked my hand, slicing my finger clean off (ok, not really), and making part of my hand look like hamburger. After a long time of bleeding and searching for my insurance info (memorize who your provider is or carry your card) we decided to rely on my sister Kaylan, the nurse of the Vedder clan. Kaylan broke out a first-aid kit that most EMTs would be jealous of and quickly patched me up, sending me on my way back to the saw...and I sawed like a champ once again but with a much safer stance...

In other news, our friend Fannie was in town for the weekend. We decided to have people over to catch up and cook out just in time for the storms to roll in. It was my new grills first appearance (only took me 3 hours to construct), and she cooked wonderfully. It was nice to have people over and hang out for a bit as the house was overrun by visiting dogs once again. I also locked myself out of the house this weekend and had to climb thru the doggydoor to get back in...needless to say this was not my best weekend. Oona is as beautiful as always and somehow manages to put up with my constant catastrophes...I'm a lucky guy. With that said I am off to repay her by watching Matthew McConagay in "Fools Gold" with her, which I think makes us even!

Night in Milwaukee

Last weekend Tim and I loaded up the Stratus, filled up our 70's era cooler and drove the 5+ hours to Milwaukee to visit Sarah and her fiance Joe. Sarah is one of my dear friends who just a little under 6 years ago was a total stranger. After a little incident of fate, she was brave enough to drop everything in her life and move to Madrid with me to teach English. I decided it was past due that I visit her in M town so we found a night that worked and off we went.

Her and Joe live in a super cool part of Milwaukee. I have to admit I'm starting to like that city, it is really cleaning up it's act. Well the part we were staying in anyway. They live in such a great spot within walking distance to the lake, shops, restaurants and even Urban Outfitters...which of course we had to drag the boys into, well kind of! Tim and Joe talked finance (yawn) while Sarah and I caught up. We saw the sites, drank some stiff margaritas and ate some killer mexican food at my new favorite spot, La Fuente. All in all it was a fabulous weekend with great weather and amigos.

After a few pitchers of rainbow margaritas at La Fuente...mmmmmm.

After a few rounds of bean bags (which I am horrible at).