Happy Thanksgiving

Denise and I certainly know what we're thankful for...

Calvin

Denise and I would like to officially welcome Calvin Jacob Schmidt to the world. He was born Saturday, November 21, at 3:58pm. He was 8lbs 10oz and 21" in length.

Goodbye, Grandma

In honor of my grandma's passing on Oct. 30th, I'm posting a copy of her obituary...

Oneeta Reuter

Funeral service for Oneeta Wanda Reuter, 96, Tucson, Ariz., formerly of Anoka, took place Nov. 16 at Thurston-Lindberg Funeral Chapel, Anoka. Rev. Gary Wilkerson.

Reuter died Oct. 30. She was born April 13, 1913 in Kiota, Mo., to Charles E. and Fanny F. (Gault) Tracy and was a retired nurse at the state hospital.

She is survived by her children, Charles Reuter, Dallas (Nancy) Reuter and Mary Kay (Larry) Schmidt; 13 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren; eight great-great-grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.

Interment was at Forest Hill Cemetery, Anoka. Arrangements were by Thurston-Lindberg Funeral Home, Anoka.

My grandma was also famous in our family for having a quaint colloquialism for pretty much any situation. Here are a few I could think of off the top of my head:

• "Excuse the pig, the hog's out walkin'." (used when one of us burped, a personal favorite of mine.)


• "I'm so hungry I could eat the north end of a southbound horse."


• "I'm so hungry my stomach thinks my throat's been cut."


• "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."


• "It's like straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel."

Updated 12/2:

• I haven't . . . since Hector was a pup.


• . . . 'til who laid the rail.


• . . . (doing/going something) hell bent fer 'lection.


• He's as thick in the muck as she is in the mire.


• I've gotta pee so bad I can taste it.


• She already had a stallion in the paddock.

Still No Kid...

Well you had to think that any offspring of Denise and I would be a little on the stubborn side... the little bugger is 5 days late today. So just to update everyone, Denise is tentatively scheduled to be induced this Friday.

Full Term

Denise hit 37 weeks today so according to the OB this morning, she's now officially considered full term...

Auto-Tune the News

For those who haven't yet discovered the genius of Auto-Tune the News yet, here are a few links to get you started:

• Auto-Tune the News #6: Michael Jackson. drugs. Palin.


• Auto-Tune the News #8: dragons. geese. Michael Vick. (ft. T-Pain)


• Auto-Tune the News #5: lettuce regulation. American blessings.


• Auto-Tune the News #7: texting. rhyming. pat buchanan fail.


• Auto-Tune the News #2: pirates. drugs. gay marriage.

The see them all, Michael Gregory (co-creator) posts them all under the YouTube account schmoyoho.

Auto-Tune the News #6: Michael Jackson. drugs. Palin.

Wild Preseason Game

I got to go to the Wild preseason game tonight. Not only were they amazing seats (in the corner, only 3 rows up) but they were free thanks to my brother-in-law's girlfriend (thanks again, Missy!). And if that weren't enough, it was against the Chicago Blackhawks which means you can always count on plenty of intensity (read: lots o' fighting).

Even better, the Wild won 3-0!

I posted some pics from my cell phone on Facebook here.

Back from the Dells

Denise and I took a weekend road trip to Wisconsin Dells with our friend, Gredd. No occasion really, other than it being most likely our last little vacation before the baby arrives, which is also why we had to drive. But despite Denise being pregnant, we did manage to play no less than 271 holes of mini golf!

And while we're on the topic of statistics, although it started off as a kind of sad commentary on modern life, it's actually becoming a road trip tradition in our family to count Walmart trucks. One which began on our honeymoon. The funny thing is we only saw 51 on our entire 4,365-mile honeymoon road trip. Last weekend, we saw 55 on our little 574-mile road trip... and 35 of those were on the way there!

See the pictures here.

9 Weeks and counting...

Denise officially hit 31 weeks yesterday. Crazy!

New Deck

After a few weeks, due to a complication or two, our deck is finally done! Thanks again to Nick for all his hard work in building it!

See the pictures here.

Back Home

We're back from a very relaxing vacation... 10 days, 3077.3 miles of driving and 5 states. Highlights include seeing Colonel Mustard at a rest stop and Denise almost getting blown off a mountain.

Pictures are here.

Our approximate route is here.

Southwest Road Trip

Denise and I are on Day 5 of our southwest road trip. After landing in Phoenix, AZ, and spending the first couple days with my parents down in Green Valley, we hit the road. Day 3 took us up to Laughlin, NV. Kind of a funny little version of what Vegas should be... or used to be before the Strip took over.

Day 4 brought us up to St. George, UT. On the way, we visited another cool little city, Mesquite, NV. Today, the plan was originally to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. That was before we saw that the drive is over 5 hours... each way! Obviously that's why most people visit from the south side.

So we decided to alter our plans a little and hit the Grand Canyon on the way back into AZ. Instead, we made our way to Grand Junction, CO. On the way, we saw Zion, Bryce Canyon and Arches National Parks.

Crash Update

Denise is feeling pretty sore today but in general she's doing remarkably well. Anyone who would've been with us earlier and saw the Explorer at the towing place today would have to agree! Here are some pics of the aftermath.

Bye Bye Explorer

I had a very long, very stressful night last night. Denise got in a rather nasty accident with the Explorer last night. She appears to be fine, except for some bumps and bruises. Thank God for that!

Unfortunately, the Explorer wasn't so lucky. Oh well, it had always been a beater anyway and now its been officially put out of its misery. And it gave its life for a good cause.

Honeywell IAQ

I spent the last couple nights rewiring a good share of our furnace room. A little background, when they built our house they installed a very basic thermostat. It wasn't even programmable. But after a gas bill that I would consider to be excessive, it was time to change that.

I could've just swapped it out for a $20-30 5-2 programmable model you can get anywhere but that's before I heard of the Honeywell IAQ from the fountain of all knowledge. It's a state-of-the-art system that controls everything to keep it running as efficient as possible. You can only find them on eBay since they're only sold to contractors. But since the cheapest I saw them for on eBay was $130, I had to talk to the wife. After telling her the whole story with absolutely no bias whatsoever (I swear!), she surprisingly said, "well I live with a geek, we pretty much HAVE to get the cool one!"

Fortunately, I managed to snipe one off eBay for a mere $96. Tonight, I got the fun of drilling a hole in the side of the house so I could run an outdoor temperature sensor. Check out the attached pictures. This little beauty is now controlling our furnace, A/C, humidier and air exchanger.

(No comments about the outside temperature!)