Happy Halloween

Joe and I had a very nice Halloween day. In the morning we went to the Strip District, which is the historic market district of Pittsburgh. We got wonderful smelling coffee, fresh baked bread, and some killer kielbasa. Afterward, we walked a winding path on Washington Landing, a small island with very nice townhouses and a small marina.

This afternoon, we prepared for our Halloween Housewarming party. It really will be a small gathering of Joe's friends and their significant others but it still feels like a party to us. Our neighbors are having a 300 person party tonight that will put our party to shame.

Trick-or-treaters started coming by at 5:30. Joe and I thought our 200 some pieces of candy would suffice, we were severely wrong. Those little munchkins must have been taking more than one piece because we were all out of candy in a little over an hour. We shut off the lights and hid upstairs...ashamed. It was our first time being on this "side of the bag" - meaning it was our first time handing out candy and that is our excuse for why were ill prepared. Next year we will stock up!

Answer:
Joe's Pumpkin: left
Lauren's Pumpkin: right

Pumpkin Carving!

Guess who carved which?
Answer in tomorrow's post...

Just a picture...

If you look very close, you should be able to see a faint rainbow arching across the right side of the picture...

Victorious Weekend!

Our weekend in Columbus was a very good time! On Friday, we drove an hour past Columbus to Dayton in order to see my grandma, aunt and uncle. We went to Panera Bread for dinner and then headed back for Columbus. It was a short visit but very nice to see them.

Friday night we went to (a second) dinner with Joe's friends who had made the trek from New Castle. Together there were 15 of us. We ate at an Italian place called Martini's and we didn't finish up there until close to midnight.

On Saturday, Joe and I walked around Easton (a very nice indoor/outdoor mall area) before heading to the tailgate. We had hamburgers, hotdogs and normal tailgate fare. We tossed the football a bit and walked around the other tailgates. Around 4 o'clock, we packed up and got ready to watch the big game at GameWorks. It was a very low scoring and evenly matched game. Penn State managed to pull off the win in the end with a score of 13-6!

Joe and I had a surprise when we got home on Sunday - our shower glass had been installed! At last, we don't have to walk up to the third floor to take a shower. It looks great as well.

PSU v. OSU

Joe and I are headed to Ohio State this weekend! Penn State plays Ohio State on Saturday evening and it should be a good game (even though Penn State is undefeated and will crush the buckeyes). We don't have tickets to the game, but most of Joe's friends are going too. We plan to watch the game in a bar - it should be enjoyable!

Workin It!

Joe and I have been slowly transitioning to work over the past 2 weeks. Last week we just listened, learned, attended meetings and absorbed all we could. This week we have been a bit more active. We have had assignments and taken part in meetings. We are even getting business cards!

My title will be Project/Marketing Executive - sounds pretty important, doesn't it! The "executive" title is misleading. I will be working with the commercial real estate project(s), as well as maintaining the website.

Joe's title is VP Commercial Development - again the VP makes Joe feel very special! It's a small company. He will be dealing with the construction and commercial project(s).

Also, on a small note, I got my new social security card this week - I'm officially Lauren Christine Patrick! Please feel free to still call me Anson though - otherwise I'll miss it.

Ahhhh!

Last night we saw our first creepy crawly bug in the house (small spiders excluded). I was in the bathroom getting ready to brush my teeth and I looked into the sink. There it was - about an inch long with lots of long creepy legs (scarier than any kind of centipede I've ever seen)! I actually screamed a little, which I rarely do. Joe came running and together we washed him down the drain. It was a traumatic experience and I'm on the look out for more...

Let's go PSU!

Joe and I went to State College this weekend to revisit our alma mater and see the Penn State football team crush Michigan. We arrived there Friday evening - our first stop was at Joe's old apartment, where his brother now lives. We went to Mad Mex for a margarita and enjoyed reliving our college days.

On Saturday, my friend from Spain, Ashley, came to Penn State. We walked around the tailgates for a while before going into the the game. Besides, the loud and obnoxious father/son duo that sat directly behind us, the game was very exciting! Penn State started off slow - Michigan was leading 17 - 14 at half time but they dominated the second half and the final score of 46 - 17. The number 3 ranked Nittany Lions are having a very good year! It was a very fun weekend and made me miss Penn State.

Penguins Game!

Last night Joe, his dad, Brian (a groomsmen), and I went to the Pittsburgh Penugins game. The tickets were a gift from their bank so the seats were pretty good. We were just about center ice and approx. 10 rows back. We could see it all!

It's amazing how much faster it moves live in comparison to on TV. Within the first few minutes of play, a full fledged fight broke out - it was very entertaining! The Penguins scored two quick goals in the middle of the second period and then unfortunately, the Philadelphia Flyers scored two even quicker goals in the last minute of that period.

The score remained 2-2 through the third period and the game went to a 5 minute sudden death overtime. The Pens scored with 10 seconds to go for the victory! We were fortunate enough to see such a great game at our first ever Penguins game.

Weekend Update

Joe took me on a very nice date on Friday evening. We walked to the Monongahela Incline and took it down to Station Square. We ate at The Grand Concourse, which is the old Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Station. The building is beautiful -it has a high ceiling and it is very ornate.

We also purchased a coffee table/ottoman. It has a leather cushion top and has small side pullouts for drinks. We also assembled our bookshelves for the office. I'll post pictures later.

Today, we came back to Joe's parents house in New Castle. We brought our things from our freezer to put in their freezer since we are unplugging our fridge so it can be serviced and hopefully completely fixed tomorrow! What we have learned: don't take your refrigerator for granted.

Shredder

We purchased a shredder yesterday - it shreds up to 10 pages at a time and eats up staples, paper clips and credit cards. We love it - it's great! It has already gotten a ton of use - I shredded innumerable, unnecessary, old financial documents. I still had my pay stubs from when I worked at Dairy Queen (the summer before my freshman year...in high school). I guess I'm a pack rat and didn't know.Kind of looks like Enron...

Grillin'

Joe was excited about grilling steaks out last night. He loves the new grill!

In other news, we had a meeting with our photographers today to discuss album options. After deciding on a brown leather 10x10 album, we scrolled through the layouts. Joe and I are going to try to cut down the number of pages (which will be difficult) and tweak it so it's just right.

We also had a meeting to go over the plans for Cityzens (the real estate group Joe and I are joining). We talked about upcoming projects and how we will be involved.

Solon & Back

Joe and I made a short visit to my old home in Solon. It's odd and kind of sad to think I won't live there anymore since I grew up there. We arrived on Sunday and showed honeymoon pictures to my parents and just caught up a bit. Then Suzi came over and we went for a 16-mile run (our farthest run so far)! After that, not wanting to move much, I joined Joe and my dad watching football on the couch.

Monday I had a few doctors appointments and I packed up my clothes and other possessions. I filled most of the trunk of Joe's car - I hadn't realized I had accumulated so much stuff. We had dinner with my parents that night and then we headed back to Pittsburgh. The 2 days went very quickly.

Today, the GE repair man came to check out our warm fridge. He informed us that he is going to need to replace most of the parts in our brand new refrigerator. He will do this next Wednesday - he also informed us we need to empty out the freezer before he replaces the parts so that the appliance can be unplugged. We can't wait to have a functioning fridge.

After the GE man came, Joe and I went for a run. We ran to the Monongahela Incline and rode it down the hill and then continued our run to the Eliza Furnace Trail and then back. It was Joe's first time on the Incline and he thoroughly enjoyed his ride and is looking forward to riding it again.

Happy Birthday Pittsburgh!

Yesterday was Pittsburgh's 250th Anniversary celebration. We went to dinner with Joe's parents and their 4 friends at Alla Famiglia. It's a very small but nice restaurant that is only 3 minutes from our house. It's surprising that the restaurant is located there since it's not the best part of town as you head down the back of Mount Washington. We enjoyed the large amount of food and made it back to our house just in time for a tour of the house and then the fireworks.

It was a huge display of fireworks - they were shot off from 17 different locations! We walked down from our house to the edge of the mountain so that we could get a better and more panoramic view of the fireworks. They shot them over the rivers and off of buildings - it was very cool to see!

Mr. Fix It

Mr. Patrick and his friend Vince came to our house yesterday to help us with some home repairs/alterations. They hung our TV in the living room, fixed our kitchen table, and moved the thermostat (it had been in a place where we had intended to hang a mirror).
They also helped to secure the closet organizer and hang the closet rods. Lastly, they took the numerous boxes we had piled up. It was great to get those out of our space.
One problem that could not be resolved was our warm refrigerator. Our freezer is fine (it ranges from 0 to -9 degrees F). However, our refrigerator has not gotten below 53 degrees F - the suggested temperature is 37. Our milk, meats and eggs have spoiled. We bought a milk this morning that we are temporarily storing outside because it is colder than our 57 degree frig.

Getting this fixed is priority one...

Chapter 121: No More Chapters

The chapter numbers have gotten way too high so from now on there will just be a plain title. The blog shall continue as long as there are somewhat interesting things to post.

Exciting news in the Patrick household! We have assembled all of our office furniture:
Joe's desk is the large L-shaped return desk. Mine is on the left with the hutch.

Also, Joe and I picked up our (more like his) grill today and Joe grilled BBQ chicken for us. It was good!