This pic was taken on Feb 15th, just before Clair and I had a wonderful dinner out at King & I Thai in downtown Minneapolis.

On Feb 2nd and 3rd, my folks were up to help us paint the nursery. Once we got all of Clair’s clothes and makeup out of the room, we began the transformation from an orange office/dressing room to a beautiful green baby bedroom. It was a weekend of hard work and time consuming trimming, but we all agree that the room turned out great. Of course, as always, I still have a few things to finish up: install a dimmer switch, change out the light fixture, and paint the side of the trim around the windows and doors.

Follow the link for more picks!

Read the rest of this entry »

I was sitting on the couch tonight with Clair, and I felt Baby kick. Now, I’ve felt Baby move before, but this was different. This was a solid kick. I’m a bit sorry for Clair, now. That probably hurt. She’s taking it pretty well, though. But seriously, this baby girl is going to be a leaper. She will be the only baby ever will be able to jump three feet in the air before she can even walk. If she ends up not liking dance, she’ll be able to join an old school ninja troupe and jump up 20 ft into trees and levitate while throwing insults and ninja stars. Either way, no one puts Baby in the corner. No one.

I swore that this sweater was going to win the ugly sweater party last night, but, alas, Rachel Carlson showed up dressed as a technicolor disco ball. You can’t beat that. I just wish I had a picture.

Clair, Ninja, and I spent Christmas Day with Clair’s dad’s family out at the family farm in Wabasha, MN. As usual, there was too much to eat. We played some snow football to work off the gluttony. At sunset, the score was tied which seemed like a good time to end the game. Elaine, Clair’s grandma, thought that was a very nice idea. Clair’s aunt Mary was not so elated. I guess she’s not happy unless she can laugh at the losers. Afterward, we played a charade-like game, guys vs. girls. It was a close game, but the women won. I think we all agreed that that was the best outcome possible.

Clair, cousin Nick, LuAnn, and hound dog Frodo

This year, we had Christmas with my parents BEFORE Christmas. It worked out pretty well. We showed up in Chippewa Falls on Friday, December 21. The first thing we did was check into the glorious Indianhead Motel. It is the cheapest hotel in Chippewa Falls, and now we know why. It was a concrete cube with a toilet and a shower. It was nice they were dog friendly, but next time we’ll hit up a nicer hotel closer to my parents’ house.

On Saturday, the whole family showed up. Tammy and Mike, their 4 kids, Scott, his 4 kids, his new girlfriend Jo, and her son Adam. With Mom, Woody, Clair, and I, the house was FULL! Also, we brought Ninja and Scott brought Oreo. Here are the dogs with Machiah:

After dinner and presents, the kids were excited to bust out the Wii. It didn’t take long before the adults were joining in. Here, Scott is showing us what’s what in Bowling:

I’m pretty certain that all of my relatives can kick my butt at Bowling on the Wii. I have Tennis, though.

Here it is, Christmas time when time and money are short. On top of that, Baby Girl Anderson is growing quickly in her mama, and eventually she’ll need to come out, so we’ve been saving up for her delivery and a new family-friendly station wagon. So wouldn’t you know it? The fuel pump went out in Clair’s car, which will cost $1000 to fix. Argh…

But instead of putting more money into her junker, I decided to test my mettle. Clair can have my car (a beat-up, rusting ’93 Civic with god gas mileage), and I’ll take the bus. It is a quick shot to and from work right now. Thirty minutes door to door. Half of that is walking time. Who knows? Maybe when we get that station wagon, we’ll get rid of my car. We’ll see how the next month or two go.

So says the Fat Rooster Squirrel.

For our first real work outing in over a year, our manager bought us all Vikings tickets for the Monday night game against Chicago. Since everyone knows I’m from the Land of Cheese and Beer, I’ve been harassed into buying a piece of Vikings paraphernalia for the first time. I’ve been given a Vikings hat before when I worked a fund raiser at the Metrodome, but I have never paid for anything Vikings related. I now have a purple hoodie.