Good Bye Big House

The year of The Big House has drawn to and end.  All our belongings have been crammed in boxes, muscled to various cars, and moved.  So much has happened in the last year it's impossible to sum up in words; so I won't try.  I will say, however, it was a great year, with great friends, making memories we will never forget.  But the truly important thing is

SLYTHERIN WON THE HOUSE CUP!

Shuta a pow batta do do! What's TheBigHouse up to? Oh probably nothing...

I had the day off work.  So I did what anyone else in my situation would do: worked out, went to the grocery store, watched a movie, aaaaand took the things my roommates love most and hid them around the house with only a cryptic list of clues to help them find their way.  Tune in soon to see how Emily and Shelby fair this adventure.

LEGOS!

This weekend was 5 stars.  Filled with food, fun, terrible horror movies, obsessive quoting of The Office, and - of course - lego building.

What at first was a plane became Bethany's fear inducing attach vehicle

Emily's multicolored pyramid complete with "Spirit stallion of the Cimarron", gem stones, multiple defense systems, and a totem pole of lego men heads.

My own breathtaking castle complete with moving parts, an ever burning flame, and watch eagle.

So yeah, we're basically 5 years old. Although I would like to take this time to award credit for the Lego inspiration to our upstairs neighbor's son who played Legos with Shelby, Emily, and Tyler for 3 hours last weekend.

Decapoda Dendrobranchiata

Red Lobster calls it "endless shrimp", we call it "a reason to pig out for house points".



For the last 3 years we have been celebrating the month of October by testing just how many shrimp we can shove into our bodies.  As with most all you can eat settings things quickly turn toward competition.  This year, with the promise of house points, the battle for Lord Shrimp/most likely to vomit was more fierce than ever.

The rules are simple - eat as many shrimp as you can, without throwing up.

This year shrimp fest started out not unlike ones before.  With the promise of copious amounts of shrimp on the way TheBigHouse was happy, calm, and defenses were down.  It was within the first few rounds of shrimp that things started to heat up.  Emily and Tyler had been given more shrimp than Shelby and  I, leaving us to wonder how we could best make our comeback.  It was then that Emily made a drastic error - she left the table.  The waitress returned while Emily was gone and requests for more shrimp were taken.  With Emily absent from the table her charge to "order me the garlic one while I'm gone" was somehow forgotten.  It was in this moment that Shelby and I pulled ahead.  Emily returned to that table in time to witness everyone being served their next rounds...but what of her order?  When she realized the plot to overthrow her competition boiled hotter than the garlic shrimp scampi.  Alas, all is fair in Love, War, and Shrimp Fest. The waitress was immediately flagged down and Emily's order was placed but she would remain a plate behind...or would she? Alliances were made and Emily hatched a plan with Tyler who, not competing for house points, until then was a neutral party.  The plan unfolded when the waitress informed us the kitchen was closing and this would be our last order.  When the last order was brought to the table all seemed well and good...until the waitress left.  At this point I was in the lead with 81 shrimp, Shelby was in second with 80, and Emily third with 75ish.  It was once the server left that shrimp hit the fan! Shelby dove for my shrimp managing to steal a precious hand breaded.  At the same moment Emily lunged across the table plucking half of Shelby's new order right out of the boiling butter sauce! Rapid eating ensued as everyone guarded their remaining shrimp.  When the shrimp cleared it looked like I was the victor with 91 but then the second half of Emily's plan unfurled.  Tyler had ordered his last round of shrimp with the intent of giving it all to Emily so she could pull ahead at the last moment.  With Emily unable to finish all of the extra order Tyler preformed an unspeakable evil. Of the remaining 3 shrimp he gave Shelby 2 and I 1 so we would tie for second place.

The final tally
Emily: 93 Shrimp
Shelby: 92 Shrimp
Jared: 92 Shrimp

And so the competition was over and Emily was the victor.  The challenge itself, however, was not entirely finished. Throughout the meal we had been hiding the Red Lobster biscuits in various places (under napkins, behind signs advertising desserts, on our laps, etc.) so that the waitress would think we had eaten them and bring us more. Now the only thing that stood in our way of a food coma on the couch was collecting these biscuits while keeping the waitress none the wiser.  There were a few close calls but in the end we managed to stuff them all from their hiding places into Shelby's purse and depart.



As this was a competition for house points I thought it would be fitting to update you on our current standings:
-Ravenclaw 12
-Slytherin 10
-Gryffindor 5
-Hufflepuff so negative it isn't even a number

Because NOBODY has commented on my Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Post:

Obviously 4 pictures of GSMDs were not enough incentive to comment.

Hocus Pocus October

Much to Shelby's dismay Jared and I decided that we are watching Hocus Pocus EVERY day during the month of October. If you haven't seen it, WATCH IT! Shelby is convinced that Jared and I only love it because it was part of our childhoods, but I believe it's just an amazing movie. In honor of Hocus Pocus October I made a little something special:

Big House Brunchski

Tyler and I are basically gourmet chefs

What up post workout deliciousness

Big House Resourcefulness

Tonight, Tyler went to cook his popcorn shrimp only to discover that the pilot light on our stove was out...TRAGEDY.

This is not surprising as our stove is the ABSOLUTE WORST.

We then discover that we do not have any matches or lighters....tragedy strikes a SECOND TIME.

So what does the Big House do?

Lights the pilot light with a 4th of July sparkler, of course! (...don't ask why we have sparklers but no matches or lighters). Success.

#bighouseresoucefulness

GSMDs

I believe we have had this blog long enough that I can now devote an entire post to one of my favorite obsessions - Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs. I LOVE these guys.

Here are a few pictures...need I say more?

If these adorable photos are not enough for you (and they shouldn't be!!) may I direct you to http://www.greaterswissdotcom.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=36905#Post36905 where you can peruse through a 1037 PAGES of GSMD photos. I have only made it through 603 pages so far but I'm sure I'll get through all 1037 soon...that's what my Friday nights are for, right?

We're Practically Famous

I thought you would all be interested to know that The Big House is basically famous. I was, no joke, asked about it in my recent dental school interview. How did they know there was such a thing as The Big House? We can thank Dr. Shaw for writing about it in his letter of recommendation. Since that letter went out to every dental school I applied to it means that The Big House has been heard of 10 different states!!! Pretty impressive.

Yoga Tuesdays

Now the moment I'm sure you have all been anxiously awaiting... my first post! I obviously held off posting for dramatic effect but some people seem to think it is because I'm lazy. Okay, I'm kind of lazy. Thankfully we do not award house points for blogging. I hope I didn't give overly enthusiastic blogger Jared any ideas. Shelby and Jared will literally (http://www.vulture.com/2012/09/rob-lowe-literally-parks-and-recreation.html?mid=twitter_vulture - for your reading pleasure) kill me if this isn't finished by the time they arrive home from work so here goes.

I have been actively trying to convince Jared to do "Call Me Maybe" squats with me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDpB8pWEjhk - do it if you want nice thighs) for the past few weeks but for some weird reason he has absolutely no interest in said awesomeness. I finally decided to put the subject to rest and try my luck with yoga. Success! Last Tuesday we created a fantastic yoga studio in our living room and did P90X Yoga X. Shelby ended up joining us in the middle of our workout. It was awesome sauce to say the least. In fact It was so awesome sauce that we have have decided to have Yoga Tuesdays.

And we took pictures of ourselves in yoga poses because that's what you're supposed to do, right?  Enjoy!

Yoga studio (note Shelby's "mat")

Just plain awkward

Upward facing dog, plank, and downward facing dog - we did these at least 20x each

Crane (what it should look like:  http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/468/ )

Tree = the best after Child's Pose i.m.o.

Warrior One, Warrior Two, and Reverse Warrior

Saved the best for last. Gotta love Shelby's face in this one. 

Sunday Crepes

Our new Sunday tradition.  Crepes at Crepes Parisiennes, delicious! With 100's (~20) of different crepes to choose from for under $10 we will be coming back for weeks to come.

A Quick Update

First off - an apology - we realize we haven't done the best job with keeping the blog "up to date" recently.  We'll make sure to make it more of a priority here soon because obviously hilarious things are happening to us everyday and you want to know about them.

So just to catch you up on a few things:
-Emily, Shelby, and I are currently watching Evens Stevens - the classic american comedy television series that aired on Disney channel - because, yes, we are all 5 years old.
-Emily & Tyler are redoing Emily's dresser and it's looking awesome.  I'm sure she'll be providing you with more updates on its coolness soon enough.
-I've seen "fat neighbor" 4 whole times today!
-The Irish festival was pretty sweet (pictures...all 2 of them...are coming soon)
-I've successfully rewatched the first 4 seasons of the office
-The house points currently stand at:
Ravenclaw 6
Slytherin 4
Gryffindor 1
Hufflepuff...is currently, and most likely will forever be, in the negatives
If this confuses you it means you haven't read the "House Points" tab.  If this is the case you need to read it ASAP.

Revenge

Doth my eyes deceive me or is our neighbor in violation of Article 7 541.01-b2

Mmmm he is...parking a bold 11.5 feet away from a fire hydrant! The audacity.

Friendly Neighbors

The Big House has received a warm welcome to the Big House Neighborhood.

First encounter with our next door neighbor, after parking about 10 feet from the fire hydrant in front of The Big House:

"You're not allowed to park there. We called the cops allll the time on the past tenets. Oh, and by the way I'm your neighbor."

Description of said next door neighbor: oddly shapen, large, orange.

Second encounter with our next door neighbor:

Needless to say, we are off to a great start.

Week 1

So we're a week into "The Big House" and things are starting to come together. We just got internet today so expect more frequent updates.

BigHouse Twitter

We will be getting internet and a Twitter account starting Sunday so look for updates!

MOVE IN!

After months of waiting, planing, and anticipating it's finally here! We got The Big House keys today - 10 days late due to the last renters busting a key off in the lock - and will be officially moving in tomorrow morning bright and early!

Happy Birthday Shelby! Hope it's literally one of the best ever.

So here are our 4 dinner thrones! My dad passed this yard sale and saw them chilling outside. I went to check them out expecting it to be ~$40 for all 4 of them. We got all 4 for $15 which is awesome! I took them back to the house and scrubbed them down and they look pretty nice actually. Since I have some extra time on my hands I could always sand them down and restain them to better match our dinner table. Or I could even paint them a cool color or something. It's really up to you guys, just let me know what you think!