Cozy new room and lots of parties

Although it's not entirely done, we are using our cozy new room in the basement. We had our first party in the new space on Saturday night. We had about 15 people (13 men, a woman, and a 4 year-old) in the space throughout the evening. We're using temporary tables right now and we borrowed folding chairs for this particular party. The only thing that was a bit of a pain in the behind was not having the kitchen done because we cooked everything upstairs and brought it downstairs. It worked out great having the fridge in the basement so cold beer was readily available and leftovers could be stashed away.

The big draw was the screen. We watched the OSU vs Penn State game projected onto a 96 x 106 screen. It was quite nice. Prior to the OSU game, the Bluejackets were on for a while and I think there was another football game on at one point.

Our scare for the evening was that Midnight, our 15 year old black cat, must have sneaked out the door as someone was leaving. I was walking along the tree line calling for him and using a flashlight when a man walking a dog called to me. He had seen a black cat under his truck when he and his dog had left the house. I walked about 5 houses down and we found Mid in the back yard hiding behind a bush. As I approached him, he took off to another yard. The upshot was that he was heading toward home. I could not find him after that so I went home and updated Jon. Jon excused himself from the party to go find the cat. Jon never saw Mid but apparently calling for Mid helped Mid find his way back home. I walked to the foyer to see if Jon was coming back and I saw Mid looking in one of the side windows. Whew! He was cold but otherwise unharmed.

On Sunday, I spent some time in the morning studying. I am taking one of three certification exams this coming weekend. Later in the day, Jon and I watched the last part of the NASCAR race and some football. I went back down in the evening and studied some more.

We love our new room. We have a couple of other parties planned in November and December even though we know the room will not be done anymore than it is currently. We are hoping to get money and/or gift cards for Christmas that we can put toward the remaining parts of the project. The next thing I'd like to see is the bathroom area. I'm trying to talk Jon out of carpeting but he's already got some baseboards installed to allow for carpet. I figured spills would be better managed on laminate flooring with an area rug closer to the screen. Maybe some thick padding could do the trick. I don't know. We sometimes reach these impasses. That's why we have family room furniture that is on the verge of falling apart; we agree to disagree!

Have a wonderful week!