Mild?

We went out for happy hour after work on Friday night to Cactus. After a few drinks there, we decided to go home, order some pizza, grab some beer at Dominick's and stay in for the night... it was sooooooooooo cold!

We picked up this beer... which made me laugh. Anything that has "Mild Winter" and "Chicago" written on it just doesn't make sense!



Matt plays Vanna White for me! : )



By the way, the beer was good!

"Blagovich" is gone

A little (early) birthday present for my dad from the State of Illinois... how did they know what you wanted??? : )

Biggest Loser

So, we already knew who the final two were going to be this week because they told us in the previews last week. I was hoping there would be some mistake and Joelle would end up on the chopping block... but no such luck. She's a weirdo. I told Matt they probably have to edit out a lot of what she says, because it's so off the wall and makes no sense.

I really wish they would have kept Daniel and David at the ranch, because I wanted to see David get his a55 kicked by Jillian. That would have been sooooo good! David seems like a lazy kid and he's wasting the time and effort the show is putting into helping him lose weight. I totally agree with the green team when she yelled at David for saying he wants to go home. I wonder if Daniel will stay best friends with him after all this. Between the two of them, they could possibly have the person that loses the most weight in BL history and the person that loses the least weight in BL history... I really hope Daniel sticks with it.

By the way, I hate the challenge that they had with the footballs. It isn't set up to allow the best person to win. It is set up for the worst people to be left at the end to fight it out, because everyone takes out the best people at the beginning. It's like a "best of the worst" challenge. Any challenge where Joelle is one of the top two people left at the end is not a good challenge in my mind!

Really?!?

I have been researching possible wedding locales for the last month since I got engaged. I've signed up on numerous hotel websites to receive information. Most of which sent me something about their wedding packages within a couple of days. Well, I never heard back from Breezes Bahamas. (Probably a good thing, because it was quite expensive.)

Anyway, today I get a call at work from a woman from Breezes asking me if I was planning to cancel my wedding since I hadn't made the required payment. I was like "HUH?!?" The weirdest thing was when I answered, she says "Hi Stacia" and I said "Hi" back, waiting for her to introduce herself and then she says again "Hey Stacia" like we were old friends... I sat there trying to figure out who this woman was. I have no idea what she thought was going on. I have no contract and have never spoken to anyone from Breezes, so why would I send in a payment and how much is this said payment? What is this woman smoking?!?

Strange.

Weekend wrap-up

Friday night, Erin, Hany, Jane and I went to dinner at D4, an Irish pub in River East. It was so packed! They actually ran out of menus and at first, we only had one menu for our table. How does a restaurant run out of menus??? The food was good and the location was perfect since we were heading to a movie at AMC River East right afterwards.

Speaking of the movie... we went to see Bride Wars with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. It was a cute movie, nothing Oscar worthy, but entertaining nonetheless.



On Saturday, I got caught up on some wedding stuff and some other things I was putting off during the week. The wedding plans are moving along. We got the contracts for our Chicago party and are waiting to hear back about the Bahamas. We sent the girl like a million questions. That ought to keep her busy for a few days!

Saturday night, we went to see Cirque du Soliel Saltimbanco in Wisconsin. Ok, it wasn't in Wisconsin... it was in Hoffman Estates... it just felt like Wisconsin for as long as we were in the car driving there! ; ) The show was good, but not as good as the ones we've seen in Vegas or even at the United Center a few years back. Some of the things those performers can do are just not right. I can't imagine the practice that goes into perfecting their acts!



We got back to the city kind of late and Matt was really craving the Diner Grill. We haven't been there in FOREVER. Kenny was there and Matt played Amarillo by Morning on the jukebox. The chocolate shake really hit the spot. Definitely not on the wedding diet, though!

Sunday, we went through our pictures and picked out ones we wanted to have printed for the frames we bought. Matt almost got them all put together, so hopefully we'll be able to hang those soon.

Bowling was good... we swept the other team. Mainly because they did not show up and they aren't actually a team to begin with. We only needed 480 pins (with handicap!) each game to win. Not too hard to do. Hopefully that will bring us up in the rankings a little bit.

Keep an eye on your Dominick's card, folks!

On Tuesday, I got a voicemail from a Glenview police detective saying something about my Dominick's card being used at a Glenview Dominicks. I'm thinking... this is not a big deal to me. It's a discount card, not a credit card. So, I didn't immediately call back. Well, since they couldn't track me down, they somehow found Erin's number and called and left her a message... a very brief, vague message asking her to call the detective back. She was in Vegas waiting for her flight home. She totally freaked out that something bad had happened. Once she talked to the detective and he calmed her down and gave her the scoop, she called me to tell me what was going on.

I guess these two kids somehow had my card (which I don't even have a card myself... I have to put in my phone # every time, so I have no idea how they ended up with it!) But, the kids stole a bunch of stuff from the store and then beat up a couple of the employees. They couldn't ID one of the kids because he was out of camera view. Well, they thought maybe I had lent my card to someone and I would know who this was or something... right, like I'm friends with houligans who beat up cashiers?!?!

Anyway, I ended up talking to two different detectives about the case and told them I really had nothing that could help them. They asked me if I had a younger male sibling, which I said I had a "little brother"... of course, by "little brother" I meant a 26 year old man not a high school kid. So, the cop was like "um, not exactly what we're looking for here". I guess Brett's always going to be "little" to me no matter how old he is or how much bigger he is than me! : )

I think I'm done with the interrogations since they could find no reasonable connection between me and these hoodlums... but how the heck did they end up with that card? Maybe they are the ones that broke into my car... but I don't think I had any extra Dominicks cards laying around in there? Or maybe I dropped it somewhere and they found it? But where... I don't think I've ever been to Glenview. Who knows.

Ahhh, the joys of living in a big city.

Update: I just talked to the detective and they have a suspect and are arresting someone today. They're going to ask him how he got the card and find out if he's connected to the break-in of my car. Not that I will get anything back if that is the case... I'm sure my pink golf clubs and brand new tent have long been sold by now.

If they didn't know before, they know now

Twice a month, the company Matt and I work for puts out a little newsletter with announcements from all of the offices... like who's having a 5 year anniversary with the company, who left, who got hired, holidays, personal notices, etc. Someone we work with submitted our engagement to the newsletter, so now it's out there for everyone to see.



A woman in my group called me and was surprised... I guess she didn't know Matt and I were even dating. : )

Such a blog-slacker

I've been totally slacking on the blogging lately... this past week just flew by!

* The winter bowling league started back up last Sunday. I'm trying out the new ball and it's kind of hurting my thumb, but I think I just need to get used to it. Matt's team didn't get to bowl because of a little scheduling snafu at the alley. He had to make up the games today.

* I suck at tennis. Pure awfulness. Erin signed us up for a league that includes a short lesson before the games. I had never actually played a game of tennis until last Tuesday night. I may have only gotten about 3 serves in. I think I will sign up for some offical lessons to get the hang of it better.

* The winter volleyball league started this past Wednesday and we swept the other team! We need to redeem ourselves from last season when we lost in the first round of playoffs, so this is a good start!

* I've been doing TONS of wedding research. So far, this has been fun, but also a bit overwhelming. Not only are we trying to plan a wedding reception in Chicago, we're also planning a wedding and reception in some Caribbean place we've never been. I've looked through a ton of information and it's kind of started to all jumble together in my mind. I think we've finally settled on dates and hotels now, so I'm really excited! : )

* Brrrr! I REALLY haven't missed not seeing snow the past few years while I was in the Netherlands. The rainy, dreary weather of Amsterdam is looking so good to me right about now. At least it would be warmer!

New balls

Today, Matt and I went to Simmons Pro Shop and got a couple new bowling balls.

I got a basic ball...


and Matt got a hook ball.


We went bowling at Waveland afterwards to test them out. Lucky for us (lots of sarcasm there), we were there right in the middle of the kids' birthday party time. So, that means they did the cosmic bowling and we got to sing happy birthday twice. : )

Totally forgot to post this pic

Erin's cat Zoe likes to lay around with her big belly sprawled out on the floor anywhere that is warm. She would probably sleep in the oven if Erin let her! Erin turned on the fireplace and Zoe did not leave it's side for hours. She loves it! She even cried the next day to have it turned on again!

The Bachelor

The new season of the Bachelor started Monday night. I watched alone because Matt was working until the wee hours of the morning (literally)... at the office. Damn disclosures! : (

Anyway, I was surprised to see in the previews that DeAnna is coming back... what is wrong with her? I'm sure Jesse will love that. I hope it's just for one episode.

It looks like Jason will be getting lots of action... in every preview he was making out with one girl or another.

Is it just me or did all those girls seem like giants next to Jason... he must be really short!

It's too early for me to name a favorite. I do have some not so favorites, but they already got booted, so at least Jason and I are on the same wavelength there. I think some of the girls got a wee bit drunk, more so than I remember in other premieres. I felt embarrassed for that girl, Jackie, that had a meltdown when she got booted, saying she had already planned out her entire wedding to Jason. Wow, good call on that one, Jason!

Should be an interesting season!

Shamrock Shuffle

Registration for the Shamrock Shuffle is open... sign up! The race is an 8k and is on March 29th. As part of my New Year's resolutions, I'm hoping to run it in less time than I did last year. Plus, I need to jump start the wedding diet so this gives me an incentive! : )

And you thought you were having a bad day...

Check out this skier in Vail... poor guy!



He was dangling from the ski lift and his pants were stuck in the chair!

Back to the daily grind

Last week, I was actually thinking to myself "it might be nice to get back to work and a normal routine again". What was wrong with me?!? I've been back at the office today for less than 8 hours and I'm already retracting that statement.

The past few days have flown by...

On New Year's Day, I veg'd out at Erin's place watching football. I may have eaten the equivalent of six full meals (LOTS of food!) and had one beer. My headache from the champagne on NYE kept me from drinking too much. It was a nice (relaxing) time!

On Friday, I did what any newly engaged girl does... I got a manicure. I was in dire need of one and I had the day off, so what the heck! I also got an eyebrow wax and the woman laughed at how bad my eyebrows had grown out. Seriously, lady - you should have seen me in high school... this is NOTHING!!! She actually showed me the tape with the wax and my eyebrows to prove to me it was bad. Thanks.

My parents drove up for a visit and to celebrate xmas with my Dad's side of the family. So, we hung out on Friday and had dinner at Pete's pizza... love that place!

On Saturday, Matt and I stopped off at Shannon and Tim's place in Downer's Grove to drop off a mirror. Shannon works with us and her husband does woodworking and is going to replace the cheap frame on the mirror with something really nice. I can't wait to see the finished product!

We then drove to Arlington Heights to my aunt Amy and uncle Dan's place. They had arranged an appt with a tire shop near them so I could get new tires. Turns out 8 years is about all tires can take! Actually, I've been needing them for a while now. Last time I drove, the tires were so flat, the car was barely drivable. It felt like we were riding on ocean waves or something and I was barely going 15 mph. We went through two rounds of quarters on the air machine at the gas station and Matt wasn't even finished with the 4th tire! Not good.

We spent the day visiting with my family and eating more food. We played Catch Phrase and Scattegories. It was good to catch up with everyone, especially since I have missed the Duesterhaus xmas the past few years since I was in the NL.

On Sunday, my mom stopped in at Matt's place and we picked out some curtains for Matt's living room. I'm excited to see how the room will look once they are installed. Funny thing is that we looked at TONS of different fabrics and patterns and we basically came back to the one Matt had picked out as his very first favorite. Strange how that works.

We had lunch at Flat Top... yum! And for the rest of the day, I veg'd out on the couch and researched stuff for the wedding. I also took a little snooze and caught up on my sudoku. : )

Pop the champagne!

Not only was it New Year's Eve, but we had another very good reason to celebrate...

MATT AND I GOT ENGAGED!!!

I was SO surprised! Matt had already told me that a proposal was definitely not happening in 2008, so I really wasn't expecting anything for a little bit longer.

We had been getting everything set up for our little NYE get-together and then we were relaxing on the couch. Matt suggested we go ahead and open a bottle of champagne, because we might have something to celebrate and I was thinking, "huh?" It took me a minute to figure out what he was actually doing. It hit me when he got down on one knee and pulled out the ring. I sat there in shock with my jaw dropped. I don't even remember what he said or what I said... I'm pretty sure I made him ask me again after the initial shock wore off! But I definitely remember saying "YES"! The ring is absolutely beautiful... Matt did an awesome job! We are both so excited! : )

We finished off the bottle of champagne and called our parents to let them know the good news. We waited to tell Erin until she showed up at the party to see how long it would take her to notice on her own. I tried very hard not to have a big grin on my face because that would have been a total give-a-way. It took less than 5 minutes and Hany and Erin both noticed at the same time!

I tried to get a good picture of the two of us from NYE, but Matt was having none of it (as usual)! I think the champagne had kicked in at this point! : )

Take #1


Take #2


Take #3


Success!


We had a nice group for NYE and we played a couple of games and drank lots of champagne! That explains the big headache the next morning! Ugh!

Lauren and Lee toasting


Ross, Erin, Matt and Brett goofin' on the couch


This is what happens when I start drinking champagne so early in the evening! Zzzzzzz...