Monday

Work is interesting today... lots of talk and speculation around the office about what's going to happen in the future with this whole merger. We had a meeting to discuss the merger and what leadership knows up to this point. Of course, it's only been one day since the big announcement, so we really didn't hear anything that earth-shattering yet. Sounds like we'll be waiting a little while before we know more specifics... like stuff that will actually affect my day-to-day job.

Yesterday, I went to see Transformers at the IMAX. At first, I thought I was going to end up with motion sickness because they kept doing these scenes with things spinning, etc., but by the end, I didn't even notice it. The movie was great! Seeing it at the IMAX was awesome! I wish I could see all movies like that! : )

I love short weeks! What's even better is that this week, we get to dress casual and wear jeans all week. Of course, I forgot that this morning and put on my normal work outfit. I even ironed a shirt to wear. Sometimes, I am a stupid girl.

The Bachelorette

Saturday night was Hany's bachelorette party... we had lots of fun! We started off at my place with some pink fizzy drinks.

Everyone brought Hany a fun gift... these were super cute!


Then, we got Hany all decked out in bachelorette gear and headed over to Izumi for dinner.

Erin and I at dinner


Group photo at Izumi


Erin, Hany and I


After dinner, we were picked up by a trolley to do a little cruising around the city. We were kind of worried about the weather, considering we had heard the forecast called for rain and possibly hail! While we were on the trolley, the weather turned a little bad, but we didn't mind. We had our pink fizzy drinks and lots of fun music to dance to and sing along with. The trolley ride was a blast! : )

Cheers!


We made a stop for pictures, but it was raining too bad, so we just stayed in the trolley and took a quick pic!


There were a lot of people out in the city because of the Taste of Chicago, so we had quite an audience everywhere we went.

We stopped off at the Reagle Beagle for a quick drink. Afterwards, we rode around on the trolley for a bit more and then made it to our final destination... bachelorette party central (aka The Hangge Uppe).

We danced the rest of the night!

Really?!?

Some interesting news... looks like I am now going to be working for Towers Watson and Co.

Wedding dress

I got a call last night from the bridal shop that my wedding dress is already in! This is great, because when I ordered it, they said it could take up to 6 months to get in... and that the designer of the dress is known for taking a REALLY long time to get the dresses made/sent out.

So, of course, I had this big fear that it wouldn't come in until like September and then it would be the wrong dress or too short or something. I haven't seen it yet, but at least I'm relieved that if there is something wrong with it, there will time to fix it! : )

Tough battle

Today was round two of the RPS (Rock Paper Scissors) tournament at work. I mentioned this last week when I was victorious. This week, not so much. I was doing very well until the last match-up. It was down to me and a guy... but, he beat me. Our final scores from the round were very close. I think his winning percentage was like 56% and mine was 55.6%. Super close.

Only one person goes on from this round, so I am now out.

Oh well... there's always next year, right??? ; )

Happy Birthday Mom!

Hope you have an awesome day!

Good luck at the boat! Win big! : )

Taste of Randolph

Today, Matt and I walked over to the Taste of Randolph for lunch. We tried a few different foods... lamb shish-ke-bab, caprese salad, chicken tikka w/pita, watermelon and a chocolate covered rice-krispy treat. So good!

We watched a demonstration on making potato salad, had a few drinks, got some free hand sanitizer and a bowl scraper. We had fun people-watching, as usual... always a wide range of people at these street festivals. And lots of dogs! There was a mastiff rescue booth and there were some huge mastiffs hanging out there! They had to be hot.

I came back home and took a good snooze on the couch while Matt got caught up on golf. Sunday afternoon naps are the best! : )

Trolley time

Saturday night, Matt and I went out for Neema's 30th birthday. We had some snacks and a few drinks at Neema's before boarding the trolley. They stocked the trolley with beer and lemonade vodka. : ) The weather was perfect for a trolley ride!


We drove around... first stopping off by the Adler Planetarium for a few pics with the Chicago skyline in the background.


Next stop was the Purple Otter. We took over the place!

Anyone up for a shot of Malort??? Clint convinced a few people to try one!


How about a Bear Fight? Jaeger-bomb followed by an Irish car bomb.

Champagne toast on the trolley


We got to the last stop (English) and needed to finish off the remaining drinks before going in.

Chug Friedman!


Shot-gunning the last of the beers in the alley outside the bar... next to a dumpster.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Hope you have a great day! : )

TGIF

I'm terrible at blogging these days. Nothing really all that exciting to report, I guess. Matt has been working like crazy this week.

Monday... I got in early to work for a conference call with the Netherlands, but turns out the call was canceled. Ugh! I really could have used the extra sleep. That afternoon, I went to the dermatologist for a skin check. The doc decided to remove a mole off my back, just to be safe. Turns out it was nothing, so that's good. But, now I'm messing with these stitches for two weeks. Fun.

Tuesday... was my friend JJ's birthday. Happy Birthday!

Wednesday... I got in early for the rescheduled conf call with the NL. This time we actually had the call. I met up after work with Hany. We did a little shopping at Ann Taylor Loft and then met up with Jane and her friends for dinner in Wrigley. They had been at the Cubs v Sox game that afternoon. Wrigley was a mess. Seriously, it was like a weekend there... everyone was drunk! We even saw a bachelorette party! I did get a kick out of the people-watching, though. I wonder how many of those people made it to work on Thursday???

Thursday... Another early morning conf call with the NL for me. Matt worked like 15 hours. He didn't get home until late. So much for date night. : ( I ordered in and got caught up on I'm A Celebrity. Too bad Holly got kicked off. I liked her. I'm glad to see Janice go... she's a nutcase! I can't believe Patti Blago is getting enough votes to stay on the show. I'm pulling for Torrie. : ) Next week's challenge looks like one I may have to fast forward the DVR right through. Drinking weird stuff mixed up in a blender. Just thinking about it makes me nauseous.

Friday... TGIF!!! What's with the crazy storms last night and this morning?!?! The lightning last night was like a strobe light going off in my room. Nuts! Hopefully, it's cleared up for the weekend. I'm really sick of the weather these days.

Sunday Funday

Today, we went to the Cubs v. Twins game. Erin had bleacher tix and it was gorgeous outside today! We must have missed the memo about getting to the game way before the doors opened, because by the time we got into Wrigley, there were NO seats left in the bleachers. So, we were stuck in the SRO and had a not so great view. Wrigley defintely underestimates how much room people will take up in their "seat" because there were quite a lot of people in our same boat... and some were not too happy!

We managed to find a spot to stand to watch the game and the view wasn't too bad. It was so nice to be outside and enjoying the sunshine!

After a while, we got hungry and tired of standing, so we went to Vines on Clark and had lunch. They have some really good pizzas there.

A few beers later, I was about to crash, so Matt and I hopped the bus back downtown. I took a little snooze on the couch, but I am still tired! I'm going to sleep like a log tonight! : )

Kenny

On Saturday, we went to Kenny Chesney's Sun City Carnival Tour concert.

The day started off early with a little bbq and redneck lemonade at our place. We were lucky that the rain stopped just before we were planning to head over to the concert.

The boys mixed up the drinks to take with us... propel and vodka. Or should I say vodka and a tiny bit of propel. Wow, strong! We packed up some snacks and jumped in cabs to head over to Soldier Field.

There is a concert outside of Soldier Field during the afternoon that you can sit outside and listen to. We got there in time to hear Luke Bryan and downed our drinks.

In the concert, the line-up was Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, Sugarland and then of course, Kenny. We missed the Lady A concert... even though we were probably in the stadium, we could not find our seats. It took us over a half hour to figure out where they were. Soldier Field is SO confusing! But, once we found them, they were really awesome, we even had padded seats! : )

Lots of beers were consumed! The music was great! And after such a crappy rainy start to the day, the weather could not have been more perfect for the whole concert!

A few pics...





Here are the rest of the pics from the day (click on the pic below and it should take you to the album):

Kenny Chesney Concert

Random

A few random things from my week:

I was looking up info on getting married and legal issues and whatnot and saw that first cousins are allowed to marry in Illinois, as long as they are over age 50. Interesting. Guess that's when they figure you won't have kids anymore

I'm really hoping today is an indication that the weather is going to get better. Is it June or January!?!? I'm really sick of the rainy cold... bring on the sun, please!

My office is doing a Rock Paper Scissors Tournament... yeah, strange, I know. Networking, meeting more people, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I have always sucked at RPS. I never win. Usually, it's for something important, like who has to take the trash out or who is paying for dinner and I am just about the unluckiest person I know. (On a side note, I am also horrible at credit card roulette, but that's another story!) So, we had round one this week of the tourney and I actually won and made it to round two. Amazing. Of course, one person in my round one group forfeited, so I had a little bit of an advantage. I'm now ranked 19th out of 126 people. Bring on round two!!!

Matt and I had dinner on Tuesday night at Jaipur, this new Indian restaurant on Randolph. We started off with veggie Samosa and then each had a different lamb dish. I had Lamb Rogan Josh and Matt had Lamb Vindaloo. I really liked the food and ate way too much. I was feeling a bit over-stuffed afterwards. I think we'll go back there for dinner to change things up every now and again. One can only go to the Beer Bistro so many times. : )

I haven't been able to find my watch all week... I'm beginning to think it is gone for good. : ( I am so used to having it on my wrist, that I feel naked without it. I even shake my hand like I usually do when the watch gets stuck too high on my arm... and nothing is even on my wrist! It's like I feel it's there and it's not. Scary.

I have been watching I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here. I actually DVR it so I can skip through all the boring chit chat of the hosts. It's funny that they call them "celebrities"... Matt was like "who are these people?" Anyway, the show is entertaining enough. Some of the challenges go a little overboard, like when they had to get stars from holes in the dirt and there was a rat in one that chewed up Lou Diamond Phillips' hand to pieces. He pulled his hand out and it was covered in small bleeding bites. Disgusting! He had to leave the challenge to see the doc... what did the producers think would happen when you stick flesh in a hole with hungry rats?!? Anyway, I agree with Andy, Patti is doing a good snow job on everyone with her woe is me act. She turned on the tears last night. But, I thought it was funny when Janice tried to comfort her and she wanted nothing of that. I think Janice is so nasty and just really not all there. Hello, you stole a granola bar on camera and then acted like you knew nothing about it! And you PEED right next to your bed in the middle of the night on camera... yuck! Lou Diamond Phillips cracks me up in this show... it's like he's the Dad on an after-school special or something. Based on what Sanjaya said last night, I don't think I'm the only one that feels this way. ; )

I'm glad it's Friday! We are going to the Kenny Chesney concert at Soldier Field tomorrow and to the Cubs game on Sunday. Cross your fingers that the weather cooperates!

Weekend stuff

So, we started off last week thinking we didn't have much going on for the weekend... but we ended up with a busy few days.

Friday night, we met up with Erin, Ross and Brett for dinner and drinks at O'Callaghan's. A coworker of Erin's was having a b-day pub crawl and that was one of the stops. And in the "it's a small world" department, one of his friends is an actuary for Hewitt. So, of course, we did the "oh, do you know so-and-so" routine for a little bit. Turns out we knew a few of the same people. He's friends with my friend from high school (also my college roommate), Heidi and her husband. He also works with a friend of Matt's.

On Saturday, while Matt headed off to the Sox game for tailgating, etc., etc., I trekked up to Margate Park to play a little flag football. A friend of mine from work, Tina, needed a sub for her team, so I played. This was Round 1 of the playoffs for them, but they were in either 9th or 10th place and were playing the 9th or 10th place team. So, not super cut-throat. We lost 26-18. I caught a touchdown pass! : ) It's probably good thing we didn't win, because we would've had to play the 1st place team right after that. They would have massacred us!

Matt had a fun time at the Sox game... his only text message to me all day was "I love hot dogs". Yep, classic. When he got home, we had dinner and he could barely keep his eyes open. A little overserved... maybe! He crashed at about 9pm and slept for 12 hours!

On Sunday, we drove to Valpo, Indiana to BJ and Dana's house for a BBQ... they were celebrating BJ's b-day and Dana's graduation. Lots of good food and a marathon bags tournament. Fun times!

Of course, I dragged my camera around with me all weekend and didn't take a single picture. Matt's aversion to the camera has definitely had an effect on me!

Lots-a-pink!

Last night, Hany and her 'girls' and she likes to call us bridesmaids (me, Jane and Erin) went shopping for bachelorette party supplies. We're doing a pink theme for the party, so we got all things pink that we could find. Pink leis, beads, buttons, plates, napkins, glowing rings, etc. and we also got the typical penis products (drink stirrers, veil with mini-penises, you get the idea). We did NOT buy a blow-up doll, even though Erin threatened Hany that she would be carrying one around all night. None of us really wants to see that. Plus, we are next... we don't want any sort of evil payback coming our way. : )

We had quite a lot of fun at the party store looking through all the stuff they have. I can't wait for the party!

On a side-note, Matt has already informed me he is gettin' the heck out of Dodge the weekend of this bachelorette party. He doesn't want to be anywhere near all the girl fun. And he probably doesn't want to see our place decked all out in pink and penises! : )

Uneventful week

So, really nothing too exciting is going on this week.

Matt and I finally finished the last season of Grey's Anatomy, so we're all caught up. Watching those shows back to back is rough. They are all so sad! It's like I need a break in between... maybe throw in an episode of the Golden Girls or something! : )

Last night, Matt and I decided to give Decero another shot for dinner. We've had little luck with this place... TERRIBLE service. The food is alright, but the guac is really good. The reviews are all positive, so we must be missing something, right? We got there and it was a half hour wait for a table, so we bailed. I guess they'll have to redeem themselves to us another day. Instead, we went to the old stand-by, Beer Bistro. Of course, we pick the worst night of the week to go (in terms of the specials they have). $2 cans + no food specials. Oh well. As usual, we managed to spend twice as much on alcohol as we did on food.

I came into work early today for a conference call with the Netherlands... but it got canceled. Awesome. This is the second time that's happened for this particular conference call.

We found out today our flights to the Bahamas had a schedule change. Our flight there was supposed to leave early from Chicago and get us to the Bahamas by noon. Now, they've changed it so we leave four hours later, have a longer layover in Miami and get into the Bahamas by 5pm. Not awesome. I hate feeling like I'm traveling all day to get somewhere... especially somewhere that doesn't require you to have to travel all day to get to. This isn't Europe, people!

Cubs win... although, we didn't actually see it

On Saturday, Matt and I met up with Ross and Erin at a "Cubs rooftop without a view" party. It was on a rooftop, in Wrigleyville, all-u-can eat/drink... but the view of the ballpark was just a sliver. It used to be better until the building next door decided to build upwards and block the view of this building. Oh well. The good thing is that this rooftop doesn't have to follow the ballpark rules like the other rooftops are... like stop serving alcohol after 7th inning, kick everyone out right at the end of the game. So, we got to stick around a little longer.

Anyway, the day ended up being gorgeous and warm, much warmer than I thought when I got dressed in jeans and layers earlier. I even took a jacket with me... what was I thinking?!?

Ross, Matt, Erin and I on the bleachers... we got a prime spot were you could actually see Wrigley!


Phil and Ross


Matt and me


Erin and Ross


About the 8th inning, the birds thought the game should've been over (it did start later than normal, I guess) and descended on Wrigley ready to scavenge for leftover nachos, hot dogs, etc. I think they were mad people were still there. It was kind of crazy! I didn't get that great of a picture of it, though.

You can see the birds circling above at the top of the picture... there were tons of them!


Cubs win!


The HUGE pizza slice Erin got... may have been why she felt so yucky later!


Afterwards, we went to the Purple Otter for wings (Matt had been craving them all day!) There was a big send-off for Roy at the PO, since he is leaving for the Peace Corps in a week... going to Moldova. Yeah, I had to look that up, I'd never heard of it. Best of luck to him!

Long day of lots of drinking and eating. Matt and Ross may have been a bit overserved ; ) We all had a great time!