This has been a busy week! I'm so glad it is finally Friday!
I'll start with Sunday night... Matt defeated me at bowling. It wasn't even close. I tanked in the last game. I was just totally wiped out from the weekend... that's my excuse. : ) Actually, our whole team was wiped out - Erin and I from the weekend in Lake Geneva, Brett and Ross from Ross' bachelor party. It was the first time we ordered a pitcher of pop for every pitcher of beer we had!
Monday morning (bright and early!), I dragged myself out of bed and went to bootcamp. Ugh. That was a rough one, because it's starting to get warmer and more humid outside and we workout on the roof of the gym. Plus, the a/c in the gym hadn't cooled the place off yet, so when we ran the stairs, it was like a sauna in there!
Then, I got swamped with a project at work and the next few days were kind of a blur of forecasts and spreadsheets. I'm amazed at how much I can get done while practically asleep! Just hope it's correct! ; )
Yesterday, another early morning at the gym for bootcamp. I think she was trying to kill us since we don't have class on Memorial Day. I was feeling a little nauseous by the end of class.
The JPM Chase Corporate Challenge (3.5 mile run/walk) was last night and our company had about 50-60 people participating. Matt and I both ran in it (along with about 20,000 other people!) The start of the race is kind of a free-for-all. People don't necessarily line up in their correct time slots. So, the first half mile I spent dodging slow walkers and runners and watching out for faster runners trying to pass me. I almost face-planted once when an over-zealous runner tripped me while he tried to snake his way through the traffic. I ended up finishing in less than 38 minutes. Matt did well and finished around 28 minutes. One guy we work with finished in 20:14 = super fast!
After the race, we hung out at our company's tent and had a few beers. We grilled out hot dogs and burgers. Yum!
By the time I got home last night, I was totally beat. I slept like a rock! I almost always wake up at some point in the night, but last night I don't think I even moved from the time my head hit the pillow! : )
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Bachelorette!
No, I'm not talking about Ali Fedotowsky!
This past weekend, a bunch of ladies trekked up to Lake Geneva to celebrate Erin's last days as a single gal! : )
We rented a 50's themed house with some pretty interesting decorations.
The Marilyn Monroe room
We spent a lot of time chatting and drinking and eating and enjoying the warm sunny weather... a perfectly relaxing weekend!
On Saturday, we started off with quesadillas and margaritas courtesy of Erin's friend from college, Jamie. For some strange reason, there was a large number of shower caps at the house, so Jamie threw one on and played the role of lunch lady! : )
Cheers! Erin with her "bling" bride chalice!
After lunch, we headed out for a boat ride on Geneva Lake. It was so nice to get some sun! We really lucked out with the weather!
We made a pit stop at Gordy's for a quick shot
We threw Erin a little party at the house in the afternoon. She got a lot of fun gifts for her honeymoon! : )
Group photo (gotta love self-timers!)
The garage had some interesting decorations too!
We had dinner at Bistro 220, which is on the second floor of an old colonial looking home. Good food, but slow service. Luckily, we weren't in a hurry!
We ended the night at Carvetti's out in the beer garden. Such a nice night!
This past weekend, a bunch of ladies trekked up to Lake Geneva to celebrate Erin's last days as a single gal! : )
We rented a 50's themed house with some pretty interesting decorations.
The Marilyn Monroe room
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We spent a lot of time chatting and drinking and eating and enjoying the warm sunny weather... a perfectly relaxing weekend!
On Saturday, we started off with quesadillas and margaritas courtesy of Erin's friend from college, Jamie. For some strange reason, there was a large number of shower caps at the house, so Jamie threw one on and played the role of lunch lady! : )
Cheers! Erin with her "bling" bride chalice!
After lunch, we headed out for a boat ride on Geneva Lake. It was so nice to get some sun! We really lucked out with the weather!
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We made a pit stop at Gordy's for a quick shot
We threw Erin a little party at the house in the afternoon. She got a lot of fun gifts for her honeymoon! : )
Group photo (gotta love self-timers!)
The garage had some interesting decorations too!
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We had dinner at Bistro 220, which is on the second floor of an old colonial looking home. Good food, but slow service. Luckily, we weren't in a hurry!
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We ended the night at Carvetti's out in the beer garden. Such a nice night!
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Thursday, May 20, 2010
2 down, 10 to go
My sister decided to sign us up for a beach-body bootcamp class at our gym, so we could get ready for 1) her wedding and 2) our trips: hers = honeymoon in St. Lucia, mine = Greek Islands!
The class meets at 6:30am on Mondays and Thursdays on the rooftop of our gym. Getting up early enough on a Monday to be at the gym by 6:30am ready to workout is tough! Actually, I'm not an early bird, so Thursday is no picnic either.
The day after Monday's bootcamp class, I was in a world of hurt. I told Matt it felt like someone beat me with sticks. I was finally feeling better this morning... just in time for the second class, of course. I hope I can move tomorrow! : )
The class meets at 6:30am on Mondays and Thursdays on the rooftop of our gym. Getting up early enough on a Monday to be at the gym by 6:30am ready to workout is tough! Actually, I'm not an early bird, so Thursday is no picnic either.
The day after Monday's bootcamp class, I was in a world of hurt. I told Matt it felt like someone beat me with sticks. I was finally feeling better this morning... just in time for the second class, of course. I hope I can move tomorrow! : )
Monday, May 17, 2010
1 pothole, 2 flat tires, 1 not-so-happy husband
Sunday started off great... sunny, beautiful, we had breakfast at the Lincoln Restaurant. But, on our way back home, we hit a HUGE pothole with BOTH passenger side tires on Damen and Webster while turning to get onto the expressway. This thing was like a crater! Of course, a few seconds later, the car is wobbling and Matt knew something was not right.
We pulled off at Armitage and Matt started changing the tire.
At that point, the rear tire started hissing... and we just looked at each other like, really?!? So, Matt called up Andy and asked if we could borrow his spare tire to get us far enough to drop the car off at the shop. Of course, he came right over and helped us out (THANK YOU!!!)
Now, onto tire #2.
And we are good to go!
We pulled off at Armitage and Matt started changing the tire.
At that point, the rear tire started hissing... and we just looked at each other like, really?!? So, Matt called up Andy and asked if we could borrow his spare tire to get us far enough to drop the car off at the shop. Of course, he came right over and helped us out (THANK YOU!!!)
Now, onto tire #2.
And we are good to go!
Congrats to Michelle!
On Saturday night, we celebrated Michelle's graduation with a party at the PO.
Michelle wanted to liven things up a little, so she suggested we play a game of Disaster.
It started out with a small group of us...
And quickly grew into a game of "Double Disaster"!
9:31pm - the keg is dry, my friends.
And that was the end of Double Disaster, which was probably a good thing.
Later that night, Matt had a fierce case of the hiccups. He was trying everything to get rid of them.
Apparently, he got the most expensive spoonful of sugar ever = $1 million!
I think he ended up curing them with Ross' suggestion = bitters over lime(?).
We had a great time! We finished off the night with gyros (we don't live in Greektown for nothing!) Matt made friends with the cashier. He's always so friendly when he's been drinking. : )
Michelle wanted to liven things up a little, so she suggested we play a game of Disaster.
It started out with a small group of us...
And quickly grew into a game of "Double Disaster"!
9:31pm - the keg is dry, my friends.
And that was the end of Double Disaster, which was probably a good thing.
Later that night, Matt had a fierce case of the hiccups. He was trying everything to get rid of them.
Apparently, he got the most expensive spoonful of sugar ever = $1 million!
I think he ended up curing them with Ross' suggestion = bitters over lime(?).
We had a great time! We finished off the night with gyros (we don't live in Greektown for nothing!) Matt made friends with the cashier. He's always so friendly when he's been drinking. : )
I have the worst luck sometimes
On my way to flag football Saturday morning, I got stuck in a line of traffic behind this. Just awesome.Turns out there were quite a few tall boats going down the river to the harbor. It's a sign of summer! But also a pain in the neck!
After about 10 minutes, some guy got out of his car and asked the guy in the front of the line to move so we could turn left and get out of the mess. So, luckily, I was able to get moving again before the bridge was back down.
In other news, we ended up losing our flag football game. Bummer.
Cheers!
Friday night, Matt and I met up with some friends for a few drinks after work.
Matt requested a wall like this in our house... maybe if we have a basement one day! : )
We ended up at Adobo Grill for margaritas and mexican food.
Bring on the margaritas!
Um, I may have looked like this before I discovered the art of waxing!
Best guacamole... made tableside
He must have been feeling the margarita to let me get a pic with him!
Matt requested a wall like this in our house... maybe if we have a basement one day! : )
We ended up at Adobo Grill for margaritas and mexican food.
Bring on the margaritas!
Um, I may have looked like this before I discovered the art of waxing!
Best guacamole... made tableside
He must have been feeling the margarita to let me get a pic with him!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Countdown to the weekend...
A few more hours to go and the weekend will be under way! : )
This week was a quick one...
Volleyball playoffs started on Wednesday night. We ended up tied for 1st (but ranked 2nd, based on schedule) in the league this time. So, we had a pretty easy match-up the first round. Next Wednesday are the semi-finals and championship game... and one of our players is going to be out-of-town! Such a bummer!
Also, on Wednesday night, Matt got sucked into a marathon resident meeting with our condo association. They are planning some renovations to our building and we're looking at a special assessment sometime soon. Awesome. About half of the stuff they want to do is required, but some is elective. There's a big vote coming up to see what will be done now and what will be postponed.
Last night, Matt and I tried out a new restaurant by us. Well, it's not exactly new, but it's new to us! We went to Nia on Randolph. It's a Mediterranean tapas restaurant. We really liked the food. We shared five things: (1) arugula salad with panko encrusted goat cheese, (2) shrimp and avocado cold dish, (3) crab stuffed mushrooms, (4) lamb and feta meatballs, (5) baked goat cheese with garlic bread. The prices were pretty reasonable and they even gave us a $20 coupon to come back again. Sweet!
Oh, there was this really talkative woman at the bar telling these two other women about her fiance and how she had only known him 3 weeks and that he was cheating on her already because she read the text messages in his Blackberry. I'm not sure what was up with all that! Seriously, what is wrong with some people?!?
Ooohhh, my new Lill purse came in on Wednesday! I love it! I'll have to take a picture and post it!
Have a good weekend everyone!
This week was a quick one...
Volleyball playoffs started on Wednesday night. We ended up tied for 1st (but ranked 2nd, based on schedule) in the league this time. So, we had a pretty easy match-up the first round. Next Wednesday are the semi-finals and championship game... and one of our players is going to be out-of-town! Such a bummer!
Also, on Wednesday night, Matt got sucked into a marathon resident meeting with our condo association. They are planning some renovations to our building and we're looking at a special assessment sometime soon. Awesome. About half of the stuff they want to do is required, but some is elective. There's a big vote coming up to see what will be done now and what will be postponed.
Last night, Matt and I tried out a new restaurant by us. Well, it's not exactly new, but it's new to us! We went to Nia on Randolph. It's a Mediterranean tapas restaurant. We really liked the food. We shared five things: (1) arugula salad with panko encrusted goat cheese, (2) shrimp and avocado cold dish, (3) crab stuffed mushrooms, (4) lamb and feta meatballs, (5) baked goat cheese with garlic bread. The prices were pretty reasonable and they even gave us a $20 coupon to come back again. Sweet!
Oh, there was this really talkative woman at the bar telling these two other women about her fiance and how she had only known him 3 weeks and that he was cheating on her already because she read the text messages in his Blackberry. I'm not sure what was up with all that! Seriously, what is wrong with some people?!?
Ooohhh, my new Lill purse came in on Wednesday! I love it! I'll have to take a picture and post it!
Have a good weekend everyone!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Mother's Day Weekend
This past weekend, Erin and I drove home to Rochester for Mother's Day. Matt went to Indiana to celebrate the Bontragers' retirement with a golf scramble and dinner.
Erin and I got home in time for dinner Friday night, so we all headed out for Mexican food. My mom had a huge margarita which knocked her out - she was asleep about 10 minutes after we got home from dinner! : )
On Saturday, we got up early and drove over to Quincy to visit my grandma. I brought a bunch of pictures and the video from my wedding to show her. There was a DVD player in the lounge (aka the 'Bird Room' - they have a glass case full of birds and the residents sit and watch the birds fly around).
The bird room was entertaining - these little guys were super cute! They didn't leave each other's side the whole time we were there!
We also went to the Mother's Day Tea at her retirement home. There wasn't actually any tea, but they had cake and punch and a piano player.
I realized later we never got a pic of all four of us together. I'm so bummed!
After that, we met up with Chuck, June, my Dad and Brett for dinner at Kriegers.
On Sunday morning, Dad made us one of his famous pancakes and sausage breakfasts. And then Erin and I took Mom out shopping. We all ended up with a few new goodies! : )
We visited for a bit with our old neighbor, Regina, and her granddaughter Keely, who is going to be one of Erin's flower girls. Keely tried on her flower girl dress for us and showed us how she can twirl in it. Too cute!
Then, we were on the road again back to the Chi... the weekend went by way too fast!
Erin and I got home in time for dinner Friday night, so we all headed out for Mexican food. My mom had a huge margarita which knocked her out - she was asleep about 10 minutes after we got home from dinner! : )
On Saturday, we got up early and drove over to Quincy to visit my grandma. I brought a bunch of pictures and the video from my wedding to show her. There was a DVD player in the lounge (aka the 'Bird Room' - they have a glass case full of birds and the residents sit and watch the birds fly around).
The bird room was entertaining - these little guys were super cute! They didn't leave each other's side the whole time we were there!
We also went to the Mother's Day Tea at her retirement home. There wasn't actually any tea, but they had cake and punch and a piano player.
I realized later we never got a pic of all four of us together. I'm so bummed!
After that, we met up with Chuck, June, my Dad and Brett for dinner at Kriegers.
On Sunday morning, Dad made us one of his famous pancakes and sausage breakfasts. And then Erin and I took Mom out shopping. We all ended up with a few new goodies! : )
We visited for a bit with our old neighbor, Regina, and her granddaughter Keely, who is going to be one of Erin's flower girls. Keely tried on her flower girl dress for us and showed us how she can twirl in it. Too cute!
Then, we were on the road again back to the Chi... the weekend went by way too fast!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Hump day
Nothing much to report today...
Matt and I won the lottery! Yep, we are now $3 richer. Too bad we paid $5 for the tickets.
May is Belgian Beer month at Binny's! Awesome... looks like someone is going to be making a trip to Binny's very soon!
Matt and I were looking through our summer weekends and we have very few left free. Gotta love summer! So busy, makes up for the crappy winter months when all you want to do is hibernate!
I've booked one hotel so far for our Greece trip, still working on the others. We've decided to go to Athens (yeah, I know - scary, considering the news today about the protests... but, hey, Chicago's not like the epitome of safe either), then to Mykonos, Paros, Santorini and back to Athens. I'm looking forward to the beaches and relaxing! Oh, and the Greek food! : )
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Matt and I won the lottery! Yep, we are now $3 richer. Too bad we paid $5 for the tickets.
May is Belgian Beer month at Binny's! Awesome... looks like someone is going to be making a trip to Binny's very soon!
Matt and I were looking through our summer weekends and we have very few left free. Gotta love summer! So busy, makes up for the crappy winter months when all you want to do is hibernate!
I've booked one hotel so far for our Greece trip, still working on the others. We've decided to go to Athens (yeah, I know - scary, considering the news today about the protests... but, hey, Chicago's not like the epitome of safe either), then to Mykonos, Paros, Santorini and back to Athens. I'm looking forward to the beaches and relaxing! Oh, and the Greek food! : )
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Lazy Sunday
Friday night, we met up with Ross, Erin and Brett for dinner at PJ Clarkes and then saw Hot Tub Time Machine. Fun flick!
On Saturday morning, I subbed again for my brother's flag football team. I am not a big fan of flag football. Probably because I'm not good at it. But, they needed a girl, so I went. The team won and we all celebrated with a drink and some food afterwards at The Rail (by Damen and Lawrence).
As Matt and I were just about home after lunch, like on Randolph getting ready to turn left onto Halsted... the cops shut down Halsted. We were literally behind the last car they allowed to go through! Bad luck! Then, there was a really long immigration march down Washington. So there really was no way for us to get our car in the parking garage of our building. We ended up parking on the street a few blocks away and walking home instead.
It went on forever!
Luckily, it was over before our meter ran out! For the rest of Saturday, we relaxed at home and got caught up on our DVR.
This morning, Matt and I went over to Grant Park for brunch. We ate outside at the Park Grill. Matt had the most interesting bloody mary I've seen! Yep, that's a shrimp, a stick of jerky, olives, a green bean, celery, a lime and a lemon in there! Matt loved it!
We walked around a bit to enjoy the weather.
Then we walked back home. Now, we're spending a lazy Sunday afternoon napping and veggin' out by the tv. So nice! : )
On Saturday morning, I subbed again for my brother's flag football team. I am not a big fan of flag football. Probably because I'm not good at it. But, they needed a girl, so I went. The team won and we all celebrated with a drink and some food afterwards at The Rail (by Damen and Lawrence).
As Matt and I were just about home after lunch, like on Randolph getting ready to turn left onto Halsted... the cops shut down Halsted. We were literally behind the last car they allowed to go through! Bad luck! Then, there was a really long immigration march down Washington. So there really was no way for us to get our car in the parking garage of our building. We ended up parking on the street a few blocks away and walking home instead.
It went on forever!
Luckily, it was over before our meter ran out! For the rest of Saturday, we relaxed at home and got caught up on our DVR.
This morning, Matt and I went over to Grant Park for brunch. We ate outside at the Park Grill. Matt had the most interesting bloody mary I've seen! Yep, that's a shrimp, a stick of jerky, olives, a green bean, celery, a lime and a lemon in there! Matt loved it!
We walked around a bit to enjoy the weather.
Then we walked back home. Now, we're spending a lazy Sunday afternoon napping and veggin' out by the tv. So nice! : )
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