Tall Ships, Hot Day

My parents drove up to Chicago for a quick visit this past weekend. While Matt and I were out in the burbs Saturday night, they went to the Sox game. On Sunday, we ventured over to Navy Pier for the last day of the Tall Ships festival. Besides being about 1,000 degrees outside and packed with a bazillion people, it was a lot of fun. It was pretty cool to get to walk around on the boats.

Matt, Ross, Dad and Brett

Tall Ships and the Chicago skyline

We waited in line a LONG time, so we were having a little fun!

Bros-in-law

Family pic in front of The Bounty

Matt and me in front of The Bounty

Erin and Mom on The Bounty

Brett, Dad, Ross, Erin and Matt

Erin, Dad and me

More pics from the day are here (password is mattstacia).

Afterwards, we walked over to D4 to get some a/c and away from all the crowds of people. We downed large quantities of water and beer and cooled off. Then my parents headed back to Rochester.

Matt grilled out steaks, corn on the cob and sweet potatoes for dinner. Yum! And I crashed around 9:30pm!

20 Key Limes

That's how many little key limes I squeezed by hand on Saturday morning to get about 3/4 cup of key lime juice for this pie. And no, we do not have a lime squeezer or garlic press or anything that would have made the process easier. That's on the list to get. I probably could have run to the store, bought a lime squeezer and had the juice all squeezed in the time it took me to do it by hand. Oh well.

This was my first attempt at a key lime pie and I think it turned out pretty tasty. We went for dinner at a co-worker's house in the burbs and one of the other people going requested key lime pie for dessert (kind of just joking). So, I decided to give it a try. It was a big hit with him; he even took the leftovers home!

The dinner was fun, too. They grilled out pork loin and we had red-skin potatoes and grilled veggies... and LOTS of wine. All very good!

Sushi

On Friday night, we all checked out a new BYOB sushi restaurant, Nano Sushi. The waitress from Erin and Ross' favorite sushi joint (restaurant = Agami, waitress = Linda) opened this place not that long ago. It's right across the street from Celtic Crown on Western. We loved the sushi and Linda - she's like the cutest little thing!

Heat Wave - comes to the table on fire

TGIF

So glad it's Friday! I'm looking forward to the weekend... fun dinners planned with friends, my parents are visiting, the weather looks awesome, Taste of Greece is going on in my 'hood... bring it on! : )

An update on the "move"... Matt and I found out our seating arrangements at the new office. We will be on different floors now (somewhere Matt is smiling about this). Since our new office building has a lot more offices than our current one, a lot of people are getting upgraded from cubicles to offices. That includes both of us! : ) Of course, some of the people moving from that building to the one we're in now are going to be really unhappy. They will be getting demoted.

Having an office will be nice for the privacy factor, but it will be harder to just yell over at someone and ask them a question or have a quick conversation. I'm sure I'll manage just fine! : )

Cooking with Beer

Last night, a group of us went to Bespoke for another cooking class... this time it was "Cooking With Beer".

Menu for the night:
Appetizers: Beer dip with housemade chips AND Grilled ostrich skewers with beer-horseradish dip
Salad: Mixed greens with pears, walnuts and goat cheese dressed in wheat-beer vinaigrette
Entrée/Sides: Beer-brined pork chops with smokey baked beans and fennel-leek mashed potatoes
Dessert: Chocolate stout cakes

We broke up into groups and each cooked a different part of the meal with one of the chefs. John and Erin D. were on the beer dip team. Jeff, Ross, Brett and Brian were on the ostrich skewer team. Matt and Keely were on the entree team. Erin C. and I were on the dessert team.

Then at the end, the chefs served the meal to us in the dining room. We always have a lot of fun at these cooking parties! I think the amount of wine/beer consumed helps! : )

Of course, I had my camera...

Erin stirring away at the beer dip

Brian, Ross and Brett mixing up the ostrich meat

Matt and Keely seasoning the pork

Crazy eyes! Do we really want this guy cooking our food?!?!

Erin and I making the glaze for the chocolate cake

Self picture - Take 1

Self picture - Take 2 - Much better!

Group photo

I am an idiot

I left the office for about 20 minutes today to run an errand. When I got back, I could not log back into my computer. I could NOT get my password right! It's very similar to the passwords I use for Gmail and Yahoo mail and I kept trying different variations. I ended up locking myself out of my computer! Ugh!

About 15 minutes later and after a conversation with our help desk in Mumbai, I am back on.

And of course, 30 seconds after that, I remembered my password.

Matt and I are moving... offices!

At the beginning of this year, the company Matt and I work for merged with another company. Both companies are about the same size and both have locations in Chicago. We've been hearing rumors for a while about what they were going to do about relocating employees, but it was officially announced a week ago. The group Matt and I work in (Retirement Consulting) is moving to the other company's office building and other groups are moving over to the space we're currently in. And it's happening pretty quickly... Sept 24th! Our new office building is about a block farther of a commute, which isn't bad. We still live about a mile from work, which I love!

Now, the big question is... where will we sit in the new office??? Right now, Matt and I sit about 10 feet apart on opposite sides of a cubicle wall. I think Matt is ready to be a little bit farther away from me. : ) It would be nice to have conversations on the phone about him without him being able to overhear me! jk

We are supposed to find out the new seating arrangements this week.

Weekend in St. Louis

This past weekend, we went down to St. Louis to celebrate Mary and Bryan's wedding. It was a HOT weekend, but the wedding was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun! Matt was happy he got to spend his birthday at the casino - Pai Gow! Actually he spent almost as much time at the casino as he did in the hotel room!

Here are a few pics that I took...

Bagpipes and bubbles!

We clean up nice! : )

It's still strange to see me as a "Mrs."!

The happy couple!

A sleepy Samantha - so cute!

Happy Wedding - from Clint (he gave Bryan and Mary all singles!)

Andy sang The Humpty Dance!

Bootcamp = dunzo

This morning was the last day of the summer bootcamp Erin and I signed up for at our gym. I SOOOOOO wanted to bail and just stay in bed. I'm still recovering from our weekend in St. Louis for Mary & Bryan's wedding. (I took a few pics and will post those tonight once I download them from the camera.) But, I dragged my butt over there. Luckily, the weather was really nice and the class was bearable. I surely won't miss getting up so dang early on Mondays and Thursdays!

Oh, when I got up this morning there were a bunch of firetrucks over on Randolph. When I was coming back from the gym, it looked like the place that was on fire was Izumi, which is where Matt and I like to go for sushi. The fire must have been contained pretty quickly because the inside looked ok from what I could see. They had all the doors open and police tape around the sidewalk area and the police were inside walking around. I hope it's ok! Matt and I were just talking last night about how we hadn't been there in a while!

Happy Birthday!

Friday was Matt's birthday... yep, Friday the 13th! He was actually born on a Friday the 13th, too.

By the way, this picture was taken at Halloween and I can't help but chuckle when I see it! He was dressed up as a go-go dancer! The cowboy hat was part of Hany's costume, but I think it works with the outfit, right??? : )

Happy Birthday Matt!

One more thing...

If you want to see all of the pictures we took in Greece (or about 300 of them, at least), check out our shutterfly site. The password is "mattstacia". You don't need an account to see the pictures, just the password. There's also a link at the right. Enjoy!

Greece - Part 4 - Athens

Our last stop of the trip was back in Athens. We flew there from Santorini on Friday morning on Aegean Airlines. The flight was maybe 25 minutes air time, pretty quick. The plane was a regular size plane and was pretty full.

We took the metro from the airport to our hotel, The Royal Olympic. This place was super easy to find, right across the street from the Temple of Zeus. Great location!

The hotel was 5-star, but they had this section of "executive rooms" that were cheaper and probably more like 3-star. That's what I booked. But, when we got there, we got upgraded to a panorama room... which was awesome! The room was huge with a king bed (which was actually two twin beds pushed together), big bathroom, just really nice. And we had a huge window facing out to the Temple of Zeus (hence the "panorama" room).

Our room at the Royal Olympic

Huge bath tub! Yep, I made him do that!

Buttons on the nightstands that controlled everything in the room, even the curtains!

We walked around Athens a little, grabbed some lunch and then headed back to the hotel to hang out at the pool. We lucked out at the pool because two people were leaving as we got there, so we snagged their lounge chairs. Those things are not easy to get! And they were in the sun! (Half of of the pool gets shaded as the day goes on because the hotel blocks the sun.)

That night, we wandered around Athens before dinner. We came across this hill that had an amazing view of the city.

With Athens in the background

We had a couple of drinks at a bar in the Plaka and did a lot of people watching. Some little girl tried to "sell" us free roses and we couldn't figure out what the catch was. She was adament that they were free, but we didn't take them. Still wonder what that was all about.

Matt thought this would be a good time to do a shot of ouzo... our first and only shot of the trip! Afterwards the waiter brought us a shot of metaxa on the house. It was very sweet. That was our only shot of that stuff, too!

Danger!

We finished the night off at the rooftop bar at our hotel. It faced the Acropolis and Temple of Zeus, which are lit up nice at night. Very pretty view!

Saturday was our last full day of the trip. We spent the morning sightseeing. First stop - The Acropolis and The Parthenon. We wanted to get up there before it got too hot and too crowded. But, of course, that would have been maybe 8am, so we were already behind!

The Parthenon was amazing!

Matt and me

Did someone dump a bucket of water on Matt??? Nope, he's just a little bit sweaty!

There was marble on the ground in places, so when we were walking around it was slippery. Can't imagine what it would be like if it was raining. After that, we went to the new Acropolis Museum (ahhh... a/c again!). This place was built over the ruins of the ancient city, which they have excavated underneath. They have clear plastic floors in places so you can see the ancient city. Pretty neat!

Hard to see, but there is a cat down there in the "ancient city"... Matt says to me "must be Zeus' cat"! : )

The top floor of the museum is the Parthenon to scale and it describes all the statues and carvings that went around the top of the Parthenon. There was also a video describing the history and the changes in the Parthenon over the years. Very good museum!

Next stop of our sightseeing was to stroll through Monstiraki, which is a big flea market in Athens. There is everything and anything you could possibly want for sale there. I took a bunch of pictures, which annoyed Matt thoroughly, of course! : )

There were people with stands selling a bunch of crapola

And shops lined the streets with souvenirs and random things

Jewelry overload!

War gear, anyone???

Kind of reminded me of Camden Market in London. After walking through all that, we headed back to the Plaka and had a few beers, grabbed a snack and cooled off!

"Enough with the pictures, man!"

Can of Mythos beer + gyro = a happy husband

Last major stop of our sightseeing was the Temple of Zeus. It might have been because of the beers, but Matt decided to take over the good camera and we ended up with TONS of pictures of the Temple. We have two cameras - one nice Canon Rebel (the "good" camera) and one crappy small one (that's the one we hand to strangers to take pictures of us usually). I can really tell the difference looking at the pictures we took between the two cameras! Love that Canon!

Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the background

Me in front of the Temple of Zeus

Mr. Photographer!

Yep, we are dorks!

I turned around and Matt was gone! Can you see where he is? Back in the shade taking pics!

Matt and me in front of the Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the background

It was SO hot outside, so we finished the day off at the pool. That night, we met up with a coworker friend (Georgia) of ours that had been in Greece for the past few weeks visiting her family. They have a house in Athens and then another on an island. She comes every summer for a visit. She and her cousin picked us up and we met up with her family for dinner. It was a nice night and a perfect way to end our trip!

Sunday morning we had to get up super early to catch our flight to LHR. I was texting with my Dad and it was still Saturday night around 9pm for him. So strange! We had almost a 6 hour layover in LHR. We shopped, slept some, grabbed lunch, and made our final duty-free purchase (more Baileys!). Matt read an entire book during the layover.

Our flights went really well, we had an exit row again (score!). The plane had the personal tv touch screens so you can watch movies and pause them, rewind, etc. We made it home around 8pm, ordered pizza and crashed!

We had an amazing time on our trip! Beautiful weather, excellent food, lots of relaxing on the beaches... I'm ready to go back! : )

THE END

Greece - Part 3 - Santorini

On Thursday morning, we took another ferry from Paros to Santorini. This time the ferry was smaller and faster. It was called the Flying Cat 3. No cars or trucks, just people... and a lot of luggage!

The ferry stopped at Ios first, which is a total party island. Like Spring Break craziness all the time. On Mykonos, the party started at 1am. On Ios, the party starts at 1pm and goes all through the night. A lot of the young folks got off the ferry at this stop.

The hotel we stayed at on Santorini was near Oia (pronounced "e-ah") and called the Anoemessa Villa. The owner was named Irini and she was a total sweetheart. She made the place 100 times better! She arranged for someone to pick us up from the port and bring us to the hotel.

The cities here are built up high on the cliffs and the roads circle around them, literally right next to the edge of the cliff. I had to close my eyes a few times going around the corners on our ride to the hotel. I thought for sure we'd drop right off.

Oia

Our first day there, we just strolled around Oia, grabbed lunch at a place called Mezzo, and then veg'd out by the pool for a few hours. Oia was like a postcard.... the pictures don't do it justice!

One of the big things to do in Oia is walk to the end of the island and watch the sunset. We did this the first night, along with the hoards of other people. It was crazy packed! The sunset was beautiful, but it was pretty hazy.

Another sunset

Matt and me after the sunset

Getting back afterwards was a challenge!

We went to dinner at Neptune that night. Very good food and an excellent view!

At Neptune Restaurant in Oia

Our hotel included breakfast. They have a menu you order from and they bring it to your balcony every morning at whatever time you want. The food was really good! They had the best Greek yogurt that you mix with honey and fresh fruit. I loved it!

Our room was really cute - it was called a "maisonette" and it had a little kitchen area on the first floor and a lofted bed. Of course, the ceiling up there was low. I may have bonked my head a couple of times. And those ladder stairs take some getting used to.

Our "maisonette"

On Wednesday, we took the bus to Kamari Beach, the black sand beach. The sand was super hot!

Kamari Beach

Matt enjoying a Mythos on the beach

After spending the day at the beach, we cleaned up at the hotel and walked into Oia for dinner. We saw this dog just snoozing away on top of a building. So cute!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

We didn't brave the crowds to watch the sunset, so we went straight to Feredini Restaurant for dinner. The food was amazing, the setting was beautiful, the waiter was super friendly... it was one of our favorite dinners we had on our trip!

Feredini Restaurant in Oia

Thursday was our last full day on Santorini. We started off the day by going to the Boutari Winery. Not exactly what I expected, but it was a nice stop off. We saw a video presentation that we thought would be how they make wine, but it was an artsy type film with all sorts of pictures.

Since we were the only ones there at the time, the guy showed us around the experimental vineyard and the wine cellar. Then we got to taste a few wines.

The wine was pretty good!

This donkey stared us down and watched us walk by the entire time... creepy!

After the winery, we caught the bus to Red Beach. We waited for the bus a while and then it took a while to get near the beach. We weren't quite sure how to get to the beach from where the bus dropped us off. But we saw a bunch of people jumping in a water taxi so we did that.

About a half hour later, we actually ended up at the Red Beach. The water taxi was chaos. People jumping in and out of the boat, and it didn't stop at the Red Beach on the way out, so we had to ride the route to get to the beach. By the time we got there, we were so ready to be off that boat! We found the way to get back to the bus stop without taking the taxi.

Red Beach

View of Red Beach

We spent our last night on Santorini walking around Oia, stopping for a few drinks at Mezzo, and grabbing a bite to eat.

Hi Matt!

Oia at night

Santorini was gorgeous... just like a postcard! We loved it!

TO BE CONTINUED...