Friday night

On Friday night, Hany and I met up with Theresa for dinner at Forno Diable (across from Duffy's) on Diversey & Sheridan. They have pretty decent food and $5 Absolut martinis on Friday nights. Hany and I weren't able to make it to Theresa's baby shower in February, so we wanted to catch up with her and give her the gifts we bought for her new daughter, Lauren. Lauren was born in January, two months early... but is now home from the hospital and doing just great.

Afterwards, I came back to Matt's house where the data team party was in high gear. Lots of drinking, Wii, pizza-eating, etc. had been going on while I was at dinner. I made it to Matt's just in time for the banana splits. Score!

One of the guys, Dan, was celebrating a birthday, so his banana split was extra special.



We played Guitar Hero and Wii Olympics - swimming (I'm horrible at that), running (again, horrible), trampoline (a little bit better at that), and skeet shooting (just plain awful at that).

The party wrapped up around midnight after the last rounds of Guitar Hero. Very fun time. : )

Getting closer to Friday...

Nothing too exciting to report this week... just typical stuff.

My parking situation

Parking on the street is no fun... well, at least in Matt's neighborhood lately it isn't. It used to be so easy, but now it's a pain to find a spot that is close to where I want to be and that isn't metered. I've parked my car in Matt's garage a few times... and then been too lazy to move it to the street later and ended up with crazy parking fees. Not smart.

There are 3 parking spots right down the street from where Matt lives that are absolutely perfect... because they are free and super close. I can actually see the spots from Matt's window. There used to be meters there, but for some reason they were removed and the curb was never painted yellow at those spots, so they are just free parking spots right on the street in the middle of all the metered spots. For a while, no one else would park there because they didn't know if the spots were legal or not... so that was like my personal parking spot. Not so much anymore... people have figured it out. And today, I saw that they are starting to put meters back up there. I guess the city figured it out, too. I knew it couldn't last forever. : (

The garage at Matt's building has a sign up that says they have monthly parking available, so I called the number to find out how much it was. I was given another number to call because the first one isn't exactly the right number... this went on for a few days. I actually called 4 different numbers. The last guy I talked to says to me "I don't know nothin' 'bout that." Huh?!? It was like I had called Pizza Hut and asked how much a Big Mac was. Finally, I just walked to the office in the parking garage and spoke to someone in person. The guy was like "I'll have to check if we have any spots available, I'll put you on the list". Ummm... what about that big sign you have set out that says "Monthly Parking Available". Yeah, they have some spots, but he just doesn't know much about it. Ummm... doesn't he work in this office??? What kind of show are these guys running around here? I wish I could do that at my job and still get paid! He gave me his business card and told me to email him... which I did and still haven't heard anything back from him. UGH!

Volleyball

We lost last night in three close games... very disappointing. We played the #1 team who are undefeated and remain that way. We were in second place, but probably won't be anymore. I'll blame Erin, since she was out of town and missed the game. jk : )

Four Shadows & Euchre

After v-ball we went to Four Shadows to grab a quick bite to eat. Also, because I wanted to check out the results of the big Euchre finals. : ) Brett & Deb's team (Nice to Meet You) were playing against Fubar & Bryan's team (Sigournery's Beaver). {Sidenote: Brett & Deb were in last place in the regular season and managed to make their way to the championship game in the playoffs!} I guess it was a good match... went to three games with lots of loners... Fubar and Bryan ended up the victors. And to the victors go the trophies... which of course say "Outstanding Poker Player", similar to the one Matt won when he was in the euchre league. Nice.

Sunday

Sunday, Matt and I met up with my Dad, sis and brother for lunch at Pete's Pizza. That stuff is sooooo good! They were finishing moving my brother's things to his new place.

After Pete's, Matt and I went to run a few errands to get ready for his data-team party... he invited over the people he's been working with on a big project at work for pizza, drinks, Wii, etc. The party is this coming Friday. So, our first stop was the Crate & Barrel Outlet for some wine & drink glasses and a chip-n-dip bowl... found everything and the prices were great.

Next stop: Sam's Liquors - time to stock the bar... believe it or not, actuaries can drink! : ) That place is overwhelming... so many bottles of wine and alcohol, we didn't know where to start. Since neither Matt or I are wine connoisseurs, we just looked at the bottles and picked out 3 whites and 3 reds that looked interesting. Then Matt grabbed the basic hard liquors - tequila, 3 kinds of vodka, Jack Daniels, Baileys, etc. and picked up some different kinds of beer. There was a guy doing taste tests for this liquer called Vana Tallinn, so we stopped to chat with him for a minute. He was bored because he said no one was even trying the stuff... so, of course, we couldn't just walk by him. He made us each do a little shot of the stuff and then try 3 different drinks he had made with it. We actually liked it a lot, but didn't buy any. I'm glad I had the big pizza lunch or else I could have ended up buzzed!

Here's the cart with all the goodies:



I just saw these things and thought they were funny... Pizza Beer (brewed with Oregano, Basil, Tomato & Garlic) and some sort of alcohol in a machine gun:


Anyone up for a drink???



This is Matt's favorite purchase... big bottle of Belvedere! That oughta make a lot of martinis! : )



The best part about Sam's Liquors is the free membership program where you get cool benefits... we aren't exactly sure, but a lot of the stuff Matt bought was discounted further and we think it's from signing up for the card. Like $10 off the Jack Daniels and $$ off the bottles of wine... very cool!

After we got back from Sam's, Matt taught me how to play Guitar Hero... and I'm addicted! I played for a few hours and my hand actually hurt!

Sunday night, we had bowling... our team (Erin, Brett, Brandon and me) swept the other team. We are in second place right now. I bowled pretty crappy, though. I think it may have been all that Guitar Hero!

Garcia's and The Gage

Saturday I spent a lot of the day catching up on laundry. Good times. I think I may have taken a nap and watched a Lifetime movie at some point as well. Matt was working all day. I made it outside in the beautiful weather a few times and I couldn't believe how warm it was... why can't it just stay like this?!?!

I didn't even realize that my Dad was planning to come up to Chicago to bring my brother his new couches. My brother is almost all moved into my sister's old condo in Uptown. It's quite an upgrade from his studio. I met up with them for dinner at one of my favorite Lincoln Square Mexican restaurants... Garcia's. The food is pretty good and the price is even better. Huge burritos for $6.



After dinner, Erin and I headed downtown to one of her coworker's birthday parties. Suzanne was turning 30 and had rented out the Theodore Ascher Room of The Gage Restaurant. It's basically the whole basement bar area... the place is really nice. Suzanne hired a band (the Additives) and also had a DJ for when the band was on break. The band was really good... played a lot of their own stuff and also threw some great songs in there that everyone knew.

Here's the birthday girl:


They had an awesome cake with strawberries in the middle. It had a picture of her as a kid on it... too cute!



The place was rather expensive... I ordered a glass of wine for me and a Miller Lite bottle for Erin and it came to $18. Geesh! I saw that they had all these Belgian beers (with the appropriate glasses to serve them in!). I checked out the menu to see how much they were and... whoa! Every beer was like $12-$14. Totally makes me miss L'Aca, the 24-7 bar in Brussels, Belgium where we spent WAY too many hours and a Chimay was like 3 Euros... not $14!!!

FMBC and Beer

Friday morning, I brought in the breakfast I had made the night before. I think the muffins all turned out good. And the Spec K bars were also very good... very sweet, but I just love those things.



Friday night, Matt and I went up to the Reuters place for another (impromptu) beer tour of the world. Michelle made chili and cornbread for us. Instead of the cornbread, Matt dipped his peanut butter (just pb, no jelly) sandwich into his chili... it's his favorite way to eat chili. He even brought his own peanut butter!

On this beer tour, we 'visited' Denmark (Carlsberg), Poland (Tyskie), the Czech Republic (Pilsner Urquell), Jamaica (Red Stripe), Russia (Cooler), China (Tsingtao), Thailand (Signha) and Kenya (Tusker)... and of course the US (Coors Light or Old Style).



Well, not ALL of us made it around the world... I passed out in China!



Oh, yeah... thanks to Matt for taking this picture of me!

Happy Birthday to KT

Last night, after the breakfast cooking was all done, Matt and I met up with Hany, Jane and a few other people for KT's 30th birthday party (she's a friend of Hany's from her old Mercer days). She's a big fan of karaoke, so she picked Friar Tucks for her party (they have karaoke on Wed and Thurs nights).



On a sidenote, the last time I hung out with KT was also at Friar Tucks on a Thursday night. She had some guys buying her so many drinks that the bartender gave us these little gnomes to hold onto that we could turn in later for the rest of the drinks the guys had bought once we were finished with the ones we had. That has disaster written all over it! We sang a few songs... I don't even remember what they were. I'm sure I sounded just like a rockstar. I think I ended up "working from home" the next day. : )

Anyway, last night was more low-key because I knew I had to be at work early on Friday to bring in the breakfast stuff. So, we had a few drinks. Our friend Theresa was there... she just had a little baby girl (Lauren) in January, so it was great to see her again. Here's a pic of all of us:

Me, KT, Hany, Theresa and Jane



Hany belts out "Like a Prayer"



As is tradition at Friar Tucks, when you are celebrating a b-day, they make you do a shot of Jaeger out of a sheep's back-end. Nice, huh!



Unfortunately (or fortunately for the people at the bar, I guess), I never got to sing a song. : ( It took me a while to get enough (liquid) courage to decide to sing and then pick a song. By the time my name was called, I was gone.

Slacking

So, I have been totally slacking on the blogging lately. Not that anyone is missing out on anything exciting. Here's a quick recap of the week...

Sunday night our team bowled really well. We swept the other team who seemed to be having an off night. We also played the bowling poker game... you get a card for every mark and at the end of the game whoever has the best hand wins the pot. So, the first game Brandon wins easily. The second game I thought I was doing well. I got three marks early in the game and drew 3 Aces... how lucky is that?!? Not lucky at all when your brother gets 5 marks and draws a full house! I lost that one. Then, last game Erin does awesome bowling and wins the poker game. Brandon starts to say, "well at least we all won something"... but stopped because he realized they had all won MY money, I won nothing. Next week is my week!

Aftermath of the Shamrock Shuffle... my legs were killing me the day after and I was starting to come down with a cold. Who would have thought running 5 miles in the rain and cold when you haven't really run more than 2 miles in the past few weeks would be a bad idea? : )

Speaking of the Shamrock Shuffle, the official race pictures are finally available. So, I took a look yesterday... out of the FOUR pictures of me crossing the finish line, I have my eyes closed in EVERY single one of them. How is that possible?!?! Matt's turned out good.


I haven't been watching the Biggest Loser the whole season, but I've been catching up with it lately. This week, Erin and I were watching it and holy cow... I can't believe how much weight these people have lost. And how emotional the show is (those two brothers... get out the kleenex!). I was getting pretty 'misty' watching it (as Matt would say).

Last night (Wed) we played our weekly volleyball game... won all three games. The team we played wasn't all that bad, so the games were at least competitive.

After volleyball, Erin, Eric and I went to Four Shadows to grab dinner and a few drinks. Who do we run into? Brett was there playing in the euchre league... it was the semi-finals. His team was seeded last. But, while we were there, they won their first match and advanced on. And once we got home, we got a text from him saying they won their second match, too. So, I think they are headed to the finals next week... not bad! Congrats Brett & Deb!!! : )

Tonight (Thurs), I am cooking up some stuff for the FMBC (Friday Morning Breakfast Club). I decided on muffins and Special K bars. Well, that's Plan A. If something doesn't turn out so great, I will use the back-up plan... Dominick's bakery. : )