The last few days

Thursday night, Matt and I went to the Holiday Bar and Grill for dinner... thanks to Chuck and June! Love that place!

Friday night, I met up with Hany and Erin for dinner at Sweetwater. Seems like forever since we got together and caught up.

On our way home, we saw one of the most awful things I've ever seen in real life. We were driving on Wacker drive and our light was green. We were in the middle lane of traffic and the car in front of us stopped. There was a girl walking across the crosswalk even though the light was green (and she had a DON'T WALK). I'm not sure if she had headphones on or what, but she had no clue that she shouldn't be walking. Well, a few seconds later, a car came driving through the lane next to us and didn't see her and hit her! The girl flew up in the air like a rag doll, head over feet and fell to the ground. She was not moving and Erin kept saying "oh my god, she's dead!" Some guy ran over and started slapping her and I guess he must have revived her, because a few seconds later, she was breathing again (it was cold, so we could see her breath). By sheer luck, there was a cop on the other side of the street that saw everything and immediately came over. The girl who hit her stopped her car, ran over and was hysterical. I would be, too. We were there for a few minutes, but then they started moving traffic again. We left before the ambulance came. We read online that she was taken to the hospital in serious-to-critical condition, but that her injuries were no longer life threatening. They cited the driver of the car for hitting a pedestrian, even though the light was green.

I always wonder how often people get hit by cars in the city. People walk across roads all the time without thinking. If someone in front of them goes, they think that it's ok to walk and just follow. Ugh, so sad.

On Saturday, I ran some errands in the morning and took a long snooze in the afternoon. We met up with Erin and Ross for dinner at Nano Sushi that night. Ross is like Norm from Cheers there... Linda, the owner, loves him!

And then, of course, today was game day. What a disappointment! We watched the game at the Purple Otter. Keely, Erin and I also played a couple games of Bananagrams during halftime. : ) We stuck around for the beginning of the next game... long enough for Matt to win the 1st quarter strip card game. Nice! Almost made up for the money we lost on the Bears game.

Clint's and Brian's jackets

Me and Matt at the PO

Wish I was there...

My Dad sent me this pic of him walking on the beach in Florida today... wouldn't it be nice to be there???

Wow... it's been awhile since I've been here!

I think this may be the longest I've gone without posting anything on here!

Work has been busy, especially for Matt. He finally got a break last weekend, which was great because my aunt June and uncle Chuck came up to Chicago for the weekend. We always have such a good time when they are in town!

On Saturday night, we went to Brownstone for some grub and to watch football. We stopped off at Keely's birthday party at The Pony for a few drinks. Erin was in one of her party moods and bought a round of shots for the party... danger!!!

This is what happens at our place after a night of drinking with Chuck...

Can you tell which one is real??? : )

Matt was able to get a couple Bears tickets, so he and Chuck put on tons of warm clothes and braved the cold and snow on Sunday. We kicked off the day with brunch, Bloody Marys and mimosas at our place. Andy and Matt skunked Chuck and I in euchre. Chuck and Matt said it wasn't too bad at the game sitting out in the cold. I'm sure the beer helped.

I met up with Erin, Ross, Brett and Kyle to watch the game indoors at the new brew pub by our house, Haymarket. It was packed! They didn't have enough tables, so they set up a table top on 2 empty kegs for us. A little shorter than the average table and maybe not as tip-resistant, but it worked great!

Taken from my iPhone, so not the best, but you get the gist!

I'm glad tomorrow is Friday! I'm looking forward to the weekend and getting caught up on laundry! Yes, I know that sounds very exciting, right??? : ) With the crazy cold weather we're getting, I will be hibernating inside!

Maze

So, how do you make the first day back to work after a long holiday suck even more??? You shut down a bunch of streets downtown and cause a major traffic disruption. And even more awesome than that, the streets are not opening back up for months.

I knew they were going to be shutting down parts of Wacker Dr. and changing Franklin to be a two-way street, but I didn't realize the impact it would have.

My bus ride that used to be a straight shot down Washington to get to work is now detoured to Monroe (a few blocks south). I work north, so that's no good. Looks like I'll be walking to work a lot more now.

But walking was kind of like a maze today... I didn't know which streets I could walk down and what bridge I could cross to get over the river. I'm pretty sure the path I took today will not be open tomorrow because they were still setting up big green fences. I walked right by a sign that said "Sidewalk Closed". I'm guessing tomorrow it really will be closed.

Fun times.

Holidays 2010

We had a very nice holiday, even though it flew by!

We started off in Indiana for Bob's retirement party. They put together a really nice video for the party. There were even some shots and video of Matt from high school. : )

We drove to Rochester the next day and hung out with my family. Lots of food, drinks and games. My mom and dad even beat Matt and me in euchre. I don't really know how that happened.

First of many games of Bananagrams

Everyone must have been really good this year because we all got a lot of nice gifts!

One of Matt's favorite xmas gifts!

Brett wraps his gifts up in old movie posters

Mom's new iPad

Brett and Matt with their new Bert hats

Matt loves his new Iowa hat!

We headed over to Quincy on Christmas afternoon. More fun times! Erik and Caroline flew in from Texas with their new baby Madeline. Such a sweet little girl!

Ross, Matt and Dad relaxing at Pat and Dan's house

Gramma and Chuck

As is tradition, the ladies had brunch together the day after Christmas. We brought my gramma with us so she could meet Madeline.

Gramma meeting little Madeline

She couldn't take her eyes off of her!

After brunch, we all met up at the casino for some holiday gambling. : ) I am not a big gambler, so I did a lot of watching. My mom and aunt Pat did really well. Matt played craps and blackjack and came out ok.

We drove back to Chicago Monday morning. It was a quiet week at work, which was nice.

We spent New Year's Eve at home this year, no big balloon drop or fancy party. A few friends stopped by before their dinner plans. Erin and Ross hung out with us for the night. We made pizzas and played games. They brought their new addition (Sofie) to party with us. She was surprisingly good at our condo... minus the dirt eating incident. She really liked our plants!

Erin and Ross getting their pizzas ready

Sofie enjoyed her first NYE

Me and Matt

Chuck made a guest appearance

Sofie partied a little too hard... she passed out before midnight!

Happy New Year! Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy 2011!

More holiday pics HERE... (password: mattstacia).

Let's get this holiday started!

Last night was a busy one at Chateau Plothow... lots of laundry, cleaning, wrapping of presents, packing for the trip home for the holidays... but, we're all set to head out today to start our tour of central IN/IL (aka Christmas).

Matt and I exchanged our xmas gifts last night as well. I must say that boy is a good gift-giver! He got me some DVDs and a gorgeous diamond necklace (love it)! In the frenzy of wrapping presents I accidentally wrapped up a present that was for my cousin Vickie and put Matt's name on it. When he went to open it, he said "this feels light" and I was thinking I had no idea what it was. I couldn't remember what I had bought him that would be light in that size box. Well, he opened it and looked at me and said "really?!?!" Oops! Hopefully, that's the only one I messed up! : )

Now, I'm just waiting for a file here at work that I have to process before I can leave today. Of course, I will probably get it at like 1:59 pm and Matt wants to leave "no later than 2 pm". Keeping my fingers crossed they get it to me soon!

Fun & busy weekend!

On Friday night, we hung out with the Wilken crew and ate some super tasty bbq from Smoque. Erin, Keely, Patty and I played quite a few games of Bananagrams while the guys hung out in Ross' man cave watching football. Of course, Sofie kept us all entertained with her unending energy. She's getting so big!

Look who got her xmas sweater early! Sofie's a Hawks fan!

I spent a lot of Saturday xmas shopping... that is quite tiring! And the stores were crowded - no fun! I managed to get home with THREE items that still had those darn security tags on them. I was NOT happy!

On Saturday night, we went with Ross and Erin to dinner at Carmichael's and to the Bulls game. Great food and company! : ) Too bad the Bulls couldn't pull off the win in the end!

Matt outside the United Center by Jordan

After a quick brunch at Flat Top Sunday morning, I was back out shopping. I think I finally got my Christmas shopping done! : ) I spent way too many hours at Macy's this weekend!

I'm really looking forward to Christmas and having a few days off to hang out with the fam! 3 more work days to go!