Blackhawks Rally

Took some good pics at the Blackhawk rally and thought I'd share!

This guy had a sweet Stanley Cup Costume on!
After the police cars and some sponsor floats, each team member had a trolley with his name on it. The trolley was filled with his family and friends, and these people were pretty darn excited!

Then came multiple double-decker buses, filled with Blackhawks players, management, and even some older players in their jerseys!


Byfuglien holds up a sweet wrasslin' belt.... BTW, this is pronounced "Bufflin"... wouldn't have figured that out on my own.
Not sure who this is?

Toews hoists the cup!!
More cup!
The crowd follows the parade down the street... so cool!
The parade was super cool... I don't know if I'd go to one again (esp on a hot muggy summer day) unless it was the Cubs, but it was great to get to experience at least once! One of those Chicago things, checked off the to-do list :)

Stratton Family Reunion 2010

This weekend we headed down to Brown County State Park in southern Indiana to get our family reunioning on!

I didn't get ANY pictures of little Gracie! I'm a little heartbroken about this, but she was only there on Saturday and was in the waterpark for much of it. And new Nikon baby doesn't go near the water. Gotta protect it near splashy kids!!

On Sunday after breakfast we take a ton of pictures before everyone takes off though, so I got a few good ones...

Emma and Michael cheese

Lots of little kids. Didn't realize there would be this many in the 18 and under picture!

My Grandpa and his siblings Rita and Marvin. They started this whole family reunion tradition!

Marvin Family picture

Rita Family picture

Frank Family picture

The whole group!!!

I did manage to get a few pics other than the group shots, mostly of my cousin's new baby (2.5 months old, so cute!) Abigail
She is so cute and such a good baby.
That is it for this year's Family Reunion festivities! Hopefully next year I get more pics of Gracie!

S'more cupcakes

I've always been the designated cupcake-maker in both our friend group and at work for birthdays. I used to just ask the person's favorite kind cake and make that and it usually was pretty simple like yellow cake or red velvet etc. Lately I've been sending people links to the cupcake sections of my favorite cooking websites and having them pick cupcakes from those (Smitten Kitchen, Annie's Eats, Martha Cupcakes). This ends up in me making more complicated cupcakes, but it's nice because I get to try recipes I wouldn't otherwise. I never make cupcakes unless it was for a special occasion!

This week, my coworker picked S'more cupcakes for her birthday celebration. I was super excited because I had actually really wanted to try this recipe. And OMG THEY WERE SO GOOD. I didn't realize until the "frosting" was done that it was actually homemade marshmallow, and that really made the cupcakes. Plus "toasting" the marshmallow with my culinary torch was so much fun!


I wouldn't recommend these cupcakes for a beginner cook, simply because the marshmallow was really quite complicated. I had to have Mike help me b.c I had to constantly whisk the mixture over a double broiler, while taking the temp to make sure it didn't go up too fast (don't want the egg whites to scramble) and that it got right to 160 degrees. I also wouldn't recommend unless you have a stand mixer - once you take it off the broiler you have to let the mixer beat it up for a good ten minutes and that would be super tiring and almost impossible to do by hand. I imagine hand whisking would take even longer than the stand mixer.

BUT DUDES, these cupcakes are AMAZINGLY tasty.

Bakin' and Eggs

On Saturday we met up with Michelle and Andy and their wee one Samantha for brunch at one of our favorite new spots, Bakin' and Eggs. We LOVE this place, and it's convenient because it's just up Lincoln from us. Let's just say if you live in Chicago you have to go. And if you don't and you come visit, I will almost certainly take you there!

As an aside, I feel like kids look really grown up when the can smile intentionally for the camera. Sam is such a big girl!!!

Once we arrive, I always hem and haw over the menu for the entire time before the waitress comes to take the order, and then finally give in and order my usual, the Southern Comfort Bowl. Behold, breakfast potatoes, topped with eggs, topped with cheese, topped with biscuits, topped with gravy. Be still my heart.
We also like to get the bacon flight for the table. It has jalapeno, honey, mesquite, maple pepper, and cherry smoked bacons. And it is freakin' delish.
Such a good time with some of our fave people and food! My idea of a great Saturday morning :)

Weekend recapped

Hubs and I were originally supposed to go out of town to a Florida beach this Memorial Day weekend. Those plans fell through b.c the friends we were supposed to go with bailed. However, I am SO GLAD we stayed home this weekend. It was everything I hoped for and more.

The weekend sort of started out on Thursday night. I say "sort of" since I worked from home on Friday. Thursday night I went out with my girlfriends to see SATC2. It was ok, but the theater we went to was amazing. We hit up the Roosevelt ICON theater and had VIP seating. This meant our seats were assigned and we didn't have to wait in line to get good seats. I was stoked. They had really good food at the theater and even better, great drinks. I will be returning to have Scott the bartender's Hendrick's dirty martini again. So good.

Friday I worked from the comforts of my couch and sent Hubs pictures like this of dog also enjoying the couch:
I'm pretty sure this is what she does every day when we're gone at work. Minus the couch, since we lock her in the hallway because she can't be trusted.

Friday night my brother, his fiance Kim, and his friend Kevin came over for grilling and cocktails. They left to go to another party around 9:30 and Mike walked out with them to take Milly to potty. I got way too comfortable on the couch in his absence and as a result stayed home watching America the Story of Us on the history channel instead of going to another buddy's house for more drinking. The couch was so comfy!!!

Saturday morning I woke up and cleaned the house, organized some stuff, balanced the checkbook, and finally woke Mike up around 11:30. "I'm going to Kirkwood for drinks and lunch," I told him. "OK, fine, I'll go. But only for one drink and a cheeseburger," he replied.

Then this happened.... let's just say we totally stayed longer than expected! We basically spent all day in the beer garden at Kirkwood. I can think of many worse things... we had a ton of fun.

Fishbowl means... you'll be here awhile boys.

Me and Kimmy!

Some random guy decided to take a nap. He had a sweet Minnesota accent.

Mike and I left around 7 to go home and potty Milly. We were going to head back to the bar and go back out again, but Mike fell asleep and I couldn't wake him up. So I camped out on the couch, watched more America the Story of Us, and baked cookies for our new next-door neighbors. Mike woke up at 11:30PM, long enough to watch two episodes of Mad Men with me, eat, and then go back to bed.

Sunday morning we woke bright and early and grabbed McDonald's breakfast on the way to the doggy beach. It was a gorgeous hot day and Milly loved it. She's been there before, but we haven't (Kim took her), so it was a good first family outing to the beach!
After we got home it was time for a family nap and then accomplishing some tasks - we hauled stuff down to the garage storage unit, organized it, added some tiles above the stove to fill in around the new appliances, replaced some light bulbs, did laundry, etc. Lots of quick stuff that we'd been procrastinating on forever.

That night we hit up dinner at El Tapatio... finally I have a good Mexican place to substitute for my place back home, Los Bravos. It was amazing and totally reasonable. We ordered a pitcher of frozen strawberry margaritas, and he brought us four almost-full glasses and the full pitcher. "I had some leftover for you guys," the waiter said. "I like how this place works!" exclaimed Mike. After dinner we headed to Iron Man2, which was loud but good. I thought it was as good as the first one, and I love Robert Downey, Jr, so it was all fine by me.

Monday was a BBQ with some of Mike's coworkers, more naps, and more America the Story of Us. The weekend was a perfect balance between chilling, accomplishing, and socializing. Best weekend I've had in a long time! Let's make all of the weekends that long, eh?

Fun from the doggy beach

Milly has always been a bit scared of the water (that may be our fault.... we tossed her right into our friend's lake last year thinking she would just love it once she got in. Oops), so Sunday at the doggy beach we didn't have high hopes for her to get in the water.

Hmmm, Dad. You have fun out there. I don't think so.

Some pets for a couple steps out? OK, I'm thirsty anyways.

I'm good. I'll just hang here, thanks.

But I want the ball. Just a few more steps.

Dad took my ball out there. Oh noes!

OK, fine, count me in. But only if Dad is around!

Getting deeper!!! Half swimming, half walking

Now that I'm out on this sandbar it's soooo not a big deal.

She's not frolicking around in the water yet like some of the dogs out there, but she got in! Baby steps!! We had a good time at the doggy beach, even if each round of fetch was sure to get Milly a snout full of sand. Still a good time!

New kitchen stuff

Check out these new stainless steel appliances. I love them! Today and yesterday I added some tiles to fill in around the new oven and microwave and I need to grout the new rows tomorrow. Then the kitchen will be ALL DONE! At least... until we decide to redo all the cabinets that is.

Milly the thief!

DSC_2179, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Milly loved stealing the nephews' plastic alligator and running away. It was an epic game of chase!

Ears up!!

DSC_2169, originally uploaded by agstratt.

I love it when my camera catches Dog with the ears straight up in the air. So cute!

Wednesday update

I got the neighbor a flowering plant (a yellow heirloom rosebush to be exact). It was $20 and well worth it... I tucked a tiny card into the leaves, put it in front of her door, and ran like hell. It wasn't exactly my best moment, but my horror and embarrassment is still fresh. I'm glad that it was my neighbor's mother who this happened to, so I don't have to avoid my neighbor for months. Although by now I'm sure Neighbor also knows the story. Oh well, sh*t happens right? Literally.

Peeps, I got to POWERWASH this weekend. And it was awesome. We were helping Mike's aunts and uncles clean up his grandparents 100 year-old house. And I got to powerwash the lawn furniture. It was so cool. One minute old weathered-looking furniture, the next minute almost-new-looking furniture. No less than three uncles warned me about the hazards of running the powerwashing stream over my own foot, which I obviously realized was a bad idea. I mean, the thing takes the top layer of WOOD off, what is it going to do to my skin? Nonetheless, it was funny to see grown men take care to caution this little lady. They obviously cared about my tootsies and crocs. I also got some street cred with the uncles for wearing crocs to clean, as two of them were sporting them as well. Score!

Photography class is over next week and I am so glad. I love learning about how to use my camera better, but I could do with a little less talking about it. I mean, tell me how to use these buttons. I don't want to talk about how I felt when I took the picture. Or about why. I definitely don't want to talk about how anyone else felt when they took a certain picture. Oy vey. Talk about a waste of time. I guess I am far more utilitarian about the whole process than the average photographer, and way less dreamy artistic type. But seriously, one dude in my class rented an $8000 lens (rental price: $300) and drove to CAPE FREAKING CANAVERAL last week to photograph the spaceship launch. I mean, nice pictures, they are discontinuing the program, and blah blah special-experience-cakes whatever. People obviously have too much time on their hands. Maybe I would too if I canceled my cable television. Which will never happen. You would have to pry my remote from my cold dead hands!

We have the next three weekends in Chicago and I'm super stoked. Now here's hoping the weather cooperates!

I was all revved up to buy a macbook pro last night and chickened out. When it came time to veer off into Best Buy on my walk home from the train I just couldn't do it. Instead I went home, backed up my pink Dell, and then took it apart and extracted a dust bunny the size of my pinky finger. That largely cleared up the "runs so hot you can't put it on your lap" problem. Boo! and also Yay! Now I definitely don't need a new laptop. But I've had an offer from my mom to give ol pinky a good home so maybe I still should get the macbook. I hate big decisions, man. Maybe I'll sit on it for another month?

I need to upload pics so you guys can see the wonder that is a tiny beagle chasing around 4 little nephews from the weekend. It was so awesome.

Very bad day

We've all had that moment. Whether you're a foot out the door or ten or a hundred, it's all the same. The moment you realize you left your keys on the counter inside. I had one of those moments tonight. I panicked, knowing that Mike wasn't planning on coming home before his flag football game. Knowing I didn't have my wallet or my phone. I walked around the first floor knocking on doors to beg for the use of a phone. I finally found someone that was home, a nice lady who is the mother of the woman downstairs. She told me my neighbor was in Greece and handed me the cordless phone for the landline.

At first I freaked out again silently to myself, knowing that Mike's cell # is long distance. I prayed he was at his desk as I dialed the number. I know exactly four numbers by heart - my Dad's cell, my parents' home, Mike's cell, and Mike's desk line. Let's just say the parents weren't going to help much in this situation.

Mike answered and started calling the people who have our condo keys. First he called Carl, who was still at work. Then Jay, who was in Manhattan. He got Jay's girlfriend's number and called her. Her number went straight to voicemail. I started to cry a little bit, knowing that I was stuck here for a while without any help. Even worse, I was late to meet a friend for drinks who was in from Miami... a friend I hadn't seen in years.

All the while Milly is going nuts, pulling on her leash. I'm thinking it's because the lady who let me have the phone let the neighbor's dog out and they were playing. I started stressing to Mike that I was monopolizing the woman's phone and time, when Milly squatted. I yelled NO MILLY! And then she had explosive diarrhea all over the woman's brick terrace. I screamed over the phone to Mike that Milly had just pooped EVERYWHERE and to come home, ASAP. I hung up the phone and gave it back, crying, and assuring the woman I would be right back to clean it up (with what I have no idea).

I took Milly out and she did some more business, and when I got back the woman had it all cleaned up already. I felt awful. I sat outside on the sidewalk outside our condo for the next half an hour to wait for Mike to come home.

So here is the point of the whole story.... now I need an "I'm sorry my dog had the runs all over your porch and you had to clean it up" gift. Any ideas?

Wonka worker sighting!

I keep forgetting to tell you guys, there was an honest-to-gawd Oompa Loompa at last week's nerd conference. He was orange and everything!

You say bad spray tan, I say Ooompa Loompa!!

Sicky Milly

Last week we noticed that Milly's left ear had a ton of gunk in it. "That's weird," I thought, and cleaned it out. Then it got gunky again a few days later. And then while I was petting her a few times on Saturday (I rub the ears) I got a little yelp. Later that day when I went to pet her she ran away! Something was definitely wrong with our little puppy!
So I texted the boss and asked if I could work from home on Monday to take her to the vet. The text wouldn't have been any different if I'd been talking about an infant, and I laughed a bit at myself for being such a Dink. "Milly has an ear infection and the only appointment they had for her was 3 on Monday... would it be ok to work from home that day so I can take her?"

Clearly the dog thinks she's people because we treat her like she's people.

Yesterday I worked from home and took her to the vet and the poor little thing whimpered as the vet cleaned out her bum ear. Milly buried her head in my arms afterwards to ward off the evil ear-cleaning vet. The vet gave me medicine to administer twice daily, and ear-cleaning solution to use once a week to prevent further infections (I guess beagles are extremely apt to get those big floppy ears infected, boo). Milly seemed better already this morning, bounding around with unlimited energy.

"She seems better," I told Mike. "Yup, she's just happy to be alive, as per usual," replied Mike.

Maybe that's why people love dogs, because they are just happy to be alive. And ecstatic to rip up the new stuffed starfish man I scored at Target for her last night :)

Favor!

My sister's work is in a contest to get a grant... I'd appreciate any votes you could put in!!

http://pep.si/dbP7Da

Update of sorts

It's been a long time! What have I been up to? I guess the most appropriate questions is what HAVEN'T I been up to?

• Had my friend Erin up to Chicago the weekend of April 17th. We had sushi, we tried a great new restaurant, we designed and ordered custom purses, we hit a free basic photography class, we hit up some bagel sandwiches for lunch, and caught Sunday brunch at a yummy new spot. We ate a heck of a lot is what I'm saying. And had a DARN good time chatting and carrying on and meandering through the city. It was a perfect weekend if I do say so myself.
• Hosted a girls' book club at my place. It was fun and the food was pretty decent. Our book club doesn't actually pick a book and all read it and then talk about it. We just bring books we have already read and exchange them for other books that we would like to read. Oh and there is wine. Of course. But it was a great time!
• Our fridge went out. So we went to Lowe's last week and bought all new stainless steel appliances. They come on Sunday. I am so stoked about the stainless and my new! convection! oven! I can barely contain myself.
• I broke down and got ourselves a maid. She is coming every three weeks and she rocks. Milly howls her fool head off every time she comes in (she came today for the second time) but we got Milly to warm up to her with many yummy chicken liver treats. Milly is a sucker for chicken liver treats.
• Speaking of Milly-treats, Milly got put on a diet. I feel bad that I can't stay on my diet (see above re: fridge... not having one makes dieting hard) but I make Milly stay on one. She was pudging up and we realized that Mike thought Milly got 1.25 cups of food per serving instead of per day. Oops. At least he wasn't around more to fatten her up too much! Although our friend Carl called her a "sphere" and the neighbor said "Milly! Gaining some LB's!" Poor Milly. She looks skinnier already.
  
• This past weekend, I went to Florida to be Emily's date to a wedding. We had a great time! The weather was amazing and all the bride and groom's friends were really nice and super fun to hang out with. I made a few new facebook friends and now Emily and I have plans to go visit another bridesmaid in Austin in October. Woot!
• Mike has a Super Scary Actuary Test on Friday. Let's hope he passes! But he has been studying like a fiend and I am so proud of him! And it will be sooo nice to have him back this weekend!

I'm sure I'm missing some things but those are the highlights!

Inheritance

Between when my grandmother passed away in July of 2008 and now, I've been handed down a few pieces of her jewelry and thought they would be fun to show them off and share a little background about them.

A couple months after she passed, my Grandpa asked my parents if there was anything in particular they wanted - and they asked us the same question. I felt so weird asking for this ring... the only reason I did so was because Grandma had told me time and time again that she wanted me to have it after she passed away. However, I remember stories in the family of my great-grandparents telling multiple people that they wanted them to have things and large arguments ensuing. Arguing was definitely what I DID NOT WANT so I brought it up to my Mom but made it absolutely clear that if Grandpa wanted anyone else to have the ring or wanted to keep it that I was completely OK with that. I didn't hear anything about the whole thing until a couple months later when I was home for something. "Here," my mom said as she handed me a white envelope, "It's that ring of Grandma's." Sweet! I think I remember Grandma saying that the ring has been in the family for 8 generations and that she got it from her great-grandmother Carpenter. The ring fits my left ring finger perfectly and sometimes I wear it instead of my own wedding band and engagement ring. It's such a simple, gorgeous piece of jewelry. I remember her wearing it as her own wedding band... it's full of good memories.

Grandma also lent me this ring as my Something Old and Something Borrowed on my wedding day. She'd lent it to me with a white ribbon tied around it and I pinned it under my dress with my sorority pin. I remember obsessively checking it all night to make sure I didn't lose it!
My sister and I went to visit Grandpa last winter, and we were looking through a bunch of Grandma's jewelry. "Oh, fun beads!" I exclaimed, and Grandpa goes "Good price! Free! Take it with you!" My Grandmother had a love of collections, and there was an impressive amount of jewelry (costume and otherwise) that we were looking through. I think Grandpa was glad to pass some along! And I was so glad to have some fun beads to wear out and about. :)
I got this ring on that same visit with Katie. I have no idea what the stone on this ring is - it could be a piece of glass for all I know. However, I love this piece! The ring itself is nice and delicate and the stone is big and fun. I was going to have this ring sized to my right ring finger and dipped in white gold until I got the next piece. Now I keep it and wear it on my right middle finger whenever I'm wearing clothes with gold accents. This ring is just so fun... and my sister Katie wore it as her Something Blue at her wedding. It was so nice to have a piece of Grandma's jewelry that I could loan out to her for a special occasion like that.
This is the piece I wear the most. My grandfather gave it to my Mom, but she didn't really ever wear it. At Christmas, she asked me if I would want it. I loved it! I had it sized to my right ring finger and dipped in white gold (it was originally yellow gold). The work to the ring wasn't cheap, but now I have an amazing ring that I wear very often on my right hand. And I get TONS of compliments on it - people are always asking me where I got it and saying how pretty they think it is. It's nice to reply that it's vintage and was my grandmother's, and even nicer to have something of hers that I can wear all the time. I love having a lovely reminder of her with me!
So those are jewelry I inherited from Grandma. It's so nice to have these as reminders of her, and fun to imagine passing them down to my own kids or grand-kids someday!

Random decor

Awhile back my friend Emily and I hit up IKEA to grab some household stuff and I scored a bunch of white frames. I got a whole bunch to make a collage above our bed in the guest room, which I haven't gotten around to doing. I did put the Milly print in one of the frames, look how cute it is! Right now I have it on our mantle and I love it. I think I'll be sad when I end up doing the collage in the guest room and have to move it in there!

This print was one that Mike kind of bought on our cruise back in March of 2006, before we were even engaged. I thought it was super cute - my nursery when I was a baby was Pooh themed. On the cruise, the art auctioneers only brought up items that people had an interest in and had marked with post-its. I wanted to see how much it would be in the auction, so I put tagged it with one of my post-its. I went to the bathroom during the auction and came back and Mike had bought it. "I bought if for you," he said. "Oh that was nice!" I replied. "Um, no.... well.... I bought it on your account." He had used MY ship account to purchase the print and boy was I honked off! It was $75 with a $75 shipping charge so he had basically just spent $150 of my money without my consent. Oy. Crazy boy. But I am glad he did it now - shipping was one flat rate regardless of how much stuff you got so I ended up buying a Pete Rose signed home plate that hangs in our den to really get the most out of my $75 shipping charge! And now we have this for the guest room. It sits on the dresser with the Paddington Bear I inherited when my grandmother passed away. They are a nice-looking pair together.


I love these two little prints. Most of the decoration in our condo is photography, and while I love having photos around, it's fun to mix it up a bit!