Do you have the Captain in you?

The boss and I have some fun posing with the Captain at the Cubby Bear the night before Mike and I left for Italy.

Ch-ch-ch-changes....

So I've been a bit quiet lately, and it's because I'm digesting a big piece of news for the Knowles household. Mike started a 4-6 week project in Detroit last week, and on the 2nd day the senior manager asked him if he would consider a 1 year commitment to the client.

Mike is an actuary and specializes in pensions and this client has some pretty complicated pension stuff going on - not only will he learn a TON that will be on his tests in the next year (he has one actuary test in May, and two in the fall... not sure if he will take both in the fall), but he'll have no commute and an empty hotel room to come home to to encourage him to study. We decided together that it was a great opportunity (especially in this economy!) to learn and to really work on finishing his tests.

So it's been tough. I was really upset last week, as I told some girlfriends "I married Mike because I want to spend my life with him, not Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday each week with him." But I'm feeling much better now; I'm in the 2nd week of not having him around and it's not looking nearly as bad. I come home and do all the same chores I used to... hang out with the dog and take her for walks. I have made plans with friends during the week a little more and am looking to scale back and/or bring him with me for more weekend commitments and events.

I'm sure it will stink sometimes, but that's life. As my mom used to say "Life isn't fair".... and we are so very blessed in so many ways that I can hardly act as if him being gone a few days a week is going to ruin me or us. Because it won't.... a year will go by faster than we realize and at the end the condo will be lookin' pretty nice due to my new obsession with home improvement (which I imagine I won't burn out on nearly as fast as if Mike was around during the week!) and our relationship will be stronger than ever as we make a concerted effort to spend time with each other.

I have a friend that has done long-distance with her boyfriend multiple times, and she has made comments to me that when they're long-distance and get together they do fun events & spend quality time together, whereas sometimes when they're living together they can take each other for granted and, with such busy schedules, feel like they're just constantly passing each other. Like her, I know it would be nice to have him around and that it's tough, but am looking forward to those fun events and Team Knowles time!

Another positive: It's WAY easier to stick a diet when Mike's not around. Ridiculously easier! He MUST be a bad influence :) And without Mike around, I'll really feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of our fancy security system!

Back home and it feels so good

Well, I'm back from Australia, with all kinds of stories to tell!

OK maybe not that many stories to tell, but better than normal weekdays. The flights to Sydney were super-smooth: we weren't delayed at all, and we made it through Customs and our 6 hour layover in Vancouver no biggie. We met all kinds of fun people in the Vancouver airport and I had TONS of fun asking people what they thought of Americans and the US in general. The consensus: that we're a little misguided and in deep, but that they have faith that we'll find our footing again. I thought that was pretty interesting.

We left Vancouver at midnight on Saturday night and arrived after a 16 hour flight at 9:30 AM on Monday morning. I only slept for about 4 hours total, so I was feeling like major death warmed over on Monday. However, we had all kinds of stuff to do and needed to stay awake until at least 9 or so to adjust my body to the time change, so we headed to the Sydney harbor for lunch and a zoo outing.

The Sydney Opera House

The Taronga zoo is across the Sydney harbor from downtown, so we took a ferry over there. The zoo is located on a hillside, so we took an air gondola up the hillside to the top of the zoo. Then we walked down the hill, working our way through the zoo. It was so great, seeing all kinds of crazy animals! Mike teased me, saying that they probably had animals that they thought were crazy, like North American bears and cows and such, but they did have a whole area called "Wild Australia" that we spent most of our time in. There was even a kangaroo walkabout where you could walk around and feed kangaroos and such. So cool!! Except for the kangaroo that jumped right at me. It was just a baby little guy, but I still screamed bloody murder like a little girl and got the heck of its way!

I just loved the Koalas. They were so cute that I wanted to cuddle them. I've heard they can be kind of vicious, but whatevs!

Giraffes, with Sydney in the background

That night we headed to the Opera House bar to have a few cocktails, then hit up dinner in an area called "the Rocks". Our ferry tour guide told us that there are a lot of weddings in that area, because you can take pics there on the harbor with Sydney in the background. He also said that Australians joke, "Look, another marriage on the rocks!" haha.... the area was super cute with all kinds of nice restaurants and shops and such. After dinner we were pooped, so we headed home to the hotel to cash out for the night.

The next night we headed down to Darling Harbor (a pretty happening area right near our hotel) for some dinner and fun. We landed at a restaurant called Kobe Jones for sushi. The sushi was super-good, and my one co-worker ordered the "dynamite roll." You could customize the spiciness level by telling the waiter 1-5, and we settled on 3 since we liked spicy but not too spicy. The stuff was so spicy, it got all of our noses running and was like a little explosion in your mouth. I got two chews into my one piece of the roll and then it suddenly felt like some liquidy spiciness exploded in my mouth. I almost spit it out, it was so surprising. After that, we ended up at a swanky bowling alley that played mostly old-school Christina Aguilera and Beyonce. There, my boss almost broke a 200 game before the Christina Aguilera video "Dirrrrty" started up on the video monitors right above the bowling lanes.

The bowling shoes reminded me of Marty McFly from "Back to the Future" Wednesday night, we all headed out to a team dinner at the restraurant Wildfire. It was not a part of the Wildfire chain here in North America, but it was a seafood and steakhouse.

Thursday night the guys headed out to see smashing pumpkins and my coworker and myself hit up an italian dinner in Bondi Beach
Friday was the happy hour that never ended.... well, you can see how that went:

The boss and I throw down IT gang signs

Let's just say it was fun.... I liked Australia!

September 7

Today was my last day of work at PwC, so I took a pic of my ID badge. Look at that picture I took on my first day, almost five years ago! It's been a great run. I am going to miss my coworkers.

August 3

Today was the most magical day of the year - Promotion party day! It's a fun day where we all go hang out together and are all Big-Four-Accountants all day long. It is SO MUCH FUN. And Mike got promoted!!!

Manager Mike

Me and Diesel - Team Paper

Intern Matt, Kelly, and I

I have to say, at the end of the day, I HEART my coworkers. They are some pretty cool people.

June 22 and 23

On Friday, my group went to Arlington Heights racetrack for a big meeting and fun with the races afterwards. This is Beth and I, in our big derby hats. We couldn't stand too close together because of the hats!!

On Saturday, Emily and I went to Sephora to have fun with makeup. We got this awesome makeup artist, and she helped out so much with cool colors and ideas. It was so fun, but I bought a little too much makeup. Well, it's not too much if you USE it all, right??

June 11

I was concerned with having healthy food options at training this week, so I brought all kinds of snacks... here is my stash!

June 1

Tonight we had a wine-tasting at work that Beth and I organized. Let's just say it was alot more work than I thought it would be! Check out the spread, we got stuff at Whole Foods and set it all up to save a bit of dough. Nice, huh?

April 13

Today we went bowling with the work crew. This is Beth showing off the special beer bottles at the bowling alley. How cool are they?

January 24

What you say? My posts the days that I work are boring? You would be hard-up for pictures too, if you spent only 20-30 minutes of daylight hours outside, with most of those minutes being spent either waiting for the bus or on the El platform. Maybe I will start taking pictures of the CTA transgression of the day. That would be interesting.Anyways, this here thing is what we at work call "The Vessel" - Is it a vase? OR is it two faces, facing each other? It is supposed to mean something I know, but I forget. Maybe I will remember. But I doubt it. If anyone wants one for their house, I can buy one off the work giftshop website for you!

January 12

Here's a pic of some me and some work people hitting happy hour on Friday evening. I have to say, the people I work with are pretty darn cool - I had a lot of fun.

January 10

This is the lobby of the building where I work. I swear, a security guard almost snatched the camera from me, like I was taking pictures in an airport or something. The lobby is huge and very impressive-looking. And the wreath on the far side? Is bigger than my first apartment, I am not even joking. Of course, since my first apartment was 10 feet by 12 feet (at only $625 a month! ), that's not saying much.

January 9

That's a little piece of my childhood right there. We used to go to the corner store and buy the mini Charleston Chews for a nickel each at the tiny store on Main Street in Moores Hill.

January 4, 2007

As a sad fact of life, the pictures during the week will mostly be on my Canon Digital Elph SD20, instead of my beloved Nikon D50. The Nikon, it is cool, but it is cumbersome. And the Canon- not so much designed to take great-quality pictures, but is meant to be cute and fit in small purses. Just wanted to get that out there.

With that said, this picture is of a quote in a building where I work sometimes, and is by Voltaire. I got almost all of it, except for the whole word "say" in the top line (oops, missed the 'y'). I like the quote, and see it every morning when I am getting on the elevator at this place.