The list

I'm talking about THE LIST. The Hot Celebrity Freebie List.

We all have our lists, I know. You know, the list where if you met a certain celebrity it's not considered cheating. I've been thinking about that lately because I realized recently that even if I did meet one of these people, I wouldn't even want to cheat. A little lame, but it's a window into how super-duper-very-loyal-to-my-husband I am.

Ah, Marital bliss. It's not always so blissful, but I married my best friend. I suppose it's good that not even the hottest celebrity would make me want to give up what I have even on those days when I want to kick Hubs in the shin. Marriage is freaking HARD WORK sometimes, people!

Regardless, I think it's a fun topic. So here is my (kind of a moot point) list. I guess it could be renamed the "I like to look at these guys" list.

Robert Downey, Jr. - I used to crush on him SO MUCH when he was on Ally McBeal, that was basically the only reason that I watched that show. Then he got written out of the story line b.c he got arrested and put in rehab. I'm pretty pumped about the fact that he's doing well now and looks great in Iron Man. He could lose the facial hair but oh well. Plus, ANY guy is WAY cuter in a suit. Seriously, take ANY guy, put him in suit and you immediately jump 2 points. At least in my book. So as Barney Stinson says, SUIT UP!

Rob Lowe - I love him on Brothers and Sisters. It's probably all the suits he wears? And his eyes are super blue.

Matthew Fox - Any guy who can save lives on a desert island is OK in my book. Plus he's the typical nice-guy. I'm a sucker for nice guys.

Bear Grylls - The guy was in the British Special Ops and does crazy things like kill live snakes with his bare hands. COME ON NOW.

Christian Bale - Suit, pensive look, killing bad guys Batman Style. What's not to like?

Hmmm, that's all I can remember for now. I feel like I see an overall theme of clean-cut, darker-haired nice guys who look good in a suit and can protect a woman. It makes sense that Hubs has all those qualities... maybe that's why I fell for him in the first place!!

Now for the fun part: Who is on your list? C'mon spill!

Wii Fit smackin' me down

Hmm, didn't realize I'd been THAT much of a slacker.

Why is it asking me about Mike?

I told it he looked about the same...

Oh man....

More motivated to do what? Not pee on the couch? Cause then I might be in!

Milly says: This little white thing sucks, is it calling me fat? It doesn't even taste good. I know because I licked it! ALOT! More Dog green-eye. I wonder how I get that to go away?

Weekend Recap

Another full weekend! That's pretty much the name of the game around here.

Friday included two forays into Chicago Restaurant week. At lunch my friend Andy and I went to Japonais. It was so good. The portions were a bit small, but I think that is kind of how they roll in general. You know, Japanese place, trendy little portions and servings style. I picked lobster spring rolls for an appetizer, cashew encrusted chicken as my entree and chocolate custard with raspberry sauce for dessert. It was all really really good. And look, they had some fancy topiary tree!!
For dinner, Mike and I tried The Chicago Firehouse Restaurant in South Loop. Appetizer was a cup of amazing lobster bisque. The broth was just the right consistency and the soup had big chunks of perfectly-cooked and sweet lobster in it, as well as some sweet corn. It was one of the best I've had (and I consider myself to be a lobster bisque Connoisseur. For an entree, I ordered the 8 oz CFH prime steak. It was OK, a bit more fatty than I am used to with a steak (I always order filets), but very good with a parmesan-peppercorn crust. It didn't include any sides, though, so if Mike hadn't ordered off the regular menu and gotten a family-style side of mashed potatoes I would have had to order a side separately. I thought this was super weird, because the whole point of the Restaurant Week menu is to have a whole meal for $32. A steak on a plate does not a meal make, at least for me. I wish I had tried a different entree; they all looked so good! And then I could have just tried a bite of Mike's steak to see what that was like. The only other complaint I had is that they had changed a few items on their menu from what was posted on the internet as the Restaurant Week Menu. This change meant not only that they bumped the one Mike-acceptable option of beef tips from the appetizer menu (this is why he ended up just ordering a regular steak from the main menu), but also that they weren't serving creme brulee for dessert. BOO. I was a little honked, as creme brulee is my fave. I ended up ordering the chocolate cake for dessert, however, and was not dissappointed. It was a big square piece of chocolate cake that seemed to be dipped in chocolate. It was very rich and very good. Mike and I scarfed the whole dessert down even though we were already pretty full at the end of the meal.

After dinner, Mike and I headed to Bucktown to meet up with another couple we know through an IU friend of mine. We usually only see them when our mutual friend is in town, but always enjoy seeing them so much! So we made it a point to set aside a night to meet up with them. They picked the location of Bluebird. The minute we walked into the place we picked up the hippy vibe... Mike commented that he wasn't trendy enough in a looked-like-he-didn't-try kind of way to be there. The beer menu was about 10 pages long with lots of international microbrews and such. The menu also had a long list of organic wines I had never heard of. I don't drink much hard alcohol and they didn't look to have any beers at all on tap... and I wasn't about to order a Miller Light in such a place. I was a bit at a loss regarding what to order until Mike motioned to the barkeep and said "Can you just give her something that tastes like Stella?" The guy popped open a brew and sat it in front of me in a fancy glass with a smile. At least he was super friendly and didn't mock my lack of interesting-beer knowledge!

Once Trevor and Lizzie got there, we got a table and the waitress was great about recommended brews she thought we would like based on us telling her our preferences. I would definitely go back and try more of the world's brews - but would definitely want a table to get the personalized attention the waitress was able to give us. Everyone there was super nice, and the food looked great (even though we didn't eat! so I don't know if it was actually good or not).

The next day I accomplished all kinds of stuff like going to Trader Joe's, the post office, Jewel, and the dry cleaner before leaving to go visit my friend Melissa in Northern Indiana (Crown Point). Before I left, I tried the mac and cheese I'd picked up at Trader Joe's for lunch. I'd heard it's the best frozen mac around and just had to try it. At first I was a bit disappointed that the tray held two servings, and I shouldn't eat the whole thing. However, after eating half of the tray I was stuffed! And it was SO FREAKING GOOD! I am going to have to head back to stock up on this stuff, for sure.

I tried to stop at the public library on the way out of town, but there were like 10 people in line and I don't even have a library card yet! I couldn't take the wait, and my car was wedged so tightly into a parking space that I was sure to get doored. So I cut my losses and just headed out to Melissa's. I do need to make sure to get back to the library soon... I'm almost out of books to read and I hear that they loan them to you FOR FREE.... haha... Let's just say that Free is definitely in the Budget.

I was so glad I took the time to go visit my friend Melissa... when I first moved to the city she was one of my roommates and we always have such a fun time together! She made tacos and we had wine and lots of good conversation. Plus we teased her dog, Red. When you put your finger in front of her face she crinkles up her nose. It's hilarious.

Why do dogs get green-eye and not red-eye? That is so weird.

On the way home on Sunday, I hit Target and DSW in Merrilville, which was awesome! It was so not crowded and I just wandered around checking out the whole place. I feel like you're constantly tripping over people/getting in people's way at those stores in Chicago so it was a nice change of pace.

Random chores/organizing and church rounded out the rest of the day. And that is my weekend! I swear I cram so much stuff into every weekend, they all fly by. But it's always a good time.

Being a grownup sucks

Yesterday I was driving to Trader Joe's (as an aside, Trader Joe's is AWESOME. Why don't I go there every weekend? It's got all kinds of cool yummy foods like Whole Foods but for like a fourth of the price!), and heard a commercial on the radio for the St Patrick's Day Raffle. For the first time in my life, I thought "I should buy a lottery ticket." I was in traffic and my mind drifted off to what I would buy with a cool million.

You know you are lame when the first thing you think about winning a million dollars is that it would kill your effective tax rate.

Winning a million dollars would leave you 600K after tax, assuming an effective 40% tax rate. Here's how I would spend my million:

• Pay off the condo
• Pay off the RAV4
• Buy a Prius
• Do all the home improvements we want to do: New carpet, kitchen, bathrooms, painting, new appliances, etc.
• Put the rest in the bank

Just call me a CPA but this list is hella lame. What would you do with a million dollars? And please let is be a less lame list than mine is!!

Random roundup

First of all.... Happy HumpDay. Isn't this hilarious?!

• St Patty's Day Tshirt - I've decided to go in an entirely different direction than the two shirts I put on this blog for a vote. I am going to make a shirt with iron-letters that says "If I don't tell you later, I had a good time today." This is what I thought our friend Chad said to Mike right before our wedding. Turns out when I was telling this story last week sometime, my brother corrected me and told me the last thing Chad actually said to Mike before the wedding. The pastor came back to get Chad, Ott, and Rogus (as they were ushers and needed to seat people) and before they walked out, Chad turned to Mike and said "If you end up leaving for any reason, make sure and come get me." LOL... so funny. Like, if Mike isn't around Chad can't be left to answer any questions! Sadly, this doesn't look as good on a t-shirt so I'm going to go what I thought were his original last words to Single Mike.
• So far only the reusable shopping bag has been spoken for in the BOCA giveaway. Tabby, email your address to aprilgayle at gmail dot com and I'll send it to you. Do you have an interest in any of the other stuff? I've got a yoga/exercise mat, two planners, BOCA coupon, and a relaxation CD to also give away! Any takers?
  

• Milly gets her stitches out tomorrow and I am so FREAKING excited. She smells bad, yo. At the age of 29 I should know that you can't get stitches wet. And therefore should have known to bathe my dog prior to major doggie surgery, since she gets a bath once every two weeks. And yet, I didn't. Therefore the dog stink is all my fault. I can't wait to have a de-coned, de-stitched, bathed dog tomorrow evening!

Tell me I don't need it....

I originally wanted the green color but then a friend told me I was "thinking St Patty's Day" and actually thought maybe the pink would look better on St Patty's. OY. What do you think would go with more... I'm going for Fun Summer Bag that goes with almost anything.
OY. Now I kind of want it in both colors. Is it bad that the only thing that's holding me back is that I can't decide which one I want? As an aside, I really have no businss buying a new bag!

Weekend Recap: Boy Birthday edition

Man, another full weekend for me. My name is April and if you haven't met me yet I like to ORGANIZE EVENTS. This means that any day is likely filled with things I just have to do, which bothers the Husband mightily. But this weekend it was all about him, so it was A-OK.

Friday night my company had a happy hour at 3:30 in the cafeteria. Which was sweet, especially because I convinced my boss to convince his boss to go to have pre-drinks for the happy hour around 2:30. Excellent.

After the happy hour(s), we headed to a nearby bar to have a few more cocktails and some grub. We headed there around 5, so that could be called happy hour as well! I like happy hour, so I was pleased. Michelle and Andy met us out, saying something like "Our spontaneous happy hour days are limited! We'd better take advantage!" After we headed home on the train, I ended up baking two cakes and a double patch of peanut butter blossom cookies (my specialty!).

The next day I got up bright and early and took all the fruits of my baking over to Meghan and Brett's house, who were hosting Mike's 3oth birthday party. After we at lunch and watched IU get KILLED by Purdue (I'm sitting at the bar going "Is it over yet? Is it done? Because I am done. This is insane."), we headed over there for the festivities.

Of course it wouldn't be a party without a tongue-in-cheek cake message:

Kidding! I made him another cake too! One that makes fun of neither his age nor pant size! Did a pretty good icing job if I do say so myself! Orange is his favorite color, if you must know.
Because of an epic failure in my cake-baking skillz earlier in the week (let's just say.... don't double the Pioneer Woman's yellow cupcake recipe and try to make it as a cake. It was... dense. The most solid cake ever. More like cornbread sans corn or spongecake sans spongy-ness), I made two cakes. The square one was Duncan Hines butter recipe from a box with the Pioneer Woman from-scratch frosting. The frosting was more liquidy than I thought it would be and didn't look like it would go well onto the round standalone cake. The round cake was a from-scratch yellow cake recipe from Epicurious, with frosting from a can. Mike said he liked the scratch cake better.... don't know if he was just saying that to make me feel better for the HOURS of baking or what, but I'll take it.

I made him pose for a few pictures:

As I took this one he said "Why do I have to pretend I'm taking a bite out of the cake? Why can't I just actually take a bite out of the cake?"

I tried to get some shots of people as the party went on. This is me with Chad. Chad and Mike used to live together; I believe Chad was present for Mike and I's first 4-5 dates. As in, he ACTUALLY WENT ALSO. It's lucky that I like him!

The guys had so much fun playing Madden for Wii, even though they didn't really get through their "tournament." And I had purchased the 2006 Rose Bowl (Texas vs USC National Championship) and the 2007 Tostito Bowl (Boise State vs Sooners), so the guys watched those on the 2nd TV as they played Wii. After those games were over, we turned to ESPN Classic and there was an old IU vs. Purdue game on, complete with the General Robert Montgomery Knight and Gene Keady. It was perfect!!

Overall the party was a super fun time and we didn't break anything of Brett and Meghan's. Double score :)

Sometime during the party my friend Amy showed me the best new iPhone application EVER:

OMG, that is so good for a laugh or ten. It is hilarious.

Sunday I spent doing a lot of fun things like laundry, vacuuming every surface in our house after getting fuh-reaked out by Milly hair ALL OVER and going to church. It was a super productive day, I love when I get all ambitious like that!

On life and dog....

Another gratuitous cone shot

I think it's so funny that when we got Milly, most people responded with a chuckle and a response to Mike of "Trying to put off the kids another year, eh?" This rankled me a bit, as anyone who knows me knows that I never thought I would have kids before I met Mike. In fact, on or around our 3-4 date, I told Mike that I didn't want to have kids. He responded with "Are you sure?" I said of course, and then he said that he didn't know if he could date anyone who didn't want kids. He implied that if I stayed steadfast on that point that we should just break up right then. I was so head over heels with the guy, I was thrown waaaaaay off. I replied with an unsure "well, I guess I could think about having kids. I guess it's not totally out of the question."

In some ways, Milly is kind of our training wheels for having kids in the future. For so long, neither Mike or myself had been responsible for anything but ourselves. I killed every houseplant I got, and we didn't even have so much as a goldfish. Anytime we talked about having kids I got all anxious, thinking "I can't even keep bamboo alive. How will I ever manage?" So in a way, we wanted to prove to ourselves that we could manage to keep another little being alive and happy. And then I stumbled across this on puppyfind.com and fell in love:

Teeny little snout! Big floppy ears!

While I'm sure a baby is much harder than a dog (hello, we can LEAVE our dog in it's cage at home while we go out. Pretty sure you can't do that with a kid. Additionally, the dog has never woken us up in the middle of the night for multiple feedings), there are some valuable lessons I think we've been learning that will also apply to the kidlets later down the road:

• Doling out punishments - It's good to see that Mike and I are on the same page. Howling gets a banishment to the hallway. Peeing on the couch gets a spanking and banishment. Jumping up gets a simple nose smack and "Off!" We talk about what bad things require what, and generally agree on all counts.
• Alternating role of good cop/bad cop - We are getting good at this one. One furparent gets to be the heavy while the other comforts. But you gotta alternate to keep the furkid on it's toes!
• Learning to watch/monitor another being whilst accomplishing other household activities and chores such as laundry, cooking, balancing checkbook. Milly can get into trouble so very fast it's insane. I swear the first couple weeks we had her, it was exhausting. I would try to do something else and all the sudden she would be off - gone in a brown streak to wreak terror upon the carpeted areas of our condo. I was so frustrated and tired, thinking I would never get anything done. Now I can keep one eyeball on the pup while baking a cake or doing almost anything else. And my ear is always listening to make sure she doesn't run upstairs.
• Learning that it's normal to vacillate between the emotions of "oooh, little puppykins, I wuv you so much!" and "OMG DOG YOU ARE CRAZY AND YOU ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY!" I'll admit it. I've used my Mom's phrase "I love you, but I don't like you right now!" Although I've also used a phrase my mom never used: "Milly, you make Mommy want to have a big glass of RED WINE right now!"
• Realizing guilt is a huge barrier to better furparenting. Our trainer told us this and it's so true. It doesn't matter how sad the dog looks (and boy howdy does that dog have down the Sad Dog face), you have to be firm and consistent in your training for the pup to learn anything. And sometimes you need some time to yourself regardless of whether the pup has been bored at home without you all day.... feeling guilt over being firm or having some 'me' time doesn't help anyone. And if you give in out of guilt, the pup doesn't learn anything.

I'm sure I've learned more, but those are the big ones. It's nice to know that I'm not as selfish as I had originally thought. And overall it's comforting to know that Mike and I can keep another being alive and cared for. And that when one of us has had it up to here that the other will invariably step in for a much-needed break. It's nice to know that overall we're a good team, and not just when we're playing flip-cup at the bar (which for the record, we are VERY good at as well).

Like anything that's worth it, she is a lot of work. But it's nice to come home to something that is SO EXCITED just because you are home. She greets us each evening with her whole body wagging, not just the tail. Nothing other than your presence causes her more joy (ok, maybe you and some cheese. that may be more joy). And it's hard to be in a bad mood around that much joy.

Happy Friday!

Soraya Ruth

DSC_0092.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

On Monday I went to my friend Tracy's to take some pics of her little baby and to hang out. It was such a nice chill afternoon, hanging out with her and the baby. I love times like that. I know it seems lame, but I'm the same way when I visit my sister and niece Gracie; the best times are just hanging out watching the funny things that the kidlet does. Soraya is just loving sticking her tongue out... and her mom took off her little mittens (that protect her from scratching herself) for the photos so she was all "What are these on my arms?!?" when looking at her hands. She was so cute and Soraya is such a blessing for her parents and everyone around her!

The boy turns 30!

Last night we went to Southport Lanes for cheeseburgers for the Boy's birthday. He turned 30! Very very exciting!


My brother and his girlfriend are there and are visiting her sister in Boston this weekend and then going skiing in New Hampshire. Jay got all his ski gear this week, including a nice new jacket that I think looks really nice. As we were talking about skiing and the trip, Jay demonstrated his "I'm on the top of the mountain, thinking deep thoughts" face. Of course he made Kim play along too!

When we got to Southport Lanes it was snowing, and the wind was whipping so hard that it looked like it was snowing sideways. Let's just say that it was a nice night to hole up and have a few drinks instead of being outside. And Milly is perfecting her whining (I imagine it sounds more like this to her "THIS CONE!! It sucks! Mom! Dad! Take it off! I keep running into crap!"), so after listening to an hour of straight whining after work (I also call it "silent screaming" because it's so high-pitched) we were ready to get out of the house. We're having a party for Mike on Saturday, so it was pretty lowkey, but so much fun to just have some bad food, drinks, and talk with good friends.

Happy Birthday Mike! I freaking love you!

And a day late, but better than never.... the birthday tradition "10 things I like about Mike":

1. I have never met anyone that doesn't like him. I've never met anyone that got along with people in general like he does
2. He lets me take care of him... as much as I give him grief I actually like making meals for him and doing the laundry.
3. He takes care of me... on Monday he ran to McDonald's just to get me a hot fudge sundae. And he would (and does) stand up for me and protect me.
4. He is wicked smart. He's one of the smartest people I know.
5. He can derive equal joy from a night out at a fancy restaurant, drinks with friends, or watching a movie on the couch with Dog.
6. He is fiercely loyal.
7. He'll always win in a pushup contest.
8. At bedtime, he tucks me in every night because he goes to bed later than I do. It's a few minutes of nice quiet time to chat, just us.
9. He married me... and puts up with me! He is everything a good husband should be and more. He is my best friend.
10. Sometimes I forget that we are two different people and think of him as an extension of myself.

Sorry for the schmoopy ones, I have to be honest! Plus it wouldn't be a 10 things list without a little schmoop :)

Millydog post-op

Well, Milly is doing MUCH better today. She was super doped up when I picked her up yesterday and slept on the couch, shivering for most of the evening. Mike filled a Nalgene with hot water and put it next to her, and we covered her with towels and she stopped the shivering. But she still wouldn't eat, drink, or do anything but lay there. We felt so bad for that poor puppy!

Last night we brought her crate up to our room to sleep and we woke this morning to excited Milly sounds (tail thumping, moving around). And she feels so much bettter! But dude, she hates this cone:

I'll only take 47,000 pictures of the cone, I promise. It cracks me up!

Great weekend

This weekend was so great! We are so busy in February that it was nice to have some chill activities and time set aside to just hang out.

Friday started off right with employees from our office building management company handing me this:

I'm not a big Valentine's fan, but I'm not going to look the Oreo-cookie-dipped-in-chocolate gift horse in the mouth! In addition, my work discourages personal mail or deliveries being sent to our office, as I think our office administration staff is relatively small for the size of the company. So unlike other offices where there are a ton of flower deliveries, I didn't see any. It was kind of nice. I don't know that I've ever gotten flowers delivered to work - since I was hardly ever at the PwC office, it didn't really make sense.

After work, I ran home to get the condo ready for dinner. Andy and Michelle have a little baby due in about a month and we haven't hung out with them forever so we wanted to try and do dinner before little PBR makes her appearance! It was so fun just hanging out with them... Michelle brought her famous pudding recipe chocolate chip cookies and I made pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, and sweet potato fries. I overcooked the macaroni a bit, but it was allright. I would be interested to see if it would be better with way less cooking. It was such a nice, laidback evening.... just what I was looking for! They are fun people :)

I DID bug Hubs all week to get me "a flower" for Saturday. I don't dig big expensive arrangements, but it's nice to know that I deserve a trip to Club Jewel now and again. Plus we have all these nice vases that we never use :)

So this is what Mike got for me - some flowers and the World's Largest Balloon. I asked him why the balloon and he shrugged and said something to the effect that they were everywhere at Jewel and that he likes balloons. The thing cracked me up, it was so massive. He said that Milly howled at it all morning while I was gone at my Horizons for Youth group outing. By the time I got home, she had downgraded the "Beagle Threat Level" to Sunshine Yellow from Magenta, and was only growling at it now and again (as an aside... so much fun to shake a mylar balloon and watch the beagle run AWAY FAST).

I took a three hour nap, and then ran a few errands to gather the rest of the stuff for dinner. Once I got home, Mike and I went about putting together our fondue dinner. Fondue sounds fancy but it's so easy:

• Step one: Buy cheese in a box
• Step two: Take that cheese out of the box
• Step three Heat up that cheese
• Step four: Eat that cheese.

Similarly, the entree portion is easy too... you just pour the oil in the fondue pot, set it to go and then get to frying up dinner. I get even lazier on the dessert portion of the meal, buying meltable chocolate in an easy-mac-like cup and just dipping the strawberries, pound cake, and bananas in there.

After dinner, we watched Burn After Reading Mike thought it was hilarious, I thought it was funny with alot of Good Sheperd-ish moments.... like what is going on here? Brad Pitt was freaking funny in it! But the pic below basically depicts the evening, imagine the boy in the space between the beagle and the couch arm.... Milly was super cuddly and fun.

On Sunday I ran about a bazillion boring errands and tried to de-dog-hair the condo. Milly has been shedding a ton with the slightly warmer weather, so that has been fun! Oh and I finished the scarf! SCORE! It is super warm, I've already tried it out. I am rather proud of myself.

I have today off too, and already took Milly to the vet to get spayed today. We've been teasing her all week, telling her she's getting fixed and that means she must be broken. But despite the laughs I almost cried dropping the poor beagle off. She has no idea what is coming :( I'm doing lunch with my friend Andy and then heading up to see my friend Tracy and her little one Soraya. I'm sure a ton of Soraya pics will be uploaded to flickr soon! I am so excited to see that little baby - the last time I was there I had a cold and couldn't hold her!

Milly

Today Milly is getting f-i-x-ed. I am freaking out just a bit.... I feel so bad for her that I had to take away her rawhides and she doesn't get her cheesy treat for doing her morning business. Poor puppy!

My poor furbaby is having surgery today! I hope she does OK and they give her good pain meds ;)

Right now, she is growling at the balloon Mike got me for vday.... so hilarious. Nice little comic relief.

Updated: I just dropped her off and almost cried! SUCH a softie! And now I'm home and it's super quiet. What did I do with all this quiet before we had a dog?

Whew

The last template I used for this blog was awesome but I completely back-doored and ghetto-photoshopped a BUNCH of stuff and it was bothering me mightily. Hoo boy, it was bothering me. So I just had to change it!

One more BOCA thing

Here are the pictures from the BOCA event, forgot to include them in last post.

As an aside, is it possible to have reverse anorexia? You know how "they" (I have no idea who they ever is) say that anorexics look in the mirror and instead of super skinny person they actually see a fat person in the mirror? I look in the mirror and don't think I look too bad then see myself in pictures like this and think OMGWTFNEEDDIETandGYMNOW!!

Maybe I'm sucking it in when looking in the mirror?

BOCA spa night

On Tuesday I had the privilege of getting to attend an awesome spa night sponsored by the BOCA Balanced Living Website at Spa Soak. I first heard about the event on Linda's website, but she ended up going to the DC event. Then Miss Zoot wrote that she was going to be attending the Chicago event. I was so pumped! I've probably read her blog for almost 2 years, and she seems (from her website) to be so nice. Plus she's southern, I feel like I can relate a bit from my Southern Indiana roots!

I was excited to attend the event all day on Tuesday. First of all, I got to meet Miss Zoot and other ladies in the area who blog. Like I've said before, I wanted to go to Blogher a couple years ago when it was here in Chicago but was way too shy to go. It's funny... in a group that I know, or even around one person I know I am loud and outgoing. But in a group of all people I don't know - quiet people-watcher! So having an opportunity to meet other bloggers in a smaller settings seemed promising. Secondly, I was looking forward to some free spa services, food, and cocktails. That's the Grandpa Curley (my mom's dad) in me; I LOVE free stuff. Who doesn't?

I took the Blue Line up to Bucktown after work. As always, the city knew that someone I was hanging out with was in from out of town (Miss Zoot is from Huntsville, AL), and the crazies were out. A woman tried to put her foot in the El door just as it was closing to make it the last minute and ended up wiping out, falling on the platform, and thumping against the train doors. She screamed super loud, and everyone just acted like it didn't happen. Typical! And she was still laying there on the platform when the conductor throttled the train and screamed out of the station. The blue line, it is FAST! Also, it means business! :)

Once I got up to the Damen stop, I headed north on Milwaukee to Spa Soak. The Bucktown area has gotten super chi-chi in the past year or so, but that cosmopolitan vibe hasn't extended to Milwaukee north of North Avenue. It still seemed every bit as sketchy as I remembered it from living just west of there on Western and St. Paul a few years ago. Regardless of the surroundings the spa was super nice. They had a super cute and sophisticated little waiting area, all set up with some good-looking food. As per usual, I was the first person to arrive. I am nothing if not punctual! So I got a glass of bubbly (Cava) and sat down to observe the surroundings.

Hmmmm, let's see how this new camera works in low light.
Wait. This spa also sells.... stationery? Wha?

People started filtering in and and I started to meet and chat with some ladies. Miss Zoot was super nice, and I met Jessica, Jenn, Amy, Blagica and Veronica, among others. Everyone was so nice and friendly! I very much enjoyed meeting everyone and chatting - it seemed like everyone was so down to earth and laidback, with a vibe of knowing-each-other enough to be comfortable but not clique-y at all. It was so fun to meet these ladies! After some tasty boca burgers (with fresh basil aioli, YUM) and some lentil and feta salad, Miss Zoot, Jenn and I went with a Yoga/Pilates instructor Lindsay to learn some stress-relief techniques. I still need to email Lindsay for the details, but she was super sweet and taught us some very useful breathing, stretching, and centering techniques.

After meditating, I was ready for some spa services. First I hit up the massage area for a chair massage. The masseuse, Blake, was so great that I got his card. I've been trying to find a great masseuse in Chicago to no avail - the only halfway decent guy I've found TALKED THE WHOLE MASSAGE. Ugh, pet peeve... shut up already, Chatty McCathy.

After that I pretty much just stood around and chatted with the people I'd met and waited for a pedicure. By the time I finished the pedicure the event was over and everyone was pretty much dispersing. I had so much fun that the three hours whizzed right by! On the way out they gave me a couple gift bags - one for me and one for one of my readers!

Here is the loot (disclaimer, picture taken on Mike's "Man Chair" with point and shoot... so, not great!):

The gift bag includes a yoga mat with carrying bag, a reusable shopping bag (ah! so excited to finally score an Envirosax!), a day planner (this one is super cool, has monthly and daily calendars and task lists, all color coded... super handy), a relaxation CD, and a coupon for one free BOCA product.

I won't use the dayplanner in my bag because of my love affair with my iPhone, so an extra dayplanner is up for grabs as well.

So, dear internets (all 5 of you who read my blog), leave me a comment about what YOU do live a balanced life - anything from giving yourself some much-needed couch time to hitting up spinning class. Also let me know whether you want the whole shebang or just the dayplanner so I can divvy them up.

In addition, BOCA is having a contest for $5,000 at their Balanced Living website. All you have to do is write up to 250 words describing the change you would like to make in your life and how BOCA can help you achieve that balance (with the prize money). This contest ends on February 27th. Good luck if you enter!!

Bah Humbug

Chicago is the 3rd most miserable city in the U.S according to Forbes? I gotta say, they must not know the city that I know! That's poppycock.

Milly shots

Another shot of that crazy beagle hanging out on top of her crate. Looking more like Snoopy every day?

Last weekend we opened the blinds, which we almost never do. Our windows are huge and make us feel a bit like we're living in a fishbowl. They were broken for a couple months once and we really got to know the neighbors across the way. For instance, the girl in front of us likes to sit in front of her window and drink some brown liquor on the rocks, smoke, and talk on her cell phone. Another guy across the way likes to dance for his toddler. Super cute. Anyways, we're right on Lincoln Avenue so the people-watching is pretty good. Here are some pics of Milly taking up a new people-watching pasttime.

What? I'm being an angel! I'm not chewing on nothin', Mom!

Boy Birthday Gift

So Mike turns 30 next week, and has been evading the question of birthday gifts for some time. At first, I thought I should get him a pair of nice jeans. You know, Sevens or Citizens or the like. Something he would never think to buy himself. But every time I mentioned it the Boy was pretty amibivalent. So I figured maybe that wasn't the best idea? I mean, I like my expensive jeans but I'm pretty sure the $27 Old Navy special suits Mike just fine. Plus he looks good in them. So whatever!

My boss and I had lunch last week with a guy in another group at work who had a netbook on his desk. We exclaimed how cool it was, and he then proceeded to show us that he'd hacked it to put the Mac OS Leopard on it. DOUBLE cool. The boss became immediately intrigued with how to do this and set about trying to make a "Hackintosh"

Boss brings his in yesterday and it's super cool. 10 inches wide, weighs two pounds... because of the Mac OS the thing is SLICK. I mean, just really cool (This is the part where my IT geekiness comes out). I knew I wanted one and started thinking of all the things we could use it for: Mike's computer is slowly dying a very awful death, we could tote it around Italy in May to look up maps, train schedules, activities and such... a lightbulb went on in my head.... "I wonder if Mike would like this for his bday?"

Turns out he did! So now we have a Wind U100 en route. I am super hype to play with it (after I make the Boss hack it, of course), and am glad that we'll have a laptop to take with us without much fuss to Italy. It will come in super handy and was sooo much cheaper than replacing Mike's straining behemoth of a laptop with a full-on classic laptop.

In other recent Amazon purchases, my point and shoot camera arrived yesterday, so hopefully I will be able to include more pictures here soon. Looking at all the entries on this blog from 2007 inspired me to workout more (can't really work out LESS, Bob!) and to post more pics, as well as made me more hopeful for warm weather. The pics from the April-May time period that year are so sunny and look like SUCH good weather. Maybe there is some hope for Chicago and the winter ending at some point after all.

Our snoopy act-alike

This is kinda a bad picture but oh well. Here is Milly sitting on her crate. This is a new phenomenon, she totally didn't do this with her old crate! But regardless it is super cute and funny.
That dog is crazy!

St Patty's Day shirt

Very important... which shirt should I get for St Patty's day?

Option #1

Option #2

These shirts are from Palmer Cash. They have another one that is SWEET, and has two pieces of tofu with faces on them that says "Everyone was Tofu Fighting" but don't have it in my size! BOO. I'm gonna put a poll up on the right side of the blarg, vote! I need input!

Kirkwood

So we're at Kirkwood on Saturday, and there is this big group of guys sitting right behind us. One of the guys has on this tshirt that has a vintage style, and said "Indiana, 1976 champions, 32-0 on it" (I think...)

We kept talking about it, and so finally I pulled a pad of post-it's out of my purse and wrote a note on one that said "Where did you get your tshirt?" and asked his buddy to pass it down to him. I don't know, I though it was kind of funny.

Immediately is buddy responds "He is married!" We were all like "uh, OK. whatever."

The whole table becomes abuzz and they look like they're going through UN negotiations or something. They gather at the far end of the table and discuss animatedly.

Finally the guy comes down and goes "My wife got it for me. I don't know where."

I was cracking up. I mean, if the guy had said "My wife, I have a wife, not available, I have a wife!" it wouldn't have been more obvious that he wasn't available. We were cracking up... it was so funny.

So to Random Dude... get over yourself. We just really actually wanted to know where you got your shirt, we weren't hitting on you.

Weekend fun

This weekend looks like it will be alot of fun!

Tonight we're celebrating my friend Jaci's bday at Via Carducci La Sorella. Is it bad that I already have what I want to get picked out? Penne with fresh basil pesto and goat cheese. YUM.

Tomorrow we're attending my brother's girlfriend Kim's bday celebration. Hairbanger's Ball at Joe's!

Sunday I'm hoping to work on the name frame website and get paint to work on painting the trim at our condo. Baby steps toward a better place!

Resolution update

#4 Resolution Done. I have purchased a shredder! Exciting, I know.

So you know, if you have anything to shred, come on over.

Open letter to retailers

Your recent sales are in a slump. May I offer a suggestion as to why?

The high for today is 26 degrees. This morning the cold wind brought tears to my eyes and made me feel like my Northface winter hat did not exist. Or if it did exist, it must be made of see-through material and not wool lined with fleece. And you are selling this crap:
Tshirts, polo shirts, and swimsuits, Old Navy! I don't know about most people, but when I buy new clothes I want to wear them POST HASTE, not in 4 months. So, yeah. I don't feel all that sorry for you. Why don't you sell something I can wear now instead of all kinds of jaunty tissue-weight tshirts?

Convos around the condo

Me: I'm glad that dog is not any bigger
Mike: Me too. Right now she's just meddlesome. If she was bigger she would be downright destructive!!

I find rotten orange in fruit bowl & take it over to trash.... Milly is doing acrobatics trying to get at it..
Me: You don't want this.
Mike: I think you consistently underestimate what she doesn't want.

Me: I tried to get a picture of her sitting on her crate like Snoopy on his house.
Mike: Did you?
Me: No. Once she saw the camera she went butt-crazy and was flinging herself against the baby gate.
Mike: Figures.

Puppy play time

DSC_0408.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

At the beginning of every puppy class we let the puppies play together for five minutes. This is Milly with her friends (from left) Juno, Cubby, and Marty.

Milly at her last SuperPuppy Class

DSC_0393.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

That silly beagle did her trick (jumping over her old crate) and graduated! I'm so proud!

Weekend recap

So I'm not going to lie. I wasn't looking forward to last weekend. But it ended up being SO MUCH more fun and productive and relaxing than I thought it would be!

Friday we left work just a bit early and I thought I would use that time to wash one of the cars and take a nap before Chad got into town and we went for drinks. I took Milly out for a walk, and cleaned out the Corolla. I tossed Milly into the Corolla for the short ride up the street to the car wash place.... they told me it would only take 20 minutes so I thought... I'll just take Milly home and feed her and then head back and pick up the car. But when I got home with the dog, I realized that I had left my condo keys with the car wash guys and the Corolla. DOH! At that point, I knew the nap wasn't going to happen so I let myself into the garage with the opener remote and then took the Rav over for a car wash. Man, that really confused them. They were like "Wait, what car did you have? The corolla? But that isn't an SUV?" All the while I'm explaining that I have two cars, and would like them BOTH washed I'm trying to make Milly maintain her sitting, which is like trying to tame a wild hog, especially in a new place that sells all kinds of snack foods, with bags of peanuts at snout-level. Oy, the dog, she needs some major work in the obedience area. (as a random aside, our trainer told us that dogs learn contextually, so they learn to sit in place A and place B and once they've learned it in ALOT of places only THEN do they have it down. This makes sense because Milly is OK at Sit at home and at the trainer's place but sucks at it outside or anywhere else. So yeah, it needs to get warm outside so we can practice outside in lots of places!)

I got just a few minutes to close my eyes before needing to go pick up Mike at the train and letting Chad in. Then we all headed off to Durkin's for a lovely evening of $15 all-you-can-drink-and-eat beer and Domino's Pizza. The place is a little collegiate but holy crap what a deal. I think the only way we'll ever stop going there is if they stop offering that deal; I'm more fiscally responsible now than when I was 23! Usually we are definitely the oldest people there, but this time it didn't seem that way. Maybe the recession is forcing people to go to cheaper happy hours? Regardless it was super fun and I was home between 10:30-11 which was awesome. I would so rather not be out super late anymore, I am getting old!

Saturday I had to go to the grocery to get hoagie rolls and a few things I accidentally forgot for the meatballs. Once there I realized that Jewel was having a massive sale on meat. This made my day and I totally stocked up. At first I was going to pass it up but was like "No! Can't! Chicken only $1.50 a pound!" It was awesome. Plus it was the morning so Club Jewel was busy, but not as ridiculous as it normally is, especially on superbowl weekend.

I then spent the rest of the day making meatballs & queso and getting ready for the next day (we hosted a few people for a superbowl party). That night we hit up Fogo de Chao for dinner... YUM. I love that place. Meghan introduced me to this Green Goddess salad dressing that I would have never tried, ever, if she hadn't said how good it was. And I ate my weight in parmesan scraped straight from the inside of a massive wheel of parmegiano reggiano (sp?). I want my own wheel of parm. Would that be too much? I can see it now: Hey, wine and cheese party at my place, just knock off your own piece of parm! haha....

Sunday the guys played football out at Diversey fields and Meghan and I took Milly to watch. Milly was having a grand old time digging big holes in the snow (I can just hear the doggy thoughts "Every hole I dig has GRASS in the bottom! SWEET!") and watching the boys play. I just felt bad b.c I couldn't let her run free.... the field was only divided from Lakeshore Drive by one of those metal guardrails and not an actual fence. I couldn't be sure she wouldn't bolt for the highway, so had to keep her on the flexi-leash. Poor pup!

A little bit later, everyone came over to watch the SuperBowl at our place. We got a new keg in the kegerator and I had the meatballs and queso, and had also made peanut butter blossom cookies (my specialty). Writt and his girlfriend Kelly brought this AWESOME cheesy artichoke dip and this really good guacamole with tortilla chips. Carl and his girlfriend Emily brought tiny bite-size calzone-like meat pocket things that were great. Rogus and Lindsay brought some chips, french onion dip (I could eat that stuff until I am sick), tater tots and waffle fries. Amy brought this awesome garlic-y cilantro shrimp.... other people brought various chips, dips, and cookies. So basically we had a metric ton of junk food. It was soooo good and I think I grazed almost all night. The game was somewhat interesting, the commercials were good and it was a generally calm and fun party. It was fun to have everyone over and I enjoyed it!

So anyways, lots of stuff going on and that is our weekend. I have pictures of NONE of it because my point and shoot camera got broken on new year's eve.... so I finally caved and bought a new one last night. I can't stand not having any pictures of anything. And I'd like to start taking and posting more pictures on the blog. I don't know if I'll go back to project 365 (take and post a picture a day) or if I'll just try to post pics from 3-4 things a week. We shall see!

Resolutions!

Here is where I'm at so far...

1. Journal: I have been writing in it, at least every other day
2. Another photo class: This is a fall '09 resolution!
3. No caffeine: Being good. Found three cherry diet cokes in the back of the hall closet (where we keep extra beverages) and let myself have one on Sunday (and THEN had five solid hours of productivity... ), so that was my once a month. Other than that, been completely off it! It was a little rough-going this morning when I was super tired and smelled someone else's French Vanilla Dunkin' Donuts though.
4. Buy a paper shredder: I forgot both times I went to Target this month. doh!
5. Website and cart for name frames: I figured out the cart stuff on paypal, and downloaded some templates for the actual website.
6. Quit candy: Going strong
7. Finish purple scarf: Finished knitting a whole skein of yarn! Just one more to go.

25 random things about me

I keep getting tagged in this "25 things about me" meme on Facebook, so I thought I would post it here instead of Facebook. Posting stuff like this on facebook bothers me for some reason.

1. It's very rare that I get through a day without putting my hair into a ponytail at some point. I will take it down and put it up a million times throughout the day. Once a friend sat behind me in a college class and told me after class "I mean, no offense. Don't get me wrong, it's nice hair. But you play with it more than ANYONE I have EVER seen."
2. I really really really want to go to BlogHer this year to meet a bunch of people whose blogs I read. But I will probably chicken out and not go. Because I don't actually know those people. And I feel kind of like a moron fangirl by going up to people whose blogs I read.
3. I quit caffeine a couple months ago because of my acid reflux, and really miss a warm cup of joe and a diet coke every now and again.
4. I love to read, and do so very fast.
5. I flip the bird to Worm's Way everytime we drive past it on the way to and from Bloomington. I did a group project for them once and it was the most awful ridiculous thing I ever did in college and I got a bad grade (for me, a low B).
6. I know an absurdly ridiculous amount of stuff about baby gear for someone who doesn't have a kid. It's all those blogs I read! At least it benefits my sister and friends sometimes.
7. I remember almost anything for a very long time if I see it in writing. In college I took copious notes but almost never referenced them. I do the same thing at work now.
8. I am really bad about calling people on the phone, unless it's for a specific reason (ie asking if someone is coming to event or making arrangements to meet up).
9. I know the caloric content of almost anything.
10. I have only had one traffic ticket my entire life: a moving violation for going the wrong way on a one-way street.
11. When my husband first saw me, I was wearing a red coat. I save that coat for special occasions and now just wear it on fancy date nights.
12. I thought my husband was a weirdo the first time I talked to him.
13. My nose runs ALL the time, almost. Especially when I run. Then it runs alot.
14. I worry about almost everything, and then try to plan obscenely far in advance to mitigate that worry.
15. I have a deep, mad love for Pequod's pizza and chicken/tofu pad thai
16. I am a pastor's kid.
17. I obsess over losing things (I look in my seat when I leave places and check that I have my wallet over and over), although I hardly ever lose/misplace anything for any period of time
18. I love hanging out with my family and look forward to any time I get with them.
19. I never wanted to get married or have kids until I met Hubs. I just thought that would never happen for me.
20. I bought a Wii fit and never did use it.
21. I feel like the housework and to-do lists just never end and wonder how everyone keeps up with it all. There is always something I feel like I missed no matter how much I do.
22. I have run two half marathons at the breakneck pace of 12 minute miles. Despite that, I am decidedly not a runner.
23. I think alot about my grandmother who passed away this summer, and what she would think of certain things.
24. I once had a bedroom that was cotton candy pink. Like, when I was 24 and lived with 3 friends from college. Pink is still my favorite color.
25. I am a compulsive putter-awayer. I will put my cell phone in my purse without realizing it, even if I meant to leave it out to keep an eye on it.

And then we almost got arrested...

Well, it's been a kind of crappy week in the Knowles household, and it started off on Monday night.

On the way home from puppy class, a light turned yellow and Mike started to throw on the brakes to stop, then realized that throwing on the brakes would slam Milly into the back of the seat (she was wet and dirty from prancing around in the snow, so we put her in the very back of the SUV). So he sped up to make the light. Only because he had slowed down before, the light was red when we went through it. Immediately, red and blue flashing lights lit up the night, and Mike sighed and said "Great. I don't have my ID on me either." I don't take my purse to puppy class, because I hate leaving it in the car (asking for a breakin!) and hate leaving it sitting out on the sidelines (I am just way too paranoid). So we had no ID on us at all. Then for some reason our insurance card was missing! So the police officer asked us to follow him to the station. AWESOME.

Once we got there, we were convinced our car would get towed and the officer already told us we would have to post bond. I didn't have my purse or phone and Mike has a new phone with almost no numbers in it, so I was convinced I was going to have to call my parents to get my brother's phone number to come bail us out (I have three numbers memorized: my dad's cell, my parent's home, and mike's cell). We didn't know how long we would be in the station so we took Milly in with us. And I think she saved us! The officer wrote us the two tickets he could have written out on the street and another notice that said basically we would have to pay $1K if Mike doesn't show up in court. Then they let us go home! We were there for less than a half hour which was awesome.

Obviously, we were really nice and polite and I'm sure they don't see that alot. The officer was laughing that night too, saying that some guy was getting arrested for threatening to blow up a bar after he got kicked out for being way too drunk. We saw the guy, too, and it looked like he had had better days.

So anyways, moral of the story: Dog gets us into trouble, Dog gets us out of trouble. The End

Hugs

DSC_0081.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Gracie loves hugs from Grandpa S

More Fort Wayne

DSC_0088.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Gracie and Grandpa Stratton make an important call. Grandpas are soooooo much fun!

Visit to Fort Wayne

DSC_0255.JPG, originally uploaded by agstratt.

Gracie loves her Grandpa Curley. He makes funny noises and tickles her!

Milly went to doggie daycare today and is very tired. She is super cute and cuddly!