This is my friend Sean. As you can see, he's "that guy." For no other reason, other than wanting to laugh, I present a montage of "that guy":
06 March 2007
04 March 2007
Kids aren't easy!
So, this weekend, Matt & I had my two neices & one nephew staying at our apartment. We picked them up in Elgin (mainly because driving in Chicago scares my mom, and there's a 98.9867% chance that she'd get lost anyway) around 9:30 (so we could make it back to the city in plenty of time for what turned out to be the atrocity of an Illini game).
After the game, we headed out to the Shedd Aquarium. I took the kids on the train, mainly because they'd think it was some sort of ride. When we got to Shedd, the line was all the way out the door, and probably halfway across the museum campus (likely a 30-45 minute wait). We decided to head to The Field Museum (Natural History museum). We made our way through the Nature Walk first, and then headed up to the evolution exhibit. It was a bit heavy for the kids, so I walked through it quickly with the kids, so they could get to the dinosaur section of it. We eventually headed home, made our own pizza & relax.
After many hours of cartoon watching and illegible "pictures" drawn by my 4 year old neice, it was finally time to take them back out to Elgin. I knew kids weren't easy, but I didn't realize the young ones needed as much freaking attention. :eek
After dropping the kids off, Matt & I met Matt's parents at Pequod's for pizza in celebration of Matt's birthday (3/3) and his dad's birthday (3/8). Any time I can have some fantastic Pequod's, I'm in.
Because lunch/dinner was at 3, we were able to get back home by 5 and relax for the remainder of the weekend...
Some pics....
After the game, we headed out to the Shedd Aquarium. I took the kids on the train, mainly because they'd think it was some sort of ride. When we got to Shedd, the line was all the way out the door, and probably halfway across the museum campus (likely a 30-45 minute wait). We decided to head to The Field Museum (Natural History museum). We made our way through the Nature Walk first, and then headed up to the evolution exhibit. It was a bit heavy for the kids, so I walked through it quickly with the kids, so they could get to the dinosaur section of it. We eventually headed home, made our own pizza & relax.
After many hours of cartoon watching and illegible "pictures" drawn by my 4 year old neice, it was finally time to take them back out to Elgin. I knew kids weren't easy, but I didn't realize the young ones needed as much freaking attention. :eek
After dropping the kids off, Matt & I met Matt's parents at Pequod's for pizza in celebration of Matt's birthday (3/3) and his dad's birthday (3/8). Any time I can have some fantastic Pequod's, I'm in.
Because lunch/dinner was at 3, we were able to get back home by 5 and relax for the remainder of the weekend...
Some pics....
28 February 2007
Matt bought a TV today
Holy effing crap.
A short backstory on this - back in the beginning of January, we saw this TV for $799.00 at the local Target. At the time, they were out of stock (duh, that's a great price for the TV). We were given a raincheck receipt for the price & were told to call in the future to check on availability. We called multiple local Targets, only to usually be told, "Sorry, we're still out of stock."
Yesterday, I called, and low & behold one of the Targets in the city had some in stock. 3 to be exact. So, after work, Matt & I headed over to the store to see if there was still at least one available. No such luck. I was pretty bummed. I resigned to the fact that it would be another couple weeks before more would become available.
Matt gets home a little later than normal today, but I didn't question it, as he had a bad day, I figured he got stuck at work. I'm laying on the couch, the back door opens & Matt is out of breath. He asks me to come help him carry stuff in. I'm thinking, "Huh? Carry what? I just went to the Jewels. What in the world could you have that you need help with?" I go to the back door, and there it is, sitting on the back deck.
Here's a visual montage of our adventures getting it set up:
A short backstory on this - back in the beginning of January, we saw this TV for $799.00 at the local Target. At the time, they were out of stock (duh, that's a great price for the TV). We were given a raincheck receipt for the price & were told to call in the future to check on availability. We called multiple local Targets, only to usually be told, "Sorry, we're still out of stock."
Yesterday, I called, and low & behold one of the Targets in the city had some in stock. 3 to be exact. So, after work, Matt & I headed over to the store to see if there was still at least one available. No such luck. I was pretty bummed. I resigned to the fact that it would be another couple weeks before more would become available.
Matt gets home a little later than normal today, but I didn't question it, as he had a bad day, I figured he got stuck at work. I'm laying on the couch, the back door opens & Matt is out of breath. He asks me to come help him carry stuff in. I'm thinking, "Huh? Carry what? I just went to the Jewels. What in the world could you have that you need help with?" I go to the back door, and there it is, sitting on the back deck.
Here's a visual montage of our adventures getting it set up:
26 February 2007
Suburbs & Baby Showers
Two things I'm not particularly fond of. In any case, I was at a baby shower in the suburbs this weekend. Winfield to be exact. For those of you who have no idea where that is (myself included), it's some place near Wheaton.
Driving out there, based on the directions I was given by the broad having the baby, wasn't exactly easy. After a couple of loop-de-loops (is that a word?), I eventually made it to the burb I needed to get to. Before driving up to the house, I stopped in a parking lot to finish up listening to the first half of the Illini game on the radio. (sounds creepier now that I'm writing it).
Have I mentioned this party was Illini themed? Well, it was. I expected a bunch of orange and blue decorations, orange and blue foods... but didn't expect the girls to know there was an Illini game being played at the exact time of the party. (Don't worry, they didn't).
In short, the party was filled with pregnant women, women with babies, and married women. Lots of talk about how many teeth kids had, how fat some kids were (am I supposed to know that a 6 month old isn't supposed to be 22 lbs?), and the plethora of baby bopper covers available.
I am happy to report that the food was good... including the homemade pokey stix. And yes, somehow I was able to get the second half turned on the TV in the basement.
Driving out there, based on the directions I was given by the broad having the baby, wasn't exactly easy. After a couple of loop-de-loops (is that a word?), I eventually made it to the burb I needed to get to. Before driving up to the house, I stopped in a parking lot to finish up listening to the first half of the Illini game on the radio. (sounds creepier now that I'm writing it).
Have I mentioned this party was Illini themed? Well, it was. I expected a bunch of orange and blue decorations, orange and blue foods... but didn't expect the girls to know there was an Illini game being played at the exact time of the party. (Don't worry, they didn't).
In short, the party was filled with pregnant women, women with babies, and married women. Lots of talk about how many teeth kids had, how fat some kids were (am I supposed to know that a 6 month old isn't supposed to be 22 lbs?), and the plethora of baby bopper covers available.
I am happy to report that the food was good... including the homemade pokey stix. And yes, somehow I was able to get the second half turned on the TV in the basement.
23 February 2007
Cubs tickets went on sale today
Contrary to my past experiences attempting to purchase tickets on this day, I was able to get through, twice. I ended up buying two games (tickets are freaking expensive).
The first game is July 21st against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now I know, my first choice was the Diamondbacks? Well, I heard the game promotion was Carlos Zambrano bobbleheads, so I immediately went for tickets. As I'm sitting here writing this, I'm thinking to myself, "Uh, you don't even like bobbleheads, why in the world would you get tickets for this game?" Even worse, for whatever reason, I figured, "Hey, it's a Saturday, in the middle of the summer, why not try for bleacher seats? Excuse me, Bud Light bleacher seats?" Once again, I'm thinking, "WTF is wrong with you, you hate the bleachers?" Tickets were $42 each. Somehow when I hit "purchase tickets" the final price for 2 bleacher seats ended up being $96.68. I guess that includes the Total Convenience Fee for 2 seats $9.18, along with Order Processing fee(including delivery) of $3.50. Holy cow.
The second game I purchased was the August 17th game vs the Cardinals. I'm planning on selling those tickets to some idiot Cardinal fan willing to pay me much more than what the tickets are worth.
Come to think of it, I may do the same with the Diamondback tickets, only replace "Cardinal" with "Cub" or "Diamondback" above. That, or maybe I'll try and sell the stupid Zambrano bobblehead on ebay.
One awesome thing of note regarding the Zambrano booblehead day - of the 10,000 people who receive the bobblehead, 10 lucky people will win a bobblehead made in their likeness. Now, that would be sweet. And kind of weird.
The first game is July 21st against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now I know, my first choice was the Diamondbacks? Well, I heard the game promotion was Carlos Zambrano bobbleheads, so I immediately went for tickets. As I'm sitting here writing this, I'm thinking to myself, "Uh, you don't even like bobbleheads, why in the world would you get tickets for this game?" Even worse, for whatever reason, I figured, "Hey, it's a Saturday, in the middle of the summer, why not try for bleacher seats? Excuse me, Bud Light bleacher seats?" Once again, I'm thinking, "WTF is wrong with you, you hate the bleachers?" Tickets were $42 each. Somehow when I hit "purchase tickets" the final price for 2 bleacher seats ended up being $96.68. I guess that includes the Total Convenience Fee for 2 seats $9.18, along with Order Processing fee(including delivery) of $3.50. Holy cow.
The second game I purchased was the August 17th game vs the Cardinals. I'm planning on selling those tickets to some idiot Cardinal fan willing to pay me much more than what the tickets are worth.
Come to think of it, I may do the same with the Diamondback tickets, only replace "Cardinal" with "Cub" or "Diamondback" above. That, or maybe I'll try and sell the stupid Zambrano bobblehead on ebay.
One awesome thing of note regarding the Zambrano booblehead day - of the 10,000 people who receive the bobblehead, 10 lucky people will win a bobblehead made in their likeness. Now, that would be sweet. And kind of weird.
20 February 2007
Chambana!!!
So Friday I went to Champaign with my friends Chris & Jen, mainly to have lunch with my internets friends, but also to spend some time in Champaign. I hadn't been since football season, and figured it'd be a fun way to spend a Friday night.
We had lunch with a big group at a new place called Billy Barooz. Chris and I were thinking of boycotting based simply on the name. The only part that really bothered us was the fact that it ended in a Z. Food was meh, beers were good.
Jen & I then headed to campus with our friend Joe, to kick off our campus bar crawl. We started off at Murphy's, had a couple of beers there (my tab for 4 beers was $8. 8 DOLLARS!)... decided to head to Legend's next.... turns out they were serving big ass 24 ounce bottles of Miller Lite for $3.25, which roughly equates to $1.62 a beer. Is this a joke? We ended up getting pretty buzzed at this point, and Jen decided to head to the Colonial Pantry to purchase cigarettes and a lotto ticket. After completely that transaction, we decided to head to Jimmy Johns for some food, after all, we needed something in our stomachs if we planned on making it the rest of the night.
While eating, Jen brought up the idea of heading to Kams. Now for those that do not know what Kams is, but do know the type of person I am, it's not a place that I would frequent without being pushed against my will. Because the snow on the sidewalks made it hard to walk, I convinced Jen that we should just go into the first bar we see...which ended up being Firehaus. Again, I had an issue with the name, but decided to go in, since there were spots to sit.
As we were sitting & enjoying our beers (of which I do not know the cost, as Joe graciously purchased them for us), the topic of masturbation comes up. On the car ride down, Chris had mentioned that his right shoulder was stiff. I asked him whether or not it was due to too much masturbating. He responded with, "Nah, I use my left hand for that. I'm ambidextrous" - so in lies the theme of the night. Jen & I asked pretty much everyone we were with which hand they normally masturbated with. Jen even went so far as to pose as a reporter for the Red Eye (commuter paper put out by the Tribune) at the bar. She went up to a table comprised of roughly 8 guys and 1 girl. Guess who got embarassed & didn't answer the question, while the rest of the group eagerly rose whichever hand it was they used more.
After Firehaus, we met up with the rest of our group down at the White Horse... one of my favorite bars on campus. Actually, the 3 bars I frequented while in school were all hit up on this crawl, so I was pretty happy.
We headed downtown after White Ho & hit up a couple of places. My memory starts to fade around this time, and as we hit the second bar downtown, I wanted to head home. Ryan (where we were staying) graciously offered to drive me home. I've since been told that he fishtailed part of the way home as a means of envoking some sort of fear in me. I'm sure I got mad at the time & I'm sure it didn't help my already upset stomach. Anyway, I made it home safely, changed into my pj's & got under the covers on the couch...
We went to breakfast the next morning at Flattop Grille. Normally, I'd be all about this place, as you can put candy in your pancakes... but after eating roughly half of my candy cake, my stomach decided it didn't agree with how delicious it was. I quietly excused myself to go to the bathroom. Candy cakes taste much better on the way down. :(
All in all, it was a great night in Champaign & I'm glad we decided to make the trip down. It was good to see everyone, to see campus (well, the bars and bookstores at least), and to not spend an entire weekend down there.
Next up this weekend: a baby shower in the burbs. That should be exciting. Stick around for a recap.
We had lunch with a big group at a new place called Billy Barooz. Chris and I were thinking of boycotting based simply on the name. The only part that really bothered us was the fact that it ended in a Z. Food was meh, beers were good.
Jen & I then headed to campus with our friend Joe, to kick off our campus bar crawl. We started off at Murphy's, had a couple of beers there (my tab for 4 beers was $8. 8 DOLLARS!)... decided to head to Legend's next.... turns out they were serving big ass 24 ounce bottles of Miller Lite for $3.25, which roughly equates to $1.62 a beer. Is this a joke? We ended up getting pretty buzzed at this point, and Jen decided to head to the Colonial Pantry to purchase cigarettes and a lotto ticket. After completely that transaction, we decided to head to Jimmy Johns for some food, after all, we needed something in our stomachs if we planned on making it the rest of the night.
While eating, Jen brought up the idea of heading to Kams. Now for those that do not know what Kams is, but do know the type of person I am, it's not a place that I would frequent without being pushed against my will. Because the snow on the sidewalks made it hard to walk, I convinced Jen that we should just go into the first bar we see...which ended up being Firehaus. Again, I had an issue with the name, but decided to go in, since there were spots to sit.
As we were sitting & enjoying our beers (of which I do not know the cost, as Joe graciously purchased them for us), the topic of masturbation comes up. On the car ride down, Chris had mentioned that his right shoulder was stiff. I asked him whether or not it was due to too much masturbating. He responded with, "Nah, I use my left hand for that. I'm ambidextrous" - so in lies the theme of the night. Jen & I asked pretty much everyone we were with which hand they normally masturbated with. Jen even went so far as to pose as a reporter for the Red Eye (commuter paper put out by the Tribune) at the bar. She went up to a table comprised of roughly 8 guys and 1 girl. Guess who got embarassed & didn't answer the question, while the rest of the group eagerly rose whichever hand it was they used more.
After Firehaus, we met up with the rest of our group down at the White Horse... one of my favorite bars on campus. Actually, the 3 bars I frequented while in school were all hit up on this crawl, so I was pretty happy.
We headed downtown after White Ho & hit up a couple of places. My memory starts to fade around this time, and as we hit the second bar downtown, I wanted to head home. Ryan (where we were staying) graciously offered to drive me home. I've since been told that he fishtailed part of the way home as a means of envoking some sort of fear in me. I'm sure I got mad at the time & I'm sure it didn't help my already upset stomach. Anyway, I made it home safely, changed into my pj's & got under the covers on the couch...
We went to breakfast the next morning at Flattop Grille. Normally, I'd be all about this place, as you can put candy in your pancakes... but after eating roughly half of my candy cake, my stomach decided it didn't agree with how delicious it was. I quietly excused myself to go to the bathroom. Candy cakes taste much better on the way down. :(
All in all, it was a great night in Champaign & I'm glad we decided to make the trip down. It was good to see everyone, to see campus (well, the bars and bookstores at least), and to not spend an entire weekend down there.
Next up this weekend: a baby shower in the burbs. That should be exciting. Stick around for a recap.
14 February 2007
Happy Valentine's Day!!
This is the card I made for Matt. See, we have a new couch, a new cat, & new shelves. That's why those things are pictured. I'm pretty impressed with myself.
13 February 2007
I just created the best Valentine's Day card ever
I will post it tomorrow, once I've given it to Matt. For a general idea of my skills, this is what my card for him looked like last year:
12 February 2007
09 February 2007
I ate my sandwich backwards today
I have some absurd eating quirks.
Today's quirk: Having to eat a side-sliced sandwich with the slice facing the right. Despite having a 50/50 chance of getting a sandwich sliced on the wrong side, I'm usually pretty lucky with this, and very rarely have to bite/rip off the wrong end of the sandwich. And even though I rarely buy lunch at Quizno's, hats off to them for never making me do this.
Anyway, here's my Subway sandwich from today:
07 February 2007
Malfunction!
So, is this phallic?
Yes. It's Prince, people.
It's phallic & it was very likely intentional.
My favorite quote found from all the discussion on this comes from Stephen Colbert: "They knew that they were dealing with a lustful, pansexual rock 'n' roll deviant," said Colbert, who joked that the sheet hid (not enhanced) Prince's "demonic guitar phallus."
06 February 2007
Ok, so I've also decided to give this place a face lift
I like this template much better. Sorry if it confuses anyone who was used to my old blog format (not that I assume I had that many readers to begin with). Happy Tuesday.
Catching up...
So, the Bears lost in the Super Bowl on Sunday. That pretty much sucked, but didn't keep us from heading out to the bars for some post game drinking.
In any case, Matt & I have been making our apartment more 'our apartment' over the past week or so. We've put up shelves & stocked them with what Matt likes to call "frick-a-frack." We even had a craft project with some vases, rocks and fake grass that ended up turning out great. We also purchased a cool little square ottoman that I've been wanting for a while...Below are some pictures of the latest additions to our place. We're planning on painting a couple of the living room walls sometime soon, as we'll likely be in the place for at least another year.
Also, it's freaking cold in Chicago.
In any case, Matt & I have been making our apartment more 'our apartment' over the past week or so. We've put up shelves & stocked them with what Matt likes to call "frick-a-frack." We even had a craft project with some vases, rocks and fake grass that ended up turning out great. We also purchased a cool little square ottoman that I've been wanting for a while...Below are some pictures of the latest additions to our place. We're planning on painting a couple of the living room walls sometime soon, as we'll likely be in the place for at least another year.
Also, it's freaking cold in Chicago.
26 January 2007
Super Bears! Superbowl!
Well, it's been 21 long years since the Beloved were last in the Superbowl. And now that I think about it, I believe I posted on this day in 2006, pointing out that it had been exactly 20 years to the day, since the Bears had won the Superbowl...
Here's to hoping we have the same outcome in the 2007 installment!
The kick that gave us the opportunity to play for the NFC Championship:
The kick that gave us the opportunity to play for the NFC Championship:
And here are a couple of pictures from the NFC Championship game, in which the Bears defeated the Saints (Sorry, America) 39-14 on a snowy afternoon at Chicago's Soldier Field.
And for fun, some pictures from the bar where we watched the game....
08 January 2007
So, Christmas is officially over
Well, close to it, at least. I'm currently in the process of taking down our sagging tree.
Christmas afforded me the opportunity to get to know pretty much every family member of Matt's & let me just say, he has an amazingly awesome family. I felt very much a part of a family that I'm not officially a part of, and everything ended up being a lot less pressure-filled than expected.
December was also spent attending a handful of Illinois games. In addition to the Arizona game at the begining of the month, I also went to a couple more. Matt, Dan, Brad & I went to see the Illini play & defeat UIC at the United Center in early December. A group of us spent time in St Louis just before Christmas for the Busch Braggin Rights game vs Mizzou (which Illinois ended up winning - feels like it was the last game they won)... Teri and I drove to Cincinnati on the 29th to see the Illinois take on (& lose to) Xavier University. We stayed with Megan & had quite the adventure that night... Teri and I had to wait approximately 2 hours for a cab. After standing on the street corner like ladies of the night, we decided to head to a dive bar about a block away. They ended up calling us a cab while Teri and I chugged as many beers as we could (splitting one each time). After the debacle of a game, Teri and I decided to head to Newport, Kentucky, which just so happened to be right across the river. Perfect. Ended up at some mansion turned into a bar, with a live band playing in the living room. Beers were served in cans, I ordered plain diet cokes and emptied the booze from my cell phone flask into the plastic cup, pretty much in front of the 60-something bartender who just served me. Didn't get to spend as much time with Megan as I had hoped, but greatly appreciate her hospitality.
So, the Illini have lost 3 in a row, the Bears play the Seahawks in the playoffs on Sunday & I'm back to work for the first full week in quite some time.
Christmas afforded me the opportunity to get to know pretty much every family member of Matt's & let me just say, he has an amazingly awesome family. I felt very much a part of a family that I'm not officially a part of, and everything ended up being a lot less pressure-filled than expected.
December was also spent attending a handful of Illinois games. In addition to the Arizona game at the begining of the month, I also went to a couple more. Matt, Dan, Brad & I went to see the Illini play & defeat UIC at the United Center in early December. A group of us spent time in St Louis just before Christmas for the Busch Braggin Rights game vs Mizzou (which Illinois ended up winning - feels like it was the last game they won)... Teri and I drove to Cincinnati on the 29th to see the Illinois take on (& lose to) Xavier University. We stayed with Megan & had quite the adventure that night... Teri and I had to wait approximately 2 hours for a cab. After standing on the street corner like ladies of the night, we decided to head to a dive bar about a block away. They ended up calling us a cab while Teri and I chugged as many beers as we could (splitting one each time). After the debacle of a game, Teri and I decided to head to Newport, Kentucky, which just so happened to be right across the river. Perfect. Ended up at some mansion turned into a bar, with a live band playing in the living room. Beers were served in cans, I ordered plain diet cokes and emptied the booze from my cell phone flask into the plastic cup, pretty much in front of the 60-something bartender who just served me. Didn't get to spend as much time with Megan as I had hoped, but greatly appreciate her hospitality.
So, the Illini have lost 3 in a row, the Bears play the Seahawks in the playoffs on Sunday & I'm back to work for the first full week in quite some time.
07 December 2006
Thanksgiving, Phoenix, and all the rest
Thanksgiving
So, Thanksgiving... was an interesting time. Matt & I drove to Rockford Thursday morning to head to my dad's house for Thanksgiving (he hosts it every year). We ended up getting there pretty early (earlier than normal, as my dad serves lunch at 12 sharp on Thanksgiving)... hung out with my odd family, ate some good food,& watched some football. A funny part in the day came during lunch, sitting at the dinner table when Matt starts talking football with my cousin. They start talking about the new surfaces being used for fields in the NFL. Matt says, "yeah, a lot of places are using that astroglide surface now" D'oh.
Thanksgiving evening, Matt headed to the burbs to hang out with his family, while I stayed back to hang out with my mom & younger brother. It's an annual tradition to go play Bingo on Thanksgiving evening, so my mom, her boyfriend & my brother headed to the old fogey filled Bingo hall. As usual, I didn't win a dang thing (unless you count winning a raffle prize of '5 bingo dollars to be spent at your next Wednesday or Thursday night bingo!' as winning, and also as usual, it infuriated me to no end. Bingo ended up going until fairly late, my mom dropped me off at my dad's, I went to bed, preparing for my 10 year high school reunion the next evening.
Now, I know, who goes to stupid reunions? I only decided to go once my friend Megan convinced me to. Matt drove back to Rockford for the night, picked me up, and we headed to the hotel we'd be staying at (the hotel was in the same parking lot as the reunion locale, so no driving would be needed after a night of heavy drinking). Prior to heading over to Stephanie's parents house (where we always used to meet before dances) Matt drove me back toward my dad's place, mentioning that he needed to pick something up. Intrigued, I kept trying to figure out what it was, and only once we were very close did I figure it out. He ended up jokingly getting me a corsage for my reunion. I guess his request didnt go over so well with the florist, as he went in, asked, "I'm looking for something gaughty, do you have anything?" The florist wasnt amused, but before she could say something, Matt pointed to something and said, "That will work" -- anyway, so I had an awesome corsage for my 10 year HS reunion.
The reunion itself was pretty stupid. Hanging out with Steph & Brandon and Megan & Beth was pretty fun. It's good to see old friends, I wish we did more often. Also got to see Megan's brother Alex and his girlfriend Kate... the following morning, Matt & I went couch shopping very quickly & then he headed over to my mom's house to meet her, my brother, and my 2 neices & 1 nephew. We hung out at her house for a while, but had to head back to Chicago to get to a Wilco concert that night (which ended up being pretty cool).
Phoenix
This past weekend (November 30th-December 3rd) a bunch of us headed out to Phoenix, Arizona to watch the Illini take on Arizona. Illinois ended up losing, both to the Wildcats & the refs, but I'll leave it at that.
My old roommate Sean also lives out in Phoenix and was teh gracious host to roughly 7-9 of us depending on the evening. He had plenty of aerobeds, blankets, towels, etc... he's all growns up now, out there in Phoenix (although I think his mom has a lot to do with that). Anyway, 7 of us got to Phoenix late Thursday night, just in time to miss the snow in Chicago that ended up cancelling a lot of flights. I guess we were one of the last flighst allowed to leave O'Hare. Anyway, Sean picked us all up at the airport, we headed back to get ready to go out for the evening. Spent some time in downtown Tempe, which didnt leave a good impression on me after the first night... we first stopped at a brewery that claimed to close at 1AM on Thursdays. We get there around 11:30, they claim the kitchen is closed and the bar is on last call. What? So what do we do? We sit down and order a round of beers. We headed to one other bar that night, but soon called it an evening, as we were all tired.
Friday morning we all get up, Sean & Teri's boyfriend Kieffer headed out early for golf while Matt & Ben cook breakfast for the rest of us. The plan for Friday was hiking at Piestawa Peak, but there was more to the plan than Teri knew. Kieffer didnt actually go golf, but rather, he headed up to the trail we planned to hike. He found a spot on teh trail that was out of sight, and waited for us to walk by so he could propose to Teri. Hoooray, she said yes!
We finished hiking, stopped at an In N' Out burger (first timer), and headed home to rest before dinner. We ate at a really great Japanese choppy place where they cook your meal in front of you on the table. It was tasty. We then headed out in Scottsdale for the evening, had many drinks, eventually made it home.
Saturday was game day... we headed downtown around 11 to go to the bar where an Illini pregame was being held. That wasn't all that fun, so we eventually made our way into the arena for game 1 featuring Gonzaga vs. Texas. We ran into our fair share of douchebag Arizona fans, claiming they should have won in 2005 to head to the final four... it was nice to not have to respond to them, but rather point to the Final Four shirts some of our friends were wearing. We ended up in awesome seats, 18 rows behind the Illinois bench, I only wish a better outcome had occurred.
Saturday night we headed out in downtown Tempe. We were able to score a table at a pretty cool (and cheap due to the idiot waitress who underchared us for drinks) bar, where we spent most of the night. We did attempt to venture over to another bar, only to be bonged because the only identification I have is my Illinois State ID. Apparently some bars in Phoenix will not accept out of state IDs as identification (not to mention the person in front of us got in on their UPS employee ID). Phoenix sucks for that, sorry.
Sunday we found a place to watch the Bears game (after checking many bars in downtown Tempe, even Pizzaria Uno - which claims to be a Chicago bar)...watched the game, walked through the Art Fair that was taking place on the streets, bought a few souveneirs, and eventually made our way back to Sean's to get packed for the airport.
Overall, a really fun trip which I'm glad we made. It was nice to see Sean, as well as our out of town friends Jamie and Lee from California. Illini trips usually end up being a good time, despite the outcomes of the games. The part that wasn't so fun - returning to 20 degree weather with snow. Yuck.
All the rest
Nothing much else to report... Matt & I purchased a Christmas tree earlier this week & now it's all decorated. Steve tends to leave it alone, which is an awesome relief. I'm likely headed to his family's Christmas Eve celebration in Oak Park, and then we're heading to my family's Christmas celebration in Rockford. I havent done a lick of Christmas shopping yet, probably should get started on that... Matt & I are also currently shopping for a couch, which will end up being our Christmas gift to each other... we've also been looking at plasma/LCD televisions, but likely further down the line. I'm taking time off shortly to head to St Louis for the Illinois/Mizzou Braggin' Rights game, as well to Cincinnati for the Illinois/Xavier game at the end of the month.
That's all for now. Have a great holiday season!
So, Thanksgiving... was an interesting time. Matt & I drove to Rockford Thursday morning to head to my dad's house for Thanksgiving (he hosts it every year). We ended up getting there pretty early (earlier than normal, as my dad serves lunch at 12 sharp on Thanksgiving)... hung out with my odd family, ate some good food,& watched some football. A funny part in the day came during lunch, sitting at the dinner table when Matt starts talking football with my cousin. They start talking about the new surfaces being used for fields in the NFL. Matt says, "yeah, a lot of places are using that astroglide surface now" D'oh.
Thanksgiving evening, Matt headed to the burbs to hang out with his family, while I stayed back to hang out with my mom & younger brother. It's an annual tradition to go play Bingo on Thanksgiving evening, so my mom, her boyfriend & my brother headed to the old fogey filled Bingo hall. As usual, I didn't win a dang thing (unless you count winning a raffle prize of '5 bingo dollars to be spent at your next Wednesday or Thursday night bingo!' as winning, and also as usual, it infuriated me to no end. Bingo ended up going until fairly late, my mom dropped me off at my dad's, I went to bed, preparing for my 10 year high school reunion the next evening.
Now, I know, who goes to stupid reunions? I only decided to go once my friend Megan convinced me to. Matt drove back to Rockford for the night, picked me up, and we headed to the hotel we'd be staying at (the hotel was in the same parking lot as the reunion locale, so no driving would be needed after a night of heavy drinking). Prior to heading over to Stephanie's parents house (where we always used to meet before dances) Matt drove me back toward my dad's place, mentioning that he needed to pick something up. Intrigued, I kept trying to figure out what it was, and only once we were very close did I figure it out. He ended up jokingly getting me a corsage for my reunion. I guess his request didnt go over so well with the florist, as he went in, asked, "I'm looking for something gaughty, do you have anything?" The florist wasnt amused, but before she could say something, Matt pointed to something and said, "That will work" -- anyway, so I had an awesome corsage for my 10 year HS reunion.
The reunion itself was pretty stupid. Hanging out with Steph & Brandon and Megan & Beth was pretty fun. It's good to see old friends, I wish we did more often. Also got to see Megan's brother Alex and his girlfriend Kate... the following morning, Matt & I went couch shopping very quickly & then he headed over to my mom's house to meet her, my brother, and my 2 neices & 1 nephew. We hung out at her house for a while, but had to head back to Chicago to get to a Wilco concert that night (which ended up being pretty cool).
Phoenix
This past weekend (November 30th-December 3rd) a bunch of us headed out to Phoenix, Arizona to watch the Illini take on Arizona. Illinois ended up losing, both to the Wildcats & the refs, but I'll leave it at that.
My old roommate Sean also lives out in Phoenix and was teh gracious host to roughly 7-9 of us depending on the evening. He had plenty of aerobeds, blankets, towels, etc... he's all growns up now, out there in Phoenix (although I think his mom has a lot to do with that). Anyway, 7 of us got to Phoenix late Thursday night, just in time to miss the snow in Chicago that ended up cancelling a lot of flights. I guess we were one of the last flighst allowed to leave O'Hare. Anyway, Sean picked us all up at the airport, we headed back to get ready to go out for the evening. Spent some time in downtown Tempe, which didnt leave a good impression on me after the first night... we first stopped at a brewery that claimed to close at 1AM on Thursdays. We get there around 11:30, they claim the kitchen is closed and the bar is on last call. What? So what do we do? We sit down and order a round of beers. We headed to one other bar that night, but soon called it an evening, as we were all tired.
Friday morning we all get up, Sean & Teri's boyfriend Kieffer headed out early for golf while Matt & Ben cook breakfast for the rest of us. The plan for Friday was hiking at Piestawa Peak, but there was more to the plan than Teri knew. Kieffer didnt actually go golf, but rather, he headed up to the trail we planned to hike. He found a spot on teh trail that was out of sight, and waited for us to walk by so he could propose to Teri. Hoooray, she said yes!
We finished hiking, stopped at an In N' Out burger (first timer), and headed home to rest before dinner. We ate at a really great Japanese choppy place where they cook your meal in front of you on the table. It was tasty. We then headed out in Scottsdale for the evening, had many drinks, eventually made it home.
Saturday was game day... we headed downtown around 11 to go to the bar where an Illini pregame was being held. That wasn't all that fun, so we eventually made our way into the arena for game 1 featuring Gonzaga vs. Texas. We ran into our fair share of douchebag Arizona fans, claiming they should have won in 2005 to head to the final four... it was nice to not have to respond to them, but rather point to the Final Four shirts some of our friends were wearing. We ended up in awesome seats, 18 rows behind the Illinois bench, I only wish a better outcome had occurred.
Saturday night we headed out in downtown Tempe. We were able to score a table at a pretty cool (and cheap due to the idiot waitress who underchared us for drinks) bar, where we spent most of the night. We did attempt to venture over to another bar, only to be bonged because the only identification I have is my Illinois State ID. Apparently some bars in Phoenix will not accept out of state IDs as identification (not to mention the person in front of us got in on their UPS employee ID). Phoenix sucks for that, sorry.
Sunday we found a place to watch the Bears game (after checking many bars in downtown Tempe, even Pizzaria Uno - which claims to be a Chicago bar)...watched the game, walked through the Art Fair that was taking place on the streets, bought a few souveneirs, and eventually made our way back to Sean's to get packed for the airport.
Overall, a really fun trip which I'm glad we made. It was nice to see Sean, as well as our out of town friends Jamie and Lee from California. Illini trips usually end up being a good time, despite the outcomes of the games. The part that wasn't so fun - returning to 20 degree weather with snow. Yuck.
All the rest
Nothing much else to report... Matt & I purchased a Christmas tree earlier this week & now it's all decorated. Steve tends to leave it alone, which is an awesome relief. I'm likely headed to his family's Christmas Eve celebration in Oak Park, and then we're heading to my family's Christmas celebration in Rockford. I havent done a lick of Christmas shopping yet, probably should get started on that... Matt & I are also currently shopping for a couch, which will end up being our Christmas gift to each other... we've also been looking at plasma/LCD televisions, but likely further down the line. I'm taking time off shortly to head to St Louis for the Illinois/Mizzou Braggin' Rights game, as well to Cincinnati for the Illinois/Xavier game at the end of the month.
That's all for now. Have a great holiday season!
29 November 2006
Because I'm a creepy old cat lady
Because I'm a creepy, old cat lady, this post will consist only of pictures of Steve The Cat
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