Weekend pics

Surprise!

This weekend we had a surprise graduation party for Carl at the farm. Most amazingly, he was actually surprised! I really didn't think there was any way we were going to manage that. But Kathleen did a great job keeping things under wraps and throwing him off the trail. (and a tough job it was when Carl first found out about the trip! - way to stay strong, Kathleen!)

We had a full house of Kathleen's parents and little sister, Dad, Mom, Zander, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. And of course the star of the show - Miss Lillian.

So far we've spent the rest of the weekend playing euchre, shooting off fireworks, doing a little fishing and taking a TON of pictures!

Pictures are much too slow to upload on this dial-up connection, but I'll post a bunch when I get home.

Congratulations are in order!

I just want to send out a big

!!! CONGRATULATIONS !!!

to my big brother for finishing his PhD today! We couldn't be prouder of you, Carl!

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And another big

!!! CONGRATULATIONS !!!

to Miss Lily for learning to crawl!


Amazing and great things are happening all around us!

Week in review

Tuesday - drove home from Indiana, dropped Dad and Zander off at the airport, got a quick load of laundry done and then headed up to Milwaukee for the Kenny Chesney concert at Summerfest. Arrived home at about 12:45am.

Wednesday - worked all day. It was Kristi's last day in the office so a group of us went out for drinks after work. When the evening was all said and done, I arrived home around 12:30am.

Thursday - worked all day. My kickball league had a party at Carol's (one of the few country bars here in the city.) We spent the evening dancing and singing karaoke. I arrived home at 3:30am.

Friday - I did not work, but still was up at 6am. Friday night was softball and then I met Kristi and Jenna for awhile. By 12:30am I was practically asleep on the table and decided to call it a night.

Saturday - I slept in until 10:30am which felt awesome after the previous week of no sleep. Was up last night until about 3:30. Up at 9am today.

And now, I'm feeling a bit like a slug hanging out on my couch while there's a beautiful day going on outside, but I'm just not sure I can make myself do anything contructive.

I've had a great time this week, but I really don't think my body can keep up with this kind of schedule! Definitely need to tone it down this next week.

I haven't received pictures from all the misc. activities this week, but here are some photos from the kickball party at Carol's.

A truly awful picture of me singing (about as bad as my voice), but proof I was singing non-the-less. I was singing the female part to a Meatloaf song in this one. Oh, my.

This is Scott (co-captain of my kickball team) and a true lover of nights out at Carol's.

Photos of summer fun

Monday nights are kickball nights. Here are some pictures of my team on and off the field. Go PIRATES!

And then Fridays bring softball. Here are some pictures from this past Friday's after game party.
This is me and Pike, the mascot.

The red team plus our #1 cheerleader, Kristi.

Nick, Kristi and me. Classy shades!

This is why I love Chicago

I woke up this morning, peeked out the window and decided it was a great day for the beach. So I threw on my swimsuit, grabbed my beach chair and headed down the street to Oak St. beach (a whopping 3 miles from my door.)

I spent a few hours basking in the sun, reading and watching all the entertaining people around me. Oak St. beach is always fun because it attracts a lot of tourists who have been wandering the magnificent mile. Therefore you get a lot of fully dressed people with their pants rolled up to their knees wielding cameras. But there are always the families, college students and others who are just naturally drawn to a beach.

Once I had my fill of beach lounging and was properly hungry I meandered back to Michigan Ave and got a sandwich from an Italian cafe and dined alfresco while listening to the band playing outside of Hancock.

Then I crossed the street to Borders and wandered the aisles there, picking up a couple of new books and a CD. While I was perusing the bargain fiction section, an older gentleman approached me and asked if I worked out my arms a lot. I laughed and told him no. My arms are certainly not my best feature! He went on to tell me that they looked like I do and then said, "They look massive and strong." Wow. Is that supposed to be a compliment? I laughed my way out of that section.

Once I had regained my composure I crossed the street to visit the Hershey store to pick up a supplement to Alexander's birthday gift (chocolate twizzlers are a favorite of his.)

Then I hopped back on the Chicago bus and continued on my way home. Just a great way to spend a day. I really need to remember to do this much more often.

Now I'm off to take a shower and meet up with some friends for an evening out on the town.

Gotta love Chicago in the summer!

Things that make Lily smile.

Getting ready to crawl.

Lily is a huge fan of Terra fetching her dog-toys. I think she sees possibilities in this. If she can't figure out the crawling thing, I think she'll just train Terra to go get her toys and bring them to her. If only mom and dad didn't keep telling Terra "No!"

Mommy's so funny!

Tasty treats!

Hmmmm, you look tasty...

Yes, absolutely delicious.

I'm not so sure about elephant...

Oh, what was I worried about? Elephant is divine!

She is her father's daughter

Carl at about 1 year.

Lily at about 7 months.

I don't think there's any denying they're related.

Lily's funny new trick

I'm out in Baltimore for a little visit and am highly amused by one of Lily's latest tricks. When she's in a sitting position and wants to get into a rolling or crawling position she just leans forward and THWAP! clunks her head on the floor. Now, while they may have nicely padded rooms at school, the only thing on the floors here is a pretty thin rug. This results in a nice red circle wherever her head came into contact. I should mention this doesn't seem to phase Lily in the slightest. She just goes on with her business.

It's a little hard to see in the picture, but if you look closely you can see the red spot above her right eye.

Busy weekend Part II

And then my friend Kristi and I spent a lovely afternoon taking in some of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Oak Park.

Busy weekend

A day at Brookfield Zoo with my friends Ilda and Marco and their son, Noah.

Now that's a busy mamma.

You want me to do what to the goat?

OK, mom, I got it now.

This fits too...

I'm feeling a bit like Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama today. You know that part when she says something about loving New York City but when she goes back home to Alabama "this fits too."

I spent the weekend up in Wisconsin on my friend's boat. Small towns, simple pleasures, lots of nature to take in and I caught myself thinking... what am I doing in the city? When all I really want out of life is a house, a dog, some trees and family... what am I doing in the city where none of those things are easy to come by?

But then I returned to the city and I take in the awesome skyline, the ease of having pretty much any activity at my fingertip and the less small-mindedness of the people and I get confused.

I think in part I'm in the city because I can't imagine finding someone with similar beliefs in the smaller towns. But, the truth is I'm not having much luck finding anyone with my beliefs and my love of the country in the city.

And then I think, what am I waiting for? I should move towards what I want out of life and the rest will fall into place when it falls into place. But it's a scary prospect to consider leaving a good paying job that I enjoy, my friends, my ease of travel to visit family, the city that I know....

There's probably plenty of middle ground (suburbs for example) where I could have a house and a dog and not be so far removed from life as I know it. But then there's that concern about being further away from the single-life of the city. Oh yeah, and the commute!

One of these days I hope to figure this all out. Maybe this is just another phase in the the Quarter Life Crisis. Meanwhile if any of you have any suggestions - feel free to throw them my way! Until then I'll just try to keep enjoying both worlds! :-)

Parker Pics

Barbara is a little concerned that the baby-stalkers of the world are going to see Parker's pictures on my blog and hunt her down, so I promised to post pictures sparingly and not give any helpful hints to the bad people of the world. On that note (until otherwise approved), I will cease and desist from posting any more Parker pics after today.

Check out these chubby checks and all that hair!!!


Here Parker is explaining to me how much she dislikes this whole waking up thing.

My newest little baby friend

I'd like to introduce you all to my new pal...

Parker Eileen

My good friend (and boss) Barbara had her baby girl Tuesday morning. Hopefully, I'll get to meet her in person tomorrow! I'm sure I'll have more pictures then.

That's my boy, Barrett

I never liked AJ Pierzynski anyway and today Michael Barrett made his feelings known too. I will miss him for the next few weeks though. :-( Check it out here.

Patting myself on the back

I finally entered the age of apartment technology this week and got cable and high-speed internet. It's only been two days, but I'm already enjoying it thoroughly. Who knew how many weird shows were on TV?

But the reason I'm patting myself on the back actually relates to the high-speed internet. Once I got my modem and everything hooked up, I needed to go get a wireless router so that I can use the internet anywhere in my apartment without physically being hooked up to the modem. So, I took a little jaunt over to the Best Buy. One of the sales people asked if he could help me. I told him I needed a wireless router and I'd be happy to hear about the differences between them so I could decide on the best one for me.

He told me basically they're all the same (very helpful) and that I should definitely have a Best Buy technician install it. He went on to tell me all the horror stories about people totally messing up their internet connections because they've installed their routers wrong... all the people that bring them back because they don't know how to use them, etc. I thanked him for his concern but told him that I would rather try it myself before I dished out the $159 (3 times the cost of the router) to have Best Buy come out and set it up. He continued to warn me that even if I could get the router hooked up right, there was no way I'd be able to get the connection secured.
(Thanks for the vote of confidence. )

A little nervous from all the doubts he put in my mind, I went home and carefully followed the directions. 1/2 hour later, wha-la, I had a fully secured and fully functioning wireless internet connection.

I'll think twice before buying something at Best Buy again.... :-)

How 1 penny changed 70 people's night

How, you may ask, does $0.01 change 70 people's evening? Well, let me tell you.

There was a gentleman on the bus this evening who was (apparently) one penny short of his required bus-fare. The bus driver informed him that if he couldn't pay the full fare then he had to get off. The argument went back and forth.

"It's only one penny!"
"I don't care. You have to pay the full fare."

etc, etc...

A few riders on the bus offered the extra penny. The bus driver would have none of it. The bus driver would not move until the gentleman got off the bus, the gentleman was not interested in getting off the bus.

Then, the gentleman turned into not much of a gentleman and spit (yes, a goober) into the bus driver's face. Gross.

The bus driver tore off the bus after the man (who promptly decided that was his cue to get off the bus) and grabbed a nearby police officer.

The rest of us who were still on the bus watching this all happen were glued to the windows, much like a bunch of high-school kids around a fight.

At any rate, that bus never did move. We all had to get off and catch the next one about 15 minutes later.

By the time we pulled away the bus driver had filed an official complaint, the police had taken statements from several witnesses, the gentleman was in handcuffs in the back of a police car and we were all running about 30 minutes late.

All over one penny....

Let's all take this as a little lesson to take deep breaths, think before we act and find the humor in seemingly annoying situations.

First Cub's game of the year

And it was a cold one! Thanks for the tickets, Uncle Randy, we had a blast!

IPOD trouble

I have a new bus beef. IPODs. Yes, yes, I love IPODs - I have one, I even listen to it on the bus on occasion. However, when I have it on I make extra sure I'm conscience of the people around me so that they don't have to yell at me to get my attention. Lately I've had a plethora of people standing in front of the exit doors who I literally have to punch or scream at to get them to move because they're in this totally "tranquil" state listening to their IPOD.

So, just a reminder to all those IPOD lovers out there... if you have a tendency to go into la-la land while listening to your IPOD - move away from the bus exit doors.

That's my two cents!

How could you not love this smile?

This is my personal favorite. They both look drunk. Did you forget to "pump and dump", Kathleen? Just kidding....

Vacation update

I just got back from a week in the DC/Baltimore area. Other than the 5 hour flight delay on the way home in the exciting airport of Charlotte, it was a great trip.

I spent the first few days spending time with my good pal, Nicole, who's living out there currently. We visited the National Zoo, met up with my cousin Davey for dinner, did a little shopping, found a bridesmaid dress, and just generally explored.

On Tuesday Nicole was kind enough to drive me up to Carl and Kathleen's (really she just wanted to see the baby!) and I spent the rest of the week there.

So, I know I'm biased, but... Lily is just adorable. And so good-natured! Not that she doesn't cry on occassion, but really - she smiles for anyone, laughs all the time and is usually just so happy to hear herself babble and chew on her hands. It's amazing how much she's grown and changed in a short time!

Kathleen was kind enough to bring Lily home to me in the afternoons so we were able to get some quality time in and Terra and I spent the mornings on long walks exploring the neighborhood and playing on the deck.

There's really no where (other than my own place) that I feel so at home. It's so nice to be able to feel so at ease! Guess Carl and Kathleen are just those kind of people. :-)

As always it's hard to say goodbye... but I'm sure another trip isn't too far off!

Cutie-patootie

You can tell she'll be one of those people who falls asleep reading.



I'm awake now!


Lily loves playing with Daddy.

Smart little Cub's fan

Birthday bash

It's march (birthday) madness around here. Kathleen on the 17th, Dad on the 20th, Mom on the 25th, and Carl and I on the 28th! I always say it's like Christmas part II. If you add in all my friends who have birthdays around this time too and well... you can imagine.

While my big brother was celebrating his half of our birthday on a plane home from San Diego last night, I was out celebrating with friends. I decided on a bowling party (one of the only ways I can ever get my friends to go bowling with me!), but it didn't turn out exactly as planned.

We went to a swanky bowling alley (10-pin). One of these Cosmo lounge/plush chair/mood lighting bowling places - supposedly the new craze! It was pretty fun. And I absolutely love that bowling alleys are now no smoking in Chicago!

Anyway, we couldn't get a lane until much later in the evening so there were only a few of us who ended up bowling (my real friends.... - just kidding!) It was a great time!

Here are some pics...

Apartment searching

For the past two weeks I've been avidly hunting for a new apartment. For all you house-owners out there... let me just tell you - no fun. I have seen so many places that have so many problems. And all of them are at least $100 more than my current place. Just crazy. It definitely makes me think about the pros and cons of this place. Part of me just keeps looking around and saying... how can I fix the things that bother me about this place? There's really lots of room for improvement. But there are those things that I can't control - like my ceiling falling in. Though my good ol' landlord did say that he'd be working on re-doing the apartment upstairs which should help that problem.

Moving is just such a pain. I'd like to know I'm doing it for a great place. There's always more apartments tomorrow. Meanwhile if anyone knows of a great place... let me know! :-)

Ice Skating in Millennium Park

Kristi showing off her skills - standing up...



The view from the rink.



This is "the bean" at night.

New photos of recent IMAX fun

Crazy 3D glasses!