Love is in the Air

This has been a good year for my friends and their love lives. Although Jody and I tried to be trendsetters five years ago when we got engaged, many of my friends weren't convinced or ready to hop on the married train. Things have changed, though. Not only are a bunch of my friends getting engaged lately, but they all have found great guys who make them as happy as can be. Honestly, we couldn't be happier for them all. Plus, we now have a whole new wave of weddings to look forward to!

Beth and Jeff are the trailblazers who got engaged a while back and now their wedding is just around the corner in November.

Then, Courtney and Jeremy followed with their engagement this spring, and they're starting to make the plans for their Louisville wedding next May.Next up, Stephanie and Tom. They got engaged a month or so ago and are figuring out their wedding plans for next June in Sullivan.

And finally, Connie and Nick just got engaged a few weeks ago in Majorca...and they already set a date for next April!

Congrats to you all!

Water Dogs

Yesterday we headed out to the 'burbs to Jody's aunt and uncle's place in Homewood for a doggy date with Charlie and their dog, Favor. Charlie loves going to Homewood. I mean, how could he not? He gets to run around their beautiful yard and even gets to swim in their lake.

We weren't sure if Charlie would remember how to swim since it'd been about a year since he braved the water with Favor. You see, Favor is a pro. Along with being a super cute, super sweet pooch, she's also super trained. She goes ducking hunting with Roger and is a total natural in the water. I swear, she swims so gracefully that it almost looks like she's a seal! Charlie, though less gracefully than Favor, definitely remembered how to swim and jumped right in the water.

He started out just paddling around, drinking the lake water and "retrieving" the moss and whatever other stuff he found in the lake. Apparently he was on a mission to clean up the lake, bringing back an empty Capri Sun container and some other random stuff.

He had to watch Favor a bit before he figured out how to retrieve the water dummies, but he eventually got the hang of it.

Of course, being Charlie, he really wanted to play with Favor. So every now and then he tried to steal her dummies away from her. Favor humored him, letting him tug at her dummy as she calmly came back to the shore.

After the dogs finished swimming and playing, we just enjoyed the nice day and caught up with Bonnie, Roger and Jody's mom with some snacks and a yummy dinner at a Mexican restaurant nearby.

All in all, it was a really fun day...and we all slept really well last night. Thanks for having us out, Bonnie and Roger!

Kiss of Death

First the Mashed Potato Club and now the Mid-Day Club...

I think Jody and I may be cursed. All of "our" places keep disappearing. Our first date was at the Mashed Potato Club, which closed down about a year after our first date. The space was then taken over by Coyote Ugly. Classy.

Then the other day, we found out that the Mid-Day Club, the place we got married in the Chase (then Bank One) building, closed earlier this year. We loved the Mid-Day Club. It was an awesome space with some of the best views of the entire city. The staff at the Mid-Day Club was fantastic and made our wedding planning so much easier. We were bummed when we heard about the club closing.

Now, the 3-flat where we rented our first apartment together on Sheffield is for sale. I'm just hoping that whoever buys the place doesn't tear it down and rebuild so that another one of our places bites the dust. (I'm trying to to convince Jody that we have to buy it...to save it, of course. But that's not going so well.)

As someone who is pretty superstitious and takes everything as a sign from the universe, I can't help but be concerned. Are these bad signs for our marriage? Are local businesses and residences going to ban us? I'm sure Jody and I have many more firsts in our lives ahead of us, so for the good of Chicago businesses and our relationship, I'm hoping we can kick this curse.

Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind

When most other 13-year-old girls were listening to New Kids on the Block in the early '90s, I had no interest in Joey, Jordan and the rest of the Hangin' Tough crew. I was all about Kurt, Dave and Chris. I loved Nirvana. Big time.

I remember sitting in my friend Alison's room listening to the "Nevermind" CD on repeat for hours and hours trying to figure out the lyrics and just loving every second of it. Although I was a generally happy teen and I had very little angst, something about Nirvana's music really resonated with me and ended up inspiring most of my music preferences throughout my teens years. Instead of cheesy pop, I was all about the grunge. My very first CD was Pearl Jam's "Ten," which, along with "Nevermind" still ranks as one of my all-time favorite albums. Yeah, my music taste was way cooler back then than it is now. I mean, my 13-year-old self would die knowing that 17 years later, I'd actually be singing along to "My Humps."

So today when NPR did a story about the naked baby on the cover of that iconic "Nevermind" CD, I got all nostalgic. Turns out the "Nevermind" baby is now a 17-year-old high school kid who's "so over" high school. One of my favorite things he said in the interview was that it would have been so much cooler to be a teenager in the '90s than it is today. He noted that teens in the '90s who loved music would actually form bands; whereas today's teens just play "Rock Band" or "Guitar Hero" when they feel the need to jam.

And you know what? The Nevermind baby/angsty teen was right. Growing up in the '90s was pretty awesome. Aside from the wasting the skinniest days of my life wearing baggy jeans and oversized flannels, the '90s gave us awesome music, classic television (hello, My So-Called Life), too many Bulls champions to count, cheap gas, and an overall fun time to be a teenager.

If you feel like revisting the '90s for a few minutes, listen to the story about the Nevermind baby by clicking here.

Scooter Crazy World

The US is going scooter crazy.

Last year I bought a very low end Chinese import scooter off the internet. Its a starter scooter, and further, I wanted to be sure D would be OK with the concept. She is fine with me riding, but has not taken the plunge.

I am here to say, it’s not worth buying a low end scooter. Never buy a Roketa. I have had to fix the electric starter, turn signals, headlight, replace battery, etc....

Back to the point. My latest issue was with the headlight. This meant I could not ride at night. Therefore, no Wednesday night volleyball for me via the scoot.

When I called a couple of scooter / motorcycle shops to get the headlight fixed, and the smallest wait time to even look at the scooter was 8-10 business days. More likely 2 weeks to even have time to look. All of the shops were saying how backed up they are with the boom in Scooter sales and thus repairs.

Well this just goes to show that the price of gas is really affecting the economy. This is my first direct affect other than it costs $50+ to fill up the tank. Scooters are selling like hot cakes because the get 50-70 miles per gallon to combat ever rising gas prices. I guess we are catching up with what Europeans already knew about scooters. They are cheap, get great gas mileage, and you can park them anywhere...I am a big scooter proponent.

I did get the headlight fixed, so I am back in business.

Who Uses Ketchup?

First of all, I'm sorry we've been such negligent bloggers lately. Been busy and preoccupied. But, I'll try to do better this week.

We had a nice weekend. The big question of the weekend, though, was about Chicago-style hot dogs. On Saturday we went to Lillian Vanderbeek's 1st birthday party, which was fun. Holly was in from New York so it was awesome to see her and catch up, and we got to see a bunch of other people we hadn't seen in forever. Lill was cute as can be all decked out with a hot pink tutu, a sash, a birthday wand and a rhinestone-studded "1" onsie. (As Holly pointed out, there's really not much difference between what a 1-year-old wears to a party and what a 20- or 30-something wears to her bachelorette party!) Lill is such a happy baby and was a great birthday girl. I can't believe she's a already a year old and getting ready to be a big sister in just a couple months!

But, back to the hot dogs. Jessica and Scott got Vienna beef Chicago-style dogs with all the fixings for the party, and Jessica mentioned that at the Vienna beef store, she saw something about putting ketchup on a Chicago-style hot dog. This was news to everyone. As any Chicagoan knows, ketchup and hot dogs just don't go. Supposedly, the Vienna beef people say that you can hide the ketchup in the bottom of the bun and load on the all fixings on top of it. Too weird.

So I looked into it further. The web site shows how to build a Chicago-style dog and it actually does list ketchup. But, there is a warning by the ketchup that says "WARNING: Limit exposure level." Personally, I don't think ketchup has any place on a hot dog, but I suppose those who want it can do it...as long as it's hidden. Wanna know how to building your own? Check it out here.

So what do you think? Will you be putting ketchup on your next dog?

Volleyball Pinnacle

Its fitting that my first post is realated to volleyball. Diana terms herself a "volleyball widow" in the summers because I am often "leaving" D and playing volleyball at the beach. I used to take our only car, but, now I have a scooter, and, therefore, D is not trapped at home when I play.

This weekend the AVP was in town, and did not disappoint. I took Friday off to watch some of the qualifying matches. Thursday and Friday are some of the best days because all of the players are easily accessable, enjoying the sites and sounds, and mingling with the small crowd. The big crowds come on the weekend.





Here are a couple of pictures I got. This one is with my volleyball idol Todd "The Professor" Rogers. Todd's blog is amazing. Of course Todd and his partner Phil Dalhauser recently clinched the #1 ranking in the world, winning 3 FIVB tournaments in row, and the #1 seed on the olympics. Phil and Todd won the men's tournament in Chicago.

Here is a picture with Kerri Walsh. They call her 6 feet of sunshine, and that is very true. She is 6"3', I barely come up to her neck. She is part of the 2004 olympic gold medal tandem with Misty May. Kerri and Misty are the winningest womens team of all time. This weekend was historic and Misty was the first woman to make it to 100 victories.

















Here is a picture with Karch Kiraly, the most famous beach volleyball player ever. He has 3 gold medals, 2 indoor and 1 beach. I should have bowed.




All in all it was a great weekend. Diana came down on Saturday and Sunday and we had courtside seats. The women's final was a classic match, and my prediction is that it will be a preview of the gold medal match at the olympics.


Here is a link to all of my photos of the tournament.

A Very Volleyball Weekend

This weekend the AVP came to Chicago. Jody's been looking forward to this for a long time and it didn't disappoint.

We actually go down to the beach for this tournament every year when the pros come to town, but this year was extra cool because it's an Olympic year. We got to watch all four of the beach volleyball teams representing the U.S., and they were awesome. Jody even got to meet a bunch of them!

I actually like watching volleyball. They're really amazing athletes, the games are fast-paced enough to keep me interested, and Jody's enthusiasm is pretty contagious. Plus, it's always fun to enjoy gorgeous weather down at the beach. One of the most fun parts of the weekend for me, though, was seeing Jody play volleyball. He plays about three times a week, but I rarely go watch him. So when he did some King of the Court contest this weekend, I got to see him in action--and he's good...really good. No shock there. Jody's pretty much a natural at every sport. Anyway, I was the embarassing wife on the sidelines snapping pictures of him while he played. I tried to get some good action shots, but you'll see that there is a reason I stuck with writing rather than photo journalism!

For more details about the AVP, Jody says he's actually going to do an inaugural blog about the weekend. Stay tuned.

Beach Read...Sans Beach

I'm not that into chick lit. My aversion to it goes back to my days at Complete Woman when my job entailed reading at least one chick lit book a week...most of which sucked in a major way. But, there are always exceptions.

As any regular Schirel blog reader knows, I've been reading "Jane Eyre" since we started the blog. Yes, it's a long book and yes, I tend to read less in the summer, but there's no excuse for how long it's taken me to get through "Jane Eyre." I actually really like it, yet I am not even close to finished. One reason for my sluggish pace is that I got a bit distracted by Emily Giffin's new piece of chick lit: "Love the One You're With."

I discovered Emily Giffin when I was working at Complete Woman and a review copy of her first book "Something Borrowed" landed in my inbox. Unlike the usual crappy chick lit, I just couldn't put it down. I loved the characters, the relationships and mostly the plethora of Naperville references (the author grew up in Naperville).

After that, I told my sister all about the book and just like that we formed our own little Emily Giffin fan club. Since then Lisa and I have read all her books, talking about them and obsessing over all the details. For the past few years, we have a little Emily Giffin ritual. When the books come out, one of us (usually Lisa) buys it, reads it, mails it to the other and then we talk every day about what part we're at and so on. We've covered all her hits--"Something Borrowed," "Something Blue," "Baby Proof" and now "Love the One You're With"--and each one is as good as the next.

So when I heard Emily Giffin interviewed on Eric & Kathy earlier this summer promoting the new book, I called Lisa right away. She bought it right away, promising to mail it to me as soon as she was done. A week later, she was done and dying for me to read it so we could chat.

And this book did not disappoint. The beginning started off a bit cliche, and it was kind of hard to switch modes from sophisticated "Jane Eyre" to trashy chick lit. But after about 50 pages, I was hooked. It's the kind of book that you don't want to end when you see you only have 20 pages left. It's really nothing too deep and it won't change your life in any way, but it is an awesome way to escape the real world for a bit.

I won't go into all the details but if you're looking for some easy, breezy summer reading, I highly recommend any of Emily Giffin's books. Like I said, they're not great works of literature, but reading them sure beats watching "Baby Borrowers."

Are We Really Old or What?

Back in the day, the 3rd of July was one big party. I remember partying on the Metra on the way downtown from Naperville with a bunch of my friends to live it up at the Taste of Chicago's big July 3rd celebration. It was always a crazy night filled with plenty of shenanigans.

Over the years, though, things have calmed down. I'm sure there are plenty people who still pile onto the Metra with their "water bottles" and whatnot, and many others up all night in Chicago celebrating America's birthday like they celebrated their own 21st bdays. But not me.

This year, instead of hitting the beer tent and eating pickles on a stick, we played Scrabble. Yup, Scrabble. Oh yeah, and Taboo too. Let me tell ya', it was wild. This year, we went low-key. We barbecued with Steve and Jeremy and then the four of us headed to Guthrie's for some board game action. And it was totally not lame. It was a fun night and exactly how we wanted to celebrate.

My only concern is that we are officially old. Who knows...maybe next year we'll sneak rum into a Diet Coke bottle and hit the fireworks for old time's sake. But most likely we'll be in the midst of a really good game of Battleship.

Beware People on Wheels

How could such a sweet dog (top) turn into such a barking fool around wheels? Here he is with his new friend Ziggy and looking kinda Cujo (bottom). He must be imagining rollerblades.

What is happening with our dog? He has always been such a sweet, laid-back pooch, but these days he's a barking fool. Especially when wheels are involved.

He's always hated grocery carts. You know the ones that people take to the store so they can walk home with their carts. Well, Charlie has always been wary of people with those. On our walks he never trusts people with carts and usually lets them know it with a a few harmless barks. Yes, he's even barked at little old ladies.

But now his hatred of all things on wheels has escalated in a major way.

He started out small, simply getting skittish around strollers. He doesn't always bark at strollers, but he definitely doesn't like them. When someone is strollering behind us, he nervously keeps looking over his shoulder. Last week, when my niece pushed her doll's stroller toward him, he kinda lost it...and then made Edin cry in the process. Not good.

Now, Charlie is in a full-fledge war against all things on wheels. He scared the crap out of a teenager on rollerblades the other day with a huge barking fit. The poor kid was already kinda wobbly on his blades and with Charlie going crazy, I thought for sure he was going to take a tumble. Luckily, he didn't. Instead, the kid ended up rollerblading in the street to steer clear of crazy Charlie.

He also gave one kid on a scooter (not the Jody kind of scooter, the skateboard-type scooter) a nasty growl. And then when an adult was skateboarding behind us recently, Charlie wouldn't budge. He laid down on the sidewalk to wait for the guy to approach us and when the guy got closer to us, Charlie bounced up and started barking and jumping and getting all kinds of crazy. The skateboarder was cracking up. I, on the other hand, was totally embarassed. At least that time he wasn't terrorizing some innocent teenager.

Seriously, I have no idea why he's freaking out about roller-things, but it's not good. Anyone know how to get in touch with the Dog Whisperer? If he can get a dog to stop eating rocks, surely he cure Charlie of his wheel hatred. In the meantime, if you're coming to the West Loop, you may want to leave your rollerblades at home.