Friday, October 31, 2008
Happy Halloween!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Suprise!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Here Comes the Bride
DeAnne and Jennifer getting blown away as we drove down Lake Shore.
You can make a dance party anywhere...Julie and DeAnne prove this outside Cans.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Executive Experience
Whenever John McCain is asked to defend Sarah Palin's lack of experience and the public's general perception that she is not ready to be vice president or president for that matter, he always talks about her "executive experience." In fact, I just saw an interview with him where he said: "Sarah Palin has more executive experience than Joe Biden or Barak Obama." This is where I get confused.
Yes, I know McCain's been around forever. He has served the country as a war hero and as U.S. Senator. I realize that he's been around way longer than Obama. But, hey, where's is McCain's "executive experience"?
When McCain says Palin has more experience than Biden or Obama, I'm hearing: "Sarah Palin has more executive experience than John McCain." So, are we to assume that he would seek executive advice from Palin? Um, scary....and doubtful.
You see, McCain and Biden have a pretty similar political resumes. Actually Biden has been in the Senate 14 years longer than McCain. And it's not like McCain had any notable executive experience prior to going to Congress. Now, I know McCain is not running against Biden, but to say that Palin is more experienced than Biden just makes McCain look bad to me. I mean, a lot of things about him and his whole sleazy campaign make him look bad to me right now, but this is something that's really been bugging me.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Yum
Even though everyone around me seems to be complaining about the major temperature drop going on, I'm loving it. This weekend just totally felt like fall: my favorite season. I love fall because I look forward to busting out the warmer clothes, I love the leaves on the ground, Charlie is way more fun to walk, and I am obsessed with boots. But one of the big reasons I love fall is because it kicks off pumpkin spice latte and hot chocolate season.
So this weekend, I tried hot chocolate with a twist: the Hazelnut Hot Chocolate from Starbucks. Mmm. So good. When I ordered it yesterday the barrista asked me if I had ever had one before, and when I said no he told me that I might want to take a seat before trying it because it was going to "knock me off my feet." I figured he was just another quirky barrista at our friendly West Loop Starbucks, so I went on my way. No, I did not take a spill on the sidewalk, but I gotta admit I was struck by it's awesomeness. It was pretty rich and I'm sure loaded with too many calories, but it was totally worth it. Seriously, how could anyone not like fall?
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Swimfan
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Through Four-Legged Eyes
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Deli Bust
Since I am pretty busy juggling a bunch of deadlines right now, I just took a long lunch off with Jody to celebrate Columbus Day. We headed to a new place in River North: Steve's Deli. Jody had been really excited to try this place since he first heard about it. There is another Steve's Deli in Detroit, and this is their first Chicagoland restaurant.
We didn't know that yesterday was Steve's Deli's opening day. As regular restaurant goers, we don't typically go to new places in the first couple months since they usually have a lot of kinks to work out before hitting their stride. But, we figured how could they really mess up a deli? The answer: they can mess it up plenty.
Seriously, Steve's Deli was a disaster. It was jam-packed with people waiting in both the takeout and eat-in areas, and the managers, servers and hostesses were all totally clueless. We waited for about 30 minutes for a table (no big deal) and then waited another 30 minutes for a waiter to even come by our table (bigger deal). That's after we asked two managers if they could send a waiter over.
Looking around the restaurant, we realized that only one table had food in the whole place. Everyone else was just sitting there with empty water glasses looking irritated, constantly glancing over their shoulders for their waiter or their food. Once food did start coming out, almost every table seemed to be getting the wrong food, cold food that was supposed to be hot, regular soda when it was supposed to be diet, and so on. Two ladies sitting by us finally told the waiter that they couldn't wait any longer and they were leaving (they had been there almost two hours waiting for just two simple sandwiches!). And you know what? The waiter just let them leave empty-handed. No gift certificate. No cupcakes. Not even a freakin' bagel.
We actually fared better than most patrons...mostly because we actually got our food. Of course, our order was wrong. I ordered a half sandwich and got a whole one (no biggie) and Jody ordered a hot, lean overstuffed pastrami sandwich and got a cold, fatty, chewy, super-skimpy pastrami sandwich instead. Everyone knows how much Jody treasures his food, so this was all bad. But we figured if we sent anything back we would never see our food again. So Jody powered through the nastywich.
I highly doubt we'll be back at Steve's anytime soon. Even if they do get their act together, the pastrami was still way subpar and that typically puts a black mark on any deli in our world.
Even though it was a pretty annoying experience, it was kind of entertaining just to see an entire restaurant of disgruntled customers. I've never seen that in any Chicago restaurant before, even brand new ones.
No worries, though, the entire lunch outing was not a bust. When we ran into CVS afterward, I heard Jody a couple aisles over proclaim: "Oh my Lord!" And when I went over there he was happily holding up a 3-pound bag of gummy fruit slices that were marked at 75% off. Sweet. He was so happy that it was almost like the pastrami incident never happened. Almost.
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Schirels 5.0
Friday, October 10, 2008
Halfway Home
We had our 20-week doctor's appointment and ultrasound last week. Everything looks good at this point. Aside from the cranky ultrasound tech who actually said we had a "bad baby" because he/she wouldn't move into the position she wanted it to move, the ultrasound was fun. Very cool to see the Baby again...it had been too long since 12 weeks. The tech said that Baby was moving around like crazy, but just not the way she wanted him/her to. So, she started jiggling me, pushing and just being general rough to try to move the Baby. Needless to say, Jody was none too happy about this. It was actually pretty cute to see how worried and pissed he was getting. The jiggling didn't do much, so the tech made me walk up and down the hallway of the doctor's office for like 20 minutes. Again, Jody was annoyed and kept trying to block my way to make me stopping walking. But, you know, I follow rules so I kept walking. When we got back into the room, the Baby had moved into the right spot and we were good to go.
I also started feeling the Baby move this week. Very cool. For some reason, when we were at Yom Kippur services on Wednesday night, especially during the rabbi's sermon, the Baby was going nuts in there. Maybe the Baby, like me, was ready for the rabbi to just wrap it up and stop quoting so many books and articles. Who knows. All I know is feeling actual movement makes it all seem even more real.
We got about 100 ultrasound photos and only a few that look like an actual baby. Here's one of the Baby sucking its thumb...
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Grand Canyon and Chopper Time
Last week on the first day in the Grand Canyon, we actually did get a chance to hike. Of course, it was pretty easy hiking. The first day, we hiked a bit around the South Rim with Chris, Karen, Andrew and Melissa. For the four of them, this was just a little warm-up for their big hike into the Canyon the next day.
After that, we headed to the Grand Canyon airport to catch a helicopter tour over the North Rim. We figured if we couldn't hike down into the Canyon, a helicopter tour was the next best thing. And apparently, other "restricted" people had the same idea. When we walked into the helicopter place, it was chock-full of seniors. Of course. These are my people now, so even though I was pretty nervous to get into a helicopter, they put me at ease.
The chopper tour was pretty awesome. We flew into the Canyon and got a close look at it from a very cool vantage point. The best part was seeing the entire span of the Canyon from the air, which gave a true sense of how massive it really is. Here are a few more photos showing the Canyon from overhead:
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Well, the Children Are Our Future
Sure, he sucks his thumb like nobody's business. Sure, he hasn't mastered a toilet yet. Sure, he's only a year old. But, c'mon even Connor knows what's up.
Here's a big endorsement from one of Obama's littlest supporters. I, for one, think we ought to listen to him because, really, his generation is going to be paying for and cleaning up the mess we're making today. And if that's a little too heavy for you to handle, then just look at how darn cute he is. It's hard to disagree with a face like that, right?!
(Thanks Joannie and Mike for helping Connor make his endorsement public!)