Sunshines and Creeps

Sunshine to spending the weekend with my best friends from college this weekend!

Sunshine to the reason we are having a girls weekend: Kristen's Bachelorette Party!

Creep to wearing my winter coat this week. I was really hoping to make it to November without wearing it.

Sunshine to The Lion King. I loved it!

Creep to the Big Ten for not picking the football kick times for next weekend's games yet. I just want to know what our time is so I know if I can come back Saturday night or Sunday morning (hoping for Saturday). And our plane tickets to Penn State are going to be expensive!

Creep to falling off the work out bandwagon this week. I guess two days is better than zero days, but I still need to do better.

Sunshine to booking plane tickets for a trip to MSP in January for the Diamond Awards (Michael's mom is the chair of the event) and Colorado in February for a skiing trip with Jami and Chris.

Creep to not talking to my mom that much this week. It's my fault and I miss her!

Sunshine to a week off of work for Thanksgiving in 23 days! So excited to spend time with my entire family!

Sunshine to getting 10 hours of sleep on Monday night. Fell asleep on top of the covers, lights and TV on at 8pm. Apparently I was tired.

Creep to eating almost an entire 5 lbs bag of Tootsie Rolls myself. I love Tootsie Rolls (obviously), but I cannot stop eating them, and that's not good when I'm not working out.

Sunshine to Michael for being an amazing partner. I love you!

Hooray for Friday (and Hooray for Jasper - inside joke with my sister Jessi :-) )!

The Lion King

Last night, Michael and I went to The Lion King. It was AMAZING! I cannot even describe to you how cool the costumes were. I've included some pictures below to show off the amazing design of them. The lighting was also fantastic. I never really understood the importance of lighting for a show until watching The Lion King. They played with it so well and it really brought out the story.

What I think was most impressive part is the actors: they are not only actors, but also puppeteers, singers, and dancers.

It was simply an amazing show and I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to see it to do so - you will not be disappointed.

In this picture (clockwise from top left) are Mufasa, Simba, Rafiki, dancers, and Timone and Pumba.
Google images.

Rafiki.
Googles Images.

End of opening scene. I loved the cheetah (lower center left).
Google Images.

I know it seems weird that Timone was a green man, but I honestly never looked at actor. Just the puppet he was controlling. It was so cool.
Google Images.

Scar (left) was probably my favorite character in the show. His mask sat on top of his head but he could move it down, as pictured in this photo, to appear to be almost charging at other characters. It was awesome!!!
Google Images. 

Happy Monday?

Is there such a thing as a Happy Monday? I really wonder because my dad didn't get off to the best start. However, I had a great weekend and I wanted to share it with you.

Friday
This week was Homecoming at the unviersity I work at so I had a lot of work to do last week. On Friday night, I spent the evening helping out at the parade. I was not in a good mood on Friday night (sorry Michael!) but at least working the parade was fun because I met a celebrity couple. Our grand marshall for the parade was alum Stephanie March, best known for her Alex Cabot on Law and Order: SVU.



She is beautiful!!!


And she's married to the famous chef, Bobby Flay, best known for all his shows on the Food Network like Throwdown and Iron Chef.



I've heard that he can be kind of mean but he was really nice!

They were both really nice - seriously, I wish Stephanie was my friend - and I hung out with them at my office before escorting them over to the parade start. One of my coworkers took a picture with me and them so I'll post it once she's sends it to me.

The parade itself was your typical college Homecoming parade: lots of floats, fun, and drunken students. Some of the floats freaked me out - one group literally had 40 people in/on a Hum-Vee - but some of them were great. It was a fun and quick parade. After the parade, I was able to hang out with Michael and his dad before I went home to crash, since I had to be back to work so early on Saturday morning.

Saturday
Saturday was a really long, but really fun, day. I was up and back to work early that morning, working the Reunions Tailgate party for the football game. The university I work at does Reunion parties during Homecoming to capitalize on all the people back for the weekend. They do them for each 5 year increment from 5-50 years. My job at the tailgate was to take everyone's tickets and stamp their hand. We had more than 1000 people attend and it was actually pretty fun.

I watched the football game with Michael, his dad, and his sister, and it was a huge bummer that we lost. After the game, we went shopping on North Ave near my apt and then off to dinner at Mon Ami Gabi. It was yummy and we tried a new Pinot that I actually really liked. It's called Hob Nob and from my Internet research, I've discovered that it is cheap, which is always fun.

That night, I took Michael to my friends Becky and JB's "fancy party." It was a wine party so everyone was asked dress their best and bring a bottle of wine. We then each presented our bottles with a story about the grapes, why you bought it, etc and did a tasting for everyone. It was really, really fun and I am so glad I brought Michael. Everyone loved him and could tell how happy I am with him in my life. He had a great time and I am so glad he was able to meet my Chicago friends. Also, I found out that some of them are possibly moving to MSP in the future so that was really exciting. Overall, Saturday was a great day!

Sunday
Sunday morning, I woke up early (no surprise there) so I read the paper while Michael slept in for a bit. Then we met his dad and sister for Brunch - yummy - before I went home and Michael did some work. I ran to the grocery story to get stuff for dinner that night and then came home to clean, do laundry, and start dinner.

We made beef tips and garlic mashed potatoes as we watched the Vikings/Packers game. OMG - it was so good! And it's the easiest dinner ever so I love that too. I just wish it was a little friendlier on my debit card :-) I was super tired when we finished dinner. So tired in fact that I fell asleep on Michael's shoulder for most of the 4th quarter. And I usually cannot fall asleep with a TV on. So yeah, exhausted pretty much sums it up.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

Sunshines and Creeps

This week was one of those weeks where I had far too many Creeps. I like the weeks that are full of Sunshines! Ugh – thank goodness it’s Friday!!!

Creep to working last night (until 10), Friday night (until 10) and Saturday morning (at 8:30). I would like my life back please.

Sunshine to the fact that last night’s work event was at least somewhat entertaining (presentation and reveal of a time capsule from the 1970s, made by 20 year old men = hilarious!).

Creep to all-of-the sudden developing heartburn. It hurts and I can’t get it to go away.

Sunshine to spending time with Michael’s dad and sister this weekend.

Creep to sucking at sleeping again lately. I thought I was over this.

Creep to the total darkness I wake up to everyday now. It makes it really hard to get out of bed.

Sunshine to telling my Chicago friends about me and Michael, and for their support and excitement about us. I truly have great friends!

Sunshine to my friends Becky and JB’s “fancy party” Saturday night. I'm bring Michael (hence me telling them about us) and I know it’s going to be so fun.

Creep to getting a parking ticket on Thursday. The only stupid reason I drove to work was because I have to work some stupid event that night, which I found out about on Wednesday. GRR! (Btw – When I got this yesterday and was screaming about it to my coworkers, I was using a different word besides “stupid”).

Sunshine to my Girlfriend Johanne and her recent engagement to Jason. I am so thrilled they are engaged and I am excited to hear the details as they start planning their wedding.

Creep to all the road construction in Evanston. It seriously is RIGHT out my window and is super distracting. All I hear is jackhammers and “beep, beep, beep” when machines back up. And my computer screen keeps shaking. And there is no parking because of it. UGH!

Sunshine to work *hopefully* slowing down next week, and possibly even until the end of the quarter. As my friend Adam would say, that would be nice.

Speaking of Adam, Sunshine to talking to Laurie this week. Though there wasn't much of an update, it's always good to hear from her about Adam's current condition and any progress. She is so strong and I am thankful that Adam has her love and support everyday, since I can't visit him all that often.

Creep to my recent book selections. I need a feel-good book with no cheating/deaths/plane crashes/abuse. Any suggestions?

Sunshine to fun things next week: Lion King, seeing my besties, and celebrating at Kristen’s bachelorette party.

Creep to my office being so cold. Here is a list of my current attire: socks and tennis shoes with gray dress slacks (my feet were too cold in flats); a t-shirt; a long sleeve cotton pullover shirt; a fleece; and a fleece over my lap as a blanket. And I still freezing!

Sunshine to hitting the gym several times this week, but Creep to not being able to go Thurs-Sat because of work.

Sunshine for getting approval for vacation time around Thanksgiving, Christmas/NY, and late January for the Diamond Awards.

I hope next week's post will have more Sunshines and fewer Creeps! Have a great weekend!

Pumpkin Carving

Last weekend, Michael and I started off our Saturday morning with a trip to a local Farmers Market to get a pumpkin. We thought carving a pumpkin would be a fun Saturday morning activity.

We picked a great pumpkin and once we had walked back to my place, we were both excited to get started. As we were prepping, I realized that I had never actually carved a pumpkin. I remember a few times as a kid watching my dad doing it and getting really grossed out by the insides of a pumpkin but I don't think I had ever actually done it.

Michael and I decided it would probably be the best idea to follow a template vs free-handing it. Here's the template we chose.

The website called it "Evil Smile."

After we had my counter covered with newspaper, we were ready to go. First we traced the template on the pumpkin. Michael had the bright idea to use a Sharpie to do this - I didn't think it would work - but he's so smart and it worked great. After that, we cut off the top and started cleaning the insides out.

Such a crafty guy :-)

In my head, I was thinking "This is gross."

Michael did the major cleaning, while I tried to separate the seeds from the pulp-y stuff. We baked those (with EVOO and garlic salt) on Sunday for a yummy treat.

Delicious!

Then came time for the actual carving of Pumpkin. We worked together to do this, and took turns cutting out the eyes, eye brows, nose, and mouth. I was not the best carver and almost cost Pumpkin a tooth, but Michael saved it.

Michael working on the eyes

Since he has no mouth, Michael decided to smile big for both of them

When we finished, Pumpkin looked like this:



Does he look evil?



Michael and Pumpkin. Do you see the resemblence?



Michael decided he needed glasses.

 We had a lot of fun on this holiday project, and we both are so excited many more holiday projects in the years to come! Love you LOML!

Grrr!!!!!!!!

GRR!!! Do you ever have those days where everything keeps going wrong at work? Well, today has been one of those days for me. And it's only 10:30am.

First, I found out today that I have to work on Thursday night. I'm super annoyed by this for a few reasons:
1. I have known about the event on Thursday since June and when I asked my supervisor if I should plan to go, she said no.
2. I found out on Monday that the Big Ten network is doing some taping at this event so again asked "Do I need to be at this?" I was told no again.
3. Yesterday, I found out that my supervisor's supervisor is going. Again, "Do I need to go too?" No.
4. Michael and I made tenative plans to see each other that night.
5. Today - "You need to be at this event."
I was also told today that I have to work an event in Nov on the day I want to leave for Thanksgiving. I was told to hold the date but that I probably wouldn't be needed. J/K! Today, I was told I have to work.

GRR!!!!!!! ARG!!!!!!!!! FML!!!!!!!!

Weekend Recap

Hi all! It's been nearly a week since I've written - sorry! I had Thursday afternoon and Friday off from work and didn't have time to update yesterday. Anyways, here's a little bit of what's been happening in my life lately.

Thursday:

• Worked a half day. Left work at noon and then went to Target. After spending WAY too much money, I now think I own every clean supply that they carry. Seriously - I could be a cleaning lady now because I have everything.
• Went to the gym.
• Caught up on DVRing.

Friday:

• Cleaned my apt all morning
• Gym - I'm still sore from the kickboxing class I went to.
• More DVRing.
• Michael came over after classes and we went to the grocery store to get stuff to make pizza for dinner.
• Made homemade pizza and watched some Dexter (Season 4)

YUMMY! We are pros at making this now :-)

Saturday:

• Went to the Farmers Market
• Carved a pumpkin (more on that in a future posting)
• Read together for a few hours (me = The Lovely Bones; Michael = The Brothers Karamazov)
• DATE NIGHT! We went to dinner and then Second City. When it ended at 2:15am, I realized that was the latest I've been up in a year. I'm getting old!

Sunday:

• Cooked breakfast
• Watched an episode of Dexter before Michael had to leave to study for his tests
• Aunt Melanie came in from CA and we went to dinner.
• Read and went to bed.

Also, I want to throw a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS out to my Girlfriend, Johanne and her new fiance Jason! They got engaged on Sunday at a pumpkin patch in AZ. Nuptial details are pending but it will probably be sometime in 2011.

I asked Johanne if we could still be girlfriends after she is a wife. She asked Jason and he said it's fine. Yay for still having a girlfriend!  Congrats to you both!!!

It Gets Better

In the wake of the numerous youth suicides from bullying in the past few months, many celebrities - both gay and straight - have created videos titled "It Gets Better" to send positive messages to those being bullied.

Today I received a link from a friend to an amazing video in which a a city council member in Fort Worth, TX share his own "It Gets Better" message.

Please click here, watch him share his story, and then share this link with your family and friends, especially any children and teens.

Weekend Recap

First of all, I have to say, once again, how much I love fall! Of course, this weekend in Chicago felt like summer with temperatures in the 80s, but the fall colors, leaves, and usual weather are just awesome.



So pretty!

This weekend was great, and boy did I need a great weekend after the tough week I had last week. It's like my friend Steph said last Thursday about having an off day. Well, I guess I had an off week so I was really looking forward to the weekend.

Friday night, I had to work at my university's alumni awards banquet. Wow - was it a fancy event. It was held at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago. The ULC is a beautiful venue, and has the second best display of artwork in Chicago behind the Art Institute. My role at the event was to be a greeter for the 400+ guests decked out in tuxedos (black tie optional but nearly every man was in a tux) and fancy gowns, and help them make their way from the 2nd floor registration and cocktail party to the 6th floor for dinner. I met some great people throughout the evening and caught up with some of my favorite alumni as well.

I was done with that around 7:30 (I didn't have to stay for dinner and the program) so I went home and Michael came over. We ordered Chinese and then crashed since we were both exhausted from our long weeks.

Saturday morning, I woke up and went to my usual Spin class. Note to self - no more Spinning in shorts. I just spent way too much money on them bought them at Lululemon and the girl behind the counter assured me she used the short, spandex shorts for both Spinning and hot yoga. Well, they will have to become my hot yoga shorts because they were not very fun to Spin in. I prefer my knee length spandex pants that do not move or ride up during class.

After Spin, Michael and I met his sisters and one their friends for brunch in my neighborhood. We went to Orange and it was pretty good. I had never been there before, and though it wasn't my favorite, I'd go back again. Between the five of us, we ordered three of the special pumpkin/pecan pankcakes (the girls) and two of the special eggs sandwiches (Michael and I). It was so much food. My favorite part of Orange was that they fresh squeeze all of their own juices. I got an apple-grape juice and it was VERY green and VERY good. Yum!

Juice making machine. We sat right by it so I kept watching it. It was cool!

Michael went up to Evanston for the football game that night, which left me at home to catch up on "life stuff." After four loads of laundry, cleaning my room and bathroom, and trips to two different grocery stores, I was feeling much better about my to-do list. I then decided I wanted to make homemade caramel rolls. I had never made them before but my sisters both have and I like to bake so I thought I'd give them a try. Good thing I did this on a weekend. It took forever! I started around 5:45 and finished them just after 9. Now I will say there is a lot of waiting that goes into caramel rolls so during one of the wait times, I went to the second grocery store and I was able to watch TV and do laundry during the process as well. They were a little more challenging than I thought they would be to make (the rolling and cutting being the only hard part), but they turned out DELICIOUS so I will definitely make them again. They are now in my freezer to enjoy for the next few weeks. Now if I can just get Michael to stop calling them sticky buns and start calling them caramel rolls...



Not the ones I made but they looked just like this!

I picked Michael up after the Wildcats lost in a depressing fashion on Saturday night. We went back to my place, ate a caramel roll, and went to bed because we were waking up bright and early on Sunday.

Sunday we walked through my neighborhood toward the lake to watch the Chicago Marathon. This is my third time watching the Marathon, and though I think it's awesome to watch, there is no way I'll ever run one. I just do not think I have the mental confidence to do it. Each year I have watched in a different place and this year was by far my favorite (maybe it was the company? <3). We were on a residential street in a shaded area around the 9 mile mark. Lots of spectators and many brought their pets so it was fun people AND dog watching (Michael and I still agree on the type of dog we want to get someday :-) ). We only saw two of my four friends that were running because there are just so many people. 38,000+ to be exact! But we enjoyed cheering for people and got many thank yous as we yelled out encouragement for people, especially those who put their names on their shirts. To anyone who ever plans to run a race like that someday - I definitely think you should put your name on your shirt. People will yell out encouraging words to you the entire race, and that has to feel good.

Yes, this is actually the start line at the Chicago Marathon. That is a LOT of people!

The rest of Sunday was spent being napping, Skyping with my family (Kaden is getting SO BIG!), and watching football, Hawaii Five-0, and repeats of How I Met Your Mother. We also made Buffalo Chicken Dip and it was delicious! It was another time consuming project because I use real chicken breasts, which involves cooking them one at a time on my George Forman and then shredding it, which is not an easy task. But I cannot stomach eating chicken out of a can so it was worth the wait and prep time. I think Michael fell in love with me a little more after the great food we made and ate this weekend. If anyone wants any of my recipes, please let me know!

Overall, it was good weekend and now I just have to make it through today since it's my last full day of work for the week. I have hopfully my last an eye appointment tomorrow morning and then Thursday afternoon and all of Friday off for some comp time. Yay for short work weeks!

Sunshines and Creeps

This is my second edition of Sunshines and Creeps this week. It’s been a busy week and I’m so glad it’s Friday!

Sunshine to yoga. I love how good I feel after, and I need to do it more.

Sunshine to Glee this week. Best episode I’ve seen and amazing music. I can’t stop listening to every song on repeat.

Creep to work this week. 3 late nights + 2 early mornings = crabby Jenni.

Creep to having an awful Thursday morning. Literally everything that could have gone wrong did.

Sunshine to taking some comp time next week.

Sunshine to date night on Wednesday.

Creep to the Twins being down 0-2. I am not that confident we will be coming back from this…

Creep to having to miss the Atmosphere concert Thursday night.

Sunshine to Spin tomorrow morning.

Sunshine to brunch with Michael and his sisters (Molly is visiting this weekend) tomorrow.

Sunshine to the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. Good luck to my friends JB, Corey, Brittany, and Josh.

Sunshine to the good food I’m going to eat this weekend, including homemade caramel rolls and buffalo chicken dip.

GO TWINS!

My favorite team, the Minnesota Twins, have made the MLB playoffs. I was lucky enough to go to 6 games this season (my record was 5-1) and here are some of my pics from Twins games this season.

With my parents and Michael on 4th of July

Target Field!

 

Michael and I at a game in July



My parents at a game in August

 

Michael and I at a game against the White Sox in September


GO TWINS! BEAT THE YANKEES!

Weekend Recap

This weekend, I was in Minneapolis for work. Part of my job is to host the away game tailgate parties for alumni for our football games.

Friday afternoon, I flew into MSP. I met my boss at the airport (we flew different airlines for FF miles) and ran some errands to Party City before going to the hotel. I was able to get away in the late afternoon and went to visit my friend Adam at Regency hospital. His gf Laurie was there and updated my parents and I on Adam's situation. It was good to talk to Laurie - I like her so much! - and see Adam. We picked Michael up at the airport and then we to Arezzo in Edina for dinner.

Saturday morning was our tailgate party. We had a great turnout of 160 people and it was lots of fun.


The AD speaking to the group with the cheerleaders looking on.

Following the tailgate, I met my parents, Michael, and his parents at the game. We didn't play all that great but we did manage to pull of the win. GO 'CATS!



Our seats were better than they appear.

That night, we had dinner at Michael's parents and Sunday included a short walk around Lake Calhoun and a visit to Regency to see Adam again. Michael and I flew back together and our flight got delayed, which was a bummer. And we were both sick,which was an even bigger bummer.

Michael and I took one picture together the whole weekend. Good thing it's a good one!

Monday version of Sunshines and Creeps

I missed the usual Friday edition of Sunshines and Creeps (thanks for hosting Kristen!) for the past few weeks, due to travels and work. So I thought I'd do a Monday edition this week. Weekend recap to come in the next few days...

Sunshine to a great weekend in MSP with Michael and our families.

Creep to our flight home yesterday being delayed. I hate when that happens.

Sunshine to my school being ranked in the Top 25 for football and being 5-0!

Creep to a full work week, working 3 nights, and not being able to use any comp time this week. Maybe next week...

Sunshine to work slowing down A LOT after this week.

Creep to Chicago drivers. I hate driving to work with you because you all suck at driving.

Creep to hardly seeing Michael or Jen this week. I hate conflicting schedules.

Sunshine to the Twins playing in the ALDS. Please beat the Yankees!!!

Sunshine to seeing my aunt Maria and uncle Christoph from Austria again last week. I don't get to see them that often and it was fun to host them in my city.

Creep to waking up when it's dark outside. It is so hard to crawl out of bed these days.

Creep to not going to the grocery store in far too long. I do not even have milk these days...

Sunshine to fall. The weather has been great and the fall colors are lovely. Fall is my favorite season and hopefully the season I get married in someday :-)