I'm Off!

I'm headed to So Cal! I'll post pictures while I am gone if I get a chance, but don't count on it!
See you next week!

Hmmmm....

Guess what this is going to be!

He Is Risen!!!!

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy 1st Day of Spring?

***UPDATE*** It has been snowing ALL day here! As of about 4:00 this afternoon this is what it looked like outside. It's pretty looking but seriously, it's SPRING!!!!




Happy 1st day of spring! Or, maybe that was yesterday. I don't really know. What I do know is that when I woke up this morning, this is what it looked like outside. And, the snow is still falling. Does this look like spring to you?

Sewing Machine

For Christmas this year, my lovely mother got me a GPS unit. With the job that I started last fall, I have to do more traveling and that traveling almost always involves me driving around a strange city and if you have heard about my sense of direction you know how scary that is for everyone involved. I have permission to rent a GPS with my rental car but they are expensive. So, when my mom saw some good ones on sale right before Christmas, she decided that it would be a good gift for me. And really, it was an excellent gift. Very thoughtful and extremely useful. However, I realized that I really only would use it on these work trips because I rarely need one in Chicago. And, if I'm only using it on work trips I kind of feel like work should be paying for it. Since she bought the unit at Target I was able to easily return it for a nice store credit.
A couple of weeks later I still hadn't decided what to get with my store credit. I knew that I could get lots of little things with the money but I thought that it would be more fun to pick a slightly larger purchase that I wouldn't normally get for myself. It technically was a Christmas present after all. One day it randomly struck me that I would like to have a sewing machine and that Target might carry them. You know what? They do! And they had a couple of models in my price range. My mom has been sewing for as long as I can remember and I started making things with her when I was really young. But, I never really took much interest in it.
A couple of weeks ago when I was visiting my parents my mom and I took a trip to the brand new Target in Lake Geneva and picked out a nice (basic) sewing machine for me. My mom was overjoyed that I had decided that I wanted one and I think that she had more fun picking it out than I did. I didn't feel bad at all about returning a gift and getting this one.
I finally took the machine out of it's box earlier this week and have learned to use it. I've made some alterations to a jacket and I have a line up of projects that I want to work on. We'll see which ones actually get done. I'll be sure to post if I ever complete anything.

The Isle of the Goose

On Sunday afternoon a few of us ventured on over to the Goose Island Brewery for a tour and a tasting. For only $5 you get a short tour of where they brew about 60 different beers each year and you get a tasting of 6 beers that are currently in season.

I don't remember a whole lot about the tour but the tasting was tasty! I know that the brew guy, Will, mentioned something about hops, yeast and water and how the color, amount of yeast and alcohol level are not necessarily all related. I know that there are two different beers at Goose Island are named in honor of the brew guys two daughters. I leared the difference between an ale and a lager but I don't remember it anymore. The brewery is named after an actual 'island' here in Chicago where a lot of geese live. There are several Goose Island locations in the city and one of them is right around the corner from my house. I'll have to try it out this summer when the open up their patios and start serving up their Cubbie Blue brew.


Of the 6 brews that we tried, I think that the Nut Brown Ale (or maybe it's a lager) was my favorite. The 312 is good for a lighter beer. I did not like their IPA (India Pale Ale) or the other one something red. After the tour we stuck around for some appetizers. I highly recommend the sausage and cheese plate and the macaroni and cheese (made with bacon, yum!).

The lovely little dress

As of tomorrow, this lovely little dress will be on it's way to me. Unfortunately, it's not in my size. But, it will look super cute on my friend's darling little girl who turns 1 in a couple of weeks.

I had it custom made by JJ Heller who is a friend of a friend. She's a musician but has started making children's clothes on the side. Her stuff is super cute and really reasonable for hand made. She didn't have anything in the correct size already made but I contacted her and she gladly made one for a 1 year old. She let me pick out the fabric that I wanted to use and I knew that it would have some flower apliques on it but I had not idea that it would be this cute!

Eggstravaganza 2008!!

Friday night, several of us gathered at Kelly's to decorate some Easter eggs. I think that it had been about 15 years since I had done that. As we started, we realized that there isn't as much draw to dying eggs now as there was when we were all 10. But, it was a good excuse to hang out and have some laughs. Plus, there was a contest for the best egg and I won!!! Woo Hoo! I'm a champion egg decorator!
The lovely hostess
The eggs in process




Jason was very excited about the eggs

The prize for having the best egg (and yes, I did eat the peeps and yes, I did enjoy them)

The grand prize winner!

Really?

Ok. So I maybe shouldn't post this because there are some people that I work with that read this but it's Friday afternoon on a beautiful day and I have a major case of spring fever so we'll chalk it up to temporary insanity.
Every year at this time of year, there are auditors in our building and they all sit in one of the office in my department. That means that they walk by my desk about a million times a day and I have to find the balance between not ignoring them and not having to smile and nod every time they walk through the door. Anyway, this year there is a guy auditor who is kind of cute (it was pointed out to me that he looks a lot like Keanu(sp?) Reeves and he does! I wanted to ask him to say 'Whoa' but I thought that would be embarrassing. Anyway...). So, I brought to my own attention today that almost every time he has walked by today, I have been eating something. Yikes! I'm really not a pig and overall, I haven't had that much to eat today. He just has bad timing of when he walks by!
Thank you for reading my Friday afternoon story.

Pictures to help with survey

Ok, here are a couple of pictures of me with different length hair. I'm not thinking of going any shorter than the shortest hair cut you see here but I am open to anything in between what it is now and that short. And, I don't have a picture of how long it is right now. All my recent pictures are of me with my hair in a pony-tail (that should maybe tell me something!).

The Diagnosis is in...

I need a new fuel pump. Not the most expensive thing that could be broken but also not the cheapest. It would be a lot cheaper to just be out of gas....
There goes my tax refund!

Argh!

My car is in the shop. I was out running errands at lunch and as I was leaving my last one, it decided to just shake instead of actually starting. So, two tow trucks and 2.5 hours later, it's at my trusty mechaninc's.
Diagnosis: Yet to be determined (pray that it's a cheap fix!)

Long or Short?

Hair, that is. I need your help! I'm getting my hair cut in about 2 weeks (my favorite stylist is on vacation until then) and I am completely undecided on what to do with it. It's pretty long right now and there are some very good things about it being long (especially on days like today when I'm having a good hair day). I can put it up in a pony-tail, it actually looks decent when I let it air dry and when I take a little time on it each morning, it generally looks good. There are downsides too. Mostly, that it takes forever to dry each morning and we are about to enter the lovely summer months here in Chicago where the general goal of each day is to spend as little time as possible with a hair dryer aimed at my head. And, I'm pretty sure my hair will just end up in a pony-tail every day because I will get tired of it being matted to the back of my neck from humidity and sweat.
But, if I go shorter with my hair I know that I have to actually spend time on it each day to make it look good. No just letting it air dry. At the same time, I think I look kind of cute with shorter hair...
I just don't know! Help! What to do you think?????????

Boys vs. Girls

Yesterday afternoon, my friend L and I decided to take our books and find a nice quiet coffee shop to sit in and read and relax for the afternoon. Apparently, our entire neighborhood had the same idea so we ended up at Bobtail ice cream (because when we said coffee, we really meant ice cream. Naturally.) Our friend J joined us and three hours later our books will still sitting, unopened, on the table. A couple of months ago, several of us had convinced J that in order to fully understand women, he needed to read Pride and Prejudice. Well, over Christmas he did just that and announced to us yesterday when the topic came up again that he still didn't get it. If all women want a man like Mr. Darcy, does that mean that they want someone to be mean to them and practically ignore that they are even in the room? J identifies more with Mr. Bingly (or is it Bingley? I don't remember). What does that mean for him?
These questions lead us to discuss relationships for the next 2 and half hours. We tried to clarify what it is that girls and guys are actually looking for and rehashed our past relationships (or lack there of) in an attempt to figure it all out.
At the end of the conversation I think that we concluded one thing. Girls do not make things easy on guys, guys are so confused that they can't figure which way is up, and in the end, we are all completely messed up!
L and I explained that women are looking for a guy who is not too nice, but not mean either. Who will pay attention to us but ignore us at the same time. Be romantic, but not too romantic. Be sincere but be sure not to seem so sincere that we think you are insincere. Bring us gifts often enough but not too often. Initiate things, but don't come on too strong. We want to end up with the nice guy but we will always date the bad boy first. At this point, I was beginning to side with the guys in their opinion that all girls are completely out of their mind!
I think that the conclusion that I came up with at the end is that we are all individuals and that we have to be aware of that. Each woman is looking for something different than the one next to her and each man is looking for something different than his buddy. We can't lump each other into huge categories and say that all men play games and all women want to be showered with attention. We each come with our own set of expectations as well as our own disappointments from relationships (or non-relationships) past.
Here are a couple of lingering questions from the afternoon:
How do you guard your heart without being too guarded?
Where is the balance between waiting for God to bring the right person into your life and going out and finding them yourself?

Here's to a great afternoon spent with coffee, ice cream and fabulous friends who are willing to sit for three hours on really hard chairs and pour out their hearts!

Survey

**Update** I just ordered the Moroccan Blue one. I had been leaning in that direction so thanks Kelly for confirming that for me. I'll let you kniw what I think in 2-5 business days what I think of it.

I think that I am going to get one of these. But, I can't decide on a color. What do you think? (yes, I am talking to all four of you that read this).

Somehow...

Somehow I got on the mailing list for this lovely little magazine.

I'm not sure how I got on the list, but I am happy that this magazine has found it's way into my mailbox for the past two months. I'm not huge into traveling but would love to do more of it and this beauty has some wonderful tips for people wanting to travel but not run up huge credit card bills while doing it. I'll be sad when someone decides to stop sending this to me but for now I will just enjoy the time we do have together.

The Knee

Since I've been sick since Friday and haven't done anything even remotely exciting to blog about (unless you want to hear about how I slept, then read, then watched tv, then slept, then read, then watched tv...) I thought I would show you a picture of what my knee looks like this morning after my nasty fall last week. (Please ignore the line on my leg from where my sock was).

You will notice that the bruise is turning a lovely shade of yellow. Too bad it's still too cold and I have to wear pants and cover this baby up!