Favorite Event: Symphony

Last night, Michael came into town on his way back from Ohio and I got us tickets to the Notre Dame symphony that one of my classmates was performing. I have never been to any orchestra or symphony. I actually don't know if they are even the same thing, but I definitely cannot wait to go again. One of my new friends, Chris, was playing in the second violin section. The performance lasted about 1.5 hours and I think there were about 15 of my fellow classmates there. After the busy weeks I have had though, it was nice to just sit there, listen and watch the conductor going nuts with his wand. Plus the co-concert leaders did not like one another. I guess the "lead" in the orchestra is always the first violinist. Well, the first was a guy and the second violinist was a girl and both shared the "co-captain" seat. If looks could kill.

Anyways, I definitely am going to be checking out more events at Notre Dame now. There are some really talented students and the performing arts hall is gorgeous! 

Performing arts website

New Research on Understanding Alzheimer's

New Research on Understanding Alzheimer's

I am alive!

I am alive!!! No worries. I realized just now that I had not written in my blog in such a long time, actually over a month! I have been very busy, but no excuses as this is one of the things I really enjoyed starting the new year.

Many things have happened the past month. I don't even know where to start! I was able to go home for a few days and then to Chicago as well. I had a career fair as well where I had a successful interview I believe and got to make quite a few good contacts. I have been going to football games! I actually just got my basketball season tickets this past week. I had finals and then a four day case competition which entailed spending ten-plus hour days with the same four guys in a room. I had Tommy for almost four weeks since Mike was in Napa Valley with his dad. Hmmm and I am sure much more which I will remember.

Today is a sad day for Notre Dame students. We just lost one of our students yesterday who was videotaping the football practice. For anyone who has been in the midwest the past two days, you know how windy it has been! Declan, a junior at Notre Dame, was filming the practice as part of his job as part of a video crew for the Department of Athletics when the camera tower he was standing on fell over. He was rushed by ambulance to Memorial Hospital, where he later died. It occurred around 5pm, but the family was not reached immediately so we did not find out until later in the night. Camera crews are all around and they are holding a mass at 10pm tonight for him. So sad when someone so young passes. Plus, if you follow the news you will see the tweets and Facebook messages he was sending prior to his death were very eerie. He was scared to go on top of the tower since the wind gusts were blowing it around and one of his messages said that it "was terrifying." Anyways, you can read more for yourself. He was a wonderful young man though and his family and all of his friends will miss him greatly I am sure.


Today I am headed up home to go to the Net Impact conference in Ann Arbor. The conference is to discuss businesses' responsibilities the planet and will have many top business programs there and recruiters. I am headed there with three girls in my class so I am excited about that.


I am going to go but I will leave you with what I think is a great picture one of my friends took at the game.

Exploring Campus...

I have started to explore campus just a bit more. As this is one of the most inspiring places in the U.S., I have decided I need to make it a priority to walk around and see places outside of the business school's region.


I know I have lived in some awesome places such as on the lake at Loyola and a block away from Wrigley Field, but Notre Dame is something completely different. Hence, my trips to look around and take in the different architecture, history, my grandfather's dorm from when he was here from 1946-1949 and the grotto.


Here are some photos with some captions about my adventure....


When Mike was here, he had never been to the grotto so of course, I had to take him there. I don't know the exact head count of how many people come here to pray, but it is truly amazing. If you go the Sunday or Saturday of football weekend, expect to wait to be able to kneel and pray in front of Our Lady.

When Father Sorin first came here to found the school in 1842, he called it “L’Université de Notre Dame du Lac” or "The University of Our Lady of the Lake" because there had been such an awful snowfall that he thought there was only one lake. Little did he know there was two. Here is a photo of the lake that I took on the same visit with Mike to the grotto.

The Golden Dome is one of the most famous images at Notre Dame. When my mom came to visit she thought that it was so cool that each day when I drove onto campus I took Notre Dame Ave. so that I could see the dome. It is definitely worth the extra minute-long light.

This is a photo from my car while I was stopped at the light. No one was injured while it was taken. It doesn't do it justice, but it is quite the sight to see each morning and it reminds me of why I chose this university.

Last Tuesday, I decided it was about time I found my grandfather's dorm. I walked around for probably less than five minutes before finding it right next to the administration building. It is crazy to think that he actually lived at one point in this building when he was my age and just starting out in the world. It is a boys' dorm so some of the guys were probably thinking I was a creep while taking photos of it on my droid, but I didn't care. I wonder what room he was in?

This past week, I found out that inside each of Notre Dame's buildings there are chapels. I guess there are something like over 130 masses said each week here on campus. Insane! Either way I decided I would check Mendoza's chapel out. It was on the second floor and masses are said there daily at 12:30. I have yet to go to one, but I did find it a nice place to escape the day-to-day chaos that has become my b-school life. 

Favorite Godson

Colleen just posted photos of Nolan, my Godson, the other day on Facebook.

I haven't seen him in so long and I swear that although I am obviously biased, he is the most adorable little boy ever. Anyways, I needed to show them as part of the bragging section of my blog.

The first photo also includes my other favorite cousins, Jack and Meghan.

Favorite New Activity: MBAA

I am very excited about this new activity! 


This past Monday, I threw my hat in the ring to be the MBA Association's 1st year's representative. There are two reps for the 1st year student body and then one international rep for the 1st year student body who assist with the MBA Association and represent our student body 1st years. Also, FYI for those who don't know, the MBAA is the governing body of the all the clubs, activities, tailgating/football events, club representatives, etc. regarding the ND MBA program. Well, the votes were tabulated at 4:30 this afternoon from all of my classmates, and I won! 


Dan Marques is the other 1st year rep and then Antonio Espinoza is the international's rep. I am very excited though as this was a big election involving all of my classmates. I feel really honored to have been chosen and to be able to take a leadership position early on in something I care about. Plus I get to represent the best MBA class ever in ND's history! :)

Favorite News Article: Brutus vs. Rufus

Brutus Buckeye v. Rufus the Bobcat

Sept. 18, 2010

The fur was flying in Columbus, Ohio, before the kickoff of the Ohio State-Ohio University football game. Ohio's mascot, Rufus, stalked Brutus Buckeye into the end zone, where he proceeded to punch the unsuspecting mascot several times in the head. It was later revealed that the man inside Rufus was not even enrolled at Ohio University.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1009/mascot.fighting/content.1.html#ixzz10J8KhlWk

The other advertisement: Mow The Lawn

See the blog below for the original information on this viral ad.

Favorite Advertisement: Schick Quattro TrimStyle For Women

Favorite may be pressing it, but I am very amused by Shick Quattro's new advertisement regarding "mowing the lawn" and "trimming the hedges". Last night, Mike and I were watching Jersey Shore, which I enjoyed immensely after my first midterms in three years, and all of a sudden this came on. Of course, being a Ritter, I immediately was like oh my goodness, what ad is this for? And then, yes, the realization that Quattro meant for this ad to be...that naughty. I am going to publish one more advertisement by Schick after this one. It is just the viral ad that is not on television. It has a funny tune though and has definitely caught my attention despite it being quite on the edge of inappropriateness.

Favorite Activities: Fantasy Football

I am in a Fantasy Football league for the fourth year in a row now. I have had okay track records with 2nd place being my best result thus far. However, I think this may be my year. Well, I also thought that ND would beat U of M and start the season 4-0 and that the Lions would win against the Bears....so who knows if I can predict anything. (although I was right on the Lions win as those refs obviously cannot tell a catch when they see one!)

So here is my team, Ritter's Bad Boys Check it out:
QB: Tom Brady
Backup QB: Eli Manning (Mike's regular QB is Stafford since he wasn't there for his draft haha...if only he could have my backup)
WR's: Marques Colston, Steve Smith, Hines Ward
Backup WR: Santonio Holmes (if he ever stops smoking crack maybe I can put him in my lineup)
RB's: Maurice Jones-Drew, Ryan Grant
Backup RB: Ahmad Bradshaw
TE: Visanthe Shiancoe (kicked butt this weekend)
Backup TE: Todd Heap
Kicker: Phil Dawson (Last year since Cleveland only scored via field goals this was an awesome idea... Who knows if it will work this year.)
Backup Kicker: John Kasay (Kasay really kicked Dawson this week so he may have to sub in week 2)
Defense: New Orleans
Backup Defense: Baltimore

Thus far, I am 1-0, beating Adaku at the moment by 20 points..I don't think she will catch up. However, next week I play against the Romo-sexuals and with a name like that, I may have to be scared.

Favorite Forward: The Lion

Kim sent me this forward the other day. I got a major kick out of it:

This is the true story of a garage owner in New Mexico....

He was sick and tired of thugs breaking into his garage shop to steal tools, etc. so he came up with this idea. He put the word out that he had a new Mexican Lion that would attack anyone that would break in or climb his fence.   Would-be thieves saw the "Lion" from a distance and fled the scene. 

Now I read up to here and thought it was dumb, but then check this out.

How can you not think that is funny?! Anyways, I am thinking we could make Tommy into a wolf probably if anything ever happened.

Favorite Moment: First Football Game as a Student

I have been very VERY busy the past week with classes, extracurriculars, studying for midterms and recruiting events so I am sorry for my lack of blogs lately! I think I will be able to get the hang of all of this soon enough though.

As it is the eve of my second football game, I must say that I had an incredible time last Saturday tailgating and attending the game. It is so different when you are actually a student. I have this pride that I never had before for Michigan State or Notre Dame when I would cheer for them in college. I love them, but I don't feel that sense of obligation and overall intensity.

Mike and I went to the tailgate around 10AM and I don't believe that our night ended until around 11PM since we ended up grabbing dinner with Fadel (a 2nd year MBA who went to LUC in Mike's grade) and Amy (bff, freshman year roommate, Maddie's cat-sitter). 

Check out some photos:

Front Row: me..duh...Kelly (Dan's wife, my new friend), Karla (Antonio's wife. He is in the program. She organizes girls' night on Tuesdays. She is from Mexico and makes the best sangria known to mankind.) Back Row: Mike, Brian, Rob, Mike, and Dan (Kelly's husband and all the men next to Mike are in my class too)

Amy and I at the MBA Association's tailgate. She obviously came to visit me and not Fadel.

Mike & I hanging out in the student section

The band @ halftime

Favorite Recipe: Triple Chocolate Cookies

Each Tuesday, there is a girls' night for all of the significant others in the MBA program that one of the spouses, Carla, put together. Two weeks ago was game night, last week was a recipe night where we each brought our favorite recipes (oh right, I didn't have time and brought pretzels with MnMs) and this week, Kelly will be hosting a chocolate bash at her place. A couple of the actual MBA female students were invited to these spousal bashes since we are such a blast so therefore, Rachel (my roommate) and I make our way to the party each Tuesday excited for some relaxed and non-competitive fun. As we are with 100+ men each day, we cherish our Tuesdays!
Since this week was a chocolate bash, I made Triple Chocolate Cookies. They are delicious although this may be slightly biased, but I do think they will be a hit once the party happens. 

Here is the recipe taken from the Food Network Kitchen:

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I left this out as reviewers had mixed opinions on whether or not this added to the recipe)
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large yolk (ha- i just threw another egg in)
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
• 6 ounces white chocolate chips

Directions

Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cloves together in a medium bowl. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove pan from the heat, add the bittersweet chocolate, then set aside until melted.

Whisk the eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla together in a medium bowl, then slowly whisk in chocolate. Stir in the flour mixture to make a loose dough. Don't overwork the dough. Fold in the chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or 325 if convection option is available).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Form dough into balls, about 2 inches or 1 1/2 ounces each, and put on the prepared baking sheets, leaving a couple inches between the cookies. Bake until outside is crackly, but the center is still moist, about 13 to 15 minutes, or 12 in convection. Cool on a rack.

Favorite (Old) News Article: Stanford Prison Experiment

We watched a 20/20 video today about the Stanford Prison Case and the power of conformity. It was absolutely mind-boggling to me to see these perfectly "normal" men participate in a science experiment, only to have themselves transform. I cannot do it justice by typing about it so if you have the time, check out this youtube.com video and see for yourselves:

Prisoner's Case

Favorite Website: Home and Away

Thanks to Notre Dame, I have a very diverse group of students that I get to interact with on a daily basis. It is honestly amazing to hear everyone's stories. Some of the most amazing people I have met actually were in the Army and Navy prior to joining my class of 2012. Since I have never had really known many of my close friends to go into the military, I find their stories of heroism amazing; if they even discuss them. Anyways, I thought that I would share this website that I found the other day. It puts the names and faces of those who have died in the wars on a map that corresponds to a map of the USA. If you dig deeper, you can find out more about these honorable men and women who have died fighting for our freedom. Whether you believe in the wars or not, I believe there can be no amount of gratitude shown to those who gave their lives for our country and our people.

Here is the website: War Casualties

Favorite Events: Andrew Michael's Birth

We have a new Ritter!!! Coming nine days late in true Ritter fashion, Andrew Michael was born on Friday, August 20th at 12:07 pm. Mike Allio wanted the name to be Wally Walper, but I guess we cannot be choosy as I am sure when he has his first kid, Mike will be given name suggestions like Alli Allio.

Anyways, Andrew is the fourth son of Sharon and Michael. For all of my friends trying to keep track of the family tree, Sharon is the youngest sister of my dad. Andrew's older brothers are Nick, Matthew and Christopher. Please try not to get this family now confused with my mom's side of the family as her brother Steve, has Matthew, Christopher and Andrew too. Therefore, I now have 2 Matt's, 2 Chris', 2 Nick's, 2 Brendan's, 2 Andrew's, 3 Mike's (if you include mine) and 2 Joe's.

I have attached the pictures that the family passed onto us. Do note Christopher's face in all of the photos as I think it emits his true feelings towards this new baby. Love it :) No matter how Christopher feels though, Andrew is here to stay and we are so excited for the newest member of our family!

Andrew Michael Ritter

Mom and older brother, Christopher, who is not so sure about this new addition

The happy family...again, how can you not love Christopher's face in this photo?!

Favorite News Article: True Blood..Truly Naughty

s

I personally never watch True Blood, but Mike and many others I know are HUGE fans. The show is very intriguing because it is basically an adult version of Twilight with lots of...sins? I don't know how else to describe the constant blood, carnal sex and beautiful people.

Anyways, Rolling Stones is making waves with its new cover. Why wouldn't it? I guess it is good that Sookie, Anna Paquin, and Bill, Stephen Moyer, are engaged!

Favorite Video: Hans Rosling: No more boring data: TEDTalks

Today and yesterday, I have been blessed with 3 1/2 hours of accounting and then ANOTHER 3 1/2 hours of statistics. However, we actually have amazing and entertaining professors. This is one of the videos our stats professor shared with us. The video is 20 minutes long so I don't expect you all to watch all of it, but it is very insightful. Feel free to google Hans Rosling and GapMinder.com. Who knew statistics could be....fun?

Favorite New Activity: iChat

Mike and I have been loving the ability to iChat the past weeks. I never imagined that I would be in a separate city as he, but the fact that I can see his face while talking to him makes things so much easier. Tommy is also enjoying it too, although he has no idea what is exactly going on when he sees my face on the computer. He gets excited, tilts his head and then starts talking. I actually took a video of it the other day on my phone...sadly it is the wrong way and needs to be rotated so I will have to shoot another one later this week to share.

If you do have a video camera and want to chat tete-a-tete one day, just let me know! It is much better than over the phone.

Favorite Week: Welcome Weekend

I started my orientation on Monday, August 9th at Notre Dame and I swear it feels as if it has been about a year since I first stepped onto campus. I have had such an incredible experience meeting my classmates in the two-year program and I have no doubts whatsoever of my choice to come here.

We did a lot this week learning about the school and the breadth of its history, but we also had a ton of fun too. Sunday night kicked off at a BBQ Mike and I attended. Then on Tuesday, I went to The Pointe's pool and afterwards, Kildare's, with about fifty of my classmates. Wednesday was bowling, Thursday was a huge pool party and BBQ, Friday was an Irish pub and Corby's and finally, today, we went up to Saint Joe's to go swim in Lake Michigan and get some much needed beach time.

I have attached some pictures of our tour of the locker room and then the view from the luncheon we had in which Digger Phelps spoke. (What a motivational speaker...)

Standing in front of the team's entrance. If you look carefully you can see Touchdown Jesus (on the Hezburgh library) which is perfectly centered.

Slapping the the famous sign.

The view from the press box (and also the floor Brian Kelly's family sits on).

Favorite Food: Irish Nachos

Now that I live in South Bend, I have my new favorite version of Coney cheese fries. These are amazing!!! I have only ate them in restaurants, but you can make your own following this Rachel Ray recipe. You probably don't need this extreme of a recipe and we had bacon instead of corned beef, but try it out!

Ingredients

1 20- to 24-ounce bag waffle fries

2 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 pound deli-sliced corned beef, chopped

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1/2 small head green cabbage, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)

Salt and ground black pepper

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup light beer

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450ºF.

Arrange the waffle fries on a baking sheet and cook according to package directions, adding about 10 minutes onto the baking time to make them extra crispy.

When the fries have about 10 minutes left, place a medium skillet over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the corned beef to the skillet and sauté until light golden brown and heated through, 2-3 minutes

Add the onions and cabbage to the pan, and cook until the onions have softened and cabbage has wilted, 4-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and reserve warm.

While the veggies are cooking, place a medium pot over medium-high heat and melt the butter. Add the flour to the pot and cook for about a minute.

Whisk the beer into the mixture and cook for about 30 seconds to cook off the alcohol. Whisk the chicken stock into the pan and bring up to a bubble. Simmer until thickened, 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat and stir in the cheese to melt. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

To serve, arrange the crispy waffle fries on a platter, top them with the corned beef and cabbage mixture and douse with a good helping of cheese sauce.

Favorite Moment: First Day of School!

I just had my first day of school orientation today. Rachel, my new roommate, and I drove up to campus together at 8am for a full day of activities, including a scavenger hunt across campus in the insanely humid weather. I met a lot of nice new people and have been paired with my 'mod', a group of students who I will be grouped with over the next year. There are 26 of them with five to six of us in each. My class hails from (if I remember correctly) over 30 states and 14 countries. We have the highest average GMAT score ever in the history of ND (which I didn't contribute to), but the second highest GPA (class of 2003, ugg)-- which I did help with! Also, there are only 27 women out of the 130-ish students, but no worries, Mike made sure to tell people that he was the trophy boyfriend at the BBQ last night hosted by a new classmate.

Anyways, all is well. Miss everyone!!!

AND my new favorite campus

And while I am at it, we went to mass at the basilica and here are some photos of our tour on campus:

Golden Dome

The library and reflecting pool.

View of ND's stone hedge, the golden dome of the admin building and the basilica.

Grandpa Ritter's name on the plaque of donations to the school's library.

The stadium!

New Favorite Room and Apartment

I moved this Saturday with the help of my mom, dad, Michael, and two hardworking folks at Burrow's Moving Company named Al and Ken. Over a period of 48 hours I slowly transported all of my life from Chicago to South Bend minus the dust bunnies. I cannot believe that I have accumulated so much of my life over the past seven years. Examples include my dancing mouse that sings I'm too sexy for my shirt, my Roma & Chicago paintings, my nannerpus from the Denny's commercials, and Gus Gus. Oh and the 100 books I have been transporting in the hopes that one day I will have a library. Take a look below for the photos of the new place. Of course there is stuff all over the place right now, but you can get the idea with the slides and descriptions below:

When you first walk into the place we have huge closets that hold my quarter-free washer and dryer.

The dining room. We have so much room in here it is hard to know what to do.

The family room. We have a nice deck where my back is. You can see Tommy felt right at home here!

The kitchen is very 70s, but has updated metal appliances.

My bathroom. Very small and floods actually. Fabulous... they will need to fix that up!

The Saint Joseph river is right behind those trees. Also note the dog friendly trash cans :) There are about 200 units I would say throughout the entire complex.

Mike played a game as these later photos were taken to get in all of them. My bedroom....

Favorite TV Show: Mad Men

One of my favorite shows is back in season: Mad Men!!! I am really excited to start watching it from the beginning of Season 4 and go week by week since the past couple of years I have watched them intermittently and still have not seen them all (season three has quite a few missing episodes I will catch up on while unemployed!)

The show is on Sundays @ 9 or 10 PM depending on if you are on EST or CST. Sadly, I will be on EST a bit too soon for my liking. Check it out if you can as this show has won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series-Drama- in 2008, 2009 & in 2010. You can also watch on On Demand if you have Comcast (boo!! they are charging me way too much in South Bend!)

If you do watch it, we can discuss how annoying Betty Draper is as a character...although I love her outfits.

Here's the website: AMC's Mad Men

Bucket List of Chicago: #6 Done!

Kate and I went tonight to Lao Sze Chuan, the Chinese restaurant I never remember the name of. I picked her up from work and what we thought would be a five minute ride down there turned more into a thirty minute ride as it seems we missed all the Chinatown signs and somehow ended up near what I believe to be the Midway area. We just were chatting and all of a sudden we noticed we may be the only non-gang members within the five mile radius. Needless to say, we did arrive and had a solid dinner. The menu has about 700 items on its list, but we were happily content not to eat blood, stomach or frog and opted instead for the typical fare. Thanks to the large portions, we will also be happily enjoying our leftovers tomorrow.

Bucket List of Chicago: #3 Done!

Yesterday, Sarah planned a girls night out at the Cubs game. Therefore, I was able to check off bucket list item #3 for myself: photo in front of historic Cubs stadium. I dislike baseball more than others sports mainly because 1. I don't see the insane strategy utilized such as in soccer or hockey (Sarah has tried to teach me the ins and outs, but I still do not grip the handrails like my grandma) and 2. It definitely moves slower than basketball and football and we all know I am an action-oriented girl.

Anyways, the girls and I had a blast. We had hot dogs, egg and potato salad and beers before & at the game. The Cubs lost miserably to Houston, but we still sang the stretch and cheered until the final strikeout. Afterwards, we went to Guthries to play SORRY and ended the night with pizza and ice cream at Dag's Well, we didn't truly end the night until much later as we watched Betthany.

Below is a brief history of Wrigley for those who may be interested:

• Wrigley Field is the second-oldest ballpark in the majors behind Boston's Fenway Park (1912).
• Originally known as Weeghman Park, Wrigley Field was built on the grounds once occupied by a seminary.
• Weeghman Park was the home of Chicago's entry in the Federal League and was the property of Charles H. Weeghman ... the club was known as both the Federals and the Whales.
• The cost of building Weeghman Park, which had a seating capacity of 14,000, was estimated at $250,000 ... the infield and outfield consisted of more than 4,000 yards of soil and four acres of bluegrass.
• When the Federal League folded for financial reasons after the 1915 campaign, Weeghman purchased the Cubs from the Taft family of Cincinnati and moved the club to the two-year-old ballpark at the corner of Clark and Addison streets.
• The park became known as Cubs Park in 1920 after the Wrigley family purchased the team from Weeghman ... it was named Wrigley Field in 1926 in honor of William Wrigley Jr., the club's owner.
• The Wrigley Field bleachers and scoreboard were constructed in 1937 when the outfield area was renovated to provide improved and expanded seating ... the original scoreboard remains intact.
• No batted ball has ever hit the centerfield scoreboard.
• One of the traditions of Wrigley Field is the flying of a flag bearing a "W" or an "L" atop the scoreboard after a game ... a white flag with a blue "W" indicates a victory; a blue flag with a white "L" denotes a loss.
• The original vines were purchased and planted by Bill Veeck in September 1937 ... Veeck strung bittersweet from the top of the wall to the bottom, then planted the ivy at the base of the wall.
• The first night game took place August 8 against Philadelphia, but was rained out after 3 1/2 innings.

My Favorite: 2 seconds of fame

CHECK IT OUT...... My two seconds of fame on My FOX Chicago. I am at the 2 minute and 23 second mark. Well, so is Saira and Sarah!! (Saira is popping her head in the background)
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/bikes-and-cars-on-collision-course-in-uptown-20100716

New Movies: Leonardo DiCaprio Does It Again

I love going to the movies and typically will make the trip out to Webster Place at least once a month either with Alessandra or Mike. Today, we decided to go see Inception which stars Leo, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer or as I like to remember him, Third Rock), Marion Cotillard and other famous folk. The movie is a mix of science fiction mixed with action and is hands down the best movie I have seen in years. I can barely describe it as I will need to watch it at least two more times to even start to understand the intricacies of the script, but the premise is that Leonardo is a dream thief. He basically goes into people's minds with the assistance of his team and tries to delve into people's most dangerous and revealing secrets. I give the movie 10 starts out of 10 and right now, according to IMDb, it is the third highest rated movie ever on their website, behind The Godfather and Shawshank Redemption with 9.4 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Website: AUL

As many of those who already know me are aware, I am very pro-life despite being what I consider very liberal in my other political spectrums. A ways back I joined the Americans United for Life, which has multiple campaigns regarding ridding America's legislation of abortion laws. Look at the following website and check out the website's details on how the new legislation for healthcare has our tax dollars going towards the funding of abortions.

http://takeaction.aul.org

Bucket List of Chicago: #2 Done!

Julia, my mom and I all went to the Sears Tower Skydeck today, #2 on my bucket list of Chicago. I was completely fine until I walked up to the building and saw how tall it truly was...then I started to sweat! Mind you, I worked kitty corner to the building for two years, but obviously never fathomed myself at the top of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. I was okay and still went up, but while we were in the elevator (which was announcing how many feet up in the air we were going and what other tall items we were passing) I did have to take a deep breath!!!

On a clear day, you can see 40 to 50 miles to Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan. The Skydeck is on the 103rd floor and 1353 feet off of the ground. In summer of 2009, they installed the ledges, which allow you to basically walk out in a glass box from the west side of the building.

Here are some pictures including ones from the new ledges! I will make them large so you can make stuff out even though that totally ruins the neatness of my blog :)

 

Janet was not too sure at first what to think about these boxes. However, Julia had no fears!

There are four boxes in all. Julie took a picture of me standing in one while she was in the other. So cool.

The view on the northside. You can see the tall building on the right is the John Hancock. You can also see the river going up the lefthand side of the picture. I was trying to find Wrigley field and my house, but no such luck.

Favorite Cities: Hubbard Lake

For the past several years, I have been unable to go to Hubbard Lake with my family over the Fourth of July because I have been in Chicago. As the trip takes about eight hours to complete, it is not something easy to do when you only get one day off of work on the holiday weekend. I was able to go this past week though as I am now "unemployed" awaiting my student status. We had a blast.

Loved....
being with family
riding jet skis
tanning
reading
ice cream

Did not love....

no air conditioning

13 people living in a 1200 square foot cottage, if that

crayfish

Favorite Lady: Mimi

As a major part of my life the past fifteen years, I must toast to the life of Mimi today as she has consistently been on my mind the past several weeks. For all of those who do not converse with me on a regular basis, we lost her this past Thursday, July 1st. She will be greatly missed as she was the best neighbor a girl could have and a wonderful "grandma-mimi". Here are just a few photos of us throughout the years:

Graduation. Of course she had already done that sixty years prior but she decided to try on the cap for old times sake.

so she isn't looking..but i swear this is the last and first drink i ever had with her!

Christmas mornings were always started with a trip across the street after we got pretty. For Mimi, this was no earlier than noon.