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.

Favorite Moments: Ohio Weekends and the Two Days of Chicago In Between

I will start off with my events for the Ohio weekend for the beginning on my return to blogging phase with three photos that summarize all the fun that was had:

1. Visiting with the Allio's: Mike and I were lucky enough to be able to celebrate Father's Day with his family (especially since my own father was in Las Vegas.) The Allio family is always very nice to me and makes me feel right at home. I have a favorite couch in their home that is in the den where I typically will take anywhere from a 5 to two hour long nap. I also have a newfound love of table tennis as the family is quite competitive. However, my new "Favorite" of Ohio other than the Allio's is the Ballpark Mustard they have in Cleveland! It is delicious and the second weekend there, I actually bought myself some since I loved it so much. Next time in Cleveland, at the Allio's or my apartment, you must try it!

2. In between my two weekends in Ohio, I tried to get as much time with my friends as possible while enjoying my sleeps with Maddie and avoiding the dreadful weather. One evening, Alessandra and I got ice cream and sorbet at a local shop after the tornado warnings and lightening had subsided. When we were walking, we came across this beautiful double rainbow! The outer rainbow is harder to see on camera, but it was very cool. Love nature.

3. My second weekend spent in Ohio was for one of my best friends, Amber. She married Corey and became Mrs. Breitfelder on June 26th in Cleveland. The ceremony, reception and the entire weekend was so just great because you could truly tell that these were two people who really loved on another and belonged together. Amber was completely calm and overjoyed the entire weekend and it emanated on everyone she came near to... well so was Corey, but I am team amber so that is who I will talk about in my blog. Anyways, I just only hope to be part of more weddings like this one. It was a blast and I can't wait to see more pictures and hear about their honeymoon!

Has it really been this long?

I cannot believe that I have not written on this site in over two weeks. Unbelievable, but understandable as I have been extremely busy. For two weekends, if you didn't already know, I was in Ohio for weddings. One, Mike was the best man in, and the other, I was a bridesmaid. In between the weekend trips I was busy packing and just doing my everyday routine of trying to catch up on sleep and enjoy my days! After my two weekends, I then went home for the Fourth of July and was without internet, phone (well almost) and email for about four days. Aghast! Needless to say, I am back and ready to blog onward....