Best People Watching EVER!

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the INXS concert at the Denver Convention Center. Yes, you heard me correctly, the Convention Center.

First the background: My friend, Kimberly, had an extra ticket because her friend bailed on her, and for some reason was having immense trouble filling the vacant seat; Jackie to the rescue. Not only did I think a night out on the town sounded fantastic, but I was moderately interested in seeing INXS in concert, despite the lack of Michael Hutchence.

Kimberly and I arrived at the Convention Center quite early, about an hour before the show was beginning, as she wanted to see the opening band, which was the runner-up on "Rockstar: INXS". (Sidenote about my comma/quotation mark punctuation later... because it's bugging me.) My first indication that this concert would be, to say the least, interesting was the fact that it was at the Convention Center. The Denver Convention Center is an enormous building, similar to McCormick Place (though not THAT big); I have been there a couple times, once for the Beer Festival and another time for the Ski Expo. I couldn't imagine where this show was going to be held, but little did I know, there is a huge Lecture Hall in the Convention Center that serves as a venue for concerts. We walk into the Convention Center and our people watching officially begins. There's a wide variety of people perusing the merch booth, buying drinks from the wedding reception-like bars set up all over the lobby, and purchasing spiked smoothies from the Maui Wowi booth. (Oh yes, I did just say Maui Wowi.)

We grab a couple beers as the fun is truly beginning. I spot a couple (either a boyfriend/girlfriend or mom/son combo) wearing what appeared to be matching homemade INXS jean jackets. They were glorious. I speculate Mom, with permed hair, took the new INXS album artwork and iron-on transferred to a t-shirt and sewed it to the back of the jackets. Around the album artwork as well as the top-back seam, she bedazzled red sequins to accent the artwork and complete the look. Oh yes, the son/boyfriend/man had a bedazzled jacket as well. I debated following them to get a picture of this up close, however that proved to be unnecessary because when we walked into the lecture hall, they were up in the front row, not too far from us. Though, sadly the photo I took of them seated did not come out very well as it was dark in there.

Once we found our seats (which was a difficult task, as the employees of the convention center were completely clueless), we sat down and were trying to figure out the attendees of the show. See, there were quite a few people there that appeared to be over 45 years old, a few people that were more-or-less my age, and then the 9 year olds that came with their parents. We really were attempting to decipher how these much older adults had come to the decision to attend an INXS show. Let's take the lovely grandmother in the row behind us decked out in, what she was probably thinking, was a cute J. Lo-esque pink sweatsuit with the word "meow" across the chest. Also, the 45 year old bleach-blonde woman with snakeskin pants and a revealing crocheted tank top (I have to be truthful, the woman DID have the body to pull off snakeskin pants, it was just the fact that she probably pulled them out of closet retirement for the first time in 15 years). And for all of you Seinfeld fans, the woman donning a puffy shirt. Wow, I'm noticing a pattern here: nearly all of the, let's call them, interesting people were women. The biggest thing I noticed about the men at the show was that they were predominantly unattractive and wearing terribly oversized clothing.

On to the actual show... Opening for INXS, Marty Casey and the Lovehammers with their ultra-cheesy, super hook-y single, "Trees". Oh I must find the words for this to post, because it is just oh-so ridiculous and it was absolutely frightening the amount of people that knew the words for this song and were 'rocking' out to it. Ah, yes, here we go:

"It will be you and me up in the trees
And the forest will give us the answers
It will be you and I up in the sky
It's a combination for disaster"

I think seeing that pretty much sums up their performance, though I'll continue...

Highlights of their performance included seeing Marty Casey's asscrack one too many times in his low-rider, super-tight, black rockstar pants and me questioning when one song was ending and another beginning, as they all sounded exactly the same. Did I mention Marty Casey's obnoxious hand motions and dances with the microphone?? To say the least, I was unimpressed, though I must say he did get a crowd of 50+ year old people going. Also of amusement was the old lady next to Kimberly who had a 7 foot tall person in front of her and kept leaning in front of Kimberly (and not her husband) to get a glimpse of Marty.

Next up, the INXS set which was actually very good. They played a ton of their old stuff and just a few new songs, I got to see along to quite a few songs like "New Sensation", "Original Sin", and "Mystify". Although, I think Kimberly was not impressed with my knowledge of the words, as she knew pretty much every single song and all of the lyrics to ALL of the songs. J.D. Fortune (I keep on wanting to call him J.D. Powers!), INXS' new lead singer is quite a cutie, and despite being pretty sick for the show sang decently (or were we hearing a backing track??) and put on a good show.

I don't have much bad to say about INXS' performance, except it was quite weird to see them performing sans Michael Hutchence. The biggest thing we noticed was that 30%+ of the concert attendees did not know the old, classic INXS tunes. They got all fired up when they played anything from the new album and the "Rockstar: INXS" show, so I think they were just going to the show because they were reality TV show fans. It made me sad to be in the same room as so many reality TV freaks. Okay, I'll admit, I am a reality TV freak at times, but let the record state: I DO NOT attend concerts or events because of reality TV.

The end. ;)

OH! I almost forgot my little comment about commas and quotation marks. It was just going to bug me because I know some people that read my blog are grammar-geeks (and you know who you are), and I was thinking that these people may think that I was incorrectly punctuating my blog, thus thinking me an idiot.

I prefer saying this:
I am currently reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".
rather than this:
I am currently reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."

Apparently, in the United States, periods and commas go inside quotation marks regardless of logic. I am much more worldly than US education allows and abide by the logical grammatical rules of the United Kingdom. "In the United Kingdom, Canada, and islands under the influence of British education, punctuation around quotation marks is more apt to follow logic. In American style, then, you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design." But in England you would write: My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "Design". The placement of marks other than periods and commas follows the logic that quotation marks should accompany (be right next to) the text being quoted or set apart as a title."

Just had to get that off of my chest. ;) And, I do know I am also one of those grammar-geeks.

Chasing the Sunset

Drove back the 990 miles to Denver today... Took about 13 hours driving time, 14 hours with stops. Not too bad, especially since I don't drive that terribly fast. Oh and I think I deserve a nice white-trash trucker hat; I drove the entire drive back. Highlights of the drive included the "World's Largest Truck Stop: Iowa 80" and eating some taco bell in the town where John Wayne was born.

You know how painful it is driving west while the sun is setting? I felt like it took about 3 hours for the sun to really set. After the sun did set, though, I really despise driving at night. With my glasses or not, I still feel like I can't see as much as I want. Luckily, on 76 into Denver, the road was pretty much dead, so I had the highbeams going to help me out. Anyways, made it back safe and sound and Mikey is so happy to see us.

Well, I'm off to watch some more Soprano's...

Hot Dog!

I finally reached the mecca of hot dogdom... Hot Doug's. If you have a thing for encased meats, this is the place to be. I've heard of this place many times before, and my friend Todd talked so highly of it in the past, so when we went downtown to visit him and Kristin, we made a pilgrimage to the 'The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium'. Kristin was there a while back when foodtv was taping a special about it. She got to taste a few different dogs/sausages and was on TV. Well, it's an interent only show, but still way cool! I'll try to find the link to it to post. Anyways, you know if foodtv was there, it's gotta be cool. I ended up getting a Chicago Dog with all the fixings and some Duck Fat fries. YUM. Haven't been feeling too hot lately, but got to taste a bit of both and both were delicious.

Saturday night, went out with some friends to the Bolingbrook Golf Club bar. Now, out in suburbia, it's quite a task to find a decent bar that you aren't going to see all the people you went to high school with that you never wanted to see again. Typically, I'll hit up the 10th hole pub that is basically within crawling distance from my parents house, but there I usually bump into people from HS, or their parents. The other choices in this town are chain restuarants or crazy, white trash townie bars. The Golf Club is at Bolingbrook's new golf course and the Clubhouse is absolutely beautiful. The upstairs is like a reception hall and the downstairs is a bar/grill. It's kind of funny because you have everyone from me in my jeans to people who were at an event upstairs in formal gowns. I have to say, though, that the golf club is now my favorite. (Though 10th hole pub will always be a standard...)

Productive? Me? Yes.

Yesterday, I finally took down the candy cane decorations on the balcony. It felt great to cross that one off my list. Plus it was a gorgeous day- near 60 degrees and sunny, though horribly windy (80 mph wind gusts in Boulder). I also took off the red wribbon on my wreath on the front door. I was having a hard time parting with my twelve dollar home depot wreath, so I figured taking the red wribbon off would be the solution to elimination of the 'you still have Christmas decorations up???' comments.

As for work... Sent three semi-large projects off to print yesterday. It is always the best, yet most stressful, feeling to send something off like that. It's great because that means a project is off my plate, yet is stressful to me because, even though all art has been approved, I'm always worried about something going wrong in production. I never feel that 'sign of relief' until I get the production samples in the mail a few weeks later. That's just me being a worrywort, I suppose. Wonder how 'worrywort' originated. I sort of feel like an old lady for using that term, however Radiohead has a song entitled 'worrywort,' so that makes me feel better.

Well, I managed to pack all my clothes and shoes for my Chicago trip in my backpack. I must say I am quite proud of myself, and you should be proud of me as well, if you've ever seen how I have traveled in the past! I'm heading off this afternoon for the airport and flying Southwest into Midway (eek!). Will be spending the weekend there, then driving back to Denver on Monday. Can't wait to drive my car and I think now that I am keeping it, I must give my Passat a name. I'm not quite sure why I never named him (or her??); however, I have always named previous cars. My first car was Abe the Accord, he was trusted and true, just as his name implies... Then came George. He was a CRV, and for some reason I named him after the salesman that I purchased the car from. I think I was quite fond of George (the salesman, not the car, though I was fond of the car as well) because he wore a nice suit and very nice shoes. They must have been Italian or something. George the car, on the other hand, though I liked him at first, he was missing something. I think, perhaps, I am just a car person, and not a mock-SUV girl. So, point being, anyone have some suggestions on names for my Passat? Maybe I'll have a naming ceremony and party for my car upon his/her arrival to Colorado.

Busy as a bee

Ah yes, similies. Takes me back to grade school and thinking up countless similies and then in turn, learning about metaphors, and then determining the difference between the two. (Remember the 'like' and 'as'???) Interestingly, it was brought to my attention a few weeks back that wikipedia has a fabulous entry on similies. Might I share with you some similies regarding the act of being busy. Or getting busy? Either way, here they are (courtesy of wikipedia):

busier than a cat covering shit on a tile floor
busier than a one-armed paper hanger
busier than a one-legged man in an ass kickin contest
busy as a bull's ass in fly season
busy as a beaver
busy as a cat covering shit on a hot tin roof
busy as a cat on a hot tin roof
busy as a one-armed barber with the hives

I have to say, I had never heard of these cat covering shit ones. Though they make me laugh outloud. Almost as funny as Todd's "can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a ______" sayings. And maybe someone can explain the one-armed paper hanger to me, i don't quite get that one.


TV reviews of the day:

Watched portions of American Idol tonight: disappointing. Not nearly as good as previous auditions. Also watched a bit of Love Monkey: looks promising. Currently watching a show about the Denver Film Festival that is outlining some cool docs and indie films. One of note: "Combover: The Movie" this looks absolutely hilarious.

Oh, so the whole similie thing was brought on because I was very busy today. I mean, not too busy, but busy enough to work late and feel like I needed to write some lists to remind me of things. Aside from working today, I've been tending to the needs of my, as of late, very 'needy' cat. Instead of having my laptop on my lap, Mikey is on my lap purring away and looking especially cute with one paw over his eyes and his one black whisker quite evident. Also, had a fantastic lunch with my friend, Brian, at one of the pho restaurants by my place. This was my first time having pho and it was quite delicious. Kristin, I know you'll be so proud and happy of me to have finally tried this lovely bowl of goodness. (Post)Preamble: After moving here and exploring the area, I was baffled by the number of pho restaurants. They are all called "Pho ##"-insert a couple numbers or three after the pho. It's most definitely hard to keep them straight and quite a quandry for a little suburban white girl like myself to figure out. Thus, I asked my very knowledgable and hip, city-living friend, Kristin, to fill me in and she so graciously told me about it and told me I HAD to have it. Well, that was many moons ago, but more importantly, I have finally eaten pho. While on the subject of food, had a salad with that garlic-lemon dressing on it and a piece of garlic-cheese bread for dinner. Soo yummy.

So, I must confess, I've been having dreams about Tony Soprano. Not those kind of dreams. Just dreams with him in it.

My oh my, the mutt (aka Mikey) has some kicking kitty breath. What does one do about kitty breath? They make no kitty toothbrushes. And, quite ironically, I had given him some "Tartar Control" kitty treats a couple hours ago.

Meet Henri...

Meet my chia pet, Henri. Say it the French way, it's so much more sophisticated, as a chia pet deserves such a classy name. He's named after Henri Matisse, and also after Henry Moore, one of my favorite sculptors, yet he doesn't spell it Henri, that's alright. I started growing him just about a week ago, and though he's a little sparse now, I have a vision of chia glory for him in the near future.

Note: his butt 'hair' is coming in especially thick. Reminded me of Mr. Lorek for some reason. ;) Why, you ask? Our lovely friend, Mike, tends to drop his drawers whenever he's drunk and in public! We still love ya, Mike, though I did have to delete several absolutely frightening pics from my iPhoto that someone took with my camera at our last BWW soiree.

A little late, but...

...a pic of some of Christmas cookies. Not only did I think my photo came out nice, but I was very proud of my decorating. :)

Pictures to share...

Here's a pic of the drawing I did for Rob's parents for Christmas. I am actually pretty pleased with this one. It's been a long time since I have doing a pencil/ink drawing and worked in this manner. Been painting mostly for the past couple years, but in Decemeber, I did a couple pieces using ink, pencil, charcoal, and even a traditional Japanese stamp. I really enjoyed working this way too for a change. Will upload some more pics of my work as I download/take them.

Happy Birthday, MLK...

Had quite a fun weekend. Watched some Cary Grant movies, ate some yummy Italian food at a restaurant in Boulder, did a little shopping (or more appropriately, window shopping since I didn't buy anything), and spent yesterday in my pj's relaxing and also doing some work. I went to this restaurant in Boulder with my neighbor on Saturday for lunch, Pasta Jay's. It's a pretty low-key restaurant, very casual, and very yummy. Had a house salad with gorgonzola cheese, their complimentary (and delicious) garlic bread, and we split their special, stuffed portabella mushroom. Envision this: a bed of spaghetti drenched with a creamy tomato sauce, topped with a huge portabella muschroom, which is stuffed with a mixture of spinach, chicken, and ricotta cheese. THEN, on top of all this, more of their yummy creamy tomato sauce. It was divine!

It's been so hectic with work lately, I feel like I have not gotten a chance to email or call anyone in days, so I apologize for that, if anyone feels like I've been MIA!

This week, I'm enjoying having the house and Mikey to myself while Rob is in Toronto. Although as much as I love having some alone time, I do find myself a little bored. But I chalk that up to having 1/2 the laundry to do and not cooking meals every day! Been enjoying some Kraft mac and cheese, frozen egg rolls, and cheerios. Lots of cheerios. I think if I had to eat the same thing everyday for 2 out of 3 meals, I would choose cheerios, or just cereal in general. You get your dairy, whole grains, vitamins, since isn't most cereal fortified?, and in my case, a tiny bit of sugar to make your day sweet.

This Thursday, I am heading back to Chicago to collect my car. Yippee-skippy. I am thrilled to be bringing my car out here to enjoy the sunny state of Colorado. Since Rob will be in Chicago already, we'll spend the weekend there and drive back to Colorado on Monday. During this cross country drive, I hope to actually see the sign that announce the time change. See, on our drive out here when we were moving, I was following Rob, who was driving a huge U-Haul truck, and couldn't see any street signs until I had nearly passed them, so I missed the sign on that trip. Then, in the summer, when we drove to St. Louis, I somehow missed the sign again. On the way back home from that trip, I missed it again. I seriously don't know if it exists. Perhaps Rob is just screwing with me! But this time, I'm going to have my eyes wide open.

Since I've talked so much about my love of the Italian bakery, D. Palmieri's, in Rhode Island, I will continue to harp on those treats my mom sent me. I'm still enjoying the wine biscuits and the frosted egg biscuits with my hot tea. And I'm determined to bake some myself. I found a recipe for both items and think that I may test out one of the recipes this week.

OH my.... Wife Swap. Has anyone seen this show? I thought Trading Spouses was bad. This is so much more horribly worse. (Is that possible?) Also speaking of bad TV, the new season of American Idol starts tomorrow. I'm pumped, the first few episodes of all the auditions are usually hilarious.

Addicted...

With the new (and last) season of the Soprano's airing this coming March, HBO is offering all of the previous seasons on On Demand (through Comcast) prior to the new season airing. Rob and I have started watching from episode 1 and needless to say I'm addicted. Rob is out of town on a business trip and it's taking everything in me to not watch any more episodes before he gets back. In the meantime, I'm planning on eating some pasta, garlic-lemon dressing on salad, and the Italian bakery items my mom so graciously sent out to me after her visit to Rhode Island for the New Year. Wine biscuits and frosted egg biscuits should tide me over for a couple days... I think.

Happy New Year

Whew! It's been a busy and fun past couple of weeks... The night before we left for Chicago, Rob and I (and Mikey) opened presents here in Colorado. Rob made me a beautiful jewelery box and he also got me a new baseball glove since my old one I bought was used and smells like icky, sweaty man. Mikey got some sweet toys; they are little plastic jacks, which Rob proceeded to step on later that evening causing extreme pain and said we have to get rid of them now!

We left 60 degree, sunny Colorado for Chicago on the 20th via plane. After an hour delay, due to an 'overweight cargo container', we finally took off and had a relatively uneventful flight. I did find a Sodoku puzzle in United's Hemisphere's magazine, and now am completely addicted to those little number puzzles of glory.

Upon arriving to Chicago, we spent the following days doing some last minute Christmas shopping, eating some good ol' Portillo's, and attempting to spend as much time as we could with friends and family. I also had to do a bit of work, so that additionally kept me busy, but because of the holidays, it's been pretty slow.

We celebrated Christmas with my parents on the 23rd with a delicious meal of Prime Rib and my favorite au gratin potatoes and opened presents after dinner. Speaking of au gratin potatoes, one gift I received was a mandoline (a kitchen tool that slices stuff- all sorts of thicknesses and even does waffle cut, crinkle cut, and julienne). It's pimp. I'm very excited to have a 'nice' mandoline now. 'Nice' meaning something that cost more than $5 and has safety features. Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I had bought a cheapo $5 mandoline months ago to slice my potatoes for when I make au gratin potatoes. Let's just say the safety features on that one were nonexistant, and I proceeded to slice the potatoes and as a bonus, sliced my finger tip off. Yeah, that was fun. Now that cheap mandoline will be going in the garbage as I have the Cadillac of mandolines (which has many safety features- thank goodness). Rob got lots of cool Cubs gear and we got "The Price is Right" DVD edition boardgame. It looks amazing. Now Rob and I can "Come on down!" whenever we like.

Saturday (Chrismas Eve), we drove down to Gillespie for Rob's family's festivities. As tradition has it, we spent Christmas Eve at Mommo's house opening presents there and enjoying a wide variety of tasty treats. Also of note, which I was warned about, Mommo's house is tiny and with about 20 people inside, the temperature rises to levels unthinkable! Well, okay, it's not that bad, but I can tell you I will not be wearing a wool sweater next time I am there for Christmas Eve! It was really a fun night and so nice to see all of Rob's family there. After Mommo's, we went to Rob's parents house and opened up presents there, while watching "A Christmas Story" about 3 times in a row, thanks to TBS airing it nonstop for the whole day of Christmas Eve! We got so many nice things, best of all, our plane tickets to come out to Illinois for Christmas and Rob's dad transferred all the video's of Rob's basketball games from middle and high school to DVD. I can not wait to watch those!!

Christmas Day brought us back to Mommo's for a delicious Christmas dinner and following that we went to Marilyn's cousin's house later in the day where we opened even more presents. By Christmas night, I was really beginning to think we were Jewish because of the number of days in a row we had opened presents! The day after Christmas, Rob's aunt and uncle came over and we had a scrumptious breakfast and had a marathon present opening with them that lasted nearly 3 hours.

The rest of the time we spent down in Gillespie and Edwardsville, we took it easy, visiting Rob's cousin and doing a little shopping and watching some football.

On Wednesday afternoon, we headed back up to Chicago to see my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew before they were heading back home. We went to eat at Lou Malnati's that night- sooooo yummy. Thursday we ate at Portillos (again) and ran a couple errands around town. In the afternoon, I took my parents to the airport, as they were heading to RI/Boston for New Year's Eve/Day. That evening, we went to Payton's Roundhouse to meet up with a couple friends. Friday we came home. And boy I was ready to get home; I was missing Mikey and just wanted to sleep in my own bed! Colleen and Jason took us to the airport, and on the escalator down to the moving walkways in Terminal 1 that takes you over to Concourse C, I realized I left my cell phone at my mom's. UGH. Thankfully, Colleen was heading back to Bolingbrook, so she picked up the phone for me and shipped it to me. But because of the holiday and because I'm cheap, I won't be getting the phone til Wednesday!

It was so nice to get home and see Mikey. Poor kitty has some bald spot on his side though. He gets very stressed out when we're gone and pulls his hair out. I found piles of his hair all over the place. It was way more than he's pulled out in the past, so I felt really bad. I just don't know if I want to leave him again!

I smell of turpentine and linseed oil.

I was inspired and decided to create about 5 new pieces of art this weekend. The last of which, were 3 paintings, in which I used my oils and now I think I am high from the fumes. The actual paint isn't what is really stinky, but it's the linseed oil that sort of smells and turpentine that absolutely reeks. Yes, I know they make the odorless turpenoid or whatever it's called, but have you seen how expensive that is?? Although, I admitted tonight I need to suck it up and purchase the odorless stuff, because the fumes were making my eyes water, my nose run, and giving me a headache! Rob warned me to not put the fireplace on, for fear that the house might blow up!

The last week has been really busy- mostly finishing up Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, sending presents (3 trips to the post office this week!), and starting to pack for our Illinois trip... On top of that, been working quite a bit, as I have had three new projects go to print this week, which is always a little more stressful.

Tuesday we leave for Illinois, and we'll be spending our 10 days in Illinois both in Chicago and St. Louis/Gillespie. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone, though I am sad to know that Mikey will be spending Christmas alone. :( He's been having lots of fun chewing the ribbons off of all of the Christmas presents under the tree!

I am doubtful I'll have time to write more in the next week and a half, so a very Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Jumpin' Monkeys

This past week has seemed to fly by entirely too fast! I can't believe it's only 15 days away til Christmas, and just 10 days till we leave for Illinois. This past Wednesday I watched our little neighbor, Max, who's 6 years old and absolutely the best 6 year I've ever met. We had a fun day... Rob taught him some stuff in the garage, making a super-cool door stop with his name spelled out in nails, I colored with him, we corrupted him with a little Playstation, watched "The Grinch," and capped the day off with a fun game of "Jumpin' Monkeys". It was so much fun having a little kid around. Especially because he's so well-behaved and smart!

The rest of the week I tried to both start AND finish my Christmas shopping, and I did remarkably well. With only a couple trips to the mall and a few hours online, I have about 80% of my shopping done! Just a few odds and ends to pick up, ship out some packages, and I'm all set. I also finished my Christmas cards, which I just need some stamps to get those sent out.

I'm planning on getting up early tomorrow to take care of a few things, then, we're going to the Bronco's game. Rob and I were both invited by two different friends, so I'll be sitting in the first row on the field with my friend while Rob will be in either the 300 or 500 level section of the stadium. It's sure to be fun.

We also made our holiday travel plans final, with getting tickets flying into Chicago on the 20th. We'll be heading down to St. Louis right away to see Rob's parents and then we'll head back up to Chicago for a couple days before we return to Denver on the 30th. Should be a fun little trip and can't wait to see everyone!

The B-Movie Christmas List

Tonight, I've been clearing off our DVR watching all the 'second rate' Christmas Movies. Not that they're bad, they are definitely entertaining, but Frosty getting married??? Rudolph's Shiny New Year with Happy the New Year Baby??? I want the classics... The Year without a Santa Claus, being my favorite, and it IS waiting for me to watch on DVD courtesy of one of my friends, and it's also on the DVR as back up. I just figured December 1st was too soon to watch such a fine movie. Then it'll be the original, old-school Rudolph and Frosty, and as the grand finale, The Year without a Santa Claus! What a month. I Love Christmas-time!

On a totally random sidenote, for some reason, I began to think about wine biscuits and lemon knots and pepper biscuits and pizza strips with no cheese tonight. I'm craving it. If anyone in Rhode Island is reading this and has any mercy on me, please, oh pretty-please, overnight me some D. Palmieri's goodies. ;) Seriously, I already checked to see if they had a website. No luck. I may just call them tomorrow and ask them to send me some wine biscuits. My mouth is salivating.

And with that, I say good night.

Turkey and Yum-Yums...

As the Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close, I look back and reflect on what exactly I did... Ate, took a nap, ate some more, tried to go see The Polar Express 3D, ate more leftovers, napped some more. It appears I had a most productive weekend!

Nah, really, the weekend has been quite enjoyable. We had a great Thanksgiving hosting a few of our friends over for much football watching and eating and drinking and game playing. It was a really great day and more importantly, dinner was fantastic. Thankfully I had my mom's Thanksgiving hotline to call when I had random questions such as where the heck to take the turkey's temperature and what's the difference between a sweet potato and a yam. We had quite a feast: Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Apple and Potato au Gratin (courtesy of Brian), Turnips, Cauliflower & Cheese, Canned Cranberry Sauce, Homemade Cranberry Sauce, and I think that might be it. For dessert; Pumpkin Pie, Cranberry Duff, and Ricotta Pie.

I really was starting to think Friday was turning out to be simply a day of naps and eating some more, but after dinner, we got out the Christmas decorations and I put up the tree and Rob developed the plan for our outdoor/window lights. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get some more lights for the tree and the windows. They didn't have everything we needed, so tomorrow's plan is to find the lights we need.

So, today was sort of a big bummer. We had planned to go see The Polar Express in 3D at the IMAX. We actually went down to the theater (it's south of Denver, so sort of a drive), met up with some friends there, only to find out it was sold out. We were all terribly bummed, except for Rob, who I think was secretly happy that he didn't have to see it. We'll give him some props for even going in the first place though! Next to the IMAX theater is a Dave and Busters, so we went over there for some Skee Ball and my favorite, the 18-wheeler video game. I actually also surprised myself with some mad skills at the basketball game. I think you might call me a baller. After that, we went down to Wynkoop Brewery to play darts, where we proved that girls CAN compete against boys. Alas, the night came to a close with some more leftover eating and yep, you guessed it, a nap.

hello again...

Yes, I know it's been a long time since I last wrote, so now, after a few beers, I will ramble on, on my goings-on for the past 3 weeks.

Most importantly, the pub just opened. Yes, the pub that is 1 block from our place. Yes, one block. Walking distance. It's an Irish pub that has guinness on tap and harp and boddingtons... Did I mention it was walking distance from our place? Anyways, we went there tonight for a few pints and dinner and some mad discussions with Dolan. It was just lovely. And I was so excited to finally try out our local pub.

Let's see.... What else has happened... Okay, back to halloween, Rob and I got to don our awesome homemade costumes at a halloween party. We were one of the few dressed up, but I think we were the best looking. :)

Last week, Danielle took me to my very first Nugget's game at the Pepsi Center. It ruled. You can't beat free seats, going to a game where your team WINS, and watching my little man, Earl Boykins, for 3 hours straight. I even got to exit the stadium by way of the court, and not only saw, but touched, the ice underneath the floor.

Our Tuesday kickball nights have evolved into weekend game nights. Yes, I know it sounds lame, but it really is fun. You can drink excessively, play games like Operation or Boggle or Cranium, snack on delicious dips and chips, and enjoy the camaraderie of excessively competitive friends. And when I say competitive, I mean that certain games (Operation) have been outlawed at all future game nights due to people's inabilities of keeping their hands steady and not jumping 4 feet out of their seats when the buzzer goes off!

Also of note, I am an official Colorado resident. I have myself a snowboard, boots, bindings, and snowboarding pants now. I'm ready to go. I've been practicing my balance and moves on my new 'flowboard'. It's a skateboard like thing that you can practice on to get your snowboarding skills up to par. Surprisingly, I am doing much better on it than I expected. I've gotten the whole jumping on it and moving thing down, without holding onto anything or falling down. Sweet.

Well, I am gonna go get me some sleep now...

Back home...

After a week and a half in Chicago, we are back home now... It was so nice to see everyone and be back in Chicago for a while, though it's nice to be home again and see my Mikey-Mike. He missed us terribly, and hasn't left our sides since we arrived home. Poor kitty!

Among the fun and exciting things we did back in Chicago, I think our Halloween Costume Party get-together at the 10th Hole Pub topped it off. I'll post some pictures soon... But for now, I must go, as I'm off to Dallas....

Let it snow???

Despite predictions of 6-12 inches of snow, we got nothing. Rain for 2 days straight, about 37 degrees outside, and no snow. I even went out the night before the storm and bought a shovel. We turn on the news, and the airport (which is way farther from the mountains than us) got 8 inches of snow. Then, yesterday we drive into Boulder, and the foothills are totally covered in snow (and of course the rest of the mountains). It looks like a winter wonderland every where except for where we are. :( I feel so left out. Though, as a bonus, today as I was running some errands and driving about, I was thinking, it really feels like I'm on vacation or out of town, because the mountains look so drastically different, it's like I'm somewhere else... Maybe I am.

Speaking of vacation and being out of town... Tomorrow we are heading to Chicago for a long visit. I have to finish up packing and picking up the house, all the while, watching the White Sox game. And yes, I am rooting for the White Sox now.

So, I'll keep this short and sweet. Although CNN is reporting a huge snowstorm in Denver, I'm shoveling rain.

Rained Out

Last night, our kickball game was rained out; however, because we are all diehard kickballers, we all showed up despite the gloomy weather (pouring down rain, lightning, the whole bit). We all went to our favorite post-kickball bar for dinner, and to our delight, our lovely waitress, Sarah, gave us two pitchers of beer on her because she felt bad that we got rained out! I must also mention, only one person from the other team showed up. He's officially the cool guy on the other team and I recruited him to play on our team in the spring.

We are getting ready to meet a friend, and fellow Red Sox fan, at Fox and Hound to watch tonight's game... I have my (actually it's Rob's, but it's too small for him) Red Sox shirt on, my Red Sox hat in hand and I'm ready to do some massive cheering for my BoSox. Rob already declared that this evening he won't be cheering for either team. I think he's just trying to stay on everyone's good side. :)

Before my White Sox fan friends have a field day...

Congrats to the White Sox for winning game 1. I can't say I'm happy, but I'll be a good sport... There's always tomorrow. Go BoSox!