I promise to post pictures of the old man and all of the fun we are having later! Happy New Year, everybody!
12/31/2007
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Tomorrow (New Year's Day) is my dad's birthday! Happy birthday, Dad! I'm announcing this early because he is actually taking the train to Chicago on his birthday to spend his birthday with us and I fear that there may not be enough time to post it on his actual birthday.
I promise to post pictures of the old man and all of the fun we are having later!
Happy New Year, everybody!
I promise to post pictures of the old man and all of the fun we are having later! Happy New Year, everybody!
12/30/2007
Tactless
So tonight as we're waiting for our table at dinner, I look over at Amy. She'd taken off her hat and was straightening her hair. Before I even thought about it and could stop myself, I said, "Oh, my gosh, Amy - is that a gray hair?" Luckily it was Amy and she thought I was hilarious. For the record, Amy only has a very few gray hairs on one temple. Normally I don't necessarily blurt out something like that, but I was just flabbergasted at seeing gray hair on someone who was only a year ahead of me in high school. I have, however, apparently been checking Mike frequently for gray hairs and pointing them out when I think I see them. (I haven't really seen any yet, though). Mike looked over at me and said, "I can't wait until you get a gray hair. I'm going to do that to you every day."
I can definitely wait though.
No Hockey Night
We tried to take Amy to a Blackhawks game tonight, but when we arrived at United Center, the game was sold out! I was shocked. The 'hawks never sell out! I guess it just must be combination of an influx of tourists visiting the city and the fact that it's New Year's Eve tomorrow and a lot of people have the day off.
This is Amy and Mike. They're supposed to be making pouting faces about not being able to go to the game. Mike did really well, but Amy started to laugh before I got the picture taken - so it actually amuses me even more, because now Mike looks like he's being goofy for no reason.
Since we couldn't go to the game, we decided to go have a nice dinner instead. We hit my favorite, favorite restaurant in Chicago - Carson's.
We found out when we got there that we'd have about a 45 minute wait, so we stopped across the street at O'Leary's Pub for a pint.
As always, the superb food was worth any wait and we had a really good dinner.
Mike's take on dinner? "Well, there goes that five pounds I lost."
This is Amy and Mike. They're supposed to be making pouting faces about not being able to go to the game. Mike did really well, but Amy started to laugh before I got the picture taken - so it actually amuses me even more, because now Mike looks like he's being goofy for no reason.
Since we couldn't go to the game, we decided to go have a nice dinner instead. We hit my favorite, favorite restaurant in Chicago - Carson's. 
We found out when we got there that we'd have about a 45 minute wait, so we stopped across the street at O'Leary's Pub for a pint.
As always, the superb food was worth any wait and we had a really good dinner. 
Mike's take on dinner? "Well, there goes that five pounds I lost."
12/29/2007
A Little Time Off
Ok - I know, I know. I haven't posted in a couple of days. In my defense, I've had company. On Thursday, I got a call in the early afternoon from my friend, Amy.
I've known Amy since I was about seven, although we've only seen each other once or twice in the last couple of years. She and I have both moved away from our home town, although both of us have parents and families who still live there. We just never seem to be home at the same time. Anyway, she had called a few weeks ago about the possibility of visiting us after Christmas. She promised to call when she knew more.
She called Thursday night and was about halfway to our house. I was like, "Oh...uh...great!" And it was fine. We weren't expecting her that day, but were happy to have her. It was so quintessentially Amy to forget to call and tell us what day she was coming (until she was already halfway here). I should have expected it. It was actually kind of nice - you know...how some things never change, no matter how much time passes. :D
So we've been busy the last couple of nights running around the city and trying to show Amy the best parts of Chi-town.
In other news, Mike weighed himself yesterday and he has lost five pounds! YaY, Mike!
He celebrated with a slice of cake. Nice. :D
I've known Amy since I was about seven, although we've only seen each other once or twice in the last couple of years. She and I have both moved away from our home town, although both of us have parents and families who still live there. We just never seem to be home at the same time. Anyway, she had called a few weeks ago about the possibility of visiting us after Christmas. She promised to call when she knew more. She called Thursday night and was about halfway to our house. I was like, "Oh...uh...great!" And it was fine. We weren't expecting her that day, but were happy to have her. It was so quintessentially Amy to forget to call and tell us what day she was coming (until she was already halfway here). I should have expected it. It was actually kind of nice - you know...how some things never change, no matter how much time passes. :D
So we've been busy the last couple of nights running around the city and trying to show Amy the best parts of Chi-town.
In other news, Mike weighed himself yesterday and he has lost five pounds! YaY, Mike!
He celebrated with a slice of cake. Nice. :D
12/26/2007
12/25/2007
For Aunt Linda - Maybe
I took a picture of these squirrels because I saw them and remarked to Mike how fortunate they were that Meme cat wasn't here to see them frolicking on the light pole. Then I read on Sara's blog where she'd posted a squirrel picture for Aunt Linda. I don't remember Aunt Linda being into squirrels...but I decided to post the picture just in case!
Never let it be said that I don't think about you, Aunt Linda! :D
Somehow it seems to lose something in the translation. Colorado squirrel perched on beautiful Colorado branch trumps Chicago squirrels scurrying across electric wires. Hee hee.
Never let it be said that I don't think about you, Aunt Linda! :D
Somehow it seems to lose something in the translation. Colorado squirrel perched on beautiful Colorado branch trumps Chicago squirrels scurrying across electric wires. Hee hee.
Christmas On Ice
Mike prepares to head downtown, bag full of ice skates slung over one shoulder.
Mike waits for the #147 Outer Drive Express which will take us to Millennium Park.
These next two pictures are of the view from the ice. Was there ever such a beautiful Christmas Day in the city of Chicago? It was so warm that we were out with only sweatshirts on.
Mike takes a moment out from skating to pose for me. I only skated a little bit - it was so crowded that I wasn't comfortable. I don't skate well and it seemed like you couldn't go two feet without having to maneuver around people. It was just too much of a struggle for me. So I only went around a little bit. Mike's a pro, so he skated for the whole two hours!
But here I am with my skates! It was actually too crowded for me to get my picture taken on the ice! There was no space at the rail for me to get in and take a picture. Mike thinks that my Hawkeye-loving family will disown me when they see my MSU sweatshirt. The rule is, though, that I'm allowed to wear Spartan gear so long as they're not playing Iowa. The truth is, Mike bought me an MSU hoodie...if anyone had purchased a Hawkeye hoodie for me (Dad), I would have worn it instead. ;)
Mike and I are extremely glad we own our own skates. :D The line actually extends quite a bit beyond this sign.
Mike coasts by. Our Spartan gear actually drew the attention of a guy who lived in Michigan for awhile. He stopped to talk to me as I stood by the rail taking Mike's picture. I must look like I have a sense of humor and the ability to laugh at myself, because he started out by telling me he saw me skating "looking like you were on the MSU hockey team." Yeah. Hardy har. Luckily I do have a sense of humor and I did laugh at the joke. And it was a joke. I stank on ice. At one point, after a guy stopped right in front of me (jerk!) - I turned to avoid him and ended up sliding towards the center of the ice - panicking because I'm unable to stop and am too far away to grab the rail. Mike had to put his arms around me and skate me in a circle to get me going in the right direction again.
Anyway, this guy is friendly enough and I talked to him for awhile. He asked if Mike and I went to MSU and whereabouts in Michigan we'd come from. He told me that his law school had been absorbed by MSU and so he is sort of a default alum...or something of that sort. He called Mike over and talked to him for a little bit, too. He dropped a lot of names. I probably would have been more impressed if I'd known who he was talking about. Other than Tom Izzo - even I know who he is. Anyway, this guy was totally somebody who would normally have annoyed the hell out of me, but for some reason I found him highly entertaining. He told a cute Michigan-MSU joke. After a bit, he took his leave and wished us a good holiday etc. I told Mike that he'd just come up and started talking to me. Mike laughed and said he thought with the familiarity the guy had assumed, that he must be somebody I knew from school or something. After Mike said that I could have kicked myself for not networking for a job when I found out he was a lawyer. Geez, I'm no good at the networking.
Just another cute Mikey picture.
Bike cops in the park. I'm trying to decide if I enjoy bike cops more than horse cops or not. My favorite, of course, are 4 wheeler cops. I love to see 4 wheeler cops.
I think this is just a picture of the rink and the bean in Millennium Park. I looked for Mike, but I don't see him.
We skated until they stopped to resurface the ice. The sun was starting to go down, so we decided to head home.
But first I took a couple of pictures of Mike in front of the fountain.
And I took a picture of the view down Michigan Ave. It just seemed too pretty not to take.
Artwork on the side of a building, which I saw while waiting for the bus home.
A random picture of how empty the bus was today! This is on the way home.
A smeared picture of the Christmas tree outside of the Hancock Tower as we drove by. I started to delete it, but then decided that it was still kinda cool.
Mike deflated pretty much as soon as he stopped skating. He wasn't tired while he was sliding around on the ice, but as soon as he stopped - it hit.
Los Gatos were extremely sympathetic to his plight, apparently.
While everybody else relaxed, I baked up a Christmas lasagna. A pepperoni lasagna...Mike forgot to get ground beef when he went to the store yesterday and with it being Baby Jesus' birthday and all, we couldn't buy any! Mike originally was going to just eat a meatless lasagna (which is what I have), but we started brainstorming about what we could substitute and we realized that we had pepperoni. (Mike almost always has pepperoni in the fridge - a little Mike trivia for you there. He's a pepperoni madman!) Actually the pepperoni lasagna was not as successful of an experiment as we had hoped. It was alright, but definitely not as good as usual. I also made some homemade garlic bread - the leftovers of which I will no doubt snack on for the rest of the night!
Mike was so tired that he went to bed at 9:00. And that was our day! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Mike waits for the #147 Outer Drive Express which will take us to Millennium Park. 
These next two pictures are of the view from the ice. Was there ever such a beautiful Christmas Day in the city of Chicago? It was so warm that we were out with only sweatshirts on.
Mike takes a moment out from skating to pose for me. I only skated a little bit - it was so crowded that I wasn't comfortable. I don't skate well and it seemed like you couldn't go two feet without having to maneuver around people. It was just too much of a struggle for me. So I only went around a little bit. Mike's a pro, so he skated for the whole two hours!
But here I am with my skates! It was actually too crowded for me to get my picture taken on the ice! There was no space at the rail for me to get in and take a picture. Mike thinks that my Hawkeye-loving family will disown me when they see my MSU sweatshirt. The rule is, though, that I'm allowed to wear Spartan gear so long as they're not playing Iowa. The truth is, Mike bought me an MSU hoodie...if anyone had purchased a Hawkeye hoodie for me (Dad), I would have worn it instead. ;)
Mike and I are extremely glad we own our own skates. :D The line actually extends quite a bit beyond this sign.
Mike coasts by. Our Spartan gear actually drew the attention of a guy who lived in Michigan for awhile. He stopped to talk to me as I stood by the rail taking Mike's picture. I must look like I have a sense of humor and the ability to laugh at myself, because he started out by telling me he saw me skating "looking like you were on the MSU hockey team." Yeah. Hardy har. Luckily I do have a sense of humor and I did laugh at the joke. And it was a joke. I stank on ice. At one point, after a guy stopped right in front of me (jerk!) - I turned to avoid him and ended up sliding towards the center of the ice - panicking because I'm unable to stop and am too far away to grab the rail. Mike had to put his arms around me and skate me in a circle to get me going in the right direction again.
Anyway, this guy is friendly enough and I talked to him for awhile. He asked if Mike and I went to MSU and whereabouts in Michigan we'd come from. He told me that his law school had been absorbed by MSU and so he is sort of a default alum...or something of that sort. He called Mike over and talked to him for a little bit, too. He dropped a lot of names. I probably would have been more impressed if I'd known who he was talking about. Other than Tom Izzo - even I know who he is. Anyway, this guy was totally somebody who would normally have annoyed the hell out of me, but for some reason I found him highly entertaining. He told a cute Michigan-MSU joke. After a bit, he took his leave and wished us a good holiday etc. I told Mike that he'd just come up and started talking to me. Mike laughed and said he thought with the familiarity the guy had assumed, that he must be somebody I knew from school or something. After Mike said that I could have kicked myself for not networking for a job when I found out he was a lawyer. Geez, I'm no good at the networking.
Just another cute Mikey picture.
Bike cops in the park. I'm trying to decide if I enjoy bike cops more than horse cops or not. My favorite, of course, are 4 wheeler cops. I love to see 4 wheeler cops.
I think this is just a picture of the rink and the bean in Millennium Park. I looked for Mike, but I don't see him.
We skated until they stopped to resurface the ice. The sun was starting to go down, so we decided to head home.
But first I took a couple of pictures of Mike in front of the fountain.
And I took a picture of the view down Michigan Ave. It just seemed too pretty not to take.
Artwork on the side of a building, which I saw while waiting for the bus home.
A random picture of how empty the bus was today! This is on the way home.
A smeared picture of the Christmas tree outside of the Hancock Tower as we drove by. I started to delete it, but then decided that it was still kinda cool.
Mike deflated pretty much as soon as he stopped skating. He wasn't tired while he was sliding around on the ice, but as soon as he stopped - it hit.
Los Gatos were extremely sympathetic to his plight, apparently.
While everybody else relaxed, I baked up a Christmas lasagna. A pepperoni lasagna...Mike forgot to get ground beef when he went to the store yesterday and with it being Baby Jesus' birthday and all, we couldn't buy any! Mike originally was going to just eat a meatless lasagna (which is what I have), but we started brainstorming about what we could substitute and we realized that we had pepperoni. (Mike almost always has pepperoni in the fridge - a little Mike trivia for you there. He's a pepperoni madman!) Actually the pepperoni lasagna was not as successful of an experiment as we had hoped. It was alright, but definitely not as good as usual. I also made some homemade garlic bread - the leftovers of which I will no doubt snack on for the rest of the night!
Mike was so tired that he went to bed at 9:00. And that was our day! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Merry Christmas!
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, and lo the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid, and the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."
"For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in highest and on earth peace, good will toward men."
Peace on Earth and Will Good to Men. ;)
Merry Christmas, everybody!
Merry Christmas, everybody!
12/24/2007
A Very Polish Christmas
Ok, so I have some fairly random-ish Christmas pictures to share with everyone. Mike and I went to Michigan last weekend to spend Christmas with his family. Saturday we went over to Aunty Bren's and did the family "secret Santa" exchange, visited and generally pigged out. The gnocchi was excellent, by the way.
First up, the Siemienski girls. Mike's Aunty Bren and his mom, Sandy. Wearing matching aprons that they didn't purchase together. Sometimes it's genetics, I guess. ;)
Big Boy JO-ey...or as we were calling him...Joey Claus. I promised him that he'd make the blog if he let me take his picture.
As you can see - a few too many margaritas made the rounds at the family Christmas party. Mike and his brother-in-law, Scott.
Mike's cousin Kristie brought some pottery that she'd made in a class she'd taken and gave us each our pick to take home. I chose this loverly vase - in the hopes that it would inspire Mike to fill it with flowers. I've since decided I'd probably better just go to WalMart and buy some fake flowers. :D
Mike's sister Kelly enjoying the dip.
Scott, Kelly and Big Boy JO-ey wrestling on the couch.
Joey in the massager chair. This really amused me because when he's so small that when he'd put it on the shoulder massage setting, you could see it moving on either side of his head.
Cookie bounty. Yummo...
*drool*
This is my favorite kind of cookies...and I took a picture of these because Mike's cousin Andrea's husband, Bob (did you get all that?)...made these "bad boys" all by himself at the family cookie bake a couple weekends ago. Delish, Bob...you're welcome to come to our house and make cookies any time!
Big Boy JO-ey getting a little face time with Aunty Laurie.
Kelly got this framed picture of her recently departed cat, Louis, for Christmas. It made us all a little teary eyed.
Bailey, the Christmas pug. (Not sure why I have Bailey and not Pablo...I'll have to check the pictures again as I'm sure I took a picture of him.)
Mike tells Joey Claus what he wants for Christmas.
I got this set of Japanese cat plates with matching bowls for Christmas...among other things. I'm not sure why I have a picture of this and none of my other loot. I'll have to take an overall pictoral inventory later.
Mike got ice skates! YaY! Here he is in his hockey enforcer pose while trying them on...
...and here he is preparing to shoot an imaginary goal. Awesome. I was thrilled when he did this for me as I can't usually get him to do any goofy poses for the camera.
I got a pair of figure skates on the way home and we have already got them sharpened! We're going to be spending our Christmas Day ice skating at Millenium Park! Hope everyone has as much fun on Christmas as we plan to!
Merry Christmas!
First up, the Siemienski girls. Mike's Aunty Bren and his mom, Sandy. Wearing matching aprons that they didn't purchase together. Sometimes it's genetics, I guess. ;)
Big Boy JO-ey...or as we were calling him...Joey Claus. I promised him that he'd make the blog if he let me take his picture.
As you can see - a few too many margaritas made the rounds at the family Christmas party. Mike and his brother-in-law, Scott.
Mike's cousin Kristie brought some pottery that she'd made in a class she'd taken and gave us each our pick to take home. I chose this loverly vase - in the hopes that it would inspire Mike to fill it with flowers. I've since decided I'd probably better just go to WalMart and buy some fake flowers. :D
Mike's sister Kelly enjoying the dip.
Scott, Kelly and Big Boy JO-ey wrestling on the couch.
Joey in the massager chair. This really amused me because when he's so small that when he'd put it on the shoulder massage setting, you could see it moving on either side of his head.
Cookie bounty. Yummo...
*drool*
This is my favorite kind of cookies...and I took a picture of these because Mike's cousin Andrea's husband, Bob (did you get all that?)...made these "bad boys" all by himself at the family cookie bake a couple weekends ago. Delish, Bob...you're welcome to come to our house and make cookies any time!
Big Boy JO-ey getting a little face time with Aunty Laurie.
Kelly got this framed picture of her recently departed cat, Louis, for Christmas. It made us all a little teary eyed.
Bailey, the Christmas pug. (Not sure why I have Bailey and not Pablo...I'll have to check the pictures again as I'm sure I took a picture of him.)
Mike tells Joey Claus what he wants for Christmas.
I got this set of Japanese cat plates with matching bowls for Christmas...among other things. I'm not sure why I have a picture of this and none of my other loot. I'll have to take an overall pictoral inventory later.
Mike got ice skates! YaY! Here he is in his hockey enforcer pose while trying them on...
...and here he is preparing to shoot an imaginary goal. Awesome. I was thrilled when he did this for me as I can't usually get him to do any goofy poses for the camera.
I got a pair of figure skates on the way home and we have already got them sharpened! We're going to be spending our Christmas Day ice skating at Millenium Park! Hope everyone has as much fun on Christmas as we plan to!Merry Christmas!
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