Wendy's Rant...in honor of Eliot

When Eliot was here this weekend we were discussing my blog. He mentioned that he should start a blog, but it would be filled of rants. He mentioned how mine is very much like storytelling and I leave out most of my opinions.

Well, tonight we were on our way home from Oak Park and I see this Wendy's sign! I told Rick I had to take a picture and make a ranting post in honor of Eliot!

The part I am ranting about is "Italian Beefs are Here". There is currently a commercial running on the radios here advertising Wendy's Italian Beef. It starts by saying how Chicago shouldn't be named the "Windy City" because wind is negative. Instead it should be called something good, like the "Italian Beef City" because Chicago has the best Italian Beef. And now you can get the best Italian Beef in the "Italian Beef" City at Wendy's.

I just think this commercial is absurd. One, there is no way that Wendy's is serving the best Italian Beef in Chicago. I know this is hypocritical as I don't even eat beef, but still I have am sure if I did it wouldn't be the best! Two, this commercial horribly annoying.

Thanks for listening and now back to our regular scheduled storytelling! :)

Yay for Gwen!!

Gwen is one of my best friends from college. She was a RA with me for two years and just one of the best people to be around. Gwen is one of the guests from our wedding that many people still make mention of how great she looked. She was in town because she is interviewing with a medical school tomorrow. Luckily she had time to have dinner with us tonight. It was so great to see her and hopefully it won't be as long until next time!

Gwen and I having our ice cream after dinner!

Here is a picture of Gwen from the wedding she is to my right. Next to her is Jen the other trio in our RA years! I miss them both a lot!! (and Ben and April too!!!!)

Jess and Eliot visit from Denver!

Jess and Eliot are Rick's friends from Denver. Rick and Eliot were roommates before Rick became a RA. A few weeks ago they were bored and we told them to book a flight to visit us. They found a good and price and booked the flight. We were so glad to have them as visitors this weekend. We hang out with them a few times a week as we play a video game online (yes, we are nerds), but it was much better having them in person.

We thought it would be fun to play our video game all in the same room instead of all in different rooms. The next two pictures are the result of that. The laptops were easy to move, but Rick had to move his whole computer.



Friday night we had dinner and visited Dairy Queen. We wanted to go to the DQ with chocolate ice cream, but when we got there they had just closed. Luckily, Rick used his charm to have them still serve us. We had to get cones, but we all managed! When we got back here we played Sequence and The Game of Life. I lost miserably at Life....miserably.

On Saturday they took a trip with us to Wal-Mart and then we played Age of Mythology (the game above), and finally showered in the late afternoon. We headed to downtown Chicago and had a great dinner at a place called Angelina's. After dinner we went to see Blue Man Group. It was fabulous. Unfortunately, we had four very drunk people sitting behind us, but the show was still great. We came home and I fell asleep almost instantaneously.

Jess and Eliot, then me and Rick at Angelina's for dinner.

Sunday was a gorgeous day. After breakfast we took the bags/cornhole set and played a few games. We took a quick trip to the store to get food to grill for lunch and then had a great lunch outside. We had burgers (beef and turkey), corn on the cob, pineapple, and pasta. Quite a combination of foods.

Rick was being sneaky taking pictures of Jess and Eliot from inside the house.

Finally, we celebrated Jess's birthday early with Apple Pie.

Unfortunately, Eliot got sick right before they had to leave for the airport. Other than that, their visit was perfect. We can't wait to spend a week with them (and Rick's other friends) in Las Vegas next month!

Laura's Baby Shower

Friday evening was Laura's Baby Shower. Laura is the 6th grade teacher at the school at which I work. As I looked back at my very few pictures that I took, I realized that I didn't take any of Laura. They shower was at Shor's house and I ended up helping Laura by handing her presents and writing down what everyone got her so I didn't have a chance to take any pictures of her. Anyways, it was a nice time and baby Paige is due within a couple weeks. She will have plenty of cute, cute clothes!!

The food table. The cookies I made are in the bottom right hand corner. They got moved soon after this because there was too much other food.

These are some of the teachers that I work with. Julie is in the red, then Anne, Diana, and Janet. Cori is the blonde and Barb is on the right hand side facing the other way.

Kristen, Julie, and Cori

Look at all of those presents!

3rd Grade Field Trip!

On Thursday the 3rd grade students visited Fullersburg Woods. This was a Nature Preserve

Jan and Parker on the bus!

Samantha is one of the students that was seeing how many third graders it took to wrap themselves around this tree--it took five!

Look at these bullfrogs and their reflections!

There were deer too!

I am so proud of these pictures of this dragonfly! My big lens was amazing!

This flower is rare from what I am told, but I don't remember its name. Apparently the middle part will turn a bright red when it blooms!

Keri and Sara!

Lots of the 3rd grade students and Keri during lunch time!

Sara and Ursala

This is the puppet show that the students saw about the food chain! It was very cute and they really enjoyed it!

I wish I could take credit for finding all of the animals that I took pictures of, but one of the parents that went with was very knowledgeable and had a keen eye for finding these animals and flowers. I am so glad he was there to share what he knows with the students and to point these things out for me to take pictures!

Spring at Wrigley Field

On Wednesday night we were able to get tickets to the Cub's Game from one of Rick's co-workers. We tried a new way of getting to the game for this trip. We caught the bus at Yorktown Mall and rode on a CTA bus that dropped us off in front of the stadium. This was a very inexpensive way to get to Wrigley and convenient from both of our jobs. The only downside was that the busy doesn't leave until a 1/2 hour after the game ends and we both had to work on Thursday. The game was a blow out 19-5 and even though we were tired AND cold we had to stay to the end. We would take this way again if we didn't have to work the next day.

As I mentioned it was very cold at the game. The wind was blowing off the lake and once the sun went down it became cold very quickly. We dressed in layers but both of us wish we had more clothing. I even drank some hot chocolate to tide me over.

I was able to try my new lens for my camera and it was great. We sat in the second row of the upper deck on the third base line. Most of the shots are taken from there and they make things look like we are much closer than we were.

Looking into the WGN box!

Rick spent a while trying to get both names to be visible on the flags as the wind blew them. Quite a nice picture!

I wasn't too cold yet...I hadn't zipped up my sweatshirt!

Jesse White, Illinois Secretary of State, threw out one of the ceremonial first pitches at the game.

This is a picture of one of the houses behind the bleachers that is now a restaurant. I couldn't believe how much detail I could see with my camera.

This is Ryan Dempster warming up in the bullpen before the game. I took three or four shots in a row which are cool to look at but this is my favorite action shot!

Lou!!

Rick took this picture of Derek Lee in action! You can see the ball on the left hand side of the picture after he made contact!

Dempster got on base too! Like a said, it was a high scoring game!

One of the buildings behind the bleachers is being refurbished. You can see the Red Line train running behind the building through the windows. I thought it was pretty cool.

I believe this was Soto's second home run of the night!

After we took a walk to warm up we visited Jim and sat behind the plate---also a great seat and a tad bit warmer.

Sharpie still sponsors the top of the 8th inning....obviously my favorite inning. It would only be better if they sponsored the entire inning!

Rick's elementary principal was at the game as well. We had a nice visit with her.

Jim and me!

Very Busy!

It seems as if our lives have got very busy...especially during the week. There will be a lot of updates coming the next few days and weeks. The Cubs Game, visit with Jess and Eliot, visit with Gwen, OWICH and more!