Soaked to the bone

Thanks to Kelly's kindness, Matt and I went to the Michigan/Notre Dame game yesterday. We got to see a bunch of my old BP friends, and Matt got to hang out with their significant others. ;-) We brought out our bocce ball set (turns out I'm terrible) and Erin and Chris brought out their "bags" set, and we spent most of our morning huddled in our camping tent and under Chrissy's canopy. The rain let up at the end of the morning, and we stayed dry for a few hours and through the whole first half of the game.

Then halftime rolled in, along with a downpour. I've never been so wet in my life. Seriously. When I came home and took a warm shower/bath, I actually felt drier. How is that possible? I don't know. The rain didn't let up for the rest of the game, but since ND was winning, most of us were still delighted.

Go Irish!

Some photos of the fun

Matt with Blondie the snake.

I never actually got the alligator's name. He looks nonplussed, no?

Matt and the cow.

My rappelling adventures are only on video so you'll have to trust me on that one!

Today's fun

Matt and I had the great pleasure of competing in City Chase: Chicago today. Billed as a combination between the Amazing Race and Fear Factor, it was a fun scavenger hunt/obstacle course/race that took up our whole day.

We arrived at Daley Plaza with 1,500 fellow racers -- each divided in to teams of two and wearing our lovely City Chase shirts. After thirty minutes of tedious announcements, we got our first clue: go to the Chicago Theatre to get information on our Chase Check Points. When we arrived at Chicago Theatre, we got a list of forty different check points. To win, you had to be the first team to cross the finish line after competing ten of the check points.

Matt and I realized quickly (after we were basically the last to arrive at the Chicago Theater to get the clues) that we weren't going to win. So we decided to pick the most fun check points and make our way through the day.

We headed to Navy Pier right away, looking for the clue that involved heights and holding on tight. We discovered a rappelling setup at the very end of a pier off of the side of a building. Matt generously let me take this one -- I was pretty excited about rappelling -- so he waited at the bottom of the building as I climbed the 250 or so steps to the top. The scariest part was actually climbing over the fence to the ledge of the building. Once I got the hang of it, I had a lot of fun. I focused on the wall in front of me instead of looking down. I had a bit of a snag at near the end when some of my hair came out of my ponytail and got snagged in the rappelling device. I had no idea what to do, but I realized that no one could really come to my aid when I was hanging in mid-air. So I did what every hard core gal would do -- jerked my head backwards, leaving a handful in the device, and proceeded to the bottom. The staff (and Matt, who was belaying me) waiting at the bottom were tickled by what they said looked like a "small animal' caught in the device.

Matt and I ran back down Navy Pier to Lucky Strike for bowling. Unfortunately, we discovered this was naked bowling. Yes, naked bowling. Each team member had to bowl until he or she got a strike. For every throw you didn't get a strike, your partner had to take off an item of clothing. While this could have worked well (Matt and I aren't bad bowlers), there were enough fully naked people in there for us to be a bit overwhelmed.

We moved on to Harry Caray's for the "Holy Cow" challenge. Yup, cow milking. Matt took this challenge, and quickly got a dixie cup full of milk. He was lucky, as we hear a girl behind us was pooped on during this challenge.

We hopped on the Clark bus and headed up to Seward Park. We found members of Chicago Rush (the arena football team), Chicago Machine (the lacrosse team), and Chicago Bandits (the women's softball team) waiting for us. We had to do two out of these three challenges:

1) One person catch a football thrown by the Rush Quarterback / one person throw a football through a target
2) One person hit a softball thrown by the Bandits pitcher / one person throw a strike
3) Both people hit at least three lacrosse targets

After about 15 tries, I hit the softball thrown by the patient Bandits pitcher. Matt threw a strike on his second try! And I got to put on the pads and helmet and catch the football while Matt threw a ball through the target. (We realized pretty early on that I have absolutely no aim.)

We went to Halo for Men spa after that, where we found out that one of us had to shave our head, an eyebrow, wax a lip, wax a square off of their chest or stomach (boys) or get a hunk cut out of their hair (girls). Matt offered to submit to waxing, but since I'd done it before, I said I was in for a lip wax.

We hurried out of there to go to the Oak Street Beach. This one is hard to describe, but we strapped helmets to our head, and there were buckets on top of the helmets. One at a time, we went out to the lake, submerged ourselves until the bucket was full, and then walked back to the beach to fill up a larger bucket with our helmet water. After two runs apiece, our bucket was full -- and we were grateful for the time to cool off.

Some guys at a bus stop directed us to a task that Matt was very interested in, so we went to Washington Park to try our hand at it. Each team member had to either hold an alligator (!) for thirty seconds or put a python (!!) down his/her shirt. Matt was very excited to play with the snake... not me. I held the alligator instead, which was not scary at all as the alligator seemed to be mostly asleep.

We finished off our day with a couple of more tame spots -- dropping off the receipts from our Special Olympics fundraising and taking a 14 question test at Kaplan. We jumped back on a bus and made our way to the finish line at Joe's, finding free alcohol and tons of food waiting for us.

I didn't have much time to edit this (or even think about it!) but I wanted to write it down before I forgot the fun of the day. We'll definitely do this again next year.

Keeping up

I'm sorry it's been awhile. That seems to be a common theme of my posts lately -- gone for weeks, then back to apologize, then gone again. I'll try to do better in the future!

Things have been busy at work lately. That's mostly a good thing, but occasionally leaves me feeling anxious even when I'm not at work. I don't think this is work's fault. Rather, I think I need to figure out a good way to let work go when I'm not there. Is anyone out there good at that? Do you have any tips?

Matt and I celebrated our one year anniversary, eating out at Charlie Trotter's and having some of our frozen wedding cake. Both were delicious -- I was amazed that Grandma B's cake held up through our move to Chicago! While reliving our wedding, we got to thinking about our many friends getting married next year: Law school friends Josh and Nicole; old-work-friend Erin and her fiance Frank; best friend Meg's sister Claire and her fiance Dan; ND dorm friend Erin and her fiance Chris; Chicago girlfriend Amee and her fiance Steve; Matt's cousin Amanda and her fiance Tim. We are so excited for each of these couples!

Over the next few weeks, we don't have many big plans. I imagine I'll be working a lot. We're going to compete in City Chase, have a few people over to dinner, go to some end of summer parties... and otherwise enjoy each other's company.

Me time

I'm very glad that this marriage still allows me some "me time." Take tonight, for example. I've got the house to myself, so I stayed at work a little late (at least for a Friday -- 6:30 p.m.) and finished up a few things. Now I'm sitting on the couch with a bowl of ramen noodles, one of my favorite comfort foods. There's a glass of chardonnay from the bottle we opened a few nights ago sitting next to the ramen. I'm planning to watch two movies I've had around for ages but have never watched: Mean Creek and Muriel's Wedding. Even better, I'm watching the movies with my laptop in front of me, something I try not to do when Matt's around. So I'm finally going to write back to all of my emails that have been sitting in my inbox forever. I'm also going to turn my notes from my board meeting on Wednesday night into minutes.

In short, it's going to be a productive but relaxing evening. Hope you're having the same kind of evening out there!

Tanzania

Matt and I have been planning a trip to Chile and Peru next year... I've lately been thinking about visiting Tanzania instead.

If we went to Tanzania, we'd do some combination of climbing Kilimanjaro and doing some sort of safari. But I have no clue where to begin planning or getting information for such a vacation. Has anyone out there ever been to Tanzania? Did you use a tour group, or did you go on your own? Did you make arrangements beforehand, or just take it one day at a time?

Busy morning

Today I felt very cosmopolitan. I went out on a run in my neighborhood, running up Clark Street to Wrigley Field, through the Saturday late-morning crowds. I ran by the Halsted Gay and Lesbian Pride setup (can't wait to watch the outrageous parade tomorrow), and stopped at the farmer's market to pick up sweet peas for me, sweet cherries for Matt, and some beautiful flowers for the house.

Last night Kate and Steve were in visiting from Minneapolis. We went to a fantastic dinner at Moto, and I think we all liked the incredible creations Chef put together. This evening we plan to have deep-dish pizza. How can you visit Chicago without having deep-dish?

Well, the answer is, you can't.

Visit me here, too

For those of you who don't know, Matt and I are busy walking around Chicago. Feel free to read about our (non) adventures at that blog.

An ode to the tan MnM

I just realized I have no clue how to properly type M-n-M. M & M? M and M? Em and mmm?

The other day, in a fit of late night hunger at the office, I purchased a pack of these lovely candies at the vending machine down the hall. As usual, I dumped them out and started sorting them by color, and then began eating them one by one until I had an even number of colors. (Is that weird? I kind of assume everyone does that, but the more I learn about other people, the more I realize how strange I may be.)

While I enjoy the lovely spectrum made by the red, orange, yellow, green, blue and brown candies, I miss the old colors. For those of you who don't remember, the old M & Ms didn't have a blue -- they had a tan instead. And when you emptied those candies onto the counter, they always looked a little strange. Red, orange, yellow, green... tan and brown? But something about it just seemed right. My new M & Ms look so balanced and proper. I miss the tan.

Nike + iPod

I got myself an iPod today, which I'm pretty excited about. I borrowed Matt's for my run this morning and realized how much more fun I have during a run when I have the right music on.

Now I'm curious about the Nike + iPod shoes. I can't quite figure out what these things do. Does anyone out there have them? Do you like them? I thought it played different music based on your speed... but I can't figure that out by googling. It seems that maybe it just reports your workout results?

Comments appreciated!

Playing with fire

It started with some browsing on Craigslist. Matt would casually check out the "condos/houses for sale" section when he had some free time and was interested. When he found something special, he'd show it to me to see what I thought.

Things progressed from there. As we walked around different neighborhoods, we began noticing open houses. We resisted as long as possible before finally giving in and walking in.

We took the next step together earlier this week. We saw a place we liked so much that we actually made an appointment to see it. Yes, even though we have a lease for the next year, and we're just beginning to save up for a down payment, we've made a date to look at a condo. What is wrong with us? Has anyone else been wooed by the lure of real estate before they were truly ready?

Busy bees

It has been ages since I last wrote. Since then, I'm not sure what all has happened: we took a trip to Iowa, we worked very hard, I bought a bicycle, we went out to a fantastic dinner at Avenues. We put the cats on diet food (they're getting even bigger!), we set up our patio with wonderful patio furniture, and eat and drink outside on a regular basis.

Not sure what else to fill you in on, right now, but maybe now that I've gotten this little stuff out I'll be better at updating regularly. Hope y'all are well!

Bird watching

Just a picture of our cute bird watching cats.

Planning a trip!

Matt and I are planning our first big vacation as a married couple (okay, apart from our honeymoon). This summer, we're going to go on a road trip out west. The trip involves a lot of driving, but since we both love to drive, neither of us really minds. Here's the helpful but dorky map we (I) put together today.

He's been to most of these places before, but I've only been to South Dakota. We're even going to dig out my old tent and camp a bit -- our first time camping together. Anyhow, if you have any advice on the itinerary, places to visit or things to see, drop a note!

Edited to add: Just realized the map is a bit hard to read. Our schedule is as follows:
Day 1: drive from Chicago to Minneapolis.
Day 2: drive through North Dakota.
Day 3: drive to Glacier National Park.
Day 4: Glacier National Park.
Day 5: drive to Yellowstone.
Day 6: Yellowstone.
Day 7: drive to Sturgis, SD (or thereabouts).
Day 8: drive to Sioux Falls, SD.
Day 9: return to Chicago.

Relaxing at home

Matt and I went to Kate and Austin's wedding this weekend and had a great time. Kate looked lovely. We got to meet many of the couple's other friends, who were all terrific. I guess that speaks highly of them! I got to spend time with Kate and her bridesmaids, and Matt spent the day hanging out with a few of my close college friends. What fun.

Unfortunately, Matt has been a bit sick since the wedding, and I think I might be coming down with the same time: congestion and a major headache. So we're hanging out at home, installing our new desktop computer and working on our budget. It sounds so grown up and boring when I type it out, but it's actually a nice evening.

A couple of pictures:

The wedding party in the basilica.

The cats in a compromising position... or, in the middle of a fight. I think it looks like a photographer caught a famous person and a waitress or janitor or something in flagrante. Prop Joe, the darker one, is the celebrity. He's upset about the picture snapping and trying to hide his face. Dr. T, the lighter one, is just happy and dreamy and pretty darn proud about bagging a celebrity.