UnaMusings

Soaked to the bone

2008-09-14T08:07:00.003-04:00

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

2008-08-24T00:37:00.005-04:00

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

2008-08-23T23:54:00.002-04:00

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

2008-08-09T19:39:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-18T20:24:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-02T22:43:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-28T12:47:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-22T23:29:00.001-04:00

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

2008-06-22T23:24:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-15T01:11:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-11T23:51:00.002-04:00

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

2008-05-08T22:59:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-05T16:57:00.001-04:00

Just a picture of our cute bird watching cats.

Planning a trip!

2008-03-30T22:39:00.005-04:00

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

2008-03-17T22:54:00.005-04:00

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.

Catching up

2008-03-08T19:42:00.003-05:00

I see I have some catching up to do. Things have been busy here over the last few weeks. Matt got a permanent offer from his law firm, and has since accepted. He's working hard and enjoying what he does, which is terrific. The cats are still great fun. We've been rather socially busy recently, too, which is sometimes a little stressful but mostly fun. We even joined a gym, because we've both been getting quite lazy lately.

That's a lot of we statements, isn't it? Matt and I have both been working hard to maintain our separate identities in this marriage. We've known a few people who, after getting married, have all but disappeared, and we wanted to make sure we didn't turn into them. I think we enjoy our time together more because we have a little time apart -- he has Tuesday nights playing trivia at the State (his team won first prize recently!), and I have Wednesday nights hanging out with a few girlfriends (we... watched the finale of Project Runway together!). I know these things will be harder when we someday have kids, but for now, we're each doing our best.

This morning, while shopping at the World Market near our house, we saw a girl who we thought was Heather from America's Next Top Model (season 9). Skinny? Check. Long dark hair? Check. Tall, but slouching? Check. We couldn't figure it out for sure, though, so we attempted to browse the store while discreetly sneaking peaks. By the time we left, we were about 95% it was her, and I had identied a few key moles on her face. When we got home, we pulled up her picture online, compared the moles, and got our proof: it was her! A little Googling shows that she lives in Chicago and apparently goes to school at the Illinois Institute of Art. Nifty, eh?

Next weekend Matt and I will be out of town for my dear friend Kate's wedding. I have known Kate since we were seniors in high school, when we met at the state math competition (yes). We quickly became friends, and took many a road trip from our Iowa hometowns out to Notre Dame for school. We were RAs together in Lewis Hall and she started dating Austin that year, and they are finally tying the knot at the beautiful Basilica in South Bend. I even get to be a bridesmaid :) and I am so excited to see them get married and to celebrate with all of our friends. Also, their rehearsal dinner is at the College Football Hall of Fame. How cool is that?!

Birthday part 1

2008-02-24T11:49:00.005-05:00

Last night Matt threw an amazing birthday party for me. Matt's parties have always been themed, and this year was no exception. The Southern party Matt created was amazing (thanks to a lot of help from his menu consultant Rebecca).

If you go arund the table clockwise starting from the bottom center, we had pickles, hush puppies, mini pecan pies, devilled eggs, a birthday cake and brownies, mini macaroni and cheeses, and two types of pulled pork sandwiches (bbq and cider vinegar). The food was delicious!

Chrissy made a gorgeous cake. Isn't that weaving on the side lovely?

The girls at the party, and me with my new swingy haircut. I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but it's very Katie Holmes/Posh Spice. I wasn't sure how I liked it (got it yesterday morning), but there were enough raves last night that I decided it must be alright.

Me and my handsome husband!

My real birthday isn't actually 'till Monday, and we have a lot of celebrations planned between now and then. A couple of dinners out, a lunch with my coworkers, and indulgence all around. I love birthdays :)

Zhivago redux

2008-02-16T16:51:00.002-05:00

It's been awhile, but I'm back! Matt and I are enjoying a relaxing weekend. My friend Adam from college came in last night, so we went to dinner. This morning we ran all sorts of errands: the dry cleaner, the bank, the tailor, and we cleaned the house from top to bottom. Now we're relaxing in front of the tv with the cats by our sides. Tonight, we're off to an amazing Russian dinner with the other Neal Gerber first years. This dinner was an incredible experience a couple of years ago when we went; I can't wait to go again. More on that later. And tomorrow night, we're off to see our friend Doris doing improv for the first time.

As for Matt, he got a job! Temporary for now, but with the possibility of permanency. He's working for at least four months at a four attorney litigation firm downtown. He seems to like it so far, which is fantastic. He works only a block away from my office, which means we share a bus together in the mornings and occasionally meet up for coffee.

So: woohoo!

Help a friend! Vote a cat.

2008-01-29T20:56:00.001-05:00

A friend at work has a cat competing in Chicago's cutest cat competition. If you're so inclined and have a moment or two, check out this link and vote for Gracie in the Gracie vs. Kodi competition.

(If only Matt and I had known about this competition, Prop Joe and Dr. T totally would have been in there too.)

Hangin' loose

2008-01-19T19:06:00.000-05:00

Things have been going well lately. This weekend, Matt is off in Vegas on a pseudo-bachelor party and I am in Chicago, entertaining Justin and Michelle (in from Ann Arbor, taking a break from school) and Jill (in from Iowa for residency interviews). Matt and I have been keeping busy since Christmas -- my dad and stepmom came in for New Year's, and we had all sorts of fun going out to a fantastic dinner at Alinea and going to the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in the 'burbs. Matt, Meg and I had a fun day wandering around the city, checking out dim sum in Chinatown and going to the Chicago History Museum

On the work front, I got staffed on my first deal, and have been putting in some on long hours lately. Matt is still job hunting and is getting restless, but he's doing great stuff around the house: in particular, painting our bathroom a lovely camel-color.

Fake or real?

2008-01-13T13:20:00.000-05:00

Matt and I made pancakes and bacon this morning, and got into a brief debate that I agreed to post here. Which do you prefer: real or fake pancake syrup? The two of us have differing opinions on this topic, and at least one of us thinks the other is crazy. I offfered to post the debate here to see which one outsiders prefer.

Grr....

2007-12-30T17:28:00.000-05:00

When I sleep in too late in the mornings, I wake up one of three ways:

1) The cats are meowing, because they want out of the "cat room" (read: spare bedroom) where they sleep at night,
2) I have to use the bathroom, or
3) I'm hungry.

Yes, I sometimes wake up to stomach growls. When I get up one of my first thoughts is eating breakfast, because my stomach aches and makes grumbly noises. Matt thinks this is crazy, and when he gets up, he actually can't imagine eating. So I wonder: is it weird to wake up hungry? Does this happen to anyone else out there?

Our "first" "Christmas"

2007-12-22T21:16:00.001-05:00

Tonight we had our first Christmas as a married couple. We spent the day relaxing, watching movies and old episodes of the Wire, making our first curry and doing a little last minute Christmas/grocery shopping. Then we settled in with a bottle of wine, dinner, and a huge pile of Christmas presents! We opened gifts from my mom, a few from friends and Matt's mom, and then a bunch from each other. Matt and I set reasonably rigorous spending limits for one another -- under $100 -- and we both impressed the other with the gifts we found. Matt got me a pair of Wellington boots, some cozy socks, slippers and foot lotion, a page-a-day calendar of grammatical fun facts for my desk, and a lot of snacking candy. I got Matt a pair of leather gloves (super on sale at Macy's), a sweater and socks (ok, a little boring) and a ticket to see the Blue Man Group. The cats also celebrated with catnip toys from my mom, snacks from Meg, and a new water bubbler from us. Now we're going to relax, pack, and go to bed early so we can fly off tomorrw morning!

P.S. The title is a shout-out to one of my favorite blogs, the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotations. These, however, are necessary. This was not really Christmas, and it was not actually our first.

Party time

2007-12-16T19:34:00.000-05:00

Work slowed down for me a bit late this week, and I had the weekend all to myself. For the first time in weeks, I didn't do any work all weekend long. And Matt and I threw a spectacular holiday party. We had nearly forty guests, and Matt made amazing appetizers including some macaroni and cheese bites, some curry wings and open-faced crab empanadas. I didn't do quite as much for the party, but I made my mom's famous fudge and also whipped up a batch of shockingly potent peppermint martinis. We got all sorts of gifts from friends: wine, ornaments, candle holders, and a beautiful snow globe. The gifts are spread all around our house now... along with many used wine, martini and rocks glasses that we really need to clean sometime soon.

Here are a few pictures from the night... I hope everyone out there had a great weekend, too!

Matt, Dan and Dave toasting. You can't see it here, but Dan split his pants and we got to tape them up.

Girl's night: party time!

Clay looking jolly as Chrissy chats and Piran sticks a hat on his head.

Christmastime is here!

2007-12-06T08:45:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of the tree Matt surprised me with on Tuesday, with all of the trimmings that we attached on Tuesday evening. The cats love it, but so far, we haven't had so much as a broken ornament from them. Now, we just have to find stockings!

Holding back

2007-12-03T22:31:00.000-05:00

Somedays I feel like I will make a terrible attorney. My problem today? Crying.

Crying for me is an automatic reflex at times. It happens when I am overwhelmed, stressed, or upset. Today, while I was on break at a conference, I got an email from someone for whom I have written and re-written a memo. The email said the document still needed "significant revisions," and the notes on the document just made me feel dumb. (e.g. Did you proofread this sentence?, or what do you mean?) And instead of appreciating the mostly constructive criticism, I cried. And when I went back into the conference and a friend asked how I was, I started crying again. I wasn't that upset, but I couldn't stop it. I'm not entirely sure what to do about this in the workplace. What if I cry in front of a partner, despite my best intentions? It's such a silly, unproductive reaction... but sometimes, I feel like I can't help it.

And what kind of attorney cries?

The Art of Busy

2007-12-02T22:37:00.000-05:00

Things here have been good. The cats are growing up. One adjusted quite well to his extremely dorky snowflake collar ($4.99 at Target); the other somehow managed to get his mouth in it and scraped at it for ten minutes before letting us get close enough to remove it.

In other news, we have been doing quite a lot. We've had a few dinner parties: in particular, we had two of my bosses over one night, and a coworker and his wife another night. Matt cooked everything and both dinners were successes! We went back to Iowa for Thanksgiving and relaxed and enjoyed spending time with my mom and sister; Jill and I hosted our annual Christmas party a little bit early. We went on a Christmasy shopping spree, but still don't have a tree (everyone in the area was out of tree stands). I worked my latest night ever -- eleven p.m.! -- and am now enjoying three days out of the office at a conference. Matt is still job hunting, but has had a couple of interviews and continues applying to every open job.

Now, I am enjoying the end of a good weekend, watching The Wire with Matt in preparation for the fourth season to come out on DVD. On the queue for this week: more health law conference, a girl's night to celebrate Chrissy's finishing the patent bar, the firm's holiday party and Heather's Christmas party. It should be good!

Holiday traditions

2007-11-13T22:27:00.001-05:00

Matt and I are entering our first Christmas season and as married couple, and at least half of us are anxious to develop our own "family" Christmas traditions. The only one we've decided on so far is the purchasing of an Advent calendar. We'll trade off chocolate eating/door opening duties daily. The question is, what other traditions should we be thinking about? Stockings? Christmas tree decorations? Mailing holiday cards? Throwing a party? I have no clue, but figured you out there might have suggestions or might be able to tell us about your favorite Christmas traditions!

Amazing Race redux

2007-11-04T16:35:00.001-05:00

Is anyone else very excited about the Amazing Race returning tonight? I am. The show was better in its early days, but I still enjoy watching it. I especially love seeing all the new locations and learning about traditions in other countries. The two of us (Matt and I) sometimes daydream about being on the show, but then we remember that it would require thirty days away from home, no sleep, lots of jet lag and stress and physical exertion. But it's still fun to think about sometimes.

Winning streak over

2007-11-04T08:38:00.000-05:00

So, Notre Dame's season has been rough. We all know this. But yesterday it sunk to a new low, losing to Navy and ending a 43-game winning streak.

We still had some fun yesterday, though. Matt and I spent Saturday morning exploring Michigan Avenue. We checked out the shops but didn't actually buy anything. Most of the stuff there was a little out of our price range! Afte watching the Michigan and Notre Dame games, we headed out to the suburbs to have dinner with our friends Emily and Jeff and their baby Joseph at their house. It was fun to be in a real house again, and Joseph is more than four months old so he was ready to play and smile and laugh with us. We finished off the night with a little more football, and then came hoome and went to bed.

Today we're having some people over for Super Bowl 41.5 -- the unbeaten Patriots take on the also-unbeaten defending Super Bowl champions, the Colts. I'm stuck doing a bit of work today, too, but at least I can do it from home. I'm very grateful for all of the technology out there that allows me to sit on my couch and turn my sad old laptop into my work computer.

Meow?

2007-10-28T22:49:00.000-04:00

Couldn't help but share a picture of the cats, who are growing up and still quite cute. They are still good friends with each other. Prop Joe (left) is quieter, and spends a lot of time sleeping in our little storage loft. Dr. T (right) is more social... but also more of a trouble maker. They both like cat snacks, plastic straws, and the strings that pull the blinds up and down.

This has started to sound like a personal ad for our cats. Oops.

The week in review

2007-10-27T11:19:00.000-04:00

This week has been incredibly busy and a bit overwhelming. But it included lots of good things, too.

1) A visit from my old high school friend, Anna, and her husband Brett. I haven't talked to Anna in ages and was worried at first that it could be awkward. Instead, it was delightfully easy and fun. Matt and I ate with the two of them at Cafe Iberico, and then I grabbed a quick lunch with them on Thursday.
2) Lunch with Meg, Claire and Heather on Friday at a delicious little Mexican restaurant / pastry shop called Bombon.
3) Matt and I were supposed to have a date night on Thursday, but I was unexpectedly at work until about eight o'clock. Matt kindly ordered Chinese food in and we finally watched the episodes of Pushing Daisies we've been saving on DVR. How does everyone else feel about that show? It is completely crazy, but Matt and I loved it.
4) Heather, Tammy, Eric, Milly and I went to the US Ski and Snowboard Ball last night on behalf of the law firm. It was great fun! The appetizers and food were good. There was a little corner where you could take prom-style pictures on a faux ski lift. Free drinks everywhere, and a chance to get to know one of the named partners at our firm a bit better. The night concluded with a professional trampoline show, which was totally fantastic.
5) Afterwards, Heather and I headed over to Chrissy's Halloween party. I put on an easy costume: a bathrobe, flip-flops, and a cute necklace made of rubber ducks. I actually got quite a few compliments on it. I think it's because the ducks squeaked. :)

Leather pantsuit?

2007-10-17T21:16:00.001-04:00

This morning, while casually checking my email, one of the cats (of course it was Dr. Tobias, the troublemaker) attempted to jump up on the chair on which I was sitting. He somehow missed, and so his tiny paws grappled for something to hang on to. They found something: my exposed lower back. Now I have a perfect set of claw marks in my skin, and I wonder: do you think I might turn into Catwoman?

Cozy weekend

2007-10-07T19:06:00.000-04:00

We had our first visitors this weekend: Jeremy, who was in town for some 2L summer associate interviews, and Josh, who flew in just to hang out with Matt for his birthday weekend. We had a small-but-successful party on Friday night, watched a lot of football on Saturday, and went to a delicious dinner at Arun's on Saturday night. Now it's a lazy Sunday: marathon cheering this morning, brunch and football at Duffy's, a nap and now a little bit of memo revision.

I did it!

2007-10-01T07:54:00.001-04:00

I passed the Illinois Bar Exam! Hurray!

Sad and happy

2007-09-30T21:20:00.001-04:00

As the commentor to my last post noted, Matt's father passed away early Wednesday morning. I flew out on Thursday morning to be with him and his family, and to attend the wake and the funeral. The flowers, friends and family were a testament to how much Matt's dad (Al) and Matt's family are a part of their community. The ceremonies were beautiful, and people said so many nice things. Though it was sad to lose Al, it's a blessing that his family got to spend time with him before he died, and say their goodbyes.

I'm back home, now, and anxiously awaiting bar exam results, while getting the house in order and planning Matt's birthday celebrations for this weekend. We'll try and move away from the sad and focus on the happy.

Life

2007-09-25T19:57:00.000-04:00

Things here have been busy; at times, a little too busy. Last week was my second week of work, which at times went very well and was at times incredibly stressful. I guess that's what expected in a new, hard job, eh?

Matt's dad, who has been ill for more than a year, is now gravely ill and Matt is out in Boston with him and the rest of their family. I wish I were there, but as I just started work two and a half weeks ago, I'm not really able to take an indefinite amount of time off to go be with them. I hope to visit this weekend. In the meantime, I'm trying to do as much as I can around here to help out. I feel a bit impotent.

Fun stuff has happened, too: Bethany and Eric visiting from Iowa, a housewarming at Heather's, an afternoon watching football with Adrienne and more football at Erin's, drinks with girlfriends, and Sangria at Matisse with many.

So that's what's happening here. What's happening out there?

Week 1

2007-09-14T08:38:00.000-04:00

My first week of work is nearly done, and I'm slowly adjusting. It's quite a change from my last month of travelling and just hanging out. It's good to be back, though, to see my old co-workers and my class again, and to start working on interesting projects.

This weekend my friend Bethany and her husband Eric are coming to town, Michigan and Notre Dame are playing, and Matt and I have big plans to paint portions of our apartment. If anyone wants to join us for painting, let me know :)

Aww...

2007-09-08T13:09:00.001-04:00

We insist on eating from the same bowl even though we clearly each have our own bowls, and the bowls are too small for sharing.

Kittens

2007-09-07T15:39:00.000-04:00

Matt and I are now the proud owners of two kittens: Dr. Tobias Funke (of Arrested Development fame; also goes by Dr. T, Toby and Tobias) and Proposition Joe (of the Wire fame; also goes by Joey, Prop Joe and PJ). Matt's a little worried because Dr. T is quite meowy. We're hoping he will calm down a bit after he gets used to his home. We adopted both cats from Cats-Are-Purrsons-Too (okay, that's fundamentally not true). The no-kill adoption organization is run by an older nun who lives in a home with more than 70 kitties. Dr. T left a brother there, so we think he might be a little sad. But he and PJ are getting along quite well, napping and wrestling together.

They aren't the most photogenic, but here are a few pictures:

Dr. T is on the left, PJ is on the right. They are both about four months old.

Both enjoy the string.

They always travel together!

Extreme delay

2007-09-04T09:32:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the extreme delay for awhile. When we got home from our honeymoon, I immediately (within four hours) got on a plane to Ann Arbor so that I could help the firm recruit University of Michigan law students. I came back the next night, and Matt and I hurriedly did work around the apartment and made trips to the DMV before we left to visit my mom in Iowa. We arrived in Cedar Falls late on Thursday night, and enjoyed my mom's delicious BBQ dinner before retiring to bed. The next morning Matt and I spent awhile picking up my dad's old dining room table and chairs and stuffing them in our rented van. When we finally managed that, we went to the social security administration office so I could get a new card. We visited my grandma in the afternoon, hung out with my neighbors and had dinner in the evening, and then went to bed early so that our 5:30 a.m. leaving time wouldn't be so harsh.

Our road trip back was a bit harried, but we made it back to watch the end of the depressing Michigan/Appalachia State game and for the whole depressing ND/Georgia Tech game. Matt and I decided we needed a new team to cheer for this year, and we've chosen the University of Iowa. Go Hawks! (At least they won on Saturday.) We spent Sunday working around the house, and yesterday went to the Cubs/Dodgers game with Meg and Chuck. We planned a delicious dinner and I set our new table for the first time... unfortunately, we came home to a broken air conditioner. It was so hot we had to eat outside on our porch with the mosquitos. Hopefully that will get fixed asap.

More updates soon!

Days 10 and 11

2007-08-26T04:18:00.000-04:00

Day 10 was a bit of a disaster. We got up super early to go to the airport. We filled up the rental car at the gas station, and unfortunately discovered - after we filled the tank - that their credit card machine wasn´t working. No problem, the lady said. Use the ATM. Well, the lines that were down for the credit card machine were also down for the ATM. We didn´t have enough cash to pay. So we got back in our car and started searching for another ATM machine. The first one we found was also down, and then we got a bit lost. But finally, we found another machine, got money, drove back to the gas station and gave it to her.

We got to the airport only 2.5 hours before our flight to Madrid, which made us a little nervous. We waited in a 30 minute long line to return our rental car without being served. Finally we just handed the keys to someone and left. Then we got to the airport, and discovered the line for our flight, which we waited in for more than an hour before being able to check in. (3 counters for three flights, all big ones leaving at 8 a.m. Oops.) But we checked in, our bags got on the plane, and we also got on the plane with plenty of time to spare.

Unfortunately, the plane wasn't ready to go. We waited and waited on the runway, finally departing a good hour after our original departure time. This wreaked havoc on our schedule: we were going to be left with about 15/20 minutes to connect to our international flight. When we landed in Madrid, we broke into a dead sprint, especially after noticing a sign that said our terminal was 25 mintues away. We felt very Amazing Race like. I was wearing sneakers, so I was all set, and though Matt had on flip flops, he was quite the trooper. We arrived at the gate as they were doing final call. The plane was to leave five minutes later. We were so excited... until they said that our luggage didn't get there in time, and they wouldn't let us fly without our baggage. We argued for a few minutes, but saw it was going nowhere. So we settled in at the customer service counter, discovering that we wouldn't be able to leave until a day later. Better people than us might have taken the opportunity to explore Madrid. Not us. We were exhausted, crashed in our Iberia-Air-provided-hotel, ate our Iberia-Air-provided-dinner, and generally did nothing.

We woke up the next morning and the trip was much more uneventful. We checked in without a hitch. We wandered the duty free store, had some coffee (Matt finally found iced coffee!) and chatted with a few of our new friends, many who had the same baggage problem as we did. We boarded our on time flight and after eight and a half hours, we were back on the ground to Chicago.

So: We are home, for real!

Days 8 and 9

2007-08-26T04:17:00.000-04:00

Well, the last few days have been busy, so I´m writing about these while we wait to catch our flight in the airport. The summaries won´t be as good, but we were a bit hurried!

We woke up around ten in Nazare and grabbed some free breakfast in our hotel, again marvelling at the amazing view from our balcony. We had to do a little shopping in the morning: I needed cold medicine, Matt needed his expresso, and we needed to get a beach towel, too. When we got all of that done, we proceeded to the beach, where we rented a small tent (one of thousands) from the widows who supervise the tent operation. We made our first attempt at going in the water, which was absolutely FREEZING. We returned to our towels, dried and read our books in the sun for awhile. Then we headed off to forage for lunch and mail some postcards. We left our towels to mark our spot, and returned later to find that nothing had been disturbed at all. We made our second foray into the water, and even though it was freezing, Matt and I made a go of it! We eventually got ourselves all the way into the waves, and dove and played around, trying to avoid all the young boogie boarders. We layed out some more, then went back to the hotel to clean up a bit and grab some dinner. We found a place with good crab -- I had my first crab legs! -- and decided to have a night ¨¨in¨on our balcony. We walked to a pizza place and ordered a chorizo and pimento pizza, and while waiting for the pizza tried some of Nazare´´s famous homemade amaretto. It was so good that we bought a bottle. Then we grabbed some beers, picked up our pizza, and spent the night watching the surf and the people from our balcony. It was a delightfully relaxing day.

When we woke up the next morning, we packed up the car and headed to Obidos, an extremely quaint and extremely touristy town. We walked around the small walled town quickly, exploring its churches and palace, and trying the famous Obidos cherry liquor (not so good). Then we got on the road to Lisbon, where we continued our relaxation... a late afternoon-early evening by the pool, dinner and wine, repacking our suitcases and heading to bed.

2007-08-24T12:53:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, we got up relatively early and had breakfast at our hotel, wishing safe travels to our British friends who were there too. We got in the car, and I proceeded to get us quite lost trying to get to the highway. (I would say incredibly lost, but I will save that for later in the day.) We began driving to Coimbra, Portugal's university town, but when we saw signs for the Bucacao Forest, we decided to take a small detour. (We remembered seeing the site in 1000 Places to See Before You Die.) We drove up into the lovely forest and explored the grounds of the palace hotel. It was hard to believe the lovely castle had paying guests now, instead of royalty.

We got back on the road to Coimbra, and after a few more wrong turns, landed in the center of town. By then I was a bit distressed - I have been our generally good navigator all trip long, and the day was going pretty poorly for us, direction wise. Little did I know what was to come.
Matt calmed me down by taking me for some of Coimbras famous pastries, which were good, but no pastel de nata. We then began walking around town, visiting churches, the shopping streets - including one called the ´Street of Broken Ribs´beause it was so steep, and the university itself. The old university was on top of a very large hill. We took an elevator, then a funicular to get there. The university square was designed by fascists, and you could tell. It was very imperial looking, and stark.

We got some late lunch-early dinner, and hopped on the road at about five pm for the 1.5 hour drive to Nazare, the beach town where we planned to spend the remainder of our trip. We found the A1 easily. TOO easily. Within minutes we were commenting to each other: Huh, I thought the A1 would be bigger than this. I thought it would have a toll. I didn't think it would have donkeys. And then we were lost, terribly lost. We wandered from tiny city to tiny city, discovering an hour later that the A17 (which we were aiming to get to) did not exist yet, despite being on our map. We found ourselves on a country road we thought would be perfect... until it spontaneously ended. At that point, Matt switched seats and gave me my first manual driving lesson. I did okay until it got to starting on a hill. So we switched back, and we saw a couple of cars. We thought, we should follow them. They must be going somewher - maybe to a city or at least to a road with a name. We followed them, followed them... right into their driveway at the end of a dead end dirt road on top of a hill. Oops. Matt executed a lovely seventeen point turn to get us out of their driveway, as they all stared but said nothing. After another hour of driving, we wound up back in Coimbra, where we began the trip to Nazare again. The second time around, the drive was relatively uneventful. We arrived at our beautiful beach front hotel, discovered we had been given the best room in the place (with a balcony facing the beach), and grabbed some dinner and drinks. We discovered that this is where all the people are - there wer e thousands just walking the streets, drinking, laughing and dancing. We joined them, and then fell into a sound sleep late that night.

Day 6, Porto

2007-08-21T14:58:00.001-04:00

Today we woke up relatively early - especially when you take into account the amount of wine we drank last night - and ate the delicious breakfast that comes with our hotel. We walked around the area, doing some shopping on the way. I got a cute pair of pants and a top that were both extremely cheap. Matt had some bica - espresso, which we are having all of the time out here - while I perused the shops. We went down town and explored a couple of the older churches. One in particular was built in the 13th century and was absolutely amazing. The inside of the church was entirely covered in gold leaf, which was a little overwhelming. At one time Napolean used the church as a stable, but theyºve since returned it to its original glory.

After churching, we walked to the Ribiero - riverwalk region. We had some lunch, including chorizo sausage cooked right at our table on a little spit. Then we walked across the river Duoro on one of the town's six bridges to Villa Nova de Gaia, where all of the port places are. While port grapes are grown and crushed a hundred miles away in the Duoro Valley, the wines are all brought here immediately for the aging process to begin. Port wines can sit in warehouses in Villa Nova de Gaia for dozens and dozens of years. The oldest we tasted today was a 70 year old port, which was fantastic.

Matt and I came here intending to buy a bottle or two of young vintage port that we could lay down until our 25th wedding anniversary. It seemed like a sign when one of the 18 port makers in Villa Nova de Gaia was named Porto Vasconcellos. We bought two bottles of the most recent vintage - 2003, the year we met - and tried some of their non vintage ports. We are so excited to drink it someday.

We came back to relax and nurse our sunburns in our Baroque Suite. Apparently the nicest room in our very quirky hotel, it is actually three different rooms: a bedroom, a sitting room and a bathroom. The rooms are dominated by heavy wooden furniture. Three wall length mirrors fill up one wall, and when you look closer, you realize they mask a huge armoire. Another giant dark wooden piece disguises a writing desk. Over our bed is something that looks like a gargoyle, but is actually a wooden carving of birds kissing. Aww. We also have a couple of really, really large chandeliers in the room. The tiny tv in the corner is very out of place. When we are able to post pictures, we will post one of the room.

Now we are off to dinner!

Days 4 and 5, Evora, Elvas, Duoro Valley and Porto

2007-08-21T14:58:00.000-04:00

The last two days have been a bit of a blur, but I am going to try to write about them quickly. On Sunday morning we got up relatively early, grabbed a little breakfast in the executive suite, and then started our first real road trip to Elvas by way of Evora. Just before we reached Evora, we stopped to visit some 7000 year old rock formations. Nearly one hundred giant rocks were scattered in a loose oval as an apparent temple to the sun gods. We explored for a few minutes, and then drove to Evora and parked outside of the walled city. We walked into the city and began exploring from the town square, visiting churches and seeing the many Roman ruins. Did you know that much of Portugal was under roman rule from 400 bc to 200 ad or so? We didn`t, either, and were surprised to find Roman aqueducts, temples and arches everywhere. The highlight of our time in Evora was seeing the chapel of the bones - a chapel with walls covered in more than 5000 skulls and many other types of bones. It was built in the 1600s to remind people of the fleetingness of goods and the permanency of death. We had some lunch in a cafe in the square, and enjoyed the regional sweet cheese tarts, and moved on to Elvas.

Elvas was a lovely city, another walled one, and Matt had arranged for us to stay in a pousada - a government sponsored inn, usually made in old churches, convents, monasteries, castles etc. Ours was lovely. Though we arrived late in the day, we explored the walled city quickly, seeing the castle and the church. We returned to our hotel for a quick dip in the pool, and then changed and headed back to the walled city for dinner. We grabbed an outdoor table in the square and discovered that there was a weekend festival where different people would give concerts starting at ten at night. We sat under the stars, listened to the concert, drank some of the famous vinho verde, and had an absolutely amazing evening.

Yesterday we did a huge road trip - about six hours up to the Duoro Valley, which is where most ports are produced. However, they do not stay there - after only one year of aging, they are sent down the river to age further in Porto. We explored one of the quintas - wineries - where Fonseca port is made. It was shockingly empty as we did an hour long tour of the vineyards and tasted two of their fine ports. The views from there were incredible - steep mountains all leading down to the duoro river. We had lunch and drove the rest of the way to Porto, where we checked into our crazy hotel. More on that later. We had a bottle of wine outside on the hotel's patio where we met two very nice English couples who were vacationing on their motorbikes. The six of us went to dinner together at a nearby restaurant, where Matt and I finally tried the famous local cod and we were given a celebratory bottle of champagne for our honeymoon. We got into lively discussions with our new friens about the national health system, the Simpsons, and everything else under the sun. Then we returned home to our Baroque Suite and went to bed.

Days 2 and 3 in Lisboa, Sintra, Cascais, etc.

2007-08-18T15:54:00.000-04:00

Today we managed to sleep in until eleven thirty a.m. Eleven thirty! Can you imagine? We both thought we'd wake up grossly early, like at five a.m., since we went to bed at nine. Apparently our day of travel wore us out. When we finally awoke, we quickly showered, stopped in the executive lounge to grab a couple of diet pepsis, and took of for the town of Sintra. There we got stuck in traffic and drove very slowly for awhile. Eventually we parked and started hiking up towards the Pena Castle. Turns out it was a very long, three mile, uphill the entire way hike. V was appalled, especially as it kept going and going and the castle never seemed to get any closer. But we still had a fun time, checking out the Moorish Castle on the way and eating a couple of our emergency granola bars. When we made it up to the Pena CAstle, we bought our tickets adn started exploring. We saw the King's quarters, where he kept a phone so he could call Lisbon and listen to the opera. The castle was originally a monastery and was converted to a castle in the mid-1800s. In early 1910, everyone fled.

After exploring the castle, we had a 45 minute stumble down to our car and then drove home. Now we are out to a fantastic dinner that V has planned for us. One interesting thing about our room: There is a little slot inside the door, in the hallway. You have to stick your key into it so that you can have lights and air conditioning. If you don't, you have none of those things. Isn't that strange? It's smart, though, and definitely conserves electricity. We have a bidet but we haven't quite figured out how to use it yet.

Soon, we are off to a fancy dinner V has planned for us. Yum!

---

Today was our third day in Lisbon. First, I realize I need to write about dinner last night!
Matt planned two Portugese dinners long ago, when we were still in the states, and had a Portugese speaking classmate make reservations for us. This was one of those. We went to a restaurant called Clara, which was intimate and calm. There were few customers, and it reminded us both as a place that was a bit past its prime -- maybe a place that was big ten, twenty years ago? However, the service and the food were both amazing. We started the evening with glasses of white wine from the duoro valley, melon and proscuitto and the best french onion soup I've ever had. The french onion soup was creamy rather than brothy... I let Matt taste enough so that he can -- hopefully -- recreate it when we get home. For entrees, I had a pork and pineapple mixture with a delicate butter sauce, along with potatoes and roasted vegetables. Matt had a 'torenado clara' - a beef tornado that was also quite good. By then, we had moved on to a delicious red blend from Portugal... when we find the paper where we recorded the name, we'll let you know, because it was inexpensive and good.

After dinner came the cheese course, where we tried six different Portugese cheeses. I surprised myself by liking at least four, maybe even five of them. (I'm usually averse to smelly cheeses.) The manager brought us complimentary glasses of Port after hearing we were on our honeymoon, and we finished the night with chocolate and walnut cakes. The owner and the waiter hung out and talked to us for more than an hour, giving us advice on where we should go on our travels. As we stumbled home, we decided to follow their advice today.
Thus, today, we grabbed a quick breakfast and then got up and headed towards the west coast on one of the slower, smaller roads. We first stopped in Belem, a large suburb of Lisbon, which contains a fantastic church, monastery and cloisters. (It's a Rick Steve's three triangle destination, if that means anything.) We explored the church, and got in just before they closed it to tourists so that a wedding could take place. The bride had an incredibly long, Cathedral length veil. It seemed like the wedding was mostly in French. We had lunch at a small place -- a funky chicken salad for me and pork for Matt -- and then went to the place that is famous for inventing the pastel de nata. We bought a few and took them over to the riverbank to eat them next to the Monument of Discovers (I think). We saw the tomb of Vasco de Gama, who is very famous in these parts.

We continued on towards the resort town of Cascais, stopping for an hour or so on the beach. The water was frigid so neither of us went in much. It started getting quite windy, and we hopped back in the car to head towards our final destination: Cabo de Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe. On the way, the wind blew harder and harder. Soon, traffic on the tiny road slowed to a crawl, and sand was hitting the side of the car with incredible force. We finally came up to the reason for the slow down: on our two lane road, the sand had been blown into such a drift that a car had become stuck in it, leaving only one small lane for both directions to use. A single guy was pushing the car, so Matt and I parked ours right behind him and jumped out to help. Wow, did that sand hurt. We were being hit with it from every angle, but after a mere minute or two of pushing, the three of us got the car out of the sandy road. Matt and I hopped back in our car -- which was now also filled with sand, thanks to our opening the doors -- and traversed the sand bank ourselves. As we continued our drive, we kept finding sand in the worst places: our mouths, our inner ears, our arm hair. Matt had a bunch in his eyes. I don't know how I avoided that fate. However, we felt like we were getting some good karma. Also our skin will be quite soft from now on. The westernmost point in continental Europe was lovely, but again super windy. We only stayed for a few minutes to say we had been, then we hopped on the major highway and headed home. Now, we are here, eating some appetizers and planning the rest of our night. Maybe dinner and drinks?

Day 1 in Lisboa

2007-08-18T13:26:00.000-04:00

UNEDITED: Honeymoon in Portugal, Day 1.

We arrived in Lisbon about three hours ago, and so far, things have gone well. Our flights over were relatively uneventful. We started the honeymoon off with appetizers and margaritas in the Chili's Too bar in O'Hare airport. Delicious. But turns out that $2 margarita special does not apply to the airport Chili's. They were $8 apiece! We were seated way back, in the 43rd row of the airplane, right in front of a screaming baby. Thank goodness the family realized that the 44th row was not equipped with bassinet seats, and they got the flight attendants to switch them to a different spot in the plane. The remainder of our flight was screaming baby free. We started the flight just reading, and then enjoyed dinner (chicken with kale, carrots and rice for me, beef with potatoes and pearl onions for Matt). Then we settled in for our "date," as Matt called it, with some complimentary red wine and the first episode of the first season of the O.C. on our new red DVD player. When that was over, we both attempted to sleep (missing the good flick Waitress while we did so). Only two hours later we were awakened with croissants, fruit and OJ. Matt decided he needed to drink more tea. We landed smoothly in Madrid, and went through long customs lines and just made our flight to Lisbon.

Once we arrived in Lisbon, Matt took over. He found the rental car place, and expertly drove the little diesel stick-shift Hyundai Matrix out of the Avis parking lot. Unfortunately, we had a single flimsy map, and nothing but a street name for our hotel. After driving about fifteen minutes, we finally located street signs on the streets, and I then navigated us to our hotel. We checked in and were happy to discover a free parking spot (assuming no one steals our car), and that we had been upgraded to an executive suite, which comes with free access to the executive lounge. THAT comes with free drinks all day, breakfast, cocktails and canapes at night, and free internet access. (Thanks for your help, Dad!) I'll do my best to keep updating this journal from here. For now, we are off on a hike around town. Then I think we'll hit the free drinks and canapes later this evening.

---

After I last wrote, we headed downtown to the Bairro Alto region (i am sure i am spelling that completely wrong). By following rick steve's map, I had us walk up an entire huge hill instead of taking the lovely, easy funicular. Ah well. We saw a church with a wooden ceiling that was faux domed, and also had a small chapel that was made in rome, then dissasembled and reassembled here. It had paintings that were actually mosiacs. Matt wondered, did they dissemble those as well? I imagine those would be harder to assemble than the Target furniture Meg and I were working on last week.

After that, we went to the port institute. I got a late vintage 2000 ruby port, Matt got a 10 year aged tawny port and smoked a tiny cuban cigar. All was delicious. The place was great, and we hope to go back. We continued on, walking through the church that collapsed during the 1755 earthquake and was never rebuilt. We had lunch of ham and cheese toasted sandwiches, water and bean soup, and grabbed a pastel de nata (custard filled pastry about the size of a muffin) for dessert. Then we hopped a 28 bus and went over to the Amalfa (??) side of town. We explored the castelo over there, and checked out the beautiful views. By that time we were quite running out of steam, and even cappucinos and another pastel de nata didn't help. Now we are back at the hotel, partaking in free appetizers and drinks in the executive suite. Later tonight? A little drink, a little tv, a lot of bed.

Overseas!

2007-08-15T13:16:00.000-04:00

The move-in has gone well and Mer and Alex's wedding was lovely. Won't update for awhile, because we are off on our Portugese honeymoon! See you when we return.

A few special touches...

2007-08-07T17:09:00.000-04:00

A few parts of our reception got commented on over and over and over again.

#1: The Hot Dog Buffet. Matt and I decided to have a late night hot dog bar to help ensure people had the energy for dancing all night, and to give them something to soak up a tiny bit of the alcohol they would have consumed by that point. Major hit. Here, Trish, Austin and Erin enjoy hot dogs.

We were inspired by the Notre Dame tradition of Quarter Dogs, and posted an explanatory sign on the hot dog buffet.

#2: Flip-flops. Awhile ago, I saw a reception online that had a basket of flip-flops in different sizes so that people could change in to comfortable shoes mid reception. I forgot about it, and only remembered when I was flipping through an US Weekly last week and saw Rebecca Romaijn (?) had similar baskets of flip-flops at her wedding. One quick call to my mom, and a basket of flip-flops in various sizes magically appeared at our reception.

#3: Table cakes. We don't have any pictures right now, but we had different flavors of cakes on each table, serving as the centerpieces. Four tables each of carrot, strawberry, amaretto and chocolate mocha cakes. My grandma made the carrot cakes and they were fantastic. After dinner, people tried their cakes, and then bartered with other tables to trade pieces of different flavors.

All in all, it was a pretty fantastic wedding.

Married!

2007-08-06T16:04:00.001-04:00

The wedding was absolutely amazing. Matt and I have never been happier, and everything went beautifully. More on the wedding later, but here are a couple of pictures to tide you over until then.

The two of us during the vows.

Kissing after the cake cutting at the reception.

Best day ever

2007-07-29T08:10:00.000-04:00

I returned home from the bar very late on Thursday night, and while Matt was on work Friday I attended to many small wedding and apartment related tasks.

Then, yesterday, Matt put together a day long plan of celebration in honor of my being done with the bar exam. It was amazing. The morning started with a stop at Bruegger's bagels for my favorite breakfast sandwich. We made a quick detour to Travis Pointe, where we firmed up our final wedding reception plans. From there, we drove to Detroit, where he surprised me with tickets to the Body exhibit at the science museum. I've been wanting to see the plastinated bodies for a long time, and the exhibit was absolutely incredible. It's hard to believe how well our bodies work, especially after you see all of the organs and capillaries and things that are squished in there. Wow.

After that, we headed over to Hamtramck for lunch at the best Polish restaurant in town, Polonia. I had my favorite combination plate, with sausages, potato pancakes and dumplings with beet soup. We proceeded to check out Matt's office (in an amazing renovated house), Pewabic Pottery and the fancy houses of Grosse Pointe. We headed back to Ann Arbor and went to see Ratatouille at the Carpenter Road theatre. The movie was cute, light, fun, and somehow made us want to eat again. We ended the special day with dinner at our favorite local Italian restaurant, Palio.

The whole day was so planned out and thoughtful, and he kept each destination a surprise until we got there. Isn't that great? And just less than a week, I get to marry this guy.

I'm off

2007-07-22T14:38:00.001-04:00

Leave your good luck wishes here; I'm off to Chicago for the bar. Cheers to the rest of you taking the exam!

End in sight

2007-07-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's the little things that make me realize the bar and the wedding are almost here. For example, I have milk that expires after the bar exam. My next credit card bill doesn't have to be paid until after the wedding.

For now, I've only got 1.5 days left before Heather and I head to Chicago to the test. I'm going to go hit up my usual exam studying haunt -- the Artisan Bistro -- and take another practice test.

A matter of taste

2007-07-15T16:24:00.000-04:00

Matt and I have agreed on many things throughout this registering/furnishing a new apartment process. For example, the white and orange plates we chose. (It is hard to see, but the undersides are entirely orangey-red. Lovely.)

We also both love our super-funky headboard, which is a silvery-blue fabric with velvety, chocolate brown swirls, and the awesome chocolate brown furniture we got to match it. (Okay, the headboard is hard to explain.)

Our biggest differences so far have been with sofas. I love a nice, clean, cushy, profesionally slipcovered sofa. He wants a large, dark, manly leather sofa. Thus far, we've been unable to find a sofa we are both happy with purchasing. I have visions of an incredibly silly-looking living room where we each have our own couch, neither matching the other. Either that, or we'll both be sitting on the ground.

Oh my.

2007-07-13T18:50:00.000-04:00

I am taking the bar exam in eleven days. I am getting married in twenty-two days.

Things are happening. I'm a little nervous and very excited, all at once.

Water & air

2007-07-12T11:49:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but Matt went to Chicago a few weeks ago and found us a fantastic Lakeview apartment for us to live in for at least the next year. It's a two bedroom apartment, with a large sort of segmented living room/dining room. It has an awesome exposed brick wall and super high, wood beamed ceilings. We have a porch, too, where we'll be able to fit a table and a couple of chairs, and a gril. We're the only apartment on the fourth floor of a four story brownstone (no elevator, but we will get buff!) on a quiet street, so we'll no longer have to deal with loud upstairs neighboors or crazy street traffic. Also, we're only a block from the happening Clark/Diversey intersection, six blocks from the lake, and within a mile of Wrigley field. It's going to be a fantastic home.

The special highlights of the apartment, though, are the dishwasher and the central air. This will be the first time Matt's ever had a dishwasher -- in his entire life! He is so excited. I do most of the dishes around the house, so I'm pretty excited too. But I'm even more excited about the central air. Our single, tiny window unit in Ann Arbor doesn't even cool down the room it is in, much less the bedrooms and bathroom. I can't wait to have it. However, I realize I have no clue how to opoerate it. What temperature do people normally set their air at in the summer, and in the winter? Do they change it when they leave the house? All these new, grown-up considerations.

Getting dumber every day

2007-07-11T13:47:00.000-04:00

All of this studying has made me dumber in the rest of my life.

Case in point: Today, I chopped up a bunch of celery sticks, leaving the relatively inedible leafy stems and white, dirty bottoms in the sink along with a pile of dishes. Then, over my lunch hour, I attacked the dishes. While washing the dishes, I washed a piece of celery with actual soap, and then put the cleaned celery in the silverware part of the drying rack before realizing what I was doing. Seriously. I don't know if I have the brainpower to take the exam, or the required capacity to enter into a marriage contract.

Happy fourth!

2007-07-04T11:04:00.000-04:00

This fourth of July is somewhat low key. This morning I ran a 5K with Amanda, Alison, Jackie, Geri and Meredith. (Alex was there too, though he was a good 15 minutes ahead of us!) For some reason this morning's run was super tough. I felt achy and tired, and wasn't as cheerful as I usually am during runs with friends. But we still ran an okay, race, finishing under 35 minutes.

Right now I'm relaxing at home with a Law and Order marathon and my BarBri book. This afternoon, I'm off to Detroit for my dress fitting and then to the McCourts to visit some of my favorite kids. Matt's day is a little more exciting: he's off in Amherst, Massachusetts, setting up his final 2007 fireworks show. He called me this morning and left a message reminding me that there's only one month until our wedding. Can you believe it??

I like where we are here

2007-06-30T21:43:00.000-04:00

I had a good day. This morning, I slept in and got up around nine. I cleaned up around the house and ran important errands -- the post office, the library. I came back, grabbed my books and headed over to the new organic deli across the street from our house. Had a great basic bagel with chive cream cheese and studied the rest of the morning away.

This afternoon I settled in to work on my wedding scrapbook, do a little more cleaning, write some thank you notes and study some more. Leftover pizza and salad made for a great dinner. I chatted with my mom and Meg, and saw a picture of my dad's brand new puppy (super cute). Then, out of nowhere, I had some sort of desire to go on a run. Before it passed, I threw on my running clothes and jogged out of the house.

I've never been a really natural runner. I love the social aspects of running, and even some of the competitive aspects of it. But I'm not big on running just for the fun of it, so it's pretty rare that I run on my own -- either I can't find the motivation, or the time, or I'm not in shape enough. But today it happened: I went on a 30 minute run, and it was all fun. Maybe it was finding my ipod shuffle buried in a drawer and stocking it with good running music, or maybe it was the weather. I'm not going to question it. But now I'm going to stretch a bit!

Make me a mnemonic

2007-06-30T14:43:00.000-04:00

I have been studying for the bar exam for a few weeks now, and one of the things it involves the most is mnemonics. Some are phrases like "I put five bucks down" for injunctions (inadequate legal remedy, property right/protected interest, feasibility of enforcement, balancing interests and defenses). Some are words, like the PAW for service of process: personal, adobe or waiver services are adequate.

All of these mnemonics have been given to us by professors. I'm trying to develop a few for other subjects, where the professors don't use mnemonics. But this one is bugging me: I need one for sixteen letters. It could be either a phrase with each word starting with a different of the sixteen letters, a phrase where each letter stands for one of the sixteen letters, or a really long word.

Anyone out there bored, and want to help? The letters are: cfieidadhcelcgip (in alphabetical order, aeecccddfghiiilp).

(In case you are curious, those are the sixteen items that qualify as collateral: consumer goods, farm products, inventory, equipment, instruments, documents, accounts, deposit accounts, health care insurance receivables, chattel paper, electronic chattel paper, letter of credit right, commercial tort claims, general intangibles, investment property, and proceeds.)

Success!

2007-06-23T11:19:00.000-04:00

This weekend is my first in town in six weeks... it's actually nice to have a couple of wide open days where I can study and watch tv until I fall asleep, rather than pack up, lug my books onto a plane, fly across the country and fly back just before Monday morning's class.

Yesterday, I celebrated by going to see Waitress with Mer and Alex. It was pretty cheesy, but also pretty cute. It was worth the $5 student ticket price. It was in my long list of movies to see, which also includes Knocked Up, You Kill Me, After the Wedding, and Ratatouille.

Then this morning, Alison, Jackie and I completed the Solstice 5K in Northville! We were very faithful in our training for the first few weeks, but as bar studying started to take over my life, I got worse about meeting them for our regular runs. However, this morning we came together again and successfully completed the whole thing with no walking. Doug and Matt (Alison's boyfriend and Jackie's husband, respectively) cheered us on to a fast finish.

Where is my Matt, you ask? Well, my Matt took off yesterday morning for his bachelor party in Vegas. He's as excited as he gets - he was grinning when I dropped him off at the airport. The last time he called, he was down a little money, but happy to be among his friends and the city he loves to visit.

Now I'm going to relax in front of one of my favorite guilty pleasures -- old Dawson's Creek DVDs, checked out of the library by Matt for me -- and work on learning Contracts, Property and Constitutional Law. Hope y'all are having similarly lovely days.

Off to the West Coast... again

2007-06-14T16:30:00.000-04:00

It's time for our second wedding of the year. Our first was Bethany and Eric's (though I attended on my own) in Cedar Falls a few weeks ago... now Matt and I are off to Seattle to see our dear friends Mary and Jeremy get married. It's a quick trip on the heels of my quick trip last weekend to Las Vegas. I feel like my body just got used to the East Coast and now I'm flying it back to the West Coast again. Man, I am sure a wimp about jet lag.

A picture of last weekend's fun with some of my favorite college friends:

Terrific times

2007-06-05T17:49:00.000-04:00

My weekend in Chicago was an incredible success. Matt and I arrived late Thursday night and spent some time hanging out with Meg in her brand new apartment (she moved in a mere day earlier). We lucked out finding a terrific parking spot right outside her building... of course, when we went out to feed the meter the next morning at eight, we discovered that it served as a rush hour tow zone between seven and nine a.m. on weekdays. Oops. The car was gone and I spent an entire afternoon trying to get it back. Special thanks to my dad, who took time out of his business trip to fax a letter in saying that it was actually okay for me to pick up the car.

While Matt lunched with one firm and interviewed with another, I had lunch with a few people from my own law firm and caught up on the office scoop. That evening, our friends trickled into town: my Notre Dame friend Erin from Champaign took the train in that afternoon, my high school friend Bethany drove in from Iowa, and my ND friend Kate flew in from DC. Matt's sisters also arrived that night, and while he went out to dinner with his older sister, I hung out with Meg, Erin, Kate and Bethany. We ate frozen pizza and drank wine until late into the night. It was very fun -- I was a little nervous because while most of them know one another, they aren't good friends, and you know how girls can be awkward when they're stuck together for a long period of time and they don't know each other well. Luckily, my nerves were totally unnecessary, and as far as I could tell, we all got on like houses (or a small village?) on fire.

The next morning the five of us, plus Matt's sisters, went out for breakfast at the Best. Restaurant. Ever. (The Bongo Room.) As usual, it was delicious, especially my oreo banana pancakes. Then us girls primped quickly and headed over to ND friend Emily's home for my afternoon shower. The shower was totally wonderful. My many bridesmaids put so much thought and work into every little detail: delicious food, including my favorite of all foods (bacon). Tea for everyone in china cups. The favors were lovely tea bags, and the game prizes were flowers planted into small yellow teapots. I was overwhelmed by all of it - and the volume of presents we received! Our whole trunk was filled when we left.

Emily is on the left, Meg is on the right, and I am in the middle. Em is nine months pregnant with a baby boy and is due any day!

My mom drove out for the shower. Isn't that wonderful? The few who hadn't met her were shccked at how much we looked alike.

Later that night, a gaggle of us went out bachelorette partying. We had dinner at Giordano's and then hit a number of Clark Street bars, getting free drinks and hoots and hollers along the way. We tried to take pictures outside of the bars we frequented - this is one.

Left to right: Kelly, Chrissy, Tricia, Adrienne, me, Erin, Meg, Amy, Kate, Bethany, Carrie, Heather.

Em's baby shower was the next day (planned by Erin). It was great to relax with everyone, and Tricia even brought her youngest child. I got to hold him a lot which was fun. I know I'm not ready for one myself, but I am excited that my friends are starting to have them... it means I have a baby to play with for awhile, then give back!

All in all, it was a completely amazing weekend. Thanks to all those involved ;-)

Graduate

2007-05-30T22:27:00.000-04:00

It's official; I've graduated from both law school and public health school. I've gotten my final grades and I'm happy to say I passed all of my classes. Having all of the family in for graduation was great, and Matt did a fantastic job of coordinating everything.

Since graduation, I've been travelling quite a bit. Matt and I went out to Boston, where his sister Carrie threw us an amazing party. Then I was off to Iowa to visit my mother and to go to Bethany's wedding, which was absolutely beautiful and sweet and wonderful. I drove back home on Sunday (with a quick detour to a friend's Chicago BBQ), and then started work and BarBri. This weekend we're heading back to Chicago: Matt has interviews, and I have much more fun stuff to do: help Meg with her new apartment, attend my own shower and bachelorette party, and attend Emily's baby shower. I can't wait to see everyone and celebrate!

Phone time

2007-05-15T13:50:00.000-04:00

I'm finally up for a new phone from Verizon. I've narrowed it down to two choices, and now I'm looking for any outside input. Do any of you out there have thoughts on the Samsung SCH-U540 or the LG Cherry Chocolate?

Last free week...

2007-05-12T08:46:00.000-04:00

This week is my last "free week" before a summer of travelling, studying and getting married begins. I'll be working at the hospital during the days, of course, but this weekend and during the evenings I'm going to try to take advantage of the bit of freedom that I have. What should I do around Ann Arbor that I haven't done in awhile? My plans right now include bike rides, picnics and Dominick's.... I need to add more to this list.

Matt got home last night from an interview in Chicago. We relaxed for the evening with my mother's famous beef stroganoff and stuffed strawberries, and watched more of the fifth season of the Shield. If you don't watch it, you're missing out. The show -- in particular, this fifth season with Forest Whitaker -- is amazing.

Check, check

2007-05-09T16:56:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting around with a gargantuan headache and realized I hadn't updated over here in awhile, primarily because my laptop crashed. So I'm borrowing Matt's for a few and thought I'd say hi to cyberspace.

Over the last two weeks, I graduated with my masters degree in public health and my law degree. Many family members came in to visit: my mom, my dad and his wife, my grandma, my sister and Matt's mom. My mom and I took care of a few wedding details while she was in town (I now have pretty, sparkly shoes) and she brought in a giant box of wedding invitations. Now I'm spending several blissful days addressing them while Matt is off to Chicago for an interview with a medium sized law firm there. Keep your fingers crossed on his behalf!

Ouch

2007-04-24T10:38:00.001-04:00

My hard drive crashed this morning, one day before my last final exam and my last paper need to be turned in. I'm at the law school printing out things I backed up. This bites.

Hard drive failing...

2007-04-17T11:03:00.000-04:00

I've been getting a lot of random error messages lately, and I finally wrote down one of them and googled it. Bad news. The results suggest that my hard drive is failing. My computer is no longer under warranty. The computer is also only a year and a half old. I'm a bit upset.

Tired and unmotivated

2007-04-16T10:57:00.000-04:00

In nine days, I'll be done with my traditional schooling. I'll have everything done for my master's degree and everything done for my law degree.

Now I need to find the motivation to get through these nine days. I've reached the point of not caring much about the politics of the New York trans fat ban, or spendthrift and discretionary trusts, or insurance reimbursement of complimentary and alternative medicine.

However, I'm pretty darn excited for tomorrow. As a part of a presentation on complementary and alternative medicine, my group is having an acupuncturist come to class and I am the test subject. How cool (and nerve-wracking) is that?

Injured everywhere

2007-04-14T17:45:00.000-04:00

I'm a clumsy kid. This morning, I was walking at full speed and one of my arms ran into the doorknob. The arm still hurts.

This afternoon, I was trying to get a picture frame off of the top shelf by standing on a small, spinning chair. Bad idea. I feel off of the chair, and one of my feet landed directly on one of the chair bars. With my full weight behind it. Now I have a huge bar shaped lump on the bottom of my foot.

And, thanks to an hour and a half of errand running on foot and pilates yesterday, my right calf is extremely tight and painful. Ick. I'm a basketcase today.

Bom dia!

2007-04-13T09:16:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile. Finals preparations have taken over for the last couple of weeks. I don't have anything too intense going on, but I'm writing two large papers, making a thirty minute final presentation, and taking a final in Trusts and Estates.

In cooler news, Matt and I finally booked our honeymoon. We're going to be in Portugal for ten days and we are both super-excited. We're going to do our best to hit up the entire country while we are there - Lisbon, Nazare, Obidos, Fatima, Porto and the Duoro Valley, Elvas and Evora... and about two dozen other places. Okay, realistically, we know we won't make it everywhere, but we'll definitely venture outside the capital city for much of our trip.

Recently I got asked to be a bridesmaid in my friend Kate's wedding. She's having a Notre Dame wedding around St. Patrick's Day next year. This will be only the second wedding I've attended in the gorgeous basilica, and both Kate and I were bridesmaids in the other one, too. Anyhow, I'm so excited to be part of the day. My friend Bethany is getting married in just over a month back in Iowa, and I get to read in that one. Another cool role, though there's more potential for embarassment if I trip up over long, biblical words. Anyhow, I know some people hate being in bridal parties. I love it. ;-) I can't decide if I love the social aspect of it, the support aspect, or if I just like weddings. Probably some combination of all of it.

New member of the household

2007-03-26T21:00:00.000-04:00

No, we are not getting a baby.

No, we are not getting a pet.

We got a chair.

This chair, in fact. We got a matching ottoman as well, but I'm unable to locate a picture of it online. When we get the chair moved and settled in, we will take its picture and post it just like proud parents.

This weekend, Matt and I went to Pier One. One of their local stores is going out of business, and we thought it might be nice to see if they had any napkin rings that match ours on sale. We could use a few more. But while browsing through the store, we discovered the chair. Comfortable, big enough to tuck your feet on, a color that goes with everything... we fell in love. However, since we weren't really in the market for furniture, we decided to step back for a day or two. The kind lady at the cash register overheard our conversation and suggested that if we liked the chair Saturday, we would like it even more on Monday.

Boy, was she right. I called the store today, and the chair/ottoman set that was almost $400 on Saturday was now $200.

Matt and I decided that we needed it. Alas, he's in Chicago for an interview, so I hopped on my pink 18 speed bike (man, I should get a new bike) and sped over to Pier One. I arrived, out of breath, and bought it. Tomorrow, when Matt gets back to town, we'll go pick it up.

If I'm this excited about a chair (our very first furniture purchase as a couple), I can't imagine when we get a cat. Or a baby. It's going to be madness.

Weddings on the brain

2007-03-23T10:59:00.000-04:00

Lately, I've been having wedding nightmares. I don't know if it's just because I spend a reasonable amount of time planning the wedding or what, but I'm having them at least a couple of times a week. Madness!

In last night's dream, I wore my wedding dress to the dress rehearsal. Dress rehearsal, right? It made sense. But everyone laughed. Then, the next morning, I slept in and forgot that I had to get my hair and makeup done. When I finally made it to the church, and the ceremony was about halfway through, I realized I had forgotten to write the portion of the service I am writing. I was taking notes right up there on the altar and trying to discreetly pass them to one of my bridesmaids to read.

What's wrong with me?

Girl time

2007-03-19T13:24:00.001-04:00

Friday night was an absolute treasure. Friends Geri, Anne and Janine came over for the evening. We opened a bottle of Chardonnay, dug out some beers, and dove into the four-layer Whole Food dip and blue corn chips that Geri brought with her. We chatted, ate more food (Lean Totino’s pizza rolls, some only-slightly-burnt Snickerdoodles) and watched Center Stage, one of my favorite girly movies. Okay, it’s a terrible movie, but I always enjoy watching it. Janine crashed at my place afterwards and we spent most of the next day lazing around the house, watching TV and chatting.

What a great night! I sometimes forget how much I miss classic girl time, until I have it again. I’ve got to remember to make sure those things happen every now and then.

Dreams

2007-03-14T09:18:00.000-04:00

I woke in the wee hours of the morning to loud noises. For a minute I was dazed, until I realized the noises were Matt. He was clapping his hands together, loudly, approximately six inches from my ear.

Groggily, I asked, “What are you doing?”

He looked at me like the answer was obvious, and responded, “Well, you were the one who wanted to get married by clapping.” And then he went back to sleep.

Honeymoon choices

2007-03-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

We started off our honeymoon plans very gung-ho about going to China. We realized immediately that we didn't want to navigate it by ourselves, and started looking into tour packages. They seemed reasonably affordable, and pretty interesting, though none of the tours hit every spot we were hoping to go.

Then, suddenly, the tides turned in our house. We both started thinking about going to Portugal. Actual travel time is shorter and the trip is a little "easier" (Chinese > Portugese). There's still cool cultural stuff to see, but there are also beaches in case we realize we need relaxation time above all else.

What would you do?

$5 Special

2007-03-07T09:57:00.001-05:00

Going to the movies used to be a pretty special occasion in my house. Growing up, my family went to a movie or so a year (usually around Thanksgiving time, for whatever reason). And even when I began to really enjoy movies, I was much more of a rental girl than a theatre girl.

This has all changed. On a rainy Tuesday night last November, Matt, my friend Alison and I went to the movies to see the Departed. It had been getting rave reviews; we figured we should check it out. Matt walked up to the register and asked for two tickets. The baby-faced guy behind the counter said, five dollars. Assuming he meant five dollars apiece, Matt handed him a ten. The guy gave us five in change! Apparently, the Jackson Road Quality 16 has special Tuesday deals that appear totally unadvertised on their signs. First special? You can get a ticket for $5. (Okay, that part is advertised. The sign says “Bargain Tuesday, $5.00.”) The second special? Apparently tickets are buy one, get one free! So for five dollars, we both get in to the movie. Five dollars doesn’t even buy you popcorn and soda. This deal is stunning to both of us.

Since then, we’ve made it a habit to see movies on Tuesdays, when we can. We’ve seen Pan’s Labyrinth, The Last King of Scotland, Borat and Zodiac. If only we had discovered this gem three years ago when we started here at Michigan!

I am terrible at Lent

2007-03-06T15:31:00.000-05:00

Well, my Lenten resolutions are 50/50. I have not played a computer game since Lent began. However, I also have not gone running. Not even once. I've picked up my working out a bit - definitely have used the spare bedroom elliptical a few times - and have gone walking. But nothing even close to running. If only Adrienne were here... with her here, even training for a half marathon was relatively simple. Running meant good chats three times a week! Now, running would mean freezing my butt off with no music and no companion. Not nearly as fun.

The last couple of weeks were eventful. I finished up a lot of schoolwork and then took on Spring Break. I got to catch up with Mary, went to the Chop House for my birthday, and purchased all of the favors for our wedding. Matt and I went out to Boston to visit his family (and friends), where they surprised me with a carrot cake and many presents - all books! We also got to play with our adorable nephew (well, okay, my nephew-to-be), who is learning to crawl and to slobber all over things. A funny slobbering picture will be posted soon, if I can get it off of Matt's phone...

Lent time

2007-02-20T13:59:00.000-05:00

So it's time for Lent. Matt and I celebrated Mardi Gras today with a bunch of fresh paczki from Copernicus Deli and Market. They brought them in from Hamtramck, which is basically an all-Polish community inside Detroit. Neither of us had ever had a paczki before. At the recommendation of the nice Polish lady working there, we bought four at ninety-nine cents apiece. One rose, one plum/prune, one lemon and one bavarian cream. Both of us loved the bavarian cream. My second favorite was the lemon; Matt liked the plum/prune mixture. Sure, this didn't quite fit in with my Weight-Watchers, but I figured it was a special occasion.

Now it's time to make Lenten resolutions. Every year I try to promise to do something good and to give up something bad. Last year, I gave up Diet Coke. I also promised to write a letter to a friend every day during Lent (isn't real mail great?).

This year, my current resolutions are as follows:

1) I'm giving up computer games. I'm not a huge computer gamer, but I often play little games like Minesweeper and Freecell. Sometimes I even splurge with totally silly games like Bejeweled, Sim Tower, Diner Dash, Chip's Challenge or the sheep game. I know! It's terrible. So for Lent, I propose giving them up entirely.

2) I'm taking on a running resolution - training for and completing a 10K by the time Lent is over. I've only got six weeks, but I think it's feasible. It's just going to take hard work.

What do y'all think? What are you giving up? And do you have better ideas for me?

The Amazing Race returns!

2007-02-18T17:41:00.000-05:00

I can't tell you how excited I am about the Amazing Race returning tonight. Anyone who hasn't seen it before should definitely tune in to CBS at 8 p.m. ET. Eleven teams return from previous seasons, including my favorites Drew and Kevin, and John Vito and Jill. The Race is supposed to go to awesome new locations this season and should inspire many mroe honeymoon fantasies for me and Matt.

More of an update later... I'm off to enjoy a Vietnamese dinner with Meredith, Gaby, Greg, Matt and Alex. Then it's Amazing Race time! Hurrah.

Successful retreat

2007-02-15T10:22:00.000-05:00

Well, last weekend's retreat was long, but generally good. We learned about a few things we didn't know about and we talked about a few things we've never talked about. Even better, we made new friends who joined us for an awesome Japanese steakhouse dinner after the second session.

This week has been semi-productive. Matt and I have done a bunch of wedding stuff: we got our invitation drafts, we figured out the readings for the ceremony, and we're choosing names for our different tables. Today we're checking out limos. On my own, I probably would have just booked a limo over the phone, but my little wedding planning guide (and the lawyer in me) recommends seeing the specific limo you will be getting and writing it into the contract.

Last night Matt and I celebrated Valentine's Day at a Korean restaurant in town called Seoul Garden. We went to the same restaurant three years ago for our first Valentine's Day together. It was sweet to return together. We got gifts for each other. Nothing too romantic, but thoughtful things. I bought him brandy (he's started drinking it lately and really enjoys it, but we don't have any at home). He got me a subscription to US Weekly, a magazine I've been craving - a little embarassingly - for ages.

This weekend will bring much fun and exotic food. Tomororow night is My Birthday, Observed. We're having people over for Polish food and drink to celebrate. If you're in town, come by! On Saturday my old friend Mary will be in town and we're hanging out together. Sunday brings a Vietnamese dinner party - we're making pho, spring rolls, lettuce-wrapped meatballs and a mango/sticky rice dessert. Yum.

Thanks, editors

2007-02-08T11:07:00.000-05:00

Things are busy here. I've been working on editing an article of the Journal of Race and Law. This semester's article is a bit of a break - last semester, the article I edited was 100 pages long, with more than three hundred tedious citations. It needed a lot of work. This semester the editors were kind enough to give me a gem of an article - just under forty pages with around 100 cites. They even gave me a staff of four. It's still busy, but definitely less so than last semester.

This weekend, Matt and I have the last of our marriage prep - a two day retreat with other engaged couples at St. Mary's. I'm kind of looking forward to it. They have sessions on sort of interesting things, like money, in-laws, having children... Matt is much less excited. Is that just the way men are? He's dreading the retreat so much that I promised him Indian food afterwards. I'm not a big fan of Indian food, so this is a big deal for him.

I'll let you know how the retreat goes - it should be interesting at least!

A reformed veggie lover

2007-01-29T22:17:00.000-05:00

I realized that my tastes have changed -- grown, mostly -- over the last three years. Dating Matt has been the catalyst.

Though I love food, I am not an adventurous eater. I eat meat, a few fruits, a few vegetables, and a whole lot of carbohydrates. Matt has changed all that. When I told him I didn't like a food, he would inquire further. Had I ever tried the food? (Many times, the answer was no, or I can't remember.) When was the last time I tried the food? (Probably once, years and years ago.) He was rather gentle in his pushing me to try new things. If I tried it again and still didn't like it, he didn't press me.

A few other folks have been catalysts for my food development, too many for me to thank. My neighbor, Mr. Robinson, got me to try my first fish - catfish. My old roommate Jenny got me to try, and eventually love, sushi. Working for a law firm for the summer allowed me to order all sorts of exotic entrees at great restaurants without having to worry about having to pay for something I wasn't sure I'd like.

Thanks to all those people, I eat raw fish sushi. I eat asparagus. I eat white fish and salmon. I eat beets. I eat edamame. Sure, it's slow progress, but it's something. Who knows what I will be eating another three years from now?

Exciting week ahead

2007-01-23T17:08:00.000-05:00

Fiance Matt and I have big plans this week. Tonight, we're going out to Gandy Dancer for a wonderful dinner out. Tomorrow night is our usual Top Chef viewing with Alison, Alex and Justin. On Thursday night, we're going to dinner at Amadeus (a delicious central European restaurant) with Jessica and Patrick; afterwards, we're going to see a play at the Performance Network. Friday night brings our conflict resolution retreat (we're required to attend as part of pre-marriage prep) and a game night at Alison's house. The retreat concludes on Saturday, and we also get to sample wedding food at Travis Pointe and have dinner with our friends Anne, Tim, and their new baby Joey.

In the meantime, I've got to get reading! Public health school has always been easier for me than law school. However, since I haven't had a class here in over a year, I've forgotten how much work there is to do. Law school is pretty slow going - some reading every day, a single test at the end of the semester. Public health school is constantly busy - group projects, tests, short papers, long papers... every time I go back and forth between the two I'm a little confused for a few weeks. This semester brings three public health classes and only one law class, so I'm getting readjusted.

As for past events, I just got back from a great weekend in DC with a bunch of college girlfriends. We flew in for Tricia's baby shower - her baby, Joey, will be born in early February. (Another friend, Em, is having a baby boy in June - also named Joseph. I guess that's the name of the year.) The weekend was lots of fun. Dinners, drinks, desserts, shower games and catching up with one another. The next time I see all of these people together might be my wedding!

Why does Microsoft Outlook hate me?

2007-01-16T15:53:00.000-05:00

I've been struggling with Microsoft Outlook for the past three years. I finally got it updated from the Windows website. Now, the new version is great, and it even actually lets me send emails. The problem? It shuts down approximately every 3 minutes while I'm using it. If I continue to restart it, the functioning time gets even smaller, down to about 30 seconds. Any suggestions out there?

Life here has been good and busy. Classes are on the upswing. Matt and I did good things with wedding planning, including ordering tuxes and bridesmaid dresses. We took a trip to Minneapolis to go to a banquet honoring my dad as the outgoing president of the Midwest Showmen's Association. While there, we also saw friends Braden, Rebecca, Steve, Kate, Klein, Vina and Jon. We ate at a couple of great restaurants, too. Now I'm just getting through another week of school before going to DC for Tricia's baby shower. She's expecting her second baby, another boy (Joey) in February - my friends are so grown up!

Shoes Move in Mysterious Ways

2007-01-09T20:41:00.000-05:00

Matt and I discovered a mysterious pair of shoes in our apartment. The shoes are size 11 grey Keens. They look nice. Relatively new. They don't belong to me or Matt. So the question is: where did they come from?

Matt's convinced I've taken a lover who had to jump out the window when Matt unexpectedly came home, leaving his shoes by the door. I was convinced someone left them here - but who? We contacted all of the menfolk who were around the apartment last week. No one is missing shoes. Did someone in the building stop by to ask us a question, take off their shoes and then leave in their socks? Or did someone put on a pair of Matt's shoes by mistake (his are a size 10 1/2)? If so, which pair is missing? We haven't figured it out yet.

If these shoes belong to any of you out there, please let us know, and we'll return them to their rightful owner. How did this happen??

In other shoe news, I finally listened to Stacey from What Not to Wear and purchased myself a pair of fashionable peep-toe shoes from Ann Taylor (using a Christmas gift certificate from my dad).

Aren't they cute?

Things that happened

2007-01-03T11:55:00.000-05:00

2006 was a pretty exciting in year; in fact, it was perhaps the best yet! The highlights, in chronological order:

--Matt and I took a grand road trip to the Fiesta Bowl, on the way visiting Burns, Nicole, Tommy, Jen, Liz, my grandma, Chuck and Meg.
--I went on an awesome spring break trip to Florida with Anna and Adrienne.
--Adrienne and I completed a 10K and a half marathon - slowly, but awesomely.
--Matt and I moved to Chicago, living together, just the two of us, for the very first time.
--Matt's sister Carrie had a baby, Nathan. Now we are an aunt and an uncle !
--Matt, Choi and I went to dinner at Alinea, one of the best new restaurants in the country, if not the world.
--The kind folks at Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg gave me a real life job offer.
--I accepted said real life job offer, and will begin working as an associate in their health care department in September 2007.
--Matt and I got engaged! and set a wedding date for August 2007.
--Matt and I had a delicious dinner at the French Laundry, one of the best restaurants in the world.
--I took a trip to the west coast in August with Matt and other friends, checking two more states off of my list (Oregon and Washington).
--I was a bridesmaid in my dear friend Emily's wedding in Chicago. She and her husband Jeff are now expecting a baby, too.
--My dad and Melissa got married in Las Vegas in December, and Matt and I went out to celebrate with them!

In addition, we visited other friends and family, friends and family came to visit us, Matt graduated and passed the bar exam, and we spent a lot of lazy nights cooking dinner or laying around in front of the TV.

Hope you all had great 2006s, too. Next post will be my goals for 2007!

Whoa.

2007-01-02T00:52:00.001-05:00

That was a totally amazing game. Go Boise State. I am so glad I stayed up until 1 a.m. for that ending!

Restful New Years

2007-01-02T00:23:00.000-05:00

For the first time in a few years, I had no big plans for New Years. I finished up a seminar paper, sending it in to the professor at 4 p.m., and then Matt and I snuggled onto the couch for a relaxing evening. We watched the Miami/Nevada football game, made a good Indian dinner (okay, Matt made the dinner, but I ate it), caught up with a few friends by phone, played three games of cribbage (Matt 2, me 1), watched some of his new Family Guy dvd and watched a bit of a movie, too. We weren't nearly as drunk as the friends that called us (I'm thinking of you, Flan!) but we had a great evening.

Today, we did a little shopping at the mall with gift certificates and returned a few errant gifts. Matt shared his Williams-Sonoma gift card with me and I got this, the dorkiest item in Williams-Sonoma. (Yet I'm in love with it. Come over for the ND game and I'll make something with it for YOU.) This afternoon, I caught up with my mom on the phone while Matt made a delicious spicy Thai beef soup, and then we dedicated ourselves to more football watching and cribbage playing. (Again, Matt 2, me 1.) Since the Blue didn't win, all I can leave you with is a little "Go Irish!" for Wednesday's (slightly scary) game against LSU.

My life

2006-12-29T09:16:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since I've really updated. I have successfully completed three of my four finals, and my last paper - for the Board of Directors seminar - is due in two days. When I finish that up, life will become much more relaxing.

A summary of life:

-Matt and I had a Christmas party here in Ann Arbor. Matt made delicious pizzettes, and guests brought ornaments to hel pus decorate our tree. We ended up with an angel, a Santa, a snowman, a tree, some glass ornaments, and even one that was homemade. A guest commented that they were excited to bring an ornament, because it seems wrong to buy ornaments for yourself. They should be special, should have a story. Now we finally have a start to our collection, and they all come from great friends.

-I went back to Cedar Falls for break. While I was home, I met up with Cam at Soho Sushi, went to the Stuffed Olive/Voodoo Lounge/Pump Haus with Jill and Andrea, drank a good bottle of merlot with Braden, and threw the annual Christmas party. This year's Christmas party was different than the ones in years past - a little quieter and a little calmer, with fewer attendees. It was nice to have a more relaxing evening really catching up with the people in attendance. We even discovered an incredibly outdated Outburst game that we played a little. (An answer to the category, Things You Do While Driving: dictating notes. Talk on a cell phone was notably absent.)

-My little sister and mom were also around for the holidays, so I got a lot of quality family time. We watched movies, opened presents, visited my grandma and aunt and uncle, and generally relaxed. I came down with some sort of cold/flu thing, so relaxation was entirely necessary.

-Presents were abundant this year. I got cute purses, gift certificates galore, a deluxe Scrabble game (with the fancy turntable and everything), kitchen gadgets, makeup and clothing. The only thing missing was books. I didn't get a single book for Christmas this year (unless you count the Scrabble dictionary to go with my new board - I don't.) This surprised me. I'm used to getting books for Christmas. Surprising books, that I never would have picked out for myself, or good classics. I guess I'll have to start putting them on my Christmas list rather than just hoping someone will buy some for me.

That's all from here. Now I'm back in Ann Arbor, working today, and trying to polish off my seminar paper. I'll try to be better about updating now that I'm back!

Quite a dilemma

2006-12-28T20:46:00.000-05:00

I was doing some typing today, and I had to type the word dilemma. In my head, it was always dilemna. But Microsoft Word underlined this in squiggly red, and then told me the correct spelling was dilemma. Am I crazy, or does that look totally wrong?

Scary tax

2006-12-12T09:15:00.000-05:00

My Federal Income Taxation is today.

I'm so scared of it even though I'm pass/failing it. Any of you who have been nearby for the last week probably know this, as I've been trying to calculate whether my law firm would rescind my offer if I failed the class.

Not much time left, so here's hoping it goes well and that I relax a bit when it's done!

Christmas party tonight!

2006-12-09T11:32:00.000-05:00

Matt and I are hosting our first official Christmas party tonight. We bought a tree, put up some lights, and while I'm out studying, he's cooking and cleaning all day. If you're in Ann Arbor, come by! We'd love to see you.

The scale is ALL off

2006-12-06T17:52:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to lose weight lately, doing my best to work out and eating healthily (and not quite so much). If I'm going to get skinny sometime, it might as well be for my wedding day, right?

The problem is the scale. I could weigh myself five times in thirty seconds and my weight would vary by five or ten pounds between weighs. This weekend, after our trip to Las Vegas, the scale was at its worst. According to the scale, I gained TWENTY-TWO pounds during the weekend. Three days? Twenty-two pounds? I mean, I know I splurged at the breakfast buffet, but that much gain was INconceivable.

So when Matt was out running errands today, he kindly bought us a fancy new $40 scale. I was pretty nervous when we got it out of the box. Was the old scale going to be right on? Even worse: was I going to weigh more?

I tapped on the scale, waited for it to zero out, made Matt avert his eyes, and stepped on the new shiny surface. Result? Definitely good news. It turns out I weigh 15 pounds less than I ever thought I weighed and a whopping 37 pounds less than I thought on Monday.

PHEW. Now I am left to wonder, if we had bought the $80 scale, would I weigh even less?

Favorite holiday dessert?

2006-12-05T15:06:00.000-05:00

Matt and I are hosting a Christmas party this weekend, and I'm in charge of making desserts. I'm going to make my mom's famous fudge, and also her famous oreo truffles... I'd like to do one more thing, maybe something that's not chocolate. Does anyone have a suggestion for a great holiday dessert to add to the party mix?

Meh.

2006-12-05T01:23:00.001-05:00

It is 1:30 in the morning. I'm still working on my Alternative Dispute Resolution final, which is due tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. I just finished a giant latte that Matt sweetly went out and got for me at 11 p.m. I think I'll be up for a few more hours.

Sweet dreams.

Hi again

2006-11-18T11:43:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted, because I've finally gotten myself into finals mode. Fiance Matt left last weekend to visit his family in Massachusetts, so I got down to business, starting my tax outline, working on a paper, and getting my journal article in shape for publication. I put in a lot of hours at my various jobs (need to save up a little money for Christmas!), got my hair cut, and even worked out a bit.

Today I'm relaxing a little. I had a leisurely morning and will head to my friend Alison's apartment this afternoon to watch the Big Game - that is, of course, the Michigan/Ohio State game. Ann Arbor is pretty excited despite the death of former coach Bo Schembechler yesterday. Go Blue!

Anyhow, apologies again for my belated post. I imagine that the next few weeks will be similarly slow for the blog - Matt's coming home, my mom is visiting for Thanksgiving, my dad is getting married, and I have finals to take! It's a busy life - but a fun one, for sure.

All I want for Christmas...

2006-10-31T11:58:00.000-05:00

...actually, I have no clue what I want for Christmas. People are already asking for my list! Any ideas? :-)