4...

That's how many hours I lost creating a new email account, changing passwords and updating my online profiles on Friday night. This is the 2nd time in less than a year that I have had to change my email thanks to hackers. I mean, honestly. Why do they target me?? What have I ever done to them? You never realize how many things are linked to you email address until you have to change them all. What a waste of an otherwise perfectly delightful Friday night. Thanks a lot, hackers.

What could be better than:
 
Meeting your boyfriend for a weekend getaway to Vegas?
 
Perhaps-
Meeting your boyfriend for a weekend getaway to Vegas, and flying out on St. Patty's Day...
 
Or maybe-
Meeting your boyfriend for a weekend getaway to Vegas, flying out on St. Patty's Day, and being there for the first weekend of March Madness...
 
How about this-
Meeting your boyfriend for a weekend getaway to Vegas, flying out on St. Patty's Day, being there for the first weekend of March Madness, and discovering that 2 of your best Chicago buddies will also randomly be in Vegas at the same time...

Actually, I'm pretty sure this is the best scenario:

Meeting your boyfriend for a weekend getaway to Vegas, flying out on St. Patty's Day, being there for the first weekend of March Madness, discovering that 2 of your best Chicago buddies will also randomly be in Vegas at the same time, and finding out, even more randomly, that one of said-friends be staying at the SAME hotel as you!
 
I just might pass out I'm so excited right now.  Is it next Thursday yet?? :)

Happy Friday! All Things Baby Edition.

The following things are making me happy this fine Friday afternoon. Coincidentally, most things making me happy today have to do with wee little bebays.


1. This is my teeny little niece or nephew, due to arrive at the end of May. S/he is currently residing in my sister's belly. Molly is going for the element of surprise this round, but Ella swears it's her baby brother. I hope she's right because...




2.  This is my 2nd little bebay niece!! She is camped out in my sister-in-law Sandy's belly, cooking away until her late June debut.  I am so excited to meet her. It will be fun to have another niece to spoil. And to see Andy as a parent.
God help this child.




3. Can you look at this picture and not crack a smile? Seriously, I dare you to try. This is Ben, our friends Jess and Ryan's adorable little boy.  I always look forward to blog posts from Jess, because they usually include pictures of this little nugget and my day is made that much happier because of it.



4. And here she is, the original love of my life.  My sweet little Ella-bella, who had to remind my sister that "she had a very sick child here!" when Molly asked her to do something the other night (Ella is battling a bout of bronchitis right now). She also let Molly know that when she and her boyfriend Ross get married, they are going to live together forever. And have lots of babies.  Here's hoping they do that in the right order. :)

 Happy Friday, everyone!

Space songs

Anyone who knows me knows I love a good mixed CD. I love creating the perfect mix of songs for whatever it is that I am up to- whether I am out for a run, spending a hot summer day on the boat, driving with Will on an epic road trip, or even just as background music at the home or the office. I just love music. You can always find a great song to set the mood.

It was on an epic road trip last month where I got it in my head that I wanted to create a CD that had a "space" theme. Will and I were driving to Michigan for a quick weekend when I first thought about it. Not sure why I got this idea stuck in my head- maybe because we were driving at night and talking about the stars or life on another planet or something. But the thought is there and I have mentally started creating my "playlist". Isn't it funny how once you start thinking about something in particular, it's everywhere you look? The past few weeks, "space" songs have been randomly jumping into my head.

1. Shiny Toy Guns: Major Tom
2. David Bowie: Space Oddity
3. Elton John: Rocket Man
4. REM: Man on the Moon
5. Dave Matthews Band: Sattelite
6. Guster: Sattelite
7. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bad Moon Rising
8. Steve Miller Band: Space Cowboy
9. The Beatles: Across the Universe
10. The Beatles: Here Comes the Sun
11. The Beastie Boys: Intergalactic
12. Train: Drops of Jupiter

...naturally, now that I am sitting down to compile the list I am drawing a blank. I'm sure I've thought of more than 12 songs over the last few weeks!

Can anyone think of any "space" songs that I've looked over??? What have I forgotten?

Yodelay Hee Hoo!

Well, after reading Erin's post from today I feel like I should take a few minutes to update my 3.5 readers on the exciting details of what's happening in my life.

So....Let's see...hmmmm. The thing is, I feel like I do the same thing day in and day out (and trust me, nothing that happens in my day-to-day life is all that thrilling to talk about, much less write about). So instead of being dull and telling y'all that we ate fish for dinner (we did, FYI), here are some random thoughts for a cold Wednesday evening.

-Our Bears/Packers party was a great success, even if the outcome of the game was less than stellar. Portillo's was quite tasty- we were even able to freeze some to enjoy later this winter! Score!

-My friend Shelley booked her flight to Nashville for the 1/2 marathon in April, which we will be running together. And by together, I mean we will start and finish at the same location, but probably an hour apart. I still suck at running.

-I babysat for a coworker the other night. She has 2 boys, ages 6 and 3. Is it just me, or are kids these days WAY smarter than they used to be? I spent the evening discussing iPod Touches, email, Skype, apps, and Netflix. I also made the mistake of giving the 6 year old my phone number. He has called me from his Skype account several times since.

-I had an hour and a half long phone conversation today at work. With a complete and total stranger. She was someone I had never heard of before 9:30 this morning and will probably never meet in person. My phone conversations at work generally last less than 3 minutes, so a 90 minute chat was certainly out of the ordinary.

-Another thing I've been up to at work: writing and signing lots of letters. The letters are all exactly the same. Do you ever notice how weird words start to look when you say or write them over and over and over again? Even my own name is starting to look and sound funny to me.

-I have enjoyed seeing pictures and reading all the updates my friends are posting on facebook about the Blizzard. What really cracks me up is the amount of booze that seems to be being consumed in the Midwest over the past 48 hours.

-We are officially going to Oktoberfest in this fall! After a month or so of hunting, we finally found tickets and dates that we could use airline miles to pay for and worked for our
schedule. Like our Norway trip, the flights are not ideal, but when given free frequent flier miles, we will not complain. We'll be flying into Frankfurt, hopping around Germany and Switzerland for 9 days, and then leave from Zurich. This will be my 3rd visit to Germany and 1st to Switzerland. I'm looking forward to researching and planning this trip! I have a couple college friends who are living in Zurich right now, and they've already been really helpful with advice. I'm sure I will be picking their brains more over the next 9 months or so...Beer and pretzels and spaetzel and Alps and cow bells and Toblerone...I'm already super pumped for this trip.

-This post is titled "Yodelay Hee Hoo" because of the news I just shared. Before I started
writing this I did a quick google search of the word "Yodel" (so I wouldn't incorrectly spell "Yodelay Hee Hoo". You know, because I would hate to incorrectly spell a yodeling phrase on my blog. This blog, if nothing else, will correctly spell yodeling phrases.) But I digress...on to the interesting bit of this story...

There, on the results page, under the "Videos for Yodeling" section, staring up at me from my iPad, was my cousin TJ. Wearing safety goggles and holding a tape measure up to a cat. Well, how do you like that? It's not everyday you see your cousin on the results page of a random google search. Apparently when searching for Yodel-esque things on google, people are interested in watching videos about Advanced Cat Yodeling.

I'm not sure this revelation can be topped, so I'll just stop right there.

Bear Down!!

Da Bears.
vs.
The Pack.

NFC Championship game.

(Why did we ever leave Chicago??)

I'm so excited for this game I can hardly stand it. The only thing that could be better is if we had tickets and were actually going to be AT Soldier Field.

Is it Sunday yet???

Twelve Things.

Twelve Random Thoughts:




1. We really, REALLY need to do laundry. I’ve been putting it off for nearly a week now, and it’s time to bite the bullet and do it. Blech.

2. I can’t believe how cold it is in Nashville. Finally, I have a need to wear my puffy Northface jacket around town. In the past when I’ve worn it, I’ve gotten weird looks from people because it’s generally not cold enough to need a jacket with that much poof. Now, though, I get looks of jealousy because everyone wishes they had a jacket as warm as mine.

3. I sometimes forget that my sister is pregnant. That sounds awful. And it’s not that I’m not excited for her. But when she was pregnant with Ella I lived closer and saw her more often, so it seemed more real to me. Molly posted her sonogram on facebook today, though, and I got very excited to meet my new nephew! (That’s what I predict she’s having. She is not finding out this round.)

4. We are potentially driving to Detroit this weekend, depending on the roads and weather. Our good friend Megan recently lost her dad and the memorial service is in Detroit this weekend. It’s a long 9 hour drive each way, but we really want to be there for our friend, especially during this sad, sad time.

5. Our evenings lately have been consumed by marathon sessions of watching “The Office”. We have seasons 1-6 in our Netflix queue and have been watching multiple episodes every night. That show= hilarious. I’ve never seen all the episodes in order before. There are actually plot lines! I didn’t really realize that.

6. I got an iPad for Christmas. It is now attached to me at all times. I love it so much that it’s hard for me to imagine the time before I had my iPad. It’s just such a clever little instrument! I can check email, listen to my music, write a blog post, balance my checkbook, get my training schedule, find a recipe for dinner, read a library book, get a snow report for Vail, download pictures from my camera, view constellations in the night sky, or play multiple rounds of Scrabble, Monopoly, or Yahtzee. Amazing! Is it necessary to have this little device? No. Is it awesome, none-the-less? Absolutely.

7. I’m very excited that Da Bears are in the playoffs, and that they are playing the Seahawks this Sunday instead of the Eagles. If/When they go to the Superbowl this year, we will definitely be hosting a viewing party at our place, complete with Giordanos pizza, Portillo’s Italian Beef, and Garrett’s popcorn. If we can’t be in Chicago, we will bring Chicago to us.

8. Retirement parties at our office are a big deal. The associate Vice-Chancellor for our department, Doug, is retiring tomorrow. We had a celebration for him today, complete with a musical presentation that involved no fewer than 20 people, costumes, set changes, kazoos, and a ukulele. They changed the words to several classic songs like “What I did for Love (Doug)”, “When I’m 64”, “So Long, Farewell”, and the “Doug” song from The Hangover. It was impressive, to say the least.

9. I got a random card in the mail from my best friend Kelly today. It made my day. She’s a good friend even when I don’t see her often.

10. This is the first full work week we’ve had since before Christmas. It has felt very long. I’m glad it's almost Friday. I wish you were still entitled to snow days, even when you’re a grown up. I would have taken one on Monday.

11. I ended up going 18-12 on my college bowl picks. Not too shabby for someone who picks her winning teams by using totally irrelevant logic and reasoning. (Examples- I picked all the military teams who played because I like men in uniforms. Go Mare-ka. I picked Nevada because I like Las Vegas. I picked Northwestern because it’s near Chicago. I picked North Carolina because I despise Tennessee’s awful hunting orange team color.)

12. I’m quite jealous of my cousin Brian right now. He’s living out the dream that Will and I had before deciding to move to Nashville- traveling and working his way through Australia. I have enjoyed reading his blog, and glad he updates it often. Sometimes I wish we had postponed responsible adulthood by a year so we could have experienced living abroad like Brian is right now. But alas, the timing didn’t work out for us. Good for Brian for taking the leap! Maybe someday we’ll retire abroad…