Lucky Number 7

This weekend, on top of being the celebration of our country's independence, is also a big weekend for me and a certain group of Minnesotans.

Backstory: Though I'm slowly coming down from it and entering recovery from my obsession, for a while there, I was very much so OBSESSED with Summerfest. I should note, that while I'm becoming less obsessed with it, I still go every year. Have since I was 6 months old...haven't missed a year in 27. However, back in the day, when I had less responsibilities and more expendable income, I spent 3 years without missing a single day. 11 days straight. Ridic. So, summer after sophomore year of college, I am living with a few of my sorority sisters and I convince them that they'd be batshit crazy to miss out on coming back to the good ol' MKE with me for the party to put all frat parties to shame. They came, they saw, and they've been coming back for the last 7 years.

Every year, since that first voyage to the Good Land (5 cool points for knowing the movie reference), they come on down to Mil-a-wau-kay at some point during the festivities. It's become quite the standing tradition and it makes my heart smile.

We've got some good activities planned for this weekend. They arrive on Friday and leave on Monday and in between those days we've got the following planned:

• Dinner at EE Sane (best Thai in MKE)
• Drinks at Cuvee (Cute little champagne lounge)
• Riverboat Brewery Tour (how much more Milwaukee can we get here?)
• Dinner at Cubanitas (oh. my. delicious Cuban food)

Sunday, the entirety of Sunday will be spent at the Casa de Nikolas. There will be pool lying, drink dranking, delicious smoked meat eating. And as a somewhat newer tradition, Stevie will again mow a bocce ball course into the front yard and we will again enter the epic battle of Men vs. Women Bocce Ball competition.

I'm so damn excited for this weekend I can hardly stand it. And it's only Wednesday!?

The Great Milwaukee Race

So for a while now, my mom and boyfriend have been semi to pretty serious about auditioning for the Amazing Race. We usually spend Sundays at my parents house and watching the show together has become somewhat of a weekly habit. There are two sides when we watch. The side those two fall on, the "get-me-on-this-show" side and the "go-ahead-I'll-cheer-from-home" side. Dad and I fall on the later. I think it's lots of fun to watch and give full credit to the legitimate amazingness of being able to travel the world in one month. I also give full regard to my distaste for eating bugs, traveling while exhausted, packing light, and dealing with bitches.

That being said, I figured a good compromise for the "no-way-in-hell" side and practice for the "sign-me-up"side was the Great Milwaukee Race. Loosely based on the premise of the show, some great people got together here in the 262 and came up with their own version. And the two camps collided on Saturday to form Team BT-DT (been there. done that.) (It should be noted the name was created quickly. After a few drinks. And we clearly were not that attached to it, as 3 weeks after registering, no one could remember the name).


Clues were handed out at 10:00 a.m. and we were off. We were given hints as to where the tasks ahead were laid out, but the path we chose was all our own. We started in the Third Ward (guessed only 9 off on how many pieces of bubble gum were in the jar!).


We traveled over behind Summerfest Grounds. We sucked at bean bag toss. We walked across the state park island - which was a GORGEOUS view of Milwaukee I had never seen before. We wheelbarrow raced in Juneau Park. We potato sack raced at Cathedral Square. We 3 legged raced in Pere Marquette park before we did laps on the stairs in front of the courthouse.

All in all we traveled roughly 8 miles through our great City and did it in just over 2 hours. Our original goal was simple and well understood amongst the team...finish. And that we did! We ended up finishing ahead of about 15 other teams - which impressed us quite a bit as we were not intentionally competing. Well, Dad & I weren't competing. Mom & C are ALWAYS competing. Even when no one else knows it.

It was a great time and we'd definitely do it again. It was a fun way to see Milwaukee, get some exercise and spend time with my parents.

That's totally random.

(Give yourself 2 cool points if this blog title made you think of J'amie from Summer Heights High. If you didn't think of that, give yourself -3 cool points, go to netflix and get Summer Heights High. Go ahead, do it now. This post will still be here when you're done).

It's Friday, I'm tired and can't really string together a coherent post so this is going to be a list of things. Take it or leave it. I'm mostly just blogging to keep Rebecca breathing at this point.

I'm frustrated about the whole WW debacle currently going on. I'm eating well and working out 5 times a week and not losing. That's hwy I haven't posted anything about it. So there's that.

I did wake up at 5:20 yesterday so I could get in my spin class as I knew I had things to do after work - I was / am DAMN proud about that.

I still feel much better than I did before, so there's also that.

Even though I've had 2 consecutive 4 day weeks, I'm so glad it's Friday!

I went to school yesterday and I really liked it. I think I'd like to take more random (J'amie, again) Continuing Ed classes...about whatever I want!

I got a new Blackberry for my work phone...so now I have 2 Blackberrys (get over it spell check, that's how I want to say that!) which I'm beginning to think might be one too many. (Still wish I had an iphone, but only if said iphone had a keyboard).

My last spin class was w/ an instructor who told us a bunch of random (do it, give yourself another 2 cool points) stories as we spun to keep us distracted. Totally worked. The class flew by. The class at 5:45 a.m. (yup, still proud). Even if one story included 5 minutes dedicated to the different types of pianos his daughter plays. Whatev, just keep talking and I'll listen I guess.

And finally - the girls are doing well! We continue to make progress (that is progress from open mouthed lunging towards Gracie on Bella's part towards ability to sit w/in inches of each other and just sniff...even if it is a limited amount of time they can do so). However, we have been telling Bella that Gracie is not a TOY. (She knows the general word toy and if you tell her to bring a toy, if she can't find her favorite toy - Kong - she'll find something else she's allowed to have and bring it to you). This lesson is difficult to drive home when Gracie enjoys laying IN BELLA'S TOY BIN. Gracie, I can only help you so much.


Now go watch Summer Heights High. You won't regret it.

Introducing....Gracie!

Here's our new furkid. She's 2.7 pounds of fury and is a little pistol. We went to the Humane Society on Sunday just to peek. We've been talking about getting a kitten for a while now and decided we'd check it out.

We had been partial to getting a male kitten so we checked out this little gray boy named Graham. While he was cute, he was also extremely scared...of just about everything. And given we have Bella at home, we knew we needed to bring home something with a little less fear and a little more spunk if we wanted to keep both furry children alive.

So we took a peek at the females they had...and found this beautiful bundle of fur.


She's about two months old and was brought in as a stray. We filled out the application on Sunday and picked her up yesterday. Throughout the afternoon / evening we spent some time introducing Bella to her. And let me say, right off the bat, Bella did MUCH better than I ever imagined she would. And Gracie was fearless - which is exactly what I was hoping for.

However, we have made progress from Day One. Day One: Bella would LUNGE at Gracie whenever she moved (and she moves quick...and OFTEN). It wasn't a growling lunge...but it was definitely a mouth open "let me play with my new toy!" lunge.

This morning when we let the girls play together, they were much improved. Instead of lunging Bella would slowly (or as slow as Bella is capable of moving when very excited) walk up to Gracie and sniff her. She even licked her a few times. I think she knows now that it's another living thing and NOT a remote controlled toy. They even sat nicely enough to grab this picture (and it's only with minimal restraint to Bella!)


My big hope is that they'll eventually be friends. I would literally melt from the inside if I ever saw them snuggling together. But in the mean time - at the very least, I'm about 99% sure they won't kill each other. I'll take what I can get for now!*

*We are being responsible pet owners and until we're 100% sure they won't eat each other they are kept separate whenever not under constant supervision. Right now Bella essentially has supervised visitation rights.

Well Trained.

I realized something today while in a meeting. My Blackberry has trained me. And quite well actually.

I have otherwise relatively poor eyesight, but I swear, I can see that little flashing light in the corner from across the room. And personally, I can't stand to see the thing flash more than a couple times. I have been totally trained to immediately attend to whatever notification is creating the flashing. I don't even necessarily have to read or respond to it right away - but I CANNOT let that flashing continue. (I'm talking like an overwhelming NEED to make the flashing stop. MUST. STOP. THE. FLASHING!)

Let's completely pass two segments of this conversation (yes, I am the only one talking...but when you read this, it's kind of like a conversation...right? Just play along...) First, yeah yeah yeah, I'm totally addicted to my "crackberry" and I like to have it on me at all times. Have I come close to getting hit by a car because I've been scrolling through e-mails or texts? Probably, hard to know when you're nose-to-the-screen involved w/ your crackberry. (Side note: I love the little scroll ball...quite honestly my most favorite part of my phone). Secondly, yeah, I know, iphones are better. They can do about a billion things my phone can't. And the 5 things my phone can do? It does them at an incredibly slower rate than the iphone. But do you know what my phone has that yours doesn't? Buttons. And until the iphone has a physical keyboard, I refuse to drink the kool-aid. (Side note -again-: I had a touch screen once...and sometimes, like when I'm walking down a street and / or trying to be discrete a touch screen makes texting hard. Oh, and I hate when the sensor doesn't know what I'm trying to type / click. Buttons make that easier).

So anyways...back to the flashing. Essentially everyone and their mother at my place of employment has switched over to Blackberrys. Including everyone on my team. So when we have our bi-weekly Wednesday meetings (or our weekly Monday meetings, or our Monthly other Monday meetings...get the drift?) everyone brings their phone in case of an emergency call (because as much as you might not believe it, what with me being on a proposal development team, we get a fair number of emergency calls. Emergency is a very openly interpreted word, I've learned).

So given the fact that a) everyone and their mother has a BB here, and b) I nearly have a panic attack when there's flashing lights. You can probably deduct c) it is impossible for me to focus in a meeting because all I can see / think about is that person sitting 5 chairs down from me who's BB is blinking constantly!!

I know, right?

Also, I know, first world problem, starving children in Africa, etc. It's all relative people, and this just happens to be today's pet peeve I've chosen to share with you.

Oh, and finally - Rebecca I am trying to save you from suffocation from lack of JT posts by upping my blogging by like 135%. Working??

Wick it, Wick it Good.

So now that I've become a spinning machine...and I've consecutively worked out at least 3 days a week for the last 3 weeks I decided last weekend to peruse the workout clothes at Target. Usually, I'm all, "Gee I only have about 473 t-shirts from high school and college...why would I wear anything than one of those?!" But I realized, after sweating my ass off...and fearing spontaneous (or rather completely warranted and expected) combustion...I should look into more functional work out gear. I mean sure, that Omega Man t-shirt does the trick (the trick being helping me NOT be naked at the gym), but there are actually clothes out there that do more than just cover the goods!

Enter my new wicking t-shirt. (Kind of sounds like wicken t-shirt...which I bet would also do more than just keep me covered, but I'd be a little scared of what a witch t-shirt might do...just sayin').
If I'm being entirely honest, I actually bought the shirt because it was on sale...for $6. I mean, yeah, I was drawn in by the clearance rack sign...but I was even more excited when it was in fact one of the fully functional t-shirts I was hoping for. So I bought 2, this one and one in a nice blue color (totally brings out the blue in my eyes...not that it matters in a semi-dark spin room).

So here's the thing...it does in fact keep me dryer and cooler. And I am 97% sure it's not just a placebo thing happening. And I'm quite happy that it does that. However, it does something even cooler. It makes sweat show up on my shirt! If you recall from last week - I LIKE sweating. I like it looking like I just did some serious work. And I think because this wicks the moisture away from your body, the sweat sticks to the shirt and I ACTUALLY HAVE SWEAT MARKS when I'm done!? Who knew aside from keeping me dryer and cooler, this fancy & functional $6 shirt would also make me so much more of a hardcore exerciser!?

I totally went back and bought 3 more. Guilty as charged.

Back to school.

Sort of. Okay, just for a day.

Next Thursday I'm headed back to school. Given that I write for a living now, I figured I should sort of refresh my writing skills. So here's the mini-scoop. I was hired to do data entry about a year ago. I did about a week's worth of data entry when I was handed a Request for a Proposal and was asked to help create a proposal. So fast forward to a year later, I'm flying solo and helping to manage the proposal process. I'm essentially creating the proposals (with the help of my teams who are providing information). The thing is, the information I receive isn't always written correctly. And quite frankly, the information I create isn't always written correctly.

This is for a few reasons. A) I haven't taken a formal writing course since Freshman year of college and while I got an A in that class, I'm fairly certain it's because my high school English classes hadn't worn off yet. B) The only writing I did for the last, oh 5+ years, has been blogging, e-mailing, and texting. None of those have really helped maintain fine writing skills.

So to recap:

Job involving lots of writing & editing - any recollection of formal writing skills =
me going back to school

I'm taking Business Writing Nuts & Bolts through the UWM School of Continuing Education. And you can bet your ass I'll be taking a trip to Office Max in the mean time for new school supplies (the thought alone brings a smile to my face!)

New Toy!

For those who don't know me in person, or who know me but have never seen me make decisions, I'll be the first to tell you, the way I make decisions is back assward.

Seriously - I nearly convulse when it comes time to decide what to order from a menu and have a minor panic attack once I've made a choice and submitted my order. Ask me to decide what we're having for dinner and it's as if you've asked me cure world hunger.

However, when it comes to large purchases, I am cool as a cucumber. I make my choice and proceed with ease. Seriously. Take for example, purchasing a house. I did some minor research via the interwebs, found a few places I thought I'd like and made some appointments for a Saturday to go and look at them. In the mean time, on Thursday I found a place I also thought I'd enjoy and the owner was available for me to take a peek that evening. By the time Saturday rolled around I had to cancel my appointments to look at the rest because I had already made an offer on the ONE HOUSE I had looked at. Just like that, liked it, loved it, bought it.

So it really came as no surprise to anyone when, on Friday, I bought this little lady!

I have driven my beloved Libby (my Jeep Liberty) since sophomore year of college. She has been very good to me and we've had some great times along the way. However, all those great times added up to 193k miles on her ol' spedometer, brakes in need of work and (as of last week) a broke down air conditioner.

It came time for me to decide to drive her til she died, or try to get a few pennies out of her. I had hemmed and hawed (for all of 24 hours), consulted my dad (who said get a new one) and decided Friday afternoon I'd go take a peek to see what's out there.

The rest of the afternoon went like this:

3:00 Peruse a few lots at Dealerships
3:30 Visit Carmax and see this little lady smiling at me (first one I saw on their lot).

3:35 Test drive. Love her.
3:45 Financial chit chat.
4:30 Go home, clean out Libby for possible trade in & think about how much I love that car.
5:00 Sit and home and think more.
5:30 Go back and buy the damn thing!
9:00 Drive off in my new set of wheels! (there were some snags along the way...)

And no one was the least bit surprised. In fact, my mom's response was, "I'm impressed you made it til Christian got home at 5:00 to buy it."

So - while it takes me FOREVER and a day to make small (and what some would call "meaningless" decisions), the big ones, I know what I want and I get it.

I love her, she's fantastic. I haven't decided on a name for her yet - she's a 2008 Saturn Vue. (Not much I can do w/ either Saturn or Vue - not as easy as Libby at least).