The 70 SPF is packed

We are leaving Thursday morning for Mexico. It is a good excuse to celebrate Joe completing his master's degree (he finished a couple weeks ago) and enjoy some warm weather. It's possible I may check in considering I do not worship the sun and may need something to occupy my time while my husband lays on the beach all day. My hope is to take refuge in the shade and enjoy the spa. I'm so looking forward to it!

Birthday jazz

Celebrating Alison's birthday with a little jazz!

No means no

Barista: "Welcome to Starbucks. Would you like to try our dark cherry mocha?"
Amy: "No, thanks. I would like a grande, non-fat mocha*."
Barista: "Would you like to try our dark cherry syrup in it?"

Apparently they are really pushing their new dark cherry mocha. I don't really like chocolate and cherries so it doesn't appeal to me but if anyone else has tried it let me know what you think.

*I myself am a habitual non-fat latte girl but today I felt like really living on the edge.

Chelsea

Today I got to meet Chelsea Handler at a book signing for her new book. (If you're wondering, it was tough to get a good photo because it was such a rush once you got to the front of the line.) Not surprisingly, I had absolutely nothing clever to say to her once we were face to face. But I do adore Chelsea. Joe and I listened to her last book on our Thanksgiving trip to Virginia and, back in my single days, I would watch her show every night from the comfort of my bed and then fall to sleep shortly thereafter. As it stands now, I catch it whenever I can and love her despite the fact (or because of the fact?) that she is wildly inappropriate.

Hacked

Earlier today my phone started going crazy with messages. Turns out my email had been hacked so if you received an email from me about Viagra or anything else inappropriate it didn't actually come from me. Sorry!! I am so embarrassed.

Day tonight

I went to see Howie Day tonight at the House of Blues. It's been a few years since I saw him last and he was great! It is always so nice to go to a show where you know almost every song and can sing along. Makes the evening that much more enjoyable. And thanks to Alison for scoring us free tickets. I will say that my parking was $26 which I will never, ever, ever get used to as long as I live here...had I have paid for my concert ticket it would have still been less than the parking. There is just something wrong about that. Okay, I'm stepping off my soap-box now. Thanks, Alison, for the great evening!

Family treasure

My Great, Great Aunt Grace passed away today. On March 31 she would have been 106.

Aunt Grace, my Grandma Dixie's aunt and my mom's great aunt, moved into the nursing home shortly after her 104th birthday and before that was living independently. It has been really hard for me to think of her in the nursing home these past couple of years because I have always known her as a really vibrant woman. The last time I saw her there I left in tears.

Aunt Grace has amazed us all. For at least the first 103 years of her life she kept up with her interests including her love for baseball. As a child, she was my babysitter. I would often opt to go spend an evening with her instead of going to a basketball game with my parents and would treasure time with her, eating popcorn, listening to the game on the radio and waiting for her cuckoo clock to sound.

You can definitely say that Aunt Grace lived a very full life but even still she will certainly be missed. She was a family treasure.

Oscar time!

I will have to say that I don't like that the Academy now nominates 10 films for best picture. I know why they did it because there are plenty of fantastic animation and comedy films that never stand a chance and they want to honor those films and get them out there. But I like trying to see all the films each year so if I know there are 5 top films it is pretty mangeable...but 10 movies? I think that means I will probably never get to say that I've seen all the nominated films again. Please, Academy, change it back to the way things used to be.

And even though only two of these made the Academy's list, here are my favorite movies from this past year (in no particular order):

• Up in the Air
• 500 Days of Summer
• The Hangover
• Up
• Adventureland
• Crazy Heart

Honorable mentions:

• Precious (Appreciated it and glad I saw it but it was too heavy to be considered a favorite of the year. It is so deserving though of all nominations.)


• The Informant (Matt Damon was awesome in this movie. Loved it.)


• Fantastic Mr. Fox (I loved it a million times more than I thought I would.)

Reunited and it feels so good

Today I met up with one of my BFF's from middle school. Brooke and I were always pretty close but in the middle of our sophmore year in high school she changed schools and we lost touch. I last saw her at her wedding in 1998!! Today we met up for lunch and pretty much gabbed nonstop. I definitely think there will be more of this in our future.

Baby Love

Over the weekend, I was able to meet Bryndyn and Taina's new baby, Trystyn. She is so sweet and looks so much like Taina! I also enjoyed spending time with Tia and Caelleb. It had been over a year since Tia had seen me but she still wanted to snuggle in my lap which made me feel so loved...she also told me that I looked like Hannah Montana! I am taking that as a compliment!

Taina and Trystyn

I also was able to love on Ben and Rachel's Alia. I wanted to take her home to Chicago with me. We asked her if she wanted to go home with me and she said yes (or maybe she just nodded her head). Somehow I think her mom and dad would not be cool with that.

Amy and Alia

True/False

Thursday I took a trip to visit my parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece. The next day I headed to Columbia for the True/False film festival.

I have always loved documentaries and consider it to probably be my favorite film genre. I was so bummed when I missed the festival last year so I was extra excited to be able to go this year. And, let's face it, Breanne is a pretty cool movie companion. Here's what I saw:

• Smash His Camera - This film is about the original paparazzo, Ron Galella. When I read the synopsis, I knew immediately this was a must-see for me.
• Greetings From the Woods
• Rachel Is - I highly recommend this film. Breanne and I both thought it was at the top of our list.
• The Tightrope
• When We Were Boys - Another favorite for me.
• Someone to Watch Over - This was a collection of shorts. My favorites were My Name is Sydney about a sixteen-year-old girl with autism and Goldthwait Home Movies. (Definitely go online to watch Goldthwait Home Movies...you will not be disappointed!!)
• As Lilith

The only bummer is that I didn't get to see many people. I think it would take me a full week to see all of my friends and that is definitely without any movie-watching.

Mario love

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was sit in my friend, Carrie's basement and play Mario Brothers. For hours. And hours. I also used to own a gameboy that was approximately the size of an encyclopedia and would tote lug that thing around playing some Mario. I love old school Nintendo!

So imagine my excitement when my husband bought me the new Super Mario Brothers Wii game for Valentine's Day. (Isn't he romantic?) Up until this point, the only Wii game I had decided was worth my time was MarioKart.

I think my husband has found my obsession with Mario Brothers a bit odd. In fact, he has since taken a blackmail picture of me. Ladies and gentlemen, you will not find that picture here. I'm pretty sure it is the equivalent of a man sitting on the couch in his underwear zoning out to the television. Only I'm under a blanket, wearing a t-shirt, with the video game controller tightly in my hand and wearing a look of pure concentration. What a sad life this housewife leads.

Earthquake

I woke up early this morning to the entire house shaking. I thought it was odd but it soon stopped so I fell back to sleep. Apparently, we'd just had a 4.3 earthquake. Not surprisingly, Joe slept right through it.

Jeeves in Bloom

You may have noticed that new recipes have not been so free-flowing around here lately. One reason is that between Joe and me, either one of us or both of us, are in school three nights which only leaves about one dinner together for us on a week night. When we do seem to finally reconnect on weekends, it is usually for dinner out somewhere. So I am a little out of my cooking groove these days.

Joe is a huge Wodehouse fan. He started foaming at the mouth earlier in the week when he read about a play in our area based on Wodehouse's Jeeves so we went on Friday night. The theatre was a great local find and I thought the play was a lot of fun. So much so that I would like to watch the BBC television series, Jeeves and Wooster sometime.

And it is always interesting when Super Bowl Sunday comes around; I am more interested in watching than Joe. (And I only like to watch for the commercials.) My non-sports-watching husband and I skipped out today altogether to go to a movie - Crazy Heart. It was crazy good.

Statistics makes me happy?

I just got out of class and after going over statistics problems for three hours my eyes feel like they are permanently crossed. But never mind that - I received an "A" on my first stats quiz. It wasn't quite a perfect score but it still qualified me for an A and I am grinning from ear to ear. I will rejoice in that and momentarily forget that I don't exactly understand the problems for next week's quiz.

Elixir of Love

What a great weekend! It started out with me getting to have dinner with a friend and fellow former-Columbian, Meggan. It is always so much fun to have visitors here even if it's just a dinner date.

Last night Joe and I went to the Lyric Opera to see Elixir of Love. This was our first time at the opera and I'm happy to report that we both had a lot of fun. Prior to last night, my only point of reference for the opera consisted of the opera scene in Pretty Woman. We arrived early enough to have a light meal at the bistro inside the opera house and then went to the pre-show seminar. At the seminar they discussed the story, music and history of the production. I was glad that the show we saw was fun and light-hearted and so easy to follow.

Now I am debating homework or further procrastination...

I might be crazy

Today my husband invited me to hang out with him and a couple of his friends. They were going to a record shop (vinyl only) and then out for hot dogs. I declined. I just didn't think it sounded like a very "Amy" afternoon. And, besides, I had some studying to do. After much persuading, I finally decided to go. After the record shop we went to Hot Dougs. It is a true Chicago experience but we almost skipped it entirely when we noticed the line went around the block. It was cold outside and I wasn't wearing my heaviest coat. I stood in line with the guys and then I sat in the car for awhile and then I stood in line some more. Finally, we made it inside - a full hour and forty minutes later! After that wait, I wasn't going to just have one hot dog so I had a corn dog and a chili cheese dog. My husband had Chicago dog and a bacon cheddar elk sausage dog. We also had duck fat fries. I am not sure about the hour and forty wait but it was a fun experience. And it's true - I ate today at a place known as the "sausage superstore and encased meat emporium." Nice.

Back to school

Monday I started school again after graduating 10 years ago (gasp) to work on my MBA. Many people have asked how my first week went. Let me just say that I am feeling pretty old right about now. Ten years ago we didn't use "Blackboard" to get homework assignments, check on our grades, etc. I also spent more for textbooks for two classes (for a quarter, not a semester) than I would have spent for five classes back in the day. And I hope I can get used to studying again. After my first class on Monday, someone sitting next to me stopped me before I left and asked me about the homework assignment while our teacher was still there. Then the person in front of me turned around and asked me another question. Um, I'm pretty sure these people are asking the WRONG person. I am, by no means, the expert here. The hope is that I can get into the groove soon...and the other hope is that I can get a B or better in Statistics.

Home again

Joe and I arrived home last night after a wonderful weekend trip to the Pacific Northwest to visit his family.

On Wednesday afternoon, after hearing the weather reports for the next day, I tried getting us on a plane that evening but they were sold out. In retrospect, showing up and trying to fly standby might have been a good bet. As I had feared, our flight first thing on Thursday was cancelled. In fact, most flights were cancelled but I finally found one to Seattle, via Kansas City, to leave about 5 hours after our originally scheduled flight. There was a brief window of opportunity for us to take off before the weather resumed giving everyone trouble. The weather was causing flight delays just about everywhere so thankfully our connecting flight was delayed, too, since we got there 45 min after it was supposed to depart. When we landed, the other plan was all boarded and they were holding the plane for us (and a few others from our flight) so that we were able to make it after all. Since we were the last ones on the plane, we didn't get to sit together. I won't go into our flight to Seattle except to say the gentleman I did sit with was completely obnoxious and terribly over-served. Ugh. Longest four hours ever.

This was what the runway looked like on Thursday just before our take-off.

Joe posing in front of an amazing backdrop!

On Saturday the entire family (minus grandma) went on an ocean-view hike.

I made it to the end of the trail! Thanks to everyone for such a great weekend.

Best week ever

My husband has been off work since Christmas Eve Day and goes back to work tomorrow. This is the longest time off work he's had since he was 23 (yes, he really is a workaholic) and the most time we've spent together with nothing to do. In addition to the ice skating, we've gone to a couple of movies, gone out to eat a couple times, hung out in bookstores, walked aimlessly around Whole Foods, taken the dogs to the dog park, taken lots of naps, took a car load to Goodwill and have been amidst a 30 Rock marathon most of the week. I love it! Tomorrow I'm back to my regular desperate housewife status and routine before our next big adventure to the Pacific Northwest this weekend...and I start graduate school next week. Gasp.