Not too much going on here. John and I had a nice weekend, on Friday we had dinner with an old friend from high school, that John now works with, we had a good time. Then we went to the Shakespeare theatre at Navy Pier to see a play called Passion, it wasn't anything special, I would save your money. If you want details I'll be happy to fill you in. Saturday we just relaxed and then went to my mom and dads for dinner with some family friends and my brother and Stephanie. Of course the conversation always turns to politics, but this time it wasn't that bad. Maybe we were trying to be a little nicer for the sake of our friends visiting, yeah right! Anyway there was no screaming which is always a good thing. Then on Sunday my big excitement was cleaning out the big closet we have in the living room, it seemed that every time I opened the door random stuff would fly out at me as if trying to escape the cluttered mess. So I decided it was time to clean it out. It's such a gratifying feeling to finish a task like that. Lately I have been on a "give it to goodwill" kick, in the past 2 months we have filled about 8 garbage bags of stuff to get rid of. It feels good, when you have such a small apartment you really have to be that way. Sunday night we went to see the premier of the a movie at the Chicago International Film Festival, called Slipstream it was directed by and starred Anthony Hopkins, and he personally introduced the film, although didn't say anything spectacular. It was cool to see a real "red carpet" and the movie was pretty good too, even though it was one of those -I'm gonna confuse the heck out of you so bad that you don't even remember that you're at the movies-movie. Maybe John will elaborate on his blog, he likes to write about stuff like that. So overall a good weekend. This Tuesday we are going to see Van Halen with some friends, maybe I'll have something to report.

Okay Anonymous if you would have been patient you would have seen that I was just gearing up for the Top 10 things I love about fall:

Halloween
You can open all of the windows in the house
You can wear a thick sweater
No sweating!
Jeans
The smell of crisp air
The leaves changing colors
Carving pumpkins
Football
Apple crisp

Another summer has come and gone

Hello readers I have some sad news to report, today summer died. I know the calendar said summer was over a few weeks ago, but if you live in Chicago you know that summer usually extends into October. Today Fall finally arrived. To mourn the death of summer here's my top 10 for the week.

Top 10 things I’ll miss about Summer
Flip flops
Swimming
Ice cream
The farmer's market
Baseball games
Bar-B-Q’s
Weekends away
Fireworks
Beer gardens
Flowers

What will you miss about summer?

I've decided to add top 10 lists weekly to my blog, I have some ideas but if there is something you want to see let me know.

Well I have survived the last week, amazing I know! I have a random assortment of things to write about.

1. Today my parents have been married for 33 years. Amazing! Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad! I love you.

2. Reunion: Everything went well, it was nice to see a few old friends that I really hadn’t seen or heard anything about over the years. We had two separate events, one night in Glen Ellyn at a local bar, and one night downtown at a bar called Fizz. I enjoyed the night in Glen Ellyn a little more. The first ½ hour of each night was pretty awkward, but a beer can always help with that. By the time the middle of the second night rolled around I was worn out and tired of “schmoozing” and wanted to have a conversation with someone where I didn’t have to bring them up to date on my life. Overall, fun but it wore me out! Thankfully I wont have to go through it again for 10 more years!

3. Horticulture: I love the plumeria plant. I fell in love when we were in Hawaii on our honeymoon. It is the best smelling thing on Earth, no really! And it’s very pretty, and comes in a lot of colors. This past summer, in Kauai I bought a plumeria plant root and brought it home. Apparently Hawaii has no problem with you taking plants from the island as long as you pay up. I got home and planted it, and waited. I had done the same thing when we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon, but the plant did nothing! So frustrating. But this time little white flowers started popping out. It’s like a little piece of Hawaii right on my deck. I love it!
4. Marathon: A few weeks ago John spent a Sunday morning taking a run along the lakefront. I went with him and decided to take some pictures of the beautiful Lake Michigan beach at sunrise.


And their off! Good luck on Sunday John! You will do great! I am proud of you!

Coffee Talk

So yesterday I walked into Caribou Coffee in Glenview, I pretty much go to the same place everyday, it's tough having an addiction. They have been running a promotion on coffee all week, buy one pound and get a free drink. They haven't been selling much, so yesterday they took some drastic measures. Posted above the usual sale sign was a handwritten note, by the guy who works there (who incidentally reminds me of Reed??) the sign reads;

For every person who doesn't buy a pound of coffee, God kills a kitten. Buy some coffee, think about the kittens!

I found this sign to be hilarious! I mean laugh out loud funny. However the fine upstanding citizens of Glenview did not. A lady walked in behind me with a 3 yr old little girl, read the sign and said, "That's disgusting! Take that down, it's distasteful!" The Reed-esque worker promptly removed the sign.

That visual provided me with a little nugget of comedy all day.

Taking stock

Not too much going on lately in the Delaney household. The past few weekends have been quiet, which is unusual for us. This past weekend we relaxed most of the time and then on Sunday we went to an old friend from high school’s wedding. We all said how it felt like a little warm up for our ten-year reunion, which is next weekend. The wedding was very nice, it was held at the Arboretum in Lombard, which is a beautiful place for a wedding. It was great to see Tim again and to meet his new wife Karin. They sound like they really have a great relationship, and both John and I are happy for them. At the wedding there were a few classmates and it was fun to catch up and talk about the upcoming reunion.

Reunions are funny things because they bring up such a mixture of emotions. When I first heard about the reunion I was very excited to see friends and find out what everyone had been up to. Just to say hi, and maybe get in touch with some people that I had lost contact with. I had always thought that most people had matured since high school and so there would be no cliques and no cattiness, just everyone being friendly. I was excited and I really couldn’t understand why anyone else wouldn’t be. Some of my friends had expressed other emotions about going to the reunion, and I am now just beginning to understand that.

It was about 3 weeks ago that it finally hit me, just a general feeling of nervousness. I was worried about every detail of the reunion; from what to wear, to what if someone was mean to me, to what if I have nothing to talk about with someone??? My always active imagination went into overdrive and I became a little crazy. I started to take stock of my life, and wonder how would I answer the tough questions like, “what have you been up to????” It sounds ridiculous I know, but you start to doubt how wonderful your life is.

So I continued on with my nervous thoughts until yesterday when we went to Tim and Karin’s wedding, which was like the pre-game to the big game. Walking in I felt anxious, and decided a glass of wine might be a good idea. I really had nothing to worry about. Overall, the night was great, everyone talked and laughed and it went just fine. It was nice to see that other people didn’t seem as perfect as I built them up to be, they seemed normal just like me.

At home later that night I was getting ready for bed thinking about the day and I looked over at my wonderful husband watching the Bears game, and my kitties chasing each other around in the one bedroom apartment that we all squeeze into, and I realized how completely insane I had gone. My life is fabulous, I have everything I ever wished for and more. And obviously there’s room for improvement, how sad if there weren’t? Life is a work in progress. If someone asks me what have I been up to, I will have a lot to tell them.

I am really thankful that I had this eye opening experience a week before the reunion because I would hate to have wasted my time at the reunion being nervous instead of getting to know some old friends better.

Forcast for Saturday: Sunny and 77

I woke up Saturday to one of the most beautiful days that I have seen in Chicago, sunny about 77 degrees with a breeze-perfect!

I decided to take a walk through the neighborhood over to the farmer’s market. The farmer’s market is one of my favorite places to frequent in the city. I love looking at all the stands and it’s a great place to people watch.
After picking out some beautiful flowers, I continued on with my walk and did something else I love-shopping! I can’t think of a better way to spend the day. I did feel a twinge of guilt enjoying the day so much when I thought about John’s events for the day, running a grueling 18 miles. But hey, training for the marathon was his idea, not mine! By the way, I’m proud of you John for sticking with it, you are almost there-keep it up!

Saturday night John and I made the trek out to the ‘burbs for our friend Brooke’s birthday. They hosted a bar-b-que and then we continued on to a bar with a very large beer garden, it was an interesting place complete with a castle. We had a great night.

How many boys does it take to move a dog house? The boys help out Brooke by moving Zoey's dog house, definitely a funny sight!
Darcy and Eric
Happy Birthday Brooke!
A shout out to Balld, thanks for being one of the few to read my blog.
Darcy, the dark hair looks cute! That's a cool tuxedo t-shirt, you got yourself one hot man.

Life is good

Quite a few friends and family have been kind enough to remind me that I started a blog, it seems I have been so busy for the last month that I haven't written. How nice of them to refresh my memory..
Life has been good. I spent a weekend in Texas visiting John's family, I had a few days off of work which I spent shopping, John's cousins came to town to visit, I have been able to see my friends quite often, overall it has been a good summer. I just realized the other day that this weekend is Labor Day and that it is getting darker earlier and so soon summer will be gone. It's so sad, summer is my absolute favorite time of year. Especially in Chicago, there is so much to do, and so much fun to be had (and you can wear flip-flops!)
About 2 weeks ago John and I bit the bullet and bought a new car. We had been thinking about it for quite some time and were trying to decide what we wanted. Since I have always had a long commute, we were interested in something that could save us some gas money. We turned to the Prius, and did some research. After much consideration and a test drive we were in love, so we bought our first brand new car! I have to say that I truly love driving this car, but maybe that's because all I've ever driven was a beater ford escort and a 9 year old pontiac sunfire. The Prius has a lot of neat gadgets, my absolute favorite being the built in bluetooth conection that allows you to talk on the phone through your car stereo-really a great thing for someone who drives and talks on the phone as much as I do. So far I have been getting about 45 miles per gallon, which is great.

In other news I traveled to St. Louis this past weekend with Kate, Amanda, and Marena. Kate works for Omni hotel and was able to get us a discounted rate at the Omni in St. Louis, which was quite nice. Kate and I drove the Prius to give it a road trip, and Marena and Amanda flew in. We had such a good time. I was really surprised how quiet St.Louis was, there didn't seem to be a lot of people out. We likened it to the loop on a Sunday morning-no one is there. Everyone we came in contact with was wonderful and so nice and helpful. We were also surpried by how trendy St. Louis is. When you went to a bar for a drink everyone was dressed to the nines, no jeans and flip flops there. While we were there we went on the Anheuser Busch tour, Kate's uncle works for the company and was able to get us a VIP tour. Our tour guide Tiffany was great and she also made sure we had plenty to drink, I am certain she gave us more than she should have- it was great! The grounds were beautiful and we even got to see the clydesdale horses. Follwing the tour we went to the Oliver Studio Salon & Spa. Where we managed to spend a ridiculous amount of money for 4 hours. It was the most fun I have had in a long time. We had the spa area all to ourselves and had also gotten the wine and cheese package so we really relaxed. The people that worked there were the nicest girls I have ever met at a salon. We decided we are definately going back! The rest of the trip consisted of laughing and eating, what else do you need in life? I can't wait to take a trip with the girls again. Here are some pictures from our fabulous weekend.

Marena, I loved seeing you! I can't wait to visit again soon.