The "joys" of Ikea

Since we moved into the new place we realized that our old furniture is way too crappy for a nice place like ours, so we have been slowly replacing items. Since we are not rich, and we pretty much need new everything, we have given up our hopes of shopping at such luxurious places like Walter E Smithe and have been reduced to shopping at Ikea. Don't get me wrong I love Ikea, it's like a whole nother country when you go there. Their stuff is cute, reasonably priced and very versatile. However whatever you buy you have to assemble when you get home. And when you purchase 6 large pieces of furniture and a closet organizational system in 2 days and then have to assemble them all you can see where the "joy" kinda gets lost. We finally got away from particle board furniture and actually have real wood, wow! I guess it's baby steps, maybe in our next home we'll be able to afford just going to a furniture store, picking out what we like and having it delivered. Of course then we would be missing out on the comedy of watching a very frazzled Christy push 3 carts through Ikea, trying not to knock over any thing or person, while navigating to the check out aisles. They were so afraid of what I would do, that they opened a lane just for me. Then watching 4 men try to puzzle piece everything into our Prius, with just enough room for me to drive home. At the time-not funny, now-hilarious. I'm sure John will post something about his end of the bargain, putting everything together. Everything looks great now, but of course he had his inevitable trials.
Coincidentally today I saw an article about a man who is living in an Ikea for a week. Check out his website www.marklivesinikea.com . Maybe John and I should just move into Ikea!

Help!!!

Okay I know it's been a long time, sorry! But I need help I'm trapped under a pile of boxes. =)Most of you know that John and I just moved into a brand new condo in Evanston. It is fabulous! Moving brings back memories of our wedding, only because it is only a few times in your life that you can experience that kind of exhaustion. We are doing great and I promise to get back to blogging more. For now it's back to unpacking. Just wanted to let you all know I was still alive.

Halloween costumes gone wrong

Having a long commute has lead me to listen to radio stations that I probably never thought I would, I find that I am very lenient now on what I consider “entertaining”. Since Eric and Kathy were getting pretty run of the mill for me, my new morning routine has been to listen to the 103.5 morning show with Drex. It’s trashy and pretty salacious but it gives me a laugh and keeps me awake. This morning they were discussing a story that had just broke and I found it pretty interesting, I am not sure how many of you had heard about this already, so sorry if it’s old news.

At Penn State some college students have recently had some pictures surface on facebook of their Halloween costume from a party earlier this year. They decided to be “controversial” (their words) and dress as the Virginia Tech shooting victims. Their costumes consisted of Virginia Tech t-shirts and fake bullet wounds. It was a small party and someone took pictures of their costume. The pictures got into the hands of someone who was not a friend and that person then posted them on facebook. The result of this has been extreme anger and hurt. The students that dressed up have received lots of attention, most of it negative, they even have received death threats.

Now the part of this story that interested me was that I felt like it could have easily happened to someone I know. Halloween costumes are getting more and more outrageous each year. It has become commonplace to see people dressed as celebrities or current event situations. I can recall a past party that I attended where 2 people dressed as Siegfried and an injured Roy after his attack from a tiger. Now I am not commenting on the tastefulness of such costumes, I am just saying that this could have easily happened in our group of friends.

The radio DJ Drex was very upset about the whole situation and felt that Penn State should expel the students because of their actions. He claimed that since they were enrolled in the university and the pictures were posted using the university’s network (remember that someone else posted the pics without their consent) that the university had an obligation to reprimand these kids. Drex took some calls from listeners. They ranged from outrage that the students weren’t being prosecuted for their actions, to people feeling sad that this was even considered “news”. Several military personnel called in and thought it was absolutely crazy that that these kids were getting away with this. Drex did play a portion of an interview with one of the costumed students, and I have to say he showed no remorse, was very crass in his description of the costume and how it affected others, and felt that he was innocent and covered by freedom of speech.

Well he’s right, much to people’s disappointment Penn State was unable to do anything to these students because of their right to free speech. However now that they are in the public eye and people know who they are, who’s to say they won’t be harmed?

I found it interesting that individuals within the two groups of people I thought would be most pro freedom of speech (a radio DJ, and military personnel) had such a problem with this. What do you think?

Playing Catch-up

Oh boy it has been a long time since I have written anything. I can’t say that nothing has been going on in my life. Actually we have been pretty busy and crazier than usual. Yesterday I thought of a good analogy for my non-blogging. It’s like when you have a friend that you haven’t talked to in quite some time and you don’t want to call them because you’ll have to go through all the BS instead of just jumping to the most current news; and you know it’s gonna have to be an hour long conversation. So you just keep putting off calling them.
So to catch you up quickly here are the highlights from November in no particular order.

1. I am going to be an Aunt! My brother and Stephanie are having a baby, due sometime in June. I couldn’t be any happier, and can’t wait to baby sit and spoil the new little one.

2. John and I are in the process of buying a condo! It is in Evanston just a few blocks from the downtown shopping area and the train. The place is beautiful; it is a 2 bedroom, fully rehabbed, brand new everything, masterpiece! So far everything is going smoothly and we are hoping to close on Christmas Eve.

3. Marena came to visit and we had a blast! She came in for a weekend and we really enjoyed spending time together. On Saturday we went to my mom’s for her “tea party”. Thanks mom we had a great time. Then Saturday night all of the girls were good sports and went to Millennium Park to ice skate with me even though I am sure it wasn’t top on their list of things to do. We had fun. We finished off the night with Portillio’s and then back to my place to have some wine and gossip, always a good time. Thanks for making the trip Marena!

4. We went to Houston for Thanksgiving. I think I ate more while we were there than I have in a long time. We had a nice visit with the family, got to see the nieces and nephews and just relaxed. We went to the racetrack to watch the horses and after countless times of going to the track, I won my first bet, only $22 but still fun.

Okay now that you are all caught up and I hope I haven’t forgotten anything or anyone, we can go back to the everyday stuff.

Here are some pictures from the month.

Ice Skating with the girls

(top row left to right: Darcy, Kate, Amanda, Chris, Becky, bottom row left to right: Erica, Me, Marena)

John playing with Colleen, one of his Mom's Yorkie's

Now that it's cold I put our flannel sheets on the bed, Morgan loves them, he likes to burrow under and get comfy hoping that no one will find him.

On Monday Becky, John, and I decided to carve pumpkins to get into the holiday spirit. We had a good time. I used to carve a pumpkin with the kids every year when I was teaching, of course it was always the typical triangle eyes etc. So this year I decided to go with something different.

Christy's pumpkin

John's pumpkin
Becky's pumpkin

Then of course we had to light them and admire our work. John's looked funny lit up, all you could see was the one eye and the mouth.

Last night John and I went to see the opening night of Phantom of the Opera. I love seeing plays, well good ones at least. I have seen quite a few of the major musicals and I was surprised that I had managed to miss Phantom prior to now. I have known the music since 6th grade and was pretty excited because I knew I would enjoy it.

I have to say I wasn't disappointed, it was great. The music was good, the singing was phenomenal! The special effects were pretty cool. **Spoiler alert!!*** Although I was disappointed that when the chandelier fell it didn't look more realistic, I guess that's hard to do with people underneath it in the way. Overall I was very pleased with the show and I highly recommend it to you. It ranks in my top 5 musicals of all time. Hmmm... there's an idea.

Top 5 musicals I have seen:

1. Les Miserables

2. Phantom of the Opera

3. Sunset Blvd.

4. Miss Saigon

5. **Tie:

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat & 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

BOO!

I know you are all dying to see our costumes from this weekend so here you go. We had a fun time at the party we went to.

That's me trying to look devilish, who am I kidding?
My favorite part of my costume were the red patent leather high heels that I had been needing an excuse to buy.

Food on my mind...

Just sitting here relaxing, drinking a cup of tea and looking out the window at this beautiful fall day. Not too much going on this week. I finally got all of the pieces for my Halloween costume. This year I am missing the annual Ziolo party-so sad! Sorry but I am working that weekend. However, John and I are going to another friends party the weekend before Halloween, so alas we did need costumes. I will post some pictures next week, and reveal what we are.
John and I had a great, relaxing weekend. I had been feeling quite sniffly and sneezy all week, so I thought taking it easy would be a good idea. On Friday we went to dinner at Grand Lux, one of my favorite restaurants in the city. It is owned by the same company that owns Cheesecake Factory, yummy! Then we went to see the new movie Gone Baby Gone directed by Ben Affleck, starring Casey Affleck. John wrote about the movie in his blog so I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that it is one of my favorite movies -very well done! Saturday we were lazy during the day and then at night went to The Fieldhouse to watch the Illini game, it was nice to see some friends we don't see often enough. Then Sunday was more laziness, I took a walk along North avenue and window shopped while enjoying the beautiful weather, and then came home and made beef stew.
I forgot to write about the Van Halen concert last week. Let me preface this review with some info. I like Van Halen, and the majority of the songs I like are from the Sammy Hagar era. Now I knew that the concert would be with David Lee Roth, but I thought, well...we'll see how I like it. Let's just say I have not been converted to a David Lee Roth fan. We'll work our way thru the instruments:
Vocals-bad, David came in late on the lyrics often, forgot the words often, and despite his poor performance still acted like an ego maniac often. Show some humility!
Guitar-Eddie did a very good job. John was able to notice some decline in skill from previous years, but I did not. He did pretty good for his age and looks pretty good doing it.
Bass-Eddie's 16 year old son Wolfgang made his debut this tour and he did a really good job. I can't believe he is only 16!
Drums-not much to say, Alex did a fine job.
So overall, I enjoyed the concert but would have like it much better if Sammy were there instead of David. Luckily John and I are going to see Sammy in about 2 weeks, looking forward to it.

Here is your weekly Top 10 )they are going to get a little random now)

My Top 10 favorite foods
Mac & Cheese
Cheese fries
Cheeseburgers
Turkey and cheese on a big roll with mayo of course
Grilled cheese
Blueberry pancakes
Mashed potatoes
Fillet Mignon
Peanut butter anything
Lasagna

What's your favorite?