When I posted cow pics, Sid requested pics of the squirrel...So, here they are!

D.C. peeps - guess who's in the suit :)

A couple more pics here.

Posted by valry at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Slate held a memoir week, where they published a bunch of short articles on how authors alerted people that they were writing about them. It was really interesting because it not only showed how the memoirists dealt with this, but also gave insite into their writing process. Here's the link, though I don't know if anmyone who reads this would care.

I will warn you all now. If I know you I either have written or will write about you. If you have ever kissed me, I guarantee I already have plenty of pages on you. Plenty. Just fair warning :)

I've been working on my memoir. But its not at all cohesive. Right now it's mostly just a bunch of snippets and random memories. I don't know how to start it. I go back and forth on it. Do I start at the moment he kissed me and the relationshp began or do i start at the moment the problems came to fruition? Do I leave the audience in the dark for a bit or put all my cards on the table on the first page? I don't know. I do not know.

Posted by valry at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Out of the dullness, one thought arose. [He] did not love her and never really loved her and the knowledge did not hurt. It should hurt. She should be desolate, broken hearted, ready to scream at fate. She had relied upon his love for so long. It had upheld her through so many dark places. Yet, there the truth was. He did not love her and she did not care. She did not care because she did not love him. She did not love him and so nothing he could do or say could hurt her.

---

Do you ever get an email from a store or a company that you signed up from a list for? Does that email ever have a glaring mistake in it or a link doesn't work or an image doesn't work? Do you then think, Jeeze this is a professional company shouldn't they produce something better? Well, stop it! Sometimes someone send out an email to 50,000 people that has a wrong phone number and then has to spend the next three hours frantically trying to send a new corrected one even though she is in a meeting and has no clue how to pull a new list and the person who pulls mailing lists isn't there. :(

Did I mention I had a bad day yesterday?

When I got home from work I read something that I probably shouldn't have read. Why is it that a guy can treat one girl like shit and then turn around and be a completely different person to someone else?

I spent my night in bed with pizza and a DVD of Gone with the Wind that cost $4.50 to rent. You can buy 20 good horror films for that price. The movie was 4 hours long and pissed me off because I kept imagining one of the characters looking more like Benjamin Mackenzie and in the film he looked like a skinny prissy rat. I guess I shouldn't imagine Civil War novels as being played by the cast of the O.C.

Posted by valry at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. 24 finally started being a good show. They got a love story, it's all I ask for!!! Love not war! Kissing not bombs!

2. Tonight Nad and I went to pick up my bridesmaids dress (it now fits perfectly so i will be the perfect hot single bridesmaid!) I told her that i want to do my hair like this for the wedding:

I think she's OK with it...as long as I don't wear a headband.

3.faeriewingtips: wtf? my computer just told me "a running program is incompatible with your color scheme"
Glitterbot: okaaaaaay?
Glitterbot: apparently, even you comp thinks that pink is too much

4. Chris Sligh was voted off tonight. He was my early favorite but I haven't liked him lately. His singing went downhill, he got way too full of himself, and he stopped being funny. Go Dolittle!

5. You know what sucks??? When you spend over a month reading a thousand page book only to get to the end and it be really sad and not happily ever after. :( books make me cry. I guess the ending fit though. Other than that Gone With The Wind was an amazingly good book and probably one of the best I've ever read. I think I am kind of partial though because, sadly, I saw a lot of myself in Scarlett.

Posted by valry at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After Nadia's shower on Saturday I was supposed to go to a party at Robert's, but the shower ran a little late and the three cups of champagne punch I had made me a wee bit drowsy.So I went home to nap. Sorry I couldn't make it!
Anyways, here are the brownies you would have had if I had gone:

After a nap, I heard from JoeJoe that since Helen was in town, Hood wanted to do something. So, I headed out to the Kerry Piper to meet some peeps. I didn't feel like drinking so I ordered a Coke, but the guy brought me a diet Coke (I don't like diet soda, and fake sugar makes me sick some times) so I didn't even drink it all (and when I did I think I made the same face I make when i try to drink beer). I suppose I could have complained, but eh. I am glad though that I didn't buy a drinkdrink becasue from the looks of the bill all of the drinks were mighty expensive.
Anyways, we got to talking about registries and now Joe is convinced that he should register for his wedding at Sam's Club. He wants dino nugguts and a gallon of ranch dressing. :)
So, at one point I start laughing like crazy and MK thinks it was because of a joke he told, as if he'd ever said anything funny in his life, but no, it was because of this:

:)
So, yeah. That was the first weekend that I had human contact in a month. JoeJoe needs to be in town more often because I think he is officially my only friend. Now to make him my only fiance too :)

Posted by valry at 9:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Saturday was Nadia's bridal shower...shhhh don't tell her. Wait...it's over...yeah, I suppose you can tell her now :) Well, it wasn't really a surprise anyways since someone spoiled it and told her the date, but she didn't know where, which meant mischief!!!

So, it was my duty to pick the blushing bride up and bring her to the party. When I got to her house she asked me where we were going. I told her that we were going to McDonalds (double disappointer because she gave up eating there for the New Year). So, we were just about at the restaurant and I too the normal turn towards the mall...then turned again...into the mcDonalds parking lot :) hehe. Of course that wasn't where it was! So then I went into the mall parking lot and drove around the entire parking lot. I had three reasons for doing this: 1. We were still kind of early 2. I wanted to thoroughly confuse her 3. I wasn't entirely sure where it was (I knew generally, but I always forget which side which place is on). :)

Anyways, so I finally decided to take Nad to the Clubhouse, where her party actually was. :) And the party was tons of fun! There was tasty champagne punch (maybe too much of it). We played Nadia and Bryan trivia and determined that she is kind of equally afraid of aliens and fish, and that Nadia's fav food as a kid is Bryans favorite food now (chicken fingers!). Then we ate yummy food. I had a pork chop (why do I keep getting pork? but it was delicious) and there was also salmon and chicken picatta. And then we played a bingo game that had pictures of really frumpy looking bridesmaids and grooms who I think wanted to run. Then it was dessert (cake and a trio of sorbets) and PRESENTS. The best thing about bridal shower presents is that the bride is guaranteed to like them because she picks them all out. And by she I mean she, I don't think grooms have a say in things :)

YayNadia! It was a wonderful shower and a lot of fun! Can't wait for the wedding! Eep! It's coming up so fast!

pictures here (don't worry, I didn't put up every pic of her holding up every present...just mostly my own :) )

Posted by valry at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

woohoo! the blog is back...mostly. I still have to go through and make sure all of the correct images are uploaded, and there are still a lot of pages not up yet, but it should be all rolling soon. I think all my entries are here...If I had lost my blog I think I would seriously have started crying and not stopped for at least four months, maybe forever.

Yeah, so to all 2 of you who may have come to my site in the last day and a half I am sure you either found it completely gone or looking all weird or, even worse, looking all generic. Rest assured there was nothing wrong (not that you thought there was).

I was using about 95% of my webspace and took 145 photos on Saturday. I decided that meant that I should probably switch hosting. So now I am with a new company and pay less than what I was paying before for 6 times the space :) Yayval! That just meant I had to back up everything, take it all down, wait for my new server to kick in and now get everything back up. Slowly but surely it is getting there.

Not that anyone really reads about my boring life anyways.

Anyways, as soon as I am done setting up I will post tons of pics and a recap from the first weekend in which I had human interaction in a month (Yay for JoeJoe being in town. He is my only friend).

Posted by valry at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

2 reasons why I should not be allowed to shop at Target by myself...

Reason 1: Chocolate "Fairy Bunny"

Reason 2: Sleeping Beauty Pez Dispenser.

If I could only have one food for the rest of my life? That's easy. Cherry Pez. Cherry flavor Pez. There's no doubt about it.
Vern Tessio, Stand by Me

The Pez dispenser came with CHERRY PEZ!!!! Holy shit! Cherry Pez was discontinued in the 80s and replaced with grape. It hasn't been available in the US since. But now its back! Scott thinks I am crazy and know too much about Pez. He is probably right. Anyways, go buy Cherry Pez!!!!!

Posted by valry at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

stolen from postsecret

in other news i need to make brownies but mk stole my good cake pan like 2 months ago :(

Posted by valry at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a teacher once tell me that Swan Lake was the most boring ballet to be in because if you were a swan, all you'd do would be stand there and pose. Well, I think Romeo and Juliet would be the most difficult because basically you have to learn to dance while you are dead.

American Ballet Theatre is in town and playing Romeo and Juliet at the Civic. They were kind enough to give Lyric staff free tix to the show. So tonight I took Heather and her friend Patrick and it was amazing! Our Juliet was Julie Kent but our Romeo was not Ethan Stiefel :( It was a beautiful production and they really make it look so effortless. :( I wish I was a ballerina.

On another note...It is NOT ACCEPTABLE to leave a theatre before the bows are done and the lights come up. NO EXCEPTIONS. Seriously, I think its the rudest thing in the world to hop up and run out before the bows just because you want to beat the traffic out.

I think the second rudest thing in the world is when a single person decides to take up 4 seats on the train. You bought one ticket, which entitles you to one seat. It is acceptible to sit down in a 2 seat. But then if the train is crowded, you have to let someone sit next to you. It is not acceptable to sit in a 2 seat and take the aisle seat so no one can sit next to you. It is even more not acceptable to put the seat in front of you backwards, taking up 4 whole seats, so you can put your backpack on across from you and be selfish.

OK, end rant.

On the way home I got a hot fudge sundae and then the conductor had a British accent and said that student ids weren't taken after 10 because hs students should be in bed by then and then I ran into Paul who I haven't seen in forever. And by forever I mean forever. I now I am watching ANTM on tape and they have to be pretty dead people too. And next I have to watch AI and see who got kicked off. Don't ruin it!

Posted by valry at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Is it a bad sign when...

you are watching an interior design program on TV and know exactly where the designer bought half the stuff in the room?

you are a kind of small person and eat an entire carnitas burrito (and maybe a bag of chips and guacamole too) and you don't even like pork?

you come amazingly close to throwing a remote control at a brand new HDTV when Fox goes out during an American Idol performance?

you are reading a book and it makes you think that maybe slavery wasn't bad?

you are reading the same book, which takes place during the Civil War, and keep wondering who is going to win the war?

Posted by valry at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

1. New life plan: join the CIA. No, not that CIA, this CIA.

2. The movie Perfect Stranger is not about balki

3. I love tax refunds

4. With all the tainted dog food, I guess it's good that my dog has never touched the stuff and has lived on an entirely table food diet for as long as we've had him

5. 24 just keeps getting worse and worse...it makes me so nervous it makes me sick.

Posted by valry at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

1. I made a vanilla souffle today. It didn't really rise and tasted like scrambled eggs.

2. I did not win the HGTV Dreamhouse so I will not be running away to Winter Park Colorado :(

3. Sometimes when I am really bored I look at menus from fast food places in other countries to see what I can get that is different. If I was in Italy right now I could be eating a Las Vegas Lover. :)

4. This is the third weekend in a row where I have not gone out. In fact, over the last 3 weeks I have only seen friends once. :( I need friends.

5. I brought all my blankets and sheets down to the basement to wash about 5 hours ago. They never made it into the washer. I guess that is better than if I had put them into the washer and forgot about them.

Posted by valry at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

JoeJoe finally sent pics/videos of me skiing, so here they are (aint my pink pants purdy??):

Videos:

me learning to ski

my first time on a ski lift

finally, i can kind of ski!

p.s. the quality on some of the videos sucks, but that isn't my fiancees fault, YouTube just made it weird.

p.p.s. since joe is engaged i can no longer be delusional that he is my boyfriend, i now must be delusional that he is my fiancee :)

Posted by valry at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...or not :(

So my dress for Nadia's wedding was a bit big in the upper area so I decided I needed a boob job to fill it out. Unfortunatly that is out of my budget at the moment so I decided to just get it taken in instead.

We all met up tonight despite the fact that Jenny and I both emailed Nad to tell her we couldn't go on American Idol night ;-) and got our dresses hemmed and hawed. And I saw Erika for the first time in ten billion years. Yay! Then we went out to Cheeseburger in Paradise and I had some mini burgers and sweet potato chips. yummy!

Eep! I can't believe the wedding is coming up so soon! I got the invite in the mail today! Scary!

So, while at the tailors, I got a random call from an unknown number, so I didn't pick up and they didn't leave a message. 10 minutes later I get a text:
Hey carla this willie, I Ive lookng for you to go take you to the holiday inn, I'm still in the base looking for our gear, are you gone?

So of course, I texted back:
Hey willie mmhm holiday inn is hot come pic me up baby

And then I get 2 more:
Hon, just got to my office to pick up my car, I was looking for you and drove around but we had to come, if leave now from here to pick you up U won't make it

and:

Are you on your way to BWI?

I would have texted back, but I don't have texts on my plan, so each one I recieve/send costs money and he wasn't worth wasting it :)

Posted by valry at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My semi-horoscope for today:
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In a far-off corner of your memory, you recall wearing a monkey suit. Corporate climbing may no longer be your thing, but your ambitions rival those of any CEO. Keep wearing your integrity with those flip-flops.

Me, circa 2001:

Posted by valry at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since I have no life to report on right now and haven't had human interaction outside of work in weeks, let's think back to happier times when I was having fun...

Tonight we go back to my infamous 21st birthday party. The night ended with Sid throwing up on the floor, Erika throwing up in my bedroom, and Mike throwing up in Amy's room. I didn't throw up though because I was too worried about everyone else to really drink (despite what the photographs might imply). :( Maybe it wasn't a happier time...

See pics here.

Posted by valry at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

breakfast is not a secret ingredient.

Posted by valry at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

1. Thursday we had out end of season party at work. It was really fun and the food looked great but I didn't get to eat much because it's pretty hard to eat with a plate of food in one hand, a drink in the other, only a fork with no knife, and no where to sit. :) One of the actors was kind of following me around trying to get me to go drink some wine with him. It was kind of creepy so luckily I found some people to talk to.

2. My life is pretty damned boring right now. I need friends.

3. I found out one of the girls on the Apprentice (the girl who'd having the little love affair for those who watch it) is the daughter of someone I used to work with.

4. I am so bored.

5. survey stolen from everyone

...it's good to know that i'm more adventurious than adventurous.

6. boredboredbored

7. I told Scott I was bored. He told me to do something like jump out a window. I said I could tap dance naked and he told me I should. So I did. Let me tell you, tap dancing on carpet isn't that exciting. :(

8. I'm the most boring person alive.

9. A video about upcoming televised eating contests featuring Eater X and Crazy Legs!!!

10. Did I mention that I'm bored???

Posted by valry at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Will all my techno-savvy friends please divert your eyes!!!

I decided that, while I actually had the money, it was time to replace my laptop. Mine was really slow. It only liked to stay on for about 2 hours at a time before shutting itself off. Sometimes after shutting down it would tell me I had no hard drive for a couple of hours. Without being plugged in it would last about 30 seconds before shutting itself off. While on it would heat up to the point where it would be pretty scalding to touch and start to smell. It was also almost out of hard drive space.

I realize that many of these things could probably be easily fixed...but considering that it wasn't that expensive of a computer in the first place, bought when I didn't think I'd be using it as much as I did, I figure it was more worth the investment to replace it.

So, it is time to meet my new laptop...
































...don't laugh...

...I told you not to laugh!

As you can see, I pick my computers like I pick everything else out in life: solely based on color. :) That of course is not completely true, as this has way more power and memory and features and all that jazz. But it doesn't hurt that it's pink :)

Who knows, maybe it will be a nice conversation starter while I'm typing away at the memoir at all those coffee houses :)

Posted by valry at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

val's boring life continues...
last night i watched American Idol and the girls kick the guy asses.
then i watched a dramedy about wedding planners that wasn't too exciting. i think reality shows about wedding planners are much better.
then was top design.
then the America's Next Top Model I taped because its on at the same time as Idol.
Then I somehow ended up watching the search for the next Pussycat Doll because it recorded after top model.
then i went to sleep.
aint i exciting? i need more friends.

---

I ordered 2 dresses and got them last night. One I plan to wear to Jen's wedding, and the other to probably the rehearsal dinner or something:

I think I need to exchange them for a slightly larger size though. :( I hate that you can order one dress from a place one year and the next can order the same size and (despite the fact that the old one still fits perfectly) it is way too tight.

You know how guys sometimes are weary of zippers too close to certain areas...well, I somehow managed to zip part of my boob into the black dress :( ouchy

Posted by valry at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The first 10 minutes of 24 made Val so damn excited. Finally, thought Val, someone does something smart and something will get resolved and end happily! Val should have known better. They took away any possibility of a nice resolution soon after :( Did Val ever mention how much she hates 24???

Posted by valry at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Things I did this weekend to accomplish my 100 in 2007 goals:

1. Tried out my million dollar Pillsbury Bake-Off entry:

Pineapple Chicken Pockets. You don't want to know where the "pineapple" comes from :)

2. Watched Hellraiser
Apparently Blockbuster no longer carries movies. Seriously they had only parts 3 and 5. Hollywood wasn't much better but they did have part one (and a worker who insisted that it was the best movie ever made). Who am I kidding though, I should just go buy the entire series :) It was however, a very very good movie. Some of the special effects were so terribly 80s, but much more convincing than that CGI crap.

3. Watched 12 episodes of Fraggle Rock
Seriously, I shouldn't be allowed to watch such things. All I did was analyze their relationships and try to figure out which Fraggles are secretly lusting after one another. I swear there was one point where if Boober and Red had been in a teen sitcom they would have totally had sex. Yeah, I shouldn't be allowed around children's shows. There was one episode too where Uncle Matt wrote back about how humans smoke. My how television has changed.

4. Scanned recipes.
Yeah, that's kind of very boring.

5. Dyed my hair blonde.

Yes, again. There is much much less red in it now, but in the pic it looks rather red still.

6. Went shopping.
Well, it's not really one of my goals, but at least I have cute stuff to wear to everything. :) I got shoes for Nadia's wedding and ordered what I think will be my bridesmaids dress for Jen's (plus a dress for her rehearsal dinner or something). I also got free underwear at Victoria's Secret, although it's less underwear and more elastic:

And a really cute skirt that was marked down to $20 from $180:

And I bought wedding presents...Now, you'd think the person at the store who's only job is to wrap wedding presents would actually be able to do it without bumps in the tape, bubbles, uneven edges, and scratched up paper... Eh, I was going to rewrap them anyways, I just needed the boxes.
I also discovered my new guilty pleasure store, Ruehl, which is Abercrombie but for people my age and with much much less sluttiness. I always refused to go in because they seriously hire people to stand outside and ignore people...But I finally went in today and am in love with the clothing. I bought a couple of shirts (one of which I am wearing in my hair pic, not that you can really see it). I need to stop spending money.

Posted by valry at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. I always knew he'd be the perfect boyfriend:

2. Wednesday I went for coffee with MK and his friend Dan, but I had a milkshake and it was damn yummy. We then went back to Matt's for Top Gear and I made him play the episode where they go to America and show how horrible of a country we are :) At one point they have a challenge to drive through Alabama without getting arrested or shot...and at the same time try to get the other guys arrested or shot...and they did so by painting things such as "Nascar Sucks" and "Vote for Hillary" and "Man Love Rules OK" on each others cars. Yeah...they were almost killed...
Since I had to follow MK and Dan back, they kept trying to throw me off by constantly switching lanes and turning on the turn signal and switching places with each other Chinese firedrill style. It was funny. :) And, since it was a *warm* 35 degrees I put down all my windows and sang because the shuffle Q101 was playing had a bunch of my fav sing at the top of my lungs songs (when's the last time I ever heard Little Black Backpack on the radio???)

3. Today my department had our Christmas party. Yup. We got some yummy tapas (I had some muchrooms stuffed with duck and topped with cheese amongst other dishes).

4. I am currently signed up for 2 classes next quarter and can't decide between them. Now, I could take both of them and be done with my masters by June...but I don't really want to devote that much time to class while working full time plus hopefully there will be something I really really want to take next quarter. My choice is between technical writing and text and image. I probably should take tech writing, but it meets on Mondays so I will no longer be able to attend any 24 things. But then again, text and image is on Wednesdays so I will be in class when they announce who gets kicked off of American Idol. Decisions, decisions... Opinions on what sounds better???

Posted by valry at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Still slow to cross anything off...but I have officially finished four items and have started on a bunch others. Once I snap out of it and force myself to stop being so damn fickle I will be able to cross off a bunch more. Here is my update for now though...

Valerie's 100 in 2007:

General
1. Move out
2. Furnish, unpack all my boxes and decorate
3. Find a man (or twelve)
4. Pick a hair color and stick with it
--I've died my hair blonde three times and it's not changing :(
5. Get a tattoo (or at least get mine touched up)
6. Stand up at my best friends wedding
7. Stand up at my sister's wedding
8. Audition for American Idol :) (or at least apply for one reality show)
Entertainment
9. Go to the top of the Sears Tower (hello, when is the last time anyone did that?)
10. See a roller derby bout
11. Have a picnic
12. Go to 10 pin
13. See the Christmas trees at the museum of science and industry
14. Go to the 80s dance club
15. Go to a carnival
16. At least 2 Chicago summer festivals
17. Free dance lessons in Grant Park
18. Go to Bromann Park
19. Go to Millenium Park
20. Go to a haunted house
21. See a concert
22. See fireworks on 3rd/fourth of july
23. Ride the Navy Pier ferris wheel
Arts
24. See Blue Man Group (I haven't seen them since HS)
25. See Second City (I've never seen them)
26. See Naked Boys Singing
27. See the Kurt Halsey Art Show at DVA
28. See at least 3 plays
29. See at least 1 ballet
30. See plenty of Opera
--I've seen one and a half operas this year so far :)
31. Go to at least 2 book readings
32. Go to at least 1 art show (other than Kurt's)
33. Go to MCA
34. Go to Around the Coyote
Movies
35. Go to the Music Box Theatre - Music Box Massacre (If they do it again)
36. Watch all the 80s cartoons I have on dvd
--I've watched the first six episodes of Fraggle Rock :)
37. Watch 3 80s movies I have never seen before
38. Watche The Science of Sleep (looks interesting)
39. Watch every Hellraiser movie (I've already seen all the F13s, Halloweens, Elm Streets, and Childs Plays)
40. Go to free movies in the Grant Park
41. Go to at least one midnight movie at music box
Pampering
42. Get my nails done
43. Take a bubble bath
44. Get flowers from a boy ;-)
--Thanks Josh!
Entertaining:
45. Resurrect Valerie's movie night at least a couple times
46. Throw a housewarming party
47. Throw a wine and cheese party
48. Throw a pajama party
49. Throw a game night
50. Throw a Christmas party
Books:
51. Read ten Pulitzer Prize winning books (my goal is to eventually read them all)
--Read Middlesex (2003), The Fixer (1967). Currently reading Gone With the Wind (but I will never finish it!)
52. Read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
--Done!
53. Read A Million Little Pieces to see what all the fuss is about
Writing:
54. Write a good draft of my memoir
55. Edit that draft
56. Write an article and send it out
57. Finish a good essay and send it out
58. Finish a good short story and send it out
Web Design:
59. Learn google analytics
--I installed it and look at it every now and then. Not very exciting.
60. Learn Actionscript
61. Finish my website (so many little things I never finished)
62. Figure out what is wrong with the leave comments section on my website
--MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!
63. Scan five old event's photos onto my website
--I did one!
64. Relearn basic php and mysql
Life and professional:
65. Finish my masters
66. Develop a good "5 year plan"
67. Apply to do freelance editing
68. Organize my recipe collection
--I've started to work on it - but I have a lot of old magazines of recipes and a really stupid plan for them :)
69. Organize my photos
70. Develop a financial plan (MK help!)
71. Design a freelance website
72. Learn to use my ipod and get all my music on it
Sports:
73. Go golfing (at least to a driving range)
74. Learn to snowboard
--Nope, but I learned to ski
75. Skate along the lake when it is nice out
76. Go ice skating
77. Go to a roller skating rink
78. Go to a baseball game
Travel:
79. Go to Las Vegas (I've gone every year for the last three years)
80. Go to Bengston's Pumpkin Farm (or a similar locale)
81. Visit a state I have never been to
82. See Takeru Kobayashi (Sheboygan Johnsonville Brat Fest?)
--Stupid sister planning her wedding the day of brat fest :(
83. Knock off at least a few of the following Illinois Attractions:
     a. World's largest Catsup Bottle
     b. World's Tallest and Ugliest Lincoln Statue
     c. World's Largest Pot of Coffee
     d. Giant Lincoln on a Covered Wagon
     e. Effingham Giant Cross
     f. The Gays 2-Story Outhouse
     g. The Leaning Tower of Niles
     h. Ahlgrim's Funeral Parlor and Mini-Golf
     i. The Hubcap House
     j. The Golden Pyrimid House
     k. Statue of world's tallest man
Food and Libations:
84. Go for a fancy tea
85. Bake once a month
--January: Oatmeal Raisin and Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise cookies
--February: Superfantastical Super Bowl Cake!
86. Learn to make good soufflé
87. Eat duck fat fries at Hot Doug's
88. Go to Adobo for guac and margs
89. Try three different wine bars
90. Make a ginger bread house
91. Chicago Wine Festival
92. Go to half of the coffee shops that Time Out recommended in their coffee issue
     a. Metropolis
     b. Charmers Café
     c. Lakeside Café
     d. Café Ennui
     e. Istria Café
     f. Medici Bakery on 57th
     g. Third World Café
     h. Julius Meinl
     i. Pick Me Up Café
     j. Uncommon Ground
     k. Intelligentsia
     l. Ventrella's Caffe
     m. The Grind
     n. Beans & Bagels
     o. The Perfect Cup
     p. Swim Café
     q. Atomix
     r. Mercury Café
     s. Muse
     t. Café Mestizo
     u. Jumping Bean
     v. Kristoffer's Café and Bakery
     w. Marshall McGearty Tobacco Artisans
     x. Filter
     y. Half & Half
     z. Caffe de Luca
93. Sigara (Hookah Bar)
--Went, and quite an awesome place!
94. Moonshine for mohitos
95. Orange for brunch
96. Skylark (because they apparently have good tater tots)
97. Enter a recipe contest
--I've started prepping to enter the Pillsbury bake-off
98. Go to the Taste of Chicago
99. Get sushi
100. Freddy's Pizza in Cicero (Chicago Mag voted it Best Gelato in the city)

Posted by valry at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)