Chris, Fred and I

Here are some pics of Chris and I at random points in the past couple of weeks. And I threw in a couple of pics of his puppy, Fred, for good measure. Everything in the world is made better when a puppy is around.

ps) I rule at Rock Band!

Arrested Development

I've become addicted to the show Arrested Development. I started Netflixing season 1 per the suggestion of my friend Cindy. Then Sarah K. loaned me her copy of season 2 and I swear I've watched more television in the past 3 weeks than I have in the past 3 months! This show is HILARIOUS!

I seriously will walk down the street, remember a scene and crack myself up for like 5 minutes. Everyone on the street gives me a funny look but I don't care!!

"Watch out for the loose seal!"

Avenue Q

Chris and I saw Avenue Q on Saturday night and it is, hands down, the funniest musical I have ever seen. It's a smart, inappropriate twist off of Seasame Street that stars Gary Coleman, features a 10 minute puppet sex scene, and lots of talk about porn. Chris and I both had such a great time at this musical and I'm so glad that we were able to catch it on it's last night in Chicago.
Here's a little song I pulled from youtube called "It Sucks to be Me":

Here's the sountrack titles for the show. I think this will give you a good idea of what this musical is about:
1. What do you do with a BA in English?
2. It Sucks to be Me
3. If You Were Gay
4. Mixed Tape
5. The Internet is for Porn
6. I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today
7. I Wish I could Go Back to College
8. Everyone's a Little Bit Racist

I Believe in Love but it Don't Believe in Me

Last night I met up with Murry backstage before rocking out to his Old 97s show. It was so great seeing him! And he pulled out his Iphone so I could see the latest pics of his son, Texas. What a cutie!
And it was a nice surprise when during the second song into the show, Murry saw me in the crowd and said hello to me from the stage! :)

And the Old 97s worked out a deal yesterday with XRT where they are going to play The Taste of Chicago over the July 4th weekend! So I get to see my friend again in 1 month! Yay!

I decided that when I travel to L.A. over Labor Day weekend, that Chris should come along with. I want him to meet my friends out in California and I want them to meet him, as well. :)

Northern Exposure

My parents just got back from a week long cruise through Alaska. While away, Jerry ate escargot and reindeer. I'm trying to figure out the best way to tell Gavin that Grampie ate Rudolph. :)

Ever Thine. Ever Mine. Ever Ours.

Last night, Sarah, Stephanie, Amber and I sipped martinis before seeing the film Sex and the City. It was a bitter sweet experience as I love the show and the characters so much and yet I feel like I just saw them for the last time.
The movie was wonderful. The clothing was outrageous and incredible! I loved Carrie's Vivian Westward wedding dress. Everything was as good as I had hoped it would be. I'm glad the writing was just as strong as on the television show. Their lives weren't fairy-taled up, which I appreciated.

And the night was complete by seeing the film with a bunch of girlfriends.
Watching the movie gave me the courage to order the 3 1/2 inch high heel, gun-metal shoes for Sarah's wedding. :)

Fresh Vegetables

I had my first CSA produce pick up today! I can already tell it's going to be a delicious season! My pick up included the following:
baby kale
spinach
arugula
radishes
green garlic
lettuce
mizuna

For dinner tonight, I cooked Chris and I penne pasta with roasted garlic marinara sauce and an arugula salad with sliced pears in a raspberry vinagrette. Yum!

ScarJo = NO!

So here's the backstory: This weekend on a 4 1/2 road trip from Iowa to Chicago (please note this trip was not at all near the 7 hours Chris thought it would take...but I digress) my boyfriend, Chris, and I were talkin' Hollywood. And what girls are hot and what girls are not hot. And what boys are hot and what boys are not hot.

Give me a break, we had been in the car for hours at this point, it's not like we're going to talk about something deep like LOST or Samantha Who?

So we, inevitably, got onto the topic of Scarlett Johansson. Who Chris thinks is hot. And if given the opportunity, would for sure make out with her.

Where as for me, she makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit every time I see her.

So, to demonstrate how I am right and he is wrong, please see the attached image of this month's cover of Nylon magazine. With ScarJo lookin' a bit like an 80's Hair Band dude.

I bet Chris is really thrilled right now to be dating a girl with a blog!

Charlotte's an Ex-Boozer

I just read an interview with Kristin Davis where she admitted that she is a recovering alcoholic! She said she's been sober for the entire time she's been on SATC.
I didn't know she used to be a drunk? But now that I think about it, remember when that sex video of her popped up on the internet? She denied it was her in the video but now I question whether it is or isn't. Who knows what Charlotte's like when she's on the sauce!

Ooohh, Bunny would not approve!

Memorial Day Weekend

Chris and I went to Des Moines this past weekend to see my family and some of his friends. We were able to celebrate Max's 3rd birthday! Gavin and I baked the cake. Max and I frosted it (blue with sprinkles). What a great weekend!

Serenity Now!

It's just been one of those mornings.
Serenity Now!

Gift from Vietnam

My agent in Asia, Rosie, sent me a gift from Vietnam! It's this beautiful wallet from a company called Zan Toc

If you click on "Nagu" and then "Product" you can see some other things they design.

Week 21

I love the way that Aaron's camera captures the most beautiful things. The most beautiful moments. My most beautiful friend and her baby.

Green Eggs and Ham

I received my first meat share this past Saturday. In the bag was a whole chicken, beef for stewing, pork chops, hamburger patties, ground hamburger, pork sausage, a pork roast and 2 dozen eggs.

I've never had eggs fresh from a farm before. I was surprised to find that some of them were green! The farmer emailed saying they own a breed of chicken that lays green eggs but not to worry because they taste the same as other eggs.

I was also surprised to see how orange these eggs are! It kind of made me worry about those pale eggs I have been buying all these years, from the local grocery store.

*This just in, my mom thinks the egg on the left looks rotten. It didn't have a strong odor and it tasted fine...but I've got an email into the farmer asking if the egg looks rotten.
Wouldn't that just be my luck. The first time I get fresh eggs, I'm so clueless about how they should look that I eat a rotten egg. I'll keep you posted on what the farmer says...*

Tulips

Chris brought me tulips! Flowers brighten any room and any mood.

You Came On Like You Knew You Would

Last night, Chris and I caught the Helio Sequence show at The Empty Bottle. It was a sold out show and the bar was full of incredible energy, with people jumping and waving their hands in the air and singing right along with every song.

It was an incredible concert! I can't believe how cool they sounded live and the drummer was awesome, throwing his drum sticks high in the air like an invisible drum kit was also suspended above his head. I'm always impressed when a band, comprise of only two people can create such a full sound.

Internets - if you haven't picked up the latest Helio Sequence album, I highly recommend you do that soon.

You Don't Want to See Me When I'm Angry

So I reached my breaking point this morning at 8:17am. All in all I thought I had been handling things fairly well. I need a Filling Supreme!? Ok, that's cool. I can't breathe and need to go to the hospital? Alrighty, I can handle that too. I need to go on steroids for a week? Sure, what's one more thing?

Well guess what? Steroids screw with your emotions. They make you angry. And aggressive. And I had been warned, quite strongly, that this would be a side effect, but what could I do? It was doctor's orders.

The mood swings started two nights ago when during a phone call to Chris I think I interupted him about 27 times. And I raised my voice. And I may have ranted for awhile. I believe the hot topic that sparked my aggressive response was about a law firm's documentary.

Who the hell gets mad about a law firm's documentary?

Yesterday wasn't much better. I called my sister in the morning and started telling her about the phone call with Chris, the night before, and I got all angry again.

And you don't even want to know about how I handled the Cubs traffic after getting out of Bible Study last night.

But today is my last day on the 'roids. Of course I couldn't have any old regular day. At 8:17am this morning, I got a $50 parking ticket when I ran into my local Starbucks for a cup of coffee. I was away from my car for 2 minutes at most. $50 DOLLARS!

I was so angry I was in tears. And I believe I called almost everyone in my cell phone so I could rant about it.

Sweet Jesus...get me off these drugs already. And also, while I'm praying, enough with beating on my body. I can't afford much more of this. (literally)

Spider

Here is a short film that aired at the Indianapolis Film Festival, along side Chris' film Static. This was one of my favorite shorts of the festival. The lead actor was also the lead stunt coordinator for the X-Men films. If you watch this 9 minute short, you will quickly see why.
Do not watch this with children around (Angie).


To see it on a bit of a larger screen, go here.

13 Years Ago

13 years ago, this month, I graduated high school from Grinnell Community Senior High. I figure I haven't embarrassed myself enough on this website so I asked my mom to scan my senior photo. (Thanks Mom!)
So here ya go, loyal reader...here is me at the ripe old age of 17. Look at that hair! And those eyebrows!!

And here's Michi's senior photo!

My Kryptonite

I have been feeling pretty under the weather all week. Not only did I get my very first Filling Supreme! on Monday but starting last weekend I began coming down with a cold. Or what I thought was a cold.
Yesterday marked one week of having this cold and it seemed to be getting worse every day so I wondered if I actually had a sinus infection. I decided to make a doctor's appointment just in case I needed to be on antibiotics. So over my lunch hour, yesterday, I ventured over to the doctor's office where he informed me I actually had allergies!

These were allergies!

I haven't had seasonal allergies before so it hadn't occurred to me that allergies could be the cause of my miserableness.

So the Doc told me to go to Walgreens and pick up a box of Claritin D. Take one tablet every 12 hours and I should feel right as rain.

I was ecstatic! This meant that in an hour or two I should be up and running and back to my old self. This was wonderful news!

So off to Walgreens I went to make my purchase and then back to my office I went to take the pill, eat my lunch and continue working.

At first the pill worked! I could breathe, my ears finally opened up after having been closed for 3 days, and I stopped sneezing. I was in the greatest of moods. And then all of a sudden all those symptoms came back. In about a span of 10 minutes. It's like I could feel a wave of allergy lapping over my body. I was getting bummed out because I couldn't take another pill for 10 more hours. So I called the Doc back and explained that I was miserable again but the nurse said there was nothing I could do but wait the 10 hours and take the pill again.

But after another 20 minutes I really wasn't feeling well. I was growing really dizzy just sitting in my office chair. I was starting to see white flashes of light. And I began to wonder if I needed to eat a little more. So I opened up a Nature Valley Granola Bar and had a mid-afternoon snack. And yet, I still didn't feel better.

Shortly thereafter, my co-worker, Sarah B., popped her head up over my cubicle to say she was leaving for home and she sort of stopped suddenly and asked if I was feeling ok? I told her I was pretty dizzy and I just really didn't feel right. I said that something was wrong but I didn't know what. So she came over to my desk and suggested that maybe I needed some sugar and she was going to try and find a cookie for me. About 20 seconds later she was back at my desk opening up some Girl Scout cookies when I fainted.

Luckily Sarah caught me and sat me back up in my chair. That's when I opened up my eyes and realized I couldn't breathe. My tongue was really thick inside my mouth and although I was going through the motions of inhaling, oxygen wasn't actually getting inside my lungs. So Sarah grabbed the phone and told the operator to dial 911.

Then she, along with another co-worker (I had a small crowd at my desk at this point), said they were going to help me lie down until the paramedics arrived. So they both put my arms around each of their shoulders and lifted me out of the chair. Which is when I fainted again.

They somehow got me into my bosses' office and laid me down on the floor. They were placing cool, wet paper towels on my forehead and neck. One woman, Becky, held my head and kept talking to me and asking me questions to keep me alert. They noticed I had hives all around my neck, where my shirt collar ended.

In came the paramedics who took a look at me and started scrambling pretty fast. I was breathing a bit easier lying down but my tongue was still quite swollen and I still felt really dizzy. So the EMTs started pulling out needles and shooting me up with all sorts of stuff. And about 20 seconds later I felt the adreneline shot kick in and my whole body started shaking. It looked like I was kicking my legs, even though I wasn't. They hooked me up to some oxygen and got me on the gurney and off to the hospital I went.

Which is where the docs said I had an allergic reaction to the Claritin D. They gave me all sorts of drugs to counter the Claritin D in my body and I seemed to be doing much better. The hives were almost gone, my breathing had gotten back to normal and my blood pressure had come back down.

Right now I'm feeling back to normal. It almost seems surreal that all that went down yesterday because I feel so normal this morning. And I want to give a big shout out to Sarah K. who was so helpful when all of this was happening. She called my mom and my doctor and Chris to tell them what was happening. She grabbed my purse and rode in the ambulance with me to the hospital. She waited in the waiting room while the docs gave me an EKG and other fun tests. She kept me company in the hospital room while I waited for my blood work to come back. And she drove me to the pharmacy to pick up some more drugs, fed me dinner and drove me home.

I couldn't ask for a better best friend. :)

**********************************************
Earlier that day, Chris and I were talking about the crappiest super powers we have. His is that when he is congested he has the ability to snore in every position he sleeps in. Mine is that I dream vivid dreams at night and will often talk in my sleep. And, on the rare occasion, I will swear in my sleep. Talk about a crappy super power.

But now I have realized that Claritin D is my Kryptonite. It stripped me of all sorts of powers. Like the power to breathe. The power to stand up straight without falling down. The power to not have my body become all red and splotchy.

Damn you Claritin D! You will not hold me down!

Schuhtastic!

This is my friend Karla and she is 19 weeks pregnant. And she looks beautiful. :)

Just Press Send

Julia comes through again with the best blog ever!

Considering I still have this cold, I hope Chris would send me this one:

Cedar Valley Farm

Chris and I are signing up for a three month meat share program through Cedar Valley Farm. Jody, the farmer who runs Cedar Valley, raises cows, pigs and chickens just a few hours outside of Chicago. His farm is right next to my friend Mike's farm, which is where I get my summer and fall organic veggies.

I love CSA programs. I love everything about them. I love that I get incredibly fresh, organic produce for a really good price. I love that because my fridge is stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables, for six months out of the year I eat incredibly healthy. I love that it's a fun way to support my friends. And I love the feeling that I'm doing a small part to help preserve the earth.

For this meat share program, at the beginning of each month we'll get a large meat pick-up that should feed us all month long. The animals are all grass fed, no hormones or anything wacky like that, and there is plenty of farmland for them to roam around on. The meat is processed at a local Amish processing center (which for some reason I like that too). A typical monthly pick-up looks like this:
3 lb roast
2 lbs hamburger
2 lb round steak
1 lb Italian sausage
1 package (2) pork chops
1 ham steak
1 pasture raised chickens (whole)
1 pasture raised chicken (cut-up)
2 doz. Farm fresh eggs

Yay! This summer we will feast on fresh meat and produce. I can't wait!

Fashion Trend Alert!

Looks like red dresses with electric blue shoes are the new hottness.

3 Cheers for 31 Flavors

Of all the news that has happened this week, i.e. - Obama wins North Carolina and yet Clinton still won't go away, a cyclone kills more people in Asia than I can even fatham, gas prices in Chicago reach $4.09 a gallon, I think we need to take a moment to pause for the most shocking and upsetting news of all. Irvine Robbins, co-founder of Baskin Robbins, has died.

The man invented Rocky Road. He invented it.

Now I'm not sure if you, my loyal reader, know how much I love me some ice cream. Every night, starting in mid-April and going through September, I fix myself an ice cream cone. No, I do not eat scoops of ice cream out of a bowl. I fix myself an ice cream cone. Two scoops. And for the past couple of weeks I've been enjoying the tasty awesomeness of Pineapple Shebert.

So to me, Irvine is a bit of hero.

Without him, I just might be 5 pounds lighter and 20 pounds more miserable.

So three cheers for ice cream! And three cheers for Irvine!
And in tribute, please do share what your favorite type of ice cream is.

Rock the Vote

Scarlett Johnasson, 23, and Ryan Reynolds, 31, have been dating for about a year. He called off his engagement of 2 years to Alanis Morrisette back in Feb. 2007.
Scarlett and Ryan are now engaged.

Rock the Vote
A) Scarlett is pregnant and that is why they are engaged
B) Ryan just really likes being engaged and they will probably never go through with the wedding
C) This is for reals and they are totally in love

Birfday Boy!

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Filling Supreme!

I just got home from the dentist's office where I received my very first root canal.

I realized on the way to the drug store, where I picked me up some big, fat Vicodin pills, that I probably wouldn't have been so scared and shaken if the procedure was called something other than root canal. So Angie and I brainstormed some different names:
Filling Plus!
Super-Filling!
Filling Extraordinaire!

All of those sound much better than root canal.

But since Dr. Sean performed a root canal on me, instead of a Filling Supreme!, I am going to have to rely on romantic comedies and PJ's to make me feel better.

Well, I guess those Vicodin might help too.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

I love this new Madonna song, 4 Minutes. The horns at the beginning are incredibly hook-y. And it makes me want to go dancing!!

A Coupling Non-Chart

IN: Purity and Miley Cyrus
5 MINUTES AGO: Purity and Jamie-Lynn Spears
OUT: Purity and Britney Spears

IN: Justin Timberlake and Madonna
5 MINUTES AGO: Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel
OUT: Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz

IN: John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston
5 MINUTES AGO: John Mayer and Jessica Simpson
OUT: John Mayer and Jennifer Love Hewitt

Pass the Cheer

A year and a half ago, I spent a long weekend in North Carolina visiting my friend, Joy.

During that vacation, Pete brought up the idea of re-using his Starbucks sleeve in order to cut down on his personal carbon footprint. It seemed like a simple idea but the more I thought on it, the more I realized the positive impact I could make if I also re-used my sleeve (considering I go to Starbucks every morning). I know it's not as great as if I re-used the cup or brought my own travel mug, but...hey, it's a start!

So last December I decided to try and use the same sleeve for one year. And it's almost 5 months later and I'm still rockin' the holiday Pass the Cheer sleeve. The guys that work my Starbucks said that if I use the sleeve for the entire year they will reward me with free lattes for a week!