It's Done!!!

Hooray!  I finally have apartment photos!  So sit back and relax as I take you on the tour...

Here's our bedroom -

Now please step into our living room/kitchen area - 

And of course, the guest bedroom - 

And finally our office!

Date Night For Early Birds

Our plan for date night was to go out for 1/2 off sushi and then see a movie.  Since going out for sushi usually takes awhile and the movie started at 7:15p we decided to start our date when Matt got home.  On the way to sushi, I had a quick change of mind and decided that I didn't want to be rushed during dinner.  We found a gift certificate that we received in the mail and decided to get .45 cent wings at Buffalo Wild Wings instead.

We had an awesome dinner and while we were eating I suggested that we go bowling instead of a movie.  We both liked that idea so we changed our minds again and bowled a couple of games.

While walking to the car after bowling I said to Matt, "That was a lot of fun.  I guess we should head home.  By the way, what time is it?"  Matt replied, "7:10p."  "What!?," I said shockingly. "You mean we were able to eat dinner, bowl two games and still have time left over to drive to the movie we were going to originally see?"   I thought that was funny.  :)

When we got home, we Skyped with M&D.  I love Skype!!!  It helps me feel connected to those I miss.  We have even gotten Bonnie, Chazz and Dusty to Skype along with us.  ;)

After our conversation, Matt and I took our ritualistic positions on the couch/chair and we mentally psyched ourselves up for our favorite TV show - Lost.  We started up our Tivo, only to find out that it was a rerun this week!  Whatever!!!!

Rainy Days Make For Productive Projects....Inside!

It poured all of yesterday - I can't think of a time when the rain let up. So, we decided to make the best of it and finally get around to hanging up small wall hangings throughout the apartment.  I love all the new changes!  I'm almost at a point where I can say the apartment is officially done.  :)

Later that evening, Matt and I watched the Transformers sequel and we munched on leftovers for dinner.  All in all, it was a very good rainy Sunday!

Kirsten's Night

We enjoyed a suite also at the concert.  All the lead management for Gloria's work was there so we got to hobnob with her boss's bosses. We didn't get a dessert cart, but we did have food and great seats for the concert.  Carrie Underwood was amazing!  Gloria and I didn't start off as but we both knew she was talented.  We are definitely fans now!

Matt's Night

So to say that both Matt and I had a fun time would be an understatement.  We all started at the VIP lounge for the baseball game.  As you can see the suite was pretty sweet!  And yes, once again pardon the pun, but they actually had a dessert cart come and hand out cotton candy and slices of cheesecake or pie...Matt was in heaven.  He had to remind himself that there was an actual game going on in the background.  Gloria and I left during the 3rd inning so we could go over to have our own fun at the concert!

I'm One Lucky Cowgirl!

A friend that I haven't mentioned yet is Gloria and I met her through Stephanie.  They used to work together so I've hung out with her a few times now.  Since Steph is away this week, Gloria asked me if I wanted to join her for a Carrie Underwood concert tonight.  I haven't found out the reason yet, but apparently she scored free VIP tickets so we are going tonight in style!  As a bonus, she also had 3 Mudhen baseball tickets (which are also for a VIP box) and gave those tickets to Matt and her two kids.  Her kids are older and since she was going to the concert with me, she thought the three of them would have fun!

Since the game starts before the concert, we are all going to hang out in the Mudhen VIP box and eat, drink and have all sorts of fun.  Then, when the concerts starts up, we'll walk over to that stadium and have fun there!  Whoa, Gloria is the girl to know!!!  :)  Wasn't that nice of her to think of us?

So I'll be sure to get some pictures.  For those that don't know, Carrie Underwood is a pop-country singer and was discovered from American Idol.  I'm not familiar with too many of her songs, but I know she is talented!

Dandelions, Ohio's State "Flower"

It's been amazing how in just three months, I've been reminded of things I haven't thought of since living in Illinois.  For example, dandelions - they are everywhere here!.  Now I know they exist in CA, but up where I lived, I would only see them occasionally.  I had forgotten how prevalent daffodils are in the mid-west.  It's too bad they are a weed because they are so pretty against the green grass.

Taco Night!

We had a lot of fun this evening with Steph over at her place.  We made tacos, guacamole, salsa, Spanish rice, and a Mexican corn cake for dessert.  It was all very yummy!!!  We also watched a movie we've all seen many times - Tommy Boy - a classic.  It had been a while since I'd seen it, so it was nice to have a refresher course on all the great movie quotes.

   

Not much to report about our morning and afternoon - hmmm....I'm detecting a theme here!  We did manage to set up a local bank account at lunch.  This may not seem like a big deal, but I felt this was a big accomplishment because it's taken over 3 weeks to get it done.  Long story short, the bank we have been from CA does not have a branch where we live, so we set up a local account to transfer money.  However, since all the checks we get are for our web hosting business, we realized we had to start over and set up a business account.  Then we hit a snafu because our CA business license expired.  Geez!  Nothing is simple!  But everything got settled today,  and I can finally check that task off the 'ol to do list!

Movie Night Was A Bust!

Yesterday evening was my 2nd event for the month.  It was movie night and we showed Sherlock Holmes.  It was a complete bust - practically no one showed up!  We even had quite a movie watching spread.  We had candy and popcorn for snacking, soda and freshly baked cookies (sorry Dad!).  Of course, Matt and I were there, and only three others attended, one of which doesn't live at our complex!  He attended because he was invited by a current tenant.  The final participant only came because he just happened to stop by the clubhouse around our start time and had nothing else going on that evening.  But, I'm not fretting about it because I still got to watch the movie and frankly it's a whole lot better watching a action movie in movie room vs. our TV.  So whereas the actual event itself was a bust, Matt and I still had fun.  :)

Since I had another busy day of random boring details, I thought I would share a couple of interesting observations I've made about Ohio's safety laws.  First and foremost, there is no helmet law here.  It's so weird to see motorcyclists drive around without a helmet.  Don't they know that even though there's no law requiring them to wear a helmet, there is the law of gravity and there is no beating that one!  Why take the chance?  (Oh, Mom, you must be so proud of me right now!)

Also, I never saw this in CA so maybe it's an Ohio thing, but it seems as if everywhere we go, we see this sign posted at the front entrance of many public places.

Pay no attention to the above sign, it's the one below that we see everywhere.  Is this seriously something I have to worry about?  Will I be shopping one day at a store that didn't post this sign and will held up at gun point because some lady is packing and whips our her gun because I grabbed the shirt she wanted to buy!?  

Well, be rest assured that we are only attending places that clearly has this sign posted!  :)  Want to know the sad thing, I took this picture outside the main entrance of Matt's work place!  And want to know something scary, enlarge the picture and read the black text message below the no gun image.  Is it me, or is there a typo - no one is to conceal any deadly "pons" in the premise.  Great, I'd hate for someone to get off on a technicality because their gun is considered a "weapon" rather than it's nickname "pon" !!!

Nothing to Report About...

Wow, I really cannot think of anything interesting to write about for Monday.  It's probably why I'm writing so late in the day.  It was really busy, just not interesting - lots of errands, laundry, paying of bills, etc.  As for Matt, nothing new is going on either.

I did find out that he will be traveling early May.  He'll be going to PA from May 3rd - 6th.  It's nice that he's been given some leeway time to plan.

Here's at least a picture I took yesterday morning - I thought outside was pretty since the fountain hadn't started yet and the water was like a mirror.

Shouldn't I Be Sleeping Right Now???

All I remember for Friday is that Matt was invited to dinner and drinks at a local BBQ joint and I tagged along to get to know his co-workers better.  Apparently, I made a good impression because I was willing to drink beer, eat a giant hamburger, and act like "one of the guys."  See, I knew being a tom boy as a kid would finally pay off!  Later that evening we watched The Blind Side.  Whereas we both liked it, we still don't understand all the award hype that went along with the movie.  But I'm glad I finally saw it.

On Saturday, I was ditched by Matt for his other love - golf.  He along with 3 co-workers signed up for a tournament work and Matt said they played decently.  Apparently they were attempting for either 1st or any other place because the 2nd place winners have to plan next year's tournament.  I'm a planner and even I wouldn't want to win 2nd!  Apparently that wasn't a problem for Matt's team, because even though they did well, they were no where near 1st, 2nd or even 10th place.  :)

While Matt was off having fun, I played the domesticated wife role and joined up with Stephanie to cook/bake for a BBQ we were both invited to.  Steph made her homemade baked beans and party potatoes - both of which were delicious!  I made dessert which consisted of Oreo topped brownies and whoopee pie cookies.  That evening we all went to the BBQ, ate a lot of great food, and we got to meet more of Steph's work friends.  It was a fun night.  :)

We had a typical Sunday - I was free for the afternoon so Steph wanted to know if I would like to join her to check out the new TJ Maxx in the area.  We were blown away as to how many people were there and ended up not buying anything because the line wrapped around the majority of the store.  There's another TJ Maxx nearby, so we weren't expecting so many people to be shopping opening day - especially since there were no specific sales.  Afterwards, Matt and I  did our own thing for the rest of the day.  I read, planned out my Monday, prepped tomorrow's grocery list and cleaned/re-organized the kitchen while Matt played video games the entire day/night.  Hmmm...well, I guess he does work 5 days out of the week!  :)

An Eventful Night

Tonight was my first event at our clubhouse.  We had a tournament night in which we had Texas Hold'em in one room, a pool tournament in another, and finally a Wii tournament in the movie room.  I felt for a 1st time event, it was a success.

Matt and Steph signed up for the Wii tournament and they competed against another tenant.  I didn't catch who officially won the title for bragging rights.  ;)  As for pool, only myself and another person signed up.  I'll admit I had a good night of pool playing, but got my bootie kicked each game.  Oh well!

As for poker, that seemed to be a huge success, too.  The tenants that played said they would like to do it again so I think I'll make tournament night a monthly event.  An overall success!

Next Tuesday will be my movie night and we'll be showing Sherlock Holmes.  I think that should be a fun evening as well - especially since I learned to operate the popcorn machine!

Before the event, Steph had me over for dinner.  Matt's been training this whole week and they took the trainees out to dinner.  Steph made homemade sloppy jo's and I brought over mac and cheese and corn muffins.  I'd never had homemade sloppy jo's and they were excellent!

Black and White

I just thought this was a cool picture that I took and thought I would share. :)

There Was Nothing "Witchy" Washy About Last Night!

Our date night certainly went up a notch last night.  As I mentioned yesterday, we saw Wicked and OMG it was amazing.  I haven't been to a musical that good since my good ol' days watching plays in SF.  We ended up having a sub for the main character (the green witch) and she was absolutely wonderful!  I also loved our rendition of Glinda the Good Witch.


(Now for the dirty little secret) - Matt loved it, too!  Many of you know that, up until now, Matt has not been a fan of musicals.  However, he's also never seen a professional musical.  So, I've been determined over these past 12 years to take him to one.   Sure enough, he liked it - a lot.  I promised him that I wouldn't write that I've converted him - so lets just say that he's modified his perspective.  ;)

We sat in the Mezzanine section.  They ended up being great seats.

The theatre had 3 huge chandeliers inside and this was just one of the three near the souvenir section.


This is of one happy camper anticipating a wonderful show...

And of course the program - yet another to add to my collection.  :)

Wicked Tuesday and Wednesday...

So you may be wondering what was so wicked about each day...

Well, yesterday's "wicked" theme is referring to the wicked mood I was in for most of yesterday.  I got nowhere in my ongoing insurance saga, only to hit another wall yesterday.  I think I came up with a solution but this has been going on for 3 weeks now!  In addition, I also hit road blocks with some other work-related things so I personally would like to forget about yesterday - it was so not blog worthy!  I did get to Skype with M&D yesterday and that definitely perked me up.  :)

As for today, we are going to see Wicked the musical tonight!  I've been wanting to see this play for years and tonight I will finally be able to see it...hooray!  I'll be sure to take my camera and snap some shots.  Oh, I can't wait....  :)

Should I "Spare" You The Details of Monday?

In the efforts of cleaning the apartment yesterday, I somehow made it more messy.  I'm in that weird phase of having the apartment decorated completely minus a few lingering things to hang on the walls.  It seems as though I keep transferring the wall hangings from the office to the guest room so if I don't have everything hung buy this week, then I'm going to take it as a sign that it's just not that important to me!

Since our friend Eric is leaving this week, we wanted to hang out with him one last time with our other neighbors Jenny and Kyle.  So the 6 of us met up for dinner and bowling.  We played three games and it was guys against girls.  Sure, perhaps the guys won the first two games, but us girls kicked their booties the last game!  :)

Afterwards, we said bye to Eric (boo!) but we will see him during his visits to back to Ohio.

A Softball and Karaoke Kind Of Weekend

We started our weekend by going back to Waterville to exchange a lamp we purchased last weekend for our front entry way. We love our apartment, but one aspect that continues to baffle us is the complete lack of lighting.  Typically a room would come with at least a ceiling light, but many of our rooms don't even come with that. So, it's been a nice excuse to buy some cute new lamps.  While in Waterville, we also went to a fun burger joint and had some lunch.

After our high-caloric lunch, we worked it off by practicing for our upcoming softball tournament.  I think for a couple in their 30's we didn't do half bad, but I do see many a practice in our future.  There is a softball field next to Matt's work, so it will be very convenient for us to practice there.


That night we went out with Stephanie and Eric for some dinner and karaoke.  They invited a bunch of their work friends since it was Eric's last weekend before he moves to start a new job out of state.  Steph and Eric were a lot braver than Matt and I when it came to karaoke.  We were especially impressed with Steph.  She and a friend sang the Johnny Cash/June Carter song I'm Going to Jackson and they rocked it!

What Is Wrong With These Pictures?

So I went out for some errands yesterday, only to come upon this beautiful tree in bloom. I think to myself, ah-ha, Spring must be here.

If it is, then why are both my cats using a heating blanket?!

I Wish It Were Wednesday So I Could Say Happy "Wind"sday!

Windy much?  I wish I could remember how windy Chicago is because it sure feels like our town is the windy city!  I went on my usual bike ride today and I've gotten pretty used to the fact that each day I should expect wind.  Today was so blustery that when a big gust hit, my bike literally stopped mid-petal.  I thought I was going to fall over from the abrupt stop.  All was well in the end and it ended up being a better workout than anticipated!

Matt came home really tired so I didn't get to hear about his day.  He took a very long nap while I made dinner, ate dinner, watched some TV, skyped with Mom and went on an errand.  When I came back he was cooking himself dinner and I said, "Silly, I already made you dinner!"  That was a nice surprise to him.  :)

I did find out that Matt signed us both up for softball.  Apparently the team we have joined is the reining team 2 years in a row...um, no pressure or anything!  Our games will be starting sometime in May.

After dinner we watched Up In The Air.  I had heard it was sad and during the movie I kept thinking, what is making this movie so sad?  Granted, all the people losing their jobs was not fun to watch, but I had heard that it was a sad story for George Clooney's character and he seemed fine with his job.  Let's just say for those who haven't seen the movie, I now know why people warned me.  But, I did like it - actually, I liked it more than I thought I would.

A Thunderous Day

Boy did it rain yesterday.  I had forgotten what huge lightening storms can occur in the Midwest!  We had quite a light show throughout the day and night.

Toledo's hockey team made it to the playoffs so we went to cheer on the Walleyes last night.  Stephanie recommended that we go to a restaurant named Packo's.  Apparently, this restaurant was made famous when Jamie Farr (Klinger) from MASH mentioned it on the show.  He was a Toledo native and loved the restaurant.  We liked it - It was a fun place to eat.  While we were eating, a very loud, very heavy down pore hit.  It was an interesting walk to and from the game - but that is what umbrellas are for, right?

So the game itself was quite disappointing.  The Walleyes lost but they are still in the playoffs.  If there is another home game, I'm sure Matt and I will want to go.  I never thought I would enjoy hockey, but I really do.  Who knew?  Our local baseball team has their first game tonight so I'm sure Matt and I will enjoy going to those games as well.

Also, I scheduled Matt and my flights out to CA.  We will be visiting around Memorial Day weekend, so for those that are in town, we would love to see you!  I'll be sure to email everyone our itineraries so you know when we will be in town.  :)

Dinner and a Movie and a Friend!

Since our friend Eric is traveling this week, we asked if Stephanie if she wanted to go with us to $1 burger night.  Matt ended up being the only one sticking to the burger menu.  Steph and I other the other hand ventured over to the 1/2 off appetizers menu - oh, we are such rebels!

After dinner, we watched The Invention of Lying.  We all liked it, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting.  I knew no one except Ricky Gervais could lie, but I didn't realize that everyone would be so forthcoming with their opinion.  It felt too awkward and sad for me at the beginning, but once he realized he could lie, then the movie really perked up.

Playing Hooky During Lunch

My cousin and his family were driving through our town today so we were able to meet up with them for lunch.  It had been a while, so it was nice to see them and their two kids. The kids were very sweet and I got to hear all about their future trip to DisneyWorld!!!  Let's face it, once the discussion turns to Disney, I become another kid. We also had some great catch-up adult conversation.  Thanks again guys and I hope you had a pleasant ride home.  :)

Matt went to work early so he could join us for the extended lunch.  Afterwards, I dropped Matt off and tackled my "insurance project" I've been working on for the past week.  Sounds fun, right!?  Ugh!  Long story short, because we have switched to a new insurance company for Matt's work, it's been a nightmare trying to switch our prescriptions.  It shouldn't be a big deal, but for some reason it they don't want to carry our brands so it has turned into some major drama.  Oh well...thankfully I had some progress by the end of the day.

Right now, Matt is watching the big b-ball game.  I have no idea who is leading...or who Matt is routing for.  :)

"Puttering" Around on Easter

We started with such good plans for Easter.  We had planned to explore another section of Ohio, but from all our excitement on Saturday, we got tired and decided to laze around.  We started by going to church and then to breakfast.  After being bored silly for the next couple of hours, we got out of the house and noticed that the mini golf course near our home was open - so we went miniature golfing!

We didn't keep score so I honestly can't tell you who won - but one of us did get a hole-in-one....I'll let you imagine who got it.  ;)

Since the original plan was to explore that day, I hadn't made anything special for us for Easter dinner.  So how did we solve that problem - we went out to dinner with Stephanie and had Mexican food.  Nothing says Easter like guacamole!

Merry Christmas! Oops...I Mean, Happy Easter!

Well, to say we had a good time at the Christmas Story House is an understatement.  Matt and I both were both like kids in a candy shop.  Since I took about a bazillion pictures, I'll only show the significant ones...

The house was in a neighborhood - which felt weird.  Imagine buying tickets to tour a house and on either side there are neighbor kids looking at you while playing in the yard.  One kid even shouted to our tour group, "Hey, give me $5 and I'll let you look in my house!"

Since everything inside the house were replicas, we were free to touch everything.  I had to pose with the partially unwrapped Red Ryder BB gun.

And of course we had to take our photo with the leg lamp!!!

Since the next day was Easter, we even had a special visit from the Deranged Easter Bunny!!!!

We were excited to see that we were the 1st to represent Chico on their visitor map.  Even though we are technically locals, how could we resist!?  I think we are still in the grace period.  ;)  I'm impressed how many Christmas Story fans there are in CA!

That evening we of course watched the movie and picked up on so many more details.  :)

Cleveland...The Next Seattle?

OK, that title may be random but I'll explain in a bit.  I'm telling you this, Cleveland was an unexpected surprise.  It's historic downtown was very different from what we were expecting and we had so much fun!  We started at The Greak Lakes Brewery for lunch.  Each beer was named after historical events that happed around the Great Lakes.  Matt had the Rockefeller Bock.  He was the founder of the Standard Oil company which started in Ohio.  There, now you've learned something today.  :)

After lunch, we heard there was a farmers market near the brewery.  We noticed quite a few people heading toward an open building and decided to follow the crowd.  The farmers market was HUGE.  It took up two buildings and we think it's very comparable (if not bigger) to Pike's Market in Seattle (hence the title).  Whereas no one threw fish at us, there were rows after rows of everything imaginable.  We suspect it was pretty crazy since it was the day before Easter, but it was totally worth going for a visit.  I only wish we had something like it near us!