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!