Fall Weekend in Chicago

We just got back from a wonderful weekend in Chicago. We headed over there with friends Brandan & Kaly, Rich & Tracie, and Curt & Amanda. We stayed at the Ritz courtesy of Andy's work discount (ooh la la!) and had a fabulous time shopping, dining, drinking, and dancing. We had several great meals, including usagiya for sushi (usagiyasushi.com) and Riccardo Trattoria for great Italian food (riccardotrattoria.com). Both were a little off the main drag (short cab ride away) but very, very well worth the effort. I am still craving the Honey Moon chicken from usagiya as well as the olive bread and goat cheese salad from Riccardo. So amazing! I literally licked my plate clean at usagiya (classy, I know...) Our last meal there was Chicago-style pizza at Giordano's. Always good. Oh, and the shopping was fun, too. We spent three hours in Nordstrom at their Half-Yearly Sale and all found good deals. I do love Chicago!

Halloween 2008

So, I am not really into Halloween. I haven't dressed up since 2003, when I was a cheerleader and Andy my cheer coach. This year, however, we were invited to a couple of parties, one of which was a theme (sci-fi, yikes!). We trolled the net for cool sci-fi costumes. Turns out there aren't many. We ended up going as Queen Amidala and Darth Maul from Star Wars. Andy loves Star Wars. Me? Not so much. We really went all-out with it, though. Two nights in a row! Andy even painted his face to look just like Darth Maul, I'm told. I wouldn't know, as I've never seen Star Wars (I know, blasphemy!) But hey, we went, we had a fabulous time, and a very Happy Halloween!

Girls Weekend & Marathon Team Relay

I just returned from one of the best weekends ever. Team SKKAT (Sarah, Kaly, Kery, Amanda, and Tina) headed down to Detroit for a weekend of shopping, dining, dancing, and, oh yeah, running. And yes, we did learn that "skat" is a term for animal poo. Too late by that point. Oh well, we aren't hunters so we weren't in the know. "Team Animal Poo" did awesome in the relay, our time for the marathon was 4:08. We got 16th place in our division (out of 268), not bad for our first time. It was way too much fun, and got me inspired to train for a half-marathon in the future. The weather was perfect, and it was a great course. My portion was from Windsor, Canada, through the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel, and then through the Cork Town neighborhood in Detroit, 5.6 miles in total. Thanks to everyone who cheered us on! Can't wait for next year!

Time to play catch up...

Well, I am a little behind lately in updating this blog. Time to play catch up! Since I last wrote, I've enjoyed numerous football tailgates and games, a couple of weekends in Traverse City, a long weekend in San Francisco, several 5k's, and then there's always the usual work, home, and family stuff. My brother Andrew made the big move to Japan, and I really do miss him. For the most part, fall has been a blast so far, and I am really trying to focus on all of my blessings.

Cheeseburger Poisoning

So, made you look! I felt it was beyond time to start a blog, so here goes--this is my first post. This past weekend was an absolute whirlwind, but one of the best weekends we've had in forever. We headed up to Caseville on Friday for the famed "Cheeseburger in Caseville" festival (for the few people out there who don't know about this monstrosity, two weeks chock-full of Jimmy Buffet, beer, crazy parrot hats, and cheeseburgers in an otherwise sleepy resort town). We had a great time, and devoured incredible portobello pesto burgers from The Farm (one of my all-time favorite restaurants). The next day, I ran the Cheeseburger 5K Fun Run, which was great. It was so much fun to see so many old friends. Mom Green and Frodo came to cheer me on, which was awesome! Later that afternoon, Andy and I headed down to Royal Oak to pre-party at Paul & Kristi's house before the big Poison concert. Luckily the rain held off and we had a blast! Bret's throat was shot, I guess, so he pawned most of the songs off on CC. They still played a great show. The next day we had breakfast at Pronto (one of my favorite spots in RO) and then hit up Great Lakes Crossing, where I was able to score a pair of Sevens for half off! Very exciting...Last but not least, Josh and Jenny, our good friends and former roommates from dental school, came over last night. They were in town visiting family and are about to move from the East Coast to South Dakota (I know, quite a change!). It was so great to see them, and we enjoyed catching up and playing Rock Band. The only bummer thing about the weekend was that we had to miss Drew & Kelsey's going away party in Lansing. I heard we missed a good time. Otherwise, it was a perfect weekend!