What else can I say?

Are you jealous yet?


MMMMMMMMUUUUUUUUUWWWWWWAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA [Vincent Price voice]

Beaner at the Bean

Friday night, I got to watch my Baby sing. Yeah :-) Thank You, Lord for her gift. The theme was love. Oh, darn. Happy February. Brahms is just sooo good. And how can you deny a chick running around with a "smoothing iron?" Oh, Alan...

This weekend, Christina's connections came through - AGAIN. Her good friend got us free tickets to the Joffrey Ballet's performance this weekend at Roosevelt University Theater. Holy awesome seats, Batman. I went to the website, and this pretty well summarizes our view. Thank you Maria.

The first two shows were a bit hard to watch... depressing. The first piece was about an arranged marriage with two people that were totally in love with other people. Seriously - arranged marriages?!?!? TOTALLY 18th century... (or 21st century India). And then there was the whole dead baby and suffering village scenario. The third was great - well choreographed and great music. I love Mahler (second piece), but the choreography lacked substance and drama, despite it's incredibly serious tone.

Right, the title of the post. Sorry folks, we're reaching climax here already. So, there's this ginormous metal artistic bean in a park in downtown Chicago. Christina showed it to me in the dark after the ballet. It was sweet. I'm such an engineer. I totally was more fascinated by the feat of engineering to get it to balance on those two points than the artistic accomplishments. Isn't engineering artistic? Thought for the day...


So, yeah. It's reflective. Even at 9pm with a crappy phone camera. Here's Christina and I "reflecting" on the moment. Yup, I got lessons from Dave Letterman on my humor.

And here's a shot of the luckiest guy Earth with the most amazing gal in the world in the park next to the bean. Sucks to be you. Yup, I got the best catch. Don't even try - she's totally mine.


Sunday morning, we went to Christina's church. Afterwards we made an order of mochas and Mint Conditions from Caribou. Mmmmmmmmm. We dropped off the yummy creations at her sisters place prior to lunch. After some conversation about the movies up for Oscars, we went with their family and her brothers family (minus Mom) to Chili's for lunch.

Did I mention Christina has some stinkin' adorable kids in her family? Here's some shots of her niece and nephew(s).





Well, I'm totally working on a 1.75 of Evan Williams with Dill. CHEERS! Time to finish off researching DVD player upgrades. One must love terribly awesome sci-fi action flicks from 1990 (i.e. Total Recall).

L8erg8er

Motivation

Thanks to Chad's recent comment, I've been motivated to provide some "new content" today. Thanks for the nudge, dude.

So, last Wednesday I forgot to mention that I went to a Mike Huckabee rally that was held in Pewaukee. The man says the right things and has performed well in the past as former governor - I'm a HUGE fan. Unfortunately, that loser McCain keeps getting the votes. My heart breaks for our nation because of the people that pay no attention to "politics" until "the final two" have been chosen to battle it off. Ticks me off. We need to get support out so we can get our favorites through the primaries! OK, dismounting from soap box.

Anyway, yeah for this little gals parents to get her involved at such a young age :-) I would have shot one of her face, but didn't want the parents thinking I was some freaky stalker. She was pretty adorable though, sitting up on Daddy's shoulders... :-)


Here's a closeup digital zoom with the phone again - not real impressed... but it's the best shot I have of him. Behind Huck is his wife, and in the back left is Oconomowoc local, Tim Michels, heading up the Huckabee campaign in Wisconsin.


Here's a nice one I stole from someone else's blog.


And here's a shot from Valentine's Day at Christina's place... again, from the new phone. Isn't she adorable?


So yeah - she came up Saturday, arriving mid afternoon. We hung out at my place and I made her Mom's recipe for grilled cheese sandwiches, with a side of tomato soup. Mmmmm. Soup, greasy toast, and melted cheese goo. Awesome.

Saturday night, we met up with Chad & Alissa, Dill, and friends Josh and Amanda. We all met out in the high rolling town of Lebanon for dinner at a new revision of an old restaurant, the Home Plate. We had a bunch of fried goodness for appetizers, namely deep fried pickles. Holy crumb, those are amazing. Our friend, Jedd, was just starting at the "new" restaurant as a waiter part-time. He's the real reason we went, but I think we may actually be back for some good food :-)

Afterwards, we all met back at Chad's place to play the Wii... until "wee" hours of the morning. Oh my gosh, I'm so funny.

Sunday morning, Christina and I planned to go to church. The weather was horrific - rain turning into sheets of ice. On my way to get coffee and bagels for breakfast, Christina called from Mom's house to inform me that church was canceled. That gave us a chance to spend a little time with Mom in the morning. The major roads weren't too bad yet, so we got Christina out right away to keep her safe before things got any worse.

Sunday, Chad & Alissa, Dill, and myself had an eventful afternoon. We met up for a bloody mary at Tom & Di's - sooo good. Then we made our way to Best Buy (why not?). I saw the new Xbox 360 Elite package there, and my jaw dropped. Microsoft stole Nate's patented phrase - "Go Big, or Go Home." We're already in talks with lawyers...


Afterwards, we went back to Chad's house for some more Wii action. Eventually, we ordered some pizza and watched a disc of the new season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Larry David - good grief, the things he comes up with. LOL

Alright, lunch break is over. Get back to work.

"...You're a slacker!..."

Mr. Strickland: "You've got a real attitude problem, McFly. You're a slacker! You remind me of your father when he went here. He was a slacker, too."

Yup, I've been slacking on my blog posting...

Last Friday night, I made the journey down to Christina's. We went to a recital that her old vocal teacher from college was in. Though not his best performance (her words), I really enjoyed it. Two other vocal professors performed as well, one of whom's husband was the accompanist. Christina was meeting a friend of hers she knows through Chicago Master Singers for the recital, who also happened to be a friend of Christina's sister from college. The three of us went to Christina's sister's place afterwards to hang out for a while.

Saturday, Christina and I slept in - it was everything we thought it could be. We've both not been getting as much sleep as we'd like, due to a variety of things. In any case, we got to play a little bit of catch up. In the afternoon, Christina gave me a more detailed tour of Ravinia, where she works. I got to see the whole park again, and this time, got a tour of a couple buildings. I even got to see her cubicle - how exciting! :-) It's much neater than mine....

Following the tour, we made our way to Di Pescara restaurant for dinner before heading up to Milwaukee for my college roommate's girlfriend's birthday party celebration. It was flippin' cold. Our 3 block hike to the car felt like we were at the farthest reaches of the solar system. And the wind. Holy crumb. INTENSE. I believe the weather man was saying -40 degrees windchill. Yup, it was cold.

While there, I got to introduce Christina to several college friends. My schedule has been rather full since dating Christina, so it was good to see them again. Here's a picture of some of us at the bar... unfortunately, I don't have one of the birthday girl... :-(


And here's one of Christina and I at the party. YASA, Baby.


This week, I finally got my new phone! :-) I decided on the Motorola Q 9h from AT&T. LOVE IT. It is hugely wide, and that was pretty weird the first few days to get used while holding against my ear. Other than that, no complaints so far...

Thursday, Christina and I spent Valentine's Day together... mmmmm .... I love you, Baby!

Friday, I attended a wine tasting, hosted by friends Rob and Katie. The wine could have been better, but I scheduled a tasting to be hosted at my place in a few weeks. Yeah!

OK - time to go. Bye.

YASA

After spending another wonderful weekend with Christina, she headed home for the long drive. But, I couldn't let her go out in the cold without a hat on, could I? Turns out, I had an extra hat. Yeah! She's being indoctrinated by MOPAR (note, the Dodge symbol and logo)!!!



... isn't she adorable? Yup - that's a loaded question... If you agree with me, I'll hurt you [protective boyfriend]; if you don't agree with me, I'll hurt you [biased boyfriend]. Good luck on your decision.

Happy (belated) Birthday to me

Good news today - the phone prices at AT&T dropped significantly. I'm down to the Motorola Q 9h, Pantech Duo, and Samsung Blackjack II. So excited to get rid of this stinkin' phone. Christina and I have made plans to run it over with my truck when I get the new phone. AWESOME.

Introducing the Moto Q 9h...


Introducing the Pantech Duo...


Introducing the Samsung BlackJack II...


What an eventful several days...

Friday night, Christina and I met up in the rockin' town of Kenosha. We saw Juno, the movie and made our way back to Starbucks afterwards - "shocker."

Saturday, I began the horrific process of cleaning up the house in preparation for having Christina's parents come for a quick visit to check out my pad. Yikes - it was bad. I managed to get some errands and shopping for miscellaneous items done in the morning, as well as helping Mom out with a few "son jobs."

Mom hosted a party on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday with the family. The Rosenows, Chad & Alissa, Dill, Christina, and Christina's parents all joined in for the fun. Yes, it was the meeting of the parents. Aside from the obviously anticipated nervousness, I think things went pretty well. Her parents got to hear my Wisconsin accent in full swing. And Mom had wonderful food, as always. So yummy :-) After the party, we headed down the road to my place so I could show Christina's parents my place ... hopefully, they weren't too scared.

Sunday, I headed down to spend the day with Christina's niece for her birthday celebration. I got to spend a little time playing with her and her cousin :-) Sooo cute.


And, if it's possible, somebody even cuter is holding the birthday girl.


Monday was my birthday, and Christina was able to spend it with me since her choir practice was moved to Tuesday this week. That worked out pretty darn well for me :-) Christina had her inauguration of beer brats. Mmmmmmmmm.

I even got a surprise phone call from sister Nancy from Africa. That was quite a treat! We didn't get to talk much, but God is using Joy quite a bit in her teachings. I can't wait to hear more and am looking forward to getting an email update from them soon. Christina got me a B

Today was absolutely horrific. Snow, snow, snow. Drifts filling up my wheel well on the Rumble Bee on my way home. It was quite an experience. Unfortunately, I had to brave the storm today due to some customer guests that were in visiting to do some more testing - similar to that which I was doing last week out in Arizona. We were at least able to achieve some political progress, even if there wasn't any technical benefit. [Sigh]

Well, it's after 9pm and my Baby can talk to me for free on night time cell minutes. Once I switch to AT&T, we'll be good all the time. Sweet. So, this post is being terminated. The end.

"...he put my stapler in Jell-O again!"

An entire website, dedicated to this topic... and I was the brunt of the joke today :-) I am honored!

From my fellow coworkers who love The Office as much as I do...