Even Aramis is Excited by the Cubs' Hot Start

Yes, we haven't even seen a full month of games. And yes, half of the wins have come against the hapless Pirates. But what a pleasant three weeks of baseball this has been. Aramis appears to be fully healed from Cesar's "how's your father" from last season, and the Cubs have completely excised the unseemly goiter of Dusty Baker's influence on this team. How refreshing is it to watch a team that works the count, takes walks, and forces the opposing starter to actually exert some energy? After a long trek through the Neifi Perez-Corey Patterson-Jacque Jones wilderness of 'aggressive' at-bats and dumb baseball, we've got a group of guys who have a plan:

- Han Soto. The guy is making my choice of jersey look very wise. Under the tutelage of the burly wiseman, Hank White, he's turning into one of the best catchers in the league. Going into today he was leading all MLB catchers in OPS, he isn't afraid to make a visit to the mound when a pitcher is struggling, and he's done a nice job blocking pitches in the dirt. His one weakness has been throwing out basestealers, but if last year was any indication, he'll be fine in that area.

- Fukudome. He's an actual baseball player - he has a great approach at the plate, he's an excellent defender with a good arm, and knows his way around the basepaths. And for those of us lucky enough to be at the ballpark, his ninth inning home run on Opening Day was about as memorable as it gets.

- Derecles. It's good to have him back. The wrist is healed, he's pulling the ball with authority, and he might just get that MVP trophy he was screwed out of in 2005.

- Reed Johnson. I'm still a Felix Pie fan, and I hope he can figure things out eventually. But there's no way you can take this gritty, grindy, scrappy son of a gun out of the lineup. Ignore the mindless blather that he's a throwback to a time when men were men and dirt was used instead of Neosporin - just pay attention to his .408 on base percentage.

So don't let racist T-shirt selling morons or miserable old farts bother you - we've got a really good team to watch this summer.

No Tigers

It's official. Emily is a big girl. She not only brushes her teeth, eats McNuggets and draws works of art, but now she has had her first slumber party. Two Friday's ago, after a delicious meal of Uncle Donald's and running back & forth 50 times in our place Emily was ready for reading and bed time.

Promptly at 6am the next morning we heard "Out" from the baby monitor. We were impressed she slept through her first night over. Saturday, we got to enjoy the Lincoln Park Zoo, but made sure to avoid the tigers and lions after some reminding from Emily. I think if anyone would have seen us trying to keep her awake on our ride back to our place, they would have thought we were ridiculous. Oh well, it worked. Who knew that all of us would have ended up taking a 2 hour nap.

Can't wait for our next sleep over! Maybe next time we'll take all 3 Simons........

And then the dryer broke

Are you serious?! Have you seen a cuter smile? This was definitely one of our most fun holidays because we got to spend it with Mya! Who knew that seeing someone scream every time MiMi entered the room would be so entertaining.

Despite our fun times in J'ville, there was no warning that this Easter was going to be our most unlucky. After getting stuck in our garage with Ashley & Byron on our way to the train station (because someone had crashed into the garage door due to the SNOWY! conditions) we managed to have a semi-truck back into our car, get a flat tire, and finally come home to a broken dryer. Sheesh! Good thing we had Mya around to cheer us up!

We're Old

We went to the South Side Parade today, which was an interesting experience but served as one of those semi-frequent reminders that things have changed a lot since our zany college days. Back then, we could drink green beer all day, scarf down a couple slices of Bonnie Jean's pizza, and wake up the next day feeling as refreshed as a newborn babe. Now we have a hard time believing that we used to party as hard as the young whippersnappers we saw today. The two sweethearts passionately making out while standing in a puddle of vomit in the port-o-potty line...the three gentlemen who covertly urinated on the leg of their oblivious buddy...the kids posing for pictures on top of an overturned port-o-john. It's fun to think that we were way to cool for these kinds of amateur stunts, but who are we kidding? The best we can hope for now is that the hooligans in question were high school kids, because they looked really young to us. If they were collegians, we're in big trouble because we're even older than we think.

Some other random stuff:

- A couple good things about Bill Foster's win in the special election for Denny Hastert's old spot in Congress. First, Jim Oberweis is a weenie and it's nice that his sleazy fear-mongering attack ads backfired on him. Second, and most importantly, we will no longer be subjected to the nonstop advertising blitz that has been on our TV for about a month now.

- The summer, and everything that goes with it (including baseball), can't get here soon enough. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that this dude is no longer in the Cubs dugout. Nice to have a grown up in the dugout.

So Fierce!

My stomach actually had butterflies in it as we waited to see who would be declared winner of this season's Project Runway. And yes, I admit I may have gotten a bit choked up when Christian cried.

With the season over, it's official, Ryan predicted every winner, every week. Looking forward to next season and hoping somehow Santino and Christian will have their own show together. I love reality tv.

Too Much Cream

Ugh. That is how I would describe how I felt all day on Thursday after taking our Italian 101 cooking class at the Chopping Block. On Valentine's I surprised Ryan with a gift card for a cooking class at the Chopping Block - he surprised me by booking a class at the Chopping Block. I guess we're already beginning to think alike!

Wednesday evening was the class and we were paired with a 30 something girl and her father who had taken the Meat 101 class the night before. It definitely made a difference that we were cooking with such a fun couple of people. While Ryan and Wayne cranked out homemade pasta for 2 hours, Rhonda and I made the sauces for the lasagna and filling for the ravioli. We switched with the boys to make the green fettucini noodles and they made the HEAVY 4 cheese sauce for the fettucini and some butter sauce for the ravioli. Needless to say everything was delicious, but I helped myself way too much to the sauce soaked fettucini. By the time we got home, Ryan was ready to sign us up for a second class. I quickly silenced him letting him know I would puke if he mentioned food one more time.

Thursday I woke to work out and promptly went back to bed fearing I was seconds away from throwing up pasta everywhere. Luckily I made it through the work day, but barely. It wasn't until we went to Sola with my parents and had a beer to burp up the bad stuff did I feel better. We are definitely signing up for another class, and will try to drag some friends along with us, but I will be prepared and try not to eat more than one helping of each thing we make. Woops! It was just so good! This photo definitely does not look pretty, but please note that you can't see the green noodles because they are drenched in cream. I think I am starting to feel ill.

Emily Turns Two

Look how much Emily has changed over the last year. Her hat went from a frilly pink explosion to a hip and cool Elmo. The princess on her cake escaped and a sunshine took her place. Some hippies in tie die shirts snuck into her party. And she has also turned into a smart little walking, talking mini person. About the only thing that stayed the same is Ed's shirt, and how sane him and Allison still look, considering they usually get as much sleep in a night as Emily does in her afternoon nap.


It is amazing how far one can get in life using just three words:
mm hmm, no, and Minnie. The first is helpful when mom asks if you if you want more ketchup (dip) with your hot dog, the second is a favorite response when dad asks if you want to go night night, and the third is an easy way to summon your best bud to the TV.

Who knows what she'll be doing by the time birthday #3 rolls around...giving wedgies to her brothers, building a replica of her house using Play-Doh, or writing the next great American novel.
You'll have to check back to find out.