Like Mother Like Daughter

I mean really. If you don't recognize her, you're not looking hard enough. Bright eyes, trendy pink butterfly ensemble, a pose that says "What? You're taking a picture? Well thank God I look so gorgeous."

It's Lucy Carter!

We were lucky enough to catch up with Darlene and Lucy this weekend in Jacksonville after attending the Cardinals / Padres game in St. Louis. She is so much fun and impressed us with her roly poly moves and her scooting abilities. Plus her smiles and giggles are amazing! Can't wait til the entire Carter family comes to stay with us when the Cubs go to the World Series!

Read more about Lucy and family here.

David Blaine is a Hack

Well, I've managed to fool Laura yet again. Obviously, my first and most important illusion (GOB would be proud) was to trick her into marrying me. My latest ruse was even more important...convincing her to STAY married to me for an entire year. You might be asking yourself - how did I manage to pull off such an impressive feat? By distracting her with a trip to beautiful San Diego, of course!

Our trip out west to celebrate our anniversary was quite a success. Other than a few complaints about the ballpark (as you can see on the right), we saw an exciting Mets-Padres game and feasted on a couple foot longs to kick off the weekend. The next day, we did what any sensible married couple looking for romance would do...went to the zoo. The San Diego Zoo was quite impressive...we both got to spend some time with the panda bears, and Laura got to check out the koala bears that I'd already seen in Australia (no big deal). That night we had a great Mexican meal, at a place where some nice old ladies prepare your tortillas from scratch. We took advantage of the great weather by spending our last day checking out a surf competition at Mission Beach (no Laird Hamilton sightings) and dining outside at a nice Italian place. I'm already looking forward to our next anniversary trip - I hear downtown Detroit is beautiful in June.

It's been long enough since our last post that we've had some other good stuff to report. We spent a great 4th of July weekend at the beach in Michigan. We fattened up on some Redamak's, watched a hellacious display of illegal fireworks (now I know what Brad Gardner's version of heaven looks like), and got to spend some quality time with the family. I challenge any of our thousands of readers to tell me a better way of celebrating the birth of our great nation.

And finally, the Cubs just traded for Rich Harden. Sure it's a big if, but if Rich can stay healthy, he and Big Z will be quite the tandem when October rolls around. Then I can use my powers of mind control on Laura for my most daring stunt yet...to convince her that we should buy World Series tickets.

One Year Later

Hat's off to Gladware's - Press 'n Seal. After one year in our freezer and a weekend of thawing in the fridge, our wedding cake was more delicious than I remember. Maybe that's because I didn't eat more than a nibble the night of our wedding, but I am still impressed.

Pretty unbelievable we got married a year ago! As we celebrate more weddings this summer, it's nice to relax and reminisce about our own.

Life Only Goes Down After College

Or at least that's what we learned at Avenue Q on Monday night. Not your typical broadway show, Avenue Q is made up of a cast similar to Sesame Street - both actors and puppets.

The show was hysterical with songs like "Everyone is little bit racist" and "It sucks to be me" and included acts with puppets getting frisky after having too many Long Island Iced Teas and Gary Coleman as a landlord in a NYC apartment building. I would definitely recommend it. The only bad part was when I got yelled at for having my feet on the chair ahead of me.

"This is the theater lady!"

See Ya Gas Hog!

Just in time. When our brakes began to squeal and the cd player ate our cd's we really began to hope that the third Honda dealership we were visiting would have the car we were looking for.

Three hours of our Memorial Day spent in Lisle with Ken (see picture) were worth it when we walked out with our Honda Civic. And we walked quickly hoping they wouldn't come running after us to tell us the deal was off, that our trade in was actually worth nothing. But luck was on our side and we drove off into the sunset with the soothing voice of our navigator pointing the way home.

Did I mention we just went from 15 miles/gallon to 30? It makes the excruciatingly high gas prices not seem quite so bad.

It's Business Time

The Chicago Theater has been good to us. We got some excellent pictures in front of it on our wedding night, and saw a great concert there on Wednesday.

If you haven't seen The Flight of the Conchords on HBO, I'd highly recommend you add it to your Netflix queue. Especially if you like awkward situations and singing New Zealanders. We loved the show when it aired last year so it was a no-brainer to check out Bret and Jemaine's live show when we heard they were coming to town.

The Chicago Theater is really cool...interesting decor and an old-fashioned feel (so old-fashioned, in fact, that cell phones don't work in there). We had a really good view of the stage from our seats in the lower balcony.

A standup comedian named Arj Barker was the opening act and he didn't disappoint. He had interesting and hilarious takes on gay marriage (we should support it until we can 'find a cure for them') and how difficult it is to be an uncle (it's exhausting playing with kids for an hour or so before heading home...tell me about it) before he introduced 'the two guys from New Guinea'. A good warm up to the main event.

The Kiwi musicians put on quite a show. Here's a detailed review with all the highlights, but I have to say that the banter in between songs was worth the price of admission...Bret's imaginary family with his miniature grandchildren and Jemaine's concern for the issues (no issue in particular...just 'the issues') were particularly hilarious.

Sometimes we get annoyed with living in Chicago (it's expensive, the commute sucks, etc.) but nights like these make me realize how glad I am that we're here. Whether it's a restaurant, a concert, a game, cooking classes...there's always something new to do.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

Drinking margarita's, eating carne asada with homemade salsa verde....with 24 strangers and a chef named Tobin. Oh, and Nicole and Louis, our awesome cooking table buddies.

Last night's class at the Chopping Block was much, much less intense then our first one. But the laid back atmosphere - we made the churros, salsa verde and carne asada while the other tables made the guacamole, queso fundido and mexican rice - provided us with much more time to sip our margaritas and beer. (I am assuming this is why I heard Ryan grabbing for the Excedrin Migraine in the middle of the night.)

The Chopping Block keeps adding more good looking, good cooking classes, so I am looking forward to our next time there and hoping that Tobin is our sous chef. I think he is good luck.