Thursday, September 08, 2016

Monday, June 06, 2016

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Monday, September 29, 2014

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Friday, April 18, 2014

Uploading to use as a profile pic...




Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sunday, April 18, 2010

13-word movie reviews

The 13-word movie reviews I've been writing have now been spun-off into their own blog (http://13wordmoviereviews.blogspot.com/) to tidy up this space for things actually going on in my life and not on a theater/TV screen. Yes, apparently there is a difference - I was surprised too!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Katelin and friends



Katelin loves Abby and Maggie.... but do they love her?

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!



Word to the wise - don't overdo it at the Halloween party this year!

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Updates

Not too much has been going on lately, hence the lack of posts. For White Sox fans, the baseball season ended a good 2 weeks ago, but at least we have the Bears to keep us going. In a couple of days, Scott and I are going to Texas to see our (almost) 6-month old niece Katelin. From the pictures we've been getting, I know she's been growing up fast, but I'm sure we'll be surprised to see just how much bigger she's gotten.

In other news, I'm going back under the laser next week to have my eyes redone. My left eye is almost 20/20, but my right eye is only about 20/40. As long as they're redoing the right one, they're going to touch up the left, too. The hope is to get both eyes to ~20/15.

Not too much else is going on, really. Just looking forward to our Texas trip and getting Take 2 of the LASIK done the following week. More later, including some cute Katelin photos from our trip. Later...

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

NOT Circling the Drain

After about a week of raising my blood pressure, the White Sox FINALLY clinched, though they certainly didn't take the easy road. Rather than taking advantage of Minnesota's losses - or actually beating the Twins head-to-head - they lollygagged until their backs were against the wall. They then proceeded to win their last scheduled game, forcing a must-win makeup game against Detroit, which in turn forced a must-win tiebreaker game against the Twins - which they just won tonight.

With good reason, the collective *PHEW* you heard tonight was the sound of thousands of Sox fans (myself included) letting out their collective breath. Now, on to the playoffs!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Circling the Drain

What's going on with the White Sox? A couple of weeks ago, I was confident that the White Sox would make the playoffs. Last week I was worried that they were just limping into the playoffs, that they'd lost their competitive drive. Now I can only hope that they limp into the playoffs! While they are technically in control of their own destiny, I am very uneasy about what will happen after this weekend. Last night the bullpen (again) threw away another game (again) and lost a chance to gain ground on Minnesota (again). Not that the Twins have been playing stellar ball either - except against the White Sox - though, but the Sox have not been able to take advantage of the Twins' mistakes. I wonder, if the Sox played south of the equator, would their season be swirling down the drain in the opposite direction?

In other news, Maggie is now in Puppy Elementary class and bowling season has started for me. I've got about a 158 average on both nights, after 2 weeks of Tuesday league (where I bowl every other week), and 4 weeks of Thursday league. My high score so far is 232, but I don't feel like I've really gotten the feel of it back yet. I'm hoping to be up around 170 by the end of the year. Last year my composite average for the two leagues was 166, and that was after an even slower start.

I'm still baking off and on, mostly for people's birthdays at work, and I'm currently knitting a sweater for myself, though that's really slowed down from the knitting blitzkrieg I was on before Katelin was born. One of my new hobbies is working out on the Wii Fit. It's a lot of fun, and depending on which "games" you play, you can get a really good workout. There's a step aerobics workout that you can do while watching something else on TV (if you don't want to watch your Mii for 20 or 30 minutes, that is).

My niece Katelin is 5 months old today, and she's already ready for Halloween. Her 6-month doctor's appointment is on Halloween, and my sister got her a pumpkin-themed onesie. She's also got a separate costume to wear later, but I thought this picture was ADORABLE.



Guess that's it for now... Here's hoping the White Sox pull out of this nosedive!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Back again...

Maybe I'm taking the "sometime" in the blog title too literally - it's definitely been a while since my last post. Speaking of "literally", it's literally one of my biggest grammar peeves when people misuse that word. Happens all the time in sports announcing, for example when "He literally carried the entire team on his back". Really? Wow - he must be REALLY strong! :^)

I've had a lot going on lately, though at the same time it's seemed like the same ol', same ol'. My softball team just wrapped up its season - summer park district women's league. We had a slightly different team than last year, with a variety of subs filling in for missing people and often we had people playing out of position, but we still managed to tie for 2nd place out of 9. Softball ran a little late this year due to 2 rescheduled rainout games, and while I'd always like to play a few more games, it ended just in time. Last week, softball ended. This week, bowling league begins! They take place on the same night too, so if they did overlap, I'd have to choose one or the other. Hmmm... tough one!


The other thing we've had going on lately has been Puppy Kindergarten with our pup Maggie. She did pretty well in the class - she seemed to learn the commands pretty easily, and encountering new, potentially scary things was no problem at all. Now we have to work on reinforcing them before she starts the next round of classes - Puppy Elementary (naturally!). Here's a photo of Maggie coming over to say hello during a brek in Puppy K. Her border collie friend Sam is in the background:



So anyway, that's where I'm/we're at right now... Between summer and fall, softball and bowling, and (Puppy) Kindergarten and Elementary. And every now and then I actually make a post in my sometime blog.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy 4th of July!

Popular activities on the Fourth of July include cooking out, and going to parades, festivals, fireworks, etc. My big activity for the Fourth... catching up on sleep. I haven't gotten very much good sleep over the last few weeks, so this was my chance to recharge my batteries a little.

One reason for the interrupted sleep was our puppy Maggie. She continues to improve in regards to housetraining and general obedience, including starting Puppy Kindergarten this week at the Dog Training Club of Champaign-Urbana (http://dtccu.prairienet.org/). She has not yet made many strides yet, however, in sleeping through the night. Another reason for needing to catch up on sleep - a much more fun reason - was going with my sister, niece, and parents to the Women's Nationals Bowling Tournament in Detroit. We got to attend a Tigers game, watch my sister and her team bowl, and I even got to do some bowling myself, as a sub for another team. It was a very busy weekend, but I had a good time.
For more info, including photos of little Katelin at the ballgame and in the hot tub (don't worry, it was more like a warm tub), see my sister's "Baby Hicks is Here!" blog in the link to the right.

OK, I admit it... I did participate in one Fourth of July tradition - at least in our household. Scott and I tuned in for the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. As expected, we saw a very close battle between Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut, with an eventual overtime victory by Chestnut. What I did NOT expect to see was a contestant I went to high school with - Juris "Dr. Bigtime" Shibayama (IMSA class of 1992, one year ahead of me). I didn't know him well, but still... Weird! I will give him credit for throwing the "IMSA nerd" stereotype out the window - spinal surgeon, bodybuilder, fitness model, and now, internationally ranked competitive eater (thanks, Google!).

So, anyway - Happy Independence Day to all... I'm going to bed.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Family weekend

Scott and I (and the dogs) just got home from a VERY family-oriented weekend south of Chicago. On Friday evening we had my cousin Robert's wedding, yesterday we celebrated my sister Trish's 30th birthday, and today we celebrated a belated Father's Day for my dad and brother-in-law Chris. Trish and Chris live in Texas, so we don't get to see them all that much, so it was nice that they were up for the wedding, etc. And the best part... spending the weekend with my 8-week old niece Katelin. I visited her when she was only 2 weeks old (and tiny!), so it was neat to see how much she's grown in the ~6 weeks since then. The first picture below is Katelin all dressed up for the wedding, and the second is her at 5 weeks old. I know I'm biased, but isn't she adorable? You can see more pictures by visiting the 'Baby Hicks is Here!' blog link to the right side of this page.


It was nice to have the family together for the weekend, and if that wasn't enough, I'll be seeing them all again - well, all but Chris - next weekend when we head to the Women's Nationals bowling tournament in Detroit. Trish will be bowling in the team, doubles/singles, and 40-frame game tournaments, and it looks like I'll be bowling in the 40-frame game portion. I'm looking forward to the bowling part, but also to spending more time with the family. I'm really enjoying being "Aunt Jen"!