4/30/09 - The Wizard of Oz

Tonight, David and I went to dinner and then to the musical,
"The Wizard of Oz" with our friends Derek and Jamie.
We ate at Catch 35, a restaurant in Downtown Chicago next to the Rennaissance hotel. It's very good. The show was great as well. It was opening night so we anticipated a few mistakes, but they actually did a great job. If they did screw up, they did a great job covering it up because I couldn't tell.

4/24/09 - Dark Lord Day

Another Beer Event: So as you know by now, David's #1 hobby is fine crafted beers so he obtained "golden" tickets, which incidnetally we're purple for a once yearly beer event.

Dark Lord is a beer. It's brewed and distributed only once a year by 3 Floyds brewery, which is in Munster, Indiana. You wait in a really long line, which is occupied by other beer lovers that share their own local brews, home brew recipes, and just chit-chat, etc. This is the 4th year (I think) that 3 Floyds has hosted this what has turned into sort of a festival type line up for this special beer. The first year they only had about 400 people come, over the next couple years attendance has grown to over 4,000 and one year they actually ran out of beer, which left some a little ticked off, especially after waiting in line for several hours so this year you had to have a ticket, which guaranteed you beer. You could wait in line, but you would not be guaranteed the brew unless you had a ticket.

Overall it was a good day, a little windy, but better than being 90 degrees since there isn't much shade throughout the line. We met a guy named Matt, he's the blonde pictured with David and our friend Bof. He's a Medical School Graduate who is currently serving his residency. He's only going to be in Chicago for a year and is so busy with his residency he hasn't really made an effort to make friends so he hung out with us for the day. He didn't have a ticket so our friend Erick sold him one of his tickets so he could buy some beer. Our friends Erick and Shar actually rode their bikes to the event which is about a 30 mile ride. Yeah, not David and I, we drove. Then again, someone had to haul all the beer that was bought back to Chicago!! :)

4/19/09 - Tempted by the Evil Empire

I've been wanting a bike for a while now, but I held off purchasing one mostly because I traveled so much. It would end up just sitting around all the time gathering dust. Plus, I lived in Seattle for a while which is very hilly and not really conducive to riding a bike unless you're an avid cyclist, which I am NOT! Then I lived in Utah on/off during traveling, still very hilly and again wasn't home much. Now I'm in Chicago, which is FLAT!! and since my traveling has now decreased to about 20% per year instead of 80 to 90% per year I went ahead and bought one. I looked around at bike shops, sporting goods stores, new bikes, used bikes and of course I found the best deal at a place I really prefer not to give my business to...the store that must not be named...the evil empire itself...WALMART! dun-dun-da-duuuuun! I know, I know, it's terrible...I feel guilty...I feel dirty, but David made me do it!! :) He made me go in there.



I wanted something simple, in a neutral color, that had a wider seat and multiple gears, that was under $250. All the other bikes I saw at the other places were between $239 - $579 so some were in my price range, but they were all brightly colored. I wanted something gray, black or white, maybe a blue or purple if it was dark, but everyting was electric purple or blue or pink and auqua or some crazy color like that.



Then as we turned the corner to the bike aisle, there it was, right on the end, a sliver/gray street bike, with a wide seat and multiple gears and on sale for only $179! How could it be, why would I be tempted so...I tried to resist...I even went acorss the street to Dick's Sporting goods and I tried to find one there, that I liked, really I did, but alas...I was weak and couldn't pass up the perfect bike and the perfect price even if it meant buying from the evil W.

4/18/09 - Two Brother Brewery

We went on another brewery tour today. This one is called Two Brothers Brewery, it's about 30 mile Southwest of Chicago. We caravaned to the brewery with some friends and folks from our Meetin group. I've now been on several of these tours with David and friends. I finding the story of each brewery to be the same. Some guy starts messing around with brewing his own beer in the basement, then gets more serious and moves into a storage unit or small warehouse, then suddenly he has a brewery! End of story. I am amazed though at how popular it is and how much people lean towards one style or flavor. I do try most of the beers as they do give samples at each tour and I have say that most, to me, are not that good. I really don't like the taste of hops and since that is one of the main ingredients in beer - I guess it makes sense that I wouldn't like it. The only ones that I have tasted that I "like" are the darker beers. They are called Stouts or Porters (for those that don't know). They usually taste like Chocolate and are sweeter because most are brewed with coffee or chocolate extracts or nibs and they use roasted grains that make it taste more like coffee or chocolate than un-roasted grains and don't contain hops or if they do it's a minimal amount. Anyway, here some photos from that day...


This is the group toasting their samples at the end of the tour.


This is a gaggle of kegs and a box on the conveyor belt.

This is just one of the fermentors, but liked the way the gloves were

sitting there and then of course the group the joined us on the tour.

4/17/09 - Movie Night

David and I watched "7 Pounds" with Will Smith. Kind of a depressing movie. Interesting premise, though I basically had the whole figured out within the first 20 minutes. I love Will Smith, but I can't say I'd recommend this one. Sorry!

4/16/09 - The last Harrah!

YUMM-O!

My friend Carl invited some people out to dinner at the place called Tango Sur. It's one of the best Argentinian Steak houses EVER! and one of our favorite places to eat in Chicago. This night, however was not just a night with friends, but my last Harrah! I've reached Defcon 5 status with the eating healthy or lack there of really. So I decided it's time to focus and get serious about getting back in shape. I think I've gained about 25 pounds this last year. Not good. Not good. Not only that, but I just can't do the things I used to do. Even when I was overweight before, I was always fit. I could walk, run, swim, play sports and all sorts of stuff and it seems like lately I just get winded going up the stairs. Plus, very few of my clothes still fit. In fact, unless I'm going out, I'm usually in David's sweat pants because all my other clothes are so uncomfortable.

SO times are a changing for me. I'm getting back on track and back in shape. I started the year out pretty good. I was watching what I ate, exercising and then I don't know what happened, I just gave up. I've realized that all there is to do in Chicago is eat and drink - especially during the winter. I do really well when I control what I eat at home, but eating out really takes it toll. Plus it's so hard to make the healthy choice and order salad when there so many yummy things on the menu to choose from like the one shown above so I got frustrated and stopped caring.

Well, I care now!! I'm hoping to lose the 25 I've gained recently and then some. I'll keep you posted.

4/14/09 - Taste of Peru

Our Meetin group some re-occurring events, called "Ethnic Eats", this night they were headed to a Peruvian place. It was pretty good. We has a good turnout and I learned that one Theory about how Macchu Piccu was created, is that Aliens built it. Cool! :)

4/13/09: Milkshakes and Movies

My poor friend Karen. She had some dental work done a few weeks back. Had her wisdom teeth out. She unfortunately is victim to one of those horror stories you always hear about when people get their wisdom teeth out. She suffered some nerve damage. She has no feeling at all on her bottom jaw line so she's had to work with a speak therapist and see her dentist multiple times a week. They are hopeful that she'll eventually get feeling back, but in a small number of cases, people don't - so we're hoping for the best. I just feel so bad for her, but Karen is a strong, determined person so I have no doubt that she'll fully recover.

On Monday night we all joined her at her apartment and watched a movie and drank milkshakes and smoothies with her. The movie we watched was called "The Secret Lives of Dentists" probably wasn't the best choice for some who just had dental work done. Initially we thought it was fitting, but the movie was weird and has some painful dental work scenes. We'll know better next time. Sorry Karen!!

I don't have any photos, but thought I'd share the experience anyway.

4/11/09: Hiking/Paradise Pup

Today we went hiking with our Meetin group. It was pretty fun, we just went to a forest preserve west of the city. Afterwares we grabbed some lunch at Paradise Pup. It's a small Hot Dog/Burger joint, that supposedly has the best burgers in Chicago and was also featured on the Food Network. I think my Dad ate here too when he was in town a few months back. There is line that goes out the door and winds around the exterior. We waited a good 25 minutes and it was really good, but I'm still trying to decide it was worth the wait...

Ghost Stories - Galena, IL

One Eleven Main is a restaurant in Galena, IL. David and I ate at this restaurant during our trip to a couple weekends ago. We saw a picture hanging in the restaurant, the one shown to the left. It looks like white streaks or something in front of the back entrance to the building. We thought it was interesting, but didn't really think anymore about it at the time.

The next night we were scheduled to go on a Ghost Tour of Galena. The tour was designed to tell the history of Galena through the spirits left behind. It was collection of stories from the Townspeople and tourist's paranormal experiences over the years. I of course was excited. David was not so excited, but was a good sport for going with me. For those of you that don't know me well, the Paranormal has always been a great interest of mine, especially when connected with history.

Usually I'm disappointed in these tours (I've been on several similar tours in other cities) and although this was just as cheeky as the others it was interesting to learn of the history of the city and would could be left behind. The restaurant that David and I went to the night before, and the one mentioned above (One Eleven Main) turned out to be the town's first mortuary and funeral home back in the mid 1800's. In fact the ceiling in the restaurant was the original ceiling. The photo that was hanging on the wall was taken by the restaurants Executive Chef. They had just moved into the location (from a different one up the street) and so he took a picture of the newly finished building.

Other employees had reported strange occurrences as well, things being moved, cabinets opening and closing on their own, voices, and even witnessing apparitions. One of an older woman and the other of three children. Not to mention several employees said they felt someone tap on their shoulder, walk by or even bump into them, but nobody else would be around. They had several paranormal teams in to investigate and run tests, etc. In fact, in July or August the owner said they were going to be featured on an A&E show though he wasn't sure which one, so I'll have to keep an eye out.

Anyway, the owner let us go upstairs to where most of the sightings and strange occurrences have happened. When we first walked in, I was immediately drawn to this one corner of the room, not in a psychic kind of way, just in that way when you feel someone enter a room so look to see who is it or turn in their direction, it was like that. I snapped a picture in that direction and that photo is seen below. In the corner you see what looks like small ball. It's actually an Orb. Now, I personally don't put a lot of stock in Orbs because they can be explained away as many other things such as dust in the air or on the camera lens, reflections from the flash, water spots, etc. But what I thought was particularly different about this orb, that leads me to believe it *could* be something paranormal is it's color. It's bright blue and when you zoom in on it, it's got some purple and pink marbling. Definitely not dust or a water spot. There was nothing in the area to create a reflection from my flash so I'm just not sure what it is. You can decide what you might think...

04/01/09 - 4/10/09 - Deadlines, anniversaries, deaths, ghosts and more...

It's time again to let you in on what's been happening in the life of Kelli the last couple of weeks. Let's see, it has been a busy couple of weeks, but with mostly work stuff. I'm working on training documentation for the Western Mountain Pacific - Sales Force One Launch. Sales Force One or SF1 is an innovative restructuring of Marriott's Sales Departments world wide. In short, instead of having a Sales Manager for each hotel, our Managers have gone global. They represent all Marriott's, everywhere. Now, they do have specific region that they focus on, but they are given accounts in that region and in turn could book business for that account in any other region if the need arises. There is certainly more too it than that, but that's about as Nutshell as I can get it. Unless you'd like to go through the 3 Powerpoints I just finished. One is 114 slides, one is 90-something and the other one is pretty small only 68. And that's only 3 of about 20 that explain how SF1 works. Anyway, it's a lot of work and has kept me pretty busy. Everything has to be done and ready for the printer by the 17th so the 10th is the deadline to get all final drafts into proof-reading mode. Ugh. I just finished one and have one more to go.

So, this weekend (the 5th) is David's and mine 1st Anniversary. For those that don't know the story, I met David shortly after moving to Chicago, but we didn't start dating until nearly a year later. David had a Pub Crawl in his neighborhood this weekend last year and I went. It was that night we got to talking and found out that we both had crushes on the other, but thought the other wouldn't be interested. Mainly because there is a 10 year age difference between us. But we decided to give it try and we've been together ever since. It happened quite quickly, but we both just rolled with it and so far it's been great! We decided to go up to Galena IL to celebrate. It's a small town about 3 hours North of Chicago. We had a good time. We stayed at this hotel called the Irish Cottage Inn. It was a decent place, but no Marriott that's for sure. I swear this job has spoiled me, but also allowed me to appreciate how hard Marriott tries to ensure their products are up to par. Now that's not say that I haven't been to a Marriott that wasn't perfect, there are certainly several out there, but they are usually the Franchised hotels, though having said that, we have some good Franchisees as well. Anyway, I digress. We saw Irish Dancers, strolled along Galena's main drag, toured Galena's oldest home (built in the 1840's), did a little hiking, drove up to Potosi Brewing Co. & ABA Museum in Potosi, WI and went on a ghost tour.

For some you, you know that I have an interest in the Paranormal. It intrigues me. I would consider myself a believer in ghosts or spirits, but I'm also a skeptic. I've experienced some unexplainable phenomenon in my lifetime, which makes it hard for me to dispel it completely, but I've also never come face to face with an apparition either so...I remain open to the ideas and find other people's stories interesting as well. I will tell you more about our Ghost tour in a separate post because this one is already getting long and it's quite interesting - I even have photos to share!!

Lastly, in the post I'll mention the passing of my parents (and my) next door neighbor of many years. Her name is Beverlee Lombardi. She,her husband Paul and their three daughters, Danielle, Dana, and Deidre grew up with us. We were friends and hung out much as kids. We've since lost touch as we've all grown up and moved away and started lives and families of our own, however have kept tabs on each other through our parents. My mom called me the other day to inform me that Beverlee had passed away. Now, what is amazing about this and not so sad is that she was told when we were kids that she only had two years to live. She was diagnosed with a disease called Sculaderma (sp?). Back then, not much was known about it and the life expectancy of someone with it was not long once diagnosed. At the time her youngest daughter was maybe 2 or 3 and she said she wanted to try and live until Deidre turned 18. Well Deidre is 31 now so not only did she make it past the two years, but made it nearly 30 additional years than what was originally expected. She was always a very strong and dominant woman so I'm not surprised that she lived up to her promise. Yes, it is sad that she is finally gone, but what a blessing she received to be able to see all her kids grow up, graduate High School and College, get married and have kids. I'm sad for them, but glad that Beverlee is no longer in pain and in a place where she can continue to watch over them without suffering.

My brother shared his favorite memory of Beverlee on his blog so I thought I'd so the same on mine. Mine is when we decided to get a family pass at the local pool. I can't remember exaclty why now, but I had to pretend like I was one of their kids. I think they needed six total people to get the family discount or something like that. Beverlee told me that when the guy asked me my name, all I had to do was say, "Kelli Lombardi". Seemed easy enough, but when the time came, the guy asked, "...and what is your name?" I stuttered a little bit and said, "Kelli Mc...Lombardi" and he repeats it with the Mc-part, in a very quizitive manner and I was stunned. I must have had that deer-in-the-headlights- look. I thought for sure we had been CAUGT!, but Beverlee jumped in and said, oh her middle is McKayla (or something like that-I can't remember now which name she actualy gave), she was just trying to say her middle name. Silly. Nice save Beverlee!! We got the passes and ejoyed a summer of fun at the local pool and at the discounted rate! I still have the actual laminated pass that say's "Kelli Lombardi."

Well, I guess I should get back to work. I'll post some pictures soon, but wanted to at least get this post written. Don't forget to check back regarding the details of our ghost tour...

~Kelli