June - Week Four

June 24th - June 30th: VACATION!! I decided to visit Salt Lake City this summer since I didn't make it home last summer. My sister and I always try to coordinate our summer trips home so we can all be there at the same time so she came in from Seattle and I from Chicago and we spent a couple weeks doing family things and filling our days with local tourist activities. I got to thinking that I hadn't been to some of the museums since I was kid if at all so I thought I'd make time to go since I'd probably appreciate it now more that I'm older and wiser (somewhat ;) ).

One of the first things we did was go to the Utah Arts Festival. We saw some pretty cool things of which I wish had lots of money to buy. The picture to the left you see is my contribution, an artistic shot of the Salt Lake City & County Building.

Then I went to the Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base. I have wanted to go to this museum for a really long time. I remember seeing it when we'd go visit my Grandmother who lived in Roy. I finally got the chance this summer. I went with my Dad and it was worth the wait, I think. Lots of really cool planes and information. I highly recommend going if you're looking for something for the family to do.

The rest of my trip was filled with lunch with Grandma and my Aunt Maryiln, a trip to the Natural History Museum and of course lunch/dinner at some of my favorite spots among many more activites and fun that I didn't capture on film and certainly a trip to SLC would not be complete without fries and fry sause.

June - Week Three

June 17 - 20th - Back to San Francisco to facilitate another class, time it was a FOSSE class for CFRST Event Planners, which for you non-Marriott folks means cluster event planners that work with all of our select service hotel customers (Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, Springhill Suites and TownePlaceSuites, hence the term CFRST. Pronounced C-first) with their meeting and event details. FOSSE is a computer system.

Anyway, not much to report about this trip, except that I was able to visit my friends at Hotel 480, now known as Marriott Union Square. I spent a good couple of months working at this property before it officially became a Marriott. I trained all their Manager's and Supervisors on Marriott's Payroll processes and the payroll system, then went back later and trained/assisted all the Sales and Event Managers on Marriott's catering processes and systems. I became pretty good friends with several of the people that work at this hotel and have continued to keep in touch with them. I went to dinner with and hung out with a couple of them while I was in town and that was fun. Aside from that it was all business.

The photos below are of the New Marriott Union Square. It just completed a multi-million dollar renovation and it looks awesome! I wish I had some before picture to show you because it looks completely different!

June - Week Two

June 8th - 12th: I left early Sunday morning to head back to California, this time to San Ramon. I was facilitating a week long training class for Sales Admins. I was facilitating with a co-worker of mine, Kelly Horaney. We mesh well and always have a good time when we work together. I didn't get many (if any) pictures from this week, but it was mostly filled with boring work stuff anyway. I have a couple somewhat entertaining stories I could tell from the trip.

1. At most Marriott hotels you can expect excellent customer service, but every now and then I run into one that is just so bad, it's almost comical. The hotel where this training was at was one such hotel. Nobody seemed to know anything and didn't care to go the extra mile to find out. I have been to San Ramon and was familiar with the area somewhat. I had recalled that I visited an area just over the hill that had restaurants and shops, etc. I asked several people and everyone looked at me as if I were crazy! Finally the valet guy said he knew what I was talking about and called us a cab because the place I was thinking of was too far to walk. We waited 30 minutes for the cab to arrive. We got in and 2 minutes later the cabby pulled up to this market place thing, literally a 1/4 mile from the hotel. We tried to explain that this was not the location we wanted, but he acted like he didn't understand what we were saying and seemed to not speak very good English so we just got out. We ended up having to pay $15 because that's the minimum fare in San Ramon. It's not like Chicago where you can hail cab from pretty much any street corner. We ended up just finding something to eat at the place he dropped us off at and then ended up walking back to the hotel. Which took us about 5 minutes. So basically we waited for 30 minutes and paid $15 to get to a place that we could have walked to in 5 minutes for free!! You can bet we let the valet guy our thoughts on the matter.

2. There were all these people walking around the hotel wearing these white robes or white linen sheaths or skirts. They all looked like hippies for the most part and smelled of incense. You'd walk around a corner and one would be sitting there in a meditative state. I always felt like I had to whisper everywhere because you never know when you'd happen upon someone in full meditative trance. Anyway, we finally asked the front desk clerks if they knew who they were and what they were in town for and it turns out they were Amma followers. Amma is guru that passes enlightenment to her followers through her hugs. She hugs thousands of people day after day supposedly enlighten their spirits to heal themselves. Now I'm am all for whatever is going to make you happy and if hugging Amma is your thing, I'd rather you do that than go out and shoot a bunch of people. It might seem weird, but at least it's a positive thing to do with your life. So more power to you. In case some of you need a hug, stock up on white linen outfits and visit Amma.org to find when she'll be in a city near you. :)

June - Week One

It's been a while since I've blogged. Over a month now, but I've had good reason. I spent most of June traveling back and forth from various parts of California for work.

June 3rd - 4th: I was in San Francisco facilitating a 3 hour training class for Sales Manager's on how to set-up their home offices. It was a quick trip. I flew in on Wednesday morning, taught the class Wednesday afternoon, and flew back to Chicago Thursday morning. The best part about this trip is that my good friend Andrea was there attending the weeklong training class for which my class was a small part. I haven't seen her in a while so it was a real treat to be able to spend time with her. We went out to dinner with another a couple of former and/or current co-workers of ours as well as a friends, Krista and Julie. We caught up and had a great time.

I returned home to the chalk written note on the sidewalk outside our house that you saw in the previous post. Ahhhh. Then on Friday night, we went to a place called Delilah's for a little Happy Hour type thing. We didn't stay long, but had a good time. Below is a photo of me and Jen, one our MiC friends.

Somebody Loves Me!

I returned home after my 1st trip to San Francisco to this note written with chalk on the sidewalk out front of our house. It's from the neighbor girl, Mi. I let her and her brother help me plant flowers the past two weekends and everytime I'm outside, they are usually right there hanging out with me, no matter what I'm doing.


Mi is 5 or 6 (I think) and her younger brother is around 3. His name is Khoa. They are both adorable, Khoa is so sweet and Mi is too, but she's also kind of a brat. I don't mind hanging out with them though.


I grew up loving kids, I baby-sat and worked in several day care centers, just to be near them!! I was a kid magnet, they loved me. Then as I started to get older and spent less time around them I started to feel a little uncomfortable and wondered if I'd ever be able to have that same type of relationship with them again. So it's nice to know that at least with these two, I still seem to have the touch! (and by touch I mean the skill, or talent to engage kids, not physically touch them, just to be clear!! You can't be too careful these days!)

5/20/09: 30 Day Shred - 1 Day...DEAD!!!

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I started my workout program today! I bought a DVD circuit training workout by Jillian Michaels called 30 Day Shred. She is the tough female trainer on "The Biggest Loser". Man is she ever! I'm on level 1, the beginners level and it kicked my butt!! I couldn't even keep up with it. Man! I'm an in worse shape than I thought!! But...you have start somewhere. I figure after a week or so I might be able to actually do the beginner level the way they do it without adding too many modifications to make a littler easier, but still get something out of it.

Jumping jacks are hard!! I've always hated them, but they are easier than lunges. I bought another Biggest Loser DVD a while back, this one by Bob Green. I liked it, but it was full of lunges that I just couldn't do. My poor knees just can't handle a lot of lunges. Why is it two exercises I hate the most (lunges and jumping jacks) do the most for you?? I guess the same reason Broccoli tastes like crap compared to a doughnut. Oh well.

This DVD promises that you'll lose up to 30lbs in a month and up to 3 sizes if you follow it religiously. I'm guessing that since I've had to make so many modifications initially just to get through the workout without killing myself that it will probably take me a little bit longer to get there. Here's hoping!!

ALSO, Happy 43rd Wedding Anniversary to my Parents today!! :)

5/15/09 - Happy Birthday Denese!

Today was my friend Denese's 40th Birthday. She considers New Orleans home so we celebrate in true New Orleans fashion, by going to the New Orleans Zydeco band called Mojo and the Bayou Gypsies. It's quite what I expected, but I think we all had a good time. I forgot my camera again, but Denese and shar took some pictures so hopefully I'll be able to post some soon.

5/14/09 - Game Night a Guthries

I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures from this night. Sorry.
There is bar in Wrigleyville that has a bunch of boardgames so we set-up a Meetin event to go there and play games for the evening. It was fun. We played Apples to Apples. I should have been home working as I had a huge deadline this week, but oh well, David's friend was in town from Philly as well so I didn't want to be the work-a-holic, party pooper girlfriend, so I went out instead and was late getting the work done. It wasn't too big of deal though because everyone else on the project was just as far behind as I was! Whew!

5/11/09 - Dinner w/the Neighbors

Wing night or Turkey Wrap night (for me). We went to the Rail for Wing night. Katherine and I are both trying to lose weight so we get the wrap, while the boys dig into the wings. Aside from that, it was a good night.

5/9-10/09 - Clean, Clean, Clean

Nothing too exciting the rest of the weekend. I cleaned the house because it really needed it bad! Some people hate doing laundry or washing windows...my least favorite household chore is mopping!! I can't stand it. I'm much rather do 20 loads of laundry or wash every window in the house than mop the floor, but it has to be done. Especially in our kitchen because it has a cream colored tile!! Ugh! Every little spot shows up. It really should be done weekly, but currently it only gets done about twice a month.

Plus I don't know what it is, but sometimes it's hard to clean when other people are around. So I took the opportunity of David being in Philly to put a good dent in the cleaning. It looked pretty nice, but it didn't last long...oh well.

I went over to my friend Denese's house and helped her plant some flowers, then I called my Mom on Sunday to wish her a Happy Mothers Day and then went and picked David up at the airport and that was about it! Pretty mellow weekend.

5/8/09 - Crapple

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David is in Philly this weekend visiting his Mother for Mother's Day. I wish I could have gone to SLC, but tickets were too expensive. I'm going to try and go this Summer sometime though. Instead I went to Crapple tonight. A Meetin event. It's a bar near our neighborhood. Crapple is a raffle game. You by tickets, then if your number is called you win a prize, the catch is that there are good prizes and bad prizes so everyone yells, "Crap!...Crap!...Crap!" because they want to you to get a crappy prize. The grand prize is giant blow up toy of some kind and you have to travel home with it blown up. So if you rode the bus, train or your bike as many Chicagoan's do, you'll look pretty silly toting this giant blow up thing....and look who won, our friend Rob...too bad he drove to the event :(

Carl, Jenni, Becca, Kelly, Jen and Sarah (also pictured)

5/6-7/09 - Road Warrior Training - Santa Clara

Traveled to Santa Clara this week to facilitate training for Sales Force One. A Marriott Initiative that is rolling out across the nation. It was a quick trip! I flew in on Wednesday morning, taught the class Wednesday afternoon and had dinner with some cow-workers then flew back to Chicago the next morning.

I must be getting old, that trip, though short, wore me out!!! It's about a 3.5 to 4 hour flight depending on head/tail winds. A lot for such short time frame. I'm heading back that same area in a couple weeks and think I'll do it a little differently this time.

5/5/09 - Opera Night

Again, camera's not allowed, but tonight we went to the Opera with our friend Kelly Goodall and a few others from the Meetin group. We saw "The Tragedy of Carmen" it was pretty good. Carmen is a little hussy though. I never realized it before, but it makes sense now. The story is basically about her running from man to man, breaking hearts left and right. This version was what they would call an operetta, it was a condensed version of the full Opera, which is like 4 hours long. This one was about 90 minues. Good thing, although I really enjoyed it very much, I don't know if I could have sat through 4 hours of it.

5/4/09 - Stepping Down - MiC it's been good...

It's been a little over a year since David and I took over MeetinChicago. It's been fun, but we decided it was time to pass the torch. The new leaders are Jen Strom, Jenni Langland and Greg.

We'll continue to be active on the board and go to Meetin events, but I'm also looking forward to hanging out with the friends we've met through Meetin (and outside of it) and deepening those friendships.

5/3/09 - Our new canopy: Hooray for BigLots!!

We went to Big Lots today to look at canopy they had on sale. It was perfect so we bought it and assembled it right away. I love it! It provides shelter from the sun on our patio, but doesn't take up the whole patio so if want sun there is still plenty of room to roam around. Can't wait now for the weather to be more consistent so we can enjoy it.

5/2/09 - Titanic Exhibit/Sprecher Brewery

A Bunch of Beer Bottles

That's one heck of a coozie!!

David and I in front of the Brewery

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This weekend David and I and a few of our friends; Derek, Jamie, Erick, Shar and Bof drove up to Milwaukee, WI to visit the Milwaukee Public Museum for the Titanic Exhibit. This exhibit included artifacts and personal belongings from the ships survirors and deceased. It was very interesting. They have been able to bring up, clothing, jewelry, money, dishes, toiletries, all sorts of stuff. On one hand it's very eirie looking at stuff that once belonged to these people that are now dead and not only dead, but that drowned in the sinking of the Titanic and on the other it's quite amazing at how in tact a lot of it is. There were bottles of medicine and champagne that still had liquid in them. There was even a jar of face powder that still had powder in it. In a lot of cases they had photos of the items either on the person (clothing/jewelry) while they were still alive on the ship or where they found it amongst the wreckage next to the item.

It was really cool. I hightly recommend going to see it if the exhibit travels to your area. In fact if you google Titanic Exhibit, you'll see a list of destinations and dates.

Now, a trip to Milwaukee wouldn't complete of course without a trip to a brewery so we visited Sprecher brewery, in Glendale, WI while we were in town. Camera's were not allowed at the exhibit, but was able to catch a few photos at the brewery.

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.