Thief

I use a commercial shared kitchen for the business, and it's a great concept. Except that it's a little like living with roommates again. You never quite know who's drinking your milk or eating your frozen burritos. And you want to maintain a good relationship, so if someone drinks your milk here and there, who cares?

So anyhow, I bought a case of mini chocolate chips. 12 bags in a case. So when we open it up and use one, there should be 11 left. 12-1=11. Basic math. But... there were only 10.

Okay, no big deal, I tell my bakers. It's fine. Just one bag. It's bound to happen. It's like $2. Whatever.

And then we go back the next time. I count. Only nine bags.

My one baker says, "Leave a nasty note! They're STEALING from you! From US!!!"

I mulled over it for the next couple of hours and finally wrote this:
Hi. :) We're so flattered that you love our chocolate chips so much. Next time we go in on an order, we can definitely order more for you. Just call us ahead of time: xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you so much!
And then I left it inside the box.

I don't want to be rude, and I really don't want to rock the boat. But honestly, I feel a little bit like Ross:



I don't know. Maybe I was too snarky.

Chi-town

Reasons I love Chicago:

1. The people. I really think Midwesterners are nice. Especially once the snow has melted and we can all come out of hibernation.
2. The food. Really. There is an abundance of amazing food here. It's a wonder more people aren't totally overweight and broke.
3. The energy. I can't really explain it. You just have to almost get hit by a cab during rush hour in the Loop to feel it.
4. The sports. Particularly the Cubs. I've adopted the Lovable Losers.
5. The museums. We have a Seurat!
6. The water. Lake Michigan might have higher levels of E. coli on some days other than others, but it's still a body of water that's big enough to fake us Californians out as being an ocean.
7. The summers. They make the winters worth enduring.
8. The neighborhoods. I love how people say, "I live in Lincoln Park" with a certain air of arrogance. It kind of makes me want to move to Lincoln Park. Same goes for "Gold Coast."
9. The fact that we get lots of visitors. Because this is the crossroads of America. And because lots of people we know fly through O'Hare and get stranded.
10. The festive-ness. I love how the city celebrates whatever the big thing is that's happening. Like a Presidential candidate who wins from Chicago. Or the 10,000th Cubs win. Or the IOC in town to evaluate Chicago as a host for the 2016 Olympics. Or St. Patrick's Day.

And here's one final plug. Just in case the IOC is reading this blog.

D, please - let's not move again. Especially not to Houston. I like it here.

Preschool Report

C got his first report card from preschool last month. He's doing pretty well. But curses that balance beam!

We'll work on it, Mrs. Peterson. Promise.

Dear Michigan State:

You had me worried for 38 minutes that I might have picked the wrong team to round out my Elite Eight.

But in the end, you managed to (barely) pull it off. Way to bring it home. Now, if you wouldn't mind stepping it down and losing to Louisville this weekend, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Restless Mom (who is currently in the top 42 on ESPN.com's leaderboard)

Pajama Wednesday

One Wednesday morning when C was two years old, I was just too lazy to get out of bed, get dressed, and do anything besides pour cereal. It was probably a gross day outside. So I declared that day to be "Pajama Wednesday."

And ever since that day, we've maintained this Wednesday tradition of staying in our pajamas all day and lounging around. Usually, this means he gets to eat breakfast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, too.

Last week, however, for some reason, we couldn't do Pajama Wednesday, and since we've been sick for the last several days, we've had a lot of Pajama (Fri-Satur-Sun-Mon)days this week.

The poor kid is out of pajamas. Time to do some laundry!

Happy Birthday, Bud!

Four years ago, our little C was born.

The minute he was born, he was our "Bud." Who knows why, since I don't necessarily see a resemblance:

But really, kiddo, you really ARE my favorite Coco in the whole wide world. We are so happy you're a part of our family.
I'm so glad you had a wonderful day at preschool and with Mimi, Daddy, Baabaa, and Grandpa. We all love you SO VERY MUCH.

I Beat the President - Day 1

President Obama, Day 1: 11/16 (D average)
Me, Day 1: 15/16 (A average)

I know better than to be too confident after the first day of March Madness. But I kind of really want to beat him.

Could it be?

I don't want to jinx anything...

...but with this weather forecast, I'm pulling out the spring clothes.

From earth to outer space

Out of nowhere, C just said, "Mom, I love you. All the way from earth to outer space."

I think he was inspired by that book, "Guess How Much I Love You?", but I'll take it.

And kiddo? I love you all the way from earth to outer space . . . and back. ;-)

It's nonstop

I guess I really won't complain, because April showers DO bring May flowers, and it's not even April yet. So I should really be grateful that it's not snowing. But apparently, when it doesn't snow, it pours.

This is what the river two blocks away looks like today. Our sump pump has been on overdrive. And I saw our neighbors across the street pumping out a ton of water from their basement window well yesterday. That would stink. Literally.

Normally, you can see this tree's root system. Not today. Nope.

And normally, you don't see the river and the park intersecting. (By the way, it's soggy at the park. My shoes and socks got soaked. Ew.)I drew in a yellow line where the river bank is SUPPOSED to be.

As long as it doesn't creep into our basement, I'll just be grateful that it's 56 degrees outside today. :)

Intimate conversation

I could only hear a portion of their very hushed conversation, but here's what I could decipher:

"Hello, hippo... you have a big nose... how come you move your head side to side?... look at that branch... can you pick it up?... look at that branch...

I didn't know it could dive, Mom. I didn't know it could dive, Mommy!"

This was our first time seeing an underwater hippopotamus. I laughed out loud. What a funny animal.

Sushi night

For some reason, whenever D's parents are in town, I always feel like it's my Japanese duty to make sushi. Even though they can probably get better sushi at Isobune or Kirala in Berkeley.

So anyhow, here's what we had for dinner last night, along with my mom's delish miso soup. This was modified to include imitation crabmeat (so not the same, but oh well), eggs, carrots, and cucumber. So maybe like a kani-tamago-ninjin-kyuri roll. Or a kantaninkyu roll?

Oui, Oui, Paris...

What City Should You Live In?
	You should live in Paris. The city of lights will appeal to your appreciation of beauty and romance. You are a lover and a poet by nature, and Paris' sensitive charms will be a perfect match for yours.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

I thought the results would place me in London but I guess Paris is the place to be for me. My mission was indeed inspired...

Mystery Bun

Today while shopping at Super H Mart (one of two Asian supermarkets in Naperville), I challenged C to sample a mystery bun. If you know C, he has a very limited non-sweet diet (which includes McD hamburger, fries, hot dog, mac n' cheese, dinosaur nuggets, and fish sticks). I told him the mystery bun was sweet and of course his eyes lit up. So he gave it a try. After three rounds of bun samples, C was fooled into eating a "sweet" Chinese Green Onion bun. I am glad deep down he has my "gourmand" genes. After checking out, C told me that he "Super H loves me". I don't know if that means he loves me as much as he loves "Super H" but I'll take it as a compliment.

Rise and Shout

I'm on Facebook right now and this is the ad that's popping up on the sidebar:

I'm so glad we're done with the potty training thing. Otherwise, I'd actually consider caving to this meticulously placed ad so that D could actually LEARN the first... oh, 20 lines of our alma mater's fight song.

Our kiddo, who knows as much of the fight song (four seconds worth) as his dad.

One question, though. Is it "Loyal, strong and true?" or "Loyal, brave and true?" I never figured that one out. I just mumbled something to get through the line so I wouldn't look like a total idiot:

"Loyal, strave and true... wear the white and blue
As we sing get set to spring.
Come on Cougars, it's up to you!"

Yeah. I still don't know.

First in line

Last night, my friend Rasa and I went to see my favorite folk guitar artist ever.

Although he didn't sing to me specifically like he did last time, I did manage to strategize my way into his life. Via being first in a very long line at a post-show meet/greet. Embarrassing, I know.

And really, not for nothing. I somehow convinced the tour manager to give me his contact information. Next time they're in town, I have ins and welcome permission to drop off cupcakes. AND I got this great picture (and an autographed CD for C) out of it.

He's super talented. Beautiful lyrics. Amazing melodies. Quirky inspiration. I like him a lot. Go iTunes Joshua Radin. (Wow, I wasn't even paid to write this. Word-of-mouth marketing works when it's something this good.)

P.S. Thanks to new friend Jessica who saved the day by taking this picture for me (and actually followed through with sending it over) when my phone died. :)

First Talk in Primary

Today, C gave his first talk in Primary at church. His topic: fathers.



It's kind of long, so if you want to read a quick summary, here's the stuff behind the teleprompter:

"Today, I have been asked to give a talk on fathers.
Fathers preside over the family with mothers.
My mom and dad talk about important things for our family.
Fathers also provide for the family.
My dad works at BP. He looks at numbers all day.
Fathers also protect the family with love.
I am grateful for my daddy because he plays with me.
I am grateful for my daddy because he goes to the library with me.
My daddy prays for me when I get hurt or sick.
I am grateful that Heavenly Father gave me my mommy and daddy."

C wrote this on his own, but D threw in the "mommy and daddy" part so I wouldn't feel left out. What a nice guy.

Great job, bud!

Saturdays with C

C and D go to the library every Saturday morning to make a craft, play computer games, do puzzles, and check out books and DVDs.

Apparently, our library has won awards for being the "Best Library in America." (Our city is a little full of itself.) And I firmly believe these animal headsets might have tipped the scales in our library's favor.

I don't know if they're supposed to be bears or rabbits or monkeys or ferrets or Arthur or what, though. Any ideas?

Lake Michigan in February, Part 2

Friday: 10 foot waves.
Saturday: a snowy, icy expanse.

Spring, GET HERE NOW!

Lake Michigan in February

Look at these waves I saw driving up Lake Shore Drive this morning:

While I've just about HAD IT with this particular Chicago winter, at least the lake is thawed out enough to send 10 foot waves crashing over the barricade.

That said, I really wouldn't mind if spring showed up any day, so I could have an excuse to wear these:

or

I would even wear these for a day if it meant that spring would hurry up and just get here.

The gladiator shoe. Apparently Spring 2009's hottest trend. Huh?

So spring, would you hurry up already?

The last tag I'll ever do...

The 8 things tag. (Chari, you owe me.)

8 favorite TV shows:
24
House
Beverly Hills, 90210 (the original)
So You Think You Can Dance?
The Amazing Race
What Not to Wear
Designed to Sell
Friends

8 things I did yesterday:
Printed out a ton of cupcake and buttercream frosting recipes
Made cute little binders for my new employees
Played race cars and basketball with C
Spent 2 minutes in between bites talking to my husband
Baked for 3 hours at a commercial kitchen
Spent way too much time on Facebook
Brought home a carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting for D
Drove by Rod Blagojevich's home in Chicago

8 things I'm looking forward to:
Getting my new glasses
Getting the business website up and running
Having another strategy session with my publicist!
Finding time to read "Your Marketing Sucks."
Going to Leipzig and Prague with D this summer
Having a son who is able to zip up his jacket by himself
Having my husband around more once he finishes school
Summertime in Chicago!

8 favorite restaurants:
Florentine's - Cupertino
Kirala - Berkeley
Joy Yee - Chicagoland
Lou Malnati's - Chicagoland
Haku - NYC
Rodizio - SLC
That Kiosque Flottant on the Seine - Paris
Sparta's Pizza and Spaghetti - Bothell, WA

8 Things on my wish list
I wish we could afford to move to Lincoln Park
and put C in private school
and hire a personal chef
who goes grocery shopping. (That's 4.)
I wish I could lose 5 more pounds
and keep it off
and increase my VO2 so that I can run a 5k
and shrink down just one more size. (That's 4 more.)

Is this a bad sign?

So I'm starting a cupcake business. If you're reading this, you probably already know this.

Well, I went to a Chinese buffet today for lunch, and even THEY'VE hopped on the cupcake bandwagon. Because it complements greasy, garlicky food so well.

Clockwise from top left: fried green beans, teriyaki chicken, Chinese donuts, pork potstickers, and yellow cake from a box topped with gritty shortening-based frosting with air-brushed food coloring and sprinkles.

I hope this isn't a bad omen or something. Next thing you know, we'll see them at Indian buffets on Devon.

The Chinese donuts though? Pretty darn good. I'll keep that idea tucked away in case this cupcake thing doesn't work out.

So sweet

"Mom, why do you have all of those words on your paper?"

"Well, this is a list of things I need to get done by this afternoon."

"Wow. That's a lot of things. Maybe...maybe I can help you do some of those things so you won't be stressed and then that will make you happy."

"Oh, C. That would be great! Do you want to put together my privacy policy or register for a P.O. box for me?"

(long pause) "Mom? May I please have a snack?"

Seriously, just pick a team

I saw this minivan driving down LSD by Oak Street beach yesterday and thought it was worth capturing on camera. I highly doubt I'll see anything like it ever again:

White Sox.
Cubs.
Red Sox.
Yankees.
Jesus.

(P.S. - sorry to the cabbie I almost swerved into while attempting to capture the sheer madness.)

NO ROSES ALLOWED

I think it was after our first Valentine's Day that I told D, "NO ROSES ON VALENTINE'S, EVER! They're overpriced, cheesy, thorny, and I just plain don't like them on 2/14." (Any other day, they're great.)

I'm sure my cantankerous nature took him by surprise, but hey. Nine years later, we're still married. And it's probably due in small part to the fact that he's learned that tulip bunches are just as good for this holiday.
And I got creative this year, too:
(C said, "Mom, don't write on the wall!" Luckily, we have plenty of exposed drywall that will eventually get covered up since our kitchen is still in shambles.)

Plus, instead of doing the goingoutanddressingup thing, we're going to order (deep dish, probably) pizza, watch 24, and hang out in sweats.

Muy caliente.

Being spontaneous

Late Friday morning, I told C we were going on a surprise trip. I had decided four minutes before that we had to do something because the weather was above 30 degrees. So we loaded the stroller and a few snacks into the car and drove to Lincoln Park.





We need to be spontaneous more often. It's way too fun.

I try to fly, but...

My old roommate introduced me to Flylady a few years ago. I'm a fan of the concept:

Declutter.
Don't stress over the little things.
Declutter.
Get your life in order by eliminating hotspot messes.
Declutter.
Do your Weekly Home Blessing Hour.
Declutter.
Focus on Zones.
Declutter.
Do Zone Missions.
Declutter.
Train your kids to do the same.
Declutter.
FLY!
(and keep decluttering.)

So I find this ironic:

Flylady. Kelly. Flylady Mentors. Can I count deleting these messages as my 27 fling declutter boogie today?

Valentine's Day cards

So I used to instruct people in the art of rubber stamping and cardmaking. It was all I did in my past life. Seriously. I was really into it and I still enjoy it a lot. I still have a craft room. I still have 80 reams of coordinating cardstock.

But apparently three months away and I've lost my touch.

This is the best I could come up with for C's preschool Valentine's Day party tomorrow:

What has happened to me?! Not even an embellishment! UGH.

(In my defense, it IS 1 in the morning.)

Skunky

When I woke up this morning, I smelled skunk inside our house.

At first, I thought it was my breath. (I'm sick, so my morning breath is pretty ripe.)
Then I thought it was my hair. (I got it done yesterday, so I thought - maybe it's the chemicals.)
Then I thought it was C. So I pulled him close and took a big whiff. Nope.
Then I thought it was C's breath. "Did you brush your teeth this morning?" "Yes, Mom."

I couldn't figure out what it was, so I let it go, took C to preschool, and came home to print some stuff in the office.

Ew. Ew, ew, ew. It REEKS down there. We have a basement office that has a window that opens up to the underside of our deck. So yeah, I'm pretty sure there's something fishy going on down there. Or skunky.

I'll let D handle it when he gets home.

Brainstorming 101

D learned a brainstorming technique in his marketing class on Tuesday.

It might not be new to you, especially if you're clever or creative. (I'm neither, so it was kind of an "Aha!" moment for me.)

Here's how it works:
1. Identify a problem to brainstorm a solution for. (Mine: product packaging)

2. Think of a movie that's totally unrelated to the problem. Or a place, or a song, or a book - whatever.

3. Name a few tangible associations to this movie.

4. Pick an association and brainstorm ideas about potential relationships to the problem.

5. Repeat.

6. Highlight a few ideas that you think might work and put them all together on one page so you can focus on those solutions and come up with something totally extraordinary.
Why this works: you're forced to think of totally unconventional, unrelated solutions to the problem. (This has always been a huge challenge for me. I'm just not that creative.)

This MBA education might have just paid for itself with this one concept alone. (Okay, that was not supposed to sound sarcastic.) But I do love being the beneficiary of great ideas from great marketing professors.

Buh-Bye, Blago

Just thought I would document for posterity that any tollway evidence of Rod R. Blagojevich as Governor of Illinois has officially been removed as of last week's impeachment proceedings. Signs (that cost IL taxpayers $480,000 to begin with) were covered up or removed literally the day of his conviction.

January 28, 2009

January 29, 2009

If only Illinois tollway construction were as expeditious!

Rock Out

We rock out a lot in our house.

Tonight: Beyonce.

Oh-oh-oh.

Sand Traps

I went downstairs to fold some laundry a few mornings ago and came back upstairs to find this:
Hot chocolate mix, WITH marshmallows, poured in little piles all over the carpet. Cut open with hair cutting scissors.

C, who totally knew he did something wrong just by looking at my horrified expression sheepishly said, "Oh! Hi, Mom."

"C, what are you doing?!!" I said in my most panic stricken voice.

In a hurried attempt to cover himself, but nearly hyperventilating, he said, "I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I.... I was just making a golf course, Mom."

"How is this a golf course?"

"You see? The golf ball rolls here, and then it goes here, but then it goes into the sand and you can't get it out."

What could I say to that? So clever.

Luckily our vacuum works pretty well.