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.