LPZ

Here are some pics from a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Always good times. I should actually write something but I'm just too lazy today.






Here is Brendan blissfully passed out after the adventure:



And here's a set of pics when I caught Liam and Brendan practicing for Brendan's 21st birthday. Fortunately they only had play cups, but I'm gonna keep an eye on these two...

True Ramblings

Well, at the expense of having any social life recently, Eric and I have been moving full steam ahead with working insane schedules and fixing up the house. I think the end is in sight, with the only big project left on the docket painting the cabinets in the kitchen and having the countertops installed. The painting part is a lot of work, and I will be SO happy when it is done. Ok, off to play chase with Brendan and Liam!

Maseratis, Aston Martins and Rick Bayless

Sequentially I should post my After pictures of the yard, but I want to wait til they finish the casings on the back windows first.
Yesterday /last night was awesome. In celebration of 8 years of marriage, we dropped dos bambinos at the grandparents for lunch, then Eric and I got a bunch of stuff done including (finally!) ordering new countertops (bye bye Brady Bunch, we won't miss you!) and other miscellaneous jazz (how romantic. We ran into an Action Ridge neighbor that afternoon and she said her husband NEVER took her to Home Depot to celebrate their anniversary, poor lady.) Then we went downtown for drinks at Fado and dinner at Frontera Grill. It was seriously the best food I've ever had in my life, and the margaritas were insanely good. We forced ourselves to eat almost everything we got because we had never had such an extraordinary meal, and no one else seemed to be taking doggie bags. :o) Eric was excited because there was a bevy of upscale cars outside to oogle as well. Like a little touch of L.A. on Clark. Dinner was at 9 and we thought about going to a midnight movie afterward, but decided to come home instead and SLEEP! G&G Z were having a sleepover with the grandkids, which meant we got to sleep in today AND do my favorite lazy thing ever, which is wake up, eat breakfast and then go BACK to bed. It was truly fantastical.
Tomorrow our itty bitty 3rd bedroom will be magically transformed into a itty bitty purple and green playroom. I'll try to post before and after pics, as I know you are just DYING to see the metamorphosis.
Oh, and now I certainly CANNOT get that Eagles song Life's Been Good out of my head. "My Maserati does 185, I lost my license, now I don't drive." That's been with me since I asked Eric last night, "So a Maerati's a really expensive car?" and he laughed in my face, realized I wasn't joking and as he tried to explain it to me I sang that lyric and he said, "Yes, exctally. It's what rockstars drive."
Oh, and on our way downtown Eric was trying to make a call on the OnStar and it misheard him: Eric's response: Dammit
Onstar: Now calling - Eric.
Ok, who wants to have the next sleepover with the kids? They were apparently quite good. Lemme know.

Before

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

So, we got new sod and a flat backyard! I will post pictures when Eric reconnects some mythical computer wires. I have to say it looks waaaaaay better and I want to be featured on one of those Home and Garden shows. Now we just need a patio and maybe a fence and we will have a kickin' backyard. (A very strange and unexpected crop of mushrooms has started popping up in the new sod. I am not sure if they are magical, but I hope they will quickly go away. Although they are kind of cute. In a weird way only mushrooms and pigs noses can be.)

I don't like how people at my work and nearby schools are getting swine flu. Not many people are dying of it, but it's still not something I want to contract. Also it isn't yet flu season, so that'll be the real test. Sometimes working in a public place is a germy thing to do. However, I cannot express how much I LOVE having an 8 minute commute, especially since I can get there faster walking than driving. That's pretty sweet. Eric and I are very eco-friendly when it comes to commuting.

I was talking today with our extra-stellar mailman, and he was lambasting the USPS, sort of. He said they now frown upon mailmen getting to know the people on their route, and everything is about doing it faster, but not better. He's a cool dude and more postmen should be like him. And always ring twice.

This week is turning out to be a very cute baby-ful week indeed. In addition to my own very cute babies (and in Ireland Liam still qualifies as an "Infant") I got to see one very cute little 6 month old girl on Tuesday and will hopefully get to see two very cute 2 month old twins on Friday. Liam is uber-excited, and based on his success with Mason has proposed teaching 2 month old Charlie to walk tomorrow.
Tomorrow we also are lining up our weekly babysitter AND getting the last of our new windows. And we (Eric) got a new faucet but (Eric)broke something so we need to get a plumber. And we are turning the 3rd bedroom into a playroom so we have a painter coming for that on Monday. And last but not least we will hopefully be getting new countertops sometime soon, and hopefully we will have finished painting out cabinets by then too. Though for a while we might have black cabinets and orange countertops, and nothing could be more rad. And on that note we will be celebrating our anniversary with a over-night away from the little guys and a good dinner by one of our favorite channel 11 chefs. After that I will need a four month vacation to recuperate.

Our Fav Restaurant from the Old Days

Somehow I happened upon the website for The Gypsy, which is the favorite restaurant Eric and I had in LA. Check out the Pictures on their site to get a feel for it. Man, set yourself at one of their outside tables for a gluttonous evening of beautiful weather, amazing hummus and shwarma, delicious flavored hookahs and people- and star- watching at the movie premiers at the Fox across the street. When we were there they still had 25 cent chocolate chip cookies and one dollar ice cream sandwiches at Diddy Reese just a couple stores down. We lived maybe 4 or 5 blocks from this oasis, which I was happy to leave but now remember wistfully. I wouldn't want to live in LA again, but there were some pretty gnarly things about it, Dude, that's for sure.

Much Ado

1. I finally got my grade from Use and Users of information. 98 out of a possible 100 points, baby! Now I just have to cross my fingers that scholarship people will call me in June. If I don't hear in June, well that is a bad sign. If I do that means I got it. Ooo, I can hardly handle the tension. 3 classes down, 7 to go!
2. Liam's friend is calling from upstairs, "Liam keeps turning off the piano," to which Liam calls down, "Because my baby needs to take a nap!" Seems reasonable to me.
3. Tomorrow: Stage One of our landscapping begins. They are going to flatten out the backyard, lay new sod, pull out the bushes behind our house, plant some newer, "cuter" bushes, cut down the trees that are growing into our garage and lay new sod on our parkway grasses. We still need to get a back patio and 1.7 million other things, but this is a good start. Why is everything so expensive? Just wondering.
4. Liam got a little stuffed Irish bear from Jon and Melissa when he was born. He told me a day ago the bear was named Brian Hamber. Eric and I were impressed because it sounds like a real name. So I said, oh, that's a cool name for him. How did you know that was his name? And he said, no, it's her, not him. Brian Hamber is a girl.
5. Kathy, I know what you're saying about the bogus celebrity exhaustion, but I would reaaallly like to go to one of the chic rehab hospitals for a week or two and have my own exhaustion recovery. It would be totally legit, I promise.
I had a LOT more SUPER RIVETING stuff to blog about, but I got basically no sleep last night because Brendan + teething + cold = BAAAAADDDD!!!!! so I can't remember what it was. This does not bode well for tonight, when I will be working.