Motivation

I'm not generally a motivated person. I prefer to start rather than finish things and although I can be very reward drive, I don't always stick with things when results take a while to see. These traits become something of a hindrance to developing a good workout routine.

A while back, I tried to start a schedule. It was Tuesday and Thursday night which became just Thursday nights when twice a week was too cumbersome. But the problem with evenings is they aren't really good for "me time". There's family birthdays, friend get-togethers, volunteer meetings, dentist appointments, and so on. People always say that a good exercise schedule should be protected time: write it on your calender and schedule other things around it. Except, how do you say no a birthday party because you have to work out? And of course, compounding those dilemmas were the inevitable train delays and work conflicts that didn't get me home on time.

So now I'm going for a new approach. Mornings! I'm aiming for a 5:30 am class at Lifetime Fitness twice a week. Yes, that means I have to get my butt out of bed at 5 am (the hardest part), but it's the only way I can workout, shower, eat breakfast, and still catch a 7:40 or 8:00 train to work. Tuesdays it's Yoga Pilates Fusion to work on core muscles, balance, and flexibility; Fridays it's Barbell Strength training to work on strength and toning. Weekends are for cardio training - swimming or jogging. I'm not trying to lose weight or become a body builder, but I do want to tone up and get my metabolism levels going better. Also, I'm one of those crazy people that finds exercise really relaxing.

I'm posting this blog update as something of a self-motivation tool too. Feel free to ask me how things are going in a few weeks - this will either encourage me to keep up the good work or guilt me back into keeping up if I slip out of things. I've heard it takes ten weeks to really make something a habit so ideally I'll maintain (or add to) my twice a week goal from now until the end of October. I know this will be infinitely more challenging once winter creeps in with cold weather and a car that needs to be scraped off before whisking me off to the gym, but I'm confident that it's a pattern that will be good for me in the long run.

Wish me luck!

Distractions?

(Phone conversation)

Tony: All this construction in the parking lot is really loud and distracting.

Lisa: Why don't you take the laptop and go over to Caribou or Starbucks to work?

Tony: But then I can't watch the Cubs game....

Fielder Wins, But Pujols Shines... or at least his head does...

What would Blogger Arrow be without my annual tribute to the Home Run Derby? Let me start with some quick flashbacks to 2008, 2007, and 2006. Ah yes. Those were the days where it took far more than eleven home runs to really impress the crowds. *sigh* This year's competition was severely lacking in the "He hit HOW many???" category that brought jaw drops to greats such as Josh Hamilton and Bobby Abreyu. But as always, I offer a tip of my hat to this year's champion Prince Fielder, first baseman of the Milwaukee Brewers.

With Prince taking the title and Albert Pujols (first baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals) as the obvious favorite, I have to take note of the fact that these two talents both hail from the National League Central division - also the home of first base greats Lance Berkman of the Astros and the supremely awesome Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs. There's no doubting the phenomenal quality of baseball played by all four of these men (their numbers speak for themselves) but it leads me to question why the NLC is routinely criticized as the worst division around. Granted, the division typically produces a close race in which many of the teams boast mediocre records at best, but I have to argue that those stats are due more to evenly matched rivalries than overall lack of talented teams, as the media tends to imply.

Before I distract myself too far with topics such as East Coast Bias, let me return to the subject of Albert Pujols. I'm anything but a Cardinals fan, however I have great respect for Mr. P. He's the epitome of a classy player and despite his astounding numbers in the game, he constantly comes across as humble - giving equal praise to both teammates and rivals - and professes his faith in God when attributing a source to his talent. There is one thing, though, that I always seem to forget about Pujols, that I was reminded of at the Home Run Derby: he is bald.

(Not that there is anything wrong with that. I have long been an admirer of the follicly challenged.)

Something about his shiny head, though always seems to surprise me. Perhaps the oddest spectacle of the Home Run Derby was seeing both Pujols and Fielder taking the plate with exposed heads - a rare safe opportunity to do so since there is little to no risk that a batting practice pitcher of their choosing would throw a fastball up and in. Since baseball players are so rarely seen without their caps or batting helmets on, their hairstyles (or lack thereof) can be a bit shocking. Hence my surprise at Mr. P's sparkling pate. For another example, look to White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski. With his catcher's gear, ballcap or batting helmet on he looks like a perfectly normal individual. And yet, when he removes his head-ware, one is confronted with a bizarre shock of bleach-blond hair leaving one to speculate on his passion for surfing in the off-season.

The baseball cap is more than just a uniform piece. It is a fashion statement that these talented men seem to incorporate into their personas. With their team loyally identified across their foreheads, it's no surprise that many of them look like entirely different individuals when seen with exposed craniums. It was actually something of an image hunt to find a photo of Albert without his trademark red top. But it just goes to show that despite their feats on the field, these heroes really are everyday people too.

Look Alikes

I wouldn't by any means call myself a HUGE sports fan, but summer brings out the best (or maybe the worst) in me with two of my favorite things to watch - baseball and tennis. The former won't surprise many who know me to be quite the Cubbie fan, but not many people are aware of just how much I love to watch professional tennis. Specifically, Wimbledon.

No joke. I. Love. Wimbledon.

It started somewhere in the vicinity of my high school years (perhaps when all my siblings had summer jobs but I was a bit too young) that my mom and I would spend our late June, early July mornings watching the beautiful British competition. I can't pinpoint what exactly I love about Wimbledon - I don't get nearly as excited about the US or French Opens - but something about the high-class traditional atmosphere greatly appealed to my middle-class young American self.

Anyway, this year a bad reaction to poison ivy kept me out of work for a few days last week and the highlight of being "sick" was definitely rejoining my beloved Wimbledon competition as part of the live-television audience. The men's quarter- and semi-finals were especially riveting and I found myself rooting, unexpectedly, not for Roger Federer but for the American underdog, Andy Roddick (picture at right). And he almost pulled it off. Truthfully, I think he deserved it for the simple fact the Federer never succeeded in breaking his serve through the first four sets - and at 130+ mph it's a pretty tough serve to break.

But watching him play, there was a small voice nagging in my head that kept saying, "Who does he remind me of?" Somewhere around set three it hit me. If they ever make a Family Channel movie of The Andy Roddick Story, actor Sean William Scott (picture at left) would be a perfect choice to play the young tennis pro.

Am I right or am I right?

I don't know why my brain always makes these strange connections, but it's my own bizarre world of sports commentary. I've also recently commented that Sam Fuld - a rising star in the Cubs organization - bears something of a resemblance to former SNL odd man Chris Kattan... but I suppose that's a story for another time.

Random

For whatever reason Tony decided that he can read the mind of Cubs manager Lou Pinella. Along with his latest voice impression of our favorite skipper, Tony had this insight to share:

"What am I gonna do with Fukudome?"

Hey, I warned you it was random.

Super Bowl's Most Famous Feat...or is it Feet?

Although I wanted to make this post about the Super Bowl a tribute to Mike Tomlin - the youngest coach to win the game - and come up with all sorts of rumors about how he is really the long lost brother of actor Omar Epps, it seems that that topic has already been done before. Instead, I'll focus on an only slightly less overdone topic and talk about the catch that won the game.

Though many players gain great fame from their spectacular last minute awe-inspiring performances, great tribute must be given to the feat - or rather the feet - of Santonio Holmes. With triple coverage and only seconds of game time, Holmes collected a pass from Ben Roethlisberger to the very corner of the end zone and managed to keep both toes on the ground in bounds for the win. I can't even tell you how many replays showed from a multitude of angles that it was in fact a catch, but it might be safe to say that Holmes has the most famous feet of the week. But going back to the man who threw the ball to him, though I had little stake in caring who won the game, part of me was definitely cheering for Roethlisberger. Not only does he have the most fun-to-say name since Plaxico Burress, but part of me feels a little shot of sympathy for him growing up with a name like that. For the amount of times I've been on the phone and had to say "It's r-r-E-r-o" and still have hideous misspellings of my name appear (even by members of my own family!) - I can only imagine the trouble that Ben has been coping with all his life.

Congratulations Steelers and congrats to the Cardinals, for making it a well-played and very exciting game. Congratulations to Santonio Holmes for keeping his feet just right and congratulations to everyone who spelled Roethlisberger correctly. You can all go to Disneyland with Bruce Springsteen now.

The rest of us will wait out the next few weeks of bitter Chicago winter with just one thing in mind - "Is Spring Training here yet???"

Morneau Wins, But Hamilton Shines

Justin Morneau was crowned the 2008 Home Run Derby Champion with a total of 22 homers. He hit 5 in the third round - the round that matters. I have to at least tip my hat to any member of the Minnesota Twins that can win my favorite slugging competition (as my earliest childhood baseball memories were cheering for the World Champs in the late 80s), however, nobody is talking about Justin Morneau.


A new hero emerged at the HRD with a phenomenal and record-breaking 28 home runs in the first round alone. That's right, he hit more HR's in round 1 than winner Morneau hit in all three rounds combined, and though 3 dingers in the third round declared that Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers walked away with second place, he was first in everyone's hearts. His power hitting was not the only thing that garnered him the respect of his peers, the admiration of the crowds and the talk of the town. Josh Hamilton had a much greater weapon in his arsenal than his bat: his story.


Certainly fans knew that Hamilton was not going to be the typical HRD slugger when his pitcher was introduced. We're used to BP coaches throwing for these things, or in the case of last year's outing by Matt Holliday, a friend or relative. Hamilton surprised many when his pitcher took the field - 71 year old Clay Council, Hamilton's high school coach. Not only was Council thrilled to be invited to the festivities and to pitch to Josh at Yankee Stadium, but the man threw 54 pitches in the first round - 28 of which were knocked out of the park! I was ensnared by Hamilton's excitement and charm when after his first slam the crowd went wild and he was heard to remark, "That was awesome, dude!"


Yet even this is not what earns Hamilton the all-too-rare status of role model. His story encompasses a much greater battle and includes a testimony that he openly shares about how he reached where he is today by hitting rock bottom and finding his way back to the top through a relationship with Jesus Christ. I can't even come near to describing his amazing life so I'll send you out to read it in his own words: "I'm proof that hope is never lost."
I loved how Hamilton unabashedly attributed his performance and his very life to the work of God and Jesus. It seems so rare and awkward when God can be worshiped and proclaimed outside of church but Josh Hamilton was able to share his testimony to a packed house at Yankee Stadium and an audience of millions. In that respect, there is nothing second-place about his finish and he will easily be remembered as the hero of the night. Thanks for the show, Josh, but even more, thanks for the story!

Baseball Tip For the Non-Fans

The Home Run Derby is on tonight and following my tradition (2006, 2007) I'm destined to blog about it. Tune in tomorrow - or sometime later this week - for my thoughts on the beloved HRD as well as the All Cubs... I mean All Star Game. For those of you tuning in to the competition tonight I thought I would help out the non-baseball-junkies a bit. As my random act of kindness for the day I'd like to clear something up....

This is Evan Longoria:

This is Eva Longoria:

Oh, what a difference a single letter can make.

Birthday Cake

Here's some pictures of the cake I made for Tony's birthday. I don't want to brag.... oh, wait, yes I do! I'm pretty proud of how it turned out!!

(top view)

(front view)

(back view)

Tournament of Roses Parade (Part 1)

Preface, 2/7/08: I can't really explain the blogging hiatus other than that most of my thoughts just haven't been put to keyboard. I'll see what I can make up for in the next moth or so. Expect more back-posted entries like this one.

As many of you have heard, Tony and I had the privilege to spend our anniversary in California this year. Next to seeing family, the highlight of the trip was undeniably the Tournament of Roses Parade. I'll spare my Illini comrades the pain of discussing "The Game" but since I'm ages overdue for an update I thought I'd lean on the Picture's Worth A Thousand Words mantra and hope that this makes up for my lack of writing. Here's a quick tour through some of our favorite floats.This one was called "Wild Western Days" and featured a full stunt team. In this shot one of the dancing girls is slapping the guy with her purse but at one point the two men were having a full fist fight on top of the float and one of them threw the other over the front of the railing. It's also a self-built float which we thought was really cool (many of the others int he parade were done by professional companies).

This is an extreme close up of a float called "Preservation Celebration". It featured giant tigers and peacocks all made of flowers and Jack Hannah from The Animal Planet was sitting on the front of it. However, Tony took this picture especially for me because despite all the cool things to see, I was pointing and telling him "It's got monkeys!!!!"















This was one of the most innovative floats in my mind. It was sponsored by Honda and was called "Passport to the Future. It started as a truck and then opened up like a Transformer to turn into a spaceship complete with an astronaut in the cockpit. It was very creative and entertaining!


No parade would be complete without a marching band and The Rose Parade featured almost two dozen of them. Call me biased, but of course The Marching Illini were by far my favorite act! Our whole section was Illini fans so we were all on our feet singing and cheering, but as is always the case these days you had a few people in the group complaining about the retirement of the University's former "mascot", Chief Illiniwek. Needless to say when this next float came by a few groups after the Illini, our section was all too glad to claim his as their own.

It was technically a float sponsored by Farmer's Insurance titled "Celebrating Our Rich Heritage" but to the die hard orange-and-blues around us the only name it needed was "CHIEEEEEEEEF!!!!"
This was a float titled "The Magic of Mardi Gras". It was sponsored by FTD and was one of the most colorful and bright floats we saw. Of course in this picture the clown face just looks a little scary.... Moving on....
"Celebrating America's Favorite Pastime" was obviously commemorating baseball and more specifically the Los Angeles Dodgers. They had really cool blue fireworks spewing out of it but the funniest part of this float was that from about the distance seen in this picture Tony was recognizing the sports legends seated behind the giant floral baseball player. If you're me, you didn't even realize at this point that there were people seated back there but sure enough baseball-boy Tony saw, recognized and named almost all of them. You can quiz yourself if you like. And I'll even provide some closeups:















To my credit I was the one to recognize and point out former Cubs shortstop Nomar Garciaparra (second from the left in the "Dugout").

(To be continued.......)

Tournament of Roses Parade (Part 2)

(In case you linked straight here, don't miss Part One!)

Forgive the person's head that accidentally popped into this picture but as you can hopefully tell, the Grand Marshall of the parade this year was Emeril Lagasse. For most floats, we clapped or cheered but when he went by we gave him our loudest, "BAM!"

This was another fun and whimsical one titled "We Celebrate Families" by the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California. I should probably mention too that these photos haven't been edited or retouched at all. The colors really were that vibrant!















This was another really creative float called "The World's Celebration Destination" sponsored by the City of Anaheim. It featured the Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks!


"Rainforest Fiesta" was one of my favorites for the sheer fact that it was just really darn cute!

If the Rainforest wins in my book for "cute", then this one titled "Valentine's Day" certainly gets my vote for pretty. (Who knew it would be Valentine's Day before I got around to sharing these pictures??!?) Both of these were self-built floats, too!

Aslan is on the move! ...Or at least his float is! I really liked all the different shades of yellow and brown that they used on the lion head in this float that was honoring Lions Club International. The seeds and grasses almost gave the appearance of textured fur too!

"Guardians of Harmony" was the name of this float and it was by far the hardest one too get a good photograph of. First off, the thing was ginormous! It was done by the two Cal Poly University campuses (self-built!) and in case the size didn't pose enough of a camera problem, it was moving. Yes, I know everything is moving in a parade, but the serpenty body on the dragon was actually spinning like a corkscrew!

(To Be Continued....Again....)

Tournament of Roses Parade (Part 3)

(If you linked right here, don't miss Part 2 - which also has a link to Part 1)
Alright enough of me talking about the parade. This is going to be all pictures! Enjoy!

Lisa & Tony - 2008 Tournament of Roses Parade

Coming up Roses

Since NaNoWriMo is over and yesterday brought fabulous news from the world of college football, I thought I'd try my hand at poetry:

Roses Are Orange,

Violets Are Blue,

I'm going to California to see the Illini in the Rose Bowl!!!

How about you?

*HAPPY DANCE!!*

A Sigh and A Shoulder Shrug

The Cubs are done. Again. And without even winning a single playoff game. It's sad, disappointing, frustrating, annoying and a slew of other adjectives that aren't fit for publication here.

"There's Always Next Year" doesn't seem much comfort right now, but somehow the Bears beating the previously undefeated Packers does act as something of a balm on the current Cubbie heartache....

But still. *sigh* It's gonna be a long winter.

They're singing "Go Cubs, Go!"

The Downward Dog Ate My Homework

I went to a yoga class at Lifetime last night. *waiting for laughter to subside* I'm serious. I, the queen of clutz, was learning to stretch, balance and breathe my way into the relaxation that can only come from transforming oneself into a human pretzel! Tony has still been having back pain from his car accident and with my copious amounts of joint problems (my knees and hips tend to do random impressions of popping corn), we thought yoga might be a good habit to start. So we ventured over to the health club - side note here: What happened to the 80's when you could go "exercise" at "the gym"? Now it's all going to "work out" at the "health club"... anyways - little did we know that "Fitness Yoga" would be much more the former than the latter. Gone were my previous experiences of gentle stretching and calming breathing. This was an all out kick-your-butt stretching and straining of muscles I forgot I even had! I knew it would be rough when we started with a sequence of four moves (that we returned to several times throughout the class). The first is Downward Facing Dog - a pretty basic move with your palms and feet flat on the floor and your butt up in the air with your arms and legs straightened so that if you strung a line between your elbows and knees it would be an accurate impersonation of the letter A (no comment on the fact that people were not designed to be shaped like letters other than I). It's not too difficult but when you focus on keeping your heels flat to the ground it provides a somewhat pleasant stretching to the shoulders and quads. From Downward Dog the instructor shifts us to Plank. In Plank you are on your toes with your palms still flat and arms straight but your back straightens so that you're essentially in the up position of a push up. Then comes Chaturanga. If you've never done yoga, fear the Chaturanga. Chaturanga means "Four Limbs" and comes from the words "chatur" meaning "four", and "anga" meaning "oh wow, I found my triceps!". Your hands and feet keep the same position as Plank but you bend your elbows and bring them into your sides and balance with your nose inches from the ground for an undetermined length of time (see painful picture at right, well, maybe it's not painful if you look like THAT but for us normal humans....ow!). Yeah, it's basically like doing the first half of a push up but you're supposed to be all slow and graceful and if you're like me and haven't really done push ups regularly since high school, it starts with a slow burning in the triceps and moves into all out agony by the eighth time through the sequence. The last pose is Upward Dog and it took all my reserve not to ask the instructor or fellow pretzel people, "What's Up, Dog?". Yes, it's pretty much a reversal of Downward Facing Dog, in that your back is arched with your chest up, hips lifted and head back, but a more appropriate title would be The Little Mermaid pose. Really, no one's done it better since Ariel and you can see from her expression (at left) that she's extremely excited to have been relieved from the agony of holding Chaturanga for too long. I suppose it's also saying something that I need to take flexibility lessons from a cartoon character...

The other thing I should mention is that Lifetime Fitness does a really cool thing when the weather's nice - they have Yoga Under The Stars by the outdoor pool. It was a nice evening and I thought this feature would enhance the relaxation aspect of the class but a more accurate name for it would be Yoga Under the Stars Obscured By Light Pollution or even better Yoga With Our Friends the Mosquitoes! I was doing pretty good with some of the other crazy balance moves we tried except it's quite difficult to stand in a position like the triangle (at right) and try to focus on relaxing and breathing when a mosquito and three of it's buddies are feasting their way up your ankle and around the circumference of your elbows! And then, since the insects were out in full force their predators joined us too - and really is there anything more calming than staring at a sky filled with swarms of bats?!??? Every time we hit Upward Dog I found myself fearing a face-full of guano. *Eeeeuuughhhh* But the bats left us alone and I suppose I've done worse then sixteen mosquito bites in a night. I'll keep you all posted into my further ventures of human pretzel-hood in the future but for now all I can say is: Beware the Chaturanga!

That Time of Year Again

I know last year I had a huge list of reasons why I love the Home Run Derby, but watching last night's slugger show-down gave me even more. First off , I love that it's all about the families. The narrowly third place finishing Matt Holliday's pitcher was introduced as his brother and there's something just way too cute about seeing big-shot ball players hanging out with their kids. The look on Albert Pujols, Jr.'s face as his dad won a hit-off to qualify for the second round was indescribably adorable. And equally awing was the older Albert celebrating with his pint-sized biggest fan. I also love the casual atmosphere that surrounds the event. I joked that you could take an interesting survey of favorite Gatorade flavors from the scenes of the athletes hanging out "drinking" with each other. The cameras are pretty much unable to capture faces that aren't smiling and joking and for a season marked all too often by anger and fighting (for the Cubs, especially) it was a refreshing change. Some might even argue that winner Vladimir Guerrero took the trophy because of a bat kissed by slugger David Ortiz. After Vlad's first three outs, Ortiz made a hilarious show of presenting the new bat to Guerrero who proceeded to enter the next round with five homers - including a crushing 503' shot! It's still every bit the competition, but it's nice to see players and fans unwind, let loose and just truly enjoy baseball.

Congrats to Vladimir Guerrero - winner of the 2007 Home Run Derby!

As much as I would have loved to see a Cubbie in the race, or to have Pujols take the win as a "nyah-nyah" to everyone who hates the NL Central - I can't say that I'm at all disappointed by the outcome of the night. I mean, I gotta cheer for Guerrero, right? ;) I see the picture above and, to me, it captures everything that the HRD is about: A swing, a hit, and a huge smile.

Highlights

No not the kind you get in your hair. And not the children's magazine either (although I used to love the hidden pictures...) Rather I want to wrap up a lot of what's been going on without the time for full stories. Previously known as "Unplugged" I give you the highlights of the week.

• I'd be silly not to start with my grandmother's health. She was in the hospital for most of last week but is back at home and quite a bit better. It just goes to show that there really is power in a praying family.

• I'm also done with classes and am soon to receive my "Professional Development Certificate in Forensic Science". *cue the CSI theme song* Hard to believe thirty weeks have gone by just like that. I've learned an immense amount of information, met some amazing people that I might never cross paths with again, taken four exams and written a term paper. Will the experience change my future career path? No comment. Or should I say stay tuned...

• And then there's the Cubs. I'm starting to think a winning streak is harder to find than good shocks on a CTA bus. But just when you want to write them off for the season they do something crazy like play well against the Astros.

• Finished a great book called Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. It's a really well written biography chronicling the life and times of Nelle Harper Lee author of To Kill A Mockingbird. Sort of makes me want to sit down and write a book that will change the world. Sort of.

• Also finally read Ptolemy's Gate, the last book in Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy. Really excellent YA fiction - fantasy blended well with humor, adventure and politics if that makes any sense at all. One of those books with the perfect ending that has everything you didn't want to happen but would not be a good book if it ended any other way. (LibraryThing is down otherwise I'd add cool links.)

• Gearing up for a much needed vacation, too. It's going to involve a minimum of four states - more likely six or eight - and an undisclosed number of stops and sights. Hardest thing about spontaneous road trips? Not planning them.

I'm sure that's not all but it's enough for now. Smiles & sunshine!

A New Leaf

I've had a mini hiatus from blogging (never fear, I have returned...obviously) but I'm back on track with a lot of new stuff going on. I've officially left Northwestern with only a slight bittersweetness to the farewell. I'm now set up on the opposite side of town at the University of Chicago. Esentially the same job with a much more impressive title yet only a meagerly more impressive paycheck. The campus down here is really nice, though. In a sense I feel as if I'm back in college. At NU the atmosphere was much more big-city-posh-rockstar-lifestyle with Water Tower Place and Michigan Avenue and all that fun stuff. Now as the weather - if not the calendar - reflects the heart of summer, I find myself trading noontime shopping trips for lunchtime walks on the quad. Yes that's right, we have a quad! Complete with SAGE-loving quad squirrels! (SAGE as you'll recall was the unofficial U of I group: Students Against the Gluttony Of Squirrels - the E stands for "of squirrels".) Everything is very green and with plenty of ivy-covered stone edifices one could stare at the walls and almost imagine being at Wrigley Field... and one could also imagine up a much better season for the north-siders... but I digress. Overall it's looking to be a wonderful transition and I'm perfectly excited for the opportunities before me. Here's to a new place and a new leaf!

And now for something completely different...

Okay. So it's been a rough couple of weeks. But as my seven year old cousin Brian said (at his older brother's funeral), "I don't think Andy would want you to be sad." Beyond sweet, right? He also went on to explain that Andy's up in heaven right now and "he probably has super powers!" So we all agreed that now Andy can run super fast, fly and hopefully have all the super-cool moves of his favorite X-Men hero Colossus. *sigh* Out of the mouths of children. (That's a pic of Colossus/Andy at left for those non-comic geeks out there.)

But life has also been more than a little chaotic because my lab is gearing up to move at the end of the month. It's been craziness all around - I'll spare you the story of the four day old decomposing mouse flesh *ewww* - but things are especially nuts for me since I'm doing the job transition along with wrapping up my class work. I only have five more weeks of my Investigation of Death Scenes class and then I'll get my Forensics certificate. (Woohoo! Lord only knows what I'll do with it...) Overall, it's been a fun series of classes. I might actually miss the cool stuff we've been learning, but I will definitely NOT miss the very late nights.

Although last night - even with class - I was home in time to see the end of the Cubs game... that is, I was home in time to see innings 12, 13, 14, and 15 of the Cubs game. I shouldn't be surprised that they lost (of five extra inning games this year they've only won one) but with games like that you can't help holding on to hope. The highlight for me was when announcers Len Kasper and Bob Brenly decided to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame as a 14th inning stretch. Some may argue that they're not the most insightful commentators out there, but you have to hand it to them that they know how to have fun.

Not much else to say at present. Had a great weekend - saw Spiderman 3 (Good flick - my only complaint was that there seemed to be too many conflicts for one movie: Superhero v. Supervillain ; Superhero v. Self ; Superhero v. Former Best Friend ; Superhero v. Alien Life Form. Still entertaining though and if you liked 1 and 2 you'll probably enjoy it.) Also went to a really fun Cinco de Mayo party at my sister's house. Margaritas, games and karaoke but perhaps those should be stories for another time.