Much Better...

The weather, that is. Last week, we had highs in the 90's all week, with overnight temperatures in the low 70's. This week, our HIGHS were in the low 70's!!! Such a change and SO nice!! But I'm sure it won't last... it is summer, afterall...

Speaking of which (side bar)... I can't believe today is the last day of June!! That means the year is half over!!! Where'd it go??? Even more so, I can't believe the things coming down the pipeline... concerts, weddings (not mine!), Cub's game(s), trip to Mexico... I'm going to be worn out come fall!

Hangin' Tough!

As many of you know, I had been anxiously awaiting last night's concert, New Kids on the Block. What some of you may NOT know, though, is that 20 years ago, NKOTB was my first ever concert! So you can imagine the whirlwind of emotions that went through me last

night!. And the crowd was so diverse... not really. Picture an amphitheatre of 95% 30-something year-old women, and that was the concert. The security guards were lovin' this gig! I know the group of girls that I went with had a blast!

There were two opening acts: Jabbawockeez (a kick ass dance troop) and Jesse McCartney. Jabbawockeez was pretty cool to watch, especially if you like watching dancing of any kind. When it's a group it tends to impress me more because it takes a lot of practice to nail things with other people trying to nail the same thing, at the same time. LOTS of practice (which I remember from being on Sundancers, myself). And Jesse, the young heartthrob that he is, almost made you feel guilty for watching such a young guy perform!! he did assure all of us he was legal, though - a whopping 22!

Finally, New Kids took the stage! It was like I was back at the O-rena watching them, only it was outside and I didn't come down with the Chicken Pox this time. But screaming girls - check!! Songs everyone sang along with - check!! Cute boys on stage who knew they were cute - check!! It was all still there! They did a good mix of their old songs and their new stuff (since they reunited). But it was definitely the old songs that had the loudest sing-alongs! Which they knew what demo their audience really was - they even kept Hangin' Tough as their encore!

One really cool thing they did was a tribute to Michael Jackson. It was very sentimental and appropriate. It started with a pictorial biography of MJ with an instrumental of Man in the Mirror going in the background. Near the end, you could hear the audience all just singing the song as they played. Then the boys came out and initiated a sing-along to I'll Be There. I tried to video it, but you can only do so much with a point and shoot. But you can attempt to watch this. It's about 6 minutes long, though...

I had heard that New Kids on the Block put on a good show, even with them all near 40, and it was. They still have their following, only now instead of young teens, it's 30-somethings (mostly). I'd see them again - it was well worth the lawn seat and I'd be willing to say it may even be worth a pavilion seat next time. But until then, I'll just be Hangin' Tough!*

*I know, I know... bad, bad joke/play on words....

It Comes in Threes

Ever notice how things come in three? Waves, bad things, good things... Most recently and notable, however, is deaths of celebrities. First Ed McMahon, then Farrah Fawcett, and finally, last night, Michael Jackson.

Ed wasn't a big surprise, though still sad. He lived a very long, full life. He will be missed. Farrah was much the same, though her life cut a little short because of cancer. But Michael?? He was a surprise and that one kind of hit me!

It's not so much because I was a big Michael Jackson fan, but more so the fact that he was so big, in general, especially while I was growing up! You couldn't listen to the radio without hearing one of his songs! And he did, indeed, change everything in the music industry, from the dancing to the videos. Who, as a kid, didn't try to do the moonwalk? Who didn't just think Thriller was just the best video (at the time).

So basically, this was a celebrity that I knew. Is wasn't my parents' generation, but mine, whom he entertained. So to get my little news feed text on Thursday evening saying he had died totally shocked me, as I think it did most people. And then to hear most of the radio stations paying tribute to him all day today just made it sink in.

But again, he was one of three great celebrities to leave us this week. And all three will be remembered by the world.

The Heat is On!

I learned this morning that a heat wave is defined as a period of three days or more with temperatures over 90 degrees. Well, today may be day 4 for us... so I guess we are officially in a heat wave!

And HOT it is!! If you walk outside and the sun is not behind a cloud, you feel you skin begin to sear!! It's crazy!! Throw the humidity on top of that (with little to no breeze, mind you), and there have been times where I felt like I was in FL again.

Only with no beach to go to.

It's supposed to cool down this weekend, and I hope it does. Only because I have outside activities planned and don't feel like having to take a change of clothes. Being sweaty sucks!!

An Unexpected Getaway

The weekend began, much as many weekends do, with just a nice dinner for Eric and I. We had the Walk for Wishes to look forward on Saturday and that was all we had planned for Saturday. So we figured we'd play the rest of the day by ear.

So Saturday morning rolls around and we get up, eat breakfast, and head over to Fishers Municipal Center, which is where the walk was. Well, somehow I misread the registration start time for the actual walk start time. So we had some time to kill... which we did in Target. But then we went back and did the walk. While we were walking, we got to talking about prizes for the 'Good Beer - Bad Beer Party' we're having on the 3rd... which got us talking about prizes... which got us talking about fun T-shirts... which got us talking about Urban Outfitters... which led us to Bloomington. Literally. After the walk, we went home and showered and headed down to Bloomington.

To our pleasant surprise, we got there and found the 'Taste of Bloomington' going on, which also included an art fair. So we browsed a bit before walking down to Urban Outfitters. But first, we hit Scotty's to watch the tail end of the Cubs game and have a few Wrigley dogs to hold us over till a little later. It turned out to be a great day to wander downtown Bloomington, so it made for a nice, and much needed, escape for the day.

On our way back to Indy, we detoured through Franklin to go the The Willard, which is this historic pizza joint in downtown Franklin. Eric heard good things about it and I'm usually willing to try anything once, so we went and barely beat the dinner crowd! In the end, it was worth it! Very good pizza and if you ever find yourself in Franklin, you should go!

We finally go home close to 9pm. It was a long day and we were both beat, so neither of us argued about just going to bed. And we were both out, just like that.

Sunday brought a bunch of being lazy on the couch type activity (ie - no activity). Until the early evening, when we went over to Eric's parents to have a light Father's Day dinner, which as just nice. We ate out on their enclosed porch and it made for a nice family dinner of just chatting and catching up. I was still exhausted from the day before, so when I got home, I was out pretty quick. But after the weekend I had of unexpected fun, I needed to go to bed early. :)

Project Inheritance

I must vent.

Back in November, I inherited a bunch of projects from a coworker who left the company. That part didn't bother me. What bothered me is that just about ALL of the projects were at or over budgets, flawed in design, and had no good direction to go on.

Well, I'm down to one of the last ones, which is under construction. What makes this one worse is that it wasn't even designed by my firm - we're just doing CA on it. There have been lots of issues with it, but I don't know which is worse - the design or the contractor! The plans are far from complete - many lacking details, bad layouts... I'm not even sure how it was approved by the locality. But the contractor, whom I know has done plenty of work in the area, isn't doing the simplest, most obvious things, and then crying "bad design!" Granted, some of the items he's called about are lacking from the plans, but any contractor that knows site work should just be able do what's correct - so much of it is common sense (ie Rip-Rap at pipe ends).

What makes it more difficult is that I have to defend these crappy plans, even though I know they're crap. But we can't take any fault on our end if it's even remotely right on the plans, so I have to make every effort to show the wrong is on the contractor's end. I really don't like doing that, but the fact of the matter is, that's what I have to do.

*sigh*

Oh well. Another day, another dollar.

Italian Fest

This weekend was the annual Italian Fest at Holy Rosary church in downtown Indianapolis. This annual event draws quite a crowd since it is one of the last true ethnic food festivals around.

Eric and I went both nights, the first night with friends, and the second night with family. The first night was about as close to perfect as you could get... great weather, crowds were still in check, and there weren't any lines for the food or the carnival rides. We only stayed for about an hour-and-a-half Friday night before heading back - kids have bedtimes, after all. But then after chilling and people watching from Eric's porch for about an hour, we walked back over to get some dessert. Of course we got some canolis - pretty sure they're handmade by people at Holy Rosary... They were awesome, regardless!

Saturday evening, we headed over with Eric's nephews and parents. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate as well for Saturday's festivities. No sooner did we get there and sit down did it start to drizzle. Eric and I went to get our food (Fried Ravioli - YUM!), and it started to come down harder. Oddly enough, this did not detour the crowd - it was much busier than Friday night! So we all finished eating and thought we'd wait it out in the tent we the rest of the festival goers. Eventually, Eric thought we should just head back to his house, and when we did, it stopped. Of course. But we did grab some dessert 'to go' and ate it at the house - this time some cheesecake to go with our canolis.

We hung out for about an hour and once we were sure the rain was done, we went back so AJ could ride some rides, at least. He and Eric went on the Tilt-a-Whirl... for a small carnival ride, that thing went fast!! AJ loved it, though. Eric determined he's too old for it anymore. LOL After that, we just played a couple of carnival games before heading back. Again - kids' bedtimes. I think we were all beat by this point, though.

All in all, it was a good time. Much better than last year, when one of the nights was cancelled completely due to rain. It's a shame there's not more of these still around. There's just something about them that makes them a great family place... even with all the beer and wine freely flowing. Leave it to the Catholics, I guess.

A Busy Weekend and a Baby Shower

Though the title of the blog pretty well sums it all up, I'll delve into the detail a bit deeper.

Not that this is exciting, but I spend most of the day complete overhauling and cleaning my fish tank. So much, in fact, I established a smaller tank for my fish to dwell until their big tank is re-established enough for them to go back to. Not an easier task. In fact, a bigger task than I even expected! So much, in fact, that the filter still hasn't been turned back on yet. Tomorrow. I also mowed my grass, like a good homeowner, and did some laundry. But most of my attention was focused on the fish until this afternoon.

This afternoon I got away from it all when I went to my friend, Jen's, baby shower. This act as a double pleasure because I got to see some friends I haven't seen in awhile and it gave us all a chance to catch up a bit. Jen made out pretty well, too - she's going to have one well dressed little boy!

After all that excitement, I came home and met up with Eric to do more homeowner type stuff... install an attic access ladder! Don't ever let anyone tell you this is an easy task because it's not!! it took us well into the evening hours just getting it installed. We're going to save the finishing touches and details for next weekend. But it's in, at least! Next fun project - tiling the master bathroom! not sure when, but it's due soon!