Cubs Game #1

So I think I'm driving Eric nuts with my annual Cubs games. He grew up a White Sox fan, and calls Wrigley a Museum. I've told him if he wants to do White Sox games, I'm open for them. But if I didn't book what I do, we'd never get out of town!

This trip might of gotten him to warm up to Wrigley a bit more, at least. Phase one of the renovation happened in the off season, and this first phase included two big screens in the outfield. (And these will come into play later.) He said the men's bathroom was better, too (I know the women's was upgraded!). So it wasn't much, but he wasn't complaining about the deteriorating stadium the whole time. In my opinion, the upgrades so far look like they are going well. They seem to be following the Fenway model pretty well - keeping the history and making the 'new' blend in as well as one can (rather than detracting from it - like Soldier Field did so many years ago). They even try to 'blend' the large LED screens by using 'historic' coloring.

We knew the weather was going to be iffy for the game. This was a night game, too, so we knew that time was limited t how long we could be there. We got there, and play was able to get underway on time. The Cubs even managed to pull into the lead over the Reds before a rain delay was called. It just seemed like it was going to go one for awhile. But, something they could never do before was able to entertain the crowd - they pulled up the Blackhawks playoff game on the big screens! So we had a spontaneous Blackhawks watch party, which for this crowd, was perfect! They probably kept a lot more people around when the game resumed much later, thanks to that.

We, however, were not two of them. We stuck it out through the end of the 2nd Period of the Blackhawks game before deciding to dodge the raindrops back to the car. But we were okay with that. We just went to the hotel and crashed - it was after 10pm by the time we go there.

This morning, we decided to go by Eataly for breakfast (Italian pastries and coffee), since they were open early enough (and the weather was still miserable and rainy). The weather didn't bode well for any other exploration of the City - just too nasty. After a quick breakfast, we wandered through Eataly and picked up a few items to cook up an awesome belated anniversary dinner tonight. Nothing like a little authentic Italian food to make for a mouth watering dinner, no matter the occasion. This, alone, almost made the trip completely worth it!

And we did go by Ikea before leaving town - I didn't think that was on the table this trip, but Eric wanted to grab a few items. And I can always do Ikea. But we still got home with plenty of time to cook up an amazing dinner, as planned! It turned out to be quite nice trip, for as short as it was. Always good to get away, even if it is quick.

Italian Fest

One of the perks to living in Fletcher Place is the annual Italian Fest put on by Holy Rosary. Eric might argue that we've missed a lot of them, as it usually falls on our anniversary weekend, but I contest that - we can usually make at least one night. The only exception was our wedding five years ago, and my friend, Chris', wedding last year. And then there was the year that is was cancelled due to 'church politics' - totally not my fault or any travel planning faux pas. Anyway...

This year we were excited to see some layout improvements from our last time (two years ago, for anyone keeping track). Last time, we saw they started to change the layout a bit, but it still had some areas that got bottlenecked, and the stage location was part of that. This year, they finally moved the stage to the actual park area, where there was a lot more green space. This allowed for the food area to expand/spread out, and also made it much quieter - you could eat in one of the table areas and hear yourself talk, while the other area closer to the stage allowed you to still enjoy the show while you ate. Granted, you could still hear the music wherever you were. This was the biggest change, and it was a vast improvement. I guess it might have been like that last year, but it was new to us.

Then there was the cannolis. They used to pass them out, for a few bucks each, and they quite obviously were a massed produced frozen item they bought for the festival. They were still good (they sold tons!), but not 'fresh' like you might find in an authentic Italian restaurant. But this year... they were fresh! At least fresh-er. I think the shell might have been pre-bought, but I swear, the filling was fresh. We were guessing that they came out of the new gelato shop that opened - we haven't been in there yet, but the family that opened it is quite tied-in with the church. They were SO good!

We didn't stay long this year, but it got us excited about next year (no - we can't go tonight). It is a fun event to go to, as it just so low key, since it's one of the few cultural festivals still actually in a neighborhood (rather than one of the large parks downtown). Regardless, it's always a fun time.

Oh, Canada!

Nothing like taking a long holiday week on a patriotic US holiday, and deciding to leave the country that weekend... at the last minute. But that's what we did.

Eric and I had been talking about going to Toronto for a few weeks now. Well... Eric had been, and I had been humoring him with, "Sure! Let's go!" But there was some sincerity in that... I was willing to go... I just didn't quite get why he wanted to go. But Friday afternoon, it just seemed to be a good thing to do... Eric really needed to get away from things, and the long weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to make to do a roadtrip (where you'd actually get to enjoy your destination). So around 4pm on Friday, we started booking hotels and a car, figuring we'd leave as soon as we could get everything together, going as far as Detroit for the evening. Then Saturday morning, we crossed the border into Canada.

My only other time in Canada was out cross-over at Niagara Falls a few years ago. Granted, we ended up having to drive through Canada to get to the next border crossing south (into Buffalo), but I didn't pay too much attention to my surroundings, other than it just seemed weird and foreign to see crowns and kilometers on the road signs. But this trip gave me a chance to really take it in... all four hours within the country before making it to Toronto. A lot of farmland. A lot of 'green' energy in the making, both solar and wind. And way cleaner than US roads - no trash blowing around - and relatively well kept right-of-ways, in general.

We go into the outskirts of Toronto a little after 3pm, made some wrong turns, which led us to discovering some cool areas to go back to later that day (more to come on that later). We got to our hotel, which was in just about the perfect location on the edge of the financial/business district and their China Town. We checked in, settled into the hotel, and decided it was time to explore.

Our first 'destination' was an area we passed on our way into town (remember how we got lost?). We saw a bunch of shipping containers set up around a community center and small shops and food venders. Eric was looking for 'inspiration' on this trip, it turned out, and this was a good start for him. On our way to the community center, we noticed a road with a flurry of activity on it - what looking like some street venders and markets from a distance. So after we saw the container set up, we went back to that area. It turned out to be Kensington Market - apparently, a popular area for just that - street venders and markets. It has a bit of a NYC Canal Street vibe, though maybe not as shady. But in an interesting twist, some of the smaller shops are being replaced by trendy shops and foodie type small restaurants. Not at all fancy, mind you... just a little above what was there.

So we walked around Kensington Market for a bit - there were tons of people there! And the mix of venders was crazy!! It ranged from your Chinese Herb Shop, to your skateboard shop, to your medicinal marijuana, to your trendy styled butcher shop. After all the walking around, we were getting hungry and decided to pick one of the new trendy foodie places to eat. And what did we find? Chicken and Waffles. Who'd of thought that Southern staple made its way all the way to Canada.

We passed The Dirty Bird as we were walking down the street and the smell was amazing! It was enough for us to talk about it and then go back to it. It was a small little place, with just about every seat taken. There was a short line... which was just enough time for a seat to open when we were ready to sit down. The food? Amazing! I guess they do kind of have the market on maple syrup... so that helps a little. I had The Dirty Bird'ger and Eric Went the traditional route, which ended up being a lot of food! Everything about it - the batter on the chicken, the syrup concoction they made (it wasn't JUST maple syrup), and the 'dirty' sweet potato fries they made... YUM!

After we ate, we decided to walk some more. We stopped back at the hotel briefly to freshen up and take a look at a map and such. One thing about traveling internationally (even to Canada) is that you're forced to 'unplug' (unless you want to pay extra - which I did for my personal phone, but even it's limited). So we couldn't just use our phones to look things up unless we had Wi-Fi... which we knew we had at the hotel (and found elsewhere through the weekend). One we determined the direction we wanted to head, we were off again, this time in the other direction from the hotel, taking us towards the City Building and even a mall. Supposedly a good mall, but we had nothing to compare it to. We discovered a cool multi-functional space in from of the main City Building where a fountain served as an ice skating rink in the winter. There was also a permanent stage and an elevated walking path around the perimeter. Kind of cool use of space. It was next to the original Courthouse, which was a beautiful brown sandstone.

As darkness settled in, though, we were feeling our long day of traveling catching up with us. We were tired and the comfy hotel bed was calling our name. We figured we'd have a full day of exploring on Sunday, too, so it was better to get some good sleep beforehand.

Sunday morning, we deciding to be a little adventurous and find a crepe place a saw on Yelp. It was about a mile away, but we figured it wasn't too bad to walk. It would allow us to take in the City a bit more, too, since it was in yet another direction from the hotel. Everything was pretty quiet, except for the area where they were setting up to do some movie filming. Turns out they are filming Suicide Squad right now, with Will Smith and a bunch of other big names. We walked by a few of the sets on Sunday - on the way to breakfast, We saw a bunch of extras hanging out, waiting for things to get started. We didn't see any of the big stars, but we did have the movie's 'trailer town' set up next to our hotel. There might of been some stars there... or it may have just been the crew.

After the wonderful crepe breakfast at Crepe It Up, we hopped on The Toronto Bike share that was at the end of the block. It was time to do some bike exploring! We really had no destination in mind, so looked at a map at each stop, and just decided where to go next. We ultimately ended up down on the lakefront. Even at this point, we weren't sure where to go next, but then we saw the Redpath sugar refinery... and it was open to the public. Turns out that this weekend was Doors Open Toronto, which is an annual even where businesses open up their doors to the public, many of which are typically open to the public, such at this refinery. Now it wasn't a full on tour, but it was a self-guided tour with some additional interaction with some staff to learn about the process and history, as well as their extensive product line. I had no idea all the things to could make with raw sugar! And the tour ended with a peek into the raw sugar storage barn... which was as massive, if not MORE massive than a typical road salt barn. Then they gave us some butter/sugar cookies, and we were on our way.

We walked along the waterfront for a bit, until we came to the ferry docks for Toronto Island. We didn't ferry over to the island, but we hung at the park for a bit and watch some of the ferries and the crazy migrating geese that were flying inches about the water. It was such a beautiful morning, but was started to cloud up a bit. We decided to head back into the City and find some lunch. And since it was nice, and there were a lot more people out and about, we figured it'd be better to just walk, which was pretty easy, since where we were going was a straight shot up Bay Street.

We found an Italian places called Mercatto, and thought we'd do a quick pizza there. They had some amazing desserts we decided to have, too - we walked/biked enough that morning - we could 'afford' dessert, right?? The restaurant happened to be next to a historic church that was participating in the Doors Open weekend, so we took a peek inside before heading to the Courthouse (we saw the night before) for the same reason. The church had a beautiful pipe organ in it and one of the guide was telling us how the subway was literally dug around it, and the more frequent trains have caused massive cracks in the building walls in recent years (as he then pointed out). It was crazy to see some of the excavation pictures! The courthouse turned out to be a bit disappointing, as they had very limited area actually open to the public. You would've though court was actually in session on a Sunday.

We decided to end the day with a little shopping at the mall. There were some interesting stores there that we didn't recognize as being in the US... though we still ended up at Banana republic and J. Crew somehow. But we did go to others, as well. We finished with a walk-though of the Canadian Tire that was attached, which we determined to be the Canadian version of K-Mart (yes - K-Mart, not Wal-Mart). We then took our stuff back to the hotel (yes - we did buy some stuff) and started figuring out our dinner options.

At this point, we knew we were tired. But one thing we saw earlier in the day intrigued us... we walked by a place called Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Cheesecake on our way to breakfast, and there were cones set out to a line to form in. We thought that was odd, though there were some people in the line already, and it had just opened. When we walked passed it on the way to back to the hotel, the line was much longer, and we understood why the cones were there. We did a little research, and decided that after dinner (wherever we decided) we would go wait in the line and join the hype that this place has apparently created. So we were literally planning out dinner around 'dessert' that we'd have to wait for.

We did a gourmet burger place called Bareburger that was nearby, figuring it's be relatively quick. I actually had an Elk burger. It was good - gamey like deer, but good. Eric went for the safer Bison burger. We then went over to wait in line for some Japanese Cheesecake. We got in line right around 9pm, and quickly learned that this place was a lot of hype, because no one near us in line had been there before. There were even other Americans in line with us because they, too, had heard about this place. But there had to be hype for a reason, right?? About 15 minutes into our wait, one of the employees came out to give us a ticket to 'guarantee' our 6" cheesecake. She proceeded to tell us the procedure, which we already vaguely knew from our research, and even mentioned how the average wait is usually closer to two hours (and we were looking at one hour at that point). We were ready for the wait!

We finally get inside the tiny little bakery, which was maybe 500sft, and it was so hot in there from the ovens and constant line of people. But now we could see the process. They only bake 12 at a time in each oven, and there are three ovens, and each round takes 45 minutes to bake. As soon as they are out of the oven, they pack them and sell them. It's cash only ($10) and you pay, and then are out the door with your steaming hot cheesecake.

If you do a little research, you'll learn that Japanese Cheesecake is different from what you would typically think of when you think about cheesecake. When it's still warm, it's very soufflé like, and even has a strong egg-y like taste - the cheese doesn't come through very much at this stage, but I was told it's good to try at this stage and heard some even eat if for breakfast because of the light, egg-y flavor. As it cools, though, and even is chilled in the fridge, the become more sponge cake-like, though still lighter than your traditional cheesecake. The cheese flavor come out a little more now, though it's still not nearly as sweet, like a traditional cheesecake. I think it would be ideal with fruit on it - the fruit flavors would shine, rather than the cream cheese flavor.

So we took our cheesecake back to the hotel and tried it. Eric really didn't like the cheesecake warm, and though it wasn't my cup of tea, I could see how this stage of the cheesecake would be appealing to some. We both tried it after it was chilled in the fridge, and liked it much better that way. Mentally noted for 'next time' or if I try to attempt one of the many Pinterest recipes I've seen for Japanese Cheesecake. But this was a great way to end the night - and the weekend. The whole thing was quite an experience! Considering we had no agenda for Toronto, we were quite happy with our weekend!

This morning we just got up, and made our way out from the hotel. We ended up doing breakfast at Ikea (only because we passed right by it) and then picked up a few snacks for the road from their local grocery chain, Longo's, which was actually kind of a cool store. Then we drove and drove until we got to Detroit.

Once in Detroit, we did a little detouring. Eric wanted to find a few places, as well as show me some of the places he learned about on his 'field trip' up to Detroit a few months ago. You hear about the blight of Detroit, and even see pictures... but until you see it firsthand, you really can't comprehend it. And to see how far the downtown has come is amazing! We drove through some of the areas Eric's bus tour took him, including The Heidelberg Project, which is an 'art' installation. Basically, a guy collects junk from vacant buildings and homes and started piling it up and occasionally painting it or getting creative with it in some way. It was very odd, in my opinion.

After some detouring, we were on our way back to Indy. We got home around 10:30pm - made for a long day, since we left out hotel around 9am. That's what stops and detours do for you, though - it's in no way that long of a drive if you drive there in a more normal fashion. But then, when do we ever travel in normal fashion?

I'm a Giver

This weekend turned out to be something of a charitable weekend for me. Wasn’t planned this way… well, the events were planned, but I never looked at the calendar close enough to see how it fell together. Makes for a warm fuzzy inside.

Friday night was the Make-A-Wish Big Wish Gala. I’ve been volunteering at this event for a few years now, and I love it! Just like I love Make-A-Wish! The Gala is always something spectacular and it grows every year – about 800 people were in attendance this year. Last year, we raised over $500k, and I’m sure this year, we raised even more. There was one ‘anonymous’ donation of $150,000 (I say it like that because the guy stood up and donated it). Very few people knew about that coming, so it got a lot of applause. They did a few things differently, on the operating side of it this year, so it made for more down time for the volunteers, believe it or not. But that made it possible for us to actually enjoy part of the program, which was nice for a change. Always cool to hear the stories.

Saturday morning was the SGK Race for the Cure. I’ve been doing this for many years, now, but it’s never fallen on the morning after the Gala. So it was a late night, followed by an early morning. But, since I wasn’t partaking in the drinking side of the Gala (since I was volunteering at it), it really wasn’t that big of a deal. It was the perfect morning for the event this year, too – the past few years have been cold and/or rainy. I think the weather helped the crowd turnout, too, though we still haven’t gotten back to the peak we were at a few years back (before the ‘controversial’ remark the CEO made about something). But I still support it because of what the root cause is – people say things, but that’s their right. This nation has become too PC sensitive. But that’s a rant for another day.

So all in all, a good weekend to this point. It’s just a rainy day, today… but as much as I want to be lazy, I can’t seem to get to my lazy state. Oh well. I still consider it a good weekend.

First Official Work Trip

So I'm on my way home from my first official work trip. Yes... right now... I'm on a plane. You gotta love technology.

So two weeks ago, I gained the Dallas/Ft. Worth market as my area to find and develop projects. This was an area I've never been before... I can honestly say, I expects Dallas to be very, how shall I say... Texas? You know... "Everything's bigger in Texas" and lots of trucks and boots and cowboy hats. You know... like the show, Dallas. I was surprised to see that is wasn't and really just like any other big city with lots of suburbs. Houston was more 'Texas' (IMO) than Dallas is. Maybe it was because it was just my first time there... but who knows.

My main focus was actually over in Ft. Worth this trip. I had a meeting with the City about a new project, and we wanted to make sure we were heading down the right path before starting the formal design/submittal process with them. Not that those reading this really have a honest care about it, but this site just seems too straight forward to be true... even the City Planner said it was a pretty straight forward looking site. Scary. So here's hoping that's true.

I did drive by some other potential sites and explore a bit. For those who don't know, the downtowns of Dallas and Ft. Worth are about 30 miles away from each other - straight show on I-30 between the two. And as Cities go, the two are actually quite different, from what I saw. Again, this was my first time and just my first impression. Over the next few trips, I'm sure I'm form a final opinion. Upon arrival to DFW, which is right between the two cities, I was hungry for lunch and had only my own schedule to deal with (driving to sites). So I found the closest Panera on my way to my first site. Which happened to be in Arlington. Which I didn't even think about being the home of the Cowboys. So without even looking, I found myself in the shadow of AT&T Stadium. I passed by it a few more time on my trip, as well - you can see it very clearly from I-30. There was also a Wet-n-Wild there, that looked just like the one I went to growing up in Orlando (Kissimmee). Only, this one had be sold to the neighboring Six Flags across the interstate and renamed. But it was still on Wet-n-Wild Drive. LoL

So Texas... I did not think I'd end up there (in a working sense), but there I am. For now. That could change at a moments notice when you're in development. But it'll be interesting while I am traveling down there.

Is It Really Spring?

I know I said I'd limit the weather posts... but it's finally spring!

At least on the calendar. But the weather hasn't been too horrible. Great, no... but not horrible. We've had some 'warm' days that have given us a hint of what's to come... but it still seems cold for March! And the weatherman agrees - we've had a lot of below average days. And there's still snow in the forecast. We didn't get a lot, but I'm so tired of the snow this year. I think it's because it's been so cold this year. And I had no garage. Still. But I digress.

So yeah... Spring is here and I'm really hoping it warms up quickly and stays there. We even threw some grass seed down today, in hopes of it germinating and taking care of some of the mud the snow left behind. And a few of the tulip are trying to poke through. But it's actually later than in years past... our neighbor's tulip tree is normally in full bloom by now! I'm so tired of looking at all the 'blah' browns/greys and lack of color around here.

Spring Break is the other thing... it seems like everyone but me is taking a true spring break vacation. How is it that the person from FL is the one NOT going to FL soon? Complete bummer... I think I need to plan something. Ha Ha I wish I could... maybe a late spring break? I don't know... nothing can be determined yet. Too many other things happening (mainly with work). But that's a whole other story.

A New England Wedding

I think we only have one wedding this year... as last weekend was it! And it was a destination wedding, of sorts, in that we had to travel. To New England in the winter.

I think everyone had heard about the monumental amount of snow they've had in New England this winter - near record setting overall total (with still a possibility of it being surpassed). So we had an idea of what to expect when we got out there... a lot of snow on the ground! And there was, indeed, a lot of snow, which was clear as we landed in Boston.

We headed out on Friday morning, with the through that we could actually have a day of 'vacation' before the wedding on Saturday. Last week, as I was trying to figure out what we should do, in occurred to me... New England is known for their lighthouses! Since we had to drive to the northern border of Massachusetts for the wedding, we might as well keep driving north for a bit and be a tourist. Besides, why not add two more states to my 'visited' list. I honestly had no idea where to start, so I found a guided tour a mapped out some of the lighthouses they had listed. So I knew it's be an interesting drive trying to actually find some of these.

And that turned out to be true. We drove as far north as Portland, ME, and our first couple of stops, while not complete failures, were disappointing. Either we couldn't find the lighthouse at all (bad directions from Google/Siri) or they were too far out to really see. But finally, I picked a sure bet based on reviews - the Portland Head Light. And it was about the most perfect lighthouse you could find. I was a happy girl, finally. And the next one, The Nubble Light House, was probably one of the more iconic light houses you see photos of... even with snow on the rocks around it! We decided to grab a Lobster Roll for lunch - because you always have to have a Lobster Roll, right?? Then we drove around to find a few more before heading to the hotel. It was starting to get dreary and windy... and we were getting hungry for dinner. We chilled out for a bit and freshened up before heading into the downtown area of Amesbury for some dinner. Yelp has become my friend when travelling... it really does help you find some good places you may not find, otherwise. And it, again, helped us find some good pub fare. But by the time we were done eating, we were wiped from our long day of travel.

Saturday morning, we woke up to some snow showers. Lucky New England! But they didn't last too long... they did turn to rain, eventually. So we had some breakfast at the hotel, and then found the only Starbucks in NE Massachusetts. No joke. They are Dunkin Donuts lovers in this part of the country. We used their Wi-Fi for a bit before doing some more exploring - no lighthouses, today - too cold! Instead, we drove out to Lowell to find some makerspaces Eric read about. And a converted factory and created a great reuse - apartments, small (local) shops, and even a small theatre! It was a very cool space. But then it was finally time for the reason we were here... Zeb & Heather's wedding.

The venue was in Groveland, about a 20 minute drive from our hotel. It was still drizzling a bit, but it was letting up. It was indoors, anyway, so it was just a matter of getting there. They had a really sweet (and fun) ceremony, where one of the guys who was responsible for them meeting was the officiant. There weren't too many people there that we knew, as Zeb was one of Eric's younger fraternity brothers... and we were in New England, not Indiana. But we had a good time, with good food and friends. They are a great couple and Eric and I are so happy they found each other.

Sunday morning we slept in after the late night. We decided to skip the hotel breakfast and, instead, find some breakfast as we headed back towards Boston. We found a truly local place (thanks to Yelp, again) and had a really hearty breakfast. We then headed to Somerville to find another makerspace Eric heard about - this one was supposed to be awesome! We were not disappointed at all. It was huge and I think it was everything Eric aspires to have his space be. Eric got quite inspired. We then went to Cambridge to scope out another space, which we couldn't fine, but we did find Harvard. It was kind of cool to see such a historic school - the campus was much more urban/dense than I expected... guess I'm used to Auburn.

But it was finally time to head to the airport and back to Indiana. It turned out to be quite the weekend for us, and just enough time away for both of us. Even if it was cold. We still had a great time.

An Unconventional Valentine's Day

After last year's near fiasco (if you don't remember, go look it up), I really was big on doing a big date night. I still wanted to do something, and while I would've been just happy cooking a nice meal at home (like we've done in the past), I still did a little searching for something fun to do. And then it came to me... a hockey game.

I know... hockey on Valentine's Day?? And no, this didn't mean a trip to Chicago. We have a new hockey team in Indy this year, the Fuel, that is actually a feeder team to the Blackhawks. Not the only question was, do they have a game on Valentine's Day?

Indeed there was a game. So a week out from Valentine's Day, we were buying tickets for a Valentine's Night Hockey Date. Sounds fun, right?? I even had guys at work jealous - kind of funny, actually.

So the game... we had talked about checking out a Fuel game when they first announced the season last year. The Blackhawks game we went to over a year ago was a great time, but pricey! So these would be cheaper in what I like to call a more 'intimate' atmosphere... only around 5,000 or so seats verses 20,000 or so in the United Center. We really weren't sure which level to buy - we figured they were all good seats. But we chose to go low because we knew we'd never get low for an NHL game. Not right on the glass, but just a few rows up.

It was a fun atmosphere, too! Not quite as electric as a Blackhawks game... but then, you only have a quarter of the fans yelling and screaming. But fun, none the less. They even had a surprise It's one of the few losses they've had in the past month or so. So that was a bit of a bummer. But they DID get a goal while we were there and, since they're a Blackhawks affiliate, it was the same horn and song to follow. Loved it!

So yeah... a little unconventional for Valentine's Day, but it was a lot of fun. And since it was so cold, it was nice to be able to just bundle up and not worry about being all dressed up in the cold. That was last year, and it sucked. I'll take my jeans and comfy layers any day.