eee!

Today is my sister's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, yakgirl!!! For the next three months, my sister is officially four years older than me. This is a great day which should be celebrated with repeated singing of Altered States' "Happy Birthday," as well as much drinking of Smirnoff Ice between the two of us. However, since I do not live on the East Coast and cannot celebrate with her, instead I will celebrate with picspam of things my sister likes.

( Birthday picspam! )

This was the view out my window all yesterday and today. I'm glad I snapped the pic when I did, because not two minutes later the balloon guys came and deflated the gorilla. Right now it lays in a pink heap on the lawn, looking like the aftermath of Glenda the Good Witch being melted.

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In other news, the Scientist called, and we have a new bed! This is wonderful news, my friends. I've been sleeping on the same mattress since approximately 1999. Before it was my mattress it was briefly slept on by my parents, who deemed it unworthy and shunned it to the guest room. The mattress is so old and worn-in that there are literally trenches down both sides of the bed where people's bodies have laid. (Lain? I can never remember.) Anyway, there was a good deal on mattresses on Black Friday, so we put in the order.

So the Scientist called to say it had arrived, and his brother D helped him move it upstairs, and it is all set up with clean sheets and new pillows and I CANNOT WAIT to sleep on it tonight. You have no idea. I made little gleeful noises into the phone, I am so excited.

***

Last night I was so tired, I had a dream about sleeping. No fooling.

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I have decided that Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network is the most dangerous show on TV. All the food looks delicious and disgusting at the same time. They'll have crazy food like a giant buttermilk pancake wrapped around a bacon cheeseburger with country gravy and more cheese on top. (Imaginary, but similiar to the food found on the show.) I'll watch it and think "Who thinks up these recipes?" and "That would cause a heart attack in two minutes flat" and then "OMG SO HUNGRY I WANT TO EAT IT ALL."

A while ago I saw that Cemitas Puebla in Humboldt Park was on the show. I really, really want to check this place out now. Anyone else interested in hitting it up sometime?

And great, now I am hungry.

That is all.

It's still April! I can still use this icon! I am MARRIEDMARRIEDNEWLEYWEDMARRIED, and figured that you may be interested in seeing some of the pictures that have come our way via friends and coworkers. God bless the Internet and digital cameras, by the way.

Anyway, pictures of stuff are here. These are not the photos by our photographer (which is obvious, as you can see him in the background in some shots), but are taken by the Scientist's coworker's husband. If not by him, it's credited. (deeablo, I stole one of yours.) Anyway, it's rehearsal dinner, the ceremony, and the reception. There you have it.

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In other news, I've already written out ≈50 thank you cards already, and I need to go to the post office today. And then come home and write more. I also need to eat lunch. But I have thus far written 15 thank yous today, gotten photos up online, and checked in with the unemployment office, so that's something.

Dang, am I hungry...

It's been a looooooong couple of days. I have a lot of catching up to do. Y'all already know about my awesome time at the Spice Girls concert with deeablo, so I don't need to go over that any more. (Though it seems Posh's youngest stole the show at Saturday's NYC concert. And there was a Bluebell Madonna sighting. Drat, Chicago got the shaft.) Saturday I hung out at home and recovered from the concert, did some shopping, blah blah. That night the Scientist and I went to his church fundraiser, which was a casino night. I'm assuming this is the kind of casino-type work that you do, jrs1980? Private parties with professionals running the games and money, that kind of thing? Anyway, I lost all my money, but I had a ton of fun. And it all went to the church so I don't feel like the money's "lost," you know? I did learn how to play craps, which is a blast. While I didn't win any money for myself, I won a ton for others because I kept throwing snake eyes, boxcars, and elevens. I ended up leaving the party early, as I had to be up super-early the next morning, and fava_bean was spending the night.

On Sunday morning, she and I woke up at the buttcrack of dawn to get ready for my wedding shower in Michigan. ( Details here, skip if you don't care. )

On Monday I had a job interview, which went okay, I think. I'm not really sure.

That afternoon I met up with fava and we did some shopping. We picked up invitations for the Chicagoland wedding shower, as well as stuff to make invitations for the bachelorette party. Then we got dinner and met up with Debbie. She and her hubby are now living with her mom while they try to sell their house, which is great because they're only a 10-minute drive away now. Hooray! Plus, it was great to see her mom again, as I haven't seen her in quite a while. Anyway, the three of us girls sat around and played with my bridal Fashion Plates that yakgirl gave me as a gag gift for Christmas a few years ago. Our creations are going to be put to good use. Mwa ha ha!

Yesterday my parents drove down from Michigan, and it was really nice to just spend the day with them. I took them to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch, which they both enjoyed. Then Mom and I went to get my bridal gown* altered, and then the three of us hit the mall to run our separate errands. Then we came home, Dad watched TV, Mom and I worked on wedding favors, and then the Scientist came home. All four of us then headed up to the reception hall to do the tasting* and after that they headed home. So it was a busy day, but really good.

And now I'm back at work, and the work I was left to do has already been done. Oooookay?

*More about this in an upcoming post.

On Saturday I went to the museum to see the Star Wars exhibit. Not only did we see Star Wars stuff, there was also a "Chronicles of Narnia" and Goonies sighting, as well as plenty of Christmas trees. I took a lot of pictures, which you can find here.

Oh, and for the record? I may have been at a Star Wars exhibit, but I purposely wore my Firefly t-shirt. I know where my allegiances lie.

Guess what I saw coming home from work tonight?

( Gotham takes over! )

They're filming all along Monroe tonight, down Wells (lighting rigs alongside the L between Quincy and Washington, so I'm guessing there will be more train stuff in this movie), and along Dearborn. According to the CTA website, "Downtown Streets Closed for Filming. Portions of LaSalle, Adams and Monroe will be closed to traffic due to filming. Fourteen CTA bus routes will undergo reroutes from 6:30 p.m. each night until 6 a.m. each morning from Thursday, July 26 until Sunday, July 29." aj, if you want to stalk the set, now you know where to go.

I know it's totally geeky of me, but I absolutely love the fact that they're doing so much location work in the city. And I saw a guy working on the electricity cables wearing a 3:10 to Yuma shirt, so it was like a fandom collision (Christian Bale & Alan Tudyk, yay!). But I digress... BATMAN!!!

Fashion! Turn to the right...

I want to buy a dress. I want to be all flirty and girly and wear cute dresses. I also have a baptism/birthday party in two weeks, and I need to find something cute. The problem is that I'm not a small girl, and so my shopping opportunities are a bit limited. My old standby, Lane Giant (™xica_s), has unfortunately taken a turn for the worse, and lately their clothes are quite hideous and bland. This has led me to do some window shopping online.

( Click for lots of pictures. )

ETA: I just bought the one in the last photo. Yay!

I forgot to post that I uploaded the rest of my digital pictures from our Disney trip. The pictures from Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingom and MGM (take two), and getting engaged. Pictures can be found here.

And now I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. For real.

Yakgirl sent me some new pictures of Nathan today, as it's his two-month birthday. ( Warning: big photo )

I spent my lunch resizing and uploading pictures of my trip to Vegas to CLG. You can check them out here if you're so inclined. When I have more time I'll post about the trip itself.

In the meantime, I have five more chapters of this book to do by the end of the day, and the pile of crap in my inbox is now as high as the top of my cubicle wall. To make things even better, I'm still on Vegas time, and thus went to bed at 2 a.m. last night. o_O