Luisa's of the Day

Let's make a short story long, shall we?  (Honestly, that's my typical MO if you haven't caught on...)

When I worked at Belmont University a few years ago, my boss Luisa received a calendar from one of our printing vendors and let me keep it on my desk because she already had one.  The calendar was full of... witty... sayings such as

"Always behave like a duck - keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath."  - Jacob Braude

or

"The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and doesn't stop until you get into the office."  -Unattributed

The calendar made the move to Lexington with me and I was very sad when the year ended.  So imagine my surprise when she sent me a new calendar this year!

And imagine my even bigger surprise when I discovered that, unbeknownst to her, the printer have inserted her name on every single page as a marketing / variable data advertisement.

Let me back up a moment.

This printing company is terrible.  They always messed up our lists, printed duplicates, or missed deadlines.  This calendar is no different.  On each page, there is a picture with Luisa's name in it and new quote....... complete with just about the worst punctuation ever.  This company gives me no faith that they have the ability to print a solicitation letter correctly.  See the example below:

Is it that hard to put in proper apostrophes?  I think not.

Because the calendar has become a running joke, I created a Facebook album to share the "Best of the Luisa's of the Day."  (I tried to make that link public but if it doesn't work either a) friend me on Facebook and you'll be able to see it or b) let me know and I'll try again.)

I was about a week behind but had quite a laugh when I finally caught up on the calendar at the very end of the today.  Seriously, this company is awful.

I had started noticing odd discrepancies in the photos when they had elves spelling Luisa on January 21, a full month after Christmas was over.

But imagine my surprise when I came across this photo for last Wednesday.

Wasn't Easter last month?  So I continue flipping and discover the next couple of pages are equally as confusing...

Her parents must have already told her the Easter Bunny isn't real...

So pretty we had to see it twice... in two days...

 Wrong holiday and repeated photos?  Huh?

So of course, I had to keep flipping to get caught up and laughed out loud when I encountered this...

Waiting for Santa?  On Memorial Day?  You'll be waiting a long time, honey.

 And then these two...

I think I may have already seen this one back in February.  Because at least that's closer to Christmas, right?

It was 90 degrees here all weekend.  I think the snowman is going to melt.

And finally, I got to this one...

You can't catch me, I'm the summer-version of the Gingerbread man?

At this point, I'm a week ahead on my calendar (good thing I'm going to be out of the office starting tomorrow until Monday) and I'm sitting at my desk laughing like a crazy person, thankful that it is the very end of my day so that I can take the time to photograph all of these funny pages, knowing that tonight I will take the time to write a blog post about this stupid calendar because it is far too amazing for just a typical Facebook album.

See?  I told you it would be a short story long...

I suppose the moral of the story is that the printing company really shouldn't have let the intern create the calendar.  I somehow doubt that this piece of genius is going to inspire new business.  Or else they figured we'd have given up flipping the calendar every day at this point so it wouldn't matter anyway.

As a bonus, I've included my very favorite Luisa of the Day below.  This one didn't make the album on Facebook because let's be real, it's too darn creepy.

Yep, that's a hand print in a window of some sort.  Shudders...

Maybe I Really Can Do Anything...

One of my coworkers jokingly asks on a regular basis if there is anything I can't do.  I've accomplished a lot in my life, mostly though my own hard work and the support of pretty great people around me.  But there's is one thing I have never been able to do.

Quit biting my nails.

For people who don't have this habit, it sounds so simply.  Just stop.  Or keep them painted.  Or use that bitter stuff.

Easier said than done.

I have quit a lot of things in my life, in addition to the aforementioned accomplishments.  I quit smoking.  I've "quit" people who were worse than bad habits.  I've quit jobs.  But quitting the nail biting?  Nope.  No such luck.

Until recently.

I really wanted natural nails for my sister's wedding.  And more than just natural, I didn't want them to look painful.  You see, I used to bite my nails to the point that they bled.  And then I'd chew around the finger nails and down to the cuticles.  If I painted my nails, I just chipped off the polish until I could get to the nails again.  But I was bound and determined to have pretty nails for the up coming wedding.

It may very well be the hardest thing I've ever done.  And I'm not exaggerating.

But here, without further ado, is a photo of how far I've come.

It is really hard to take pictures of your own hands, FYI.

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

THOSE ARE REAL FREAKING NAILS!!

I've been keeping them painted to help strengthen them, but last Friday I had to take the polish off because they had chipped and I had some important meetings to attend.  I panicked a little because I had just enough time to take off the polish but not enough time to repaint them.  And I made it a whole day without chewing, picking, or biting.

If I really can break this habit, maybe I really can do anything I set my mind to.

Have you done anything recently that you're really proud of?

Letting Us Grow

Another feature in my post-Mothers Day reflection.

As I mentioned the other day, I regularly read the Mama PhD blog on InsideHigherEd.com.  All of the women have unique perspectives on motherhood in academia - something that I hope to know a bit about should I decide I want to do the having children thing.  Another recent post in the Math Geek Mom series caught my attention in the same way the article I shared earlier this week did.

This article talks about how children grow exponentially.  And of course, it makes me think about all the things I've done to my parents that probably made them realize the same thing.

Learning how to read at such a young age.

Dropping Mom's hand on the way to the bus stop on the first day of kindergarten, telling her "this was just something I needed to do on my own," and leaving her a block away to cry and wave from a far.

Starting a choir from scratch at our church for kids 3yo-6yo with a good friend* while in middle school.  And going on to direct it for years.  And now going back to watch those kids who sang for me back in the day graduate from high school and college (now I'm realizing how times moves exponentially!)

Learning to drive... in the Princess-mobile.

Venturing off to college in the big city of Minneapolis at a school I had chosen in 9th grade (for who knows what reason) where I didn't really know anyone.

Picking up everything and moving to Nashville to go back to school in a city where I really only knew one person.

Moving to Lexington for my current job.

Sometimes, I think it was just yesterday that I was that little girl playing dress up in the backyard (lets be real, if I could get away with it, I probably would have done that yesterday) and then I realize that I'm a real adult with real adult problems and real adult bills and real adult relationships.

Not all of my milestones were good ones.  There have been some really rocky roads in my 27 years.  Deaths of friends and children - people who were way to young to die.
Scary and dark moments in my life.  Scary and dark moments in my friends lives.
Years were we didn't get along.  Family problems.

I am so incredibly thankful that my parents didn't shelter me from those times.  They allowed me to figure things out, to feel, to think out loud, to interact with the real world. 

Thanks Mom & Dad.

Really.  Thank you.

Celebrating Women

So I know Mothers Day has come and gone but I'm a bit behind on my "daily" reading of articles, other blogs, magazines, on and on and on... So bear with me.  This week, I'll be writing a few different posts responding to a couple of things I should have read closer to Mothers Day.  I want to reflect on these, mostly because my mom is a) awesome and b) incredible but also because it's worth discussing the power of awesome and incredible women every day not just one day in the year where Hallmark tells us to talk about it.  That's not to say I think of Mothers Day as just a Hallmark holiday in the least.  Quite the opposite.

This paragraph from a recent Math Geek Mom post on Mama PhD, a blog I read regularly from InsideHigherEd.com, has stuck with me.

Mother’s Day is often anticipated with advertisements for flowers and greeting cards, with hardly a mention of the very radical origin of the day. Indeed, the day was created by Julia Ward Howe in 1870 as a day for women, especially mothers, to come together to work for peace. The day’s founders proposed that the women of the world, with a vested interest in the well-being of the next generation, could find ways to create a better world. As I think of the women I know who mother, I have to agree.

If that's true, which I'm assuming it is, that's awesome.  Seriously awesome.  In part because Mothers Day isn't about being a good mom or a bad mom or a trying-really-hard mom or not being a mom at all.  It's about celebrating women.

Celebrating the power of women coming together to change the world.  

Celebrating leaving this place better for those that come after us than it was for our own generations.

I've talked about this a little before, but I want to discuss it again.  I am not a mom.  I don't know that I ever want to be a mom.  But I cherish the children in my life who I am blessed to be close to.  And I serve as a mother / big sister / crazy aunt / mentor to dozens of students at the many colleges where I've worked.  I had multiple "Happy Pseudo-Mothers Day" messages.

That in no way diminishes true moms out there.  I made a point to reach out to all the mommies in my life - my friends who have small children or are expecting - and was so grateful to spend Mothers Day with my own mom and sister - something we haven't always had the luxury to do since we're all spread out.

But Mothers Day was created to be bigger than that.

It was created to to celebrate the power of positive female interaction.  And again, that's just awesome.

Too often, women are tough on one another.  We get down on each out about how we look and what we wear, what we say and what we don't say, how we parent or don't parent (more on that in a later post)... really, we get down on each other for just about everything.  And in turn we get down on ourselves and it's a ridiculous vicious cycle.

Basically this long "Mothers Day" rant is a reminder to be nice to one another.  To remember the origin of Mothers Day every single day.  To remember to celebrate the power we all have when we work together instead of working against.

It's worth reading the entire article I linked above, by the way.  All of those women mentioned are worth celebrating.  All of them.  As are all of us out there not mothering but who are trying our damnedest to make a difference in this world.

It's not that men can't do it.  It's that we shouldn't let them do everything when we could be so powerful on our own.

Movie Review: Battleship

Ok, say what you will about cheesy summer blockbusters.  If you don't like watching things explode, awesome special effects and hot men running around saving the planet, and you don't want to eat lots of buttery popcorn (which afterward spilled all over my car so I will probably stink like said buttery popcorn tomorrow) in an air conditioned theater while it's over 80 degrees out, then don't even bother reading my review.  You aren't the intended audience.

However, if you like even one of those things, continue.

Let me sum Battleship up in one word:  AWESOME.  Seriously.  

Watch this trailer and tell me this isn't going to be just about the best stupid summer movie since Transformers came out.

No, I didn't have any drunken moments jumping out of my chair and yelling "Holy shit, it's Optimus Prime" in a theater completely packed full of people (yes, that actually happened).  But I did have a lot of laughs, a lot of jumps in my chair as evil robots were hurtled toward the screen, and I will be buying this movie to watch over and over again.

Here's what else this move had (complete with Transformer correlations because I can't resist):

• The aforementioned, requisite eye candy.  Hot butt kicking blonde (in this case) for those who prefer the female variety (she even talks sorta like Megan Fox in that annoying whiny breathy sorta way) and hot military men for those who can't resist a sweaty man saving the world one explosion at a time.  (See: Taylor Kitsch - you may not know him now ladies, but you'll want to, Alexander Skarsgard - way hotter here than as a vampire, and Liam Neeson just to name a few.)
• It's worth mention the military men again for two reasons.  One, this movie does for the Navy what Transformers did for the Air Force.  But two, it also - somewhat humorously - pays reverence to those who have fought before and does some pretty cool - if not chuckle inducing - things with veterans.
• Kick ass evil robots who want to take over our planet.  They even click like the Transformers as they are building themselves.
• Incredible special effects.  I couldn't believe how far we've come since the first Transformers movie.  They just keep getting bigger and better and louder and faster.. all the things you absolutely must have in a summer movie if you want anyone like me to watch it.
• Witty humor that will be hilarious every time you decide to watch this movie drunk in the future.  Anyone remember the IMAX only scene in Transformers with the lady in the shop with the machine gun?  Anyone?  Only me?  Oh well... This movie is full of those moments.

So basically Battleship is a mash up of Alien, an awesome game of Halo (I watched far too many games of Halo in college not to see the connection), a good old fashioned game of Battleship (the references where so eye roll inducing that they are part of what gives this movie its charm) and Transformers.  All it was missing was a little Josh Duhamel and a Linkin Park song and it could have been another notch on the Transformer awesomeness belt.

If you saw it and didn't like it, we can agree to disagree.  But I highly recommend spending the $10 to go if you like these kinds of movies.

Next on the docket, The Avengers.  Just haven't had time yet...


And just because this movie was only missing two things which incidentally are two of my favorite things on the planet, here's a little of both.

 

 

Also, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is on tv right now.  Too bad it's the worst of the series.  I'm going to watch it anyway.

Actual Conversation I Had on G-Chat Today

...Complete with the total lack of grammar to punctuate my g-chat conversations (like always)...

me:  i don't know why i share these because i'm sure you read her as religiously as i do

http://thebloggess.com/

but her latest "rerun" post has me dying laughing

 

Sara:  I just started her book last night too!! hilarious.

 

me:  and by dying laughing i mean that sort of literally because i have a nasty cough and everytime i laugh i cough up a lung

 

Sara:  mmm. i just had that cough last week. it was lovely. and by lovely i mean the worst thing ever.

 

me:  yeah, my coworkers just keep giving me the evil eye and telling me to go home

it's so tempting but i have so much to do!

good thing i have a lunch thing today and then i can go home after infecting all of those people

also, my dayquil is making me sort of twisted i think

 

Sara:  also, i love the phrase "douche canoe".

and dayquil is amazing. you get a buzz and can't get fired for it. lol

me:  agreed on both accounts

couple dayquil with mucinex and tylenol and you're on the train to crazy town and no one can do anything about it

 

Sara:  lol. that should probably be your facebook status.

Because I am sick and 99% of my thoughts are incoherent, this is as good as it gets today folks.  Want a good laugh?  Click the Bloggess link above.  Her posts when she's high on Dayquil are so much funnier than mine.

10 Essentials

Inspired by a blog series by one of my favorite stores CB2.  
Side Note: Their blog is pretty cool even if you don't like the store.

1. My (feline) girls.  They provide me with a constant source of laughter and love and make my apartment feel like home after even the longest days.


2.  Real Girl Friends.  Growing up, I didn't have a lot of female friends.  Since then, I have been blessed to live in a number of different cities and have had the pleasure of making honest-to-god, can't-live-without-them, do-anything-for-one-another girl friends.  I never knew the power of positive female friendship until college because so many female relationships are built on backstabbing and power struggles and even since then I've been burned more than once.  But I literally could not make it without my ladies.  There is something to be said for friends who will fly across the country at a moments notice to cheer you up after a bad breakup, who know the exact moment when you really need to hear a 3-year-old's voice, who will drive across town to provide soup when you're sick... 


3.  A stack of to-be-read books.  (Or these days, 90+ books to-be-read on my Kindle).  You never know where you'll find the next great adventure.


4.  Some sort of outdoor space.  I need fresh air almost every day.  I wrote many a paper on my porch in the winter in Nashville and slept with the windows open in November in Minnesota.


5.  My family.  Needs no explanation.  We're all a little quirky, but it works for us.


6.  Chapstick.  

Note: I am obviously not putting these in numerical order because let's be real, my family ranks way above books and chapstick ranks way below my family.

Ok... Again.

6.  Chapstick.  There is nothing worse than knowing your lips need hydration.  Like last week while attending a meeting and not being able to find my chapstick in the bottomless-pit-that-is-my-purse no matter how hard I tried to look quietly.  It was awful.


7.  Caffeine.  This one should really be up at the top.  I have a caffeine problem.  I have been known to consume 3 Cokes and 2 cups of coffee from 7:00am-2:00pm.  Sheesh.  It's the only way I get anything done.


8.  A project to be working on.  I'm always in the middle of something.  Right now, I'm purging years worth of magazines by creating my own person, hard-copy version on Pinterist (which I don't use... so no comment there).  When I moved in here, I spent a month picking out the perfect paint color for my living room and I'm still not sure I found it.  When I'm not redecorating, I'm crafting.  When not crafting, I'm writing.  When not writing, I'm rearranging... You get the picture.


9.  My cell phone.  I once left it at a then-boyfriend's house and had to go without for an entire day.  It was awful.  Honestly, I am obsessive about checking that I have it on me after that day.  Even if my current phone is a piece of crap.  It's my own personal nightmare to go without my phone for an entire weekend.


10.  My own bathroom.  I grew up in a house with 3 (sometimes 4) women and one bathroom.  I then went to college and used communal bathrooms and had roommates.  I never had a problem with modesty or personal space.  Until I lived alone.  I would rather share my bedroom than my bathroom.  In fact, if I ever get married I plan to custom build my house just so there are two master baths.  Get your hands off my toothpaste and your dirty feet out of my bathtub...


If I got 11 essentials, I'd add pizza.  But I don't.  So I won't.

Favorite Things Friday (Road Trips)

First off, I am loving Favorite Things Friday.  In fact, I could probably just have an entire blog about my favorite things.  Oh wait... Too late.

As I mentioned last week, I spent last Friday driving to Wisconsin and last Sunday driving home.  This weekend finds me traveling to North Carolina.  While I am not driving alone on this trip, I sure am piling on the road trip miles.

And with that, I give you my favorite things about road trips... It'll be a quick one since I've been too busy preparing for Mom & Dad to visit and making all of these trips to put too much thought into it.


Beef Jerky - Kroger sells this awesome brand... which holy crap, you can buy online.*  Score!  Perfect car food.  It's "protein," it's not messy, and if I get stuck in my car due to inclement weather for five days it isn't going to go bad.

Cheese Curds - See last week's post and revel in the fact that I only ate 3/4 of a bag while driving back to Kentucky last weekend.

Reese's Pieces - My dad and I used to eat them at the movies.  Somehow they're also perfect car food.

A Great Playlist  - Ok really, I can't say much about this since I just used my iPod for the first time in months while driving last week.  But anything you can jam to - my go to's are Linkin Park, 3 Doors Down, and Incubus - or anything I can sing to - Dixie Chicks, Lisa Loeb, or almost anything put out from 1993-2001.

Podcasts Downloaded from iTunes - I subscribe to the New Yorker Fiction podcast and it's a life saver while making long trips.  Sometimes it's just nice to have background noise that also makes you feel a little bit intellectual.  Plus it's serving as fodder for a number of future blog posts that I'm kicking around.

Anything you can think of that I'm missing?

*Not so interesting side story.  I just Googled "kroger world beef jerky" because that's what I remembered about the brand.  And found it.  Google is amazing.  Except that one of the recent "key words" that people used to find my blog was "cat SATS" so of course I had to see why... and this is what I found.

Yep, that is definitely a cat that sat.  Spot on, Google, spot on.  Although I couldn't find that image when I searched even after scrolling through 40+ pages of images.  Whatever they were looking for, I hope they found something more interesting than Charlie sitting on my lap.

Getting Ready for the Parentals

Alternatively Titled: Anatomy of a House Cleaning

Alternatively Titled: Why I Will Never Purchase a 130 Year Old House Because


Last night, I spent a couple of hours getting the house ready for my parents to visit tomorrow night.  And by "getting the house ready," I really mean "finding the guest bedroom floor."  I should have taken before pictures.  While the afters I've posted below don't look impressive, anyone who has visited my house in the last couple of weeks (ok, since Christmas...) can attest to the fact that this is very, very, very clean.

At least there is room for the air mattress on the floor.

The problem is that I live in a house with no closet space.  Honestly.  Neither closet is deep enough for a full sized hanger so things hang crookedly.  The master bedroom closet is stuffed to the brim due to my shopping habit and the guest room closet has room for only the Christmas decorations and my luggage and even that is piled pretty precariously.  So cleaning the guest room is always an interesting experience because it's really just a matter of shuffling boxes that don't have anywhere else to go.  This time around, I found some interesting things:

• 2 boxes of craft supplies which I haven't used in at least 1.5 years
• 3 garbage bags of stuff that I threw away because it was crappy and hadn't even been unpacked in the last year
• More magazine than I can possibly count
• 3 pairs of shoes
• 14 cat toys (they're everywhere!)
• A disgusting number of dead flies about the size of a dime - at least the cats are good at killing them but still.  Ick.

I can officially say that my favorite thing I found while cleaning was my TI82 calculator from 8th grade.  The calculator unto itself would be cool but it's even better because it had some serious stickers on it.  Notice the photo stickers - if this picture where better quality you'd have an awesome view of my brother's not-so-awesome hair - and the Joshua Jackson sticker on the back because I was sure he was secretly my boyfriend.

Because of all the crap (see the aforementioned Christmas comment and the 3 garbage bags of... garbage), and really because it's more important to stay on top of keeping the rest of the house at least livable, I hadn't been able to vacuum the guest room for a while.  I tried to keep the cats out of there during the Great Flea Debacle of 2011 simply because it was a HUGE pain in the butt to vacuum this room every day like I was doing with the rest of the house, since getting the little pests (fleas, not cats... more on that later) under control the girls are back to having the guest room as their own person playroom.  Which of course means that it needed a serious vacuuming...

As in, had to empty the vacuum canister three times because Charlie sheds EVERYWHERE.

Speaking of Charlie, and back to the pest comment, the little stinker tried to help me clean.  Or she tried to make it more entertaining.  One or the other.

Apparently that little storage nook up at the ceiling is more fun than I knew, because I also found the following things up there:

• 1 milk ring
• 3 sparkle balls
• 0 cobwebs

I can guarantee that it wasn't me who put those toys up there.  And while Lady Bug can jump pretty darn high, she's not much of a climber and certainly can't jump that high.  Anyone who has heard the "Cat in the Ceiling" story won't be surprised to know that Charlie has a bit of a hideout.  (Haven't heard that story... just ask.  It's a good one.)

Favorite Things Friday Addendum (Which is Why I Can Post This on Monday...)

While driving home last Friday in the middle of the night, I realized I missed two very, very important Favorite Things from Wisconsin.

So first, if you haven't experienced the wonderfulness that is my last FTF post, go here.

Back?  Ok...

Friday Night Fish Fries - If you live in Wisconsin, chances are pretty good you'll spend Friday night in a bar eating fried fish.  As a child, we would go down to Sheboygan and spend Friday nights eating fish at the bar with Grandma & Grandpa.  Now, I try to get fish every single Friday that I'm in Wisconsin.  It's just what you do.  They don't have fish fries in the South - I'm not talking catfish here, friends.  Ick.  I'm talking fried perch, rye bread and onions, potato salad and coleslaw (which I don't even eat...)

Instead of a picture (since I didn't find any that did the fish justice), I will make two recommendations for anyone looking for a great fish fry.

If you're in Green Bay on a Friday night, go to Sidekicks.  I've known the people who own this place for ages - I worked with one of the bartenders (also the owners daughter) back in high school - and they have some of the best fried fish I have ever experienced.  Plus if you're a beer drinker like me, you can totally get away with drinking the cheap beer (Bud Light) as they keep their coolers REALLY REALLY cold.  Like the beer freezes.  It's awesome.

If you're in Sheboygan, WI on a Friday night, go to Scenic Bar.  Sheboygan can be quite an experience but it's worth if for the fish.  So delicious.  Also, who know Scenic had a Facebook page.  LIKE!


Milwaukee Brand Pickles - (Also has a Facebook page.  LIKE again!)  In my opinion, it's not a party unless there are pickles involved.  I'm really picky with my pickles though (say that 10 times fast...)

I like super crunchy pickles.  I like kosher dills, not just regular dills.  And I like midget pickles at home, not the giant ones. 

This is where Milwaukee's pickles enter the picture.

I almost always have a jar of these in my fridge.  In fact, I just opened my last jar so had to get more while I was in Wisconsin last week.  The year after college my roommate and I used to spend hungover Sundays laying bed watching movies and eating pickles... with a "pickle spear" which of course is what you call a fork the year after you graduate from college.

The thing with this brand is that they are ALWAYS crunchy.  Always.  Like an audible crunch.  I wish I could find their theme song online (any one bored and want to look?).  It goes something like this.

Milwaukee Pickles... CRUNCH... Best pickle under the sun

Milwaukee Piiiiccckkkllesss... CRUNCH... The greatest little pickle in Wis-con-sin!

Ask me and I'll sing it sometime.

The Disclaimer on Why Some Things Most People Would
Put on Their Favorites List are NOT on Mine

 Two of the most popular vacation destinations in Wisconsin are Door County and Wisconsin Dells.

Neither of these places are anywhere near my favorites list.

First of all, Door County kinda drives me crazy.  Too many people, too many over priced gift shops where they sell rooster hand towels, and far too much traffic to be relaxing.  It's great for apple orchards and that jazz, and I've spent my fair share of time camping up there, but it's not for me so it's not on my list.

As for the Dells, I don't do water parks.  I do beaches.  With a cocktail in one hand and a book in the other.  And if I can't have a beach, I'd rather float in my parents' pool any day.

So there.  Had to throw those out there!

Saturday Simplicity

I was in NYC again for work this week.  The quick trip went something like this:

For being away from my house for only 40 hours, it was a little exhausting. 

But I did stay at an awesome hotel.  Complete with this view from my room.

That's the Empire State Building, folks.  Almost too close to get a picture!

I love that city.  So blessed to visit there for work on a regular basis lately!

Side note on the $2.50 beers... in NYC.  It's true.  They exist.  Ladies, next time you're in the city check out Bravest.  While the selection of firemen was very, very slim pickings (like non-existent) we were there on a Tuesday and I think it has potential.  And must I repeat that Bud Light was $2.50.  

Also, check out my friend Emily's blog.  If you love NYC as much as I do, you'll like following her adventures.

Favorite Things Friday (Wisconsin Addition)

Since I will be spending my weekend in Wisconsin, I thought it only appropriate to do a Wisconsin themed Favorite Things Friday.  Anyone who knows me (i.e. everyone reading this blog) probably already knows what is coming but just in case, here are the top things I love most about my home state.

Green Bay Packers  - duh.  No explanation necessary.  But just in case, here are some reminders of why we're the best team in the NFL.

• We have 13 world championships.  I don't want to hear the haters out there who have more Super Bowls.  Because let's be real, we're not far behind and I'd rather cheer for a team like the Packers, than a team that half the country hates.
• Some of the most famous / influential men in football have played for or coached in Green Bay.  Not even worth naming them.  You know who they are.
• Even players who are no longer with us do classy things like this.  I have this hanging above my desk as a reminder not only of how great Packer Nation is, but of how we should treat people every single day.  They don't have to be famous to deserve respect like this.
• And then there are articles like this one.  I can't find the original link but every time I read it, miss home (more than) a little bit.

Need more convincing?

Thank you, Mom, for sending this to me via email one day last fall so I didn't need to wade through countless photos of this beautiful man before posting.

Since I know it's mostly ladies (ok, probably all ladies) who read my blog, I'll give you a little more eye candy.  Football is great on it's own but come on.  Watching this every Sunday?  Sign me up...

I tried really hard to find a picture of Ryan Grant's booty since that's by far his best asset but I failed.  Sorry ladies!

Ok... moving on.
 

Cheese Curds  - (Who knew they had their own Wikipedia page?)

My coworkers are afraid to try them but they're missing out.  Don't  just settle with the fried ones, which are good in their own way, but be adventurous and try the real deal.  They squeak between your teeth, taste even better at room temperature than cold, and have just enough saltiness to them to go great with an ice cold beer.  The perfect Wisconsin snack.  My mouth is watering thinking about them.


Leinie's Summer Shandy - By far, the best beer on the planet for days when it's 85 degrees and sunny and you're out on the lake.  Don't even argue with me because you'd be wrong.

I don't think I've ever met someone who tried it and didn't like it.  Non-beery enough for non-beer drinkers, light enough for those who don't like dark beer, but flavorful enough for serious beer drinkers.  I want some.  Mostly because it's 80 degrees and sunny in Kentucky this week.


Johnsonville Brats - Yes, I can get these (and the beer for that matter) in Kentucky.  But there's nothing like sitting on my parents deck, eating a hard roll with two brats and a boatload of ketchup.

Two brats, one bun.  That's just how we do it...

No one grills a brat quite as good as my dad (hi Dad!) and no one makes a hard roll quite like Sheboygan.  Just sayin'.


(Last but of course not least) These People - 

That's my family.  A very old picture of us (look at my hair!) but it's one of my favorites.  Three of the five of us don't even live in Wisconsin but they're what makes it home, of course.