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Chicago Sheri

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Brad & I went over to Emily's house. She spoils us rotten!!
She made the most fabulous curried butternut squash soup, garlicy spinach, pasta & ginger carrots to eat while we watched The Incredibles at their place. House filled with good smells. While dinner was cooking, got a few shots of Alex and his friend playing around as we watched Shrek.












and here is a shot of the Buscemi faced dog, Nacho

Had a great Thanksgiving. Drove to Grand Rapids to my sister-in-laws. We drove up Weds night, normally it would take us about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, due to icy roads and all the snow it took me 7 hours.
I was delirious by the time we got there. Counted 41 cars in ditches on the way there.
Had fried turkey, stuffing, rolls Brad made, green bean casserole, cranberry salad, mashed potatoes. Everything was wonderful. We ate around 1pm, and then the boys went upstairs and napped. My nephew Shawn asleep on the couch downstairs with us.





Read books to Shawn, Brad and I played with his trains with him, watched some of his movies (Wiggles, Thomas the train, Baby Einstein) He is so sweet. Lots of hugs and "I love you"s. He even got on the phone with my mom for a bit, just happy to talk.


Shawn out playing in the snow.



My father-in-law






Sister-in-law, she has the brightest blue eyes!




At the mall a clown was doing balloon animals, so I got in line with Shawn. He choose a balloon crown.





Then of course had to have a meltdown on our way out of the mall. I love pics of kids crying....I'm so bad.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

I just got a flu shot.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Very sluggish today. Just not with it. Watching Cops. Got Elf to watch later today. Eating cheese and crackers. Fire in the fireplace. Went to the mall for lunch because an Indian place we had been waiting to open for 2 years finally opened. Very good too. Then went to Meijer to pick up some flour for the rolls Brad is making at his sisters for thanksgiving.

Last night we went to a dinner party at Brent's. He did a fabulous job with the food. Pork chops, pasta salad, tomatoes, corn casserole and a chocolate cake he made from a Julia Child recipe. He has such a great view from his place since he is on the 46th floor of his building. I got to meet David and Malic, two friends of his that I had heard a lot about on our lunches together. Nice to finally meet them. Malic is such a cute fresh faced girl, she looks like she stepped right out of a Noxema commercial. I never have the opportunity to dress up so I dressed up for this. I wore my floor length beaded violet gown I just got with the fur wrap. Brad really liked Brent's place too.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

They moved Little Mama (from last week) over the the other side away from Buddy, she seems to like her new crew much better.

Skyler is a 7 year old Border Collie mix. She was laying in the far back of her kennel. It looked like some people tried to cheer her up with extra blankets and toys. She stayed in the back when I went up to talk to her, but when I opened the door and went in she was very welcoming. Kinda has a funny bouncy walk, doesn't pull, very gentle and quiet.








Domino is a 2 year old Dalmatiaon. Really funny guy. He smelled me all over, head to toe, then rubbed himself all over me like a cat. When we were out walking and he would see other dogs he would jump up and down like a bunny. Right in place. Bounce bounce bounce! After our walk and I took him back in he went hump crazy on his blankets.





Thursday, November 18, 2004

Mom came into town on Saturday night and left early yesterday.
I had a great time. Just really enjoy her company.
Did A LOT of shopping.
Got some knee high suede lace up burgundy boots for winter from Carson Pirie Scott, another Goodwill sweater, socks and long underwear from Kohls, Bathina Body So Fine balm from Sephora, a new big fat curling iron (just to bend the ends of my hair a little) from Ulta,
Drove through the Morton Arboretum

Had Lou Malnatti's pizza the night she got here, took her to Bobaks for lunch on Monday, and Papagus on Tuesday. Also took her to the local candy store to pack up on fruit slices.

Brought her over to Emily's house. Mom thought she was so cute and nice and loved her family too.

Had facials at Mario Tricoci on Monday afternoon. Heaven!

Watched the movies The Stepford Wives, Mean Girls and The Fog of War.

Gave each other back rubs just about every night too!

So since I had yesterday off and mom went home early I went back over to Emily's house and we went out and did more shopping. I went back to Nordstrom Rack with her and bought a long violet beaded gown and a fur (actually turkey feathers) wrap. I think I am gonna wear it to a dinner party I am going to on Saturday.
Then we had linner (lunch/dinner) at Cheesecake factory and I had the Pasta Da Vinci.

Belated Website Weds

French guy looking for job makes flash about it
When your co-worker is away
Schlep, Jane Schlep!
Local Superheros
Virtual Bartender

Sunday, November 14, 2004

They were having a big adoption thing going on yesterday. It was so cute, they set up a photo op area, with bales of hay and pumpkins. Had a food table set out front, and removed any usual clutter.
I walked Little Mama first because she was very vocal and looked like she needed to go out right away. She wants to violently kill her neighbor Buddy. I think Buddy must have made fun of her nipples or something. Since she is a little mama, she had given birth recently, and her nipples were still dropped. When I went to get her, her and Buddy were yelled death threats at each other inches apart, nose to nose, both at the corners of their doors closest to each other. I decided Mama was my dog, and let someone else take out Buddy later. When I got her out she charged over to Buddy like she was gonna bust some heads. Then soon as we got out and I sat down with her she was the lovely doveliest of dogs. Crawled up in my lap, covering me with sweet kisses, tail wagging non-stop. She is just so sweet and wonderful.






Next I walked Champ. A 7 year old Pointer. First Pointer I've seen there, and he was very skinny too. But for being as skinny as he was he was very strong. His nose going into overdrive. Smelling everything, wanted to go check out the fields and woodsy areas for thing he smelled. Very majestic looking dog. He tries to act like he is indifferent...keeping his majestic look about him, but his tail gives him away. Anytime I would baby talk him he would wag so hard he could barely walk. Beautiful dog.






Next was an 8week old Pitt puppy named Digger. Little devil dog with razor sharp teeth. So I got him to bite on his leash rather then me, and we played tug of war since he had so much energy to get out. He so cute, but such a puppy spaz.





Last was Sam. Beautiful timid dog. Timid eyes and demeanor. Very strong!!! Non-stop pulling, it was too much for me...kept hurting my hands. But then he is so timid and beautiful looking at the same time.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Website Weds

La La La La (I Love You)
The sad song
Font Fetish
Simpson's Millionaire
They Came To Attack Us
Yeti bats a penguin (Thanks Chris)

Monday, November 08, 2004

Tonight we watched The Hunting of the President
Very good movie, very educational.
I enjoyed the refresher course taking me back through Whitewater and the impeachment process.
Giving the who is who and who they are tied to and how.
It's just boggling. That things got that far.....and still do.

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Saw a fox today running in a field.
First one I have seen for more than a quick glance.
He was big, the size of a german shepard.
At a glance I would have thought he was a wolf.
He kind of had a hop run. Running around in circles, looked happy, content.
We pulled over in our car, sat and watched him till he went too far away to see anymore.

Went to White Castle. Had breakfast and read the Sunday paper.
Brad did a lot of yard work and I went and got my hair cut.
I like it, so does Brad.
Made spinach pies for dinner, getting ready to watch the new Simpsons now.

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Walked Polly first. She a big roly poly dog, a bit older too. So I actually jogged a bit with her to get her moving. Then had fun time after our work out. We rolled around in the grass and I scratched her belly as she made funny faces.





The I walked Rover, a Lab mix. Softess fur, small wiry guy. He wanted to play with the other dogs so bad, he jumped up in my lap to get a higher view of them when I squatted down next to him.



Jade is a german shepard. Her sign said she was nervous, but she seemed fine today. Hopped around a lot



Prince is on hold, so hopefully will be going to a good family soon. He brought a squeaky toy out with him for our walk. Unlike the other dog though, he did not make sweet sweet love to it. Just carried it around with us.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Websites

Radiohead - Creep (flash)
A tale of two Osamas
No No! After you!
How to make a toga
Hypnotize

Just in a down mood yesterday. Left work early. Brad was home when I got home, so I suggested we go for a walk. We recently started walking around the neighborhood at night. I like it. Good quality time with him, talk about stuff, even if just current events and such. Since we both were kinda down I thought I could go next door and see if they wouldn't mind if we walked their dog for them. They are really nice people, and just kinda laughed and said we can walk her anytime we want. Cassie is a type of cattle dog. Funny dog. Unsure of herself and they describe her as a big scaredy cat, and said she is even afraid of the dark. During the summer when I hear her outside, I go up to the fence and say hi to her and use her name. Sometimes she barks, or sniffs and then just backs away. Sometimes.
She was nervous at first last night. Used to her daddy walking her, "Why wasn't he coming too? Something ain't right, lets go back." Eventually she got more comfortable, walked ahead more. Everytime we got to the end of a corner she would sit and wait for us to show her which way we were going. We even helped a family we came across, a mom and 2 boys catch their run away retriever Sammy. Stuff like that makes me feel better. Dogs, Brad, walks, and talks.

Today I had a free lunch at Maggianno's. Got the family style, little bit of this, little bit of that. I took a cab with the only other girl invited. Pregnant russian girl, married to one of the managers at the bank. She's nice enough, I'm still getting to know her. Not super interested like I am with Katerina or some other people I met lately. She's republican, no thats not the only reason. She is really mousy looking, but I think there is a little bigot in her. Just a feeling. She seemed really uncomfortable today on the way to lunch when I started talking to the cab driver. He was really cool. Had a mini Pakistani museum in the back of his cab. Beutiful pictures of snow capped mountains. I told I am not a travelled person, so I had no idea what Pakistan was like but the pictures were beautiful, I appreciated seeing them. He said that Pakistan has 3 ski resorts, and the 2nd tallest mountain in the world. He also had lots of pictures of really beautiful women. Had their names hand written underneath them. I asked him if they were models, he said they were actresses. Very pretty..of course I don't remember their names...thats me.

Sometime after lunch Katerina and I decided that we were going on an excursion. Her boss is out this week so she has a little more leeway.
We wanted to go up to the 99th floor and find a place to hang out. We got in the right elevator, but when we pushed the buttons for 100 or 99 they wouldnt stay lit. Some access thing. So we went up to 98. I got out looked around, to see if there was a decent place to sit and do our daily crossword. Offices with buzzers...nothing. Went to 97, same thing, needed a small business access card, then went to 96. Empty office with a push button code lock. She was ready to give up. NOT ME! Tried a few common codes and BINGO! IN! The office was the whole floor. We went in and out of the offices, checking out all the views from every side. As we sat in one corner office a guy came by. After he saw us, he decided we weren't any trouble and just to let us be. He was an architect, the office used to be for Bloomberg. They were going to tear it down, he was leaving. Asked how we got in, and then just shook his head..."Never mind, I don't wanna know." and smiled. We walked in and out of more of the offices, checking out all the buildings, trains, and lake. Gorgeous.

Katerina came by my desk at 4:30 and twisted my arm in going along with her to an after work drink thing. I really don't drink, or very rarely. So I got an iced tea. One of the managers seemed intent on getting me to drink, I told him next time. Katerina is great for situations like that, I'm not a group talker, not usually. Especially work people, more effort than I am willing to put out. So we hung out for an hour and then left for our respective trains. I think I still might occasionally do that again after work. Not my thing, but getting out and being seen seems to be a good thing. Getting a chance to be more familiar with people can help me down the line or for various work situations.

On the way home I picked up some sandwiches from Jimmy Johns and Brad and I watched Hellboy. He watched "some" of Hellboy, and napped the rest of the time. I enjoyed it.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Ohio Rep Tim Ryan

Bush is an asshole

CHENEY MISLEADS ON HALLIBURTON

Vice President Dick Cheney has insisted that criticism of his former company Halliburton is unwarranted and politically motivated. On October 5th, at the vice-presidential debate, Cheney said, "the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they're trying to throw up a smokescreen. They know the charges are false...there's no substance to the charges."[1] The FBI isn't so sure.

It was revealed Thursday that "the FBI has expanded its investigation of Halliburton's work in Iraq to determine if the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid contracts."[2] In June it was reported that, according to an Army Corps of Engineer's email, a multi-billion dollar no-bid contract for Halliburton "had been 'coordinated' with the office of Vice President Cheney."[3]

Sources:

1. "The Cheney-Edwards Vice Presidential Debate," Commission on Presidential Debates, 10/05/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1232180&l=66116.
2. "FBI expands Halliburton probe - report," CBS, 10/28/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1232180&l=66117.
3. "E-Mail Links Cheney's Office, Contract," Washington Post, 6/2/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1232180&l=66118.

Visit www.Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion.