Almost Done!

Today, the tile was laid in my bathroom. I am so happy to have my bathroom nearly complete! At the last minute, I changed my mind and ended up going with a traditional, darker grout for this type of tile. In addition, I would really like my condo to be clean. I feel like I have been wiping dust, dirt, and grime for weeks. I cleaned a few things tonight, but am waiting until the quarter round is installed and a few other things are completed on Wednesday before doing a final, thorough cleaning.

Gym dandy!

At the end of January, I finally made the decision to get up off of the couch and get moving. I ended up joining the fitness center at Loyola University Hospital in Maywood. I had been procrastinating for some time on the whole exercise thing. Recently, I began going to a new doctor. Fortunately, all of my levels, counts, etc. are in a good place and I want to keep that momentum going. Plus, my doctor wants me to work out a few times each week. He refers to it as my 401K for my body-everything I invest into myself now will pay off in the future. So that is what I am now working on. As of tonight, I have already walked 28 miles this month. That is a far greater distance than I would have attained had I not gotten off of the couch.

The bathroom saga...

Well, Laura, you will be happy to see my return to blog spot. I just felt the need to blog today. Throughout the last week, I have been dealing with the saga of my bathroom. Back in December, my downstairs neighbor mentioned that her bathroom ceiling had turned brown. My immediate reaction was that my radiator had to be leaking. Well, that was the case indeed! The short term solution was to turn off the radiator. The long term solution, which occurred last week, was to fix the leak. The boiler/radiator guys thought they could fix the leak from Bonnie's condo, but that couldn't have been the case. The ended up having to take up part of my floor and knocking a hole in my wall. For a week, I lived with this mess:


The two positives of the situation are that the leak was far into the wall which makes this an association issue and that I get a new floor.

Picking a new floor ended up being the next chapter in the saga. I was down to the two tiles below. I chose the one on the left. I really liked the black and white and had it in my head that I wanted old fashioned black and white tile in the bathroom. Let's hope it turns out well!


This morning, the guy who is doing my repairs, Shawn, came and cemented the hole in the floor. He also mentioned that the tile may not work out because of the thickness and uneven nature of the grout on the floor. So, now I have undertaken a new project. I am attempting to pull up the tile and chip away at the grout. You can see how far I have gotten so far.
I have to say that I got a little irritated while I was working on this tonight. I understand that a person may not appreciate the noise at 9pm, but it was still only 9pm. Our noise ordinance doesn't go into effect until 10pm. Also, if you have a problem with the noise level, I would really appreciate it you would come downstairs and knock on my door like an adult. I feel like banging on a wall or floor is something that you do in college or if you have no social skills. It may have ticked you off that I was making noise, but I didn't bang on your ceiling when you walked around for hours with heels on the other day. Ugh, neighbors. Let's see how they like it when I keep the project going!

The old grey Fern just ain't what she used to be...

Sometime around my late 20s, I noticed I was getting older. My knees started to hurt when I sat cross-legged (or less PC-Indian style). Throughout the ensuing years, I have noticed some other changes. Last night and this morning, I rediscovered that my body does not recover as quickly as it used to from alcohol consumption and staying out way too late. I have to say, though, that I am not sure if my body was more miserable from staying out until 4am or the vast quantity of cider and wine I consumed (not necessarily a great combination). I am not sure how cider and wine work with that whole beer then liquor never sicker thing. I will tell you I didn't feel great. I think everyone was hurting this morning. The one thing I didn't have, amazingly enough, was heartburn. That started in the last year or two. Aging really rocks. I had a really great night out in the city with Kim, Meagan, Katie, and Sarah, gals from middle school and high school. Here are some pictures to prove it!

President Obama

I knew at some stage in life, this moment would come. I never dreamt that it would come so soon. The biggest part of me really wanted to have our first female president, but I am also so pleased that we have our first Black president. Obama has won and I am so happy I could just scream! I am fighting back the tears right now. Not only am I happy to have a Democrat in office again (finally!), but I cannot believe how momentous this step is for our nation. I am also going to have to find another way to spend my time now. I won't spend hours every night poring over political websites, etc. Today, I am proud to be an American. I am proud a good chunk of my days, but I am truly gleeful today.

Boy did we pack it in...

This weekend, Tracy, Mike, Violet, and I took a road trip to Indiana. The main purpose of the trip was to go to the Vera Bradley Fall Outlet Sale. We also worked in an overnight stay at a hotel with a water park and a visit to the College Football Hall of Fame.

On our way to Fort Wayne, we stopped for lunch in Plymouth, Indiana. Considering we drove most of the way on route 30, the trip went pretty quickly. We took a brief break for Violet to run around as well. Violet was a terrific traveler. She slept almost all of the time we spend in the car.

We finally made it to Fort Wayne and to the sale. I was expecting piles of different styles and prints, but the sheer quantity of bags and people was staggering. Tracy and I both managed to do a fair bit of damage. I spent more than I needed to, but everything I bought was in the $5-30 range, which is pretty good considering all of the purses have list prices of $63 or higher. We will absolutely make this trip again, but probably in a couple of years.

After the sale, we headed to Shipshewana to stay at the WanaWaves resort. While traveling on I-69, we came across the town of Ashley. Who knew? We also learned that the only redeeming feature of Angola was gas that was $3.39 a gallon.

Our room had bunk beds. Violet is chilling on my bunk before swimming. She was clearly ecstatic. Mike and Tracy had the king bed. I guess we should have brought more friends since we had plenty of sleeping room.

Today, instead of swimming, we decided to make Mike really happy and go to the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend. It was actually really informative and interesting. I know the museum is in South Bend, but I felt there was a slight bias toward Notre Dame. I am sure there was a flag and pennant for Illinois, but I was unable to find either.

We all enjoyed the interactive parts of the museum. We got to try and kick field goals. None of us scored three points. Violet tried her best. There was also a part where you could do these short physical activities to see if you had the ability to be a football player. Not surprisingly, I am lacking the speed, stamina, and ability to make it on the field. And, after all, taking up football at 32 seems like a poor plan.

There was a section dedicated to the marching bands and Homecoming. For those of you who may not know, Illinois won the first Homecoming against the University of Chicago circa 1910. I make a lovely Homecoming Queen, don't I?

Toward the end of the display era, there is a section for each bowl game. This display brought back a few memories. I wish this one had turned out differently...

When we got home tonight, I watched Violet for a few hours while Tracy and Mike went to the Hawks game. I haven't seen Aladdin in years, but now I have seen it three times (except for the parts with Jafar and the Genie). We fast forwarded through all of those scenes.

I love cake, but not this kind...

I just saw this picture in the Tribune and it made me both chuckle and cringe. This kimodo dragon was celebrating his or her 8th birthday with a particularly special cake. Now, I adore cake. I cannot imagine who even thought the cake was necessary in this situation. A cake garnished with dead mice is just a tad on the disgusting side for me.