Grams

Today would have been my Grandma's 86th birthday. Sadly, she is no longer with us, but is no longer in pain.

Happy Birthday, Grama pama.

The Darjeeling Limited

Yesterday, I saw The Darjeeling Limited. It has gotten mixed reviews from many, but I thought it was a good movie. Not phenomenal by any means, but a zany and offbeat movie that is fun to watch. The characters were played very well. Owen Wilson cracked me up, because some of his neurotic behaviors reminded me of myself at times. I also loved Adrien Brody, reminding me at times of Mel. Some of the situations that they get themselves into remind me of adventures that I have had with friends. The bottom line: I would recommend it if you want too see a movie that is a little more original.

4 things

4 things about me. Fun and short.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Subway sandwich artist
2. Resident Assistant
3. I worked several positions at a summer camp for girls
4. front desk girl and master bed cleaner at a tannery

Four places I have lived:
1. Marcus, Iowa
2. Iowa City, Iowa
3. Burlington, Iowa
4. The Hut

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. The Wisconsin Dells
2. San Diego
3. Toronto, Ca
4. Jamaica

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Subway
2. Hash brown casserole
3. Tater tot casserole
4. Eggplant Parmesan

Four friends that I think will respond first:
1. Angie(on her blog)
2. maybe my brother
3. Mel on her blog(probably not, though)
4. ??

Another year older

Last weekend I trekked back home where I met my mom and brother and continued our journey across the great state of Iowa to visit my grandpa and throw him a surprise birthday party. On Oct 25th Gramps turned 86. He was very surprised by the party and had a great time. It was a small gathering of my mom, brother, aunt, uncle, my cousin and his wife and 2 1/2 kids. We had a really good time, ate an amazing meal that my mom cooked and hung out.

I let my cousin's little girl Brianna help me make Grandpa's birthday cake. Needless to say, she got a little messy and needed to take a quick bath in the sink before the party started.

My mom took my grandpa out for a drive while my brother and I decorated the house. He had no clue what was coming for him!

My grandpa loves carmel corn, so I stopped at Nuts on Clark and picked some up for him right before I left Chicago. When he opened it, my brother asked him what the bag said(Nuts on Clark). My grandpa yells out, "NUTS ON CRACK!" Hi-lar-ious!

Josh and Adrianne. He loves her, probably because she can eat as much as he can!

Sanj's going away party

Sanj is an awesome coworker, or was. I sadly had to say goodbye to Sanj this month as she accepted a new job after 21 years on our unit. She was a great mentor and a wealth of knowledge that people could always go to for anything. In honor of her, we had a backyard BBQ complete with fire pit. Sanj is an outdoorsy gal with a love for encased meats, so this was right up her all. We had a fabulous turnout and a great time.

Dan, Michael, Kevin and Keno
Look at that great fire

Nina, Sanj(showing off her encased meat), and Beth

Beth, me, Kristen, Sanj and Dan

Sanj showing off her chicken livers(one of her favorite foods...gross!)

Iowa vs Wisconsin

Since Iowa usually plays Wisconsin around this time of year, I waited to post the pictures of the game until now...or I have gotten really bad at blogging.

Lisa, Katie, Dames and I went to a bar to watch the game and Vanessa and Tim met us there. I also ran into a girl I went to high school with while I was there. It was pretty fun. So, flashback to late September:

SFGA

I went for my yearly visit to Six Flags Great America Fright Fest visit this weekend and what a time it was. I should have been called sweat fest. It was nearly 90 degrees with 80% humidity. Whoa doggie, it was a hot one.

I think the most entertaining part of the day was when Sanj and I were waiting in line for Raging Bull and there was a group of 5 European men in front of us. One and only one of them smelled and he was very ripe. Fortunately we were behind them in line, so we could keep a safe distance from passing out, but others were not so lucky. We greatly enjoyed seeing him walk past groups of people and watching the affect change on people's faces when they would smell him. Some people made very hilarious faces. The best would be when people would keep sniffing because they couldn't identify who was the culprit. It was highly entertaining to me.

in my eye

I was working at the land of the tan last Wednesday morning and enjoying a 24oz bottle of Diet Coke. Cold, refreshing, crisp Diet Coke. Well, this particular bottle had been in the cooler a little too long and had partially frozen...delicious, right?

Well, the ice would come down and block the opening where the pop flowed into my mouth when trying to drink, so I couldn't get the pop out. Sooooo, I used a little suction and lo and behold, I got some beverage. Well, I tipped the bottle up...apparently too quickly, as Diet Coke came right up out of the bottle and flew up into my eye. Let me tell you, Diet Coke in the eye stings. Pretending I was back in a chemistry class, I flushed out my eye and let my pop thaw a bit more before resuming drinking.

in disguise

It's already October, which has me thinking, "What will I be for Halloween this year?"

The answer, probably nothing. I do always like to think up a few good costume ideas, but to be honest I haven't been out on Halloween in years.

When I was at Target today, I saw a great Chewbacca costume but was shocked to see that it was $99.99. No thank you. Overdone, but always funny is a pregnant nun. For about 3 years in a row, I was an inflatable sumo wrestler. While, it was an amazing costume it did have some downfalls. It was insanely hot, despite having an interior fan. And, because it was inflatable, people always jumped into me, thinking they would bounce off. No, no, no. The costume would deflate in that area and I would get slammed into, every time. It led to a lot of bruises, but never a serious enough injury to deter me from wearing it. Sadly, on it's third year of existence, a party got a little too rowdy and the sumo got a hole in it.

chop chop choppity chop

At about 10pm tonight, I had the great idea of making some stir fry veggies to have on hand to eat this week. Well, I started chopping vegetables and chopping and before I knew it, I had a HUGE mound of veggies. No problem, right? Just get out the biggest pan we own(which is very large) and stir fry them up in there.

W-r-o-n-g!

I had to use our two largest pans and they were both quite full. My roommate walked out and just started laughing at me. Because, as she said, I had just made stir fry for the whole neighborhood. Oh well, at least I can freeze some of it.