Air show, birthday party... busy weekend

Going to try to make this short. We'll see if I'm capable! I'm so tired. I have had to come up to Chicago tonight, on a Sunday. This week is the big workshop week, and Thursday and Friday are my presentation days. We start at 8:00 tomorrow so had to get here on Sunday. Puke. But today before I left John and I met my mom at an airshow, so that was good fun. When we got there it started pouring. We had rain coats and umbrellas but still got soaked. It eventually cleared up, and then it more than cleared up and got really hot and sunny. I got a sunburn, which should look really cool in my presentations. ;-) The show was pretty good. John and I had to leave before the big finale when the Thunderbirds (equivalent to the Blue Angels) did their thing, but we got to see it from the car. We were worried we'd get stuck in traffic. It was also really muddy where everyone had parked, and we wondered if we would get stuck. So we wanted to leave before the other cars churned up the ground too much. Mom stayed behind to watch the end and told me later that the volunteers were saying there were about 50 stuck cars.

I was going to write more about the weekend but I'm too tired tonight. I have been told this is going to be a very busy week with lots of overtime but I am hoping that might be an exaggeration so hopefully I can write up about the rest of the weekend soon!

Faith's baby shower

It was a good weekend! As I mentioned before, John was in Chicago from Thursday. I had to work until noon on Friday (as per usual), so once I was done we headed down to the city to go on an architectual cruise along the river. It was a cool tour. Lots of information about the buildings and areas in the city, and obviously great views of the buildings. What made it a VERY cool tour was hte fact that there was a Blue Angels air show the next day, and they were practicing during our tour. You would here these very loud plane sounds bouncing off the buildings, which made it hard to tell where they were coming from. John and I had a little game going to see who could spot the planes first when we heard the noises (which I won by a landslide, by the way ;-) ).

After the cruise we went to Reena's. We hung out for a while at her place catching up. We also went up to her rooftop to take in the view. It was a rainy day so the view was distorted by clouds, but you could see what a wonderful view it would be during the day. In the evening we went to that really great sushi restaurant I mentioned before. It was SO good. Reena brought a couple of really good bottles of wine. Great company, great food, great wine. Can't top that very easily! Afterwards we went to a dessert place and had a caramelized banana dessert thing. Also very good. Reena was pretty drunk by this point, which was quite funny. She nearly fell off the back of her barstool at the dessert place. Of course, this is Reena we're talking about. She is known for her very slight clumsy streak, so it might not have been the wine's fault. ;-)

The next day was Faith's baby shower. It was a lovely shower. She had a great turn out, although it seemed that several people were connected to Jeremy who she hadn't met before. That just adds some spice to the day! But she looks great. Really cute with her belly. We also got some time to catch up, and it was great to talk to her family as I hadn't seen them for a while. Oh yeah and I won a game! And they had OPI nailpolish for everyone as a party favor, and they all had cute names that they had put on the bottles like 'Avery Happy Baby'. I had thrown out all my nailpolish in the move so I was very excited about that!

After the shower we drove home. We made good time and managed to get back by around 9:30. On Sunday we started to tackle our 'stuff'. We made pretty good progress but there was still loads to do that we couldn't get to. In the evening we went to the Colts' preseason game. It was great to be at a football game again, especially since we didn't get to go to any last season, but unfortunately they lost. It's just preseason though. I'm hopeful that its our year finally!

Sushi Sushi You're So Fine

John came up to Chicago last night to start the weekend. It was a welcome break in my afterwork/hotel normal routine! I had someone to greet me after work! We went out to dinner with my boss Anne. I was glad he got to meet her (she's very nice). The partner of our practice who is on our project is called Marc and he is English, too. But he was still at work when we went to dinner, so he didn't get to meet John. Anne called around 10 (after we'd parted ways after dinner) to say she was having drinks with Marc and they wanted us to come out, but we didn't end up meeting them. We were both quite tired, particularly John who had driven five hours (ah, Chicago traffic) to get there, plus gotten up early in wait of the delivery people.

So yes our stuff we've shipped from the UK arrived yesterday. Apparently the apartment is filled with stuff now. There is kitchen stuff piled on the counter and in the sink, and everything else is piled up on the floor in various parts of the house. So on Sunday when we get home we are going to be very busy trying to find a place for everything!

My week has been pretty good. The beginning of the week was quite busy, as we are preparing for lots of workshops that start the week after next. I had been preparing one particular 2-day presenation that I thought Anne was going to give. Then a few days ago I saw the agenda, and it had my name next to most topics. I was like, 'er, Anne, what happened to that conversation we had a couple of weeks ago where you said you were going to present this because you didn't want to "throw me to the wolves" and so forth?' So apparently it will be me presenting to this audience of executives who have flown in from all parts of the world. Did I mention there are about 50 of them as well? Luckily I have been living and breathing this presentation for a while now so I am quite confident of the content, and we have also discussed that our entire team will be fielding questions, which will be a big help if things come up I don't know the answer to. Anita, I know this would be your dream opportunity! :-D My mantra for the next two weeks is going to have to be a continuous 'I can do it, I can do it...' I have a feeling I am going to be getting very drunk two weeks from today to celebrate my part being over!

It's been another sushi week. I didn't have any last week, so I figured this week I could indulge a bit more. Wednesday a colleague and I found a sushi restaurant that was really good. We finished our little variety tray things and sat there for a while waiting for the bill. It took so long that I decided that if I needed more! So we got a couple more rolls which were delicious and finally tore ourselves away from the yummy restaurant. And tonight John and I are meeting up with Reena, and she's planned a trip to a sushi restaurant in the city that is supposed to be phenominal (and byob!). I can't wait.

He's here!

John arrived safely on Tuesday! Woo hoo! He had smooth flights and obviously made it to Indy safe and sound. Luckily all the Heathrow terror alerts didn't happen until Thursday, so he wasn't impacted by any of that. I, on the other hand, did have to fly on Friday from Chicago to Indy and was worried security would take ages, flights would be delayed, etc etc. But I was surprised that things went pretty quickly through security and my flight was on time. I had to check my bag though, so I could fly with my liquid things (even toothpaste counts as liquid!). I haven't been checking my bag on my work flights so it was an added annoyance, but of course I want to comply with safety first measures!

So anyway, although John got to Indy on Tuesday I wasn't able to see him until Friday because of my project in Chicago. :-( But he picked me up from the airport so I saw him at the earliest possible moment. We had a great weekend together. Friday night we didn't make any plans so we could spend time together. Saturday we had a long day of shopping as we had lots of things to do to try to get John back on the grid! We started by trying to get him a bank account, but he didn't have a social security number yet so that didn't happen. So we went and got him a mobile, which was a successful trip. Both of us can send and receive text messages, even from the UK, so feel free to text us! We also shopped for a computer and a desk. We bought both after some looking around at different stores. The computer we could take home but the desk wasn't in so hopefully we'll get it this week sometime. So we've got the computer set up on an end table with an armchair sitting in front of it. It's quite funny actually! We had thought we might go to see some bands in the Midwest Music Summit festival, but we were both tired from the day's activities so we stayed in and watched a movie instead. And yesterday we went to my brother's to see our nephews. They are so cute. Jesse warmed up to John really quickly and kept saying 'come play with me Uncle John' throughout the day.

Of course the weekend came and went all too quickly, and here I am on Monday evening back in a hotel room in Gurnee, IL. Being apart from everyone is a definite drawback to this job, but luckily the work is still quite interesting. John might be able to come up this Thursday so it will only be a couple more days until I see him again. We are staying in Chicago until Saturday night so I can go to Faith's baby shower. We'll hang out with Reena on Friday night and stay at her place, and then drive to Indy after the shower so I can be home Saturday night through Monday morning.

Speaking of Reena, I met up with her on Thursday. Since she lives in Chicago we met up halfway between Lincoln Park and Gurnee. It was great as always to see her. We are hopeful we will see a lot of each other with me being assigned up here. Also on Tuesday I met up with my Aunt Marilyn and cousin Mandy, on my dad's side. Mandy only lives a short distance from where I am working. They are both really good. I don't think I'd seen them since my wedding so we had a lot of catching up to do!

I was trying to think if anything funny had happened recently... One of the women I work with is quite funny, even though she doesn't really try to be. She really made me laugh last week because she is a self-proclaimed bad driver, and she was driving me and another person from dinner and hit a parked car. That might not have been 'funny', were it not for the fact that we were commenting on how bad of a driver she was and I had just asked her if she's ever hit a person about 2 seconds before she hit the car. And a couple of days before that she was following me to a sandwich place and I saw she kept getting into the wrong lanes and ended up missing a turn. I called to see if she'd changed her mind and she said 'No, I'm just a really bad follower.' How can you be a bad follower? I'd never really considered myself a 'good' follower, but now I know that it can be an attribute I'm going to chalk it as a plus on my positive side! I may be a terrible singer, but boy can I follow in a car!

T-minus two days!

John's booked his flight and he will be here on Tuesday! Yaaaaaayyyyyy! My project is back in swing, not really full swing but it's going enough that I am back in Chicago on the weekdays. So unfortunately even though John gets into Indy on Tuesday I won't see him until Friday. But the cats are very excited that they will see him in two little days.

So last weekend I was told we were not to be on site last week. Then they said on Monday morning to expect to be in Chicago back on site on Tuesday and for the rest of the week. Then Monday early evening I was told I was not to be on site Tuesday but would probably need to be there from Wednesday. Then Tuesday morning I was told I needed to be there ASAP! So I got on a flight and arrived on site late afternoon. I called my project manager when I got on site and she said that I shouldn't go into the building yet but instead wait until the next morning. So this is my crash course into the demanding and disorganized world of consulting I guess! Eventually I did get on site on Wednesday morning and left on Friday at noon. The week was fairly uneventful, although there is a Banana Republic outlet not far from my hotel, which is pretty dangerous. Also we had a group dinner one night and went to Olive Garden. Again. I've been to two group dinners and both of them have been Olive Garden. To be honest the food hasn't been too bad but I'm hoping that eventually we will start to branch out a bit considering we will probably eat together at least once a week.

This weekend was a lot about veging out and giving the cats lots of attention. Friday and Saturday nights I stayed in. Saturday during the day I went to my mom's. My brother and nephews were there so that was a lot of fun. It was a beautiful day with no humidity, so we spent a lot of time outside in the shade of a tree. My three year old nephew Jesse loves 'tractors', so he was on and off the riding lawn mower quite a bit. And 10 month old Robby was a very cute little cuddle ball as usual. And today I went to the pool for a while. I met an Italian couple that I talked to for quite a bit. The husband is also in IT consulting and was catching a flight to London later in the day, so we had a lot to talk about. We might hang out again in the coming weeks when he gets back from London and she from Italy (I don't know when she was leaving but it seemed to be soon and for a month or so).

I have somewhat organized my pictures from the camera phone and have a collection of kitty pictures if you click on this picture. When John gets here he should have the normal camera so we will have a little better quality than all these (for one thing, a flash!), although I can't guarantee the majority won't still be of cats! :-D he he

One last thing, there is a new link on the lefthand column that will take you to Faith's baby website. Her belly is getting so big! Very exciting! Avery Laura is due on Oct 19. :-)