Back in cheese land!

I am back from Chicago! Well, I have been back since Friday, but I have just been chilling and relaxing since I got back, so I didn't post anything about Friday! Our class was pretty lax and pretty fast - we actually got out at 1! Which was super freakin' awesome because that meant I actually got to bowl on Friday night! (not that I did that well, but I still got to which was awesome!) For lunch on Friday, we had Gino's Pizza, their legendary deep dish to be exact. Essentially, lasagna on a corn bread crust. Super thick, and super good. I probably would have gotten it with just pepperoni, instead of the meat lovers, since that is how I am, but it was still good and filling. So yeah, we got done at 1, got to drive home early (we were home for 4 which was sweeeet)

All is good on the home front :) We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Gracie's first birthday!! (only 24 days!!!) Well, her party isn't until the 8th of November, but man, it is just hard to believe she is already going to be a year. How time flies - and it will just continue to fly and get better (wishful thinking? ;)) And I should probably mention J. J. Keller just once in this blog, mainly because apparently the E-Commerce team at my work is stalking me, err...I mean has some alerts set up that scour Google for mentions of our lovely company - so hey ECOM! :)

How 'bout dem Packers?! Finally stopped their slide yesterday and got back on the winning side. Rodgers looked like his shoulder is getting a little better, although you could tell there were times when he just didn't have the zip on the ball - hopefully that gets better. Next week should be a challenge against the Colts, especially since it looks like they are starting to get their act together too. The Packers D just has to keep playing like they have been and if Grant can get it going as he has the past couple weeks, I think we can be in good shape.

That's about it from me...man, 5 updates in the last week. I didn't think it was possible...until next time (2, 3 months from now, hehe...)... here's a movie I want to see: Zack and Miri.

EDIT: I thought I should start posting some pictures of my baby, since I don't do that much. Here is one of her and me from a wedding a few weeks ago (one of the FIVE we went to in September!)

Tales from the Windy City - Day 4

Nothing like watching The Office on a nice, large LCD flatscreen TV. And chilling on my LAST NIGHT in Chicago! It was a fun time, but I MORE than ready to see my girls and hold them and kiss them and see them smile in front of me (and not through the awesome pictures and videos that Kirsten has been sending via our AWESOME phones) Hang on...

...commercial break! So we started our third and final class today. Quite a bit more info than the first three days - probably mainly because we have had so much info already and there just isn't much more room left for it. On the plus side, we are a bit ahead of schedule and it sounds like we are going to get out a little early tomorrow, which is great! Jason and I hit up Chef Petro's again for breakfast this morning - pretty sure 3 days in a row constitutes us as regulars now, doesn't it? It really is a great place though, really good breakfasts for pretty darn cheap and nice home-town feel service. For lunch, we had Potbelly's again...I got the smoked ham sub again. I should have gotten the meatball sub to try something different, but I didn't think of it until later. Oh well, it was still quite tasty.

For supper, we went to the Italian Village. And let me tell you...wow. I have always been a fan of italian food, and no, not just Chef Boyardee for you smarty pants out there (*ahem, Kirsten*) --hold that thought...

Okay, I am back :) Now, Italian Village. Fan-freakin-tastic. It is actually three italian restaurants in one - and it was the first Italian restaurant in Chicago. I don't know if all three are the same age or how that works, but regardless. I had ravioli with meat sauce and it was really awesome. I then got a piece of cheesecake to go. Ooooh boy, was that a treat to have when I got back here :)

Overall, I would have to give the Chicago food a 4.5 outta 5. It was really cool to try something different just about every day and get to enjoy all the different types and such. GAH! Heroes commercial! Must...mute...TV...okay, much better. I haven't seen the new episode yet so I don't want anything ruined.

So I am sick of all the election BS going on, but man, SNL is hilarious. I do admit I haven't watched much of it lately, but I love the stuff they do with politics.

But yeah...as far as Chicago, it was a good time, but I am more than ready to be home. It is neat to have the opportunity to even do stuff like this for my job and to further my experience and all that good stuff. I enjoy traveling, but I really do miss my girls. They are everything to me and I really can't wait to see them :)

Haha, Bill Murray! Nice! (Sorry, watching the live SNL thing on right now, good stuff)

Tomorrow, we are going to be checking out in the morning before we hit class, and then likely just hitting up one of the (no joke) 5 or 6 Dunkin Donuts just on the way to our class for breakfast. Seriously, it seems like once Chicago finds a place they like, they duplicate it as much as they can (and this is just in the 2 or 3 square-mile area that we have been walking in all week!) Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, StarBucks, CVS Pharmacy, Potbelly's, etc...it's just funny. We are having Gino's deep dish meat lovers pizza (I think I am drooling just thinking about it...) so we don't want to fill up too much on breakfast (and really, you can't get anything at Chef Petro's and NOT be filled up) So we are just going to grab a donut on our way and enjoy our last day of class. I can't wait to go home!

Tales from the Windy City - Day 3

I must first say - the Sears Tower is fucking amazing. Pardon my french, but it really is. But more on that later.

We had our second of three classes today. It was a deeper look into what we learned yesterday, and quite a bit helpful. And it sounds like our last class is just going to be all programming - right up my alley!

Onto the food side of things, you know, the things that matter when you are traveling! We had breakfast at the same place as yesterday, Chef Petro's, and it was just as good. I had some super thick french toast (it was seriously like, this ... | | thick! (as to scale as I can do, haha)

We had Chipotle for lunch - and that likely sounds familiar to a lot of you, since it is a fairly popular chain, and one just opened up in Appleton! Now usually that wouldn't be something I would like, mainly because I am not a fan of the spicy - I like my tacos with meat and cheese. No more no less. Well, turns out I can get just that at Chipotle! So I did - steak tacos with cheese, and they were actually pretty damn tasty. A little bit on the spicier side, but nothing too ridiculous (bearable, in other words, heh)

We then went to the Sidebar Grille for supper. A fancy grille with a bar and some nice HD-TVs all over the place. And $11 burgers. So they have to be good, right? Well, you certainly would hope so! I got one of the burgers and they WERE really good. Nice soft buns, thick meat, nice and pink inside...

...wow, that is quite dirty sounding ;)

But yeah, pretty good burgers. After supper, we decided to try the Sears Tower again! It was overcast this morning, but a really damn nice night. Clear skies, good temp, so we walked down to the tower. Quite a few others had the same idea as us, but it wasn't overly crowded at all. We watched a short video about the tower (just a little clip from something on the History Channel) and then headed up the Skydeck! It is the 103rd floor of the 110 floor building - so quite high, obviously. I took some pictures with my phone, so they didn't turn out overly great, but still show how absolutely amazing the view is from up there. And since we were up there at 7PM, we got to see the city all lit up. It was just really cool. Quite the marvel of modern archetecture, much like a lot of the other buildings in the city. Just really freakin' cool to see. And I of course got a couple little gifts for my girls, but I don't want to spoil the secret here ;)

Once I get home (only two days!!), I will toss the pictures I got on here for all to see. You can definitely tell how much of a "small city" boy I am with how much I am gushing about Chicago, haha. Typical tourist ;)

Tales from the Windy City - Days 1 and 2

I had meant to start this last night, but I got caught up in the baseball and football games and then crashed, so I didn't get to it! So here we are, Tuesday night, my second full day in Chicago!

Why am I in Chicago, you might ask? Well, for business of course (doesn't that sound all grown up?) The J. J. Keller website is getting a new search engine and we have purchased a product from a company called Endeca. It is actually not quite a search engine, but more of guided-navigation (not unlike what you see at sites like Amazon, or Walmart.com, or HomeDepot.com - the latter two are actually using Endeca!) Long story short, we are here for a training course on all things Endeca - we being myself and Jason, the senior developer on the project whom I work with.

We drove into town on Sunday night, left around 5.30pm. We first had to go to Keller to pick up the company car (a nice Lincoln town car, all fancy-pants and such) It was slow going to start though...traffic was backed up all the way through Oshkosh (I presume the Packer game and weather, which was rainy and icky, all factored in) so we didn't really start moving along until we reached just outside of Oshkosh, almost an hour later. We didn't get into Chicago until just before 10pm, but it was a pretty nice drive, and it was really cool driving into Chicago. I have only been here a handful of times, and the last time was in high school for a field trip (so like...7 years ago - and with my memory the length of, well, probably this blog post, I don't remember much)

Anyway, we found a parking ramp near our hotel, the Hotel Allegro, in the theatre district. Pretty darn nice place. Very fancy (more so than me, for sure, heh) but pretty nice. Not a place I would stay willingly (mainly because of the $250/night price tag - granted we did get a discount for there for Endeca, which means we are only paying $190/night, PLUS the company is paying obviously) - but still! I will try and get some pictures up when I get back - I still haven't figured out how to get my new phone connected to my computer (think my USB ports are dying) but I will try.

So we got the car parked and got checked in. Jason is staying on the 7th floor, while I am on the 16th! Yikes! It isn't so bad - other than the fact that the elevator moves at about 100MPH and you feel like you are in the Tower of Terror every time. I know that Kirsten would not like it at all (but I noticed that all the elevators in the city are like that, at least the ones I have been on..which, well, has been just two - but still!)

So our we is split up into 3 classes - one class that was yesterday and today (I got my first certificate of completion, yay!), one that is just tomorrow, and then the third that is Thursday and Friday) The guy that is teaching the classes is really down to earth, a younger guy, really knows his shit too. We have gotten quite a bit of information in just the two days we have been here, but it has been really great info and although this project is going to be quite a bit of work once we get back, I know that it is going to be really freakin' sweet when it is done and be really beneficial to the company as a whole.

Ah yes, I almost forgot about eating! For breakfast and dinner yesterday, we ate at a place called 312 Chicago, which is actually attached to our hotel. VERY fancy, and you know me, I am not the "fancy" type. But it was pretty nice - at least for breakfast. Take a look at their website, and their dinner menu. Anyone that knows me in the slightest will probably think I didn't eat anything, as nothing on there looks like I would even like it! But I had the rigatoni with meatballs...but not just any meatballs, VEAL meatballs! They actually weren't THAT bad...but I probably wouldn't have them again. I like my cow grown-up ;) We had lunch at the Endeca office (which is only about 6 blocks are so from here, so we are just walking) They ordered from a place called Potbelly's. Pretty darn tasty sub sandwiches and they loaded on the meat and cheese. Good stuff.

For breakfast this morning, we went to a place right across the street called Chef Petro's. More of a city-style diner, really nice waitress, definitely more my style. And damn good food. We are going there again tomorrow as well. For lunch today, we had sandwiches from Cosi, another fine sandwich establishment. Again, really good stuff. For supper, we decided that we wanted to go check out the Sears Tower and then find some authentic Chicago-style pizza. When we left training at about 4.50, it was raining decently. Now the Sears Tower is about 2 blocks south of the Endeca office. Our hotel is about 6 blocks north of the office. The pizza joint that we found was probably about a mile west of the Sears Tower. We figured we would walk, get some exercise, enjoy the sites. First off, Chicago at 5PM is nuts, I have never seen so many people - all KINDS of people, walking around, all determined, hailing cabs and getting on buses and lots of them being rude of course, heh. Add on top of that fact - that it is now raining. It started raining while we were in training. Ugh, so this should be fun...

We walked back to the hotel to drop our stuff off, and it was a steady drizzle. Nothing TOO bad yet. So we did have to back-track before going to the Tower, but we were still up for it. So we left for the Tower. It is raining a little harder now - and I have to say one thing - it was absolutely hilarious to see how many people had broken umbrellas. Pretty sure I saw more broken umbrellas than working ones (and there were a LOT of umbrellas, heh) Of course, we didn't have one. Took us about 20 minutes to get down to the Sears Tower, and we are pretty good and wet by now. We go to the Skydeck entrance, and it is still open, but the guy at the bottom tells us that the visibility is zero - well, what is the point of wasting our money then!? At least he was nice enough to tell us BEFORE we bought tickets. So we stood in the doorway a minute or two, contemplating our next move. We were halfway to the pizza, and already wet, so why not just go the rest of the way? So we did. 20 minutes later, and a whole lot wetter, we got to Primo's Pizza. GIANT slices of pizza. One big slice and a soda for 5 bucks. And soooo worth getting wet. Some damn fine pizza. But then we had to walk back to the hotel. Which was about 2 miles away now. Yeah...let's just say, I got back here about 45 minutes ago, and I don't think I am dry yet, haha. But it was fun, and a good story for sure :)

We are going to try the Sears Tower again tomorrow or Thursday, as long as the weather holds out - we obviously want to go when we can actually SEE something from up there! It looks like it supposed to be nice late tomorrow and Thursday, so here's hoping. I am here through Friday, coming back late Friday night, so keep your eyes peeled for another couple updates - and maybe this will be so enjoyable to me that I might *gasp* do regular updates again! ...doubtful ;)

Kirsten...Gracie...I miss you girls so much...I really can't wait to see you on Friday!

I love sports

Today is a fantastic day to be a sports fan.  To be honest, really ANY day is a great day to be a sports fan.  But something about today really hits home.  Ever since I can remember, I have loved sports.  My top sport is, of course, football.  Being from Wisconsin and so close to Green Bay, it isn't hard to believe that I was brought up a diehard Packer fan and have known nothing but Packers since day one.  I love them during the winning times (most of the time I have been alive) and I love them during the losing times - with or without "The Legend".  But this isn't just about the Pack.  Despite them playing a preseason game today (which they did pretty shitty in anyway), I was more focused on the Olympics and the Brewers!

Now I have been following all this stuff with Michael Phelps since he got to Beijing.  The guy is a freakin' phenom in the pool.  It is unreal what he can do - but I never thought he could win EIGHT freakin' golds.  But yet, at around 10:05 tonight, Lesak finishes the 4x100 and gets the gold for the US - completing the sweep.  8 for 8, 7 world records, all in one games.  How nuts is that!?  This will be a record never matched again - and if Phelps isn't named Sportsman of the Year, I will boycott SI :)

And then I flip to the Brewers.  Losers of 2 straight, looking a little lax tonight, not sure how they might fair.  They are down 2 - 3 when I flip it on.  Bottom of the 7th.  First out is a nice ball hit into a center with a great diving catch by Cameron.  Next batter up - first pitch - hits a deep fly to left.  Kapler (in for the injured Braun) runs after it, but it is well hit.  But he keeps running, and leaps and CATCHES IT over the left field wall!  He lands in like the third row and comes back in, ball in tow.  Easily one of the best catches I have probably ever seen.  I obviously keep the game on - Hardy hits a 2-run homer in the 8th to take the lead, the Dodgers tie it in the 9th, but Torres is able to strand the bases loaded, and then Hardy hits an RBI single in the 10th.  Riske strikes out Manny Ramierez in the bottom of the inning to end it and the Crew wins.

It seems trivial, especially to those not in Wisconsin, but man - I love sports.  You throw just about any sport at me and I will watch it with full attention - especially when something amazing is about to happen.

PS - Rodgers, I am fully behind you. 

Time for a vacation!

Well, in 5 days.  And I cannot WAIT!  This is really mine and Kirsten's first vacation together as a married couple (I mean, we had our honeymoon and we got to go to the Dells for a couple days last year, but this is a FULL vacation!)  And I shouldn't say the Dells, because Kirsten makes fun of me when I do.  We are TECHNICALLY staying in Warrens, WI at the Yogi Bear Campground, but it is close to the Dells and it is still during the time when we would go to the Dells, so I call it the Dells :-P  Either way, it is the first time in 3 years we get to go (didn't go in 06 because of the wedding and only went for a couple days last year) and we got our place, which will be fun.  And vacations are just plain fun anyway!

Other than that, all is well.  Gracie gets cuter by the second and she is going to be a lot of fun on vacation too.  She isn't crawling yet, but we are pretty convinced she is just going to right to walking.  She doesn't like to be on her tummy much but she loves to move and groove, and has really strong legs already (she can stand with our help obviously)  She likes to mimic us and is getting really talkative (pretty sure she has said both da-da and ma-ma, because she will say it and then look at the respective person and smile!)  She knows how to melt your heart - now if only she would stay that way for years and years ;)

Just a quickie today...I can't wait until Saturday!  Hey - that rhymed!

Happy Mother's Day

OMG TWO UPDATES IN ONE WEEK!?  I must be losing my mind or something...

I just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to all the awesome mother's out there.  Two of them in particular:  First, my mom.  Words in a blog cannot even come close to describing how awesome my mom is.  Mom, you have been there for me (and especially Kirsten) through everything over the years and you never get your proper due. You are an absolutely amazing woman and an even more amazing mother.  You are always good for a laugh when you're down, a hug when you're sad, an ear when you need to talk, a shoulder when you need to cry, or a drinkin' buddy when you need to kick back :)  I couldn't have wished for a better mom if I had tried (and I am sure back in my teenage-angst years I tried once or twice, haha)  You never judged me, you were always just there offering opinions and accepted whatever I decided, being behind me 110% the whole time.  And how you have accepted Kirsten as essentially one of your own is beyond words (especially for Kirsten)  Mom, I don't think I say it nearly enough - but I love you.  You are amazing and you deserve it all.

Then there is the NEW mom in the group - my lovely wife, Kirsten Ann.  This time last year, I was getting ready for my college graduation, knowing that Kirsten was pregnant but not sure at all what to expect.  Kirsten was anxious (to say the least) as well and we were both really excited.  Fast-forward a year, we have a gorgeous 6-month-old daughter and we are two very happy parents.  There have been times Kirsten has questioned her abilities (as most parents do) but there is no doubt in my mind - I would not want any other person raising my daughter than you, Kirsten.  Everytime I see you look at Gracie, it is always with love (or a grimace from the smell...) and you are the best mother she could ever hope for.  She doesn't realize it yet, and maybe she won't for a while, but someday she will know that you are an amazing mother and that you love her with all your heart.  Just like I love you.  I can't wait to see our baby girl grow up and to see you become an even better mom the whole time.

So to my Mom, Kirsten, and all the other awesome mom's out there - happy Mother's Day.  Everyone deserves a fantastic Mom like I have and like Gracie has...and this day is to celebrate you!