Last Saturday night, we were invited to my old co-worker Jerry’s 40th birthday party. As anyone who’s in Chicago knows, Saturday was a pretty crappy day to be on the roads. We went to a baby shower about 30 miles away and it took us an hour to get there - the snow/sleet/rain made everyone a little crazy on the roads. By the time were were on our way home, the rain was starting to freeze again. It was NOT a nice day to be out! But I was really looking forward to celebrating Jerry’s birthday, and he had always been such a great guy to work with, that I HAD to go out to his birthday party. That, and it was only 15 minutes away from my house.

As soon as we found the bar the party was at, the radio was playing this AWESOME old school booty house mix. I drove around the block a couple times dancing in the car as Fatima sat by and laughed (Dave was on call). Once it was done and I found a spot close to the place, we slowly walked over the ice sidewalk into the bar.

The bar was a small, local bar and it was moderately full of people. What was pretty cool was that there were pictures from throughout Jerry’s life hanging on the wall, which cute little captions. It added a nice touch to the party. That, and the super awesome eggrolls that Jerry’s girlfriend brought. Oh, and the equally awesome cheeseball with smoked salmon.

Anyway, a lot of old X-Systems coworkers came by, and it was like a mini-reunion. It really made me miss the old days. I realize now that no matter how hard work can get, it makes it a little easier when you’re working with good people that you love and respect. It’s good to know that even though years have passed, we’re still someone in touch with each other to meet up for things like this.

We had a great time at the party, and it was nice to see so many people there celebrating Jerry’s birthday.  There was a big crowd, yet it still felt intimate.  There were many toasts and an exciting rendition of “Do you think I’m sexy” (or at least it sounded like it) by a bagpipe player.

So thanks, Jerry, for giving us all a reason to get together and party!

More pics here. Thanks to Fata for letting me use her camera!

Oh, and happy birthday to the other Jerry in my life - Jheri Curl!

Oh, and a happy belated birthday to Dave, Jaygee, Redpac and Jen!

A couple weeks ago, Ben had a really bad cold. Luckily, he wasn’t feverish or fussy, but he had a pretty nasty cough. A couple times after a coughing spell he even threw up a little bit. One night, we were about to go out for dinner, and Ben had a little coughing spell and I saw the tell tale lip smacking that signaled he was about to throw up. This time, however, was a big puking spell. His poor little body kept on heaving and heaving and he started crying because he couldn’t understand what was going on. He had thrown up all over his clothes and all over the couch. My in-laws took him up for a bath while I was left to battle the mess on the couch.

Luckily we’ve got easy-to-clean microfiber couches, so I just got a washcloth and wiped off what I could. I had to search all over my couches to make sure that it was OK to use soap on them, but finally I found the tag that said “W” which means it was ok to use water soluble cleaning agents on the couch. So I rubbed some lemon scented dishwashing liquid on the affected areas as well.

Then we went out for dinner and when I got back, the couch had dried off.

The next day, I was working on the couch (my “home office”) and I realized that there was still a really bad puke smell. It made me want to puke. I went on the internet and searched “puke smell on couch” and saw that a good layer of baking soda would do the trick. So I went to the 7-11, got some baking soda, wet down my couch and sprinkled the baking soda all over the seat of the couch (using a wire strainer to give some uniform coverage).

I was pretty concerned that I wouldn’t get all of the baking soda off once it dried up. But after several hours, I brought out the vacuum cleaner and used that brush attachment that Ben likes playing with so much. Surprisingly, the vacuum picked up all of the baking soda easily. The couch passed my “nose on the fabric” test and there was no more smell.

Watch out Martha Stewart!

Yesterday we were watching Dancing with the Stars and Ben was playing with me on the couch. He was standing on the couch and slipped a little, almost falling. However, he caught himself before he fell. As soon as he righted himself, he cried, “Oh shiiiiiiiiiit!”

I thought to myself, “Did he just say what I thought he said?”

Dave gave me a look like, “Did he just say what I thought he said?” which confirmed what I had heard.

We busted out laughing, and didn’t even try asking him to repeat it. I doubt he meant to use it, he was probably just blabbering like he usually does. But he used it in the right context (well, maybe a couple seconds too late) so who knows? I know that he’s heard the phrase before (I won’t name any names.).

OK, I’m lying. He had said his first phrase the day before - “It’s showtime!”, a phrase that Elmo says in this musical Elmo book that Marilyn gave him. But the “Oh Sh-t!” makes for a much better post!

As I mentioned before, we had tickets to yesterday’s Dancing with the Stars. On the tickets, it said to be there by at 3:30pm, and that not everyone is guaranteed a seat. From other people’s stories of visits to DWTS, I knew to get there early. However, I didn’t want to rush everyone, so we left the house at around 2pm, for a 12 mile ride to the studio. An hour early should be OK to get a seat, right?

So we started the drive, and I totally forgot about my first rule of driving around in California - add in a 1/2 hour for any trip you want to take. That 12 mile drive became a one hour drive. The parking lot was about 1/8 an mile from the studios, through a shopping area called “The Grove” (which is awesome, by the way). Normally, it wouldn’t be a bad walk, but we were all dressed up for the show in dresses and heels, so it was a pretty long, painful walk for our poor feet. By the time we actually found the gate we were supposed to line up at (we had passed up lines for Price is Right and The Craig Kilbourn show) it was 3:25.

But when we got to the line, there were only about 30 people in front of us. Little did we know, there were about 250 people who were already lined up inside the studio lot. 3:30 came and went, and we were still outside. There were about 75 people behind us in line. By4:15, we were still outside and debating on just leaving. But finally, we were allowed in. Lucky us, they cut off the line right behind Dave. It looks like they had packed the studio already and we were left to fill in the seats of VIP people who didn’t show up.

The studio is MUCH smaller than it is on TV. The dancefloor is tiny, almost as big as any dancefloor you see at a wedding. The whole studio only fits about 300 people. Unfortunately, we were seated directly across from the main stage, which meant that we wouldn’t be on camera, since they were situated right in front of us. But hey, we got in, so we were happy about that.

Even though the show is “live” on the east coast, they do some pre-taping of some of the segments, in case they have to do do-overs. Also, for some of the dances there might be extensive setup/takedown that occurs, and it isn’t possible to do during a live show.

The first pre-tape that was done was Wade Robson’s dance. I’m a big fan of his, way back when he was doing N’Sync videos. I’ve got a greater respect for him lately since he’s really turned out to be an artistic choreographer. And I admit, me and Dave used to try and do his dances when he had the Wade Robson show on MTV.

There was a man named Cory (who was AWESOME, but the way) who I called our “clap leader”. He would tell us when to clap and for how long. So when Wade was doing his intro in front of the curtain, we had NO idea what was going on (but we were able to see it when it was replayed for the live broadcast). We were just clapping because Cory was telling us to. My arms were about to fall off. But once the dance actually started, we clapped because we wanted to. It was an AWESOME routine, definitely in Wade’s style. He’s such a great dancer that even through there were many other talented dancers on stage, he definitely stuck out - there’s always that one dancer that your eye follows throughout the dance, and that was Wade. Wade’s dance was one of the main highlights of the night.

After that, we taped a segment of Wayne Newton singing - which they put together just the day before since Gloria Estefan cancelled for personal reasons. Cheryl Burke and Drew Lachey danced along, and it was interesting to watch not only their choreography, but also how the moving cameras were choreographed. There were a couple stationary cameras, but several that were operated by guys moving around the dancefloor - sometimes led by another person so they could watch the action the whole time. We taped that segment twice - it was hard to match the original enthusiasm from the first take.

After that, there was some time left before the live airing of the show. They let the audience on the dancefloor to get down. At the end, there was a dance contest, and several couples joined. There were some pretty good dancers, but my favorite was this 70ish couple. They were pretty smooth on the dance floor. Then the man dipped his wife, stuck his nose between her cleavage, and did the motorboat (nuzzling her cleavage really fast). The crowd went wild and everyone was hootin’ and hollerin’.  They were awesome!

Then, it was time for the live (on the east coast, anyway) show to start…

to be continued!

The other day we went to Walmart to look for cheap portable DVD players for our vacation. Ben often gets really fidgety in the cart so I just let him wander around, while, of course, I keep an eye on him.

He’s gotten into the funny little habit of dancing in public. First it’s a little dance, but if some random shopper passes by and comments, he’ll dance again, much longer and more elaborately. He’s a little ham, my little guy is!

We were in the electronics section and Ben found the videogame demo section. You know, the place where they have controllers set up and kids stand for hours playing for free? The controller was just within Ben’s grasp, but he had to get up on his tippy toes to touch it. He really didn’t care whether or not he was controlling anything on-screen, it was the controller he was interested in. I just stood on the side and watched him reach to grasp the buttons.

Soon, an boy came by, about 9 or 10 years old. He was on those shoe/roller skate combo things that I find really intriguing. He rolled up to Ben and the controller and I was expecting him to nudge Ben out of the way so he could play. But to my surprise, he stood there and bent the controller holder so it was more accessible for Ben to play with. At first, Ben thought he wanted to play with it so he stood aside, but when the boy just stood there and pointed to the controller, Ben cautiously went back and played with the buttons as the boy held it for him.

Ben then ran away to check out other things, and the boy went back to his shopping (or waiting for this parents). Ben went back to the controller, and once again, the little boy came by to help him out. Ben tinkered around a bit with it as the boy watched and held down the controller. When Ben was done, he looked up at the boy and did his best 5 second dance. The boy laughed and said, “You’re a funny little baby!” and walked away.

The next day, Ben and I went to go watch Dave play at his company softball game. There was a boy there, about 13 or 14, who was there to watch his mom play. The three of us were in the dugout, and didn’t speak for the first several innings. But Ben was so entertaining with his yelling and running around, I could tell that the boy was warming up to him. What finally broke his cool exterior was when Ben did his little hand dance - the boy laughed out loud. After that, he played with Ben, putting a baseball in his hood and making sure he didn’t run off onto the field. Ben liked the boy so much that he raised his arms to him, asking him to pick him up. The boy looked at me confused, and I said, “He wants you to pick him up.” He looks surprised, and gingerly picked up Ben and sat him on his lap. Ben spent the next several minutes sitting on the boys lap and watching the game. It was cute.

There are many times when I see the behavior of kids and cringe, scared that they’re going to hurt my son (like the kid who stepped on Ben’s hand at the playground the day of the softball game) or be a bad influence on him. It’s times like the ones above, though, that make me feel a little better about letting my little boy into the big, big world. Not all kids were meant for the super-nanny…some of ‘em turn out quite alright!

So I’ve been working in the Milwaukee for the last several weeks, and Ben has been in the care of Dave, and when Dave’s been working, his parents.

My in-laws love to take Ben to different places, to the mall, to their friend’s homes, to restaurants, etc. One of their friends from out of town was staying with them last week, and they were taking him out to places, bringing Ben along.

They were at a restaurant eating dinner one night, and Ben was in a baby chair. Dave’s dad took him out of the chair to let him cruise around the table. He thought that Dave’s mom and her friend were aware that Ben was crawling around, so he went to the bathroom.

A couple minutes later, one of the cooks comes out of the kitchen. Guess what he’s doing? Carrying Benjamin! Turns out that Benjamin silently crawled away from the table and wandered into the kitchen. I’m sure that the cooks in the kitchen were pretty surprised to see my little tyke crawling in.

My in-laws’ friend sees Ben and goes up to the cook to thank him for bringing the baby out. Once Dave’s dad got back to the table, they had a good laugh about Ben’s little adventure.

Can you imagine what trouble he’ll get into when he starts walking?!?!?

Last week (which seems like eons ago) I was in Milwaukee. Normally when I’m out of town it’s pretty hard for me to go to sleep. I usually stay up until 1 or 2 in the morning, just working, playing on the internet watching whatever’s on cable. I try to sleep earlier if I know I’ve got an early morning, but it never really works.

So I was in Milwaukee, asleep after yet another late night, and all of the sudden I hear this loud beeping, coming from all over. Then a voice screams into the room, “This is a fire alarm, please exit the building. Do not use the elevators.” Or something like that. Then right after the voice, there’s another voice. “This is the fire chief. There is no fire. Please stay in your rooms.”

It went on and on like that for about 20 minutes. Loud beeping, “exit or die”, “no, it’s not real, just stay!”. I was debating as I was lying in bed, wondering if I should leave, just in case. I heard doors on the floor opening and closing, through I don’t know if anyone left. I looked at the clock and it was 5:30am. A mere half hour before my alarm was going to go off. That helped me make my decision. I was pissed that the alarm went off so soon before I was going to wake up, so I went to back to sleep.

20 minutes later, the beeping again, same message about leaving the building, then another voice says, “There is no fire, stay in your rooms!” I set my alarm to go off 20 minutes later.

Of course, next time I hear an alarm I’ll make sure to leave the building if that “Nah, this isn’t real” voice doesn’t come on. However, this is the fourth time this has happened to me…hope I don’t get used to it and ignore it when it really happens!

The other day my father in law was over making dinner on the grill in the back deck. I was washing dishes and he popped his head in the door and loudly whispered, “Christine, come out here!”

“Hold on, I’m doing dishes…”

“Hurry! You have to come out here quick!”

I came over by the door and he pointed to my backyard. When we bought the house it came with a hammock in the back. Since Dave is crazy about his lawn being green, he always takes it down and rolls it up when he’s done so the hammock doesn’t affect the lawn.

Standing above the rolled hammock was a opossum. He was moving slowly off the roll. “Did he come out from inside the hammock?” I asked

“Yeah, he crawled out from the middle. I guess he was sleeping there. I think he may be dying.”

“Nah…he’s ok.” I said as I went back in to finish the dishes.

A couple minutes later my F-I-L rushes in again and exclaims, “It’s dead! That thing is dead!”

“No, he’s just pretending to be dead. That’s what opossums do, they pretend to be dead when they’re scared.”

“No, he’s dead. I poked him with a stick.” Clearly, my F-I-L is not scared of rabies or sharp little animal teeth.

“He’s pretending…” I said, and continued with the dishes. He went back outside to check on the corpse.

In popped in his head once again - “He’s gone! He ran away while I was talking to you …you’re right! He was only faking it!”

Yep…that’s what opossums do.

Then a week later, Dave found this big guy hanging out on the deck.

At first we thought it was a beaver…but of course, it’s your average woodchuck. But isn’t he a cutie?

I was at my client’s site yesterday, and she was taking me around during lunchtime. One of her coworkers, a friend, came up to her and asked, “Where is the weight watcher’s meeting?” My client walked her over to the room where the meeting was being held (she was a member herself). The meeting hadn’t yet started so people were standing around outside the room.

There were glass doors in front of us looking out on a small lobby. In the lobby we could see three heavy set women who looked like they were lost. My client’s friend told my client, “Hey, they must be looking for the meeting.” “Yeah, let me tell them where it is,” replied my client.

We walked out of the glass doors and my client asked the women, “Excuse me, are you looking for the weight watchers meeting?”

One of the women then glared and said, “No, we’re looking for the HR Benefits meeting.”

“Oh,” said my client, “um, it’s in room 140.”

As they were walking away they were mumbling to each other, “Ha, I know I’m a big woman but I don’t need no weight watchers!” “Thinkin’ we’re looking for weight watchers. Hmph!”

I had to try really hard not to crack up. Actually, I did once they went away. My client was so embarrassed that she thought they were looking for the meeting!

One day when I was at work I went into the bathroom and noticed that there was someone else already in there. The person was in the last stall, and they were pretty quiet. At first I thought it was a silent pooper (you know, the person that pretends not to exist when they hear someone walk into the bathroom as they’re taking a dump). However, as I walked into my stall I hear her say, “Mmm…oh” then a second after that she silently whispered, “Oh no!” Then quickly after, she said in a louder shocked voice, “NO WAY!”

I was thinking, “Man, that must be one nasty dump. I wonder if she knows that someone else is in the bathroom with her? Should I ask her if she’s ok?”

She continued on…”Wow!”

By then I was wondering what the hell was coming out of her to cause such a reaction.

Then I figured it out after what she said next, “I can’t believe you said that. That’s incredible!”

Duh. She was talking on a cell phone while she was in the stall. No magical, monstrous poop. Just a gal on the phone.

Boo…it was so much more interesting before I figured it out!