Escape!

This week, I'm down in Florida visiting my parents for Christmas (Please stop cursing me. I do, in fact, know how cold it is in Chicago right now!) We went out to dinner tonight and took one of the dogs with us. For those of you who don't know, my mother is a Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) Puppy Raiser and Mentor. She trains puppies for persons who are wheelchair bound.

On this particular evening we took Yana with us. She was supposed to be under the table while we were eating. As I was dining on my salad, I looked down and realized, Yana was gone!!

CRAP!! THERE'S A CCI PUPPY LOOSE IN OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE!!

I looked behind the booth-- no dog. I panicked and had to find her, so I began crawling through the restaurant looking for the dog, whispering her name. I didn't want to alert the other customers (I mean, maybe they wouldn't notice a random woman crawling on the floor.) I found her under the bench of a booth two tables away scrounging for crumbs.

This unfortunately is where the people at the booth noticed me crawling on the floor. I quickly apologized (still on all fours) and told them that I had lost my dog. The woman asked if it was a toy dog. I replied, "No, it's a service dog." (Isn't that obvious?!!? Why else would I be crawling about in a restaurant?)

I called for Yana and she scooted out from under the woman's legs. The woman looked so bewildered to have a dog come from below her seat. I quickly apologized and crawled back to my booth with the dog in tow to find both of my parents laughing hysterically at the whole scene.

Well, at least someone found the puppy!

The Happiest Place on Earth

First time to California and first time to DISNEYLAND!!

It's definitely much smaller than in Orlando, but they do have some different rides. I was the saddest girl in the whole land to find out that "It's a Small World" was closed down (it's the original from the World's Fair!) It's ok, I think riding the Matterhorn and Indiana Jones made up for it.

And of course taking pictures with our friend Pluto!

I was also very excited about the giant sunshine in the California Adventure Park. Taking time to smell the roses
Barb's ready for the 1/2 Marathon....The only problem was that my return flight was cancelled. The default flight left the following morning and took me through San Diego and NEW ORLEANS. (Yeah, because I want to head straight for a hurricane.) Fortunately, the lady behind the desk gave me a shuttle voucher to LAX (Thank God!) and re-routed me. When I got there, I saw that there was an earlier flight home. I ran (not kidding) through the airport trying to get to the gate. They were boarding, but there was plenty of room on board for me to switch (with my own row to stretch out!). Even with the flight issues, I can think of worse ways to spend my weekend!

Montana Musings

My last few days in Montana... First of all, We made sure to hit the Bozone, the brewery in town. While we were having a few, Mike looked out the window and asked "Is that guy walking donkey's down the street?"

Turns out, there really were donkeys!
After picking up a few growlers, we headed to the store to get the fixin's for some bbq...
And no, I have no idea what they were doing with the kale, but I'm certain Melissa started it. Random lion doing naughty things to the security camera. Clearly, Mike was enjoying himself.
Mustard any one?
Montana was absolutely gorgeous!! I loved the people, the atmosphere and the mountains

Even these last few in Wyoming! :)

Thanks Mel for a great road trip!!

The Wilds of Montana

Ah, the wilds of Montana!

We headed up to Headwaters State Park. This is where the Missouri River Starts as well as the Gallatin River, the Madison River and the Jefferson Rivers feed into it. As we were driving Jeff spotted a MOOSE in the Missouri! You all know of my love of Mooses, so we stopped for some pictures!

We didn't get much closer, because apparently moose are mean, and we didn't want to make it want to charge us...but I'm so psyched I saw a real live MOOSE!

After the moose sighting, we headed to the Lewis and Clark Caverns. (Random trivia: It's the first state park in Montana.) We hiked up the mountain to the mouth of the caverns. It had an amazing view! This is the Jefferson River cutting through the valley.
The caverns had your typical cavey stuff...
Fallen Stalagmite:

Random cave spelunkers :)
This was a beautiful pond in the cave that looked like glass. That's not a reflection you see...the water is just that clear.
There was a section of the caves that had LED lighting. So the colors were much more true. I had no idea that caves were actually pink and purple, rather than earth tones!
Yeah caving! The mountains are such a beautiful place to play!

Road Trip!!

It's that time of year again--time to hit the open road and take a good ol' fashioned ROAD TRIP!

Here's Melissa having fun with the camera:
Creepy enormous windmills. Seriously, they were alien scary.
And these boys mooned us. Sorry, we weren't quick enough with the camera to get the big white ass pressed against the window.
Fun self portrait:
Melissa's happy rest stop in Minnesota:

The "Car Wash & Laundromat in the middle of South Dakota cracked us both up! (Yes, I'm holding a squeegee--there were massive bug issues on the windshield.) I didn't get it, I mean the place had a Car Wash/Laundromat but no stop light? Come on!!Mmmm....Peanut Butter and Banana
Beautiful view from Jeffie's front porch.

And finally at Dave's Sushi (Jeff and Melissa, happy and full of Sushi!)

I'll update soon with more pics, but I'm still frolicking in the mountains of Montana!

Canoe!

First of all, I have to say (and, yes, I know it's completely random) canoe is a funny word! Funny to say...funny to spell...canoe, canoe canoe!

Ok, now that I've gotten that out of my system, one of my co-workers has picked up canoeing this summer! How fun is that? She called to see if I wanted to join her. I said--game on! So after a brief summer rain (and pina coladas) we headed out to a park owned by Lake County. Check out this view--so pretty!
Here's Judy in the back--the Captain of the Ship...
I'd never been in a canoe before, but it was a riot! I'll definitely have to take on more paddling challenges in the future!

Who wants to be my buddy?!?!

I've heard it before, "Bethie, you really need a hobby." But I guess I have to face the facts, running has actually become my hobby. (I really have changed a LOT this year!!)

Anywho, I was puttering around on line and I found this race called Muddy Buddy Ride & Run. I was intrugued; after all the tag line was "Two Buddies + One Mountian Bike + One MONDO MUD PIT = The best time of your life!"

It's a 6 to 7 mile race where done with a buddy. One starts on bike and the other runs, at each of 5 obsticle points you switch running or biking and do the obsticle. You continue leapfrogging through the race until the end. You must finish together by crawling through a GIANT MUD PIT!!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?!?!

I NEED to do this race!! I will be stalking this site until they post the dates for the 2008 Chicago Muddy Buddy Ride and Run.

The important question is: Who wants to be by buddy? Come on, I know I must have had some one out there at 'mud pit'! :)

(Seriously, people! I know someone out there wants to be my 'Muddy Buddy'!)

Run Bethie, Run!

As a result of my trek to the top of the Hancock, (damn runner’s high!), I’ve signed up for several road races. Thanks to Barb, I’ve completed 3 5Ks this spring as well as the CrazyLegs race in Madison.

Here’s Barb and I in front of the Capitol near the starting line

(yes, I’m wearing pigtails!)

An 8K is about 5 miles, and due to my super slow 12 minute mile average it took about an hour. I’m convinced that it would have been under an hour if I hadn’t had to stop to pee in the middle of the race. To be honest, I don’t think it was my stop that slowed us down, rather the fact that I had to wait 5 minutes for some guy to get out of the port-a-potty.

Other excitement happened after the 3 mile mark, someone was on the side of the road having chest compressions. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, he was saved by an AED.

Here are the pics from the finish!

The wonder that is Wisconsin, they give you 2 beers when you cross the finish line—Rock on! I’m running a 6K that is in conjunction with the Madison Marathon (Supergirl Barb is running the Marathon) and the races finish at Beer and Brat fest. Definitely my kind of race!

I’ve also completed the Wrigley Start Early 5K, 7 Bridges 5K and the Chicago Police Dept. Run to Remember. The run sponsored by CPD, had a beer stop instead of a water stop—To which I commented “Best water stop, EVER!” If you’re super slow and looking for a running buddy, I’ve got a few more races I’m registered for…me and my ipod welcome your company!

Let there be light!

I've been on a recent home improvement kick...thank God for a 24 hour Home Depot! Any who, after painting a tiny dreary hallway semi-gloss ultra white, I decided that I needed a new light fixture. I found this fun one at HD--set to work!

As you can see, I played with electricity--and won! Fortunately--Jack and Nick had some helpful suggestions (thank you!) which made all the difference (yeah, there's no white wire in the celing!!). I do need to get some lower wattage bulbs--50 and 100 watts are super bright!!

I'm pretty proud of my efforts...who knows what's next!

It just doesn't work...

I was feeling adventurous in the kitchen...and we all know this can either turn out something like the wonder that is "Dave's Mom" or go really badly. I had some carmel sause in my fridge. I had been using it for making carmel apple martinis (which, by the way, came out excellent) and I decided to try the carmel sause mixed with milk. I figured, why not--I like chocolate milk (and really, who doesn't), but this so did NOT work!

No matter how much I mixed the carmel settled at the bottom like sludge. The milk had a light carmel taste to it, which was good, but as I got farther down the glass, I began to have a "pulp" experience--where clumps of carmel were passing my lips--ugh!

I'm sad this didn't work. The flavor was good, but I guess I didn't like it because I'm a texture eater. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Until then, I suggest sticking with Hershey's Syrup!

Stage Stuck

Yesterday, Meg, Ben Erin and I went to see a play at the Riverfront Playhouse in Downtown Aurora. It was in this very tiny theater that couldn’t hold more than 50 or 60 people. The theater was very casual, and quite kitschy.

Check out the hula girl with the light up boobies! Too funny!

Can you find the lamp from movie “The Christmas Story”?

Such a cute little stage!

Ben, Meg, and Erin wait for the show to begin.

The show was quite good! I’d like to go back to see their next show.

On the way out is when disaster strikes! We went out to where we parked and the car was gone!! We thought the car was stolen—what a horrible feeling! We found another man wandering around looking for his car and found that it had been towed!

We called the towing company, and they did have the car. One of Erin’s friends was able to come and pick us up to take us back to Meg and Bens. I decided that leaving my coat in the car was a bad choice. It was so cold we waited in the Paramout Theater for warmth.

While we were waiting, I discovered an old lady pair of glasses and was messing around pretending to be “Flo” and taking tickets. The paper that I picked up to be at ticket, was even funnier than my imitation of Flo—

“DO NOT PARK IN THE BANCO POPULAR PARKING LOT—YOU WILL BE TOWED” –really? No kidding!!

Erin’s friend Phil picked us up and took us to Meg and Ben’s. On the walk up to the house, I didn’t realize that I had a Best Buy bag stuck to my butt.! So embarrassing! What’s worse, is that Phil called Erin a few minutes later to say that he needed the bag back because his receipt was still in it and he needed to return something—Embarrassing, but hilarious!

Meg and Ben got their car in Bativia… at the scary tow impound. $125 dollars later, the car was sprung from car jail and the night had drawn to a close.

The show was good, I’d go back to the Riverfront Playhouse to see another, but I wouldn’t park in the Banco Popular parking lot again!

Dr. Bethie, Chief Resident

As many of you know, Barb has been staying at the best Bed and Breakfast in Chicago…my house. She’s been using my place as a “home base” for many of her residency interviews. In many cases, it has been much cheaper to fly out of O’Hare than Milwaukee airport. So, for many of her 17 interviews, she’s been staying with me!

This week, she’s interviewing at Loyola Medical Center (nine miles from my house). Last night was the social event, a get together to meet fellow interviewees and the current staff. Last night, I got to be Barb’s guest!

I admit I was a little worried. After all, I’m an elementary art teacher who feels nauseous even thinking about an IV! What am I going to be able to converse about with someone who is up to their elbows in guts most of the day? And most importantly, this is part of the interview process; I didn’t want to make Barb look bad!!

We make it to Loyola… I came right from work…putting on make-up and brushing my teeth in the car. No worries, I spit out the car door at a red light! And using amazing internal G.P.S. abilities, I quickly found building nine on the map.

When Barb and I got to the dinner, there were many people already there, so we just joined a table. It tried to sit quietly and drink my beer, but we were sitting with the most fun doctors! The conversation went from cars, to the Bears, to planning a roast for some of the attendings. The conversation was quite entertaining, due to the fact that the format to the roast seemed to be based on “Celebrity Death-Match”. We then began to discuss (based on our discussion of the CW’s “Beauty and the Geek”), if we’d rather be ugly and smart or pretty and dumb. The consensus seemed to be that the majority of people would rather be pretty and dumb than ugly and smart. Soon, one of the residents gave me a name tag for Soman S., who was the Chief Resident and it seemed that many of the interviewees were introducing themselves to me (it was even more fun, when I forget that I was “Soman” and would introduce myself as Beth). It got to the point where due to my acting skills and stellar ability to make up bs on the spot, it was thought that I should be in on the interview process! It was hilarious!! Eventually the residents brought me more beer, because “it’s not like you are here to impress anybody—have another!” I even saw Jocelyn who was a year a head of Barb and me at Augustana. I also had a nice conversation about why I'd never want to be a doctor with one of the research residents, Alrick (that may not be spelled correctly). Anywho, the “rowdy table” was a great time! Nice that I went for an interview and ended up being made Chief Resident…that doesn’t happen to a lowly art teacher everyday!!

Good Luck on the rest of your interview, Barb…hopefully today was as fun as last night!

Auld Lang Syne

My plans for New Years involved watching the Bears/Packers game (in hindsight, it's a good thing I missed it!). Definitely my kind of party...but when Barb called upset that someone had bailed on their plans I headed to Milwaukee to cheer her up and for some New Years fun!

The evening started with sparkling pomegranate martinis, pizza and Coupling. Then we headed to the River Center for the Cake concert. There was all sorts of fun! Wandering carnies (although we didn't really see any), fun hats, jugglers, psychics and caricature artists.

We immediately got tiaras...




I enjoyed the faux-hawk celebrating the New Year.






We met two Johns while waiting in a VERY long line for our tarot cards to be read.

Fortunately for us, we were the last to get readings for the night. The psychic told me some very insightful things (Happy New Year to ME!).

I found a "cape" and Barb found our seats. (I AM BATMAN!!)





I tried to get a picture of the fire juggler, but security stopped me from taking a picture. I did get a covert shot of the stage with my phone when Cake was on stage.






We ended the evening with my cape flapping in the lake breeze...and me giving it to some girl who's feet hurt and was being carried back to the car by her boyfriend. She was freezing, and needed it more than I did.






Cheers to the New Year!