Marathon Party!

Well, it's time to carb up for the Chicago Marathon! I had some runners over for a good ol' fashioned pasta party--complete with my student's marathon themed art work (It's unfortunate that the kids names are on the funnier ones, or I'd post them!). Here's Jack's version of carbo loading:
Crystal, Danielle and Colleen love Diet Pepsi!
Barb was really hungry!!
Running Buddies!
Everyone seems ready to go...here's hoping nature cooperates--we've all worked so hard!

Good Luck to everyone running in the 2008 Chicago Marathon!

R2E Pasta Party

Clearly I was being a social butterfly, because this is the only photo I thought to snap all night...
At least the food was good! The Fab 12's are going for it at the R2E (Ready to Eat) Pasta Party, in preparation for the R2R 20 Miler tomorrow!

Good Luck Runners!

And save the date...Friday, October 10th...Marathon Party at Casa de Bethie--BE THERE!

Gettin' My Shamrock On

So...according to a bartender at a bar that I frequent; for St. Patrick's Day I made quite a performance. I was apparently dancing on the bar singing a parody of a song that I made up...

Clearly I thought that "My shamrocks bring all the boys to the yard...(Damn right! They're better than yours!)" was going to be a hit.

Are there any pictures out there? I hate to admit it, but that sounds like something I would do...

Super Sunday

The preparations had been made…it’s time for my favorite holiday—Superbowl Sunday!!

Check out that spread!

The tombstone, promoting the Colts demise.

I even created a Vince Lombardi trophy out of Rice Krispy Treats. It's not Tiffany's but I was inspired by the media!

Becca enjoys a pretzel rod with Easy Cheese (it’s just not the Superbowl with out Easy Cheese!!)

Nick gets ready for me to paint his head…let the shaving commence!!

Here’s the work in progress…

Jason’s happy with Hester’s run

Nicky eats the football off the trophy.

I’m so worried about the Bears in the fourth quarter!!

Alas, my Bears did not win the big game, however, I’ve decided it’s better to have gone to the Superbowl and lost, than have to live in Indianapolis!

Until next season—GO BEARS!!

Nicky's Night of Fun

Little Nicky is now another year older, but is he wiser? Let’s see!

Espo Squared—or as the boys say, “Cubed”. Nothing but trouble can come from a night of drinking with the Espo boys!




Nick’s clearly having a good time.

My Butkus jersey was making me friends all night. When this guy was in high school, he his neighbor was a Chicago Bear!! He played football with Butkus!!

I reminded Nick of my no fruiting the beer rule, so I ate the orange out of his Blue Moon, and threw the rind back in his beer.

Twins!

As the evening progressed, Nicky was quite inebriated, so it’s on to TBK for our drunken friend. Mike takes the wheel.

Nicky is so happy!! Definitely his drunk smile.

Nick decides to try to take a pic…it’s slightly, um, askew.

Mmmm…big burrito

Did he really put French fries on his burrito???

Stuffed in the back seat.

My favorite pic, Mike dragging Nick out of the back seat of his truck by his feet.

Sweet Dreams, Nicky and Happy Birthday!

An Engaging Evening

Last Saturday, I went out to celebrate Jack and Lisa’s engagement. It was a wonderful evening do of dinner and drinks.

Here are the boys…




A toast to the happy couple!





As we were sitting in the pub, Kristi told me to look over my shoulder…I turned and could not believe my eyes!!






It looks like a coin slot!! There was much debate as to whether this was an intentional crack. One would think that you would be able to tell that your ass is hanging this far out in public!! Should we tell her? We opted not to, and just snapped a picture for the blog. We hope her date enjoyed the view!! (ps…for the record, if I didn’t know my ass was hanging out, I would want to know—Help a girl out!)

After we ran out of crack jokes (Crack Kills!!), we moved to Fagan’s, to end the evening.







Red Headed Sluts!! (The shot, not the girl!!)






Congrats, Jack and Lisa!!

Holy Cow, that was fun!

Yesterday was the last day of the IAEA conference. I had fun making my Haitian Spirit bottle. Something interesting that I learned about them is that these bottles were used as a part of the Vodou religious altars and ceremonies. The spirit part does not refer to keeping a soul in the bottle, rather alcoholic spirits. The liquor (rum, whiskey or gin) is kept in the bottle until they are needed in the ceremony. Then a priest or priestess sips from the bottle and sprays the liquor on the alter and persons requesting the ceremony. The spirits bless whom or what ever was sprayed.

Here’s my bottle:




And yes, the protective talisman on top of the bottle is in fact Liono from Thundercats! When I found him in the collage materials, I knew he was my “protective entity”!





Here are some others that were made at the workshop at the Intuit Center.





There were even free 15 minute massages at the last event. The last event was a vendor give away, and you don’t know what you’re going to get. Unfortunately, I won 13 lbs. of clay. Not that I’m not grateful or anything (my 6th graders are going to make something fun with it!), but lugging home a huge bag of clay on the el sucked!






After the IAEA conference, I went with Julia to a Halloween Party.

Here’s Julia and I all dressed up. Julia is “Holy Cow” (you can’t see her wings) and I’m the pirate (Arrgh! I forgot me eye patch!).






I found that people knew what I was faster when I carried around this prop from the bar…”but WHY is all the rum gone!”





It was fun to meet new people, and talk with Tina and Pete. I think I needed to avoid the Ghostbuster.

I also spent the evening “hitting on” Mike—he’s such a good listener!

Thanks Julia for bringing me along! Good Times!