Baptism, Dinner, and a Movie

Busy Saturday for the Toons….

The day started by attending a Baptism at Old St. Patrick’s for Ava Grace (the daughter of Claire’s friend Nicole from high school). It was our first time in Old St. Pat’s. I was taken back when we first entered the church. There was a strong Celtic theme throughout the church. I was expecting something very traditional for a church that old but it was still very beautiful. Not being Catholic or very religious at all, I still found the Baptism very interesting. A lot of history of Old St. Patrick’s, the significance of a Baptism, and why things were done were explained. I found it all very interesting. However, not interesting enough to start going to Church every Sunday.

All afternoon was spent on the rooftop deck smoking ribs. It was hotter than HELL (keeping with the religious theme… hehehe) and humid. We have a dinner club with two other couples in our building that meets about once a month. Being our turn to host and pick a theme, we went with a Grill Picnic on the roof. I was a little worried when I was smoking the ribs that it was going to be too hot and humid to be outside for dinner club. But by 7:00, it had cooled down nicely and turned out to be a beautiful night. How did the ribs turn out? Thanks for asking… My ribs turned out better than I was expecting for my first crack at using a rub and smoking them. However, Tim stole my thunder.. lol. He had a great idea of watching a movie outside on the rooftop deck. He brought his projector, laptop, and a sheet for a screen. Not only were we able to watch Pirates of the Caribbean but anyone riding the El train on the Blue Line could watch as well. I think we will be watching a few more movies on the rooftop deck before the summer is over. Click here to see the rest of the dinner club pictures.

Hello readers…. I’m back. I have not been posting lately but plan on changing that. The last couple of days I’ve been adding some new content to site and still plan on adding a little more. I’m in the process of changing the way photos are displayed on the site. I’m moving to something that is a little easier for me to maintain which will mean more photos posted more often. Stay tuned for more to come.

It’s that time again… Claire and I spent most of the day doing some Spring Cleaning. It’s amazing how much dust builds up and how dirty the windows get. It’s supposed to start warming up this week and we can’t wait.

I know we are not getting as much snow as the Northeast but it still sucks. It’s almost April and we are still getting snow in Chicago. I can’t wait for spring. In other news, I am starting a new project for work and will now be in NJ/NY during the week. That’s the latest. Happy Easter.

We got our first Christmas Tree tonight. I wanted to get the biggest one we could find but Claire talked some sense into me. We settled for an 8′ Fraser Fir. I had no idea that there were so many different kinds of trees. We had Charlie Brown Christmas playing while we put up the lights….Now, it is starting to feel like the holidays. I can’t wait to stuff my face at Thanksgiving.

The Green Monster has been found. I received a notice in the mail that I had gotten a street cleaning violation for the Green Monster. This is the same car that was stolen in the beginning of Sept. of this year. The address of the violation was about 8 blocks away. I took a drive over and there was she was. Doors unlocked, all valuables from the inside were gone, and it looked like someone had rummaged through the inside. But that was it. No damage other than that. It looks like it has been there since it got stolen. Since I didn’t have any insurance on it, I still own it. So… we have a second car again. Yippee.

The Green Monster is MISSING! For those of you who don’t know the Green Monster, it’s the first car (a green 1991 Mazda 6262) I ever had. It was stolen over the weekend, and has not been seen since. Claire thinks it might have run away because of neglect. Pearl (our car we bought last year) has been getting a lot of attention lately and gets the good parking spot in the gated lot. If anyone sees the Green Monster (look for the Boston Univ. 1995 National Hockey Champions) tattoo in the back windshield) let us know.

Congratulations to our frineds Sara and Todd. They got engaged on Monday, July 12th. Welcome to the club Todd. You will get your temporary membership card in the mail in 2-4 weeks. Your official membership card to the married club will not get sent to you until after your wedding. I bet you guys get sick of hearing the question… “Have you set a date yet?”

Claire and I are so happy for you. We wish you both all the love and happiness.

Happy Birthday To Me…(I whistle to myself at 30,000 feet with a guy snoring next to me in first class) That’s right folks… It’s my Birthday and I am on a plane for work. I’m traveling on business to Kansas City… fun fun. Can you believe the hotel wouldn’t give me a suite on my Birthday! I would expect a little more from the place I am spending 3 nights a week at for the rest of the year. Oh well. With every Birthday that passes, I am realizing that I am getting older and older. It doens’t seem like too long ago I was happy to get a driver’s license or to be able to get a legal adult beverage on this day. Now, it’s just another Birthday. Feel free to send birthday gifts or I also accept all major credit cards.