Off to Michigan!

We are heading out today to pack up our stuff in Michigan! It will be fun to go shopping in my own closet for once and pick out a few more things to get me through the summer. I know I have a pair of black kapri's hiding somewhere there. Steph was great about sending me a care package of clothes and a pair of very cute socks! I was questioned as to where did you get those they are cute. Hmmm.... they were sent by your favorite sister-in-law. LOL!
Waiting to hear about the offer we made and to get that ball rolling too. So what am I going to do in Grand Rapids? Well for starters I am going to hit Real Food for breakfast! I totally miss their banana granola pancakes. Nothing like that here or at least I haven't found it yet. That will give me lots of fuel for all the packing we have to do. Or at least all the supervising we will be doing. They do the packing and we watch I guess. Hoping the weather is mild there too. It's nice and cool here around 75 I think. Other than that I am leaving there early Sunday morning for a conference in Chicago. Another nice break - I really need a vacation!
Quick update on Mark's dad - he is back in the hospital for rehydration and some tests. So far so good and he even ate last night. A good sign that he was hungry for once. He is asking to come home now, but it's not quite time. Waiting to hear if he is given a new score for the liver transplant list - we'll see.

hiho hiho New Yorkers are way too s-l-o-w

Ok, now that we are ready to make an offer - after much pushing on our end to get info including me calling on my own to find out about zoning in the area because our realtor was much too busy - we now have to have the offer reviewed by a lawyer and then we can present it. They are known to take up to a week to look at it and then you can present it to the seller. ARGH! WTF! It's a standard pre-written document and a lawyer needs to review it? It is a freaking fill in the blank form! I wish I knew a lawyer here. Do we not know how to spell our names and put down the proper date? hmmm... I did graduate from college so I really hope so or Aquinas has failed me big time. Now we don't even know if our realtor has this lawyer set up for us. Probably not as she has now reached a special elevated status in my vocab.
So once we present this offer in a week the seller's lawyer will need to review and advise and then we might hear in a week or so. Not sure how that works if he has 24 hours to respond so maybe something is off here in my thinking. I sure hope I am wrong. He has to be just as anxious to sell so he can have the money so maybe that's a good thing. Nothing like dealing with two impatient people under the gun to get into something in 90 days. After 90 days our storage fee's are $120 a day I think. Something totally outrageous.
So my fun for tonight? A haircut. Yes, it's that time again and I am trying a new spot. It's free as they just opened. Just hoping the rain stops long enough for me to not get soaked going to the car. We've had tons of rain this past week and lots of thunder storms. Also heard there was a tornado a couple nights ago. Last night I thought we had something exploded in our complex and it rocked me out of bed. Since I was sleeping I was a bit disoriented. What was it you're asking. Not thunder, but fireworks. Yes, fireworks at 10:45 pm from the baseball stadium across the road. Can't be too upset about that they were very pretty. Can't wait to see more on the 4th of July! At least then I will be expecting them.

Tick, tock, tick, tock...

As soon as we make an offer on our chosen house and it's accepted I'll post some pic's - until then it might be bad luck. I will tell you it's in the country on a little road that is only 30 mph. There is a winery across the road and we have 6 new neighbors and more to come. The current neighbors include the rooster across the street. It's also brand new - never even thought we would be able to do that, but we can because it's almost done. Just in time for us to pick out light fixtures and have them do a few other minor things. They are sooo slow here in NY in getting things done. Our realtors calls their realtor for info and two days later we still don't the have the info. Hello, we want to buy the house NOW as in N-O-W!!! I have ants in my pants and I think Mark must have lots and lots of ants! After we get our house in Michigan packed up this weekend I'm off to the Windy City for a conference and quick visit with Rae before heading to Seattle and then I'm going to want to move into the house. That probably will take a bit longer so I'm going to need lots and lots of patience. The longer it takes them to get us the info the more things I think of adding to the list of things we want the builder to do so it's in his best interest to get this wrapped up or my "to-do" list is going to be a mile long! chop, chop....

WE ARE MOVING!

It's official! The house has sold and we are going to Michigan on Friday to oversee the packing. Kind of quick, but does it really matter - no. Off to go off house hunting today - more later.

Aquinas in the City

New York City that is! Friday night I went to the 3rd Annual NYC AQ Alumni Party. I wasn't sure what to expect except that I would see Sr. Alice. She's always fun to see and looks great still - I can't believe how many times she went to Ireland to teach. That would be a cool job in my opinion. Anyway... This year they moved it to someone's apartment and being that is was on the 27th floor near the river the views were amazing. I had the chance to go out on the tiny patio and look down - it's a long ways and then up - again a long ways. It was nice to sit donw then and get my balance. Being up on the bridge for some reason freaked me out more a few weeks ago. There was live music on the piano and wonderful treats to munch on. Interesting people too - met the editor of the Trenton Times, a dermatologist, and quite a few younger grads who are loving living in the city. Can't wait to see where we go next year! I'm hearing maybe they are coming to Chicago and having some sort of pizza party - now who has better pizza? Chicago or NY? I would have to say NY has great thin crust pizza and Chicago the thick crust, but I'm sure there are some other opinions out there.

Job Perks

One perk of having a job is the free meals. Last night I helped entertain some visitors from Arkansas and got to try out another new resturant in the process. Hudson's Ribs and Steakhouse is definitely a good place to go back too - even the steak looked very good here so maybe I'll rescind my ban on getting steak when we go out. They served us our cesaer salad family style and it was good, fresh, and cold. It gets an A as it had no fishy taste and homemade croutons. Instead of bread you get a popover that is freshly made. I ordered the stuffed flounder and it was very good. Lots of good lobster stuffing and a nice sauce on top. Can't cook fish at home so it was really a good choice. The sides were enough for 3-4 people and each person got a side with their order included. I was being good and picked rice pilaf - it also goes better with fish. It was tasty, but next time I will get the mashed potatoes or garlic fries. Being it was me and the boys of course they went for the kill and got dessert too. I couldn't be left behind so I ended up with a chocolate souffle, which was more like a little gooey chocolate cake. It was quite the meal. The steaks has those fried onion stacks on top and if you ordered a side of mushrooms you got a whole plate of them - at least 8 ounces and that is a meal in itself. Great place to do some sharing for sure!

Back from Fun

Vegas as usual was fun! While I was only there 2 days it was well worth it. We stayed at the Hilton because that's where the conference was and while it's not on the strip it's on the monorail so that to me is just as good. I don't think Mark thinks so, but I do. I've been asked for a food report and I can say I had 2 good Cobb Salads with ranch dressing. Both at our hotel. Not so adventurous when starving. We did dinner one night at Mon Ami Gabi in Paris. It was a B. My steak was good, but I can make it at home I've decided. I'm going to start eating more fish since that I can't cook at home! I will say the rautollie (send on over the spelling cops) was yummy and it was something different - Mark picked it out even though she said it had eggplant in it and unknown to him I saw him eat several bites of it. I'm so proud of him! The bread was quite tasty and my wine was also good. It was quite dead when we first got there, but then a huge party of Japanese or Chinese were seated next to us and let me tell you they know how to eat! Each had an appetizer and veggie and at least the girls next to me split at 22 ounce steak. I wished I could have stayed to see all that food come! I've been told the Chinese love to gamble by a girl I work with. She is comped at the Belliagio and the Venetian when she goes so you can imagine how much she spends and she's only 24! What's up with that? She was all talky about it today -very funny! Enough about the food.

The highlight of the trip was my pool time. I love pools and this one was quite nice and almost kid free. Now I don't mind kids normally, but when they end up leaving brown floaters and puke in the pool I'm not a happy camper. I will say that the pool staff there was awesome and acted very quickly and had the pools open within an hour. Yes an hour. Needless to say I didn't dunk under water after they reopened it, but I did take quick dips to cool off. Did I mention my hair is now white? Kidding - it was very shocked however to clean up the bio-hazard accident and I'm sure my suit is a few shades lighter now. Now my biggest pet peeve about going on vacation somewhere that has a nice pool is that people hog the chairs with towels and a book or hat. Well not there - they will empty your chair if no one is in it after 30 minutes. They are very efficient and several of us had a good laugh. Being on my own I had plenty of time to people watch and listen. My favorite little converstation was among a group of ladies and one old man. He was all excited to see the drink girl approaching and they all started in on where is the cabana boy. The old man did a tarzan chest thump - very funny. They did have a good point as almost everyone in the pool area was there because there husband was there for the conference and we don't want to see chick in a bikini - we want the cabana boy. They would have sold many more drinks I'm sure. At $12.95 a pop that adds up fast!

My trip home was smooth and painless until the last leg. The leg from Vegas had live TV - live! I even got to watch the New York news at 6:00 pm. Mostly enjoyed HGTV however. I swear the men from "Grumpy Old Men" were sitting right behind me on the leg to Newburgh and I think they both needed hearing aids. What a one upping chat their medical issues and favorite pizza place. I know way more about old men and their issues that I thought I would ever learn. I'll spare you - but I will share that one was wearing plaid pants!!! To make it even more awful we had to sit on the runway for an hour waiting to take off. Thank god for my ipod - it was as loud as it would go and I could still hear them a little. The icing on the cake - one of them had bad breath! Gotta love the air you can adjust above your head - saved my sanity!

Vegas Baby, Vegas!

So we are off Saturday morning for Vegas - for me it's a quick trip and for Mark it's a long week of conferences. You can all give him a pity party if you want, but I know he has tons of great vendor dinner's lined up so I have no sympathy. None at all. And besides he's in Vegas! My long week of conferences will be in Chicago and trust me that's no Vegas. Fun, but not Vegas with the lights and action. This time we are staying at the Hilton so nothing on the strip - maybe it is on the strip I have no idea and I don't care all that much - I'm in VEGAS! All I know is that I'm going to have fun and lay out in the sun (or under the shade near the pool). I need to gather up some good books for the plane and pool - I can't figure out why I didn't stay another day. Oh well. What I really want is the Sex in the City series on DVD to watch. Hard to believe, but I've never watched it - we didn't have HBO when it was on. And if it's not on DVR or the internet I'm not going to see it. I know a crime, but look at this way I can now watch them all and then see the movie right away and not have to wait 4 years. LOL!

It's June!

Where did the spring go? It's officially warm here and the air is on! This weekend we went to Rochester to see Mark's family. His father is at home on the mend and awaiting a liver transplant. I did see some of his spunk coming back and had a few chuckles. Saturday night we went to a birthday party for great-aunt Lee - 85 is pretty young these days and she looks wonderful! It was fun to catch up with the cousins as well and snack on a sugar waffle at the Mendon Fair. Not sure if it's just a NY thing or not, but it's sort of like a fried Christmas snowflake cookie. I think only mom will know what this is. It was yummy.
The trip to Rochester took us through the Catskills and I know they must really be mountains because the up and down made my ears plug and pop - it was not fun with a cold or whatever - maybe allergies? Need to figure out what else is in the mountains - might be a fun spot to vacation sometime. There is lots of open space that's for sure. We had one good food stop at Speides, a bbq type rib joint in Binghamton, NY. The ribs were very good! Walked away with a bottle of bbq sauce too.
June is busy and I know it will be July before long. This weekend we go to Vegas. Mark for work and me for a few days of fun. He's gone until Friday and I'm in the city Friday night for an AQ Alumni gathering. The next Monday he's off again to Buffalo for the week and then on Sunday I leave for Chicago and an HR conference. From Chicago we go to Seattle for the family wedding. That brings us to the 4th of July and right now the plan is to spend it in New York City with some friends. Michigan might hit the list if only we can sell our house! Any one want a house in Grand Rapids?