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A Bookcase (Finally!)

J and I have had this gaping hole in our living room. Just empty space that doesn’t look quite right. Coincidentally, we also have an overflow of stuff that won’t fit into our (large) bookcase. So for the time-being we were stacking DVDs, keeping the Wii games on the floor, and just dealing with the disarray. Well I was dealing with the disarray. I’m sure J didn’t even notice lol.

We’ve been looking at bookcases and talking about getting one for quite some time now, but haven’t gotten around to it. One issue is that if we’re going to get another standard bookcase, it needs to perfectly match the one we already have. It’s really big and bulky, and I don’t know that we have enough stuff to fill an entire second one. So we decided to get something that was less traditional.

We originally fell in love with the Brosna Bookcase at Scandinavian Designs. The picture they have on their website is actually 3 of these items put right next to each other; the bookcase by itself is actually pretty narrow, with shelves coming off either side of a center stand. We liked it cuz it was different, but would fit our needs well.

Of course this weekend when we went to Scandinavian Designs we had to look at ALL of the bookcases before choosing one. Yep, we are indecisive like that! After about half an hour wandering around the store, checking out bookcases, couches, bedroom sets, etc., we finally decided on our bookcase: (more…)

Posted by Caro in Life, Shopping, cool, discoveries, things to do

Torvill & Dean: Still My Favorite

I love figure skating. When I was a kid I used to pretend I was a figure skater and spin around on the kitchen floor in my socks. It’s something I myself am not very good at, which makes it even more spectacular to watch. I mean they do these crazy jumps and spins and the footwork too. Even just watching them FLY from one end of the rink to the other is cool. Pairs is pretty awesome, but we already know how I felt about this years pairs competition. So in the meantime while I wait for the ladies’ singles, I had my ice dancing.

Not going to lie, ice dancing is notoriously my least favorite of the 4 varieties. Especially the compuslory dance. I think those judges have their work cut out for them. Just watching people do the same thing over and over again is too much for me, much less evaluating each competitor’s. No thank you!! The original dance can be interesting. There were a couple this year that intrigued me. Of course there was also the one that confused the hell out of me – the Russians doing the Aboriginal Dance. Take a lack of impressive/challenging moves, combined with some RIDICULOUS looking costumes and a premise that already has people offended, and you get this. Seriously, WTF?!

But then last night we got to the free skate. It’s by far my favorite. I saw a few that I liked. Even two that I loved. These of course were Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s (Canada) dance to Symphony #5 and Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates’ (USA) dance to Canto Della Terra. Beautiful. Stunning. Amazing.

But still not my all-time favorite.

That award goes to Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean (UK), who were the first people to get all perfect 6.0’s in the artistic impression section of the old scoring system. For technical merit they were split 5.9/6.0. I’m not sure what it is about this dance, but I love it. Even though it’s from 1984 and the picture is horribly grainy, I could watch it over and over again. Maybe it’s the music, maybe it’s the artistry, maybe it’s the incredible synchronization. I don’t know. They start on the ground because their music was too long. Apparently it exceeded the length by 18 seconds, which they discovered they could get around if none of their skates hit the ice until 18 seconds in. Pure perfection. Here it is:

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Chicago: A Picture Story

A little later than promised, but here they are!! Chicago is a really awesome city, and I definitely plan to go back.

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Posted by Caro in Food, Life, Travel, cool, fun and tagged with

2010 Olympics

Ok I’ll get to Chicago later. Something waaaaay more important is around the corner kids – the 2010 Winter Olympics!

I’m absolutely in love with the Olympics, and while the Summer games are definitely my favorite of the two, the Winter Olympics never fail to provide me with joy. I mean what’s not to like about sports such as the Biathlon? Cross-country skiing + target shooting, two things that clearly go together. Or Curling – pushing a giant tea kettle down an icy path and sweeping ice out of its way. What a novel idea! LOL. Actually though, much to my surprise the 2006 US Women’s Curling Team was pretty attractive. I’m not sure where they find these people, but apparently attractive curlers do exist!

Seriously though, there’s tons of great winter sports, both random (see above) and high profile (skiing, snowboarding, figure skating, speed skating, etc). The one sport that bores the crap out of me is simple cross-country skiing. I mean yeah, it takes incredible skill and athleticism to ski cross-country. But why watch this when you can watch people ski AND shoot in the biathlon? I’m also personally not into hockey. I’m sure I’ll catch a game or two, but I definitely don’t plan to make a habit of watching all the games.

As always I’ll be cheering for the red, white and blue of the US and the green and gold of the land down under.

The full schedule can be found here, but these are the highlights as I see them:

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Posted by Caro in Sports, TV, cool, fun and tagged with

I want to post Chicago pictures…

…But I feel like crap :(

One blog is enough for the day. I can say that Chicago was absolutely spectacular though. I ate too much, shopped a bit, drank a little, and saw not nearly enough. I got to wear all my warm clothes and had a great time in the freezing cold. It snowed too!

Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow and put up a picture or two. If not, Monday for sure!

Posted by Caro in Food, Shopping, Travel, cool, fun, health, things to do and tagged with

Penguins

I got to see penguins recently. Sadly I didn’t get to play with them. All in all a fun experience, but I wish there had been some actual penguin play time. Here’s the story in photos:

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Posted by Caro in Animals, Videos, cool, discoveries, fun and tagged with

A Colbert Olympics

I’m sure you all know what a fan of the Olympics I am. I mean, each variety of Olympics only comes around every 4 years! During the 2008 summer games I was unfortunately out of the country and had to rely on my TiVo figuring out which sports to record. It didn’t work too well. So after the ‘08 viewing fiasco, I’m set for 2010 in Vancouver.

And so is Stephen Colbert.

A while back he made an announcement that Colbert Nation would sponsor the US speed skating team following an announcement that their previous sponsor had gone bankrupt. Colbert Nation sponsoring the Olympics? HELL YES!

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Posted by Caro in Sports, TV, cool

Chicago

I totally forgot to post about my upcoming travels. Trip #1: Chicago!

A friend of mine has to be out there for 2 weeks for work, so her company is paying for her hotel over the weekend in between. When she initially invited me for the weekend, I was hesitant since I’m trying to start up a savings account again. Luckily my boss gave me (another) free plane ticket anywhere in the US this year for the holidays! Free flight + free lodging = recipe for a wonderful girls trip in the Windy City!

One hitch: We’re going in February, which is notoriously frigid in Chicago. Keep in mind also that I am a cold-blooded creature, and require constant heating. I mean seriously, 55 degrees is COLD. 45 – well it might as well just snow. So looking at the weather forecast indicating temps in the high 20’s/low 30’s minus windchill, I’d bet a 30% chance I would freeze to death.

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Posted by Caro in Food, Shopping, Travel, cool, fun and tagged with

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Posted by Caro in Life, baby, cool, discoveries, family, fun

Looking Forward

I have a fabulous weekend coming up to round out a pretty chill week. Hooray!!

Friday: Hanging out with friends, and as an added bonus I don’t have to travel far from my house. Yes, that is a plus since I work so much now.

Saturday: Watching my team hopefully hold their own against a tough opponent. RELAXING. Maybe decorating the apartment. After a few months of bare-ish walls it will be nice to have more decorations. And last but definitely not least, Ladies-Only PJ Party! I’m super excited for this and have my purple satin PJs all ready to go :)

Sunday: Spending time with my great uncle and then going bridesmaid dress shopping!!! This is my first wedding and I couldn’t be more excited. Plus the dresses are super cute and that never hurts either :)

Posted by Caro in Life, Random, cool, family, fun, things to do