I just discovered this great idea by Meg. Basically she started a story and it continues in the comments. What a fabulous idea for finding new blogs and getting more traffic to your own!!

Thanks for the innovation Meg. I just started following your blog and I already LOVE it!

For some great entertainment, check out the [Life of Meg] here

I’m all about alternative transportation but let’s get one thing straight: I hate bicyclists. They think they own the road, the travel soooooo slowly, and they’re bound to accidentally veer off their path and drift into your lane.

Since today seems to be their holiday, there’s what seems like millions of them on the road. It was almost more than I could handle this morning. I was exhausted and cranky, and being attacked from all directions by bikers. Then I saw it.

Superman was riding a bike. Or rather, some DS on a bicycle was dressed as Superman. Maybe he was crazy. But he made me laugh.

Cheers to you, Superman on a Bicycle. When disaster strikes, you can’t fly, but you can pedal your heart out.

This is AMAZING.

I’m almost never a fan of a guy with a guitar. but I could watch this indefinitely. Thank you Sim, for finding this!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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: the Capri (wide).

We love it because it’s not your standard bookcase, the shelves are all fully adjustable, and it has really interesting storage space options. For instance, we can fit a Rock Band Guitar in one of the cubbies, then a picture frame in another one.

We’re picking it up this week and I’m so excited. Like maybe pathologically excited lol. I’m even skipping the gym today so I can go home and SCRUB the house. Everything will be put in its place, and most importantly, that area where it will live is going to get cleared out and vacuumed. I’m going to get all my puzzles and games out of the closet so they can be more accessible, and heck that will even give me more room in my tiny hall closet!

I’m totally stoked. Maybe I’ll even throw a little get together to show it off

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:

Click here to view the embedded video.

First Chicago Picture

I honestly am not sure quite what this is. It was all over the sidewalk next to the bus stop. My first thought was “PURPLE SNOW” but after more careful consideration I believe it’s salt to prevent people from slipping. I still have no idea why it’s purple.

I’m not sure what this is either. Giant pilgrims? That man is definitely carrying a shovel lol.

buckingham fountain

As seen in “Married with Children”, minus the water of course

closeup of the detail

my footprints in some snow

view of the city

more miscellaneous city

abe lincoln statue

Lots of Lincoln stuff since he’s from nearby

outdoor ice skating rink

And then it started snowing once I passed this

Chicago River

I absolutely LOVE this picture

alternate view

Michigan Street bridge

one more river shot

Trump Tower - does every city have one of these?

view from the Hancock Observatory

We grabbed a quick drink on the 93rd floor of this building, and the nighttime view was absolutely stunning. I love the gridlines of the city!

nighttime aerial view of Lake Michigan

more Lake Michigan

Can you tell I took this from the bathroom? LOL the wall was floor to ceiling glass. I’ve never been so distracted while waiting in line in the ladies’ room!

a little food porn

It’s official – I’m 100% obsessed with Chicago pizza. I mean LOOK at this gem. I could eat this all day, every day. SO GOOD.

snowflakes!

A picture while delayed at the gate. We had to wait for the wings to get de-iced – an amazing spectacle for those of us who had never previously witnessed this event!!

more snowflakes. goodbye for now Chicago!

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:

February 12, 2010

• Opening Ceremony!!!
• Ski Jumping (Quals)

February 13, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Men’s Downhill Update: Postponed to 2/15
  
• Biathlon – Women’s Sprint
• Freestyle Skiing – Women’s Moguls (Quals and Finals)
• Luge – Men’s Singles (1st and 2nd runs)
• Ski Jumping
• Speed Skating – Men’s and Women’s Short Track

February 14, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Ladies’ Super Combined Downhill, Super Combined Slalom Update: Postponed to 2/18
• Biathlon – Men’s
• Figure Skating – Pairs Short Program
• Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Moguls ( Quals and Finals)
• Luge – Men’s Singles (3rd and 4th runs)
  
• Speed Skating – Ladies’ 3000m

February 15, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Men’s Downhill (originally scheduled 2/13)
  
• Figure Skating – Pairs Free Skate, Medal Ceremony
• Luge – Women’s Singles (1st and 2nd runs)
  
• Snowboard – Men’s
• Speed Skating – Men’s 500. The ice got majorly fucked up halfway through. Shani Davis wasn’t a medal contender so he decided to withdraw and save his energy. Sadness
  

February 16, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Men’s Super Combined Downhill, Super Combined Slalom
• Biathlon – Pursuit
• Curling – US vs. Japan, US vs. Norway, US vs. Germany (honestly I’ll only watch part of one of these, then get bored til closer to the finals)
• Figure Skating – Men’s Short Program
• Luge – Women’s Singles (3rd and 4th runs)
  
• Snowboard – Ladies’
• Speed Skating – Ladies’ 500m

February 17, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Ladies’ Downhill
• Curling – US vs. Switzerland
• Luge – Doubles
• Snowboard – Men’s Halfpipe (Quals, Semis, and Finals)
• Speed Skating – Men’s 1000m, Short Track (various)
  

February 18, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Ladies’ Super Combined Downhill, Super Combined Slalom (originally scheduled 2/14)
• Biathlon – Women’s and Men’s
• Figure Skating – Men’s Free Skate, Medal Ceremony
• Skeleton – Women’s and Men’s
• Snowboard – Ladies’ Halfpipe (Quals, Semis, Finals)
• Speed Skating – Ladies’ 1000m

February 19, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Men’s Super-G
• Figure Skating – Ice Dance Compulsory
• Skeleton – Women’s and Men’s
• Ski Jumping – Individual (Quals)

February 20, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Ladies Super-G
• Bobsled – Two-Man
• Curling – US vs. Sweden, US vs. UK
• Freestyle Skiing – Ladies’ Aerials (Quals)
• Ski Jumping – Individual (Finals)
• Speed Skating – Men’s 1500, and Men’s and Ladies Short Track (various)
  

February 21, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Men’s Giant Slalom
• Biathlon – Men’s and Women’s
• Bobsled – Two-Man
• Figure Skating – Ice Dance Original Dance
• Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Ski Cross (Quals, Quarters, Semis and Finals)
• Speed Skating – Ladies’ 1500m

February 22, 2010

• Curling – US vs. Canada
• Figure Skating – Ice Dance Free Dance, Medal Ceremony
• Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Aerials (Quals)
• Ski Jumping – Team

February 23, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Men’s Giant Slalom
  
• Biathlon – Women’s Relay
• Bobsled – Ladies’
• Curling – US vs. Switzerland
• Figure Skating – Ladies’ Short Program
• Freestyle Skiing – Ladies’ Ski Cross (Quals, Quarters, Semis and Finals)
• Speed Skating – Men’s 10,000m

February 24, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Ladies’ Giant Slalom
• Bobsled – Ladies’
• Freestyle Skiing – Ladies’ Aerials Finals
• Speed Skating – Ladies’ and Men’s Short Track, Individual and Relay, Ladies’ 5000m

February 25, 2010

• Curling – Women’s Semifinal, Men’s Semifinal
• Figure Skating – Ladies’ Free Skate, Medal Ceremony
• Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Aerials

February 26, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Ladies’ Slalom
• Biathlon – Men’s Relay
• Bobsled – Four-Man
• Curling – Women’s Bronze Medal Game, Women’s Gold Medal Game
• Snowboard – Ladies’ PGS (Quals, Semis, and Finals)
• Speed Skating – Men’s and Ladies’ Short Track, Individual, Relay, and Team Pursuit (Quarters and semis)
  

February 27, 2010

• Alpine Skiing – Men’s Slalom
• Bobsled – Four-Man
• Curling – Men’s Bronze Medal Game, Men’s Gold Medal Game
• Figure Skating – Exhibition Gala
• Snowboard – Men’s PGS, Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom (Finals)
• Speed Skating – Ladies’ and Men’s Team Pursuit (semis and finals)
  

February 28, 2010

• Closing Ceremony

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!

snd some miscellaneous penguin videos:

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