I'm Debating . . .

I know that this sounds a little bit early to be thinking about this, but it's me so I am.

Last year I closed on my house November 15th. The next two weeks were total chaos trying to get out of my apartment and get into the house and walls painted and everything. In the middle of all this I was covering a vacancy in my Northern office so was working crazy hours and commuting three hours a day. As I got into December things slowed down a little, but still I was just trying to get the house all situated. So the only holiday decorating that managed to happen was a wreath on the door and that was only because it was easier than taking it down to the basement and storing it.

Now, for those that know me well (especially my family) you know that I love Christmas lights, decorations, the whole works. Just not the blow up stuff for the front yard . . . that stuff gets pretty tacky.

Through college we always did some decorating for Christmas, but once I finished school I never did much cause I either had roommates and none of us would be around, or it was my own apartment and there wasn't space or last year where I was just to exhausted to deal with the whole mess.

But now . . . I am kind of out of excuses. That isn't to say that I can't come up with some. I won't be here for Christmas Day, no one is going to really see it, I don't want to tackle lights by myself, it is too expensive to buy the stuff, I can keep going . . .

Still . . . I think that I kind of want to go all out. Not too crazy but actually get and decorate a tree. Maybe a few lights out front. Maybe finally find a nativity set that I will love. It couldn't get too out of hand cause I don't have much money to spend on it, but still . . . I think I want to do something. Especially since I made really cute stockings last year and kind of want to display them.

Anyway . . . this is just me thinking . . . still not sure how it is all going to play out.

Glutton For Punishment

This summer has been quite a productive one for my home landscape . . . I somewhat started from scratch and for someone who works as much as I do and lives alone I feel like I have accomplished a lot.

On Friday at work Michelle mentioned that Midwest Groundcovers (one of our wholesale vendors that I have bought most of my plant material from) was having a cart sale in their retail section this morning. Which meant that you put everything you can on a cart and the total price is $75.00. Which comes out to be cheaper than my wholesale pricing even with my discount. So we decided that we would check it out.

Well I came out of there today with about 30 1 gal. perennials, two large shrub roses, and some groundcover. Sounds like a lot to plant right? Well the planting part is easy really . . . the labor intensive part for me at this point is prepping the beds to be planted. I have an area for about half of it almost ready to go, but now I have to hurry and get the other bed all done so that I can plant it in the next two weeks before it gets too late in the season. So that is where my next week and weekend and possibly further will be spent.

The somewhat depressing part is that so much of what I planted this year was done so late in season that I really didn't get to appreciate it . . . so next spring should be awesome.

What I forgot to mention that just when I finish planting all of this I will have the bulbs that I ordered delivered and then there will be planting all of those. Whew . . . this is gonna get tiring.

Just another year as a cubs fan . . .

It has been another great baseball season leading to the fall classic. Both Chicago teams have done well, both are in the playoffs and it is looking like it could be a very exciting October. But then I get reminded that I am a cubs fan . . . and as a cubs fan I should be accustomed to constant disappointments and a team that manages to blow any lead they have the moment they get to the playoffs. So . . . after blowing the first round with three straight losses to the Dodgers . . . here's to you cubbies and continuing your 100 year tradition of disappointing your fans by choking when it really counts.

Am I Really This Easy To Figure Out?

I have been working in my office for a few years now and am coming up on my third fall season. Every year one of the admin girls (Terri) and I both start getting ready as fall rolls around because fall means pumpkin time. And I don't mean cute little decorative pumpkins or pumpkin carving; I mean to eat. In the fall all of the sudden pumpkin is everywhere: milkshakes, cream cheese, pancakes, cookies, bread, muffins . . . etc. And she and I share the same love of anything and everything pumpkin. So every year we both bring each other whatever we find and the rest of the office just roll their eyes and laugh at us.

Well with my birthday coming up this weekend . . . our new designer (Melissa) decided she wanted to do something for me. Very nice of her. I was out of the office most of the day yesterday and when I got back there was a post it note on my desk to look in the fridge. So when I went to the fridge I found a pumpkin pie and a can of redi-whip. Talk about a way to end a Friday. So the girls all got together for a "meeting" in the conference room and we had birthday pie.


Admittedly, pumpkin pie is one of my all time favorite things. This makes two out of the last three years when I have had pumpkin pie in place of a birthday cake. Both times I didn't ask for the substitution, but friends made it for me. Which begs the question . . . am I really this easy to figure out?

Reminding Myself Why I Love The City

So I was downtown today for work which seems to be happing more often than it used to. Melissa and I had a meeting with one of our Michigan Avenue clients so I left early to make sure that regardless of traffic I would for sure get there in time. The meeting was at 10:00 and I pulled off Congress Parkway at 9:00 (for anyone not in the city that would normally be at most 10-15 minutes away). As I turn onto Michigan things seem to be a little backed up and I just leave it to traffic in the city. Well as we continue to not move and my time is running out much faster than I would like I am forced off Michigan Avenue and onto State Street to keep going north. Melissa calls me and she is even further behind me (keep in mind we should both have been ridiculously early to this meeting). So I finally get around it and part at Millennium Park.

I come out of the parking garage beneath the park and it is a beautiful day . . . one of those days that just reminds me why I love the city. It was bright and sunny and warm outside and the park was just beautiful. I was ahead of Melissa so I took a minute to walk around. Actually when Melissa and I were done with our meeting we took a minute to walk through part of the park and there was music in the amphitheater and we walked through the Lurie Garden . . . all pretty cool.

In any case . . . as I got closer to the building that I was headed too for my meeting I discovered the reason behind the crazy traffic and detours. There was a fire in one of the buildings . . . not a big fire, but a fire none the less. And as everyone know a fire in Chicago requires at least:


15 fire trucks.


20 Police Cars


and 6 road closures. Oh the joy of the big city.

Very Exciting!!

I am not one to toot my own horn, but I am pretty excited about this. I do work at a couple locations along Michigan Avenue (The Magnificent Mile) and there is a competition every year with all of the "Gardens of the Magnificent Mile" and awards given. The top award requires an all but perfect score and is rarely given out. Two years ago we received this award for one of our sites and it was the first time in five years that it had been awarded. Then this year that same site was once again awarded the top honor. So for an award that is rarely handed out, I am so excited that we received it two out of three years. It really is a great statement about the awesome company that I work for and the fabulous team that I have. Really I couldn't be more proud of them. So I just had to share my proud moment with all of you.