We're Going To Need A Few Drinks If We Actually Do This...

Megan's work, AIAChicago, decided to throw us a Martini Engagement Party last Friday after work. It was very nice of them to do that for us and a lot of fun. Pictured above is my Orange Bitter Martini with Gin. It was damn good.


Here's Steve. He's an interesting guy. Every time I talk with him, some fascinating story or event happens. This Martini event is one of them. I had no idea he was such a Martini artist. He had this whole thing planned out with chilled glasses, ingredients, and crafted each drink to perfection by rubbing various fruit and stuff. It was amazing just to watch.


Here's Megan cutting up some Mango for a few drinks.


Here's the team at work


Here's Steve explaining the fine balance of making a Martini, "Well, it's a lot of alcohol with a small splash of juice." And that is why Megan and I ended up at Gino's East and ate a whole pizza afterwards...

PS - Has anyone else been watching the "THIS" Movie Channel? It's like HBO that you get with an antennae, but only shows really terrible B movies. And, if you know me, I love B movies. They had Charles Blakely's Monster, Species III, and millions of others I've never heard of before. It's pretty awesome. I highly suggest it...

The Lone Star

Some old business to take care of: Here's one of a ba-zillion examples of homage being paid to the newest Chicago-kid taking the world by storm. This is on the side of a gyro hut on Halsted, north of Fullerton.

On to Austin, Texas: featuring presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush


WELCOME TO AUSTIN, TEXAS! The best feature of the airport was the rental car lot was directly across from the terminal. In a state with very limited mass transit, it's a very necessary feature. I was in town for the Convio Summit Conference. For those who don't know, Convio is a database company that specializes in software for nonprofits.


Here's my hotel and the place of the conference. It's the Renaissance Hotel in the far northwest section of Austin at highways 1, 360, and 183. Just as a side note, I've never seen so many stoplights on multiple lane limited access highways before...


When did I start traveling in style?


Look at this bathroom. It's four times larger than my current apartment's bathroom. Then again, the room costs $140 more per day than my place. And that's with the discount...


Here's the atrium where many of the activities took place. They also had some stuff down the stairs. The most important thing downstairs though was the pool. Still only 4' deep, but...


"Oh, so how is it back in Chicago? 40 degrees you say... Well, it's alright down here in Austin. I mean, it's mid-November and it's 80 degrees."


Texas State Capitol. It's a massive state capitol. They really do everything bigger in Tah-has.




The odd thing is, everything says "Texas," "The Lone Star State," "Don't Mess With Texas," or "Texas Pride" in Texas. Everything except the capitol building. It might have said it on the sidewalk, but that was covered with cheap plastic mats...


Cool post-modern building downtown. They had lots of great old buildings too, but very difficult to take pictures of in the dark. Two oddities about downtown Austin: 1) they have a lot of loud nocturnal birds; 2) between the capitol building and the University of Texas are several blocks in every direction of 2-to-3 story parking garages. It's a vast wasteland from a future only Robocop could imagine...


Construction site downtown


Some kind of student gathering at U of T that appeared to rate six year olds wearing costumes. I didn't get it. I must be getting too old...




University of Texas-Austin's Main Building


One of main old Victorian homes downtown converted into a business and surrounded by skyscrapers.


That cool post-modern building again as seen through the alley of bars and live music joints.


ELLA! As many of you may know, my cousin Nick lives in Austin as well. So, while I had some time away from the conference, I visited him, his wife Kate, and his daughter Ella. She likes Care Bears and Little Mermaid.




Here's Ella giving her "pretty pose" in her Little Mermaid dress for the camera with Nick in the background.


Ella also made a very demanding and honorable request that I visit her house.


Back at the airport looking at strange artwork. "Keep Austin Weird..." I learned a lot and had a good time.

PS-Anyone have any idea why 7600 people have visited my blog since Sunday? Is it because the Kansas City Wizards player stole my name or the handball player from Germany? Are one of you a stalker that just can't get enough pics and banter? Just curious on my recent popularity...

Even My Dreams Weren’t This Good

For all you car guys reading my blog, here's the latest addition. Not sure what it is, but it's nice.


Albany Park has a sizable Middle Eastern population and this is a hooka for sale that was about the size of myself


Here's my co-workers, Christyn and Ruth, working on our top secret project. I'm sure more of this will be revealed at a later date.


Ok, so Thursday I was paid to go to a White Sox game. THIS IS MY DREAM JOB! Also, during the game there were four consecutive homeruns hit, which ties an MLB record.


After an organizational meeting, we went to the game!


Here's Nathan. He's a great guy and sits on the other side of my cubicle wall.


Our seats were along the third base line by the bullpen and foul pole. Three of the four consecutive homeruns were hit near us.


bullpen


Due the the Air & Water Show this weekend, the "Leapfrogs" or something like that flew into the stadium.


There were a ton of these guys


USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!


After the Sox game, went to Millennium Park to check out the tribute to Sun-Ra. Sun-Ra is a fairly interesting story along with being a good musician. He had a huge influence on George Clinton and others. Check him out at: http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~moudry/




Saying our final goodbyes to Ronan tonight. He had his going away party last weekend. Tonight, I helped him pack up his stuff into the Yaris. Megan gave him his personalized calendar. He left his apartment of the last 3 1/2 years for the last time. And, tomorrow morning will be on his way to Houston. Ronan, you will be missed...

Time of the Feast!

Rich, Megan's brother, was in town for Lollapolooza. By his rockin' devil horns, you can tell he's more of a Rage fan than a Wilco fan.


Just a few of the other people that were there...


Here's where I now work at the Children's Memorial Foundation of the Children's Memorial Hospital. I love my new job. It is so awesome. Here are some things about my first week:

1) everything (ie toilet, sinks, door handles) is reachable at kid's height.
2) there are millions of inspirational stories about sick kids
3) We held a 36-hour Radiothon on 101.9FM the Mix
4) We had a BBQ in the park for lunch on Thursday followed by a Blizzard at Dairy Queen
5) There's a new $1 billion hospital going up in Streeterville (downtown Chicago) that will be complete sometime in 2012.
6) They are constantly feeding us: Since I've been there I've had Panera Bread for breakfast a couple times, Outback Steakhouse, Pizza from a nearby restaurant called Pizanno's or something, Chipotle Burritos, and lots I turned down.
7) All my co-workers are so nice and are overachievers. So, I really have to up my game.
8) On Thursday, we are having a retreat at US Cellular field which includes watching the Sox play against the Royal.

AWESOME!


Stop by my office at B.015 sometime...


It's a little bare right now, BUT IT HAS A WINDOW!


One thing that's great about working at a place "where kids come first," is the fun stuff everywhere. It's great that my job encourages me to "play" because i naturally tend to do that anyway.


Here's the Radiothon in the lobby of the hospital


Here's a "trabby" (sp?). If I remember correctly, these are cars from Russia or Eastern Germany during the time of the USSR. When I was in Germany in 1997, they were all the rage for new kids learning to drive because they were very cheap. I want to say they cost only about 1000 marks, which was about $500 USD at the time.


Megan and Ronan at Ronan's going away party. It's the end of an era as Ronan moves to Houston to be with his lady and his great new job. It's a loss for us personally, but wish him all the luck of Ireland down in the heart of Texas!