See If You Notice A Theme

Here's Megan very happy with her Turtle Blizzard from Dairy Queen. If we didn't go to Dairy Queen "right now, summer would be ruined."


Here's the heart attack the DQ had waiting for me. As some of you may know, this is their "healthy choice" on the menu...



Oh sweet Irazu. I never had their Pepito Sandwich before, but I had to get it when it was listed as "Chicago's Favorite." I agree, it's a Midwestern Costa Rican delight.


So, as many of you have heard by now, my job is great. It's nothing but bubble gum and lollipops. There was a Sox game last week, a kickball game next week, and this week was model building. Here are a few pictures of the model our department submitted for a hospital competition. For those who don't know, Children's Memorial Hospital is constructing a $1 Billion hospital in downtown Chicago that will look like this. But, it will be constructed out of something a bit more stable than construction paper and double sided tape.








As "new guy," I was designated to work on the helipad and placing proper logos for the helicopter and ambulance.




Can you see the resemblance?


Here's a mock up of what the new Hospital's rooms are going to look like. All rooms will be private. The couch pull out into a bed for parents staying overnight. There's a private bathroom. Two TVs (one for the kid and the other for the parents). And they will have all sorts of artwork and other things. The patient rooms are so nice that I'd live in one should the hospital decide to rent a few out as apartments to employees.


Here's me, Jacob Dykema, and Megan outside of the L & L on Clark near Belmont. He was in town for a conference and we also spent some time over at My Thai and Exchequer the next day. Thanks for coming down, Jacob!


I got my first paycheck from Children's today and decided to make this fine purchase. Megan and I headed over to R.J. Grunts in Lincoln Park. This is the "Gruntburger" which is a hunk of meat slathered in bleu cheese and sauteed onions. MMMmmmm...


Such a delicate lady. So, the theme is food and work with Jacob thrown in for good measure.

Thanks for playing!

xoxo,
Mike

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!

Mike On the Mic - August 8th & 9th on the Mix 101.9

I probably won't be on the mic at all. But, we are having a Radioathon at work for 36 hours starting tomorrow morning. It's for a super good cause of providing quality children's healthcare. To make donations, please go to the link below:

https://secure3.convio.net/cmf/site/Donation2?df_id=1280&1280.donation=form1

PS - I will post images of my work and all the other stuff too once I have some more time. Sunday?

Lollapalooza starts this weekend. Are you going to be here?

A BBQ from a couple weeks ago at Brent, Angela, and Evan's place.


Noah and Evan


An over-the-shoulder shot of Andrew pondering the glory that is hot dogs


Rosie putting mustard on her dog while Mike looks like a prophet


It started to rain a bit, so everyone hid under the pine tree.


Always with a solution, Brent broke out the HUGE umbrella and it took three people to finally get it fully open.


The natural umbrella


Evan looking like a good Michigan man.


This is the reason why it took so long to post these. I lost another camera recently. Actually, I lost Megan's camera recently. For some reason, it just stopped functioning in camera mode. I wasn't very impressed with this Olympus. The pictures were kinda poor and blurry. It's battery monitor would say it's full right up until it was dead. The flash was weird. Oh, and it broke for no reason...


Here's the new camera. I'm back to Kodak. The last Kodak camera I had should have broke and it didn't for another couple years. So, here's to a new love...

I GOT A JOB-Y MC-JOBBERSON!!!

I GOT A JOB!!! I am a DEVELOPMENT FINANCIAL SERVICE SPECIALIST for CHILDREN'S MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION!!! I START AUGUST 4th and it's completely awesome!!! YEAH!!!

These Summer Days In Chicago...

I guess I forgot to put this one up last week. Megan was very upset. It's us at Johnny and Ruth's wedding at Michilinda Lodge along Lake Michigan


Megan and I went for a walk in Wicker Park and discovered this bizarre public school sculpture...


At my favorite grocery store, I found "Super Atomic Cake." If it wasn't $30, I'd buy it and see if it lived up to its name. It must have "yellow cake" uranium in it. You know, some of the weapons of mass destruction that the Bush Admin. lied about in Iraq? Oh political humor...


Some of the skateboards given out at the event by the Chicago Youth Skateboard Project. I guess it went well. Unfortunately, I couldn't go...


BBQ


Nick, Andrew, and Frances


SME and Cliff


Frances


Noah, Nick, and Nate. The three N's...


Why do you look so sad Amanda?


Brent and Angela


This is the Old Town School of Music's Roots and Folk Music Festival. It's a good festival. The weather held out and kept people away, but it was enjoyable this year.


The music area with the Seltzer Library in the background


I believe this band's name was "Unibrow."


This was a Columbian group and they sang about gas prices. They must really hate the cost of gas since Columbia highly subsidizes gas since they nationalized their oil resources and own the Citgo Oil Company.


Dance!


The weird thing is I've seen a lot of clown balloon animal people things lately...


Playing with rope!


This is why Starbuck's Coffee costs $10 a cup. That's approximately $120 per gallon. If you buy their coffee, you lose your right to complain about gas prices. Anyway, look at this crazy display at the Lincoln Music Festival (name?). Megan and I refer to this at the "Cover Bar Band Festival." There's a lot of Dudebros and Hussies with hit or miss music...


Just an interesting shot


Some bad band


Some slightly better band


Here's a dinosaur cake from Dinkle's Bakery on Lincoln.


There's nothing like a creepy baby cake


Here's El Tinajon Restaurant in Roscoe Village at 2054 W. Roscoe. It's a really good place. They specialize in Guatemalan food


Here's my pork chop, which came with a billion plantains.


Here's Megan's Chicken dinner


HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHERINE!!! Katherine celebrated her b-day at Goldie's in North Center at 3839 N. Lincoln. They're known for $3 wells, $1 PBRs, and $3 PBR pitchers. Coincidentally, it was Goldie's b-day the same night and they had balloons and a DJ.


I didn't really get this girl's name. Doreen? Torine? Her boyfriend's name was Noah and they were both nice from what I could tell over the obnoxiously loud DJ. Katherine's happy and Nick was around somewhere. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN KATHERINE!


So, I'm at Toys 'R Us and Governor Blagovich (sp?) is shopping there too. This is his security van. I couldn't get a picture of him unfortunately. But, when I bike to Megan's apartment, I pass his house with guards around it all the time. After he got elected, he put a little plastic Playskool playground thing in his front yard to remind voters that he's a "family" man.


A pretty city shot...

That's it from Chi-town.

xoxo,

Mike