Posts I reference in my vlog: My First Favorite Aerobics Instructor, Mary Jen’s Grouse Mountain Climb Liz’s First 5K And in case you need a reminder: What I’m working towards. My C25K Week 2 Update My C25K Week 3 Update ©2010 Suburban Scrawl
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Not As Dangerous As Tina Fey & Steve Carrell’s Version, But Our Date Night Was Pretty Exciting, Too.
Our date night last night turned out to be way more interesting (and even exciting!) than we expected. First of all, we left our house in the western burbs at about 7:30 p.m. The Blue Man Group show (which the older boy and his girlfriend were attending: read yesterday’s post if you missed it!) was at 10:00 p.m., and we wanted to leave plenty of time in case the Eisenhower was as terrible as it usually is. We were shooting to get to the Lakeview area between 9-9:30. Miracle of miracles, it only took us about 45 minutes to get there, which left us with a new issue: what to…
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The One In Which We Stay Up Way Past Our Bedtime
Originally, tonight was going to be just an average Saturday evening at home. You know: dinner, tv shows or a DVD movie, the news, a few minutes of SNL, and then lights out. (We’re old.) Not anymore. Jim and I have a date tonight. Pretty exciting stuff, sort of. Sort of? Yes. You see, the date doesn’t begin until we would normally already be in our jammies. The older boy and his girlfriend have tickets to see Blue Man Group at 10:00 p.m. Our family LOVES Blue Man Group. Jim and I have seen it so many times I’ve lost count: I think it’s up to five times. Maybe six.…
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Storming MSI Chicago
On Saturday afternoon, the big birthday activity was the enjoyment of the Museum of Science and Industry. I always love going to MSI because it’s the museum I visited most as a child. It’s really cool that my boys love it, too. The newest exhibit at MSI is “Science Storms”. It was phenomenal, and I’m not even crazy about science OR weather systems. Here’s what it looks like from the Grand Hall in the middle of the museum: They have a tornado (yes, INSIDE! and SAFE!) that you can control: You can create your own rainbows by manipulating prisms in combination with sunlight: You can see what happens when you…
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Having Fun At Uncle Fun
We had quite the weekend, what with the older boy’s birthday and Father’s Day. The birthday festivities actually started on Saturday and finished up on Monday night. We spent nearly twelve hours in the city on Saturday. The plan? Go to four places: Uncle Fun, Wow Bao for lunch, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the House of Blues for dinner. Well, we fit it all in, and had a great time. I’m going to tell you about Uncle Fun today, and I’ll write about Wow Bao on my review site in the next few days. Uncle Fun is one of my favorite places in Chicago. It’s a little…
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Couch To 5K Update: ’80s (Leg) Explosion
Here we are again; it’s time to give you my weekly Couch to 5K update. If you didn’t read my first update, you can catch up here. You know what they say about the “best laid plans”, right? (No? Okay, click here.) Don’t worry, I didn’t quit the program. Remember, though, how my plan was to actually do the workout FOUR times per week instead of three, to accelerate my training a bit, and that the fourth day of the week would be a repeat of the day before? The plan was to NOT move ahead to a more challenging workout on the fourth day, because I was worried I’d…
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Help A Sista Out! (Please!!)
Remember Piper? She’s the friend of mine (and of so many of you too!) who has had, shall we say, a really bad year so far. And that’s a pretty big underestimation. After getting the bad news that turned her life upside down without any warning at all, she’s been struggling. And then, about ten days ago, her car caught on fire, leaving her without transportation to go, well, anywhere, including driving her boys where they need to go AND getting herself to the college where she just started classes. A bunch of us decided that we needed to try and do something that would help Piper, and so…we’re having…
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Parenting Phase One? Complete.
To our Older Son: Eighteen years ago today, you were born. It was not only the first day of summer and the longest day of the year in a sunlight-to-moonlight ratio kind of way, but also, as we’ve told you many times while grinning from ear to ear, the longest day of our lives up to that point. You weren’t the easiest baby, either. Of course, we could have had it way worse but you used to cry and cry for seemingly no reason at all. And then there was that issue regarding your not tolerating being held by anybody except for me, for months. That includes your father who,…
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If My Wallet Were As Big As His Heart, We’d Be In Business.
The other day, I was at work when the older boy called me from his job (well, one of them: he’s doing graphic design part-time by day and hosting/bussing at a restaurant part-time by night), very excited about something. “I have a GREAT idea for a Father’s Day gift for Dad,” he said. “Oh really?” I asked. “What is it?” “Well, we are right next door to one of those places that rebuilds and soups up cars, and I’ve been noticing an old Camaro in the parking lot. I went into the auto place and asked about it, and they said it belongs to my boss.” Jim’s dream car is…
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Just Dessert.
Yesterday I attended the annual Wilton Tent Sale in my neck of the woods with Michelle, who–amazingly–is an area native and just found out about it. I was amused when she told me that because I often call her when I need advice or suggestions for things in the Chicago area. In fact, I’m just remembering that, when I had to drive to Wooddale (a suburb I had to look up on Mapquest because I had no clue about its location) on Thursday to pick up a new glass microwave plate for work at Magic Chef because I refused to pay the $10 shipping in addition to the cost of…