SpiceStack Commerical Shoot

Winter was a very busy time for Lauren's SpiceStack business. Here are some photos taken during the shoot (at my Aunt's house in the city). As you can see, it was a lot of equipment and a lot of people. We were all in hollywoodland, if only for a few days.

Jason's 26th Birthday

Here are some photos of celebrating Jason's 26 birthday on 12/05/07. We had dinner with the Greenwood family and puppies one night. On Jason's actual birthday we went to Hidden Shamrock to watch the UVA b-ball game with some friends from our flag football team. Good times.

September in San Diego

We started September with a trip to San Diego, where we stayed at the Hyatt Manchester Grand downtown. We walked to the Gaslamp district a couple night for dinner, visited Coronado Beach (awesome!), and visited our friend Kyle in Pacific Beach and my old boss Richard and his wife in Laguna Beach. We also almost died in a car crash.

Later in the month I visited Sheila in Richmond for a great weekend. Other than that, its been alot of bears and cubs games and some unusually warm weather.

August

Jason and I have had a busy couple of weeks. We celebrated my family's summer birthdays (Aunt Melissa, Katherine, Mom, and Dottie) at the Riemers. I brought stuffed mushrooms that were a big hit. Then, the birthday celebration for Katherine continued (as Katherine's birthday celebrations often do) with a party at her new apartment near Southport. Jill was in town visiting Chris, so she came too. The next day we hung out with Jill's friend Laura, who was visiting from DC. Then we went to a 311 concert the at Northerly Island - which turned out to be a really cool venue and great show.




I'm getting ready to go to San Diego with Jason for a last-gasp-of-summer vacation. Stay tuned for pics....

4th of July in Arlington Heights

Summer is passing by quickly. I spent a week in North Carolina with my family in June. Chris Ballard moved in wth Jason the last week of June and then the Ballard rents came to visit Chicago. We had a great dinner at Santorini in greektown with my parents too. Then Jason and Chris got hooked up with a big t.v. for the apartment. Then I went to Michigan with Mom's side of the family to chill on the boat at the beach (well, never actually made it to the beach because the boating was so awesome)!

Then we had a nice long visit from our favorite NoVa buddies (and I only say NoVa because I think tony hates that expression). Yes, we hung with Ryan and Corey Jankowitz and Tony Gabour. Amoung the list of thinks that went down that week are seeing The Transformers and Knocked Up, visiting the Taste of Chicago, gambling at the racetrack, having a party at the Greenwood's AH house, and throwing a party at Jason's apartment. We had so much fun, as you can see from these pictures.

Matt's Birthday Party

Matt Schaeffer turned 27 last week and threw a birthday party at his apartment. We began the night with MANY balloons, the IU traditional drinking game "sink the biz", and signing and dancing. We met Matt's new roomie Luke who made a special greek (or Lithuanian?) dip that was yummy and not very healthy. Jason and I finally left around 1:30AM and I was definitely out of commission for most of the next day. Thanks Matt - it was well worth it :-)

Cubs White Sox Game at Wrigley

A few weekends ago, Mike Islin invited Jason and I to the Cubs vs. Sox game at Wrigley field. We met at Mike's house for some bags games (Jimbo and I dominated!) and a new drink of Lemonade and Beer (yes, mixed together, surprisingly yummy).

Joanna's Iowa State Graduation

This weekend I travelled to Ames, Iowa to watch Joanna graduate from the Iowa State School of Design. We had a long day on Saturday with two graduation ceremonies, but it was fun!! Joanna seemed very happy to be getting out of there, if for nothing else but to finally catch a little sleep. We had a great dinner at Sam and Gabe's in Des Moines that night.

Chris Ballard also graduated from James Madison University this weekend. Congrats guys.

Jason's Wall Mural

Here are a few photos of Jason's wall mural. I was skeptical, but it turned out pretty cool.

The Painted Apartment

Saturday was painting day. It took forever, but it paid off!

Behr paint colors: Wave Crest, Winter Lake, Gobi Desert, and Stone Hearth.

Jason's Logan Square Pad

It's official! Jason has purchased a new residence at 3211 W. Altgeld in Logan Square.

This neighborhood is northwest of downtown Chicago. Wikipedia describes it well: "The neighborhood is home to a diverse population comprising Latinos (primarily Mexican and Puerto Rican, with some Cuban) and Eastern Europeans, as well as a younger "progressive" crowd comprising primarily white, college-educated artists and professionals primarily from middle-class backgrounds who are attracted to the diversity and "bohemian" lifestyle." Bohemian is one way to put it!!!

I will try to post more pictures as we tackle painting and furnishing.

Lauren's 25th Birthday

My 25th birthday was special because I got to spend time with my family and friends. Jason and I started the day in Arlington Heights where we had lunch and cake with Grandmommy and Grandaddy, Aunt Melissa and Uncle Jeff, Katherine, and my immediate family - including Joanna who was home from college on spring break! Then we went back into the city for a quick Julius Meinl dinner. Joanna and Emily joined us at Red Ivy bar in Wrigleyville for drinks. The St. Patrick's Day celebration was in FULL swing by 9PM as it seemed like a lot of people had started drinking quite early in the day. We saw my friend Greg Tiltz and his girlfriend. Then we went to another bar and saw Lauren McCarthy. All in all, it was a very enjoyable day - thanks to everyone who called, texted, bought me drinks, etc!

Passing the Winter with Friends

Here's some pictures of recent good times with friends.

Jason's perfect pour:

Mike Smith occasionally drops by Chicago for a break from law school.

I saw Diana Zeigler for the first time in over a year! Steve's Ananda was also in town before flying off to never-never land (Tokyo). Jeff Gong was in the house too. We went to Vintage and then Rainbow Room near Damen and Division.

Kyle dropped by Chicago one night on a layover from San Diego to Richmond. We took him to Jake's on Clark. This was AFTER Mike Islin's beer pong tournament.

Football Season

Here are some pictures from our 2006 football season.

We went to the Colts/Patriots AFC game in Indianapolis thanks to some tickets from Jason's Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary Ellen.











We went to the Riemers to watch the Bears in the Super Bowl. Despite the loss, it was lots of fun!

DC Trip

We travelled to DC in late January to visit with friends. We were celebrating Tony's 25th birthday and catching the Red Hot Chili Peppers (and Gnarles Barkley) at Verizon Center.

We stayed at the Washington DC Hyatt. Jason got upgrades to a suite - it was awesome!

I stopped by the Mall in DC to meet up with my Mom and Melissa for a peace march. There were over 500,000 people there to protest the war in Iraq.

Then Jason and I travelled to Richmond to visit with Sheila and Kyle. Sheila's new house near the fan district was amazing and huge! We met up with some of their friends in what was probably the smokiest bar I have ever been to...yeah Richmond!