Happy Birthday, Brent!

The Thanksgiving Baby turned 28 today!  We celebrated with a surprise dinner/get-together with his friends last night.  Adam and Justin met us at Sapporo, a Japanese steakhouse, for dinner and then we met up with the Sinders, Jonathan and Megan, and Derrick at Scotty's later.

Sadly, I didn't think to take a group picture at Scotty's, but taking one while we were enjoying this cake would have been the perfect time to do it.  The cake was tasty and Brent was pretty pumped about it.

                                               

                                                

The party ended way into the night at a karaoke bar in Carmel, where the Johnson brothers entertained the interesting crowd with hits like "Ice, Ice Baby", "High Enough", and a little Bobby Brown action - "My Perogative".  Classic.

When Derrick couldn't keep up with Ice, Ice Baby, he leaned on his sweet dance moves to get through the song.

Thank you, wonderful friends, for making this "the best birthday I've had in a long time".  That's a direct quote from the birthday boy himself as he opened presents and ate breakfast in bed this morning. 

Thanksgiving 2009

“We should just be thankful for being together. I think that’s what they mean by ‘Thanksgiving’, Charlie Brown.”

We had another great Thanksgiving break, which technically isn't over yet.  (YIPPEE!)  We left for Kendallville right after work on Wednesday, dropped off the dog, and went back to Fort Wayne for dinner and drinks with our friends.  Since we're the only out-of-towners, they are good about humoring us when we request to eat at Casa everytime we get together.  I love those people.

Stormy and Nick joined us the next day for the Thanksgiving feast in the new addition.  Does this look like a Norman Rockwell painting or what?

Ashley stopped by before dinner so I could see her pretty girl in her turkey bow.

Bonnie had a field day mixing it up with Little Roxanne.  She served her post as the Thanksgiving Savage well.

Dirty dog...

Bonnie escaped and made a beeline for the woods.  We watched her little white body prancing through the leaves and laughed and laughed.  It was fun for all until it was time to chase her down the road and give her a bath.

The happy engaged couple!  Congratulations!

The Muppets Do Queen

Two posts in two days?!  What's going on, right?  I stumbled across this on another blog today and had to share it.  Oh I love the Muppets.  And Queen.

Is This Really Thanksgiving Week...Already?

Maybe we say this every year, but I can't believe how quickly time has passed and that it's already Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow is our feast at work and on Wednesday we'll head north to my parents'.  Wowsas!  Although, I know it must be true because basketball season is in full force and I'm upstairs seeking asylum from all the yelling at the TV. 

Speaking of other things I can't believe, how 'bout that Colts-Patriots game?  I thought for sure that it was over.over.over.  Here's a quote from our fine governor, Mitch Daniels, upon awarding Joe McConnell (voice of Purdue sports) the Sagamore of the Wabash this week:        

“I told him I actually did give two of these this week. Because it’s for wisdom and judgment and benefits to the state of Indiana, I did give one to (New England Patriots coach) Bill Belichick .”

Speaking of the Sagamore of the Wabash, I have to confess that it is written in my dream book that I want to someday be given that honor.  I'm not sure yet why I would deserve the award, but I guess I better get crackin'.  At this point I think saving orphans from a burning building could do it, or maybe starting a not-for-profit to help veterans or something.  Any dream of making great contributions to the field of science or of being an Olympic champion, well I'd say those are out the window.  I'm going to be on the lookout for orphans that need saving.

I recently started taking yoga...and not just any yoga...Hot Yoga.  I think it sounds so much cooler with the "Hot" in the name.  Nothing's different besides the room being 90 degrees, which makes you sweat like you've never sweat before.  Alli got me started, and Rachel joined tonight, so I think we should call this Hot Friend Yoga.  Or Hot Yoga, for Friends.  Or Yoga for Friends who are Hot.  Because it's 90 degrees in here.  (Sorry, I'm trying to do a Michael Scott thing here, but I'm not positive it's working).

And while I'm on bad comedy routines, here's a little conversation I had with my friend Emma today as I was driving around in circles in Broad Ripple at rush hour trying to pick up the ham and turkey for tomorrow...

L: "Aghghghghhhhh, I can't find this f-ing ham store!!!"
L: swings the car around in the parking lot "Sorry Emma, I about dropped the big f-bomb there."
E: "Oh.  That's okay.  I just thought you were talking about going to see your family in Effingham over Thanksgiving."

ba-da-ching!

I leave you with a few pictures of our recent happenings to close out this very disjointed post, even if it means rescuing the camera from the yelling pit downstairs... (I go to yoga to de-stress, so unless I stay up here I consider it an hour wasted...)

Starting off a roadtrip to Wisconsin the right way...with a Cherry Limeade

With Lindsay and Craig on our trip

Camp Randall, Madison, WI - Stop #4 on my tour of the Big Ten Stadiums

Our first trip to Lucas Oil

The boys and their classic pose

Electric!

Puppy girl, taking a break from mischief.

Happy Thanksgiving, blog friends!  I hope to see some of you over the holiday!

Oh Veterans (and Veterans Day), How I Love Thee...

Thank you, veterans!  Thank you for defending our country today, thank you for laying down your lives, and thank you for giving us the pride to tear up during the singing of our National Anthem every.single.time. 

By the way, I struggled with wanting to put an apostrophe in Veterans Day, I guess because grammar is important to me I don't want to look like an idiot on the internet.  Here's the official ruling from the Department of Veterans Affairs:

Q. Which is the correct spelling of Veterans Day?
a. Veterans Day
b. Veteran's Day
c. Veterans' Day

A. Veterans Day (choice a, above). Veterans Day does not include an apostrophe but does include an "s" at the end of "veterans" because it is not a day that "belongs" to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans.

Huh.  Should this ever show up while you're a contestant of a grammar gameshow, you know where to send the check.
We immensely enjoyed one of our job perks today - having Veterans Day off.  I had five objectives for the day.  Here they are:

1. A good work out
2. Laundry/iron
3. Email about family pictures
4. Store for toothpaste, contact solution, etc. since this was the last possible day I could live without them
5. Blog

Things I added to the list:
1. Buy shoes online at Nine West (big sale, check it out)
2. Find long-lost classmates on Facebook
3. Look at photocards templates 
4. Eat at Fogo de Chao

I don't think that "Laundry/iron" is an item that will EVER leave the list...there's always more to do.  And it's only the two of us!  Clothing management - not one of my better skills.

Anyway, we had a great, relaxing day.  We'd been looking forward to using our gift card at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse downtown.  It was a great experience.  They have a fancy schmancy salad bar and bring all the meat you could ever eat to your table.  You have a little card that you flip to the green side if you want more, and then flip to red if you need a break. 

After lunch we stopped by the new Marion County library downtown.  It's been opening for awhile, so it's only new to us, but it's also been awhile since I've stepped foot in any library.  I finally signed up for a library card now that I've been here almost five years.  I'm anticipating having more time to read very, very soon.... 

Why, you ask?  Well I'll tell you why - it's because I only have FIVE MORE GRAD CLASSES until I'm done with my MBA.  Wowsers!  December 3rd is it, folks! 

Here is my grad class after our presentations last night.  I love these people!  It's roughly the same group of 12 that have gone through the program together for the last two and a half years.  I will miss them!