4.17.11

11:44 am

Shari and I threw a baby shower for Lindsay's little bambina arriving at the end of May.  It was such a nice afternoon.  The shower started at 10:30am and I honestly thought people would probably be gone by 12:30 at the latest.  Instead our little group stuck around and talked until the late afternoon.  Always a great time with these ladies!

3.26.11

Shari and I made plans to get together at Panera for breakfast and to talk about her wedding this summer. I came armed with my laptop, prepared to talk about invitations and centerpieces.  Instead, we walked in and I saw Lindsey and said to Shari, "oh hey look!  Lindsey's here...wait, so is Lindsay....and Dizzy?"  When I saw Diz (who lives 1.5 hours away and had never met Lindsay or Lindsey), it became clear that this breakfast was not planned to talk about wedding stuff...it was for my birthday!  It was the best.

Later in the day, things just got better.  My mom, Gina and I started off our evening at the spa - massages for them, facial for me....and then we met up with the men and went to PF Changs for dinner.  Love that honey shrimp.

2.4.11

We were the obnoxious group that shows up to a Friday Fish Fry with 12 people...and Eleanore had her baby the next day!

10.31.10

Confession: for the past 5ish years, Halloween was not my favorite holiday. Actually, it was probably my least favorite holiday. I used to work at a place that planned for Halloween celebrations and activities for children for about two months, culminated by a 4 day event. We were also required to work all 4 long days, while dressed in costume. Needless to say, I was pretty much "over" halloween by the time October 25th rolled around.

Finally this year, I turned a corner and decided to embrace the holiday. I even crafted our gnome costumes from top to bottom! Here are a few of my other faves from the party:

and the winner of the costume contest, Ghandi.

9.25.10

Last weekend we participated in the highly anticipated Curd Crawl 2010. Lindsay (pictured) organized this event and it is exactly what it sounds like: the concept of a pub crawl, except instead of sampling beers, we sampled the best cheese curds Madison has to offer...except we also took part in our fair share of drinking beer too.

The Crawl started out at Dotty Dumpling's Dowry, followed by State Street Brats, The Plaza, and The Old Fashioned and finished up at The Great Dane. We consumed a lot of curds, my friends. We picked up a few other random crawlers with us along the way as well...who happened to be from Ellsworth, WI, which is the cheese curd capital of Wisconsin. What are the chances, people!? It was kismet!

Lindsay made official ballots and we all took the judging quite seriously. Plus points went to those places that offered multiple dipping sauces, good appearance, gooeyness, etc. Dotty's offered no dipping sauces and actually charged for a side of ranch. cheap! 0 points for sauces there! By the time we got to the Great Dane, we could only choke down 1 curd per person, but we all were troopers and got it done. At the end of the night we took a poll on our favorite curds of the day and I think the majority said Old Fashioned. Prior to the crawl, I would have definitely said my favorites were from there as well, but The Plaza totally won me over and they might have scooted its way to the #1 spot. Overwhelming worst curd went to Brats. They were starchy and hardly even melty. You have been warned.

5.6.10

Lindsay is one my "new" pals in Madison. As in a brand new friend at the ripe old age of 29. Well, I met her last year, so technically 28. Anyway, brand new friends are kind of rare as you grow older, but I'm glad she was introduced into our group of friends. She is getting married in Keystone, CO in a week, so we had a little "shower" for her. We didnt do the typical wedding shower stuff...instead just celebrated the fact that she is getting married! Nancy was our host and she made it French themed. We all sat around the dinner table and had savory crepes (which were awesome and i have thought about a few times since having them), drank wine, had brie and showered Lindsay with a fun gift basket we put together. Fun!

4.20.10

I went out to The Icon with girls last Tuesday night. We are attempting to make this a more regular thing. 1st Monday of the month. Let's hope it sticks!

4.25.09

shotski.