Affidavit Ballot Confirmed!

I received confirmation that my vote counted in the last election. Nothing like receipt of such news in April following last November's election. Government efficincy!

Pens the Travel Souvenir

When I travel I buy pens. Being a part of two amazing teams at work, I now need to buy 22 pens! It's always a nightmare to remove the price tags, but it's fun to bring a little bit of other cities back to the group.

Pinkies Up

Andrea and I had a nice trip to Chicago...
Today was spent buying up souvenirs and spending a bit more QT before heading off to separate airports to our return flights home. It's not so often we spend time just the two of us so it was a nice weekend. This photo, taken with tiny cups of drinking chocolate that the barista gave us to try along with our white chocolate soy mochas. Being goofballs we decided to take a photo, "pinkies up".

Chicago Tourism Day 2

What a fun day, wandering around in the sunshine of the Windy City. I always have such trouble deciding on a single photo from amazing days like this... So a collage it is!

The first 2 shots from our early morning walk into millennium park to see the bean before it was over run with other tourists. And the final two are from my afternoon walk past the Art Institute and into Grant Park to see the Buckingham Fountain, which wasn't yet on for the spring season. Such a bummer. But a beautiful day in Chicago!

Chicago Tourist

I wandered around in the sunshiny day while Andrea was at her conference. I had a fun lunch at Wow Bao. We changed hotels. We lost at the Book of Mormon lottery. We split a salad and Mac n cheese for dinner. We walked around town and came back to the hotel to turn in early. Yay vacation!

Ann Sather

Phenomenal cinnamon roll, good coffee, good breakfast.... Ann Sather was good to us today, so today's photo collage honors her. Her portrait hung in the foyer, her cinnamon roll, Delicious! And a portion of the Swedish muralling along the walls. So cute and quaint. I'd go again.

Art at Epic

As I walked around I took photos of the fun things I saw. Last year they told us that as new employees hit their first anniversary, they are able to hit the Madison art fairs and choose art for the campus.

Some is themed, some is random. Here is a good sampling.

Madison Capitol

My second visit to Madison and I'm still excited to see the Capitol building just across the street from the hotel. Right in the center of everything, restaurants, shops & hotels all around.

Last year I only took photos in daylight... So I thought a night time shot would be nice to post today.

Manhattan from the Air

I had a flight to Madison, Wisconsin leaving La Guardia at 6:20. Delta called just as I was leaving for the airport to say it was delayed until 9:40. Then to 10:21. Then to 8:33. Then to 7. We ended up leaving the gate at 7:44 and got off the ground around 8:30. It's been quite an evening, but we did fly over Manhattan and I got a pretty cool photo.

Craft Time

Crafting with Ms. Sandra. We made cherry blossom trees from tissue and colored pencils ... We glued, we drew, we cut. It was a blast!

Central Park Steps

I took a long walk through Central Park and stopped to take a few photos along the way. My favorite shot of the evening was a set of steps near the Bethesda fountain.

Suspect in Custody

There has been so much press, so much breaking news, so many scary headlines about the suspects of the Boston Marathon Bombing this week.

It was an exciting culmination to watch the police, bomb squad and intelligence agencies work together to apprehend the 2nd suspect, tonight.

Pre-Tulips

Walking on Park Avenue, I saw this patch of tulips and thought it was so weird that not even one had bloomed. I'll try to get one of them in full bloom in a few days.

Sleep Inefficiency

I have always had a tough time sleeping, but this app has shown me how poorly I actually do sleep. Waking up between 4-5am, totally unideal! Bad REM cycles. Being really bad at sleeping is only compounded by an app showing my inefficiency. Blah.

Ice Cream from the Container

I'm not typically an ice cream from the container type girl... But today I just wanted a few bites. New flavors, well, new to me flavors of Ben & Jerry's were on sale at Gristedes the other night. Dinner wasn't the best, so I had just enough room for a few bites of Coffee Caramel Buzz!

Data Nerd.

I am not normally one to sport swag from vendors, but today this was too fitting to summarize my day and recent life not to use it. Thanks, Dan, and new relic!

AYCE Sushi

It's a different experience at all you can eat sushi with the girls rather than the boys. Shawn and Jonathan eat like they haven't ever eaten before. Oli and Laura ate enough to say we've gotten our money's worth, but not so much to pop the buttons on our pants. It was a fun night out with the girls!

Cherry Blossoms & Shopping

Christine, Shawn and I made the trek into New Jersey, today. We went to see the cherry blossoms in Branch Brook Park. They weren't in full bloom quite yet, but we took some photos and headed on our merry way.

We drove through Christine's old stomping grounds & the on to the Mall at Short Hills. We did some shopping, had some lunch and shopped some more. Then to Kohl's since Shawn and I both had Kohl's cash burning holes in our pockets. Dollar Tree, Big Lots and Ikea rounded out the trip. Now I'm exhausted and ready for bed!

April Showers

This weather is killing me. Raging sinus headaches every day. Bright and sunny one day, cold and rainy the next. Walking to work in the pouring rain, I took this photo.

Additional Layers

Someone has been adding additional layers to our diagram of database comparisons. OBD was added as a layer yesterday, and today we noticed Wu at the top after Scott added RZA.

Working with IT guys, am I right?

Cheesecake Brownies

I had a lunch with some colleagues today. I offered to make some baked goods... I had a craving for cheesecake brownies so I threw together a batch this morning.

I forgot to take a photo before I cut into the pan. They turned out great! Perfectly baked and tasty!

Wyoming Photos

I framed 5x7s of landscapes and animals from my trip to Wyoming last September. This place is actually coming together.

Jekyll, Hyde & Constantine

Constantine, oh Constantine, was a half step too slow, missed notes, terrible accent on certain words. Tragic. Two thumbs down.

I had high hopes for Jekyll & Hyde, but I understand why it's only a 13 week run. It is not good!

Fortunately, both the female leads and the ensemble were amazing. Marginal redemption for a poor title character!

Culturally Diverse People

Jonathan and I were walking through the Rainbow store today, trying to find fabric glue (which was in the hardware section, obviously). But while we were looking through the craft aisle I couldn't help but take note of the paper dolls, size "wee kid" and "big kid". I shouted after Jonathan, "at least I now know where to go if I need 'Culturally Diverse People.'"

Soup Kitchen 4

Chaotic day at the soup kitchen, but we finished with plenty of time even with the rocky start. I grabbed a photo of my favorite lady before I spent some time talking with her today.

Sick Day Float

I took a sick day today, so there wasn't anything photo worthy except my root beer float. Love a great root beer float!

Leftover Easter Ham

My calendar was back to back and overlapping meetings, so I brought leftover ham, laughing cow cheese, potato chips, sweet Hawaiian rolls and mustard for slider size ham sandwiches for lunch.

Then made spaghetti carbonara for dinner also with the leftover ham.

Jacked Doritos

I tried a new flavor of Doritos today. Jacked, ranch dipped hot wings. Ah-may-zing. New favorites. Though, the corners of my mouth are still a bit firey.

The Sink Drains

If you've been to my apartment you know the tragedy of my bathroom sink. My uncle worked some magic & ended the tragedy! The sink drains!

Jasper at Carnegie Hall

The culmination of the family's trip to NY was watching Jasper play percussion at Carnegie Hall. We weren't allowed to take photo during the performance, but I did take a few shots before and after as he was setting up. So fun to see my little 15 year old cousin playing Carnegie Hall!