Tuesday, May 29, 2007

WHEW!

What a FUN weekend!!! I'm rested up a little from it, but I'm still feeling the effects. We did so much in a short amount of time. Here are the highlights: (I'll put more details and pictures up soon!)
NYC on Friday: Karen, Mom, and Dad: 95 degrees and humid, not too busy. Saw Ground Zero, Wall St., Central Park (by carriage), Times Square and Grand Central. Then we drove up to New Hampshire and hung out with Jim, Lynne, Bob, and Maria
Saturday: boys went golfing, had an awesome breakfast (more like brunch, which turned into lunch), then we all went hiking up Mount Watatic (beautiful views!), then the boys went golfing again and the girls went shopping, then we all met at Chili's for dinner. Later there was some domination with Rumicube ;)
Sunday: Gloucester, Mass to go WHALE WATCHING! And we saw tons of whales! About 25, and we got some sweet pictures. We were out in the boat for about 4 hours. Then back up to NH to eat some pizza and watch The Perfect Storm (which took place in Gloucester).
Monday: Boys went golfing again and the girls went out for breakfast. Mom, Dad, and I drove back to Connecticut and I gave them a whirlwind tour of my town, and they met Marcy, Eric, and the boys and saw my house. Then I drove them to the airport...
FUN FUN FUN!!! I had a blast! Thanks everyone for such a great weekend!


Congratulations to Carmen and Brent! July 14 is the big day!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Sad/Happy

First of all I have to say that I really thought the Wings were going to go all the way! I think they could have taken it all. I'm not ready for their season to be over!! :(

MOM AND DAD are on their way!! Sort of. They're on their way down to Illinois to visit Kristin and Jason for a couple of days before they fly out here. I'm getting soooo excited for them to come! After today I only have one more day of work until Tuesday... Right now it feels like I have a million things to get done before they come, but it's all easy. Just takes time.

Tamara, Ellen, and I went for lunch yesterday at a restaurant that had outdoor seating. That was a great break in all of our days -- relaxing and having lunch outside in the beautiful weather.

Thoughts on American Idol: I wasn't too into it until about a month ago. When I saw Jordin sing Martina McBride's Broken Wings (the first time), she became my favorite. Just like in Season 4 when Carrie Underwood sang Independence Day by Martina. So I voted for Carrie, and last night I voted for Jordin. I hope she wins!

Monday, May 21, 2007

Flashback!!







One of the times when I was home (Christmas maybe?), I found my water camera... and I finally got it developed!! Here are a couple of photos from Grand Cayman!

Noooooooo!!

I literally felt like crying yesterday when the Wings lost in overtime. I was in a sad mood the whole rest of the day. NOT a good Sunday! I really have a feeling this is going to go to seven games (it better!!!), and game 7s are always so unpredictable... I'm just really HOPING they can bring it back to the Joe and triumph!!
The only two games of this series that I've watched were games 4 and 5... they lost both. I don't think I'll be watching game 6. Obviously it has nothing to do with me but I feel like I'm JINXING the games. So on Tuesday evening I'll be going to sleep, then waking up at midnight or so to check SportSCenter for the score... ah!
I don't know if I'll be getting on here tomorrow, so

GOOD LUCK KATZ!

in the 800 on Wednesday!! You can DO IT! I wish I could be there.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Good Morning, Rascal Flatts!



HAPPY SWEET 16 JULIE!!!

On Friday morning Tamara and I went into the city and saw Rascal Flatts on Good Morning America!! They had a mini concert in Bryant Park and it was really, really great!! No pushy-shovey people, it wasn't extremely crowded, we could see really well, and the band was awesome! They really played around with the crowd, and I loved the 4 songs they played.
Afterwards (this was about 9am), we took the subway downtown and went shopping for a couple of hours. Then we had a good walk up to Times Square and ate lunch at Olive Garden (it was Tamara's first time there). Overall a great day in the city!!
I've realized that most of my posts on here are littered with exclamations and words like "great" and "awesome." I write like that because that's how a lot of the things are that I've done, so I'm sorry if it seems a little overdone. I'm trying to tone it down a bit (maybe you've noticed over the past few posts), but the enthusiasm isn't fake. (Does that make sense?)

Mom and Dad are going to be here in a few days! Yea! It's going to be a fun, relaxing mini-vacation for me! It's almost 80 degrees today and it is supposed to stay like this all week! :)

Monday, May 14, 2007

Beantown




It was another busy weekend... Tamara, Katharina, Ellen, Sarah, and I drove up to Boston for the day on Sunday. We checked out the usual places, then I took the T out of town to meet Bob and Maria for lunch. It was kind of an ordeal trying to find a place to go in this town we'd never been in before. The first two places we tried were closed. The third time was the charm and we ate at Bertucci's. It's so much fun visiting with the newlyweds!! I really enjoyed my afternoon with them! Sounds like they had a fun weekend last weekend with Beth and Meko.
Mom and Dad are going to be here in 11 days!!! Yea! :)

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Energy-less

I'm really tired today. :S For some reason I don't have much energy. And I'm supposed to get up early and go to Boston tomorrow... I think I'll have to take a nap this afternoon or something! Otherwise I'm not going to make it all day tomorrow.

I'm once again trying to put some pictures up... and once again it's not working.
:( This is making me crabby.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Martina! Josh!


I have time right now to upload pictures, but it's not working for some reason. I've been trying to get them on here for about 25 minutes, and no luck so far. I'll try again later...
My morning was really fun! I got up nice and early (5:00 -- so not too bad) and rode in with Eric. He was going in for work, so he offered me a ride. I appreciated not taking the train for once. I got to Rockefeller Plaza at 6:15 and had to wait in line until about 6:45... this could be a long story, so I'll get to the main points. Since they had 3 performers on (Martina McBride, Josh Turner, and Gretchen Wilson), there were a lot more people than the other two times I went. Plus they had two different stages. So right away I had to decide which one I wanted to be closer to. Martina or Josh and Gretchen. I chose Martina. She sang "In my Daughter's Eyes" and I can't remember the name of the second one. She's AMAZING!! and beautiful!! I would love to go to a whole concert of hers!! Josh Turner sang "Would you go With Me" and I LOVED IT!!! Wow, he's good! :)
I got some good pictures of Martina, some far away ones of Josh. I promise I'll put pictures on here ASAP. I thought today would be the day... I'll keep trying.

We're going to Boston for sure on Sunday. I talked to Bob and he and Maria are going to come and meet us for lunch! (Jim and Lynne can't make it.)

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Central Park


Here's a picture of Ellen, Katharina, and me in Central Park one Sunday. It was a gorgeous day, in the 80s I believe. It was a few weeks ago (mid-April), before the leaves came out.

Summer weather!!


Hey all, it really, really feels like summer! It's in the 80s today, and it's supposed to stay this way for awhile! Sweet! Now I just can't wait for the water to warm up. Tamara, Katharina, Ellen, and I were at the beach on Saturday and the water was freeeezing! Just like Lake Superior this time of year. Tamara and I felt like skipping rocks, but there were none. So we skipped shells - and it worked!!
I keep telling Tamara about things we're going to do when she comes to Michigan in August... and the list keeps getting longer and longer. Now Katharina is thinking about coming, too. But she has about a million different plans for when she's done being an au pair. and coming to MI is just one of them, so I kind of doubt she'll end up coming.
I'm excited that the WINGS are still going strong! Yea! :) It's reminding me of those 3 years they won the Cup. GO WINGS! :) And the Pistons -- hopefully they can keep it up against Chicago and keep rolling. It's a great time to be a Detroit Sports Fan!

Monday, May 7, 2007

This Week in Karen's Life

Whew! I'm still exhausted from last week/weekend. And I'm already thinking ahead to this week. Here's what's going on with me:
I'm working for Marcy on Tuesday and Thursday this week. The rest of the week is going to be busy with work, work, work. On Friday morning I'm going to the TODAY Show to see

JOSH TURNER

and

MARTINA MCBRIDE!!!

Yea! :)

Then on Sunday Tamara, Katharina, Ellen, and I are planning to go to Boston for the day. We're not 100% sure yet, but it sounds like a go. If we go, I'm going to get a hold of Jim & Lynne and Bob & Maria to see if they want to come into the city for lunch or dinner or something.
Mom and Dad are coming in less than 3 weeks!! :)

NYC State of Mind

I've been wanting to write about this for awhile, but I only get to the Library for the computer a couple times a week (at the most). So here it is.
When I was in Chicago last weekend, I realized that I have a New York City state of mind. I'll try to explain it. When I first moved out here and went into the city, I wasn't aggressive like the New Yorkers. When I walked down the street and bumped into somebody (if you've never been here before, I have to let you know that this happens all the time!!), I would quickly turn and apologize. or say "excuse me," or something like that. Well, I guess after awhile of saying this 10, 20 times a day (New Yorkers don't apologize, or even acknowledge that you said sorry. They also don't acknowledge that you bumped each other.), I just sort of stopped saying something when this would happen. Last weekend in Chicago I would bump into someone (I didn't just start running into people or anything, but when the streets are crowded, sometimes your shoulder touches with someone elses. or something like that.) and not apologize right away. They'd turn and look, or say sorry, or something. Like I did when I first moved out here. By the time I realized what had happened, they were long gone.
Also, crosswalks. It's another way I realize I have a NYC state of mind. I'll leave it at that.
So, this small-town girl now has turned into a little bit of a New Yorker. I'm stressing the little bit because there is no way I'll ever have even close to what it takes to live or work in NYC. and that is just fine with me, because I'd never, ever want to live there.

I DID IT!!! :)

and it wasn't even very hard!!


So, the 42-mile New York City Bike Tour was yesterday. I guess its official name is the 5-Boro NYC Bike Tour. Anyway, it was a loooooong day filled with lots of waiting, mixed in with a little bit of biking. Or at least that's what it felt like. We had to wake up at 4am, took the 5:00 train (with our bikes, of course), were at Grand Central by 6:00, biked down to lower Manhattan, found the start line by ~6:45... and proceeded to wait. and wait. and wait. Until we finally got to leave at about 8:30! Well, that excitement only lasted for about 20 minutes, when we made it to 48th St. and everything was backed up. We ended up walking our bikes all the way up to 59th St and into Central Park. That took an hour and a half. I guess trying to fit 4 lanes-wide of people onto a one-lane bike path in Central Park is a little tricky. The ride through Central Park was a lot of fun -- beautiful!! :) Next stop was Harlem, where some people had to use the bathroom. Then the route took us into the across a bridge (at this point I've forgotten a lot of the names) into the Bronx. Back to Manhattan after that, where we got to ride on an express way! :) and through a tunnel (with sweet acoustics!). Then across another bridge into Queens for a ways (sweeeeet views of NYC across the East River!!! -- I'll upload some pictures when I get a chance). Then down through Brooklyn (more sweet views across the river), onto another express way. After awhile on here we knew it was close to the end because we could see the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge -- which would take us to the finish line and festival on Staten Island. I have some great pictures of this beautiful bridge. Now whenever I see it, I can say I biked across it!
The ride across the bridge was fun, and it brought us directly to the festival. So it was kind of a cool finish line. We took some pictures at the festival, bought a t-shirt, then made the 3 mile journey to another side of the island to catch the Staten Island Ferry. Well, this process ended up taking over 2 hours (I guess when you and 10,000 other people want to get on a ferry that only holds in the 100s of people, it's going to take awhile). We got really, really sick of waiting throughout the day. There was a couple of other times during the day that we had to wait to get onto a road, or bridge, or something else. (:S = not cool) We found out from other bikers who have done this tour before that you usually don't have to wait that much. In other years the only waiting is at the line-up and starting line. They usually "only" have 30,000 people. But yesterday there were 42,000 people. So I guess 12,000 more people make a big difference!
My overall impression of the day was: The biking was great, fun, not hard, but all of the waiting took away from that.
I'm glad I can tell you all that I did it! :)

Now today I'm very sore! I had a hard time sleeping because I was so sore. I know that doesn't make much sense, but I woke up many times because my legs hurt.
I'm not promising, but I'll try to put up pictures soon!

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Illinois, Blooming, May!




I got back from Chicago yesterday evening after a loooong day of traveling. Kristin and Chett brought me to the airport at 11:00 - we got there around 12:00, got on the plane at 12:30 (we were supposed to leave at 1:00). After countless delays (which I won't bore you with), we finally left at about 3:00. We were sitting on the plane this entire time -- 2.5 hours. Sooo, I landed at La Guardia around 5:40, took a bus to Grand Central (ate dinner at Junior's!), and took the train home. The whole process took over 8 hours. Whew!
Illinois was so much fun!! Jason picked me up from the airport, then we met Mom, Kristin, Heidi, and Jules at a restaurant for a late breakfast. Then we decided to go into Chicago for the afternoon. Brita joined us! We walked around the city, enjoyed the warm spring weather, and went on a boat ride out into Lake Michigan. Oh, and we definitely had some Chicago-style pizza. By the time we were back on the train, everyone (especially MOM) was getting overtired and a little loopy. All I can say is: It was a fun ride! I think Brita saw a side of my mom she's never seen before. :)
After church on Sunday Mom and the girls had to leave back to MI, so it was just Kristin, Jason, and me. We had a delicious dinner, then Kristin and I went for a long walk on the beach in the 86 degree weather. Lake Michigan was not too cold, so we were kicking ourselves for not bringing our bathing suits. After that we went shopping for a bit (it was nice to go to a different mall -- I'm really sick of the ones I go to out here), then Megan, Bill, and Chett came to Kristin and Jason's for coffee/pie. It was really fun catching up with Megan -- I don't think I've really talked to her since we both went to Tech.

Back in Connecticut everything is beautiful!! So many of the trees are flowering, the tulips are in full bloom, and the leaves are out in full force. I'm loving it!

It's May, which means my bike tour is coming up quickly!! It's in five days! Mom and Dad are coming out here in a few weeks -- I can't believe I'm saying that -- a few weeks! Mom first talked about it Christmas time. and it's almost here! Every day I think about things I want to show them or do with them. We won't be able to do most of it, though, because we'll have such a short time here before we go to see Jim & Lynne and Bob & Maria. I told Mom that if it rains, we'll spend less time in NYC and I'll bring her to this sweet grocery store here. What a comparison, hey? NYC or a grocery store. But the grocery store is more like an experience than a store. I'll just leave it to your imaginations. ;)
Yesterday I got an urge to go on vacation. I really want to go somewhere! Please let me know if anyone has any ideas!