Comments (26)

By kilax, August 27, 2010 4:55 am

How did you celebrate your 21st birthday? If you aren’t 21 yet, how do you plan to celebrate?

My sister Christina turned 21 on Wednesday, and is having a party this weekend in Guttenberg, IA (on the Mississippi River) with family and friends. Look at the cute invites she sent:

I think the plan is to take her inaugural drink at the seedy bar Wack’s in Glen Haven, WI, as well as hang out at the beach and enjoy some other alcoholic beverages, now that she’s legal.* Ha. It should be a fun weekend (unfortunately, due to a family emergency, I can no longer attend, but I will be there in spirit)!

I also spent my 21st birthday weekend in Guttenberg, IA. Just like I did this year, and almost every year in between (except for the year I was in Rome for my birthday).

2005 was the year that RAGBRAI ended in Guttenberg, so we spent some time watching the bicyclists come in the day before my birthday.

RAGBRAI goes across Iowa, from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River. So the bicyclists dip their back wheel in the Missouri when they start, and their front wheel in the Mississippi when they end. Cool, huh?!

Erin, don’t forget, you told me we would do a leg of RAGBRAI this year with me. We better start thinking of our team name…

“Team Megasuarus” (“Mega-Sore-Ass”)

The rest of my 21st birthday was spent hanging out with family, doing the beach thing, and the eating thing. It wasn’t a big “drinking” weekend for me. I think my aunt tried to get me to drink some weird concoction she made, but I took one sip then poured it down the drain later.

Notice how no one is watching me blow out my candles? Nice.

My nephew was so small then!

My dad’s parents came, as well as my cousins from Wisconsin. It’s so fun to get all of the family together there!

*I talked to Christina yesterday and she had quite the day on Wednesday… so she thought she would pass on alcohol this weekend.

Comments (27)

By kilax, August 20, 2010 5:28 am

If someone was visiting your town for the first time, what local things would you make sure to show them/have them experience?

A bunch of bloggers were in Chicago last week for a conference, and seeing Chicago through their posts made me realize how special our city seems to visitors. It made me realize I am overlooking a few things on my daily trips in to the city. So, it made me wonder, what special things do you think people should see or do when they visit your city for the first time?

In Chicago:

• Visit the Bean/Millennium Park!



• Shop on Michigan Avenue
• Take the architectural boat tour
• Go to the top of the “Willis” (Sears) Tower or Hancock Building

In/Near Round Lake:

• Visit all the awesome Lake County Forest Preserves
• Go the AWESOME Mexican Bakery by our house



• Visit the Volo Auto Museum
• Go to El Famous Burrito and eat a burrito the size of a football

Of course, there are a ton of other fun things to do here… those are just some of our favorites!

The Reader’s Choice Giveaway winner is Cher, who chose the bowls! Cher, please email me your mailing address and I will send them your way.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Comments (25)

By kilax, August 13, 2010 5:34 am

When you were a kid, what did you want to be “when you grew up”? What do you do now? What do you want to be “when you grow up” now (the second time)?

I may have asked this before, but it’s interesting, so I will ask it again!

Yesterday, while Erin and I were walking to the park to each lunch, the Blue Angels flew overhead (they were practicing for the Chicago Air & Water Show this weekend) and made quite some noise… so I had to tell her how I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid.

I remember even thinking about joining the Air Force! I told Erin though, there is no way that would work for me – I do not like taking orders, ha ha!

So I went to school for architecture. And now I run interior projects for the federal government.

When I grow up again though, I think it would be fun to be a tour guide!

Comments (24)

By kilax, August 6, 2010 5:29 am

Are you crafty? Do you like to build/create/fix things?

I have two crafty talents – baking:

“Happy Birthday” and “50″ cookies for my mom’s 50th birthday

Reindeer Sugar Cookies!

and building models:

Click to see larger

(You can see the last architectural portfolio I created in college here.)

I had to build architectural models all five years in college, and even worked for an Italian Architect building them during the summer of 2006 (yikes, that was such a long time ago!).

What are your hidden talents?

I just found out that my sister can make BEAUTIFUL jewelry! She made me a bunch of earrings for my birthday! Here is a picture of one of them:

And we all know Steven is super handy. He made me a beautiful pencil case for our first holiday together, and we made this component rack for his closet together in 2005. I won’t mention that Steven is also good at destroying things too*. Ha!

*He wanted me to add that he “fixes what he breaks.” True, true.

Comments (22)

By kilax, July 23, 2010 5:47 am

Have you ever experienced an extreme force of nature like a tornado, hurricane, earthquake or volcano? Do these types of events (or the possibility of them) scare/worry/frighten you?

The tornado sirens were going off again in our neighborhood last night. Instead of getting up like last time, I was just annoyed. They woke me up. I tried to sleep through them. So, I guess I am not too afraid of tornadoes.

I do remember being really scared of them when I was a kid though. At some point in my childhood I saw some special on tv about tornadoes, and never slept through a summer-night storm again.

When I was in college in November of 2005 though, a tornado came really close to campus. It was a Saturday, and a bunch of the architecture students were working in the studio (which was on the 3rd floor with a lot of glass) because we had a big review on the following Monday. Someone’s mom called to warn us about bad weather, so what did we do? Keep working, then get up to gawk at the storm from the window when we saw it pass by. You can kind of see the spiral forming in the photo below, toward the center (and that’s just tape on the window, not something floating).

That is the closest I have come to seeing a tornado! And I wasn’t in Illinois when the “earthquake” hit last year.

So maybe going through that experience made me less afraid? Who knows!

Comments (30)

By kilax, July 16, 2010 12:44 pm

Do you like being surprised (by good surprises – parties, gifts, tickets around the world…)? Why or why not? If yes, what is your favorite surprise to date?

I ask, because I know some people HATE being surprised! I know Steven doesn’t like it. I don’t think my dad does either, but we threw him a surprise party when he turned 50 anyway, muah ha ha.

I, on the other hand, LOVE being surprised. It makes me feel so special that someone would go out of their way and think of a way to make me feel good.

Today I was outside walking Data when the UPS guy showed up. Data got freaked out and ran toward the house (lame) but the UPS guy followed us with a package! I asked Steven if he ordered something… nope. It was for me though!

My second cousin (my dad’s cousin) Denise, sent me an early birthday gift… the COOLEST cookies cutters ever…

Me and Denise.

Are you ready for this?!

Star Wars cookie cutters!

How cool are those?! Yeah, I know you’re jealous. Ha ha.

Too bad we are going out of town. Otherwise I would be whipping up some sugar cookie dough and getting to work. Now I know what I am doing next weekend.

Thanks Denise – you made my day!

I know I asked for a favorite surprise but it is hard to pick one! I loved that my sister surprised me last year on my birthday (by being there), that my brother-in-law and Steven’s friends bought us tickets to do the Chicago exotic car tour for our wedding, that Steven got me a wii and Rock Band a few years ago and put the drumsticks in the bathroom so I saw them in the middle of the night… I could go on and on and on…

Comments (34)

By kilax, July 9, 2010 5:43 pm

What is your astrological zodiac sign? Do you think your personal characteristics match that of your astrological zodiac sign?

Image from here

Do those questions even make sense? I hope so.

I have met a lot of people who are in to astrological signs, but have never known much about it myself. All I know is that I am a Leo. Which, according to the chart below (from here), means I am:

• Generous and warmhearted
• Creative and enthusiastic
• Broad-minded and expansive
• Faithful and loving
• Pompous and patronizing
• Bossy and interfering
• Dogmatic and intolerant

I bolded the ones I agree with! For fun, you should too! Go this site and copy the text version of the chart (scroll down) and paste it in the comments below me and tell me which characteristics are totally you… and which aren’t!*

Update – Steven pointed out that he is usually a Capricorn but this chart says he is a Sagittarius (his birthday is Dec 22). I do think he seems more like a Capricorn… anyway, I am not sure of the validity of this chart! Just posting for fun!

*See? Bossy.

Comments (24)

By kilax, July 2, 2010 5:56 am

What are your holiday weekend plans?

Yay! Holiday weekend! Yeah, this is an easy question. I like hearing what everyone is doing!

Steven and I are headed to Guttenberg, IA to hang out with these peeps:

Anyone else think my sister’s boyfriend looks a bit like Zach Galifianakis?

and go here:

and do this:

and this:

and this:

but will probably avoid doing this again:

even though it was fun… I don’t want to end up like this:

(Although, I could just be more careful on the slide this year!).

My parents, grandparents and aunt all have cabins/homes in Guttenberg. It’s a great place to go and relax. All there is to do is eat (and drink), play in the sun/water, and sleep! Sounds like it’s just what I need. I have been extremely worn out and busy lately. I need more silly time.

Comments (21)

By kilax, June 25, 2010 5:55 am

What is your favorite game to play with a regular deck of cards? What games do you like to play with specialized cards?

I don’t know many cards games, but I wish I did! Steven and I have this old book with card games listed in it. We brought it with us this week to a concert in the park so we could play cards while listening to music.

What did we play? Go Fish! Or, as the book called it, “Fish.” Can you believe I didn’t remember how to play?

I sure do play a mean game of Go Fish!

I really wanted to play something more similar to Rummy, since I had so much fun playing Phase 10 a few weeks ago with my family, but meh, Go Fish is good enough for me. For now!

Please share your favorite games so I have some to try!

Comments (28)

By kilax, June 18, 2010 10:31 am

How do you prefer to keep in touch with your friends – in person, via phone, email, instant messaging, texting, facebook, commenting on blogs, or other? How does how you prefer to keep in touch compare with how you actually keep in touch?

I think most of us would say that we prefer to keep in touch with friends by seeing them in person, but how many of us actually have that luxury? The friends I went to college with mostly live in different states, and honestly, we barely communicate at all. And while I have friends that live in Chicagoland, well, while they live out here, that doesn’t mean they are close*. The friends that we see the most live either 40 or 50 miles from our house. We mainly see each other on weekends. Or, if they work in the city, during lunch breaks (which is great).

So, I usually communicate via email. And sometimes (not always!), those emails only happen because they are stemming from a blog comment that one of us left. When I think about this, it makes me wonder if it is an artificial relationship – would we even be communicating if we weren’t blogging**? I mean, most of the friendships I have are with other bloggers, so I can’t make light of the fact that blogging is how the relationship started, but… I think I am just craving more. I think I just feel lonely sometimes, despite all the cyber world connections.

And, don’t get me wrong. I love personal emails and appreciate so much that someone would take the time to write something to me***. I just wish I could have more personal interaction from time to time.

*Except for Tori, who is a mere 5 or so miles from my house – why don’t we get together more often?
**What is interesting is that when I blog less during the week, I have less personal emails as well.
***Interestingly, two of the people I email the most (Gina and Courtney) are bloggers I have never met in person! And we just email – it’s rarely an email based on a blog comment.