Flashback Friday

I read recently that your can give new life to old content by reposting something with a new twist. I love how this is totally effortless and also gives me an excuse to browse through the archives.

So, in celebration of today's date, 8/8 — the anniversary of Wrigley Field getting lights (8/8/88) — I thought I'd bring up any other posts I did on Aug. 8 over the years:

2008: Sweaty Elvis
That time I ran a 5K is an inflatable Elvis costume. Much like the Cubs' first night game, I finished the post the next day.

2006: Enclosed in a Veil
Back when I blogged frequently, was prepping for my wedding, and I participated in the now-defunct photo blog Self-portrait Challenge.


Man, life pre-kids was different.

The past week; a culinary tour

The last week of the year is always a busy one for us. In addition to all the usual holiday chaos, Chris and I both have our birthdays. This year was no exception in the madness department. Maya even pitched in and got an ear infection last week (on Chris' birthday, in fact) to make the week even crazier than normal.

But rather than give a play-by-play of the past week, I thought I'd steal a post from a fellow blogger (who's on a blogging hiatus at the moment) and just give you all recap of what I ate over the past week or so:

Goat-cheese pizza
Sweet potato fries
Popcorn
Pork tamales
Pecan-crusted salmon
Cheese
Chicken skewers
Falafel
Jalepeno-stuffed green olives
Turkey
Sweet potatoes
Dried fruit
Mixed nuts
Chili dip
Cheese omelet
Broccoli cheddar soup
Mediterranean sandwich
Beet & potato quesadilla
Chili mac
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Cookies
Potato chips
Stuffed cabbage
Carnival squash soup
Raisin bran
Steak
Whole-wheat pancakes
Chicken & butternut squash curry
And of course, inordinate amounts of wine and beer.

'Tis the season.

Things 125-132

Yeah, yeah, yeah....

But in my defense, I've been traveling for work for the past week. Also, I've started a new room — the baby's room. You might think this room would be quick and easy. Surely we don't store our junk in our only daughter's room, right???

Also complicating this room's purge is that normally I do my Thing-gathering and picture-taking while the baby's sleeping — which is surprisingly difficult to do when the baby's sleeping in the very room you're trying to clean out. So, the Thing gathering instead has to happen while baby's awake, and it often goes something like this:

- I open a dresser drawer and begin setting aside no-longer-needed Things.
- Baby grabs some Things and crawls away.
- I begin moving Things to a higher spot, while simultaneously trying to remove other Things from baby's fingers.
- Baby cries.
- I give baby one Thing to play with while continuing to go through other Things.
- Baby tries to eat Thing.
- I take Thing away.
- Baby cries.

And so on, and so on. Still, I've managed to gather these 8 Things:

From 365 things

We have two sets of beads, yet another headband, yet another tap light, sample-sized deodorant, sample-sized lipstick, plastic conference name tag and a beaded belt.

And just to show how I'm growing, while traveling for work last week I received yet another plastic conference name tag and didn't even bring it home. Aren't you proud of me?

Things 121-124: This room's through

It turns out de-cluttering the bedroom took longer than I planned. Not because of an abundance of things, but rather because I once again fell behind.

But that's OK, because I will more than make up for it when I turn my attention to the office. There's a good chance I have 365 things to get rid of in that room alone. But that's for a future date.

For today, there are Things 121-124:

From 365 things

This first Thing is the goodie bag from the Chicago Triathlon. The more I do races, the more I realize how much clutter they create. Aside from the race t-shirt and occasional food sample, I rarely want the stuff they stuff in these bags.

From 365 things

These Things are remnants of our Summer of Weddings:

• An old bag of chips received in a hotel goodie bag
• Single-serve hotel coffee. This was all Chris. He wanted to take them for, I don't know why. I suppose they would be useful in case we have some sort of coffee emergency and need to break into the little plastic filters to get our fix. But I have a hard time believing we'll ever be in a situation when we're not within walking/driving distance of a Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds. Unless we're camping. But even then we bring along coffee and a peculator. 

Anyway, although this room took longer than it should have, at least I have some tangible results: 

From 365 things

Remember this shelf before? Now I've gotten rid of so many Things (and put away other stuff) that the bottom shelf is empty — which is how it'll stay until Maya's through her "taking everything off of shelves" phase.

A new niece and a belly

Sorry this took a few days, but here are some pics of my new niece, Lucinda Joy. She was born on Sunday at 7:33 am. 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and 19 inches long.

From My pictures

She looks a lot like her big brother Jack. Check out his birthday pics here.

From My picture

The happy family

From My pictures

Lucy, doing her best Mr. Burns impression. Excellent.

And because a few folks have asked, here's me showing off the bump.

From My pictures

It's sort of a weird pic. I think I was moving or something.

10 Years Ago

Yesterday was my 10-years-toeless anniversary.

I meant to write some reflective post about how much my life has changed in those 10 years, or how grateful I am to be alive, or a self-congratulatory "I rock" kind of thing. But my current life—the one I'm living in 2009, not 1999—got in the way. Chris and I had to get up early for the delivery of our new fridge yesterday morning; then we both needed to get to the office early; I was super busy at work and didn't have a chance to even think about my blog; I worked late; got home; let out the dog; made dinner; almost forgot to take my prenatal vitamin; organized the new fridge; and then before I knew it, I was snoozing in front of the Cubs game on the couch.

Yesterday pretty much sums up my 2009 life: I'm married, I have a great job, I own a house, I have a dog, I'm pregnant, I'm still a Cubs fan, and most nights, I fall asleep on the couch by 9:30.

In other words, I'm normal. And although once upon a time, that would have been the most repulsive thing I could have said about myself, these days, I'm OK with normal.

So that's my big, reflective 10-year-anniversary post. I've written enough posts about meningitis and its affect on my inner psyche, what I've learned about myself, how I've become a better person, blah, blah, blah.

Today, all I want to say is this: My life is normal and boring, and surprisingly, that doesn't make me want to vomit.

The Dry Lie

So, I have a little confession to make about a previous post. The truth is, I didn't really give up alcohol for Lent. Granted, I haven't had a drink since Ash Wednesday. But I actually quit drinking on Jan. 31 — the day I found out I was pregnant. I'm due Oct. 7!

As you can see, when I'm sober, I really can keep a secret. But keeping a secret in the age of Facebook and Twitter ain't easy. Especially if you choose to share the news early on with family, but not others. Women usually wait until they're 12 weeks along before telling people about their pregnancy because the rate of miscarriage is higher during the first 12 weeks. And although I don't mind if my relatives and close friends know about such things, I'd rather not broadcast it to all my co-workers, high school friends I haven't talked to in 10 years, or random online peeps from Facebook and Twitter that I've never actually met.

Making matters a bit more complicated was the way I chose to tell my co-workers. You might remember the little video and Web site I made last year for a video contest at work. With a big assist from my co-spy Tegan, we made another little video (embedded below) announcing my impending mommyhood. Finding a good time to shoot and edit the video took some time. So by the time I sent it out to my office, I had already started telling lots of friends and family the news. Worried that they might spill the beans online before I told work—and not wanting to email all of them to keep things under wraps for another two weeks—I ultimately resorted to turning off comments on my Facebook page and not using Twitter for a week. Not easy for someone who tweets about 10 times a day.

Thankfully, all that sneakiness is done now. I'm just glad that I don't have to lie to anyone anymore (at least, not about this. I still might lie to you about whether or not you look cute in those jeans, or your offensive body odor.)

But seriously, like I would give up drinking for Lent?


There's Something in the Water... from Sarah Wunder on Vimeo.

The battle for the bottom

I'm happy to say our soccer team at work finally won a game, narrowly defeating the only other team in our league that hasn't won a game.

Read about our sweet triumph here.

I kicked things...mostly myself

I joined a co-ed soccer team at work, and we had our first game last night. It was pretty pathetic. You can read the hilarious (or hideous) highlights on that other blog I sometimes cheat on this one with.

Or, you can just read this little summary: We lost horribly, 0-12, but we looked darn cute doing it.

Friends with Photoshop

A few months ago, my friend Jon was in town on a photo assignment. Because he's a photographer and kinda goofy, he decided to follow me in to work and photograph me paparazzi-style. It was amusing. But then today, he posted this little illustration on Facebook.



I should note, Jon has an unhealthy obsession with poop.

In other Facebook news, you should go check out this post from Anything Said. Dude. Hilarious, and sadly, so very true.

Sarah Stone Wunder Bread

happy halloween, y'all.

More Elvis

A Big Hunk o' Love

Gotta get me a peanut-butter 'nana sandwich.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Sweaty Elvis

Right before I passed out on a toilet.

There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this

So, I've been away for a while. Partially, it was because, as stated in my previous post, my home computer was on the fritz. I finally fixed that last week. However, another reason I've been away is because I've been spending every free moment working on a little project for work. I don't know if I can even begin to explain it, but I'll try.

So, the company I work for is a custom publishing company, which primarily extends into the marketing side of the companies we deal with. So, say the marketing department of Big Giant Bank decides it wants to better connect with its customers in order to increase loyalty, open new accounts, set up more mortgages, etc. We work with Big Giant Bank to develop publications, Web sites, newsletters, microsites, webcasts, etc. to help the bank engage and connect with its customers.


Anyway, because so much of what we do is helping companies CONNECT with their customers, clients, franchisees, partners, etc., we've changed our slogan to "How Do You Connect?" Timed with this new slogan, my company launched a competition for our employees to attempt to answer this question through a video.

My friend/co-worker and I decided that the best way to answer this question involved putting on wigs and running around the city shooting each other, our friends, tourists, and other complete strangers with Nerf guns. THEN, because we are so crafty, we developed a Web site and gave people the option to choose alternate endings for the video, come up with some of their own, play silly games online, etc. You see, we're CONNECTING.

Anyway, if you want to see all this madness, go here. The site isn't totally complete, but it has the video, an alternate ending, and some other random stuff on there. I'll be updating it all week, and then beyond, assuming people leave some comments and suggestions. People like you. And my co-workers. And my boss, who will get to witness his employees running around Chicago in crazy costumes in the name of his company.

Seriously, do I have a great job, or what?

I Dress Funny

I did my first 5K this year last Sunday. It took me 31:58, so I still need to shave off another two minutes if I want to meet my goal. But there's still about six months of race season left, so I think I'll be able to do it, assuming I run more often than once a week, which is pretty much all I've been doing lately.

Here's a pic from the race. Kinda looks like I'm giving the photographer the stink eye. But that's what he gets for documenting my shorts-over-pants combo.


So, the big Cinco de Mayo party is tomorrow. My house has been taken over by bottles of tequila, tortilla chips, cilantro, and frat boys. It should be an interesting weekend.

I am crafty

Enough of this depressing bullmess, let's talk about bags, man.



I made this. It's because I'm so darn crafty. And because my mother-in-law bought me a knitting and felting book and all the needles and yarn to make it.

I've also made a few hats recently. I keep trying to make myself one of those slouchy hats that seem to be all the rage these days, but everytime I finish one, it ends up looking far too hippy for my tastes. So, if you're one of those Patchouli-wearing peeps with quilted corduroy pants and you slightly resemble Shaggy, I totally have a hat for you. Just be forewarned that the hat may or may not have been worn by a shirtless Chris who found that after putting it on, a Matthew McConaughey impression naturally followed.

Can't resist singing "Kokomo"

So, I'm back from Aruba. I've actually been back for a week, unlike my parents, who decided last minute to stay for another week. Ah, the retired life.

Anyway, since returning, I just haven't had the time/motivation to blog. In fact, I finally unpacked from the trip last night. Work, just getting back into the swing of things and an ongoing knitting project have kept me away from the computer.

As far as my seasonal "issues" go, it's too early to tell if I've just got the winter blues, if Aruba cured them, or if it's something else. I'm still pretty peeved about the weather here, especially because it's March, yet still in the 20s. But the sun's been out lately, so that's helped my mood. That, and falling asleep on the couch to the sounds of baseball this weekend. I swear, there is no better napping than baseball-induced napping. Especially if the nap is preceded by a sandwich and cold beer. Heaven.

Anyway, now it's time to bore you with vacation pictures. At least I didn't pull out the projector.

me and chris in our beach wear.

the beautiful bride and groom.

me and the bride's family. the tall gentleman to my left, josh, is the bride's brother and my ex-husband. we got married when we were 3. then we had to get divorced so i could marry chris. it was pretty messy, dividing up the playhouse and sandbox and all. but now i've got chris, and josh is in an up-and-coming indie band, so it's all good.

chris enjoys climbing on things.

here, he gets my mom to join him. together, they command the waves.

we got some sun.

parting shot. i'm one lucky gal.

Delusions of a Food Blog

I apologize for my recent absenteeism. Since I last posted, I got a promotion (yay!), and then I got a nasty cold (boo). In any case, it’s time to get back to the blog, and now I sorta have something to blog about:

It’s Lent.

I’m not Catholic, nor am I particularly religious. I am, however, a big fan of testing my willpower and forcing loved ones to play along. So this year for Lent, Chris and I decided to give up all meat except fish. Basically, this was the result of many conversations we’ve had about our favorite foods that have ended in, “You know, I could totally give up everything except seafood.” So far, I’ve barely even noticed the change, except that I eat a lot less soup now. But luckily, Trader Joe’s came along and filled that void with so many wonderful different bean dishes. I used to hate beans, but now, I’m obsessed. Like lentils? More like delicious-tils! But my new bean obsession is another post for another day.

Anyway, the decision to become a pescetarian for Lent also happened to coincide with another new obsession: food blogs. Smitten Kitchen, for example, has become a new daily must-read (along with this site, which has absolutely nothing to do with food blogs...).

Yeah, so, anyway, I had this great idea in my head that I would start blogging about my fantastic fish/vegetarian creations and prove to the world that I am some sort of domestic goddess, despite the fact that my husband does most of the delicious cooking in our house, while I am merely the baker. However, it turns out that food blogging is a lot more difficult than I first thought. For starters, most nights I get home from work and have a bowl of cereal for dinner. This has nothing to do with Lent; it’s just my dinner of choice — and obviously not food-blog worthy. And second, assuming I’ve actually gone to the trouble of creating something to blog about, once I’ve finished cooking, instead of getting to enjoy my tasty delights right away, I have to whip out the camera and document my work. This simple, yet oh-so-important step, is often skipped.

For example, Chris and I had a little dinner party this weekend. Well first, let me back up a bit. Remember our friends Barkley and his urine-obsessed buddy Popcorn? Turns out even though the humans in our house weren’t too keen on sharing our digs with three dogs, Rosie thought it was coolest shit ever. So, when Barks and Pops went home, Rosie went into a bit of doggie-withdrawal depression.

So, to lift her spirits, we decided to have a dinner party and invite over some of our friends and their pet dogs. The result was a rottweilier, wheaten terrier and shih-tzu joyously running around and around our kitchen table:


Later in the evening, after the puppies were spent from all the table rounding and backyard snow diving, and after their owners had polished off a few bottles of wine, Rosie decided that it was bedtime, and that she should invite her new friends to our her bed:



The doggie party definitely lifted Rosie’s spirits. Although the next day, she was pretty tuckered out:


(It’s because of moments like these that Chris and I have so willingly turned over our bed, couch, carpets, freedom and any hope of a clean house to Rosie.)

But anyway, back to the food. For our little dinner party, Chris made an amazing Greek shrimp dish, which we devoured long before I remembered to take out the camera for documentation. The same goes for the mini spanakopitas I made as a side dish. In fact, the only proof I have of our efforts is this sad, leftover piece of flourless chocolate cake topped with whipped cream and raspberries:


Keep in mind that I made the cake on Saturday, but took this pic on Tuesday. In the meantime, the raspberry sauce has soaked into the chocolate. So I swear, it looked better three days ago. The recipes for both the cake and spanakopita, along with a few notes, are below. Enjoy!

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Adapted from a Wolfgang Puck recipe found at the Food Network

4 ounces unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces (I didn’t have any bittersweet in the house, so I used a combo of unsweetened and semi-sweet. I used 6 ounces semi-sweet and 2 ounces unsweetened. Personally, I’m a fan of super dark chocolate, so in the future, I may up the unsweetened percentage.)
5 eggs, separated
Pinch salt
2/3 cup sugar
Powdered sugar, for garnish
Unsweetened whipped cream, for garnish (I just used the canned variety)
Half package frozen raspberries, thawed (I added this last ingredient because I love the combination of chocolate and raspberries. Fresh raspberries would probably be better, however, they’re not in season, and the frozen raspberries are more soupy, which makes them easier to spread out on top of the cake.)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour a 10-inch round cake pan.

Combine the butter and chocolate and melt in a double boiler over barely simmering water. Whisk together the egg yolks, salt, and all but 3 tablespoons of the sugar. Stir the melted chocolate into the egg yolks until thoroughly combined.

With an electric mixer, on medium speed, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining sugar and continue to whip until the egg whites are stiff, but not dry,

Carefully fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn out onto a rack immediately. As the cake cools, the center will sink and crack - do not worry.

Dust the cake with powdered sugar or decorate the top with melted chocolate and serve with unsweetened whipped cream and raspberries.


Spanakopita (Spinach Pie)
Adapted from a Williams-Sonoma recipe (This site has tons of great recipes.)

1 lb. spinach, tough stems removed, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup grated kefalotiri, Parmigiano-Reggiano or pecorino cheese (I ended up using fresh parmesan because I couldn’t find affordable Parmigiano-Reggiano.)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbs. chopped fresh mint
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/2 lb. phyllo dough (20 sheets), thawed if frozen (The phyllo I buy is sold in a 1 lb. package with 18 sheets. So, I cut the sheets in half lengthwise, which worked well because I wanted the pies to be more bite-size than the typical spinach pie.)
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Heat a large fry pan over medium-high heat. Add the spinach with only the rinsing water clinging to the leaves, cover and cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Drain well on paper towels, then squeeze out as much of the remaining liquid as possible. Place in a large bowl and add the feta cheese, kefalotiri cheese, eggs, mint, and nutmeg. Stir well to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat an oven to 375°F.

Lightly butter a baking sheet. Cut the stack of phyllo sheets lengthwise into 3 equal strips (Because I already cut the sheets in half once, I just halved them again for this step, so you’ll end up with 2 equal strips.) Remove 1 strip and cover the remaining phyllo with a slightly dampened kitchen towel to prevent it from drying out. Place the strip on a work surface and brush lightly with melted butter. Place another strip on top. Brush the second strip lightly with melted butter. Place a heaping teaspoonful of the filling about 1 inch in from the bottom of the strip. Fold the uncovered end over the filling on the diagonal to form a triangular shape. Bring the bottom of the triangle up against the straight edge. (Essentially, fold like a flag.) Continue folding in this manner until the tip of the strip is reached, forming a triangular pastry. Brush lightly with melted butter. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining phyllo and filling.

Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. (I’d suggest flipping them halfway through. We ended up with pies that were perfectly golden on the bottom, but only slightly golden on top.)

Remove from the oven and transfer to a platter. Serve immediately (Um, not a good idea. My friend totally burnt her tongue on the filling even though the phyllo had cooled to the touch. On the plus side, she kept going even though they were too hot, risking injury just because they were so tasty. Or at least, that’s what I choose to believe. Regardless, I’d suggest letting these sit out for about 10 to 15 minutes before serving.)

Official News

Within the next two weeks, I will:

Visit Las Vegas
Celebrate my first anniversary
Start a new job

So, I'm pretty darn excited about life right now. I'll post about the details of the new job and the Vegas trip one of these days. In the meantime, check out two of my favorite (and quite belated) photos from the Cinco de Mayo party:

Uncle Gerry, the one and only Pat Smillie and my dad show the effects of tequila

Jack is not amused

My First 5K

I did my first* 5K yesterday as part of an annual triathlon relay I do with my mom and sister. Usually, I do the bike portion, but this year I swapped with my sis and ran. It took me 33 minutes, which is about what I expected. Deep down inside, I hoped I would break 30 minutes, but that's OK.

Right before my run, I got the idea that maybe I'd try a tri, specifically this one. Then, about 10 minutes into my run, I was like... um, no.

But we'll see. At least it would give me something to work toward, which is apparently what keeps me happy. You know that line in Annie Hall about how a shark needs to keep moving forward in order to live? "What we have is a dead shark." I sort of feel the same way. If I'm not planning something or working toward something, I feel kinda lost. With the wedding, the move and our first big party behind me, I'm looking for that next to-do item on the great checklist of life. And since the usual next steps (house-buying and baby-making) aren't quite in the works yet, maybe a triathlon can help me pass the time.


*Technically, I did a 5K with my mom and sister on mother's day, but due to the crowds, we were forced to walk the first two miles, so it don't count none.