Entries Tagged as 'andy'

Superbowl XLV – We Are The Champions!

February 7th, 2011 · No Comments

This year for the Superbowl my brother came down to visit and to go to Trent and Loden’s house for their party. For a half a second after we beat the Bears in the last game, I thought maybe Dallas and I should host a Superbowl party, but we’re leaving for Hawaii next week (!!!!) and we quickly came to our senses about the timing of that. We have enough plans and money and everything to worry about, no need to pile on a Superbowl party! We’d gone to Trent and Loden’s Superbowl party last year, though, and it was a lot of fun, so no need to worry. I knew they’d do it right. Actually, Dallas wasn’t feeling well, so he stayed home. Danny and Caroline came and picked my brother and I up and we were off.

I was surprised when we arrived because I didn’t know that Trent’s friend Andy was a Packers fan from Wisconsin! Limey was nice enough to take a photo of all the Packers fans together.


Caroline, Andy, Richard, Rachelle

Not a bad showing for a Superbowl party in Chicago!

Another great part of having parties at Trent and Loden’s house: They have a kegerator in their dining room! Yesterday Trent had Brooklyn Lager and Founders IPA on tap and it was awesome. I didn’t think I was going to drink on Sunday because of the weekend I had (more on that later), but the Brooklyn Lager was delicious.

Loden always makes such delicious food! This photo is of one of her specialties: Chocolate covered bacon! We also had pulled pork, mac & cheese, cheesy potatoes, baked beans, and taco dip that had crack in it. It had to be crack. So addictive. Ed also brought his famous S’Mores dessert. Loden’s friend Mike made this appetizer dip that was basically a vat of bubbling hot cheese. Of course, this made it onto the coffee table that the Packers fans were sitting around… along with a big bowl of cheese curds that my brother brought from Wisconsin. If that’s not enough, someone may have pushed off the tortilla chips and used cheese curds to dip into the hot cheese dip! Hey, we’re from Wisconsin. What can we say? We like cheese and cheese on cheese! (I have a photo of this somewhere, but I forgot to upload it.)

Loden asked me to bring dessert and I thought a long time about what kind of green and gold dessert or football-themed dessert to bring. I originally wanted to make football-shaped brownies, but couldn’t find a football cookie cutter without running around all over town. I ended up with these:

The colors are not quite right, but close enough. These were Zesty Lemon Bars and Lime Squares. I actually had to make the lemon bars twice because the first batch did not turn out. I used this recipe first. I should have known to never stray from Martha!

Charlie is Trent and Loden’s dog. He’s so nice and lovable. He is a Cockapoo. So soft and snuggly, he’s a huge baby. But so chill. Nothing phases him. Not even when his “sister,” Sugar Bear, gets out and wanders around the house:

Anyway, the game! OMG what a great game! This is the first Superbowl in a long time that I actually cared who won! Everyone was nice enough to let the Packers fans sit on the couch at the TV and watch the game. Other were mingling and eating snacks. A bunch of my friends were at first cheering so hard against the Packers, but eventually they just started cheering for their numbers. Dallas wasn’t even there and he won $200 in a Guthrie’s pool! Trent and Limey were also betting on everything. Who will score next, the next play will be a pass or not, who will fumble next, etc. I guess that’s what you have to do when you don’t care about the game. Limey did not come out ahead on all those bets!

I’m so happy the Packers won, I think it’s still sinking in! Packers are the Superbowl champions!

One more thing. I made a bet with Sean, an old NY blogging friend who is a huge Steelers fan. When I emailled him to “pay up,” he told me his wife gave birth to their baby boy yesterday! Their first born. What a gracious loser. He’s already posted to his blog!

I bet this is the last time he makes this sort of bet with someone who can do a bit of Photoshopping! hahahha

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Andy’s Surprise Birthday Party

January 18th, 2011 · No Comments

On Saturday night Andy’s girlfriend Katie and Andy’s friend John threw a surprise party to celebrate his 40th birthday. Everyone gathered at John’s house between 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Andy was scheduled to arrive at 8:00 p.m. This is us trying to shut our mouths so we don’t ruin the surprise.

John told Andy he met a new girl and went on a couple dates with her. This new girl supposedly was to have invited John to a party with her friends. John didn’t want to go alone so he invited Andy and Katie to come along and make it a double date. This was the premise for getting Andy to John’s house. He was so surprised!

In the next few photos, it’s still sinking in…

And here we all are, surprising him.

And then the party was off! Such a fun time. Rich made this pineapple vodka. There were 15 pineapples and 6 handles of Stoli in this jug! It was delicious, we mixed it with sprite.

I made Andy’s favorite cupcakes for the party – Irish Car Bomb cupcakes.

At some point Andy made a drunken speech and we made a toast to “everyone’s best friend.”

Downstairs, John’s living room has a disco ball.

This made it a football dance party down there. The Packers game was on and they killed the Falcons. People were actually cheering for the Packers because they wanted to see a Bears/Packers NFC Championship Game. The Bears won on Sunday and now it’s on. The Bears and Packers have not met each other in the post season since 1941!

Dallas and Andy and their terrible dance moves.

Katie got Andy a delicious cake from Alliance Bakery.

Fun party! Happy birthday, Andy!

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Fourth of July Fireworks

July 6th, 2010 · 2 Comments

Several people invited us over for Fourth of July parties. I thought we’d still be at the lake so I declined on all of them. Turns out we ended up coming back and we went to Andy and Katie’s rooftop party. Andy and Katie live just south of us near Chicago and California, about a 5 or 10 minute ride from our house. I didn’t realize we’d have such a great view from their roof, but for a good solid hour from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. you could turn in every direction and see fireworks. It was so cool. I think we could see all the way out to the western suburbs and see fireworks shows. We could also see downtown for the Navy Pier fireworks and north for the Montrose Beach fireworks. The best show was across the street from where we were standing. Someone was lighting them off and it rivaled any professional fireworks display I’ve seen. So fun. Everyone was telling Andy and Katie that this has to be an annual party now. We left at about 12:30 a.m. and there were still fireworks going off. Great backdrop for a roof party!

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Creepy Hand

March 3rd, 2010 · 1 Comment

This hand sticks out of the wall of a building nearby Dallas’s friend Andy’s condo. Creepy!!

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Todd’s New Years Eve Party

January 1st, 2010 · No Comments


Dallas & Todd


Dallas, Adam, Katie, Andy


Getting reading for midnight


2010! Bring! It! On!


Ang & Murph


Trevor & Kate


Todd & Kelly


Katie & Andy


Josh & Keirstyn


Damian & Vanessa


Adam & Christine

Around 10 p.m. we left Jen & Chad’s party and headed down to Wicker Park where Todd was hosting a party. This was a bit more of a traditional New Years Eve party, meaning there was a lot of drinking & loud music. I don’t see these friends of Dallas’s very often because they mostly golf and play basketball and have poker nights, so it was nice to visit with them. We rang in the new year, played a couple intense games of Left, Right, Center and hung out for a few more hours. Fun fun!

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