Entries Tagged as 'kristin'

Colleen and Kevin’s Wedding

May 26th, 2013 · No Comments

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Cocktails outside of the New England Aquarium.

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Reception area.

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Rob, Michaela, Colleen, Laura & Dallas. These guys all became good friends while working at CDM in Boston. I don’t think any one still works there. Heck, only two of these people still live in the Boston area!

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Mark & Machaela.

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Rob & Dallas.

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Rob & Kristin.

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Dallas & Rachelle

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Rachelle & Dallas. (Thanks to Laura for the cute photo!)

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Laura, Drew, Marina & Zach.


The wedding band.

Last weekend we were in Boston for Colleen and Kevin’s wedding. Colleen is an old friend of Dallas’s from when he used to live in Boston. The wedding was so much fun! So great to see so many old friends, the wedding food was soooo delicious and the band was fantastic! The band in the video above is playing to an empty dance floor because it was dinner time, but the dance floor not long after was packed! There was barely a person sitting down all night. What fun! And what a pretty setting, at the New England Aquarium. Congratulations to Colleen and Kevin!

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Brunchy Brunch to Forget Our Troubles

March 30th, 2013 · No Comments

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Finally visited Chicago Diner in Logan Square with Jess. This vegetarian restaurant has been in Lakeview for 30 years and last winter they opened a second location in the old Logan Square Kitchen space. I had the Soul Bowl – seasoned quinoa, eggs, chimichurri, brussels sprouts, mashed sweet potatoes, black beans and avocado. I don’t know how these things all were supposed to combine together, but each separately was delicious. Except the chimichurri. No one makes it like El Nandu!

After brunch we went to the Logan Square Farmers Market (the indoor market at the Congress Theater). When I went home this was when I first discovered our water damage nightmare!

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A week or two later I went to Harmony Grill with Kristin to get out of the awful house. By now it was (and still is) all torn up. Carpet out, holes punched in the drywall. Industrial fans and humidifiers. Ugh! Thankfully, we both had the Eggs New Orleans – fresh lump crab cakes, two poached eggs, & sliced tomato on English muffins with hash browns – and they were delicious!! I hate when the crab cakes are mostly filler, and luckily these were not. Kristin had a Groupon and we got our meal for free. Nice!

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We’ve had to be around the house a bit more on weekdays to let contractors and insurance people and plumbers and appliance delivery guys into the condo. On a few occasions, Dallas and I got up early to have breakfast at Cozy Corner. The food here is pretty simple, but everything is always so good and very reasonably priced. Recently I had the California Omelette – avocado, bacon, & tomato with Swiss cheese – and also the strawberry and banana french toast.

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One day I woke up and sneezed thirty hundred times. I had to get out of the condo construction zone, so Alden and I went to Jam. This place opened probably almost two years ago, but whenever I try to go to Jam on the weekends … it’s … jammed! So a weekday was the perfect opportunity. Alden had been to the Ukranian Village location before they moved to Logan Square and wasn’t that into it, but we both liked this place. I had the Malted Custard French Toast – with macerated cherries, lime leaf cream, and pink peppercorns- and Alden had the Corned Beef Sandwich – with horseradish cream cheese, marble rye, potato chips. Oh, and they surprised us in the beginning, after we ordered and before our food came, by giving us a mini black and white cookie.

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Wii U Party

January 31st, 2013 · No Comments

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I have been a Nintendo Brand Ambassador for over 4 years now and have gotten to do some really cool things. In the fall I was invited to travel to Los Angeles for a preview party on their new Wii console, the Wii U. Over the Christmas holiday I was given a Wii U. Dallas and I set it up (mostly Dallas) and have been playing with it. I’ve been watching a lot of streamed content through the Amazon app too. We even brought the Wii U to a new years party, so it could become karaoke party.

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Last weekend Nintendo helped me host a Wii U party at my house. I got to invite 20 people (boys and girls!) and Nintendo provided the food, drinks, games and prizes for guests. Not only that, but they also flew two people, Dawan and Chris, to Chicago to help set up for the party and then to help us play the games. I had fun playing some of the games that allow up to 5 people to play. I hadn’t ever had enough people over to play those yet! There was one where the person holding the large Wii U controller with the touch screen is Mario and he runs and hides (only he can see the whole map). The other four players use the regular Wii controllers to run around and try to find Mario in the maze. There was also a fun ghost game.

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I wasn’t sure how engaged people would be with just one gaming system for twenty people, but I was surprised. People were gathering around and really getting into it. Also, some of the Nintendoland games were quick, so people could all have a turn in a short amount of time. We also played Sing Party, which is more of a party game. And we played Super Mario Brothers, with several people all at once. The person with the touch screen can add blocks to either help or hinder the other players.

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At 8 p.m. we video chatted over the Wii U with a party that was taking place in Tennessee. The party there was mostly kids. We chatted with them a bit, told them how cold it is in Chicago. It had snowed that day, so we pointed the camera out the window so they could see the snow and all the kids loved that. They pointed the camera out their door window and we could see their cute dog who wanted to get in!

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Big thanks to Nintendo for being so awesome!!

Disclosure: It might be needless to say, but Nintendo provided the gaming console, prizes, food and drink for this party. I was not paid, or even asked, to write this post.

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