Entries Tagged as 'rock band'

Happy 30th Birthday, Richard

November 23rd, 2008 · 5 Comments


Dad, Richard, Rachelle, Mom


Mom, Rachelle


Mom, Dad, Rachelle, Mom


Charlotte loved Dallas’ watch


Jessica wrote “The Rachelle” then “Rachelle” then “Dallas”


Richard opening his gift: Just For Men


Brewers apron and oven mitt


Gift from my parents: Packers Jacket


Too big for Aunt Sue


Uncle Doug, Dad


Sisters: Wanda, Sue, Mary


Richard & Brian


Rachelle & Richard

Yesterday we went to Wisconsin to go to my little brother’s 30th birthday party. Not so little! There were lots of family and friends. Lots of kids, actually, running around everywhere. We ate tons of food and desserts and drank a lot of beer. For some reason he got a lot of beer as gifts. We brought him Fat Tire and Oberon, two beers he can’t get in Wisconsin. We also got him an Amazon gift certificate. I thought he’d get a lot of gag gifts, but there was just one: a box of Just For Men hair dye from our cousin Kelly. All the other gifts were really nice. After the party died down a bit, the people who were left all played Rock Band, which was a gift from my sister-in-law, Amanda. My brother’s best friend, Brian, bought this random bag of liquor that we were drinking shots of later on. .. or at least I was, Dallas was our DD. It should also be noted that my brother has been growing his beard out for the month of November. You can track it on Facebook if you are his friend.

Question for Photographers: Does anyone know why my flash is throwing such a harsh shadow? Is it something I need to adjust on my camera? Or something that can only be fixed by getting an external flash? I don’t remember it being so bad before, but now it is making be crazy.

[Read more →]

Tags:······················

Summer of Rachelle Concludes and Happy Birthday To Me

September 7th, 2008 · 3 Comments


Roscoe Village, Chicago

This is the third year in a row at this apartment that I’ve hosted a barbecue for my birthday (2007, 2006). I like to have everyone over. It’s a bit of work, especially since we always have a Labor Day weekend barbecue the weekend before too, but sometimes I like not being out on my day and not having to figure out how to go home.

Since I started a job at Roundarch this past Tuesday, this barbecue was also the last Summer of Rachelle event. Sometimes it feels like we just had the Summer of Rachelle kickoff, but I think I spent the summer well with the right amounts of relaxing and traveling and spending time with friends and family.

Aside from Scott and Erin, who had just left; Ed, Cinnamon and Andrew, who hadn’t arrived yet; and Jill who, was manning the camera, the following two photos show everyone who was at the party.


Chris, Lisa, Kate, Alden, Amanda, Jessica, Jessica, Paul, Quinn, Rachelle, Chris, Dallas, Limey, Jen, Brian, Caroline, Chad


Richard, Stephanie, Danny

We grilled a ton of sausages and some turkey burgers Dallas made earlier. I had special requested the turkey burgers. Also, last year when we made wontons, we had a bunch of leftover filling. It has been in our freezer all this time because Dallas and I never made wontons ourselves. Dallas’ mom gave us the idea to saute the filling up and serve it with lettuce, and make lettuce wraps. We forgot to put it out for the barbecue, but it was a delicious snack, along with hot mustard, later on in the night. I have been making this pasta salad with fresh basil all summer and people seemed to like it a lot yesterday. I also made some cookies and will post the recipe at another time.


Dallas as the lead Rock Band singer.


Alden, Jessica, Paul

We spent a lot of time last night outside, but also spent a lot of time inside playing Rock Band. I bought another guitar so now two people can play guitar at the same time, one on lead and one on bass. Everyone was taking turns on the different instruments. It was a lot of fun. I was psyched because we were getting the old band back together, too. Paul, Alden, Jessica and I used to play Rock Band all the time when we worked together at Google. It was fun to play with them again.

I had a really great time last night and was thankful to everyone who came over. I have great friends and family! Thanks to Jess for the flowers and to everyone who brought wine and beer and delicious food, too. Happy birthday to me… and welcome to the working world!

[Read more →]

Tags:·································

Our Labor Day Weekend Barbecue

September 6th, 2008 · No Comments


Grilling Kalbi Ribs , Roscoe Village, Chicago


Tommy loves to perform , Roscoe Village, Chicago


Mitch & Chris setting up ladder golf , Roscoe Village, Chicago


Uncle B.B., Ali, Caroline, Danny, Dallas, George, Jordan


Auntie Gail, Auntie Laura, Heather


Cory & Chris , Roscoe Village, Chicago


Roscoe Village, Chicago


Kathy & Jordan , Roscoe Village, Chicago


Mitch , Roscoe Village, Chicago


Too much party for Jeff , Roscoe Village, Chicago

On Sunday we hosted a barbecue. All of Dallas’ family came over. I made a lettuce salad (with green onions, mandarin oranges, toasted almonds, water chestnut, and crunch chow mien noodles) and a pasta salad (with tomatoes, corn, Parmesan and a vinaigrette). Dallas’ mom and aunt had been marinating kalbi ribs and Dallas grilled them. Dallas’ mom also made stir fried green beans and Dallas’ brother Jordan made some chili.

The weather cooperated with us and we spent most of our time outside on our deck and our shared common area, although there was a bout of Rock Band that went on for a while up in our apartment. Most people left in the late afternoon or evening. Those are the same people that missed Danny going home to walk his dog and coming back with the big huge bottle of sake he got for his birthday. We chilled it down and drank what I thought was a lot of sake, but there’s still a half bottle we’re keeping cold in the fridge for this weekend.

Also, I should note that Dallas and I are officially old. We had two coolers and a fridge and they were all filled with premium beers. No Bud, no Miller, no Coors. I take that back, there was one case of Miller, but it didn’t even make it into the cooler until the party was about 7 hours in. So, we are old. 5 years ago, hell, last year, at least one of the coolers would have been all crappy beer. Ancient, I tell you!

[Read more →]

Tags:························

Rocking Out

August 20th, 2008 · 1 Comment


Steve, Killian, Naoise :: Roscoe Village, Chicago

Steve, Killian and Naoise came over last night. Steve is visiting from New Jersey and Naoise, Killian’s brother, is visiting from Los Angeles. Part of the time that they were here was spent playing Rock Band. Fun times. We all switched off. Dallas and I still need to get another guitar so we can have a proper Rock Band party.

[Read more →]

Tags:·····

Roundarch Summer Event 2008

August 2nd, 2008 · 3 Comments

A couple weeks ago I accepted the position of Information Architect with a company called RoundArch. I will be starting on September 2, which was my dream start date when my Google contract ended at the end of May. I didn’t know if I’d actually be able to pull off having the whole summer off, but it worked out very well. Also, I hadn’t started looking for a job yet, but I was referred and met with people at Roundarch and everything just seemed to fit, so I accepted a position and am excited to start working for them in a few weeks.

Even though I haven’t begun work yet, Roundarch was nice enough to invite me to their annual summer event. Roundarch’s main offices are in Chicago and New York and then they have sprinklings of people at other locations. Everyone was flown into Chicago for the event and it was a really great way for me to get to know people from all over the company all in one night. I could imagine that if I’d just began work in September that it would have taken much, much longer to meet as many people just in Chicago, let alone the other offices.

We all went on an architectural boat tour of Chicago then took a double-decker tour bus to the Adler Planetarium where we had dinner and drinks. There was also some Guitar Hero and Rock Band action going on there. All of the people from out of town were staying at the Hard Rock Hotel, so after the planetarium we went to the hotel bar there.

I had been on a Wendella architectural tour once before but the weather was pretty rainy. Wouldn’t you know that the beautiful day on Thursday turned to rain right as we were scheduled to leave on the boat? Luckily it cleared up and the second half of the tour we could enjoy on the top deck. The planetarium views are always spectacular and the food was really great. I was enjoying myself, but also keeping myself in check alcohol-wise because I didn’t want to make bad first impressions, so while a lot of people were still in full-on party mode when we hit the hotel bar, I was petering out. I stayed for an hour or two longer and then called it a night. Overall, great time and very nice to meet everyone I’ll be working with soon.

[Read more →]

Tags:············