summer of rachelle

Entries Tagged as 'summer of rachelle'

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!

Doug & Naoko’s Labor Day Party

September 5th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Tommy :: Elgin, IL

Tommy, Mitch, Chris, Ali, Miku :: Elgin, IL

Cory & Danny :: Elgin, IL

After our visit in Maine and then heading down to Boston, we flew back to Chicago. I was home one day and then I went to Wisconsin for four days. I have a ton of photos from that trip, but in an effort to get back on a current time line, I’m going to skip a head a little and then circle back.

So, when I returned from Wisconsin Dallas’ brother Jordan, Jordan’s girlfriend Liz, and Dallas’ sister Caroline were staying at our place. Dallas’ parents were also in town, but staying in the suburbs. I swear this was the most stressful week of the entire Summer of Rachelle because then after Labor Day weekend I started work at Roundarch this past Tuesday!

On Saturday we went to Dallas’ cousin Doug’s house in Elgin for a barbecue. Doug and Naoko host a barbecue over Labor Day weekend every year. Starting last year Dallas and I have hosted a Labor Day weekend barbecue too. This year we hosted everyone at our house on Sunday. More on that in a bit. These photos are from the barbecue in Elgin.

Tommy is starting to get so big and look like a little boy, more than a baby. I thought this same thing when I saw Quinn yesterday and the day before. Time flies! Tommy is going to be a big brother in a few months so I’m sure he’ll look really big then! As usual, Naoko had loads and loads of delicious appetizers: mini pigs in a blanket, taquitos, pork shumai, a cheese platter, chips, guacamole, cheesy spinach dip, everything. For dinner we had beef, vegetable and chicken shish kebab, salad. Everything delicious. I was kind of eagerly awaiting dessert because Naoko always has something different and fabulous. This time she made flan. It was great. Naoko is a hard act to follow, which is what we had to do the following day!

Lunch. Bike. Pool. Barbecue.

July 27th, 2008 · 7 Comments

Erin got a new job and she works from home now. Since her home is a 5 minute walk from my home, on Thursday we made plans to lunch on salads from Robey’s while sitting outside in the sun. Nice time. Erin had her bike in at Roscoe Village Bikes and while we were waiting for it to get done we shopped around a bit at Roscoe Village stores. While in the bike shop I talked to them about my bike and what sorts of cruiser bikes they have. RVB doesn’t sell Electra bikes but told me about some other brands I could look into. I made note of them and thought I’d looked them up online, but ended up not doing it. I’d like to support RVB, but they didn’t have any of the bikes in stock and would have to special order what I wanted and I was afraid I wouldn’t like it or how it rides.

Hamlin Park, Lakeview, Chicago

After lunch I went and sat at our neighborhood pool for a while. It was pretty packed! I couldn’t get a lounge chair so I just laid my towel out on the cement and enjoyed the weather.

On Friday I went to the bike shop where Dallas and I originally bought our bikes, On The Route. I talked to John there a lot about replacing my Electra Townie and realized something I didn’t know before. I had a 7-speed bike and the 2008 models of the 7-speed bike don’t have all the bells and whistles my bike had, which is why my bike was so much more expensive than the 7-speeds available now. I had the internal hub shifting and a shock system and fenders, all things that the 2008 model 7-speeds don’t have. So, to get those things I’d have to downgrade to a 3-speed or upgrade to the 8-speed. I decided to upgrade. It was more expensive, but the money I’m getting from insurance will take a bite out of the price. OTR had to order my bike, which I wasn’t nervous about since John told me that the seat and the body of the bike haven’t changed so it should ride just like my old bike. The bike will arrive in a week or two and this is what it will look like:

Friday night we had a barbecue at our house. A lot of people came, about 15 or so. It was fun and I’ll admit I drank too much of the Summer of Rachelle official drink. On Saturday I was SO sick. I mean, I don’t even think it was hangover sick. I maybe was coincidentally having the stomach flu? I was still getting sick at 9 p.m. last night. There’s no way that was still a hangover. I couldn’t even take a sip of water. What a waste of a day. I don’t know what happened, but I missed Colleen and Justin’s going away party, Margaret’s Golden 26th birthday and a chance to see an afternoon showing of the Dark Knight at the IMAX with Liz and Killian. I need to remind myself that I’m almost 33, not 23.