Memorial Day in Beverly: Ridge Run and Backyard BBQ

A thirty-four year tradition in Beverly is the annual Ridge Run, a 5K and 10K race held every year on Memorial Day. It is a great showcase for our Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood as it winds through an entirely residential course. Not only was the scenery lovely as always, the neighbors were out in force--cheering us on from lawn chairs and sidewalks and setting up sprinklers, hoses strung through trees and basketball hoops to spray from above, and makeshift Dixie-cup water stops to keep us cool and hydrated in the very warm temps.

I ran the 10K along with my friends Michelle, Bliss and Trip. We all had a great time and were happy with our finish times.

After the race, my parents drove us back to our house. We runners cleaned up and got ready for a backyard BBQ. Matt worked over the weekend to make delicious hamburger patties and the GRILL-MATT-STER (I came up with that during the 10K, pretty proud of it) did not disappoint once he fired up the grill.

We had a great group of friends and family come by and help us celebrate the start of summer and break in our new picnic table!

Me and Michelle, refreshed and relaxing after the race

Mom finishing off the AWESOME flag cake--her signature frosting, cherries (13 stripes, natch) and a field of blueberries

Bliss, Isobel, Ophelia, Rebecca, Mom and Trip enjoying flag cake

Isobel and Ophelia tolerating me taking their pictures--they're too much cuteness

Mike, Matt, Amy and Jenny

Courtney and Sophie, giggling. I couldn't get over how cute Sophie looked in her patriotic floral ensemble. . .

Ophelia and Isobel sharing the chalkboard before being spectacular helpers while we cleaned up the backyard from the party

The Grillmattster takes a rest after the last meat had been cooked for the day

Allison and Greg's Wedding in Seattle

This weekend I met my friends Lisa and Jess in Seattle for our sorority sister Allison's wedding. We had great girl time together and the wedding was beautiful and a total blast!

We spent Saturday morning wandering, smelling and eating our way through the Pike Place Market. Of all the must-do tourist spots in cities across the country, it's one of my favorites and doesn't disappoint.

Gorgeous flowers, artfully arranged. We so desperately wanted to buy some but didn't make much sense to take back to the hotel. . .

This fruit stand tempted us with peach and pear slices on our way through, so we went back and bought peaches, nectarines, raspberries, blackberries and cherries that we snacked on before and after the wedding ceremony.

Lisa and Jess dodging fish at one of the most famous "fish throwing" stands in the Market


Then we got ready (three girls, one bathroom, no squabbles at all) and headed to the wedding. It was a beautiful Buddhist ceremony and we all appreciated the unfamiliar but highly resonant traditions.

The kiss!

Allison and Greg, the new Mr. and Mrs.


The reception was at a very swanky yet cozy (a tough feat) ballroom space. The cocktail hour featured a slide show of Allison and Greg's amazing world travels (they've been together since college) and our table assignments corresponded to global locales they've visited. We were sat at the "South Africa" table!

The gorgeous couple, re-introduced as husband and wife.

Me, Allison, Lisa and Jess. You can see by my flush that I was on my second glass of wine, while preggers Lisa stuck to water.

This picture is hilarious and captures so much in one snap. Greg cracks up and looks on as Allison struggles to cut a piece of cake.

After trying several times to get the right sorority hand gestures, we settled on our old favorite - "the sign" we Kappa Deltas are supposed to flash at someone to see if they are also a KD but that we seem to flash mostly in pictures.

Chase Corporate Challenge

Didn't Mark Twain quip once about the coldest winter he ever spent being a summer in San Francisco (or something like that)? Well, my favorite winter race I've done so far was the late-spring Chase Corporate Challenge last Thursday.

Despite temps in the low 40s, over a dozen of my IEGer colleagues and I braved the elements to complete the 3.5-mile downtown course, along with 20,000+ other [idiots?] representing Chicago companies of all sizes.

We have some very fast runners and all enjoyed getting warm by running!

We huddled together and layered up before and after the race in our hospitality tent and enjoyed some great pizza and beer after the event. Impending frostbite cut the evening a little short, but we all had a good time and it's sure to be an event we'll all remember!

Half the IEG crew, bundled up before the race. L-R: Eric, Sarah, Tom, Mark, Shan, Mike and Bill (with Iva peaking over in back)

The rest of the IEG crew, huddled up. Back row, L-R: Iva, Dan and Mark. Front row, L-R: Jessi, Courtney, Julie, Stacey and Lauren

Julie, me and Stacey getting blown around!

Tom, doing his best "Blue Steel" in a tree

Prom 2011: City of Lights (Chicago, not Paris)

So a really cute boy asked me to prom!

For the third year in a row, Matt was Junior Class sponsor at H-F, so his duties include planning prom, a 800+ person event held in a world-class facility. This year, the prom was held at Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.


And this year my friend J.J. accompanied me as a roving chaperone so we had fun playing Joan and Melissa (Rivers, of E! Red Carpet fame) discussing the gowns and sampling all the food while watching out for any kiddos dabbling in sex, drugs or rock 'n roll ("rock" n' roll" essentially meaning "destruction of property" in this case). Either they were tame this year or we were not very good spotters because all behavior we saw was pretty above board. OK, we were scandalized by a few dress choices and dance moves, but that was about it.

Getting ready to leave for prom

J.J. and me with our ice cream, served from the old fashioned ice cream parlor at the museum

Matt and me during prom

Several exhibits were open throughout the evening, so we visited the baby chick hatchery. Yellow was a very popular color for human chicks at prom too!

Any doubt (if ever there were any) that my husband is a much-loved and admired teacher should be put to rest with this picture. His AP Bio class sought him out and wrangled their classmates so they could take a picture together.

Easter with Darth Vader

We had a nice tri-state (Mitten, Hoosier and Land of Lincoln) Easter with the Schmiedeknechts and the Knoepkes. After our lunch in Michigan, Matt and I did our egg-hiding duties in the yard so Anna, Ali, Dylan and Ryan could have a good challenge. They did very well and got lots of goodies.



It was also very close to Ryan's ninth birthday, and he's very in to Star Wars right now, so he got to blow out Darth Vader's light saber (don't call it a candle) stuck into a giant chocolate-cherry cupcake Mom made for him!