Chucky Cheese

Lucky for me my lil sis had a old digital camera she is no longer using thus, I inherited a lovely Cannon PowerShot A510. This will hold me over until I have some steady income again, other than my unemployment. Although I am still sad for the lost pictures, this helps soften the blow a little.


This past week my sis-in-law Brooke, and my niece and nephew Reese and Eli were visiting from Arizona. It was a funfilled week that led us to Chucky Cheese last night for some pizza and games. It's been years since I have been to a Chucky Cheese, in fact, when I was a kid it was Showbiz, way cooler if you ask me but Chucky was still a lot of fun.

MIA

I had a rough couple of days last week. First off, my laptop has had a dead pixel for some time. I paid a crap load for the Geek Squad warranty at Best Buy and figured, even though a dead pixel is just slightly annoying, I might as well take it in. Plus, how bad would I be kicking myself if that dead pixel turned into more after the warranty was up. At ant rate, I my beloved laptop is now in the hand of the Geek Squad until an estimated August 14. Bloggin on my desktop is just a nuisance, it's slower and I am secluded in the office aka not as inspired.

Then, over the weekend my digital camera was stolen. All of my recent pics that I was planning to blog about are gone foreva! Luckily I upload regularly so I didn't lose too many, but there were some great pics of a night out on the town with my sis in law who was visiting from Arizona.

To make matter worse, upon leaving the bar where my camera was stolen Saturday night, my car was dead. After a tow to the dealer it turns out it just needed a new battery, but still...no fun!

That's enough of my whining for now, but see, I have not been blogging for many reasons.

day tripper

Today I woke up at 6:30 am after getting about 4 hours of sleep. It was another torturous night of laying awake talking to the hubs until 3am trying to figure out our possible, pending move. Anyways, this is the third night in a row I have not really slept and I was really feeling it this morning. I knew that I needed to do something to distract myself. So, around 11:30 my sis and I took a little roadtrip up to Galena, IL.

We'd both been there before but I still did a quick search before leaving and found a few lunch options along with a winery to check out.

Upon arriving we decided to stop for lunch right away. We walked past a couple places to One Eleven Main, one of my online pics.

We started off by ordering a couple sangrias, although this was a tough choice because they had an amazing drink selection including blackberry or raspberry mojitos.



Next I died and went to heaven when I saw they had a cheese board. It was a combination of three types of cheese from another local shop, Galena River Wine and Cheese, along side of some almonds, dried cherries from Door County, a few accent sauces an some apple. My favorite was the brie with apple and the brie with the dried cherries. Seriously, I died.



Next up, we debated on salads which sounded great but we REALLY want to try this amazing looking sandwich, the Croque Madame.



Shaved Usinger's smoked ham on toasted bread with melted Swiss and Dijon mustard topped with white sauce and a local farm fresh egg.

This was by far the best sandwich I have ever had, even beating out the turkey Reuben from The Bier Stube. Even the fries were phenomenal. I only wish I could have eaten the whole damn thing, but this is what I left.



After we were done we had a lot to walk off. I was hoping I would be able squeeze in some ice cream, but I was just too full, so next time.

My sis and I did a little shopping and even made our own soy candles. We both made beachy scented mixes from the Galena Candle and Bath Company.

This day was exactly what I needed to take my mind off all the stress and the xanax I stole from Finn, our dog, helped too ;)

Hunting and Planning

This has been a fun filled week of apartment hunting online. Can you hear the sarcasm? It's quite stressful trying to find a place in Chicago while being 3 hours away, especially when we are looking at moving August 1. Crazy! Tomorrow Mike and I will be leaving at a bright and early 6am to go see some places we have lined up. We are looking at a total of 4 apartments, one every hour from 9-12. Like I mentioned, this whole move is bittersweet, but for the best in the long run since there are more careers in my field in Chicago. Wish us luck!

Mike and I are also planning an extended roadtrip out east! We will be leaving sometime early August and plan to be gone for a couple of weeks. So far we are going to go stay one night in Niagara, Mike has never seen the falls, plus it's on the way to Mike's Dads in Maine. Next, we'll stay in Maine for a few days. We'll stop in Portland, Maine and Boston before we head down to Rhode Island to stay with Mike's Mom and Step-Dad. The big county fair will be taking place which Mike tries to go to every year. I am also super excited because while in Rhode Island we will be staying at the Winnapaug Inn on Misquamicut Beach for a night. Last year after we got married Mike's mom got us a room there and it was so much fun! We also ate at one of my favorite restaurants ever last year, Shelter Harbor, the food, wine, and coffee were amazing and the place was so quaint. I am really looking forward to this trip!

Farewell to an icon

Is there a such thing as free money?

I received my first unemployment check today. They sure make it easy these days. They said it would be in my bank account July 2, and it was. Although the amount I am getting is a sizable pay cut for me, it is enough to live on fairly comfortably thanks to some extra incentives that get thrown in since Mike is a student and by Obama. Also, the fact that I was able to apply in Illinois which is better than Iowa increases my amount some.

This money will keep me and my babies from living on the streets, but is there really such a thing as free money? Each one of these checks will be a constant reminder of how I took a chance, and it failed me. I gave up a good paying, secure job in the city I called home for almost 10 years. This entire experience has opened my eyes to a lot. First lesson learned was don't assume all benefits are created equal. When starting my job in Iowa I was shocked to learn that many of my benefits I took for granted were stripped away, this was hard for me at first. I also realized how bad is SUCKS going from 25 paid days off per year plus company paid holidays, to 3 and company paid holidays. Another thing, after 10 years, I had to punch a time clock again! That was a huge blow and took A LOT of getting used to. I mean seriously? A time clock for a salaried employee?

My point is I gave up a lot of freedoms to take a chance in my hometown and with a new company. Each unemployment check will sting a little. It's a constant reminder of what I had, what I gave up, and what was taken away from me.

On the other hand, it allows me to explore my options for up to a year, which isn't THAT bad.

let's get our taco on!

Tonight Mike, Mel and I headed over to El Mariachi Restaurant at 1317 15th St, Moline, IL. A former co-worker of mine had suggested this place for authentic Mexican food. After months of searching, since we moved to Iowa, I am happy to say I found a place that serves avocado tostadas!! I also ordered and avocado taco and beans and rice. My dinner was delicious, fresh and REALLY hit the spot. Mel liked her dinner too and my Mike had the taco bar!

This is going on my normal rotation of places to dine out at, and if we move we will be coming back here on our visits for sure!! They also have a bar, next time I'll try a margarita!