Why I Oughta...

Just 11 days away until I'm a married man. With the longest engagement on record (21 months!) winding down, I thought it'd be appropriate for me to share with you all (Ahem...is there anyone still there?) one of my favorite parts of this whole wedding planning business. Sure...we had all the showers, thank you cards, chicken dinner tastings, table cloth selections, ring shopping trips, and discussions of the various shades of pinks (It's not my color!). That was all good and important stuff. However, the part of this whole experience that Natalie let me run wild with and really leave my mark on was the rehearsal dinner. It's coming up in a bit over a week, and while I'm excited about the wedding, I'm really looking forward to the rehearsal dinner. From the location (Southport Lanes!) to the menu (Italian Beef Sandwiches!) to the invite list (skewed toward my friends/family!), Natalie gave me a lot of room to run. The most interesting/challenging part was t

It has come to this. With all the changes that have happened over the course of the past year (new job, new school , leaving public office ) and the biggest one coming up later this summer ( marriage ), there is one more thing that I'm looking to change: my location. I've lived in the most incredible condo in Frankfort, Illinois for the past (almost) four years. I bought it pre-construction and was lucky enough to pick out all of the finishes. The time has come to move on and I'm parting ways with my home. It was my first, but won't be my last. We've priced it incredibly (considerably below what others have sold for!) and this place is really looking for someone to love it as much as I did. There are NO better condo's in all of the southwest suburbs. I can guarantee that! (Seriously!) The details can be found here on the realtor's site . For a condo, it really has an incredible kitchen and is a great place to host a party. It's walkable to do

Whodathunk?

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year. In fact, I think I like it better than Christmas. It's a perfect combination of wonderful things. I have a ton of things to be thankful for and they all seem to come together on Thanksgiving. From my annual " night out " with my crew last night, to spending the day strapping on the ole' feedbag with my entire family both in Frankfort and in Naperville - I get to spend lots of time with the people that matter most to me. The other part of Thanksgiving that I like is the traditions. From the family, to the food, to the weekend cutting down of the Christmas Tree - it's all fantastic fun. While all of those traditions were started without me and I'm simply a participant, there's one tradition that I've started that makes me enjoy Thanksgiving morning . While most Americans are tuning into Matt Lauer and Al Roker to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, at my place we're watching The

How ‘bout the Illini, eh? Taking down then #1 OSU and having an improbable run to possibly 9 wins after back-to-back rebuilding years. I couldn’t be more proud to be an an alum of both the program and the university. The program appears to have turned a corner, and with all the talent that’s starting to pile up down the road on I-57, we should be a force in the Big Ten for many years. This doesn’t appear to be a fluke (like the 2001 Sugar Bowl was). All that stands in the Illini’s way from a New Years Day Bowl Game and possible BCS bid are the Wildcats from Northwestern this Saturday. Should be a slam dunk win for the Illini, no? It should. I’ll be going nuts, rooting for the boys from Champaign-Urbana, right? Ummm…. Not so fast. What? Am I questioning my allegiances? Sorta. At age 29, with a day job that I love and a fiancé pursuing her PhD full-time, the time couldn’t be more right for me to head back to school and get an advanced degree. Earlier this

We've missed you .

I need some help from the East Coaster's who read RhodesSchool. I've had nothing but bad luck from pretzel vendors. First it was in NYC, today the problem occurred in Boston. I enjoy the speed of acquisition and feel for food cart vendors on the street. I've done plenty of shopping from street vendors for "goods" and I will, on occassion buy a meal from a street cart vendor. I like that it's all cash. I like that it's a one-man operation. And...I like the whole thought about cart "turf" that I have in my head. ( how do you get the prime corners? Seniority? Does the Outfit control the turf?, etc... ) In the midwest, where I grew up, we had "big" or "jumbo" pretzels that were served hot. They were always, without exception soft. They were chewey and usually had salt applied to them and if you were feeling friskey, you'd even dip them in some yellow mustard - they're fantastic. In both NYC and now in Boston