2012: december edition

thanks for amusing me with my 12 days of 2012 countdown.  i know it's been a bore for some of you (*yawn* Zzz Zzz Zzz).  as it seems most years do lately, 2012 came to a quick and sudden end.  where does time go?

the final month of the year always starts off with a big celebration.  yes, my BIRTHDAY! surprisingly i didn't make such a big deal of my special day this year - i just wasn't feeling it.  i worked on my actual birthday, but the following day andrea and i went to bottle and bottega where we painted glass ornaments.  i have little to no artistic ability.  i literally spent over an hour on my first ornament.  although it turned out alright, it left me little time for my remaining two ornaments (sorry lilly and anderson on your boring ornaments!).  but it was a lot of fun! 

that weekend we attended the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus Holiday concert.  we had never been before, but having a few friends in the chorus we happily attended.  it was cute and quite enjoyable.  afterwards we met up with a few friends for drinks to celebrate my birthday (see, low-key!).  

the following week we had brickwork done inside our condo.  knowing we couldn't both deal with the chaos, i went to work while g stayed at home to oversee everything.  the company that did the work did an excellent job.  we're very happy with how it turned out - and even happier that it's done!

before and after

christmas came out of nowhere, perhaps because of everything that was going on at the start of the month.  shortly after the brickwork was completed in our place, i had the christmas decorations put up!  

boston at christmas

in all, 2012 was a very good year.  looking forward to even more excellent memories and great things to come in 2013! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012: november edition

prior to our semi-spontaneous hawaiian get-away in september, g and i had previous planned a trip to maui over the thanksgiving holiday.  though our families weren't initially thrilled because we had hosted thanksgiving at our place for the previous four years, we had decided that this is something that we wanted to do.  we both were fortunate enough to have vacation the week of thanksgiving.

view from our condo

we flew to san diego the night prior, had dinner with a friend of g's, and flew out early the next morning.  it was perfect - we got great seats together and landed around 10am maui-time.  we got our car and drove to the northwest part of the island for lunch.  our hawaiian vacation was underway!  our condo was quite nice and close to everything that we liked.

we were joined on our vacation by a couple of our friends a few days later.  we had nice beach days and dinners together.  on our last day on the island we took a snorkle tour, which g and i LOVED.  it made it hard to leave.  i cannot wait to a) visit hawaii again soon and b) go snorkeling somewhere!

on the snorkeling boat

2012: october edition

one of the great things about my job is visiting some of my favorite cities.  it's even better when i'm working with friends or great crews.

here are some a couple of the places i visited during the month.

nyc

while enjoying a long overnight in newark, my friend manny and i went into the city where we met up with my friend john (that g and i met on our recent transatlantic cruise).  we visited the 9/11 memorial before going to see ricky martin starring in evita.  after the show we met up with some of manny's friends for drinks.  it was a great evening in nyc!

boston

one of my all-time favorite cities in america, and i was flying with a great crew that wanted to go into the city and explore.  i was happy to oblige!  we walked around boston common, newbury street, quincy markey, and faneuil hall before stopping for a bite to eat.  it was an action-packed day and a fantastic fall day in boston!

2012: september edition

thanks to a wonderful living social escape, g and i spent part of our month in hawaii.

up until september, i'd only been to hawaii one time and we spent all of that time on maui.  though i absolutely loved the island, i wanted to experience diamond head and pearl harbor on oahu.  so on this trip, we decided to spend a couple days on oahu before making our way to maui.

we're extremely fortunately to fly to hawaii for absolutely nothing.  however, that sometimes means taking the long way there.  we flew from chicago to washington-dullas, then took at 10.5 hour flight to honolulu.  thought we got decent seats it was a LONG flight.  (did i mention that we were unable to consume alcoholic beverages on the flights?!)

once we arrived in honolulu, we checked into our hotel and explored the area.  after a quick, tasty sushi dinner we retired for the evening.  we woke up early, walked along waikiki beach and the surrounding area.  i wasn't overly impressed with the area and insisted that we accomplish our sightseeing as quickly as possible.  we were able to visit pearl harbor on sept. 11.  i thought that it might be a day of increased traffic, but luckily it wasn't.  pearl harbor and the uss arizona are something that all americans should see. there's so much in our nation's history that should be experienced.

later in the day we hiked diamond head.  it was a bit of a walk there, but the view was absolutely breathtaking.

after our busy day in oahu, i was ready to get to maui where we could relax and enjoy the beach and sun!

2012: august edition

as always, the summer months seem to fly by.  i continued to work on a special project at work that required me to spend many nights in dallas, working at headquarters during the day.  i will say that headquarters is a very unique place.  the culture of the company is written on the walls, quite literally.  there are pictures, posters, letters, uniforms, quotes, awards, and murals covering the walls in every hallway.  here is a very small sampling of what can be seen roaming around the headquarters building.  it really is a neat sight to see.

mural just outside of inflight training

later in the month we to bloomington for an IU reunion, of sorts.  it was a lot of fun spending time with our closest friends and one of my favorite places ever!  oliver winery, restaurants, campus walks, drinks out and reminiscing with friends made up a wonderful weekend.

beautiful oliver winery

sink the biz at nick's

fun times with friends (where's annie?!)

indiana christmas

                        happy christmas to all!

one of my favorite christmas songs.  how could it not make me think of home?

2012: july edition

i always tell people who want to come visit chicago to do so in the warmer months.  sure it may be a bit warm, but there's so much to do and see!  

my family came to visit one weekend in july and i insisted that we do the architecture river cruise.  i had done it a couple times before, but there's always something new to learn.  it's so interesting to view the city from a completely different perspective.  

uncle g and anderson on the "city bus"

over the july 4th weekend, i had a long overnight trip in las vegas.  i invited andrea to join me for the night.  wouldn't you know, after all the nights i had been there all summer long it was the ONE time that it poured down rain all afternoon?!  we still managed to have a good time and made our way to the strip later in the evening.  we walked around, did a little bit of gambling, and enjoyed dinner before heading back to the hotel.  it was a short trip, but it was nice.

HOT SHOT!

2012: june edition

summer had finally arrived in chicago!  though i was spending a lot of time working (i wrote here about the special project i was part of), we were able to take in perfect summer weather throughout the month.  

one random weekend evening, g and i decided to walk to nearby lincoln square and enjoy tasty margaritas and mexican food.  i explained to g that we should just get a pitcher of margaritas to split.  i assured him it was probably only 2 glasses each (i wasn't sure, but i figured it was probably like a bottle of wine...right? maybe?!).  well, i was sorely mistaken.  after g had filled his margarita glass up twice and there was still half a pitcher, he started to look at me suspiciously.  i admitted that i truly didn't know how many drinks it would produce but said that we couldn't waste the delicious mexican beverages!  well, here's what became of g towards the end of our dinner....and a seemingly never-ending pitcher of margaritas!  

celebrating g's birthday with our good friend tracy who was in town!

 each year we say we're going to skip the gay pride festivities the following year but somehow we get caught up in the excitement of the day with our friends.  this particular year one of our favorite bands, the scissor sisters, was performing at a small venue the evening of the parade.  though i knew it would be a lot of fun, i also knew that it could be disastrous after all the parade festivities.  a nap was much-needed before the show.  but i definitely rallied and enjoyed the fabulous show!

abby and i enjoying the scissor sisters

2012: may edition

after being away for over two weeks in april, we spent a lot of the month of may getting back to the daily grind.  we did go to indiana to celebrate lilly's 6th birthday and again the following weekend to see her first ballet recital.  

the birthday girl!

the ballerina

a random evening out

everyone needs a cute kitty picture!

2012: april edition

in april, g went on our second transatlantic cruise.  this one left from san juan, went to a couple places in the caribbean before cruising through the atlantic and then stopping in the canary islands, portugal, and ending in spain.

in st. maarten, we went to maho beach.  here is a picture that i took of KLM's 747 coming in from amsterdam.  yes, it is truly that close!  the beach is literally at the end of the runway.  if you think the landing is pretty neat, you should experience the take off!  the jet blast literally blows you back - g even got blown into the water! 

we sailed on the adventure of the seas.  we really enjoy cruising with royal caribbean and had another great experience on a beautiful ship.  there was so much to do onboard and the staff was fantastic!   

in lanzarote, we rode camels.  yes, camels!  it was definitely an experience, though not one i'd probably do again.  those camels STINK! and yes, they do spit (notice their mouths covered).

in madeira (an island off portugal), we experienced one of the traditions of the island riding in a toboggan down the very steep streets.  the view up the side of the volcano was breathtaking!

we met a lot of great people that we will hopefully keep in touch with for years to come.  the nice thing about a longer cruise is the chance to get to know others onboard.  we spent many evenings chatting with the waitstaff in the champagne bar and in the dining room each night.  and of course we became very close with our table-mates.  here's a picture of g and i with mark and melissa, a lovely couple from london.  along with mark and melissa, we sat at dinner with our new friends john and ryan from new jersey, and our chicago friend bryant.  it was a lovely way to finish off every day onboard our cruise.

2012: march edition

this march was truly all about my hoosiers.

I LOVE MY HOOSIERS! (if you weren't already aware) 

if you're a fan of college basketball, march madness is truly the event of the year.  it's what our teams work towards the entire season.  after conference play you're sized up against teams across the nation and seeded, if you're fortunate (read: good) enough to be a part of the NCAA tournament.

the hoosiers were expected to be better than the year before, but i think few expected them to be as good as they truly were.  starting the season unranked, knocking off the #1 team in the nation early in the season (followed by the #2 team a few weeks later), and a great conference season, the hoosiers earned a #4 seed in the tournament.  though we lost (ironically to the #1 team we beat earlier in the season) in the sweet sixteen, i was SO proud of my hoosiers.  we finally proved that we were back!

and the 2011-12 season, along with some excellent recruits, got us a #1 pre-season ranking!!

also in march i went to charlotte to visit my friend teresa.  i was lucky to have a trip that ended in charleston, sc and was able to hop on a flight headed to charlotte!  as always we had a fantastic time.  and in keeping with the basketball theme for the month, her kansas jayhawks made it all the way to the championship game!  rock chalk!

2012: february edition

i started off the month of february with a cruise in the bahamas.  it was a short trip with my sister to celebrate her 30th birthday.  i thought it would be a good way for us to get away together and enjoy the weekend.  we had a great time, even though the weather wasn't exactly what we had hoped for!

i want this britto painting SO bad!

gretchen covering herself up on deck

i flew with my one of my besties, having a great overnight in boston.  seriously, i cannot explain how much i love boston and look forward to getting there as much as possible.  if you haven't visited, get there immediately!  it's a great, walkable city with so much history.  lots to see and do - any time of the year!  

JFK library

mass. state house