Being a Cubs Fan

In honor of today's Cubs home opener at Wrigley (literally one block from my house-- I can see the actual field lights from my kitchen window) I decided to discuss a theory I've been mulling over in my head.

I'm from Chicago.  I've been a Cubs fan since birth and everyone knows it.  No one would ever dare call me a fair-weather fan.  That being said, I'm actually not sure I want the Cubs to win the World Series.

I know, I figured you might have that reaction.

Of course, I cheer my heart out for my Northsiders and am crushed when, year after year, our season ends in or before the playoffs.  But lately I've been considering what it would mean for our city, nay, our country if the Cubbies actually pulled off clinching the Fall Classic title.

It's a bizarre phenomenon that everyone loves the Cubs (sorry Sox fans).  We haven't won the World Series since 1908 and honestly haven't even had that many awesome seasons.  Yet year after year, people from all over the world come for a photo with our iconic red scoreboard, a foil-wrapped hot dog, and severely overpriced Old Style beer.  Why?  Because they want a piece of tradition.  Baseball is America's game, and (outside of the East Coast) the Cubs are America's team.

We're the underdogs.  The long-shot.  And I think I'd like to see us stay like this.

See, if we win the World Series, I think our Cubbies would lose a lot of their magic.  Everyone loves to cheer for them, but strangely enough I think a lot of that comes from our losing streak.  People know the legend of the goat, and nobody really cares what the score of the game is going to be.  Sure, we love seeing the white W flag flying high over the ivy but at the end of the day, watching the Cubs play is more about the experience than the outcome.

Plus, I can't even fathom what ticket sales would be like for the years following a championship victory.  Well, actually I can.  The White Sox won in '05 so it would probably be like that-- a few years of madness and raised prices, then back to the same-old-same.  And that's not ok!  I'm worried everyone would be even crazier for the Cubs than they already are, and then with a recent championship on the board, we'd sink into anonymity.  I love seeing Cubs fans everywhere across the country and I never want that to change.  I'd rather have over a century without a title than a few years of fair-weather fans and a couple decades of apathy. *shudder*

On the other hand, it would be a ridiculously euphoric dream come true if my boys on the North side won the Series this year, while I'm living near Wrigley Field.  Earlier this week I came across a blog: Rants of a Deliberate Smartass.  Basically it sounds like my everyday Tweets.  Anyway, this anonymous (well, at least to me) Cubs fan blogged about the commercial for video game MLB 2012 The Show.  Oh. My. Gosh.  He's 100% correct-- this is what it would be like if the Cubs won the championship.  I straight up almost cried.



So I guess I'm torn.  I've lived here long enough to see the mania surrounding the Bulls' 90s Dream Team, the South siders' 2005 World Series win, and the Hawks' 2010 Stanley Cup victory (sorry Bears, I was born in '87), so I know how much fun it would be to see my Cubs follow suit.  But the idea of losing our (inter)national fan base and become a run of the mill losing team terrifies me.

I guess the best compromise would be to see the Bears win the Super Bowl and keep my Cubs as America's favorite underdogs.

Have a great Thursday and GO CUBS GO!!!
=)  Jules


Note: all images are just from a general Google search and are not my personal property, but that of the websites from which they originated.

First Outdoor Run of 2012

Yep, you heard me!  Last night I finally had my first outdoor run of 2012 and it felt great!

I hate treadmills so when I go to the gym I usually do the elliptical.  It's ok, but I'd much rather do a Muscle Max or Spin class-- the problem is that after work, I usually get to the gym about 10 mins after a class started and have no desire to wait around for 50 mins for the next class to start.  And there are SOOOO many people at the gym between 5:30 and 8:30 during the winter that it's practically impossible to get enough space to do weights.  May need to find a new gym by next fall...

I digress.  As always.

Back to running!  Aside from a little jogging one cardio-filled evening, I haven't actually gone running since probably September or October- yikes! My body doesn't like to run but my mind does, so there's a constant battle going on when I hit the pavement.  Being knock-kneed, I'm super self-conscious about how I look when I run, and I have a tendency to unintentionally scrape my ankles with the opposite shoe. Plus I get fierce chafing because it's physically impossible for my thighs not to rub.  Ugh!  On the other hand, I love trekking through the neighborhoods and feeling that sense of kinship with everyone else out running in the Chicago air.  Like I said, my body hates it and my brain loves it.

You can read more at my old blog, Jul's Fitness Journey

Lately I've been doing a lot of walking.  Last week I walked to the Loop from DK (my office) and then home to Wrigleyville from the Loop, for a total of about 7 miles!  Then my sinuses kicked in, as always, and I had to work from home cuz I was sick =(  But once I felt better I did another hour of walking.  Monday I skipped my workout to watch the Pretty Little Liars season finale (because they finally revealed who A is!!! Or at least one of the A team....) and then on Tuesday night I walked the 4.5-5 miles home from DK.

So after having seen the bazillion (yes, that many!) people out running as I was walking home the past few trips, I decided it was time to join them.  I put on my sweet new gear from Old Navy (who knew?), laced up my old New Balance shoes, started Run Keeper, downloaded Pandora (I told you, I haven't run in a while!!) and hit the streets.  Here's my run summary from Run Keeper:

So proud of myself!

For anyone who doesn't know, Run Keeper is sort of like a free version of the Nike+ app.  You can either have it track you via GPS as you run, or enter your route & details before/after your workout.  It even tells you your progress along the way: "Time: 10 minutes. Distance: 0.94 miles. Average pace: 10 minutes 26 seconds per mile." If you don't have the Nike+ system, I highly recommend downloading Run Keeper!

I had a great day yesterday!  Even though I ate 28 WW points plus (my allowance is 26 points) I got in a solid 30 minutes of running at a < 11 min/mile pace and another 30 minutes of brisk walking.  Plus I got to enjoy the warm spring night!

Hope you've gotten outside for the nice weather!

Have a great Thursday =)
-Jules

Does red meat = Death? (I hope not!)

We all know research, no matter how reputable the source, will always be countered by the opposing side.  Eventually.  This article I found interesting though, like everything, you should take the information with a grain of salt.

An LA Times article yesterday (which I found through a FitFluential tweet) sums up a Harvard study, also published yesterday, which analyzed the diet and health patterns of over 110,000 adults over a 20+ year period.  The results?

Eating red meat — any amount and any type — appears to significantly increase the risk of premature death... Even worse, adding an extra daily serving of processed red meat, such as a hot dog or two slices of bacon, was linked to a 20% higher risk of death during the study.

We all know red meat isn't the best choice, especially of the pre-packaged, processed variety.  Not surprisingly, the article also mentions eating it in moderation.  Duh.

However the article also implied that even in moderation, people should stick to non-red meat.

...[Harvard postdoctoral fellow] Pan said the bottom line was that there was no amount of red meat that's good for you.

What I don't understand is that, if this is the case, why have humans been eating cows and pigs for hundreds of thousands of years?  If these animals were created for consumption, and we're learning they're not good for consumption, what are their purpose on the planet?

We know it's not milk-- humans are the only species that continues to drink milk after nursing, and the only species that consumes the milk of another species.  Kinda weird, if you think about it.

At the end of the article was a blurb about an editorial published with the study that mentions the economical and environmental benefits to a plant-based diet.  This is absolutely true.  I did a bunch of research when I became a vegetarian and learned that the amount of grain and water given to livestock could really solve some global human deficits, which is why it makes me so happy to hear about people participating in Meatless Monday and taking efforts to waste less water.  I came across this infographic from PETA which explains it succinctly.  And no, I'm not advocating anyone become a vegan or join PETA or anything, but they're knowledgeable and tend to make sense (at least to me).

Side note: I'm no longer a vegetarian (I wasn't healthy about it) but I still don't eat that much meat, and I'm not a big fan of processed meats.  Just about my only exception is ballpark hot dogs... I can't resist them at Cubs games, but thankfully they just switched vendors, so I'm looking forward to some Vienna Beef all season =)  I'm also not a vegan, nor do I buy vegan products, but I do have some serious internal struggle because of it-- I love Coach bags and Ugg boots, but I wish they were faux... And I'd love to give up meat & dairy altogether but the vegan alternatives are just so expensive and without them I'm personally unable to have a healthy vegan diet. Like I said, internal struggle. UGH!!

I'm pretty sure most of us already eat small to moderate amounts of red meat.  Chinese Beef with Green Beans once a month is usually the only red meat I consume, though with Cubs season and grilling season coming up, that may increase a little bit.  But frankly, I just think chicken is way easier to cook!

What are your thoughts on red meat?  Do you eat it or avoid it?

Have a great Tuesday =)
-Jules

Brunch Review: Toast

So I wrote this post a couple weeks ago but for whatever reason never got around to publishing it...

Yesterday morning my grandparents came in from the suburbs to see where I live and hang out for a bit.  They got in around noon and came straight to my apartment, where I gave them a quick tour (we were hungry after all).  Now, I've been hearing about this little place called Toast from my friends-- because in Chicago, brunch is everyone's favorite weekend hobby-- but it's not in Lakeview so I hadn't been yet.

I decided we would take advantage of the fact that Grammy & Pa drove in, and I could finally try Toast.

Sadly I didn't take any photos, but this is from Menuism.com

Oh. Emm. Gee.  It was a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

We went to the original location in Lincoln Park, at Webster & Halsted.  Parking wasn't too bad, but in the city you absolutely need to know how to parallel park (and sadly, a lot of people don't seem to have this skill down).  When we got there we were told it would be 45-60 mins, which definitely isn't the worst wait I've seen for brunch, so we walked down the street to Starbucks.  After a leisurely 40 mins at Starby's we went back to check on the wait at Toast.  Thankfully the wait wasn't as long as the hostess had originally quoted, and we were seated immediately.

The four-top booth against the window is where we sat (from Toast-Chicago.com)

The place is tiny, probably only seating about 22 at the tables and another 5-6 at the counter, so you're seated about a foot away from the table next to you.  I like restaurants like that, they're more cozy =)

The interior of Toast - note the Art Deco feel (from Toast-Chicago.com)

I ordered the Pesto Scramble, Grammy ordered the Eggs Benedict special, and Pa ordered the Omelette Lorraine.  Oh, and Grammy and I also split a Nutella crepe (because we needed a break from our savory entrees. And who in their right mind can resist Nutella crepes?)

I'm obsessed with the Pesto Scramble.  It was scrambled eggs with tomato, prosciutto, gruyere cheese, and fresh house pesto.  I can't even describe how delicious it was.  I think angels were singing and dancing on my taste buds.  A lot of places that serve pesto scrambled eggs or pest omelets tend to not use enough salt or don't season it further, and this was not the case.  It was salty, but not too salty, the cheese was melty without being frustratingly stringy, and the prosciutto was a perfect addition.  I absolutely loved it.  And the breakfast potatoes served with it were cooked exactly as I like them, which I have found is apparently difficult for most restaurants.  I usually try a bite or two of the potatoes and then ignore them, but I ate everything-- literally, everything-- on my plate.

Grammy was thrilled with her Eggs Benedict special, which had bacon and asparagus.  A friend had told me Toast has the best Hollandaise sauce she's ever had, and Grammy was just as enthusiastic.  She said Hollandaise can sometimes be too heavy and overwhelm the dish, or be too light and barely add flavor, but she said her Eggs Benedict was one of the best she's ever had (and she eats E.B. a lot.  Like at least once a week, a lot).  Pa said his Omelette Lorraine was fantastic, but he's a man of few words so I don't know much more beyond that.  He practically licked his plate clean though, so I know the combination of applewood bacon, gruyere cheese, onion, and chives must've been good.  The Nutella crepe was good, but we made the mistake of waiting until after everything else to enjoy it, so it wasn't warm anymore.  Should've ordered it when we were close to finishing our main dishes.

Overall, we all gave Toast a five out of five review.  We loved everything we ordered, and Grammy & Pa were pleasantly surprised to discover Julius Meinl coffee.

I'm on a quest to go to as many brunch places as possible, but I'll for sure be going back to Toast in the near future!

What's your favorite brunch spot or your go-to entree?

Have a great Monday =)
-Jules

Mini Quarter-Life Crisis

Last night I suddenly had a little freak-out.

Thankfully one of my roommates was out and the other one had just gone to bed.

All of a sudden I realized that I finally became a "big girl".  And for some reason that made me feel like I was all alone.

I just started my new job (salary, not hourly pay, and benefits!) on Wednesday at DK and that involved paperwork.  Which included W-something tax forms.

And for the first time ever, "no one else can claim me as a dependent."

I'm officially independent!

And in my late-night mind last night, that somehow went from being awesome and exciting to completely scaring me.  Seriously, I started pacing around my bedroom and maybe even shed a few tears.  I looked my ugly-crying face in the mirror and asked myself why I felt like this.

And I realized it was because I was completely exhausted and couldn't even think straight.

So I went to bed.

And today I felt a lot better =)

Hope you saw Channing Tatum on SNL tonight!! Mmmmm....
-Jules

Learning to Cook: Pesto Pizza

Part of this learning-to-be-an-adult process is the fact that I now have to fend for myself in the kitchen.  Thankfully Real HouseMom is a whiz in the kitchen, so I've helped her here and there and picked up some of her tricks.

But not enough that I actually know how to cook.

Because I don't.

I mean, I'm great at boiling pasta, mashing potatoes and scrambling eggs (and I make awesome sauteed vegetables, if I do say so myself), but beyond that I'm clueless.

Thanks to my addiction obsession with Pinterest, my Food board is chock-full of meal ideas that I want to try.  I asked for (and received) a Crock-Pot for Christmas, so there are a ton of slow-cooker recipes that sound delightful.  I've repinned meals that are low-fat, meat-free, extra-cheesy, five-minute and every other category you can think of.

My theory is: the more ideas I have of yummy meals, the more likely I am to actually teach myself to cook......and not just order from Grub-Hub or fix myself a PB sandwich.

ANYWAY, I digress (as always).  So.....

Drumroll please.....

Here is the first meal I made for myself in my new big girl apartment (courtesy of that $130 trip to the Jewel).

I was too excited to take "during" photos, but I'm proud of the "after"!  Plus it's too easy to need photos =)

TA-DA!!!  It's a pesto pizza!

And seriously, it was delish!

Here's the recipe that I loosely followed: Budget Bytes' Pesto Focaccia Pizza

By loosely, I mean that I just bought a whole-wheat pizza crust.  I'm learning to cook.... teaching myself to make pizza dough/focaccia bread is way too much at this stage.  It was fun and super easy-- just a pre-made pizza crust, jar of pesto, bag of shredded Mozz and some roma tomatoes.  Even I couldn't screw it up!  I just followed the cooking instructions on the label of the pizza crust and it turned out great =)

If you have any recipe recommendations or first-time cooking tales, I'd love to hear them!

Have a great Thursday =)
-Jules

A Fresh Start!

I realize it's been a long time (about two months!) since I last posted.  That's because shortly after we were in Columbus, GA, our team manager Emm got herself a job in Oklahoma City (where her brand new boyfriend lives) and put in her two weeks' notice.  The Office then promoted me to team manager and sent a member of another team--that had just closed out--to fill in for her.  Thankfully Cee and I got along great!  The last month of tour flew by, including Thanksgiving in Little Rock, a couple NHL games in Raleigh and a visit from Boyfie while in Columbus, OH.  Friday, Dec. 16 was the last day of our contract, and I finally got to go home and see my family.

Now, I had already signed a lease for an apartment (well, it's the second floor of a city house) in the Wrigleyville area of Chicago.  And I decided Boyfie and I were going to spend New Year's Eve in the city so I informed my family that I was moving out between Christmas and New Year's.  So on Thursday, Dec. 29, a whole army my family & "friends" helped move me out of my parents' house in Naperville and into my new apartment in Chicago.  Real HouseMom's best friend's hubby has a sweet Ford pickup truck, so he and Soccer Dad loaded my new box spring, mattress, dresser, and whatever other big stuff we were moving and headed to the apartment.  Real HouseMom and Brosef stocked the Toyota Highlander with a bunch more of my stuff (bins, boxes, etc.), while Boyfie and I filled my Mazda Tribute (her name is Charlie) with all my hanging clothes and a couple other last-minute things.

That's our house!  We live on the 2nd floor, with the "balcony" we could use if we had a death wish.

Thanks to switching rooms in the sorority house every semester of college, I've become a master at moving stuff and getting it set up and put away asap.  Tip: the easiest way to move clothes is the way you want them!  All the stuff you'll have folded up in your dresser can be "packed" in the drawers for transport, and everything you'll have hanging in the closet can just be left on the hanger and carried like that.

So I was all moved in and settled in time for New Year's Eve at Mystic Celt in Chicago!

Boyfie and me -- first picture of 2012!

Yesterday Boyfie left-- after a wonderful six-day visit!-- and went back to Indiana... and my bff {future} Mrs. K came to visit with her almost-16-month-old daughter CJ.  We went to lunch, played on my bed, chased CJ back and forth across my apartment (she just learned to walk) and looked out the window at dogs that passed and left-up Christmas lights.  Love that little munchkin, she and her brother GG refer to me as Aunt Jul =)

Soooo today was my first really independent day since I moved in almost a week ago.  The charming sounds of the garbage trucks in the alley outside my back-of-apartment bedroom window woke me up at 7:33am but I didn't mind being up.  Eventually I got out of bed and, acting all domestic-y, decided to make some tea.  I don't know why, and I hope I'm not alone with this problem, but for whatever reason I always forget that I have a tea bag steeping.  Half an hour later I had tepid, horribly strong tea that even a packet of Sweet-n-Low couldn't salvage.  Down the drain it went.

Undeterred, I was determined to have a productive, grown-up day.  I wrote a check for my rent, which I dropped off at my landlady's house about 5 doors down, and even changed my mailing address through the US Postal Service and the three magazines I subscribe to.  So far, so good.

Then came my grocery shopping trip.  Thankfully there's a Jewel-Osco a couple blocks down Addison, since I don't have my car downtown.  Since I always just impulse-buy whatever sounds good and then end up with the most random pantry ever, I thought it would be wise and mature to plan out my meals ahead of time, then just buy the ingredients I need.

I'm so glad I did that.  The combination of higher prices (and higher taxes) in the city plus the fact that I had absolutely NO food in the house-- including staples like milk, peanut butter, cereal, etc-- meant that this will be the most expensive grocery shopping trip I'll ever make (until I'm a mom trying to feed a horde family).  The total?  Almost $130, and that's after my $15 preferred card savings.

My receipt from the Jewel.... Yikes!!

Anyway, today is Real HouseMom's birthday, so I'm about to take the L to Union Station to catch a train back to Naperville for dinner with the fam.

Have a great Hump Day =)
-Jules

Finally... Some Motivation!

This past weekend we worked at the Georgia state high school cheerleading competition.  Oh. My. Gosh.  These girls were so talented!

Insanely flexible!

Let me preface a smidge.  I told my parents at age 4 that I wanted to be a cheerleader when I grew up.  Then in elementary school when I wanted to cheer for a peewee football team, my parents said no. *Tear*  Now, I can't hate them too much since I did, at some point, do the following in elementary school: ballet, tap, gymnastics, poms, flags, baton, softball, swim team, piano, cello, youth group and of course, soccer.  (I played soccer for 10 years, including high school).  Anyway, the closest I ever came to cheerleading was the junior high dance team and-- much, much later-- a month on the cheer & stunt team at Purdue.  Suffice it to say I've loved cheerleading for a couple decades =)

Back to 2011.  Emm and I both whine nonstop about our bodies, since our usual schedule makes it difficult to workout regularly, and impossible to eat anywhere besides restaurants for every meal.  No, seriously-- I've only been home for about 40 hours in the last 3+ months (and sadly, a lot of hotels don't have fridges) so all of our meals are bought at restaurants.

Naturally, with all these insanely athletic (and flexible- yikes!) girls between 14 and 18, Emm and I spent the weekend green with envy. I know, I know... Exodus 20:17 says not to covet but that is probably the Commandment that I struggle with most.

Tan and thin-- but strong!

Anyway, after spending the weekend around all these thin, flexible, tan girls, Emm and I used our jealousy to motivate ourselves.  We've worked out three days in a row and even found a tanning salon near our hotel.  It's time for a change!  We're staying on the 5th floor of our hotel so we've also been taking the stairs every time we come and go, and we've been doing our best to eat lower-carb and lower-fat.

I guess sometimes, a little jealousy can go a long way!

Have a great night =)
-Jules

Yankee Girl Meets the South: Upcoming Schedule

Some of these dates are set in stone and some are just rough estimates at this point, but here's where we'll be going in the next month.

10/19 - 10/25 :: Little Rock, Arkansas

10/25 - 10/30 :: Columbus, Georgia

10/30 - 11/2 :: Atlanta, Georgia

11/2 - 11/4 :: Greenville, South Carolina

11/4 - 11/6 :: Carrollton, Georgia

11/16 - 11/18 :: Birmingham, Alabama

11/21 - 11/23 :: Tulsa, Oklahoma

11/23 - 11/27 :: Little Rock, Arkansas

If you have any suggestions for how to make Thanksgiving fun when you're in a hotel in a faraway city with two coworkers, I'd love to hear them!

Have a great weekend =)
-Jules

Fantastic Fall D.I.Y.

This is something I just saw on fellow Midwestern girl Kristin's blog, Iowa Girl Eats.

If I weren't traveling right now, this would be my project for the day.  As it is, I'm planning to make this with candy cane sticks when I come home in December (I'll post on it later, when I actually make it).  I think it would look cute year-round if I change out the raffia/twine with different colored ribbons during spring/summer and put seasonal-specific blooms in it!

Here's her finished product:

LOVE this vase!

Check it out here: http://iowagirleats.com/2011/10/15/no-cost-diy-decor/

Thanks for the wonderful DIY idea =)
-Jules

Yankee Girl Meets the South: Halfway Through!

Ok so it's been over two months since I last posted, and a lot has happened!  I'm more than halfway through my time on the road-- 85 days in and 61 days left-- and here's where we've been so far:

Texas - Midland, Houston, and Denton/Dallas
New Mexico - just over the border, to say we'd been there
Louisiana - just stopped in Monroe for a couple nights
Mississippi - driven through several times, stopped on the road for food
Alabama - Huntsville, Birmingham, Albertville/Guntersville
Georgia - Atlanta/Fayetteville/Buckhead
Tennessee - Memphis and Chattanooga
South Carolina - Greenville and Elgin
Arkansas - Hope, Fayetteville, soon to be in Little Rock
Kentucky - Louisville
Indiana - West Lafayette
Illinois - Chicago/Naperville
Wisconsin - Green Bay (for the Packers-Saints season opener)
Oklahoma - OKC and Tulsa
North Carolina - Nantahala River area

That's a lot of hotels!  We're racking up points everywhere we go; I just wish I could use points towards my rent once I'm back in Chicago lol.

On Thursday we worked an event around Tulsa, a Native American (or American Indian, depending on the individual) business summit.  It was indoors and we only had about 1/6 of our event site set up but we met some cool people so it was pretty fun.  I've never spent time around Native American areas-- which is a lot of what Oklahoma seems to be, Trail of Tears and all-- but it was fascinating to meet some Cherokees and learn a little about what their life is like.  Afterwards we made the drive to Oklahoma City so we could get Friday off.

Once we got to OKC I made a Target run.  Since we'll be here for a few days and then in Little Rock for a few days I decided to go ahead and buy some food.  I already love the Special K cereals and bars, and I really really need to shed some weight, so I figured I'd give the Special K Challenge a try.  I haven't been able to workout in about a month since I had a bad sinus infection and cough that put me out of commission for over two weeks.  Ugh.  I'm so glad to be done with that!

I'm going to do everything I can to at least squeeze in a 30 minute workout every day, and do a full hour or more if I have the time.  It's just really challenging to workout and eat well when every day and every week bring such different days!

On Friday I drove "up" to Tulsa for the morning to check out Oral Roberts University, where Boyfie went to school for a year.  It was really small (especially to a Big 10 grad) but had a very pretty campus!  The architecture was totally 60s and reminiscent of Epcot at DisneyWorld, including a unique prayer tower and some beautiful gardens.

Yesterday we worked one of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure events in the Bricktown area of OKC.  Real HouseMom's mother, my Grammy, is a breast cancer survivor who's been in remission for over 10 years so I'm all for the cause.  I woke up at 3:30 am so we could leave the hotel at 4:30 am and arrive onsite by 5:00 am.  It was a really great event!  There was pink everywhere and the energy was incredible.  The only problem, besides it being dark for the first few hours, was how chilly it was.  I thought I'd be ok with jeans, boat shoes and my zip-up jacket, but even I was shivering.  Our onsite contact bought boxes and boxes of granola bars for us to hand out to the racers, and everyone was very grateful to us for them.  Next weekend we're working another Race for the Cure in Little Rock and I'm excited for it!  I'm a little nervous about how late we'll be working Friday night and how early we'll have to wake up Saturday for the event... Might be time for an all-nighter...

Thankfully today and tomorrow are our days off, so I'm relaxing and catching up on emails, blogging, etc.  I'm going to be moving into an apartment near Wrigley Field in January (yay!) so I might hop on Pinterest and start putting together my future Big Girl Bedroom... Who am I kidding, that's probably gonna be my whole day!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend =)
-Jules

Time to Travel!

About a week and a half ago I got a call from MW, the marketing company I was interning with through May.  They asked if I would be interested in helping out with another team, doing the same work I had done in Indianapolis and Detroit in late May/early June.  Of course I jumped at the opportunity, and on Thursday I flew to Dallas-Fort Worth to meet the team!

After a few days in Midland, TX it was time to head to Houston.  On the way (it was about a 10 hour drive) I got another call from MW-- and they asked if I wanted to stay on for the rest of the tour!!  Which means I now have a job for the rest of the year!  I love the other two members of my team, Emm and Jay, so I'm thrilled to be spending the next 4 1/2 months touring the south with them =)

I'm going to start a separate blog so friends and family can follow my travels.  I'll post a link to it in the menu so you can check up on me too!

Have a great Tuesday =)
-Jules

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I love event planning, so when I found out our next door neighbors finally sold their house and would be moving at the end of the month, I knew we had to throw them a going away party.

Here are the invitations I made:

I just typed up the invites in MS Word, printed them out two per page and cut them in half.  Then I took an old atlas, tore out a bunch of pages, cut them in half and glue-sticked the invite to a map.  Super easy, kind of time-consuming (though I was gluing them while watching a movie so that may have been why) but I got TONS of compliments on them from my neighbors!

[Side note: we've lived in this house for almost 20 years, so my neighbors have seriously watched me grow up-- my first bike, learning to drive, graduating from high school and college, etc]

I wanted to make a special dessert, too-- part of my "I'm 24 and need to learn how to bake or else my future kids are screwed" summer mentality-- and after browsing around some of my favorite baking blogs, I found a recipe for Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes.  It was actually a guest post on Carrie Sellman's cake blog, Half Baked.

These are the treats as created by cupcake contributor Lauren of Crave.Indulge.Satisfy:

I loved her idea for making cupcake jars but I'm taking baby steps with my baking... for now =)

And these are how mine turned out:

I'm sure a professional photo shoot like Lauren's wouldn't hurt too, instead of just a cell phone pic, but you get the idea!  What I just can't figure out, though, is how she got her cupcake wrappers to stay so yellow-- mine ended up going from a bright primary yellow to cake-color invisible yellow.  How do you maintain the color???

Now, I cheated a little on the cupcakes... Instead of making the cake from scratch (the idea of which still terrifies me as a total newbie baker), I did pick up a box of Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Lemon Supreme Cake mix.  But I made the strawberry buttercream frosting totally from scratch!  I ended up having to play around a little bit with the proportions of powdered sugar, strawberry puree and lemon zest but overall they weren't too difficult!

And they were a hit at the party =)  Everybody loved them and said they can't wait for my cupcakes at our next party!

Things I learned while making these cupcakes:

• How to use a food processor
• How to puree something
• How to use a stand mixer
• The best way to load an icing bag is to fold over the top so you have a cuff, then place it in a glass or jar (with the cuff folded over the top edges of the glass/jar) so you can use both hands!
• Always use an apron!  Unless you're baking in an old sorority t-shirt and Soffe shorts...
• Flexible spatulas are a necessity
• Strawberry juice/puree will stain things (spatulas, icing bags, etc.)
• If you don't have a zester, a small handheld cheese grater works just fine

 Here's what I used for this baking project:

• Strawberry Lemonade Cupcake recipe from Half Baked
• Cross-check of puree directions
• Strawberry Puree Recipe from JoyofBaking.com
• Strawberry Puree Recipe from Food.com

In the future I'd love to try these again from scratch and maybe try a raspberry or blueberry twist instead of strawberry!  The possibilities are endess....

Have a great Sunday =)

-Jules

Results: Harry Potter Cookies & More

Dear self,
In the future, buy supplies and mix/bake cookies the night before.  Then begin decorating right after breakfast so you don't run out of time and end up with the cookies below.
Love, me

Yep, I didn't quite get as much done as I'd hoped.  I didn't realize I'd have to go to Michael's for cake decorating products; I'm 24 and have never really done this so I figured I could pick up everything I needed at Target.

False.

After making shopping lists of everything I'd need for the cookies and researching online to find out where I could buy it, I decided to start at Target and then make a trip to Michael's, if needed.

Let's just say Target doesn't carry specific decorating tips, squeeze bottles, specific shades of food coloring, etc.  They do, however, carry the break-n-bake cookie dough, so I popped the cookies in the oven when I got home from Target (4 mins away) and asked Real HouseMom to take them out of the oven when the timer went off.  Meanwhile I raced to Michael's (12 mins away), which ended up being a mecca for those who are craft-oriented (or pretending to be).

Long story short, once I got home I made royal icing, mixed the food coloring into it and outlined the cookies.  It took about 4-5, um, unique cookies before I finally got the hang of it!  .....sort of.

The outlined cookies (stop judging)

While the piped outlines dried, I added water to the royal icing and put it in the squeeze bottle so I could flood the cookies.  It was working well!  Until my friend K showed up so we could go to dinner.... About 8 cookies after she arrived, I ran out of watered-down royal icing, so I decided we'd go to dinner, let the flooded cookies set and then I could finish when we got home.

The filled-in cookies (and the ones that were left after I ran out of flooded icing)

Welllllll we got home from dinner (Buffalo Wild Wings boneless Thursday!) and only had a few hours to go, so I made the executive decision to forgo finishing the cookies in favor of watching Deathly Hallows: part 1 and painting our nails in Gryffindor colors.  For about $1 each from Target (duh), I got "scarlet" (New York Color in #228 Chelsea) and "gold" (Sinful Colors in #955 Pull Over).

My first experiment with polka dot nails could've been better... but probably could've been worse

About 10:30, we decided to head to the theater to get seats and oh my goodness was it packed!!  The theater near my house (across the street from my Target, actually) is a 30-screen jumbo theater-- and Deathly Hallows: part 2 was playing on 17 screens.  No joke, over half of the entire place was total HP mania!

The movie was really good (the book was better, duh!) and the people at the movie were a little over-the-top (aka I wanted to throw some of the chanting, screaming not-yet-lost-my-baby-fat tweens & teens down the stairs) but overall we had a great time!

And for the future, I now know that seriously decorated cookies need some advance preparation...

Again, here's what helped me make these cookies:

• Harry Potter character cookies from Bridget @ Bake at 350
• Super duper unfortunately, I didn't see her recipe for BUTTERBEER cookies (OMG I know) until the next day, otherwise I would've attempted those too! =(
• A weird cross-check of royal icing recipes from these three sites:
• Royal Icing 102 or 201 or whatever [also from Bridget]
• Royal Icing recipe from Wilton [the main one I followed]
• Royal Icing recipe from JoyofBaking.com [this one was mostly just to cross-reference measurements]

Another future note-to-self: when halving measurements, write down what the new measurements will be.  I ended up halving the powdered sugar but not the water and couldn't figure out why, after 20 mins of mixing, I still didn't have stiff peaks.  Figured it out pretty quickly after that.

Have a great Monday =)

-Jules

Learning to.... Bake & Decorate Cookies

Growing up, Real HouseMom would usually have some kind of baked good around the house as an after-dinner treat.  The most common desserts were brownies-- Duncan Hines, I believe-- or chocolate chip cookies from scratch.  Real HouseMom is definitely more than competent in the kitchen, baking and cooking (sometimes at the same time!) with the greatest of ease.  The problem with this was that she and I weren't the only people around.  The two of us could stretch a batch of brownies to last a week-- but with Soccer Dad and Little Bro in the house, it was a different story.  Between the two of them, at least half the pan of brownies/cookies/cake/whatever would be devoured that day.  And the remaining half would be gone by the following night.  With those two in the house, homemade desserts never last 48 hours.

The most common treat at our house, always frosted =)

Because of this, Real HouseMom never went through the trouble of decorating anything.  Cookies and cakes always go so fast that any sugary artwork would go completely unnoticed-- so I never learned how to decorate any sweets, beyond the occasional "Happy Birthday" that looks like it was written by a six-year-old.

Now that I'm 24, I've decided it's time to learn to be a pastry artist.  Not professionally or full-time or anything crazy like that!  Just for the occasional party, holiday or birthday.  And I'm going to start by making a batch of Harry Potter cookies for the midnight launch of 'Deathly Hallows: Part 2' (which, of course, I'm going to see at midnight).

The cookies I will be attempting later this week!  [details below]

Here's the story: our next door neighbors just sold their house and will be moving in the next few weeks, so Real HouseMom and I decided we're going to throw a going-away-slash-block-party in our cul-de-sac.  Me being the overly ambitious planner I am, I decided we're going to have some great decorations and some fabulous desserts.

I decided some cute shaped & decorated sugar cookies would be a fun treat for everybody, so I Googled "frosting cookies" to find a how-to guide.  What I found was this awesome video from Bridget of Bake at 350.  Confession: I can't get enough of her blog!  First of all, the video was super helpful to someone like me, who's completely kitchen-challenged.  Then when I went to her blog, I saw these adorable cowboy boot cookies!!

I think these are insanely precious but I just can't think of an occasion when cowboy boot cookies would be appropriate here in Chicago... I might throw a western-themed party just to make these!

Below those cute boots were three "You might also like" posts-- and one of them was for Harry Potter cookies!  [Side note: I'll do a Harry Potter post later this week, to explain why these cookies have just become the highlight of my life]  So I've decided that my first attempt at piping and decorating with royal icing is going to be this week when I do my best to make the Harry Potter cookies.  I promise I'll post pictures!

In the meantime, I'm trying to find anything related to North Carolina (where Mr. & Mrs. Next Door will be moving) so I can get cookie cutters and icing colors that pertain to the party.  Let me know if you're from the Charlotte area (or even NC in general), I'd love some ideas for the decorations and food!

Have a great Tuesday =)

-Jules

College Prep Giveaway: Jack Rogers Navajos!

In case you don't already know about it, Carly the College Prepster runs one of my favorite blogs =)

Click her logo to visit her blog!

Well, today she posted that she is giving away a pair of Jack Rogers Navjos!  Not a bad contest, if you ask me.  All you have to do is follow a couple painless steps and leave a comment, and you're entered!  View the contest here: http://www.thecollegeprepster.com/2011/07/giveaway-jack-rogers.html

I'll post again on her blog, but if I win the contest, this is the pair I want most:

The Hamptons White Navajos.  They're so cute and go with everything!  Let me know if you enter, too!

Good luck and have a great afternoon =)

-Jules

Thor!

Yes, it's really really really late but I just HAD to share this with you!  Tonight (well, last night), after a delightful dinner at Panera, I went to see 'Thor' with one of my girlfriends aka sorority sister and it was so good!  I apologize in advance for all the exclamation points in this post but that's how excited I still am =)

I didn't grow up reading comic books (except the occasional 'Betty & Veronica') so I have no clue which superheroes are Marvel and which are DC, or who The Avengers are, or what the story is with the X-Men.  Well, I saw 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' and 'X-Men First Class' so I guess I have a better idea of that group now.  But in general, I'm totally in the dark on the superheroes-- which, I think, is why I love the superhero movies sooo much!  And now that I'm typing this, I'm realizing just how many superhero movies I've seen over the years....

• All the 'Batman' movies (no matter who played Bruce Wayne or which decade they came out)
• The 'Spiderman' trilogy
• 'Fantastic Four' & 'Rise of the Silver Surfer'
• 'Iron Man' & 'Iron Man 2'  <--- Apparently he's in The Avengers!

I never saw 'The Incredible Hulk' with Edward Norton (who I always think of as the guy from 'Fight Club' now) or the original 'X-Men', 'X-2' or 'Last Stand' movies; nor have I seen 'Green Hornet' (does that count?) or 'Green Lantern' (mmmm Ryan Reynolds!) but now I have seen the two most recent 'X-Men' movies-- and 'Thor'-- and I'm just dying to see 'Captain America: The First Avenger' when it comes out!

Let me tell you-- 'Thor' was the most exciting movie I've seen lately.  And yes, I saw 'Transformers 3' the day it came out.  Ok so maybe they're tied....  Well since I know that was the end of the 'Transformers' saga, I'm giving the award to 'Thor' =)

Anyway, 'Thor' does a great job of combining the ubiquitous romantic story with some seriously awesome intergalactic butt-kicking.  Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor, is obscenely ripped.  I'm talking utterly swoon-worthy muscles and a b-e-a-utiful tan.  And Natalie Portman's character is adorable but very independent and intelligent-- NP rocks in everything =)

Ok, so mini spoiler alert =)

The casting was great.  Obvi.  And they did a great job with sets and costumes, too!  But serious snaps to the writers for spot-on conversations and logical screenplay.  OMG some parts were hilarious-- we were actually laughing out loud at the witty dialogue and quirky one-liners!

But what would a superhero movie be without action!  That hammer of his (ok, get your mind out of the gutter!) was probably the coolest weapon I can remember seeing in a movie.  Really, Thor could kick some serious bad-guy booty with that thing, it was awesome!  The fight scenes on Asgard, Jotunheim and Earth required some serious special effects but it was cool to see battles throughout the movie, instead of just in one enormous climactic scene.

We LOVED the movie (duh) until the very very very end.  The credits started to roll and we were like, umm, what about ______??  (sorry, no spoilers!)  So in our incredulity, we remained glued to our seats, hoping for an additional scene during or after the credits.

HINT: if you go to see 'Thor', you will definitely want to sit through the credits.  Trust me.  Minds were blown.

That's all I'm gonna say-- and somehow a quick little post turned into a novel-- so have a great Saturday =)

-Jules

The New Jules: Day 1 =)

Today for the Bikini Challenge from Tone It Up, I combined Day 1 and Day 2 (since you're supposed to start on a Monday but today was Tuesday).  The everyday requirements include drinking half your body weight in ounces of water-- so I'm aiming for 65-70 oz-- as well as eat a lean, green, clean dinner that doesn't include heavy starches, cheeses or fried food.  In my family, we always eat dinner between 8:30pm and 9:00pm so another goal of mine is to not eat past 7pm and be in bed by 11pm.  I'm hoping this isn't too ambitious 'cause I want to succeed!

Anywho, here's how my newly fit day went!

The challenge for Day 1

For Bikini Challenge Day 1, I woke up 30 mins early and did the Body Slim DVD from YogaWorks.  It was fun!  They alternate "deep burn" poses with "cardio" poses, taking you through the most common poses at a great pace.  It was a nice combination of static poses (like Warrior II, Triangle Pose and Side Plank) and flowing poses (including three variations on Sun Salutation).  And in case you're a total yoga newbie, they have someone doing slightly modified poses.  For more information on poses, the Yoga Journal website is a great place to start =)  You can also find the DVD that I did this morning at Amazon.com!

The challenge for Day 2

Fast forward a few hours.  I spent the afternoon doing housework so Real HouseMom could come home to a clean house after a week at my grandparents' lake house, and I modified my fitness plan (see update below).  I'm addicted to Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family so I had to watch it at 7pm.  Well, dinner took a lot longer to make than anticipated so I ended up eating around 7:30, which isn't too bad for my first attempt.  Once I finished eating (and the Rosewood drama had subsided for the week), it was time to do the 2nd half of my challenge workouts for today.  I did the Day 2 Bikini Strap Workout with my 5-lb hand weights on the floor of my living room while watching TV.  They said to do 12-20 reps of each move, so I aimed for 15 since I'm not exactly in peak condition right now.  Some of the moves were a little more tiring than others but I did 3 sets of each of the moves and it felt good!

Bikini Challenge Day 1 Summary Checklist:

• Check in with the Tone It Up girls: Almost check!  Once this post is finished, I'll link it in a tweet to them-- and you'll be able to see it in my Twitter box on the right.
• Drink 65-70 oz water: Check!  My 24 oz blue Camelbak has the lines marked on it so it's super easy to see how much I've drank.  I drank 2 bottles already and have about 5 oz left in the third one, so that would be about 67 oz =)  I also had two glasses of sweetened (not sweet) tea...
• Eat lean, green and clean for dinner: Mehhh kind of failed this one.  I ate with my mom and we had whole grain brown rice with a frozen Chinese stir fry.  No breads or potatoes AND a healthy portion of veggies, but the sauce was probably pretty high in sodium and added sugars =/
• And I'm so excited to be developing these great new habits!!  Although a printable version of the challenge would be SUPER helpful *hint hint* =)

Running update: Since I live in Chicago and one of the best half marathons in the country is the Chicago Half Marathon, I asked around a little bit to see if any of my friends will be running it.  Turns out, several of my friends are signed up for it!  In case you didn't know, I'm do a lot of stuff on impulse.  A lot.  An hour after I heard back from my friends, I registered for the half marathon.  And since it's a month sooner than the one I was originally considering, I found this 10-week training program from Fitness Magazine-- which is perfect because the HM is Sunday 9/11 and that's 10 weeks away!  Since it's already after 11pm (which was when I was going to try to go to bed every night!) and creepy dark out, I'm postponing my run to first thing in the morning.  I'll let you know tomorrow how day 2 goes and I'll try to get some "before" pictures so I'll have something to compare with in a couple months!

Have a great hump day =)

-Jules

I want to run a half marathon!

Last year I decided to get my butt in gear and lose some weight while training for my very first running race.  I spent the summer (which in Chicagoland is hot and humid as anything) alternating running workouts Monday-Wednesday-Friday and strength training Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday.  I managed to lose 15 pounds (yay!) but then I plateaued.

Me, in December 2009 with one of my cousins

Me, in December 2010 at our office holiday party (I'm front row, far left)

ANYWAY long story short, I ran the 5K race at the Chicago Half Marathon in September 2010 with my friend Liz.  We weren't trying to PR or win any awards, just have fun-- and let me tell you, it was SO much fun!  All my photos were on my old laptop and are now in my external hard drive, so for now here are a couple professional photos from the race (don't judge, they're hideous!)

I look super attractive....

With my friend Liz, just after we finished running

I'm sick of this workout plateau!  I've decided it's time to get my act back together and work on losing the remaining 15 lbs I'm aiming for.  I found the Tone It Up 8 week Bikini Challenge and decided I'm going to do it!  Below are the requirements; since you're supposed to start on a Monday, I'm going to do days 1 & 2 tomorrow (today? Tuesday....) and then be up to speed for Wednesday!

And to keep myself on track and focused-- aside from having to be super accountable to the @ToneItUp team-- I've found a 12 week plan to run a half marathon.  If I follow this plan from Hal Higdon, I'll be on track to run a 5K and a 10K before the half marathon in mid-October.  I'm excited and will keep you guys posted on how things go!

Wish me luck and have a great Tuesday =)

-Jules

Long-Distance Socializing

I'm 24 so I still like to go to the bars.  Not so much the wild and crazy nightclub scene, just your typical twenty-something bars, like Public House or John Barleycorn in Chicago and Features or Blackfinn in Naperville.  Since I'm not on the prowl for a guy but Boyfie lives in Indiana, most of the time I go out just with a girlfriend or two (instead of the gaggle of sorority sisters I was used to in college).

John Barleycorn in Lincoln Park

Public House in River North

Blackfinn Saloon in downtown Naperville

Features Bar & Grill in downtown Naperville

The problem I run into time and time again-- and it happened last night!-- is how to handle when the two or three of us are approached by a matching number of males.  Most of my girlfriends are single, so I don't want to.... umm... block anything but I'm also not interested in seeing these guys once we leave the bar.  I'm a really friendly and outgoing person by nature, so I can't just be rude (or bitchy!) and ignore them outright.  On the other hand, I know they feel led on if I even engage in conversation.

I'm trying to find the balance where I can make it clear that I'm not available without coming across as boring or snobbish!

Does anyone else have this problem?  If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Have a fantastic Independence Day weekend =)

-Jules