tonight we celebrated steve's birthday (which was tuesday) yet again (we went to a yummy sushi place tuesday night).
i surprised him by getting tickets to a pre-season Chicago Wolves game with another couple. for those of you who aren't big hockey fans, the Wolves are the farm team for the Atlanta Thrashers (LAME!) and the games are really fun since you can sit pretty darn close, the mascot is CRAZY popular, and they let fights go on a lot longer than in the NHL. so tonight was a pre-season game with them playing the Grand Rapids Griffins, the farm team for the Red Wings.
i am horrible at keeping a secret, so i was thrilled that he didn't figure out where we were going ahead of time. we had even planned a story that we'd use to throw him off: since the arena isn't far from Ikea, we were going to say that we were going there to buy the new Steeven side table (*not* a real product), and that we had dinner reservations afterward at Medieval Times.
as mentionned, this was a pre-season game, so instead of playing on their home ice at Allstate Arena, the Wolves were playing at this tiny high school hockey arena, and so we threw Steve off pretty good. in fact, as we were driving past Allstate Arena (in a HUGE traffic jam caused by a rolled-over semi that's apparently still backed up now according to traffic.com), steve asked if we were going to Medieval Times. we all cracked up laughing! of course, since we *weren't* going to Medieval Times, now we have to schedule that trip. any takers out there?


on a goofy side note, here are my favorite news stories from today:

1. apparently the world's largest flower has just bloomed at the Sydney Botanical Gardens. they've been trying to get it to bloom since 1992! unfortunately, it smells like shit! here's what the BBC has to say.


2. i'm not sure if you are on the Crate + Barrel catalog mailing list, but we seem to get one a week.
apparently, a photo assistant (and "performance artist") who helped put together the fall catalog decided to put his actual home number in one of the photos. on one of the home office armoires, you can see a note "dinner with marc" and a phone number scrawled on a whiteboard.
apparently, since the catalog went out he has received hundreds of phone calls, and he's been traveling around the country taking strangers to dinner. he's usually gathered groups in the various cities, so if you're up for meeting new people, dig out that crate and barrel catalog and give marc a ring.

(from chicagobusiness.com)