wow -- walmart is doing something cool! well, if you're a dork, that is (and yes, i'm a dork). they have a series of events around the star wars episode III called 48 Hours of the Force, where (according to brandweek) they'll have "toy & game demonstrations from Hasbro, product sampling, Star Wars character appearances, and, while supplies last, free Star Wars force detection collectable cards" (!!!). in addition, they're going to have an early bird special, where customers who receive a certificate can mail it in to get four action figures (Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2, and Chewbacca), which is the same mail-in figure promotion that was done in 1977.
mark your calendar now!

m&ms also has a star wars tie-in: they're launching dark chocolate m&ms in conjunction with episode III. apparently both the new dark and the original (milk) chocolate m&ms will feature special star wars-themed colors and packaging. i'm pretty excited about "Darth Mix", which features black, maroon, purple, dark blue, and silver m&ms. the milk chocolate "Jedi Mix" contains beige, cream, pastel green, gold, and light-saber blue. oooh!

i suppose i should have mentioned it earlier, since we decided a week ago: we're buying a condo. we've decided to go the easy route (steve's personal motto is "give me convenience or give me death") and buy in our apartment building, which is converting to condos this summer. we're not buying the unit that we're in, since it's facing the lake and there's about a $50k premium for that (plus they're building a whole frickin' neighborhood, so the view is *totally* going to change).
anyway, it's a mirror image of our apartment, with a city view. it's also 14 floors higher and has "kitchen upgrades" like granite countertops, a cooktop stove and a better sink.
so we're pretty excited. of course, now we're going to be poor for awhile, saving up for the down payment and making sure that we rebuild the nest egg that we had prior to giving the developer a big fat check.
so that's what's new with us.
we're assuming we'll make a pretty darn good return on our investment, and since things seem to be going well overall with life here in chicago, we're happy to stay awhile and plunk our money down to gain some equity.

on a very different note, it was awesome to be able to see a few old friends on a mini-trip back to michigan (right about 40 hours, including two very full nights of sleep since i've been sick). hooray for old friends! hooray also for the supermixed crowd at the habitat on weekends!

also (and this is for zac), i think the pay-for-placement thing is lamer-than-superlame when you're talking about force-fitting a product like fast food into rap songs. what will those crazy marketers think of next?!?

i know online ads aren't exciting to 99.9% of people, but i'm quite smitten with this target site/ad, which is really well designed and has some fun music.

if i were a rap superstar, i would definitely design a line of jeans for more ample-bottomed women than other brands. oh, wait -- nelly has already done that. god bless him!

mad props to my bro , whose recent film project was written up in the lansing state journal noise. the article includes a v. cool photo of him too. go, pasky, go!

now you too can make marshmellow peeps!!! happy easter!

wow! steve is on the homepage of the free press today. in case you are too lazy to click, here's the photo:

thanks, mike, for pointing that out. steve's out of town today, but i thought he was in michigan for safety work, not in NY for his side job in the auto show dancing troupe.

i thought i'd take this opportunity to tell you all that i'm very glad to have gotten in touch again with a few long-lost friends:
* my dear old h.s. chum megan, who gave an amazing performance at last week's 2nd Story storytelling festival
* fred thomasw (who is the cute boy with the pink tie on the photo --and yes, that w on the end of his name is there for a reason -- a very old h.s. joke), whose bands songs are so catchy i can't get them out of my head
* eva, who just got a bitchin' tattoo

my life is much better now. thanks, you three.

so i thought i'd tell you about our st. patrick's day. after all, it is such a major holiday in chicago that they dye the river green, for chrissake. anyhow, we didn't have plans initially, so we decided just to lay low. you know, go to the local pub. well, it turns out that the local pub we decided on has a great irish pub name; lizzie mcneill's. it's not known for being one of the hipper irish bars, so we thought it would be a pretty mello evening.
we went with two of my colleagues from work (actually, they're two fun women who try to sell me stuff) and somehow we magically got an entire bench to share in a pub packed wall-to-wall with people. there were four people from my office coming to meet us, but since they arrived after us, they were actually turned away at the door of the pub because the pub was full. so anyhow, we had about four or five pints (i can't believe that the server was able to get to us that many times, but she did!) and thought that was about as much fun as we could handle. by that time we were hungry anyhow, and there wasn't any imaginable way to get food when we couldn't get any closer to the bar, so we set off to a local burger joint.
on the way there we lost one of our merry band of revelers, so there were three of us walking together when the non-Hall in the group pointed out a little Italian restaurant and said that they had some sort of magical chicken dish that she was really craving. since we're nice people and she would be able to expense it if we joined her for dinner, we went in. anyhow, the place was dead. and they don't have the magical chicken dish anymore. *but* our waiter pointed out that if we wanted to linger over our dinner -- or maybe get coffee -- we would see the place totally fill up with people for a wild party.
it seemed like a very dubious claim on st. patrick's day, when it was already 10:30 and there were only two other non-employees in the place.
however, the waiter was not lying -- or even exaggerating! around 11 pm the place started to get packed with arab men and women, and the kitchen staff started bringing out hookahs (!). a guy set up an electronic keyboard, and a little after 11 he began his set.
at this point the non-Hall pointed out that one of the men at the next table is our state's illustrious Secretary of State, and that next to him was a news anchor from the local NBC affiliate. and then the best part happened: a belly dancer came out, wearing what must have been an A-cup bra, and she had breasts the size of Amy Lumet. it was nuts, and the crowd went wild. needless to say, we were very surprised.
we didn't stay all that long. the combination of the hookah smoke and the pints (followed by wine) made us feel very strange. or maybe it was that we were partying it up, middle-eastern-style, at midnight on st. patrick's day.
soooo weird. i am definitely going to have to go back to that place again some thursday night, because i'm almost not sure that it really happened...

i'm really sick and tired of everyone substituting the word "utilize" for "use" -- it is soooo irritating. luckily, i'm not the only person that is bothered by it. a simple google search for "utilize use" resulted in the following finds:

this listing on dictionary.com flat out states that "It is true that many occurrences of utilize could be replaced by use with no loss to anything but pretentiousness"

the writer of random house's word of the day states "utilize can often be no more than a pretentious substitute for use, and this should be avoided" and then procees to clarify when "utilize" should be used. pleasepleaseplease, if you use "utilize" at all, check out this site.

thank you. that is all.

i like rice. i like brown rice, basmati rice, wild rice, and beans-and-rice. mmmm... however, this Americans for Rice thing scares me. ew.

first of all, some mad props out to:

- bode miller
- delaware state university

woohoo!

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so i went out with my bookclub to an um, toystore tonight. they had books too. and this book is the one i recommended for our next month's selection, but they didn't go for it. bummer. i guess i'll have to just discuss it amongst myself.

please, ladies, take the manolo no-poncho pledge. please.

i *love* this idea!
according to crain's chicago business, an urban design firm was hired by the state street biz bureau to develop ideas that would spruce up the Loop. the ideas ranged from boring (better signs and lighting) to over-the-top, and one of the over-the-top ideas is actually moving forward to a bit more in-depth exploration. apparently the consulting firm took advantage of mayor daley's penchant for urban greenery and proposed upside-down landscaping underneath the el tracks. i can't wait. new york can have their "gates" if we get upside down trees and bushes!

if you haven't seen these horrible album covers yet, well, enjoy. i'm not a huge fan of the commentary, but the album covers themselves are a treat.

shit like this always happens to me on thursday. i thought i looked pretty good today -- steve convinces me every now and then to wear his favorite winter combo: short skirt and tall boots (this is a universal guy fave thing, isn't it?). anyhow, since it's thursday (which is historically a day on which things like this happen to me) my heel broke off. and it didn't break off while i was walking on a sidewalk grate or anything like that. it broke off in the office, as i walked past a row of cubes. i was lucky to catch my balance before falling on my face. sheesh. those were my fave boots too. hopefully i can get them fixed.

and so after going home to grab new shoes (and then i had to change skirts too, so it looked right) i decided to pick up soup and lemonade at my fave place. their lemonade is such a regular favorite of mine (yes, even in winter) that when my jr. employee goes there for lunch she always brings me back lemonade. :) anyhow, i got back to my desk in my new outfit and the lemonade is *terrible* today. soooo watery. :(

but enough about me! let's turn our attention to pop culture news, shall we?
according to the tv trade pubs i look at every now and then, everyone's favorite mom network, lifetime, appears to be aiming their sites at growing the appeal of "strong medicine" to my cohort. they've added rick(y) schroeder to its cast when the show kicks off its sixth season this june. schroeder will play a physician, and the one male lead character. hott!

speaking of hott blonde teen pinups of my youth... (well, actually i was more into jason bateman -- and still am -- than i was into ricky scrhoder) apparently fox is putting together a show that's set in a Las Vegas wedding chapel. it focuses on the brother and sister who own the 24/7 service, and they've cast mark-paul gosselaar as the brother. i wasn't really that into "saved by the bell" (heresy, i know) but i have to admit that he's a cutie. and i have to admit that i wonder (but not enough to research it) what dustin diamond (a.k.a. screech) is up to.

ahhh...the memories... i love this site that yahoo! built about the history of the internet over the past 10 years. i'm so glad they included "i kiss you!" mahir. i was a big fan of his.

alex has pointed out that i omitted the highlight of chris rock's performance during the oscars: his 'man on the street' segment, filmed at the magic johnson theater down the street. it was brilliant, and amazingly NON-surprising that most of the people he encountered hadn't seen the nominated flicks, and named "chronicles of riddick" and "white chicks" as movie highlights of 2004.
ahhh... the american public! you are a thing of endless amusement and fascination to me!
i also forgot to include in my oscar coverage how pathetic it was that dustin hoffman was drunk when announcing the nominees for best picture. sad, sad, sad.

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in unrelated news, i found out today that the weirdest thing we've ever see on tv, "chic-a-go-go!" has a website. you can find out more about this puppet-hosted "dance show for kids of all ages" here. and if that description doesn't tempt you, check out the listing of who's appeared on the show, which ranges from prince, the polkaholics, to brownie troop 753. shows 296 and 371 sound especially awesome to me.

hooray! as of today steve and i have been married for 5 years. !!! we'd love to give you all a present to help us celebrate, so i've um, orchestrated the following:

yahoo! is offering people a free scoop of baskin-robbins ice cream to celebrate its 10th birthday tomorrow, march 2nd. there will be a coupon on the yahoo! home page, a coupon for the free scoop at participating baskin scoop shops, and it's only redeemable tomorrow, so don't miss it!

oscar observations:
* i know zac will disagree, but i think scarlett looked horrible. the dress wasn't so bad, but the hair was atrocious: wrong color, too frizzy and too many baubles in it.
* salma hayek looked hott!!!
* at first i didn't think renee looked all that great, but i was wrong. i don't think that dark of a brown hair color really suits her, but the dress was amazing -- as always.
* penelope cruz's dress was great, but i wish oscar de la renta would have left that huge bow off of the back, and i'm not convinced that the huge pile of hair works as well on her as it does on sarah jessica.
* natalie portman is beautiful, and could look much much better. i think she needs a colorful dress (you know, something like the orange dress that jennifer garner wore before), and a new hair stlyist.
* steve was repulsed by hilary swank's lipgloss and dress, and i completely agree
* loveloveLOVE cate blanchett's yellow and brown gown. stunning!
* what was up with laura linney's hair?!?
* i'm such a fan of kate winslet that i probably would love how she looked in a brown paper bag. of course, she wore a beautiful blue dress instead, and her awesome curves looked great in it.
* speaking of awesome curves, we weren't fans of halle berry's dress at first (we're both pretty tired of one-shoulder gowns) but then again, she's halle berry, so she looked phenomenal. i love her hair down!!!
* i wish i hadn't read that article about emmy rossum. she really sounds like she is an upper east side snob kid. she looks great in red, though.
* i bet beyonce was bummed that she wasn't asked to sing that counting crows song from shrek. seriously though, who is beyonce sleeping with?
* prince is so dang cool.
* i think they should change the best original song category so that it's only given out when there are a few good songs to be nominated. seriously, that andrew lloyd weber song was horrible dreck.
* julia roberts and gwyneth paltrow both looked like they were glowing, didn't they? it makes you wonder if indeed there is some sort of mothers' hormone.
* chris rock didn't really rock us. did he rock you?

i know my blog isn't very exciting. so if you'd like to experience it in a more snoop-i-fied way, click here for the gizoogled version.

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i really like this quote (which i've edited slightly), that i discovered in real simple (which i know i'm a bit of a dork for reading). it's from "encyclopedia of an ordinary life" by amy krouse rosenthal.

"i'm thankful for my health, my childhood, and spell check. i'm thankful for our hot-water tank and how we don't have to coordinate our dishwashing with our bathing. i'm thankful for the wide range of flavors potato chips com in -- mesquite barbecue in particular. for beautiful shoes. for coincidences. i'm thankful for all the people who ever left, in those dishes by the cashier, a penny i later used. that i don't know everything that people say behind my back. i'm thankful i was born after the advent of indoor plumbing, and the popularity of corsets. i'm thankful for insect repellent, nonstick pans, and velcro. i'm thankful that people in real life don't spontaneously break into song like they do in musicals (which *could* be fun, but would definitely freak me out). i'm thankful that some weeds look like flowers, and that at the end of a really bad day there is sleep. i'm thankful for maybe.

i'd like to point out that even though the bacon of the month club is an amazing idea, it is $150 in shipping for the $140 subscription. and they don't tell you that (they provide estimates, but not costs) until they confirm your order.
yipes.
i guess we'll have to go back to the previous 'shopping around town for artisanal bacons and shipping them to friends myself' method.
sheesh!