Heeeere's Olivia!

My newest niece and soon-to-be goddaughter Olivia Lora was born yesterday to my cousin Jim and his wife Mari. :) My parents, grandma and I visited them at the hospital today. Baby Olivia is beautiful, with a full head of black hair. Her parents and her big brothers Seb and Reese, as well as the grandparents, were all there and doing well. I got to hold Olivia for a little while... here's a pic. She was a bit unhappy at the time unfortunately :)


Me and Olivia 

I took care of a bunch of domestic chores this weekend. The "biggest" was re-potting my lucky bamboo plant. So far it appears to have survived the ordeal, but I guess I won't really know for a little while. It definitely was overdue for a move to a larger container though, it was very rootbound. I also organized my CD collection into a new storage rack that I bought. I counted over 200 CDs... I didn't think I had that many. :) Anyway, they all fit onto the new shelves along with my handful of DVDs, and are no longer scattered across four different storage units.

Busy couple of weeks coming up... I set up appointments to see my eye doctor and my dentist, and will set up an annual (or in my case tri-annual, heh) physical exam with my primary care physician. I want to get all the appointments done before school starts again on the 8th. At work, I have to help my "kids" (the two new employees that I am appraisal manager for) through their first-ever skills assessment on Tuesday. It should go well for both of them. Then I have to prepare for my own in a couple weeks! I need to decide whether or not to try for a progression (meaning I would have a higher "functional role" which would open me up to new staffing roles and responsibilities). We'll see... I don't feel totally ready for a progression, but it wouldn't hurt to try.

I may try to visit my uncle, aunt, and cousins in DC soon. My cousin Jay will be visiting them in mid-September, so I will see if I can get flights for that same weekend using my frequent flyer miles. Otherwise I'll try and schedule something in October. I haven't travelled anywhere in "flying distance" yet this year, so it would be nice to get away for at least a long weekend. :)

Up on the roof

Last night, the condo association in the building I live in held its first ever rooftop social event for the whole building. It was a fun time and I met a lot of my neighbors, some of whom I had seen in passing, e.g. in the hall or the mailroom or the gym, but never really got a chance to talk to. We had a pretty good turnout, maybe 100 people. At one point, my next-door neighbors Mark and Tim, their neighbor Marcia on the other side, and Beth who lives at the end of our hallway, went down to our floor to check out the decorating in Mark & Tim's and Marcia's condos. Their homes are so much more decorated and colorful than mine!! Mark & Tim in particular customized a lot of things - light fixtures, wall units, etc. And they all did a really nice job of painting. I purposely avoided letting them see my condo, since all my walls are "builder white" still and my furniture and stuff isn't as cool or funky as theirs. :) Anyway it was nice to get to know the neighbors better and to see how they've dressed up their condo units.

Back on the roof, I took several pictures of the Chicago skyline. It was a beautiful night out. Here's the pic that turned out the best:


Skyline view from the roof 

In other news... Mocha turns two today! Happy birthday, puppy! :)


Birthday dog (photo taken by Mom this morning) 

Also, this weekend marks the second anniversary of buying and moving into my condo. I've really enjoyed living here (despite the still-white walls, heh) and I don't see myself moving anywhere for quite a while.

Hoosierville

Lori's back at IU! My parents and I helped her move into her apartment yesterday. The move went pretty well, except that her new Ikea futon was missing the screws and other hardware needed for assembly (oops). Hopefully they can get the missing parts shipped to her soon.

I was supposed to meet up with Melissa F and her parents at some point over the weekend or early this week, but somehow plans never materialized. Her mom and dad are in town and I haven't seen them since I wrapped up my assignment in Huntsville almost three years ago, so it would've been nice to see them. Oh well, next time I guess.

My uncle from San Diego called today to tell me that he and his two sons are planning to visit here in October for Lola's birthday. My mom wasn't pleased that they made plans before checking with her first, since they likely would be staying over at my parents' place that weekend. I understand that my uncle would want to keep the visit a surprise from Lola, but it would have been proper to let my mom and dad know ahead of time too. Anyway, we are still looking forward to seeing them, even if their method of communicating their travel plans left something to be desired. :)

Some of the things that were up in the air at work have finally been resolved. Basically, there was some confusion as to the status of my tuition reimbursement request for the summer class I took. My initial request was apparently approved but not put into the right "queue" or something... At any rate, it looks like the reimbursement will go through. Whew!

I've been trying to curtail my spending after last month's shopping spree. There are a number of things I want to buy, mainly clothes and stuff for the house... but I'm trying to defer or at least spread out the purchases so I don't get socked with a big credit card bill like I will this month. :P We'll see how it goes, LOL.

Picnics, babies, puppies, cousins

Well yesterday was a whirlwind of activity. :) First, church with Lori and Lola (I did the readings). Then the Bulacan Circle picnic in Busse Woods. Mom & Dad won the water balloon toss, LOL. Tita Marie & Mark were there too; it was their 1-year wedding anniversary! Talked to Parrish about his new realtor job, petted a couple of poodles who were rather aloof, and ate some yummy Filipino food.

I then left the picnic early to meet up with Rebe and her 5-month-old baby, Luke, at Oberweis for some ice cream (kind of a tradition of ours). Luke is cute and *huge*... 17lb, with arms and legs about as big as mine, heh. It was nice to catch up with Rebe as always. Luke was a good little boy for the most part, only getting fussy and crying just before we left Oberweis.

After that, I went back to my parents' house to wait for them to get home from the picnic, and for my cousin Joyce and her dad to arrive. Joyce just finished law school at Notre Dame, and her dad came to help her move out of her apt. They'll be flying back home to L.A. today. Anyway, we chatted a while at the house then went to Koreana for dinner (yum). Back at the house we chatted some more and played with Mocha who was very entertaining. :) Finally got home around 11pm.

This will feel like a long week at work after last week. Not a whole lot is going on at work either which could make things drag even more. I'm waiting for a response from the client on a couple of items before I can move on with this one particular task. Some other things have been annoying at work lately - not with the project, but with peripheral stuff. No need to go into detail, but I hope that it all gets resolved soon as they're adding unwanted stress to my summer. :P

Mazeltov

Got back yesterday from a *wonderful* weekend in St. Joseph, MI, for my friends Kathy & Matt's wedding. They had a very nice Jewish + Catholic ceremony outdoors in a bandshell along the St. Joseph River, followed by an elegant and festive reception at the heritage center in town. I sat with some of my current and former co-workers and had a great time chatting and dancing. The following day, Kathy and Matt held a bbq at Silver Beach along Lake Michigan... lovely scenery, great weather, and yummy food. All in all it was a very fun weekend. Also, I was very happy with the shots I was able to get with my new camera. Here are a few photos from the event:


Kathy & Matt exchanging rings 


My friends and me with Kathy 


Me at Silver Beach 

I took the day off work today to "recover" :) ... yay for three-day weekends! I've done a bit of cleaning around the house so far today, and I'll probably head out this afternoon to get my car washed and maybe run some other errands. I should try to hit the gym some time today too.

This week I plan to register for fall classes at DePaul. Actually I think I will take just one class in the fall quarter. I'm planning to take an Econ course that I hear is pretty challenging. It's been nice having a bit of a break from classes. Just about one more month left before school starts up again! I'm sure it will fly by.