California guys

This weekend, my Uncle Abet, his sons Brian and AJ, and my other cousin Jason, all from California, were in town for Lola's birthday and to hang out with other family members here in Chicagoland. I hadn't seen Tito Abet and sons in a few years, so it was nice to spend some time with them. Unfortunately Lori couldn't come up from IU, and Greg from Chambana, but Rhoda was here. We had a birthday dinner for Lola at my parents' house on Friday, then Rhoda took Brian, AJ, and Jason out to the bars that night. On Saturday, the gang spent some time sightseeing in the city and hung out at my condo for a bit. Rhoda had a Halloween party at her apartment that night... but I ended up going to dinner with the parents in Greektown instead, LOL. I would've been the oldest one at the party anyhow. :) Anyway, it was nice to see them and hopefully they'll be back soon and/or I'll be able to visit them in Cali.

Yesterday I broke away from the fam for a little bit to attend my co-worker Ken's wedding. It was a lovely ceremony at a chapel on the Northwestern University campus. It was also one of the most organized weddings I've been to... even the photo session after the ceremony was conducted in an orderly fashion. :) Congrats to the happy couple!

I had my Econ midterm exam on Thursday. Despite some less-than-productive study time (largely due to the White Sox, hehe), I think I did all right. There was one question I was iffy on, which was about a topic covered in the class I missed a couple weeks ago, but the rest was fine. I'll find out how I did this Thursday.

Happy Halloween tomorrow! I have no costume this year. It's been a while since I last dressed up... I think my last costume was a cowboy, when I went to a fundraiser Halloween party for my mom's Lioness Club a few years back. I got no trick-or-treaters here at my condo last year, but I still bought a bag of chocolates for tomorrow. Can never be too prepared, y'know. ;) (says the chocoholic)

Go Go White Sox

Congrats to the 2005 World Series Champion Chicago White Sox!

I'm not the biggest baseball fan, and I generally prefer the Cubs, but the first baseball game I ever went to was a White Sox game, and any championship for a Chicago team is cause for celebration. Plus, my condo faces south, and I can see the lights and fireworks over U.S. Cellular Field on a clear day, hehe.

And now, back to studying for tomorrow's Econ exam... :)

Pull up your Sox

Amazing World Series game 2 tonight... the Sox pulled it out over the Astros 7-6. The grand slam by Konerko in the middle of the game looked like it might get wasted after the Astros tied it up in the 9th, then Podsednik hit a rare home run to win the game! Whoo!

On Wednesday I checked out Artopolis Bakery & Cafe in Greektown with my friend Kathy. It was the first time there for both of us. I'll definitely go back! The food was delicious and reasonably priced, and the service was very friendly. Kathy showed me pics of her and Matt's honeymoon in the South Pacific. Looked like they had an awesome time!

We had a company meeting at Harry Caray's downtown on Thursday. It was nice to catch up with friends from previous assignments. I won a thing of Turtle Wax when my table answered a trivia game question correctly, LOL.

Today, my parents and grandma and I went to the new Panera Bread near their house. It's nicer than the one in Schaumburg, I think. :) The layout is more organized, anyway. Afterwards, I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a wedding gift for my co-worker Ken, and a couple things for my condo, including one of those grocery bag dispensers. My under-sink cabinets have become overrun with plastic bags :P so I figured I needed something to organize them.

Busy week coming up... At work, it's month-end for the client, so we'll be busy helping them with that. I have my second Econ exam on Thursday evening, then my uncle and cousins from Cali arrive in town for Lola's b-day weekend. Saturday is Ken's wedding, though I plan to attend the ceremony only, since I want to spend time with my cousins that day as well.

I should wrap up and try and get a good night's sleep, to get the week started off on a good note. :)

Go ChiSox!

As I write this, the Chicago White Sox have just won the American League Championship against the Anaheim Angels, and will be going to their first World Series since 1959! Whoo!!!

The Bears won today too, and took the lead in their division... with a 2-3 record. Oy.

Work and school last week kind of dragged, but my weekend was pretty nice. Last night I went to my ex-co-worker Rebecca's birthday party at Vida Lounge in Chicago. She and four friends co-celebrated their b-days, and over 100 guests showed up! There was lots of latin music and dancing, and I got a couple of basic salsa lessons, LOL.

Today I went to mass w/my grandma while Mom & Dad went to a brunch party. I saw Sebastian and Tita Cora at church... when I met them in the lobby after mass, he told me, "my name is Sebastian!" :) He turns three years old next month! After church and lunch, I went to Woodfield for the first time in a while. I had a battery in one of Dad's watches replaced, and I picked up a pair of boot-cut jeans and a belt at JC Penney for $30. :) Yay for sales. I'm in the midst of a "wardrobe refresh" of sorts... I also just bought some dress pants online from GapKids that arrived the other day.

I will be missing class this week to attend a company meeting on Thursday at Harry Caray's downtown. I should be able to get notes from a classmate, and I might make up the class the following Tuesday in the prof's other section. We'll see if I can swing it. My main worry is that I'll miss something critical before the next midterm exam, but I should be okay if I keep up with the homework.

In closing... Yay White Sox! :)

Booya

Yeah, so that Econ midterm that I was worried about... I ended up getting 100% on it. Wahoo! Turns out my "funky" calculations were in fact correct. I do believe this is my first "perfect" exam score thus far in my grad school career. I will celebrate this weekend by... well, doing not much of anything, like usual. But still - yay me! :)

Dum de do

Been kind of a low-key week. Last Thursday I took my Econ midterm; it went all right, although some of my calculations came out a little funky even though I'm pretty sure I applied the correct concepts. Eh, hopefully I'll at least get partial credit. (Hee, I'm being all nonchalant about it now, but I bet if I get the test back and it's anything but an 'A' I'll be all depressed :))

Work has been up-and-down on the busy-ness scale, but nothing too crazy as of late (knock wood). I'm not sure if I want to remain on this project past the end of the year. I am glad I'm assigned locally, and the technologies I'm working with are pretty neat (lots of .NET and J2EE stuff)... but production support gets old after a while. We'll see I guess.

Ooh, just heard that the White Sox trounced the Red Sox 14-2 in game one of the ALDS! Whoo! I think I'm more of a Cubs fan but I'm glad the White Sox are doing well.

Finally, happy 24th birthday to Rhoda tomorrow! :)