The candy man cometh

If you are in the area of Michigan Avenue between Illinois and Wacker Drive tomorrow, stop by Pioneer Plaza (in front of 401 Michigan Avenue). Mars Snackfood, the makers of M & M's, Snickers, Milky Way, Twix, Dove and 3 Musketeers will be giving away free samples of its candies. Why, you ask? It seems that Mars did a survey to find out which American city is in need of a little chocolate joy, and Chicago won.

And if you like NASCAR, get your sugar fix and racing fix at the same time because Kyle Bush will be handing out the sweet samples.

Yummy!

UPDATE: The bags of candy that my coworkers got yesterday from the Mars giveaway were obscene! I assumed that they would be handing out mini candy bars and just a few to each person. So wrong! They were passing out full size candy bars, and the folks passing it out were just loading up people's bags. Seriously, some people were walking away with two big plastic bags full of candy. I guess they're set for Halloween.

Unfortunately, I did not get over there to witness it. Being glucosely challenged (yes, I do realize that glucosely isn't really a word), I figured I'd stay here and work as opposed to a trip to Northwestern in a sugar coma.

Word of the day! vol. 2

Calumnious - ca·lum·ni·ous adj.

Containing or implying calumny; slanderous or defamatory. Used of statements harmful and often untrue; tending to discredit or malign.


Use it in a sentence, today!

Stuck in 1985

I have had a song stuck in my head since yesterday. It got there while I was walking through Walgreens and heard it on the piped in music. First of all, how sad is it when songs of your youth wind up as Walgreens white noise? Or you stumble across one on the oldies channel? It's that slap in the face that says "Hey dummy! Yes...you ARE middle aged". I'm not bothered by the fact that I'm 42, because I don't feel like it. But then I watched the video below (for the aforementioned stuck song)and just thought....HOLY CRAP. People used to look like this a long, long time ago. 24 years ago to be exact. Geritol, anyone?

So enjoy the trip down memory lane. If the song gets stuck in your head too, don't blame me. Its 1980's hooky goodness is to blame.

(Love the side ponytail, by the way.)

Bad day

This guy is having a really bad day.

New links! New links!

While hopping around the Internet recently, I came across this delicious site, Passive Aggressive Notes.com. I bet there's a member of my immediate family who could fill that site with enough submissions for a month.

Passive Aggressive Notes looks like it could be as addictive as my most recent find, The Summer of Benny. (Who I would love to meet, btw). Any blog that has the expression "mushroom stamp" in it is alright in my book.

Check 'em both out. Don't say I didn't warn you.

It's a wonder that anyone got laid in the 80's

Make sure you check out the guy wearing the pelt and Viking hat. Rrrrrow!


Dating Montage
Uploaded by smithy00101. - Independent web videos.

Meanest. Song. Ever.

Word of the day!

I thought it would be fun if every so often I post a word of the day. I love finding new words, or words that I don't use that often and trying to work them into daily conversation. So, my first WOTD entry is:

Malignity - 1) quality of being disposed to evil; intense ill will, and 2) wishing evil to others

There's today's word - use it in a sentence today!

It's Not My Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated my sister's 36th birthday. Of course we had her favorite birthday dinner, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. Mom cooked the whole thing and it was delish.

So I took a few pictures of our day and of the kids, too. My nephew Niall must have been playing with his ball of fungus, because I don't have any of him. (Yes, he really has a ball of fungus - basically a large puffy mushroom thing he got from his other grandma's back yard - it's about the size of a volleyball).

My sister's birthday always marks the end of summer for me. As I was driving home from her house last night I couldn't believe that it was dark by 7:00 pm. Fall is almost here and then it will be winter. My birthday is in the winter. In fact, I can't even imagine having a birthday that didn't contain a Christmas tree, cold weather, sweaters and Christmas carols. Most years, my family was putting up the Christmas tree on my birthday weekend - so birthdays with outdoor picnics, water slides and bugs really seem out of place to me.

Even my parents birthdays are cold weather birthdays. My father's birthday is in November and my mother's is in March. For the longest time only my sister had a warm weather birthday. Then she started making people of her own, and had my nephew in July. (Her other two are February and March - keeping with tradition!)

Anywho, here's a few of the pictures (click to enlarge) from her day. Happy birthday, Eisenhower!

Mom, Dad and Britt - Mom and Dad have a funny look on their faces because just as I snapped this picture, a glass behind them tumbled off the counter and smashed to the ground.

This is the fabulous Stella getting ready to be fabulously cranky

And here is Stella again wearing home grown tomato seeds on her face.

And I can't forget the Divine Miss Em.

The Oprahcalypse

Here are some pictures I took throughout Oprah Day in the loop. Note the Port-A-Potties in the middle of Michigan Avenue. That's class, Mayor Daley, pure class. Click on each image to enlarge.

Oh no Ms. O

Tomorrow is gonna stink on ice.

The abominable Oprah Winfrey is taking over Michigan Avenue. The very avenue that I work on. She's filming her season opener in the heart of the city tomorrow and is shutting down roughly three blocks of the Mag Mile because, well....she can. She's Oprah.

They blocked off Michigan between Ohio and Wacker Drive today, and it will remain like that through Wednesday AM. If you're not from Chicago, you have no idea how enormous that is. You can check out the map, here. The street in front of my building will be completely blocked off to traffic, to allow for all the Iowans and housewives who will fill the street all a twitter. And the city says they are going to keep people off the sidewalks, unless of course, there are so many people that the street can't handle it. I have also heard that those of us coming and going on Boul Mich will be subject to security checks. SECURITY CHECKS. While I go get my lunch from Subway I will be subject to search? Nice. All for Ms. O.

Mike Royko couldn't have pulled this off. Hell, Phil Donohue couldn't have pulled this off. For that matter, there's no way in hell Daley would have allowed this for Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, any of the Cusacks and Kanye West combined.

But Oprah, Ms. Winfrey, please feel free to fuck up the city at your will.

I will post pictures of the debacle tomorrow. I'm sure there's going to be plenty of plaid shorts, gaping mouths and fanny packs.

To be continued....