More Cookin'

Made vegetarian chili tonight and it turned out super yummy. Loved it. I think even a meat lover would enjoy it, as kory really liked it, and I am sure he would prefer a nice, meaty chili....I used black beans instead of pinto (there is a choice). Had to buy chili powder, bell pepper, the beans, tomato and veggie broth, but everything else I had on hand.

Click here to see the recipe.

I have also been making Kurt smoothies at night as a kinda filler before dinner and to use up different fruit in the house. Anyway, the one i made tonight was the best thus far. Here is the recipe for that one. I have been trying a tiny bit of each of the smoothies I make for Kurt, and liked that one the best as it was thicker than the others, and the yogurt gave it kinda a tang, which was good. Here are the others I made though, here and here.

Today was super crazy at work. We had 7 hearings (at circuit court and friend of the court), a divorce mediation, a bankruptcy deposition, and like 5 appointments in the office. I also had a board committee meeting tonight. And deadlines on filing two bankruptcies today. AARGH. I did not even have time to eat anything or open the mail, and opening the mail is my fav part of the day! :). After getting home at like 810, I made the chili, did dishes, and did some laundry. I don't know how I do it sometimes, LOL. Too tired to work out, but I am going to cut myself some slack tonight.

Chimney Tuna Loin Recipe

Made this tuna recipe tonight, and is was SOOOO good. Had to stop and find wasabi powder, peanut oil and sesame seeds at the grocery store........I never have everything for recipes.......I also used a pan and grilled the fish instead of the recommended method.

Almost forgot! I booked our hotels for Niagara and Toronto. In Niagara, we are staying at the Fallsview Plaza Hotel, which is connected to the casino in Niagara. Our room has a view of the Falls....In Toronto, I found an amazing deal at a hotel near the stadium. We are staying at the Hyatt Regency Toronto. Glad to have those booked. ;).

Who Says Work Can't be Fun Sometimes?

No Work Weekend

No work this weekend! Yay! And with half the day off on Friday, it felt like kinda a long weekend!

Saturday, I had a massage appointment in the morning. The spa I got to moved, so I got to check out their new facilities, which are nice. Massage was great and much needed. Headed to Kohl's after that to buy my Dad his birthday gifts. He wanted new tennis shoes, and I ended up getting him shoes and a pair of jeans. Also bought myself a shirt and used a 15% off coupon. Whoot! Came home and talked kurt into going on a hike with me at Sterling State Park. He, weirdly, has never done the hike there with me and I have done it SOOO many times. Anyway, he really liked it. We saw quite a few animals, considering it is so early in the season. We saw ducks, various swans nesting, squirrels, robins, warblers, cardinals, herons, and others. It was nice to be outside. The hike is about 3.5 miles, so it is nice to get the exercise AND be outside. Perfect combo! After that, came home and took a short nap, then got ready for dinner for my Dad's birthday. We went to my Grama's house to meet up and had dinner at a place called Atlantis, which was yummy. I had cajun tuna, with a twice baked potato and green beans. Yummy. Had dessert at my Grama's after that, and came home. My Grama gave me a gorgeous emerald necklace that she had forgotten to give me at Xmas and I can't wait to wear it! I have a lot of green shirts lately that it will look great with.

**swan nesting above. Not the best pic since the damn swan would not smile for the camera.....

There was a HUGE thunderstorm late last night that scared the CRAP out of Kurt and I. We woke up about an hour after we went to bed, and heard loud noises upstairs. We thought someone had broke into the house or something. Turned out to be really loud, long bursts of thunder. The pugs were freaked out, so we let them sleep with us. They calmed down right away after we let them in....Babies. :).

Today, we stayed in most of the day. I tried to get some laundry done, and we watched State win, and went out to watch the Oklahoma game at Pete's. Really lazy day, which I really need sometimes. Made Kurt breakfast--french toast with soy sausage. I tried a bite of the french toast and it was tasty! This was the recipe I used. The only change I made was using skim milk instead of half and half.

**heron taking off.

Welcome home, Nancy! I was excited to see the pics from her cruise and jealous of the turtles she got to hang out with! :).


**Canadian goose, to welcome Nancy back home, hehe.

Convert

I am so sold.

I normally prefer Victoria's Secret. But, I really think their quality has been lacking the past couple years. The only reason I stayed was I did not think there was another good alternative and I hated searching various brands at other stores.

Until now.

I decided to place an online order with Frederick's. For some reason, I always thought Frederick's was the "trashy" version of VS and I never really gave them a chance. I placed a pretty big order for various bras and panties, etc. I got the order today and tried on one of the bras and OMG. Love. So much better than anythign I own, totally supportive and SO FREAKING CUTE. The one I am wearing right now is kinda a turquoise color and adorable. I also searched online and found a coupon code for $40 off my order.

I am officially a convert. For now anyway. Is some of their stuff kinda trashy? Yea. But for staples, like bras and panties, they rock.

So....what I get? The following:

These, in azure blue, red, black and garden green.
These, in black, nude, and white
This, in pink and nude
This, in bare and black
This, in garden green and azure blue (this is the one I am wearing that I really like)
This, in black

Had a board meeting on Thursday night.

Tonight, had a date with Kurt (haha) for sushi at Dolce Vita. They accidentally made us an extra roll so we brought it home for Kory and he loved the roll as well. So yummy. we also left work at noon today and ran a couple errands. Came home and we both passed out on the couch. I slept like 3 hours. Seriously, I am tired I guess! :). Guess I need some sleep.

Anyway, have a pretty busy weekend, so I will talk to y'all soon! :).

London Bridges Falling Down.....

So, Sunday, I met up with Rebecca for lunch at Mongolian and had an awesome time seeing and catching up with her AND our food was yummy. Super yummy in fact. Got a table right away too, which is great at Mongolian as they are usually pretty busy. I had spicy shrimp and perch.........We worked that morning, so after lunch, I simply headed home for the remainder of the day, which I needed.

This week has been crazy busy at the office.

Last night, I met my Aunt for dinner at Cuisine. And had an awesome meal. I had lobster bisque, and then for my meal, sturgeon with lobster and crab thermidor. Totally amazing meal. So yummy. After that, we saw the strangest musical I have ever seen, Sweeney Todd. I don't even know if I liked it or not, LOL. The beginning was slow, liked the second half a lot more. It was way too long of a show though, they could easily cut out parts and make it better. Fun night though.

Picked a location finally! We are going to London. I had it narrowed to London or Paris and could not make up my mind, so Kurt made me flip a coin in order to not lose cheap flight prices. Heads--London, Tails--Paris. It was heads (obviously). So, booked the flights today, and need to start looking at hotels and the like next. It will be our first European trip, and I can't wait! :).

Help Me Pick!

OK, Kurt was looking up flights again today for the annual Memorial Day trip, and flight prices are INSANELY low. I also found out that now Detroit flies direct to Paris and Frankfurt which I did not know. So, here are the finalists, if you have been to any of them or have thoughts on which one I should pick, HELP ME! I want to book soon.

Paris
London
Amsterdam
Frankfort

No idea, there are pros and cons to all of them.

Procrastination

I have been at work for a few hours, and am waiting for Rebecca to call me to do lunch, so I am taking a break and posting this since I have no desire left to work.......


Friday night, Jessica wanted to watch Ohio State and Michigan State games (NCAA), so she headed down to our house so we could take her to Pete's Garage. We had dinner (her, Kory, Kurt and I), then played pool. It was actually a lot of fun! :). Ohio State ended up losing, but Michigan State won! Whoot! Jessica and I even beat the boys at one game of pool, so we can now hold that over their heads forever and ever. I even had ONE drink, which is rare, and it was super yummy (Sugar Free Red Bull and Midori).

Saturday, I had my monthly lunch with my friend, Hollie, at Red Lobster in Southgate, MI. Sadly, the last time we had a monthly lunch was in October! Whoops! Anyway, it was nice to catch up with her She was WAY behind on office stuff--she did not know we hired two new attys, she did not know about the hiring and firing of a secretary, etc. After that, I wanted to run some errands, so I went to Sam's Club, Ulta, and DSW. I bought a few things at Ulta I needed (hairspray, shampoo/conditioner, Anti-Snap stuff, etc.) and did not find anything at DSW. I am about to give up on my blue heels search and resort to online again. AARGH. I will say that Fairlane Mall was freaking scary--I was almost afraid to park my car and leave it. It has gotten much worse over the years we moved away from Taylor. After that, headed home. Kurt and I were supposed to go out with my friends Cassie and Ken, but I moved it since Kurt was not feeling well. We ended up watching The Strangers, and it was scary! Very not believable, but scary. They "say" it's based on a true story, but really the "true" story is not known, so they just made it up. Which is fine, but yea, so many parts Kurt and I were like "YEA RIGHT". It did make me scream like 10 times, but I am easily scared. :).

The pic above cracked me up because it looks like Kory is hitting Jessica's ass, and yea, umm, he was totally not.

So, I think Kurt and I are going to take a day off and go to Toronto for a baseball game and maybe to Niagara Falls! It is pretty close to Toronto! The Tigers play there on Apr 6, so Kurt wants to go that weekend. What sucks about that is Rebecca is going to London, ON, to visit Lisa that weekend and Katie will be there too, so Kurt is picking a bda weekend......But, I hope I am somewhere in Canada that weekend! :). We would drive though, flights are insanely expensive for some reason that weekend.

Almost forgot! Nick took his first four steps this weekend, at my Mom's house! He has been there since I think Thursday, and I knew it was going to happen. I kept calling my Mom every day to see, and she called me last night to tell me. Yay Nick! So glad my Mom got to see it. Below is a pic of him and his lawn mower. He likes to walk and hold onto it.....

Celebrate the Day

So, I decided this year that St Patrick's Day is a really kewl holiday! Seriously, if you think about it, it is a no pressure day. No pressure to buy gifts, no pressure to be at this family event or that, NOTHING. Basically, the holiday is there to have FUN and drink! I have no clue why I have not celebrated before. Jessica, the office social coordinator, haha, decided that we all HAD to go out for the night. So, after work, we headed to Malarkey's in search of green beer. OMG, madhouse there! We got green beer though, and let me say, it is SO much better than normal nongreen beer. I drank the entire beer, and I dont think I have drank an entire beer in my life! Had fun there, then headed to BW3s for dinner, since Malarkey's did not have a full menu that night. Had a blast there too, where Kory ordered this drink called a Buffalo Bowl (See below) that was HUGE and we all shared.



The rest of this week has kinda been a blur. I had two board meetings, and was pretty slammed at the office. Stacey had her first hearing today, and did really well. All four of us were doing hearings at court today, which was a first. I am looking forward to the weekend and getting some rest. Miracles happen, and we have NO court tomorrow, so if I can catch up on paperwork, my weekend may be work free! I have plans both days, and don't want to have to cancel any of them. Lunch with a friend tomorrow, dinner with friends tomorrow night, and hopefully, seeing Rebecca for lunch or whatever on Sunday! :).

Pic below is of the office gang, minus Stacey, who had to leave early for a bday party.

Weekend in Review

So, the weekend was pretty busy! I wish I could post pics, but I left the camera in the trunk of Kurt's car, which is currently being worked on.

Saturday, we had to have Kurt's car at Best Buy at 11 a.m. He was dropping it off to have the radar detector/GPS/new Sirius Radio tuner put in. Went to work after that, and worked until about 330 p.m. Left to go to my Aunt's, for our really, really late Xmas celebration with my sister and her family. Got to see baby Nick, who was a little overwhelmed with all the people interested in him. He is beyond adorable and sweet and spoiled. :). Had a really nice time there, left to pick up Kurt's car and drop mine off (I was getting a radar detector put in and my GPS hardwired). Came home and felt a migraine coming on, so I went to bed.

Sunday, woke up with a headache still--ugh. Took some more Excedrine and headed to my breakfast date with Judy and Ruth. had a nice time there and thought my headache went away.......Came home and proceeded to pass out on the couch. For almost three hours. I guess I was tired? Or maybe remnants of the headache? Got up and did some stuff around the house, ran some errands with Kurt.

So, that's my exciting weekend! :). Nothing spectacular, but it seriously FLEW by.

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Hope to have something more exciting to post about soon. :).

Website

Click here to see the firm's website......

Went "Christmas" shopping tonight for last Christmas. Yea, since Kurt and I go away on Christmas, we end up celebrating the holidays at some weird times. My Aunt wanted to wait until my sister was down to celebrate, and this is it! So, I procrastinated and did not shop until now. Bad Lori. Anyway, got everything done pretty quickly. :). All with stops at Kohl's, Target, Petsmart, and MetroPCS. Whoot. Went to dinner with Kurt after that at Quatro's, and have been chilling the rest of the night.

Glad to be home.

Cold

Oh, this week has been hard. There is a cold pyramid at the office. It all began with Misty. Then, Kurt and Kory got sick. Now, Jessica and I. Stacey will be next, I am sure. Ugh. And the cold is SO weird. It's almost like no major cold symptoms, but sinus pressure galore. I feel dizzy all day long, like in a daze. Ugh.

Last night, I came home, and planned to work out. Instead, I fell asleep on the couch for two hours, woke up, watched some TV with Kurt, and went to bed. Exciting! :).

So, an update on a situation. Click here to read. Prepare to be disgusted.

Day of Shopping

Had a fabulous day today! Got up too early, or it felt like it because of the time change. Got ready and headed to Royal Oak to pick up Jessica to head to Birch Run for shopping! Yay! I love Birch Run. I always find amazing deals.

We had lunch at Uno's while there, and shopped and browsed most of the day. I thought I bought a lot, but when I got home, I realized I did not really get too much....Jessica bought much more, LOL. Anyway, I bought a really cute wool red mid-length coat from Wilson Leather, marked down from $260.00 to I think like $70. I have been wanting a red wool coat forever, and finally found one I liked. The weird part about the coat is the brand name is Guess, which is odd, because I normally do not like Guess clothing AT ALL. Adorable coat though. Bought a new suit, navy blue pinstripe, from Jones New York. Really cute, has a kinda tie around the suit coat. Bought a new vented brush from Bath and Body Works. Bought a cute burgundy kinda colored short sleeved sweater at Banana Republic, and a cute cream colored sweater from BCBG. That's it! :).

Stopped at Rebecca's afterwards so I could see her, and introduce her to Jessica. We all hung out for a while, and jessica got to meet Lauren and Charlie as well. Went to dinner after that at Papa Vino's, then I headed home for the night.

Long day, but a lot of fun. Jessica and I are going to try and do the trip once every two months or so, in order to keep getting great deals. No reason AT ALL to shop at a normal mall. The deals are way too good at outlet malls.

PS. I wish I had pics of everything, but with outlet, it's like impossible to find pics.

Change

**Pic above is of me and Val after dinner....

I think I should change the name of this blog to "Lori's Life is Insanely Busy anad Crazy".

OK, I won't do that, but I really feel like I am running around like a maniac lately.

Tonight, I grocery shopped. Why? Because we literally had NO food in the house. Kurt was sad because he had nothing to snack on at all. The pugs had no treats and we had resorted to giving them little pieces of cheese. Kory was using kleenex last night to wipe off the counter because we had no paper towel. I am a bad wife and mother. LOL. $211 later, we are now fully stocked again.

Backtracking to the week.....

Thursday night, I had a board meeting that was pretty long to watch presentations from the food service vendors. Friday, my stepsister once removed Vallorie came over for dinner. It was nice to catch up in person. She has a lot of exciting things on in her life, and I am really excited for her. This semester with school she is doing a paid internship and working excessive amounts of hours. Which resulted in her and her boyfriend breaking up. So, that sucks for her too, but, I really think she needs to be with a guy who "gets" the busy schedule. Val's career is really important to her, and I am glad she is putting it first and prioritizing everything like she should. She is only 20, she needs to focus on school and her career.........Anyway, the place has been flying her all over the country to do audits (she is an accounting major), and she is really liking who she is working with and what she is doing. So thrilled for her. Anyway, the four of us (her, I, Kurt and Kory) went to Quatro's for dinner, then chilled at the house some. We talked about her Vegas trip with us this August, and Kurt told her that if her boss won't give her the weekend off, he is going to Subpoena her to the casino in Vegas....haha.

**Pic below is of me, at my second home, my desk.....



Today, I had a massage this morning. I needed it BADLY. My other therapist, I think, is having some issues with the person she works with, and moved my appointment this week, not giving me a new one yet, so I went into my back-up place and ended up seeing the owner, Heidi. Oh My God. After Rebecca, I think she understood me more than anyone. I was literally almost crying in pain. Rebecca--she did that myofacial (sp) as well as deep tissue, and scapula (sp) work. I am in pain tonight, but I feel like my body is going back into place. I made another appointment with her for three weeks from now. After that, we headed to the office and to run errands. Worked a couple hours on odds and ends and updating our client lists of things to do. Stopped at Best Buy to price some things out....After being in my car with it's XM Radio and GPS, Kurt is getting jealous. He has the "nicer" car, and faster car, but, he does not have all the little extras that my car has. Also, the radar detector for his car broke at the end of the summer last year, so he needed a new one, and he wanted to buy one for my car. I had $15 in gift cards to use there (which did not put much of a dent in Kurt's shopping). Kurt rarely shops, but it seems like whenever he does, it is NOT cheap. LOL. Anyway, we talked to the guy in the stereo, GPS and radar department for some time. He took the details on the car, and the installation guy is supposed to call this week to verify if everything will work in Kurt's car. We did buy the radar detectors, as well as the smart cords, which will allow us to wire the radar detectors and not have it plugged into the lighter like before. Best Buy is going to install them both too, which rocks. Kurt also picked out this really kewl GPS/XM Radio setup for his car, that was on clearance. It's pretty sweet, really. Touchscreen, and you push a button and it kinda comes out of the dash, then can go back in so people looking in your car when parked do not realize what it is. Assuming that can be put in Kurt's car (Porsches are somewhat weird with how they set up their sound systems, so hopefully it will work......). So, did not buy that yet, but I am guessing he will be. Also, went and bought Kurt a new iPhone. His died, and since we are out of warranty, there is nothing that cane be done. He did get to upgrade to the 3g, which is nice, since we both have the older iPhone version.

Going to bed shortly......Jessica and I are going to Birch Run tomorrow, to try and get some good deals! :). I have not been there in forever, so it will be nice to walk around and check out what's new! Night....

Dinner with the Firm

The pic above is of everyone at the office, including our newest employee, Stacey! :). We all went to dinner tonight at a place in Wyandotte called Michaelangelo's. The food was good and reasonably price, and place was suggested to me both by Tammy and Mike (an atty friend of ours). Recommend the place..... I brought the camera to work today to start taking pics for the firm website. It is about done. There is an issue with the domain name we want to use being unlocked, but once that is done, we will be up and running and I will post the link on the private page.

So, have not written in four days, I don't even remember the past four days I was so busy.

So, we worked both days this weekend, but today we only worked a few hours in the morning, so Kurt headed home and I headed to the mall to use some coupons Misty gave me. They were for $15 off if you spent $30, and she gave me 4 of them, so $60 off if I spent $120, at NY and Co. Score. And, the store was having a sale, Buy one item, get the second 50% off. Deals all around! I was really looking for some new work stuff.

I ended up finding a lot of stuff. I was hoping to find a new suit, but I did not like the way thier suit coats fit, so I ended up with non-suit purchases, which is fine. Here is what I got there:

Shirt (in white), which I can wear under suits or just with dress pants.

Pants

Pants

Shirt (in familiar green)

Shirt (in Vermillion): another one that will look cute under suits, or with pants in the summer.

Shirt (in familiar green): this shirt was more for casual wear, but I could wear it to work too

Pants

Shirt: I think I mostly bought this shirt because the style was "different". I love anything unique these days.

I then headed to Macy's, to see if they had any suit clearance racks going. Not really. I tried on a couple skirt suits, but nothing was very exciting. So, I wandered over to the shoe department, and got two pairs of shoes. This pair of Steve Madden's for work, and this pair of coach sneakers for casual. The tennis shoes are SO cute. And, I got them for so cheap! I could not believe the deal I got, and they had them in my size. Whoot. I was surprised they caught my eye because I am usually very nondesigner, and hate for labels to be on anything I wear, but I loved the contrast of colors on these. Oh, the ones I got are khaki with blue bands. Really cute.

I stopped at Best Buy next because I have been looking for a Greatest Hits cd of Paul McCartney. Found that, and also picked up Carrie Underwood's first cd. I was shocked at myself buying a country cd, but she kinda borders on pop, and so far, I love the cd. She reminds me of my love for Faith Hill, that kinda mixed pop/country sound.

Saturday, we worked all day on work at the office, and a LOT of rearranging. We bougght a new computer for the new employee, and set that up. After a LONG day, we decided to go out for a nice dinner, and settled on Big Fish, which is a classic Lori favorite. Kory had never been there, so it was fun to take him someplace new. I had my fav meal there, the Shrimp Fresco, Kurt has cashew crusted sole, and kory had a caribbean combo. Service was a little slow, but the food was amazing. On the way home, we were driving in Allen Park and all the sudden, saw a TON of cop cars going toward this gas station. So, we did what any curious citizens would do and turned around, heading back to check things out. The cops at the station had their guns pulled! I think it made Kory's day, LOL. we still don't know what was going on, but something major. We are thinking either someone was robbing the gas station, or some kinda drug bust. There was at least 10 cop cars there though. Crazy.

Office Updates

Where to Go?

Made tartar sauce tonight! Used this recipe. Have not tried it, because I hate tartar sauce. Made it for Kurt and did not make seafood tonight, so it is chilling in the frig and I will post if it's good or not upon consumption. ;).

Bought two books at lunch today. We are trying to decide where to go on Lori's Annual Birthday Adventure.....I think we are leaning towards either Guatemala or London. I bought books on both. The London book is really overwhelming. I guess I never realized how much stuff there was in London to see! There is enough to explore for like a freaking month! Crazy. either place would be kewl though. Guatemala looks like it would be similar to Nicaragua. So, Jenn, if you have any ideas on London, PLEASE email me so I don't feel so overwhelmed. No idea even where to start on that trip.

The last few weeks have been crazy with travel and work and the working out kinda fell to the wayside. I started again this week though and it feels really good to be in my gym every night again. I like my time down there alone...I think it relaxes me, oddly. I can read (if biking), watching The Gilmore Girls (I am on Season 6 now), and get a workout in. I always kinda feel at peace afterwards and it was really annoying me with working so many hours that it got cut out for a couple weeks or so.

New Secret Post...

Thinking.....

Read about my thoughts

Party with the Office

**Jessica, Misty and I

Friday night, Misty had the go ahead to go out for the night, so everyone from the office decided to go out to Malarkey's for dinner and drinks. It was a fun night, although jessica could not stay long since Matt was coming down to visit for the weekend and she had to get back to her apartment.

**me and Kurty

I did one shot at the start of the night, but that was the extent of my drinking. The shot was called an "alcoholic jolly rancher" and it was super yummy. Kurt drank a few too many rum and cokes, and Misty was totally cracking me up. it's weird how we have worked with her for so long, but never really been out on a social level (prob because she has three kids and does not go out very often at all). We played darts for a while, and Kurt and I left at 1030 p.m. to go home.

**Jessica, Misty and kory

I got pulled over on my way home near our house, LOVELY. I kinda lucked out though....I had no seatbelt on for some reason (which is weird, since I always wear my seatbelt), did not have my insurance on me, was going 15 over (60 in a 45), and had a light out in my license plate (that I did not know about). The cop only wrote me up for 5 over.....I am still going to fight the ticket though because I have a perfect record and want to keep it that way.

**Pic above is of Kory's "strip tease" while playing darts. He was hot, and was taking off his button down work shirt to reveal his Shimek Cherry Orchard t-shirt.

One thing I learned tonight.? The iPhone takes really crappy pics, LOL.

Saturday, we got a huge storm here, so Kurt and i stayed in the entire day and night. It was nice. I needed a day to just chill, we have been going out a little too much lately. Today, we worked most of the day and did not get home until dinner time. Worked out, made dinner, and am chilling out now. Really need to do some more laundry though.......

Philadelphia Trip Report

As eveyone knows, Kurt and I went to Philadedlphia for his bday over Valentine's Day weekend. Below is the trip report and link to pics from that trip! :).

Day one--Thursday

Flight to Philly was pretty short. It only took about 59 minutes of air time to get there. The end of the flight was a little bumpy because of a wind storm in Philly, but it was fine. (which after the fact was somewhat freaky because that night around after we landed, a plane crashed in Buffalo, NY, from windy/icy conditions). Got there and our luggage came out right away. We then grabbed a taxi to the Omni. Love the hotel to pieces (although this as shortlived because of a bad experience later in the trip). We are Omni Reward Card members, and they upgraded our room since it is Kurt’s bday. It is soooo nice. They left dessert for two in our room with a bday card. Our room’s bed is really comfy, and has a flat screen TV, couch, desk, and other kewl stuff. We have views on two sides of our room into Independence Park, and can see Independence Hall from our room. I love it. Anyway, the first night, we basically got here and explored the hotel, then went to bed. We were both pretty tired from work and then the travel.

Day Two--Friday

Slept in, and grabbed the orange juice, coke and newspaper that was left outside our door FREE. Part of the Omni Loyalty Program. Chilled and watched the news, then got ready and headed out to Independence Park. We did a lot of walking today, and saw Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Franklin Court, Physick House, Betsy Ross House, and the US Mint.

Independence Hall was VERY kewl. It had the area where the first Congress was, the first Senate, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and where the first Supreme Court held sessions.

The Liberty Bell was very kewl to see in person as well. It was smaller than I anticipated for some reason though......The museum leading up to it was really informative and since I am not a history buff like Kurt, I learned a LOT.

Stopped into an actual Quaker house too, and it was really interesting. They do not have a "leader" in their house. They are all considered equals. Anyway, this house we went to was one of the oldest in the area. The seating was all original, from the 1700s.


Franklin Court was where Ben Franklin's house "used" to be. It was all about him, and it had this ADORABLE movie at the end about a mouse called Amos that I loved.


The Physick House was a very old mansion that housed the first surgeon in the US, who also invented soda pop. The guy who did this tour was very friendly and seemed to really love the house and it's history.


The Betsey Ross House was neat too. Her grave was there, as well as her history. And, the US Mint was kewl to go to. We got to see money being made, and a museum with a lot of money history stuff. Had dinner at an Indian Place called Café Spice. Had lunch at a place called Cosi, which was awesome. I wish we had the place near the office. Awesome tuna melt. My legs are killing me now……….We were on our feet about 7 hours today. Almost nothing involved sitting down today, LOL.

Day Three--Saturday


Started with a tour of the Masonic Temple Tour where the free Masons meet. This place was GORGEOUS and the tour was really informative, although nobody filled me in on the "secrets" of the Masons, which I really wanted to know, haha.


We then headed to the Franklin Institute museum where we saw an Imax movie on caves, a 3-D movie about bugs and walked the museum. This museum itself was kinda lame, but the movies were kewl. I think it is more a museum for kids, I think we went to the wrong one by accident.


Off to the Mutter museum about medical oddities. This place was SUPER kewl. I could not believe some of the stuff they had in there. Prob not a place to take the kids.....And no cameras allowed, so boo on that.


Dinner with Sher and Patrick at Moriarty’s for Valentine's Day. It was awesome to meet them (this was Kurt's friend from high school). Kurt got slightly, OK a lot, trashed, but hey, it's OK! We were not driving, LOL. Had lunch at an Irish pub as well called Mace's Crossing Pub, and the place had AWESOME food. I had a tuna melt and cajun fries. The place was SO small, a total hole in the wall, but I loved it.

Day Four--Sunday

Had brunch with Heather at The Continental. The place was super cute, and the food was really yummy with interesting meals and way too big portions. It was awesome to finally meet Heather in person. She is super funny, smart, and so easy to talk to and be around. So much so that we had dinner with Heather at Raw, her fav sushi place, and went to her place to hang out afterwards. The food at Raw was INCREDIBLE. I always say Crave tops my list of sushi places, but this place is a CLOSE second. Plus, it is more laidback then Crave. The Capitol Roll i got was amazing. Earlier in the day, we got a massage at Topper’s in Rittenhouse. it was nice to relax, but the massage itself was average. I am used to my therapist here, or Rebecca, and most people just do not use enough pressure for me.


Went to the Anthropology and Archaeology museum at Penn. This place was really kewl as well. I loved the Egyptian portions, and the African special exhibit.

Oh, why I got pissed at the Omni. I scheduled massage appointments at the spa, Lux Spa and Salon. This was in the hotel. I then cancelled the appointment, because I decided to try a different place that was recommended to me. I cancelled the appointment FAR ini advance of the 24 hours notice required. On Sunday morning, I get this call from the spa asking where I was at. I told them I had cancelled my appointment. They proceed to argue with me about this, telling me I had not, etc. Kurt was right there and heard me do so. After about 10 minutes of being rude to me, they offered me appointments for later that day, but if I did not take them, I would be charged. So, i went downstairs to complain to hotel management. Well, the girl working the front desk, the "front desk manager", was rude and unprofessional. She was not the General Manager of the place, as he does not work weekends or something. Anyway, she was NO help, basically told me that there was nothing she could do, as the spa is separate from them and SOMEbody has to pay, and it was not going to be them. She told me to just dispute the charge with my credit card company. We were livid. I would have checked out, except we paid in advance with Expedia. Anyway, once we left, I called my credit card company and cancelled my card and they automatically too the charge off my account sinc it was still pending from the hotel. I could not believe how horrible I was treated by the front desk and the spa. **since we got back, i filed a complaint on the Omni site. That SAME day, I got an email from the hotel, the front desk manager girl. Of course, in her "I'm sorry" email, she was still being snotty and rude and telling me I was wrong. My guess is she got yelled at by corporate, because there is no way this girl would have voluntarily been nice to us. She offered me a free stay, and offered to take the spa charge off my card. I was like, it would have been nice if you did that WHEN I ASKED instead of after I complained to corporate. It would have made everything better. Now, I never want to stay at their hotel again. Lame, but I am glad it was taken care of.

Day Five--Monday

Checked out of hotel, headed to the National Constitution Center. Saw a show and toured the place. A lot of kewl legal stuff was there, which I liked. In one part, you could try on a Supreme Court Justice robe.


Went for a walk in Elfreth's Alley, which is one of the oldest streets in the country. The colors and buildings and road were really kewl...


Went to the Seaport Museum on the water. This place was neat too, it had replicas of all kinda of older boats and yachts and such.


Went to the Eastern State Penetentiary. This may have been my fav part of the entire trip. The place was a photographer's dream, and the history and tour was incredible. but, it was COLD. No heat and all colder than outside. They did have hot chocolate half way through the tour, which warmed me up. Had lunch at Brownie’s Irish pub. After the prison tour, we walked through some shops in Phily, and I got to go into a 1154 Lill store for the first time! That was awesome, but I did not want to make Kurt suffer, so I did not buy anything. It is kinda a time consuming process and I did not want to rush.


Stopped and saw the old Philadelphia Hospital, which I think is the oldest hospital in the US? Had dinner at airport, and then got home around 10:00 p.m.

Overall, this trip was great. I loved exploring a new US City, and it was very relaxing and low key. One odd thing was, people in Philly seemed surprised that we would pick there to travel to. I dont think people realize how BAD Detroit is. They were comparing Philly to Detroit, and I would say "HELLO, Detroit does not have spa, nice restaurant, and luxury store every block". Philly is so much nicer than Detroit. Anyway, I wish Detroit was as nice as Philly. It is sad that ou city cannot be as built up as other major cities in this country. It just shows how poorly run Detroit has been for a really, really longtime.

Best Parts of this Trip

1. Meeting Sher, Patrick and Heather

2. Eastern State Penitetiary

Worst Part of this Trip

1. Weather was kinda cold for parts of it, which was expected

2. Ordeal with the hotel

Here are the rest of my pics from the trip. Getting to use my camera for the weekend was so nice as well......I miss it!