A Perfect Duetto

So besides pandora.com, one of my favorites things is my Starbucks/Visa Duetto card. It is a Chase Visa card, but I earn Starbucks rewards that are loaded to the same card which essentially acts as a Starbucks gift card as well. I earn 1% of all of my Visa card purchases in Starbucks coffee. Unlike most credit card reward programs I can actually earn something I will use/enjoy in a relatively short period of time, as opposed to waiting 5 years to earn an airline ticket or something like that. Plus using the Starbucks rewards means I feel less guilty about my Starbucks addiction because I am not really using my disposable income for said habit.

Besides sharing the joy of the Duetto card with my blog reading public it is now my mission to share with all of the Starbucks employees out there about it as well so that when I want them to use my Starbucks card for my transaction they do it right and don't charge it to my Visa. Slowly I am explaining this to all of my Starbucks servers. This morning I had a lovely conversation with Ryan. I pulled up the window and said "Okay, please run this as a Starbucks card, I know it looks like a Visa card and it is, but it is a Starbucks card too... you have to trust me on this Ryan, it will work." Much to Ryan's amazement it did work, and I explained briefly about the joys and benefits of the Duetto card. We definitely shared a moment, he offered me a sample of their new coffee cake... my nonfat, sugarfree hazelnut latte taste extra special this morning. Kudos for trusting me Ryan!

Hit 'Em in the BallState

Okay so I am little tardy on the blogging... my bad.

Friday I went with Nikki to my first ever UI homecoming parade. The weather was a little drippy but not too bad. The parade theme was Orange Feve and one float featured a disco dancing Rashard Mendenhall... not the actual player but a Rashard-like mannequin sporting a #5 jersey and an 'fro. Good stuff. The through out some serious candy at this parade... I got a full size (2 cups) Reese's, several tootsie rolls, bubble gum and mini football. Okay so the football says TCF Bank, and I work at Busey, but still I love free stuff. I saw my friend Laurie from my church small group playing in the Marching Illini, and one of the floats had two orange and blue pool table balls, crashing into a red Ball State ball, and the frat boy riding shotgun in the truck pulling the float was yelling to the crowd "Go Illini, hit 'em in the ballState! Oh, I love a parade.

Saturday we tailgated a bit, and my brother Phil and my nephew Jeremy joined us, along with my former football player mentee, Jake. It was good to see all of my boys. Jake is a dear for dragging his college boy booty out of bed shortly after 9 a.m. on chilly Saturday morning to eat donuts and drink hot chocolate with me. He received a couple of phone calls while tailgating with us... his ringer... "A Country Boy Can Survive"... very fitting for my little Kansas buddy. Phil and Jeremy helped us kill a few more donuts, and Phil even had a beer with his donut... I would expect nothing less from my brother.

We had our "good seats" for the game, and I had forgotten just how sweet they are. I had a good view of my current football player mentee, Cole #61, on the sidelines. The last time I had those seats was the first game of the season and I hadn't been assigned a mentee yet. Cole is an excellent sideline cheerleader, encouraging the crowd to stand up and get loud.

Sunday I worked the Orange & Blue Scrimmage at the Hall. Former player and new assistant coach, Jerrance Howard was there. When he walked by with a group of recruits I told him "Welcome Back" and he stopped and chatted me up a bit. After the scrimmage he walked past again and told me "Thanks for helping out tonight". He is just so nice and charming... and his smile just lights up a room... welcome home J-How.

Afterwards a group from the Hall headed to Village Inn. We were sitting with Sue (my boss's boss for lack of a better term) and I was telling her about my sweetie. She was quizzing me about him and when I said his name was Richard... she just paused and gave me a funny look. I was like "Sue what's the big deal with his name being Richard". Her response... "OMG, you guys are 'Dick and Jane'!" I guess I have never thought of that before, probably because I never refer to Richard as "Dick". It is usually Richard, Sweetie, Hey You, or Big R which Nikki and Sarah J have taken a shine too. Evidently Nikki is kind of liking the Dick and Jane angle. Today at work were were discussing my lack of blog of late, and I said that I didn't get to it last night because I went to Danville to see Richard. Here response was as follows:

Jane went to visit Dick.

Jane did not blog.

Bad Jane!

To make up for it, I will probably be posting two blogs tonight. I hope all is forgiven :)

Editors Note: The picture is of my mentee, Cole Knuth #61, cheering on his teammates at kick off.

A Showtune of Gays

My college roommate Jeanne was in town for a quick visit on Tuesday/Wednesday. She lives near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida but was back in Illinois to help her Mom as she undergoes treatment for brain cancer. Jeanne said she was talking to her Mom's doctor and if you had to chose, this is evidently the brain cancer you want... it is treatable and the prognosis is good. That being said, I am sure Jeanne and her family would greatly appreciate any and all prayers you all would like to offer up on their behalf.

So, visiting with Jeanne is always a treat. First of all she showed up on my doorstep with a lovely bouquet of flowers. Her previous stop was her former employer, Rick Orr Florist, so Jeanne just whipped up the arrangement I have pictured at the top of this post to thank me for my hospitality. Jeanne has excellent taste, especially in flowers. She picks out all the flowers I never knew I liked.

We met our college buddy, Scott Larimer, for dinner at El Toro 2. Originally we planned to head to Boltini afterwards, but Jeanne was a bit tired so we just went back to my house to hang out and visit. I made chocolate chip cookies, then Rashid (Jeanne's ex-beau from college days) and his girlfriend, Isabelle joined us. You just can't beat great conversation, cookies and beer! (Abandoning plans for going out for drinks to stay in and bake cookies... yep that is pretty much my life now, and you know what, I kind of like it that way. )

Speaking of conversation, Larimer was telling Jeanne and I about something and said that a lot of his gay friends were there. Jeanne commented that we need a word for a group of gays. For instance you have a gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, a flock of sheep, and _______ of gays. At first Jeanne suggested a "condom of gays"... but she said that was perhaps to obvious or just unpalatable. We pondered a bit more before I came up with a "showtune of gays"... Jeanne and Larimer both declared me brilliant and said I would forever be given credit for that phrase. When Rashid and Isabelle joined us they readily agreed. It was a great night... kind of like college all over again but I have a bigger budget!

Hail to the Victors... Cesspool of the North

Just a quick update on my weekend. I went to East Bay camp near Lake Bloomington overnight Friday and for the first part of Saturday for Quest's small group leaders retreat. It was lots of fun, the camp was full of fall color and I did some of the God thing too. Saturday after lunch I headed home for a quick shower, laundry and minimal unpacking before Nik came over, along with our pal from the Hall, Allison Hocker and Allison's fiance, Bill. We had never met Bill before, he meets my approval. We all went to the Illini vs. Michigan game on Saturday night, after stopping at the Busey tailgate for some free food and drink.

What can I say about the Illini... ah the penalties and mistakes just killed us. It was so frustrating even the straight-laced grandmas types sitting near us were using "inappropriate language". There were a couple of middle-aged drunk fans sitting next to Nik. One would high-five Nikki all the time, even before high-fiving his buddies. The other seemed rather fond of giving Nik "knuckles". This guy was a little lit, when the Michigan fans behind us were singing "Hail to the Victors" he did change the last line of the song to "Hail, Hail, Michigan- cesspool of the North". It was kind of funny. Despite the loss the fly over at night was super cool, the jet fumes lit up the night sky. Also, the camera suspended on wires that comes in over the top of the quarter back was way cool too. For the first part of the game we could only see two of the four wires it was suspended on so we kept saying "how are they doing this" for the first quarter plus.

Richard came over for dinner tonight. My meatloaf was sub-par, as were the potatoes. Not bad, but not my best work. Richard didn't complain, I like that about him. I did totally rock the apple cake though... so it wasn't 3 strikes :)

How Much is that Doggie in the Dairy Aisle?

I went grocery shopping this evening. I went to Meijer. I don't particularly enjoy grocery shopping, I just wish things would magically appear in my cupboards and refrigerator.

Anywho, a rather odd siting at Meijer this evening, I turned the corner to head down the dairy aisle and I definitely saw a middle-aged woman carrying a small dog. What the...? Are dogs allowed in grocery stores? This one definitely was not an assistance dog, the lady was holding the dog in one hand and selecting yogurt with the other. I enjoy dogs, but I don't really want one sniffing the Yoplait I am about to buy. It is Meijer lady, not Petsmart, plus the temperature was pleasant, is isn't like you are harming your dog leaving it in the car. Pulease!

Hail to the Chief

Today was game day. The Illini got beat by Iowa 6-10... guess we didn't cheer loud enough. It was a pretty quick trip from our hotel in Cedar Rapids to Iowa City, and with the exception of stadium security not wanting to let Jenn in with her back pack/purse/kid supply tote, the Hawkeyes were rather welcoming. On the way to the game Abigail shared with us that "Trees can talk!" Ah, the things you learn from a 3-year old. Our seats were in the Illini section, in the east stands, even with the south end zone in row 79, aka the very top row of the stadium, in the corner. We were surrounded by J Leman's dad and various other members of the Leman extended family. Nik asked the approximately 10-year old girl in front of us if she knew J, and she replied that he was her cousin... Nik replied with "He is my favorite player, and I don't even know him!" The girl's mom and brother were very entertaining throughout the game high-fiving after each Leman tackle, keeping a tackle tally.

Nik and I gave Sidney a football tutorial. She is an excellent student and now knows the following: Offense is when you have the ball and are trying to score, you have 4 tries to go 10 yards, the little lines are one yard, the big lines are five yards, you have to cross two big lines to get 10 yards. Defense is when you don't have the ball and you try to keep the other team from scoring. The guys in black and white striped shirts make sure everyone follows the rules. They throw yellow flags if you are in trouble.

When Rashard didn't make it on 3rd and 2, Sidney said "Two little marks... that isn't very far, I could run that far!" When the band came out at half-time Nik told Sid that she used to play the trombone in the band. She asked Sid if she wanted to play in the band when she got older... no response... did she want to be a cheerleader instead?... shoulder shrug... or maybe you want to play football!... strange look followed by "I'm just not into that, I like to watch!"

The Illini just didn't have it today, they just didn't look sharp. We got all excited about the would be touchdown towards the end of the game, but it was called back because of an illegal receiver down field. Although we lost, this program is definitely making strides, after beating us the Iowa students stormed the field. Illinois football is definitely back on the map, defeating us hasn't caused the opponents to storm the field in a very long time.

On the way back to the hotel after the game Sid said "I know why they told on us!" Huh? When they didn't let us have our touchdown... the other team told on us because they didn't want us to win. Nik agreed with "Yep, if we had that touchdown, the Illini would have won the game". Sid then said "Yeah! Then I could have run on to the field!"

After the game White Mocha (or Dubby-short for "W" for "White Mocha") and the Lil Mochas went swimming at the pool. On the way to the pool the three of them serenaded us in the elevator with the following:

"Oh baby you, you got what I need, but you say he's just a friend, but you say he's just a friend, Oh baby you, you got what I need.'

Evidently the pool was not overly warm... according to Dubby, definitely some "shrinkage" :) After the swim we went to Leonardo's Lounge for dinner. The front desk clerk recommended it, and kudos to him. Besides some great pizza, the decor was completely fabulous and retro with red pleather circular booths, black padded pleather walls... very Vegas circa 1968. When we left we commented that it was getting crowded at Leonardo's and that it was a good thing we got there early. John's response (referring to spending just the right amount of time in the pool and hot tub) "Yeah, Dubby spent just the right amount of time in the Tubby."

Oh, our waitress at Leonardo's was wearing a rather low cut t-shirt. She was a great waitress, but John definitely referred to her cleavage as looking like she "had two bald guys in a headlock".

After dinner Sidney, Abby and then later Jenn came to hang out in our room. Sidney read to us from her 1st grade readers, and so Nikki and I got to "sign off" on her reading log. Also, Abby mentioned that her cough is gone, then pointed to her mouth and said "See?".

Okay, so it isn't even 9:00 and it is about time for this blogger to call it a night. Please see all the pictures posted below. It has been a great weekend, and fabulous to hang with the Thomas family. We hope to hit the road by 10 a.m. tomorrow, just after breakfast.

Editors Note: So the title of this blog "Hail to the Chief"... might not be what you think. John always refers to Jenn as "Chief". She asked John if she could wear one of his t-shirts for the game. He said yes, but only if she wore his "Chief" shirt. When we were explaining to Sidney that Chief Illiniwek isn't allowed to dance anymore, she later said... pointing to her mom, "See, we still have a chief, it's just that she doesn't dance much." Oh, speaking of Jenn, we decided she so needs her own set of yellow penalty flags for when Abby and Sidney "are in trouble and not playing by the rules"

Grrr

Thank you Mr. I Need Ice from the Ice Machine at 6:58 a.m. Our room is not that far from the ice machine, and the ice machine isn't very quiet... Grrrr!