Category: regular

So many, so little

Posted on by jplatt27

Last night I had dinner with my sister Chrissy.  She’s in DC for the semester–I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to mention it on the blog.  I’m so excited to have her here.

After dinner we walked around Dupont Circle a little bit and went into one of my favorite bookstores, Kramerbooks.  Perusing the shelves and seeing book after book after book that looked interesting to me, I thought “So many books, so little time.” 

And as Chrissy and were walking, saying that Thanksgiving is in two weeks, and the semester is almost over I thought “So many things I want to do with her, so little time.”

Then in the middle of the night I thought “we should go visit our friends in Charlottesville” followed by “So many friends, so few weekends.”

And it got me thinking that I think phrases like this pretty regularly.  Like “So many recipes, so little time, so few meals” or “So much to save for, so little money.” I don’t love that last example because it sounds so pessimistic but you get the idea.

I thought we could have some fun with this.  So, fill in the blanks:

“So many ________, so little ________”

Jo's Spin Class

Posted on by jplatt27

When we got up for the gym this morning, I didn’t really feel like doing my strength-training routine. I figured I would just zonk out on the elliptical but I already did an elliptical workout this week and I thought I might get bored on the elliptical this am.

Then I remembered that there is a spin bike on the main cardio floor at my gym and decided I would make my own spin class.  I love spinning and I love making up my own routine. It’s such a good workout and you can alternate between sitting and standing, increase resistance and slow pace, or decrease resistance and spin, etc.  I usually let my iPod guide my workout and spin to the music.  Of course, this is something you can do on the elliptical or treadmill but for some reason I tend not to do that.

Here’s what I did this morning…

Warm up:

  • Hilary Duff Wake Up (I usually skip this song when it comes on my shuffle but I figured it was a good first song this am.  Good warm up beat and I was trying to wake up.)

Workout:

Cool down:

I was very happy with my workout.  Then I stretched and rolled my legs the right way. What a difference, thanks Tina!

So tell me:

What do you do when you don’t feel like doing your planned workout? see above. I also tell myself “you can just go and zone out on the elliptical” but when I get to the gym and get my music on, I usually end getting a good sweat going.

My iPod shuffle needs an update.  What songs are you rocking out to at the gym? One song not mentioned above that gets me pumped up is Maroon 5 Moves Like Jagger. 

Weekend in Chicago: the end

Posted on by jplatt27

Our first day in Chicago was filled with Chicago food and exploration.  I spent day two wandering around the city by myself, shopping, eating, and going to yoga while Mike was at a conference.

After my day exploring, Mike and I were headed to a nice dinner.  We walked from the hotel to Hub 51 for dinner.  Hub 51 was recommended to us by a friend of a friend as a restaurant with “a wide variety of high-quality food, great atmosphere.” That description is spot on.

There was a bit of a wait when we got there so we put our name in for a table and got a high-top table at the bar to have a drink and an appetizer while we waited.  Of course, we could’ve had our entire meal at this table but we wanted to stretch our night out as long as possible.

We started with a glass of white wine (me) and a rum and coke (Mike) and the hummus.

When we moved to our table we continued with more drinks, though I didn’t need a cocktail after my glass of wine (I’m such a light-weight). Mike had another rum and coke and I had a pomegranate mojito.  LOVE mojitos.  We both do.  We thought about having one as our signature drink at our wedding.  But I digress…

The menu was great, so many things to choose from and a wide-variety of options.  I thought the veggie burger sounded delicious, and the tacos looked and smelled amazing. Since we weren’t very hungry (and they gave the dessert menu with the regular menu), we decided to go light with some sushi.  Mike chose the spicy shrimp and king crab roll and I chose the garden roll (beets with sushi, yes please!).

I know, right?!  How good does that look?  The table next to us ooed when it came out, saying it looked amazing (and then commenting on how I was taking a picture of it…)

And then came the dessert.  Even though our server said we could share a dessert, we each got our own.  Mike had a brownie sundae.  And I had the chocolate pie (it was meant to be after I got the pear/apple/cran pie instead of the chocolate earlier in the day). When I asked the waitress about the chocolate pie, she said it was her favorite dessert on the menu, that I had to “smores” it and that she’d add some extras for me.  Look at this:

Oh. My. God.  This was so good.  On the side: snickers pieces and hot fudge.  YUM!

After dinner we just made our way back to the hotel.  Mike’s conference started at 8 am the next day.

Sunday morning, I went back to Argo Tea with my heart set on a lemon-poppy muffin and some quality writing/blogging time.  I was not inspired to write at all, so I made some notes for future posts, listened to Seinfeld’s Halloween bit, and packed it in after just an hour (maybe less).

I walked back to the hotel, changed into comfy clothes, took my leftover pie out of the mini-fridge, got in bed and watched the end of Casper on ABC family.  Though I felt like I should be out exploring the city, the Art Institute, or shopping, I gave myself time to just veg. It was really nice.

When the movie ended, I wandered a bit and made my way to the Gap.  I tried on a bunch of pants in hopes of finding a pair of skinny jeans but to no avail. Does anyone else have a problem with the top of skinny jeans?  Gap Curvy jeans fit. me. perfectly.  But the skinny jeans are just so so tight and the top.  I want to take the waist and pull it out a lot.  But I did find the best yoga pants ever (early b-day present, remember?).

Then I had to head back to the hotel to meet Mike and check out before lunch.

We seriously considered going back to Hub-51 for lunch (I still had the veggie burger and tacos on the brain) but we felt kinda awkward going back like 12 hours later.  Luckily we passed EATT on the way to Hub-51.

We took a look at the menu and when I saw gorgonzola on the list of toppings for create your own burger, I was like yep, let’s do it.

And then we sat down to order and I fully read the menu.  When I read the words “pretzel bun” I knew we’d made the right choice.  I had a burger with gorgonzola and caramelized onions.  The server asked if I wanted a side salad and I was like that’s exactly what I need actually.  I was so glad he suggested it. And then it came out and I was even more glad.

The salad wasn’t anything fancy but it was really light and nice.  And with that burger I needed it. Look at the pretzel bun:

This was a great meal to cap off a weekend of good food.

What a great weekend in a great city.  I highly recommend Chicago if you’re looking for a weekend away.

Weekend in Chicago: day 1

Posted on by jplatt27

Hope you had a good weekend!  I’ve finally finished writing about our trip to Chicago.  There will be three posts today recapping our trip.

_________________________________________________________________________

We had an awesome weekend in Chicago.

We flew in Thursday after work and had a full day together before Mike’s conference started on Saturday morning.

Our trip started off on the right foot with a great breakfast at Yolk.

Yolk was recommended to us by the hotel’s concierge and was just my kind of breakfast place. Look at that menu.

I had the special pumpkin french toast and Mike had the special skillet. Everything was delicious. Look at that cream cheese swirl in the french toast.

After breakfast we walked over to Navy Pier to get tickets for the architecture boat tour.  The next tour was at 10:45 so we had about a half-hour to walk around Navy Pier.

The boat tour was so well done.  The guide was really knowledgable about Chicago history and architecture, and really passionate about it.  And he kept it entertaining. This was a great first activity, we got a history of the city and he pointed out buildings of interest that we may want to explore on foot.

I love the river in the center of the city. And the fact that it sits right on a lake too…amazing.

After the boat tour we went on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier.

(Ignore the cat actress in the photo above.  She totally creeped Mike out.)

Then it was on to lunch.  Of course we had to get a Chicago hot-dog. Mike asked the tour guide for a good place.  He said any place that has the Vienna Beef logo on their sign and recommended a place about 5 minutes away.  This wasn’t anything fancy. But it got the job done.

Chicago hot dog: all beef dog, tomato, mustard, pickle, onion, relish, and these spicy little peppers.

Mike wanted to see Union Station so we headed there after lunch.  There was a bus stop right outside the hot dog place and the bus went right near Union Station so we hopped on the bus, quick 10 mins or less ride and walked the rest of the way to Union Station.  There really wasn’t much to see at Union Station but we did see a sign for historic and legendary Route-66.

Then we walked to Millenium Park and saw the Bean.  I’m not sure the pictures do it justice but it’s a pretty neat thing.

After a nap, we walked to Lou Malnati’s for some Chicago deep-dish pizza. We got wrapped up chatting on walk and went a little out of way.  But we didn’t mind because it was a nice night and we were enjoying our conversation. Luckily there wasn’t much of a wait when we got there at 6:30–I think they said 25 mins.  We were expecting 45 or more.  So that was wonderful.  But even better was that they give you a menu when you put your name in and allow you to pre-order your pizza so you don’t have to wait 35-45 mins after you sit down for the pizza to come out.

There was a little bit of debate about what we’d order.  I was hoping for some type of veggie but Mike had a vision for this pizza.  He had seen a lot of TV shows about Chicago pizza and in every one the pizzas had sausage.  I suggested we add some veggies but then thought “you know what, he’s been so looking forward to this, and it’s totally his thing, so I’ll just let him get exactly what he’s been envisioning and let that be that.”  He was glad I did and then I was glad I did because it made him so happy. And he thanked me for going along with what he wanted to order.

I didn’t love the pizza.  I thought it was kind of bland and needed salt. I don’t love provolone cheese so that may have played a part too. But Mike was like a kid in a candy store. He absolutely loved it. He took the leftovers for breakfast the next day.

After dinner we went to Harry Caray‘s to grab a beer and watch the beginning of the World Series. Obviously, this wouldn’t be my first choice activity but I was glad we did it because it’s totally Mike’s kind of thing.  We were standing in the bar and Mike was telling me a story he’d heard on TV recently about a player from the Chicago cubs that was shunned after a missed ball and a reporter from ESPN that was assigned to find out what became of him.   He really came alive telling this story and as I listened I thought to myself “I love him like this.  This is Mike.  And he is so handsome right now.”

Our first day in Chicago was a wonderful day.

Check back at 1pm to see how I spent my day in Chicago while Mike was working on Saturday!

#MyMarriedLife

Posted on by jplatt27

I thought about posting about these two moments on Twitter (@thingsafterings) when they happened
with the tag #mymarriedlife but I’m not sure I could get them under 140 characters.

First one:

One night last week I remembered that I had a lunch meeting the next day and wouldn’t need leftovers for lunch.  Within 5 minutes Mike was in the kitchen.  When I asked him what he was doing he said “snacking and combining your lunch with mine.”  Wow, that didn’t take long.

Second one:

Mike and I were on the bus on the way home from the grocery store.  We weren’t sitting next to each other and when I looked back at him he was smiling.  Of course I smiled back, almost blushing that my new husband was admiring me from afar.  When we got off the bus Mike was like “did you hear that guy snoring on the bus?” “No,” I said, “is that why you were smiling?  I thought you were admiring me.”  “Well I was doing that but I also wanted to get your attention so I could tell you what you sound like.”

Get Candy

Posted on by jplatt27

Happy Halloween!  When I think of Halloween, I always remember this bit from Jerry Seinfeld. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MarBVyZVe9s]

So tell me…

What candy were you after as a kid?  I’m still after Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. And has anyone else noticed that the standard size are so much better than the smaller size? 

What was your best Halloween costume as a kid? Oh, you mean the years I wasn’t a cheerleader?  One year I was a rabbit in a hat.  That was before I had any shame.  Though to be honest, that’s the kind of Halloween costume that is cool at my age now.  It would be better than a slutty fill-in-the-blank, no? 

Married Money

Posted on by jplatt27

Everyone has their own way with money and attitude toward money and they bring these feelings into their relationship. In a marriage, it’s important that both husband and wife are comfortable with the way money is handled. I know couples that have all of their money completely combined (like my parents did) and others that have no money combined and split everything. I don’t think there’s one right way to handle money in a marriage. As long as both parties are comfortable with the way financial decisions are made and are on the same page, that’s all that matters.

Since I’m always fascinated by the ways people manage their money, I thought I’d share what we do.

After our wedding, I was excited for us to combine our money.  We’ve had a joint checking account since moving in together. We used it for bills only and would transfer the exact amount for our monthly bills each month. This worked great for bills but often left us wondering who was going to pay for what/whose turn it was to pay for things like meals out or gas for our car.  I was excited for us to move to a more combined model and start working towards some bigger savings goals.  I was also excited to have a clearer snapshot of my available “fun” money at all times 🙂

Here’s how we combined our money:

Joint checking account–the majority of our direct deposits go here.  From this account we pay our monthly bills: rent, my student loans, cable, car insurance, groceries, etc. We also have a set amount of joint “fun” money each month for dates, meals out, etc.

Joint savings account–Ideally we’d have two joint savings accounts, one for short-term savings (emergencies, travel, big life events) and one high-yield account for long-term savings (house).  But for now we just have one. We have a set amount deposited here each month.

Individual checking accounts–We each have a set amount direct deposited here each pay period.  We use this for social things: happy hours, trivia night. And other individual things: lunches out, clothes, haircuts, hobbies, etc.

Individual savings accounts–I’ll use mine to save for a big surprise for mike (planned for a few years down the line), larger social events (friends’ bridal parties, bachelorette parties, girls weekends, etc), and some bigger fun purchases (a coach bag,  a mac desktop, etc).  Not sure what Mike will use his for.

Individual American Express cards–We each had these coming into our marriage and we’ve kept them separate. We use these for bigger individual purchases.

Joint credit card–for bigger joint purchases or emergencies.

When we combined our money, I thought it was important for us to still maintain individual accounts for spending money, or fun money. Part of me–the romantic–wanted to have separate accounts so that we can surprise each other with gifts and last-minute weekend getaways (I’m such a dreamer). And another part of me–the realist–wanted us to have our own accounts so that we can maintain some independence. Mike didn’t feel as strongly about the independence aspect of this but he agreed that surprises are nice.

This system is working out nicely for both of us.  I think we both enjoy having the freedom of separate spending accounts, and having an account purely for “fun” money. We’re still finessing our monthly budget, working to find the right balance of saving and spending.

Now tell me:

What do you and your spouse do?  If you don’t have a spouse, what did your parents do or what do you think you’d like to do?

Happy Birthday, Boo!

Posted on by jplatt27

This is my youngest sister Becca.

Our dad would sit her on his lap and lift her up in the air saying Becca. Boo! It didn’t take long for her to become Becca-boo, then Boo, and sometimes even Booey. We all call her this and so frequently that some of my high school friends called her that too.

I have a vivid memory of standing back by the washer, bundling her up to go play in the snow.  She had an emerald green jacket, magenta mittens on a string, and a purple hat under her hood. She was so happy and excited to go out in the snow and she was bundled up tight.  So tight that she looked like a marshmallow and could hardly walk. This is one of the most precious moments from my childhood. Just typing this makes me misty. I will always think of her as a sweet innocent little girl with a big smile.

Now Becca-boo is in college.  COLLEGE.  She’s studying math and physics.

But she’s always been smart: when we were younger she spilled my bottle of perfume and filled it up with water so I wouldn’t know (she was probably 6). I couldn’t even be mad when I found out because I thought it was genius.

And she’s an RA.

But she’s always been chatty:  when we shared a room growing up, I used to have to sing “my favorite things” from The Sound of Music so that she would fall asleep.

And she’s a good listener and gives good advice: once I got in a fight with Mike and said I didn’t want to tell my mom to which Becca responded “yeah, I read somewhere that you shouldn’t tell your mom about fights with your boyfriend because though you can get out your frustration in the bedroom, she never will.”  Haha. So true but also so funny coming from the little girl in the emerald coat.

And she’s 19 today!

Though I wanted her to be 5 years old forever, she keeps having birthdays. But instead of protesting her growing up, I’ll just admire her for the beautiful, strong, caring woman she’s grown to be and wish her a very happy birthday.

Happy Birthday, Boo! I love you!

PS–Check your mail for a belated b-day gift at the end of the week!

the day after the rings

Posted on by jplatt27

when you’re planning a wedding, there is so much talk about every detail of the day. we make inspiration boards, read magazines, books, and blogs, chat with friends, family members, and co-workers about each decision. but after you’ve picked your dress, your first dance song, hors d’oeuvres, readings, favors, bridesmaid dresses, flowers, your honeymoon destination, etc, that’s where it ends.  no one talks about what happens after the wedding. probably because it’s not that happy. so here’s how it went for me.

i woke up on the morning after my wedding overwhelmed with emotions.  of course, one of them was pure joy. another was love–for my husband, for my family, and for all the friends that came to show us love and support the day before.  another was shock–wow, did that really happen? that amazing day full of love and happiness that i looked forward to for years and thought about for a good portion of every day for 13 months, that happened? another was sadness–sadness that it was all over, sadness that all our friends and family were on their way. i thought that on the morning after our wedding, i wouldn’t want to see anyone.  that i would just want to sit in bliss with my husband.  but no, i wanted them all back with us. to talk about the wedding, to laugh, to extend the experience just a little bit longer. it was the best day of my life.  and it was behind me.

i spent most of the day crying.  tears came to my eyes as mike and i relived our favorite moments over coffee and bagels.  i was tearing up while texting my mom, and reading our cards.  and at other points i laid in our hotel bed and sobbed. part of this was pure exhaustion.  but it was also the release of all the emotions that had built up in the weeks and months leading up to our wedding.

the tears flowed into the first part of our honeymoon. i got emotional in the airport and in the van on the way to our hotel. as the week went on, the tears became less and less frequent.

but it didn’t end there.  over the next week or so, i’ll be writing about similar emotions i’ve experienced since my wedding: coming back to work after my honeymoon, responding to the questions “how was your wedding” and “how is married life,” and how i feel when i hear our first dance song.

work talk wednesday: in the zone

Posted on by jplatt27

today is the second installment of the work talk wednesday series. today’s topic is semi-related to last week’s topic of work after vacation.  today’s topic is productivity.

there are some days that are uber-productive, when things get checked of the list left and right, the day flies by and you’re flying high.  then there are days when you feel tired and unmotivated, the day seems to drag, that you have things to do but can’t quite get them organized or decide where you should begin. i’m sure we’re in agreement that the former is much more satisfying.  so how can we increase our productivity and make most days feel accomplished?  are there things that help you be productive?  what gets you in the zone?

background noise helps me to be productive.  it could be the tv, the radio, the hustle and bustle of a coffee-shop just something to occupy the other half of my brain while i work.  in college i found that watching gilmore girls helped me get through my probability homework with less anxiety.  since i can’t watch tv in my office at work, pandora does the trick.  a little zac brown band or michael buble radio helps me buckle down and focus.  if i’m working on a spreadsheet or another more monotonous task, i like to listen to npr’s talk of the nation. something about background noise helps my mind stop wandering and get in the zone.

i’m also a huge fan of the to-do list. i’ll write down everything i have to do on a blank piece of paper or a double sticky note.  then i’ll start with the smallest task on the list and start crossing things off one by one.

sometimes i’ll just say to myself “ok, i’ll work for 25 mins, just 25 mins and then i’ll take a break.”  and i’m always surprised at how many things i can get done in that small window.  a lot of the time i’ll keep working straight through the 25 min mark because i’m on a roll.

tell me.  what do you do to get in the zone?  what helps you to be productive?