It's been so long!

I'm sorry I've been MIA! I finally just finished up my second semester of grad school this week, so needless to say, I've been busy. On top of that, work has been super extra busy, so I have pretty much taken the opportunity to decompress for the past two days. Today begins my productivity once again. So what's been happening, you ask? Well you probably didn't ask but I'll tell you anyway.

So, I created a website for one of my final projects for school. Well, Google Sites was kind enough to help (seriously, so easy too!) For those of you who were kind enough to vote on my poll (and let's be honest, there weren't many of you), I thank you! You actually made my project look somewhat legit. Basically, I was studying the affect that the Internet has had on the Television industry - including advertising, cable companies, and broadcasting companies. Needless to say, Internet is winning. So my question to everyone was whether or not they would consider cancelling their cable service because the Internet has all of their shows anyway. Check out the results on my webpage: http://sites.google.com/site/televisionandnewmedia/ Visit, but do not critique, cuz it's already turned in and there's no going back.

Other fun things: We got to celebrate one of Lisa's last weekends as a single lady! Chicago was our city of choice for the event, and to say we had fun would be a clear understatement. We had a BLAST and got treated like VIPs everywhere we went. It was so much fun. We went through a company called VIP Bachelorette, which included a limo van thing to take us around, exclusive specials at a few bars, express entry, and no cover anywhere we went. Eight kinds of awesomeness. Some of my favorite pics of the weekend, thanks to Bridget's amazing photog skills throughout the evening:

All the ladies

Lisa & I

Bridget & I

Molly, Lisa and I

Lisa & Bridget

All in all, a great time was had by everyone. The whole weekend we kept saying how lucky we all are because all of our guys have such great girls in their lives for us to hang with :) And a few toasts were made to Molly for her mad match-making skillz!

Other updates: Did my first pass at wedding dress shopping, wasn't super fantastic. None of the dresses really stood out to me and I think it may have been a little too soon to go. We'll try again eventually. We're also having a wedding coordinator up north help us in our search for the perfect venue. We have one that is in the back of our minds as a standby, but we want to see what other options are out there as well. Hopefully we'll be able to find something that works for us!

Things I'm loving right now - Television edition

Welcome to another edition of "things I'm currently loving on" here in my little world, TV-wise. Enjoy!

#1. HBO's miniseries "The Pacific"
I beg any of you who have HBO to seriously start watching this series. Allen and I are living and breathing by it right now - we just can't get enough of it! The series is produced by the same "Band of Brothers" crew (Spielberg, Tom Hanks, etc), so if you are even remotely a fan of that series, you will love this. I haven't even seen "Band of Brothers" (I know, I know, Allen already yelled at me) but I'm absolutely going to watch it now that I'm crazy hooked to "The Pacific". The series is based in the WWII era, and tracks the real-life stories of three Marines who fought in the Pacific post-Pearl Harbor, and it gives a totally new perspective than what we usually see on WWII (mostly the European, Nazi regime stories - and I'm not devaluing them, I'm just saying, it's a totally different perspective). I love, love, love everything about this series. If you have HBO, they play re-runs of it all the time. Even if you don't have HBO, come over to my house and watch with me, or just wait for the DVDs to come out. It will not disappoint.

#2. The Discovery Channel's "Life"
So clearly, I must be on a documentary kick lately, but this is another one that is totally worth catching. In the same way that "Planet Earth" rocked the Discovery Channel a few years ago, "Life" takes on all kinds of different animal behaviors and how they adapt to their surroundings. It is full of all of the same jaw-drop amazing videos that had me saying "How on earth did they ever capture that image" at least 50 times. Last night we watched the episode on fish. (And let's be clear, anyone who knows me knows that that freaked the crap out of me to no end). Despite the fact that fish freak me out, it was so incredible watching some of the habits and imagery that they were able to capture. I recommend seeing it on a big screen if you can, and most definitely in HD if possible. No matter what though, you will love this. I honestly think Allen was a little unsure about the series to start, but by the end of the first episode he watched he was definitely glad he caught onto it with me.

#3. HBO's "The Ricky Gervais Show"
Ok so off of the documentary track for a few, "The Ricky Gervais Show" is slowly becoming one of my new favorite shows. I loved their podcasts through iTunes, but the added animated affect is awesome. Basically, the premise of the show is for Ricky (the Fred Flinstone looking cartoon) and Stephen to basically rip on Karl (the one on the right) the entire show. But, to be fair, Karl earns the ribbing. It continuously cracks me up every week!

Other than that, things have been pretty tame around here lately. I'm ramping up for the end of the semester (yay!), ramping up for our busy season at work, and ramping up for some finalized wedding plans here soonish. We also have Easter weekend, with my sister joining coming up for the weekend so I'm super excited about that. I'll be doing my first pass at dress shopping with her and Mom on Saturday so wish me luck! (eeeeeek!) We also have our traditional kielbasa making over at my uncle's on Saturday so that will make for some yummy food. Oh, and did I mention that MICHIGAN STATE IS IN THE FINAL FOUR?! HOLLA! GO GREEN!

PS: one more thing - Happy Birthday to my old roomie Erin! Love you girly! 

Things I'm loving right now

Hello blogosphere. Hope you're doing well.

So there are a few things going on right now that I am absolutely loving! And I felt like sharing.

#1. Conan vs. Leno
I can't even tell you how much I'm loving the NBC battles right now. It's kind of fascinating to me. Not only because I happen to love a good corporate scandal, but also because since I started re-watching Conan this week because of the whole battle, you can tell he has completely come back into his own! (yes, rewatching, because his show changed a lot when he moved up in time slots) I missed his old goofy ways, and you could totally tell he had watered things down when he became host of the Tonight Show (whether it was asked for by NBC or not is too soon to tell). But I respect the statements the guy has made to the general public, and I am happy he is back to his old ways - including cutting waist strings. That's what made him so successful in the first place! So therefore, in case you all were dying to know, I am on Team Conan. Not that I have much against Leno - I think he's been put in kind of a rough spot by NBC - but it's time for a new Tonight Show host, and it should be Conan O'Brien. That is all.

#2. Sherlock Holmes
Ok, I know that there's some back and forth on this one right now, but I loved the Sherlock Holmes - and not just because of my love of Robert Downey, Jr. (but that didn't hurt either). Granted, the plot was a little "eh" since I'm not huge into witchcraft or the supernatural, but I thought the portrayal of Holmes and Watson was awesome. RDJ and Jude Law were a perfect match as far as I'm concerned! Can't wait for a sequel (if there is one).

#3. Spin Class
LOL! Ok I'm not that much of an old lady, but that picture made me laugh. So I just started up a spinning class last week, and MAN am I loving it!! It is such a great work out and since Allen and I are on a hardcore health-kick these days, I've decided that this is the perfect kind of cardio for me. The class I'm taking does 35 minutes of cycling, and then 15 minutes of either core or strength training work. I love, love, love it no matter how sore my booty was after that first bike ride (and believe me, I was sore). I just have such a hard time motivating myself to run or go on the eliptical, so I'm pretty happy with this choice so far. Hopefully I'll keep it up for the next 12 weeks!

This weekend is full of some fun plans - tonight we're going to Lansing to see an Irish band with two of our friends, and tomorrow will be a lot of cleaning and school work until Jill's going away party (ok, that's not fun for me, but it will be fun to see everyone). And then Sunday is the first night of our cornhole league! This should be interesting... :)