Category Archives: Uncategorized

Your first cubs game!

Your first cubs game was supposed to be a date for mama and daddy but your gigi came down with covid last minute so we decided to make it your first game.

It was a rainy day but originally it was supposed to hold off raining until 4 pm. But it was raining pretty good on our walk over. The 1:20  game vs the Arizona diamondbacks was delayed until 2:50.

We had fun anyway. We got you a first time cubs game certificate and we even got a Patrick Wisdom bobble head. You later pulled his head off because you thought it was broken 😂

Mom and dad got beers, nachos and hot dogs. You enjoyed the nachos and you even ate almost an entire hot dog! You loved the hot dog and we really enjoyed watching you eat it!

We loved watching you dance and point out the seagulls. You enjoyed trying out all the free seats around us. Around 2:45 it was still rainy and getting colder so we decided to go. The cubs started to take field soon after we left. We bought you a nice soft cubs blanket for the stroller ride home and you picked out a magnet.

You fell asleep on the walk home. The game ended up going to 10 innings and unfortunately the cubs lost. 6-7

Crazy Bus Ride To A Winery and Pool Fun

Today we left on the bus around 9 again to head to a winery for a tour and tasting. We had a new bus driver today named Riccardo and we got a little lost on the way to the winery, although I don’t think it was entirely his fault. The route was really confusing and the GPS didn’t seem to be working correctly. We had to stop a couple of times and ask random people for directions and no one really seemed to know anything. Finally Don saved the day by using his awesome navigation skills and some google translate to tell the driver in Italian what we were doing wrong.

The drive was crazy though. We were on a tiny road on a mountain pretty much the entire time in a giant bus. There was barely any room for the bus and often you could not see far ahead of you to see if another car was coming. At times we would be inches away from the wall of the mountain and one time we even had a car coming at us head on. I have to admit I don’t even remember how we got out of that, I think the car backed up. I was not feeling so great with a bit of car sickness and it was really scary so I didn’t look outside a lot.

 

We finally made it to the winery after about 2 hours and they were shocked to see all of us because apparently we did not finalize our reservation. The winery was called Montefioralle. We had some time since they were not expecting us so we took a few pictures. Everything around the winery was beautiful,but what did you expect it’s Italy.

Once things settled down we got a brief tour and then we were seated for some snacks and tastings. We were able to taste five wines and they were all great. We also had meats, breads, and bruschetta. I normally do not like bruschetta because I don’t really like raw tomatoes but as usual everything in Italy taste better and I even ate the tomatoes! We really enjoyed our time here and a lot of people purchased a lot of wine to be shipped back home.

On the bus ride home many people slept, I was one of them. Once we got back we went to Castelfiorentino to buy train tickets for Saturday. We also went to a grocery store. Once we got back we all had fun at the pool and cannonballs were done.

After the pool we went to dinner where we were greeted with little dolls.

Dinner tonight was very good. It started out with an appetizer of asparagus and mozzarella on bread. Then there was a truffle pasta, which I didn’t even know if I liked truffles, but this was soooo good. It was probably one of my favorite pastas of the trip. I wish I could have some right now! The rest of the meal was veal with potatoes and salad. We also had a little birthday celebration for Greg during dessert. After dinner we went to bed pretty early.

 

And Isn’t It Ironic?

so earlier today i was having a lazy day playing some playstation, more specifically little big planet. if you know anything about this game it is addictive and quite annoying. but can be fun and i like to beat levels because somewhere in my mind i feel like i’m doing something productive….

well before i started playing it asked me to do a system update because otherwise the online part of the game wouldn’t work…and i mean the online part isn’t a huge deal but i thought what heck. so decided to do the system update that i had been ignoring for weeks.

i did the update. played for about an hour, became very frustrated because i kept dying. and turned it off and went and did other stuff. i had posted a status saying “little big planet made me want to break my ps3”.

then about 730 tonight i decided to turn the playstation back on…and it said that it was corrupt and had to reboot the playstation using the default settings. in my mind this isn’t really sinking in as to what was happening…i’m just going through the motions of resetting it. then i realize that it’s like my profile was gone. and my two most important games will not load (little big planet and resident evil 5). lbp loaded to an extent but kept saying something about trophies will not work. RE5 was totally gone. but when i looked in my saved files all my games were still there but for some reason the ps3 just couldnt read the files anymore. don and i were thinking it was because my username had been wiped out completely.

so we looked online and tons of other people have had this problem. and it looks like it’s linked to updating the ps3. and about the only way to fix it so far is to start all over, meaning losing everything you’ve saved.

and you don’t understand…..we have played countless hours of RE5. and it’s weird because we beat the game months ago and just recently decided to pick it back up and play some of the bonus levels. we have upgraded all the weapons we wanted…had infinite ammo…that means having to beat the game multiple times…there’s still a few things we were working on…and now to have that all taken away because for some reason the ps3 cant read our save filed anymore…….it’s more than frustrating.

after about an hour of trying to read online and think of what to do. don comes up with the idea that if the problem has to do with the ps3 trying to download info to play the game then maybe just unplugging the internet from the ps3 and playing it just like that…just maybe our problem would be fixed. i had little hope this would work…because it seemed like such a simple solution…and everyone online was talking about having to get a new hard drive, having to reformat the ps3…losing everything and starting from scratch.

so here were our options: not play resident evil or little big planet until sony could figure out what they effed up in the last update and fix it in the next update….reformat the ps3 and start over or try it without the internet. and so we unplugged the internet…and just like that all of our pretty weapons in resident evil were there…all of our accomplishments were there!! it was amazing…there seems to be some issues still with little big planet but it is still playable and i don’t have to start over. so hopefully the issue gets solved so we can get back online….but i’m just soooooo thankful we didn’t lose everything! hahah i know, sounds so stupid and dorky…but the game is awesome..

i’m starting to have a weird feeling though…it’s that feeling you get when things just keep going wrong…it’s like a cycle. yesterday my car broke down…today the ps3…and then right before i went to bed i went to the kitchen…turned on the light and it burned out immediately. i know, small problem, but still just adds on. so things come in threes or something like that…so 3 things breaking but fixed…please let my monday not be so bad. hahaha

New Music.

I’ve been listening to some new music and thought I’d share some of my thoughts on it…

Cartel-Cycles
I liked Cartel’s first release “Chroma” but I was really letdown by their second…so let down that I didn’t think I’d bother with them anymore. But I’m glad I did because their new album Cycles is really good. It sounds more like their first album and it’s fun to listen to.

Dashboard Confessional-Alter the Ending
I was sooo happy to see that Dashboard provided an acoustic version of every song on this album. I like them so much better with just Chris and the guitar. I don’t really feel like they have had a good album since “A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar”. Even that release wasn’t that great…but their new one is pretty good. I would definitely check it out.

Flyleaf-Memento Mori
I’ve known about Flyleaf for probably 2 years or more and I still can’t form a consistent opinion about this band…one minute I like them…the next I think they are boring. I found it hard to listen to their first album from beginning to end because I would get bored, but I did like some of the songs a lot. And with their new release nothing much really changes for me. I like their harder songs better and was disappointed to hear that the new album really lacked anything like songs “So Sick” and the other one…forget the name. But I do like the album…and for the most part I think if you really liked the first one you won’t be disappointed with the second one.

I’ve really been into Brendan Benson lately also…He’s really good. And I can’t stop listening to Brand New’s album Daisy…! Even though I’m not in love with it like their previous stuff, it’s still good….so that’s it…bored and listening to music…thought I’d share what’s in my playlist lately.

My Parent’s House Is Haunted.

so after seeing the movie paranormal activity and it being halloween and everything…i started to really think about the weird things that have happened at my parent’s house over the years. and i’m thankful that i’m not living there at the moment otherwise i’d probably be too freaked out to think about what it could be.

obviously my sister and i believe that our parent’s house is haunted. it’s not just that when you sit in the dark in the living room and look at the stairway you get freaked out…or that the basement is a little scary..it’s that the place is really haunted and we have had many strange things happen. so here it goes.

i used to think i was just scaring myself or just thinking i heard noises, i mean it’s an old house. but then when my sister also told me things that she heard i started to really think it was haunted. i feel like when i walk into my house i can feel something weird. some sort of weird presence. but it’s mostly when i’m alone in the house. it’s like i’m not really alone. i’ve spent many nights in that house with every single light on. or sitting in the computer room and having the door shut because i was afraid i would see someone walking through the dining room, even though no one was home.

the places where i have felt the most activity is the living room, the kitchen, the back stairway, and my bedroom. so let’s start from the beginning. the first thing i noticed about the house was when i was up late either watching tv or on the internet in the computer room…i could hear like a conversation going on in the living room. the living room is right next to the computer room. it wasn’t like i could actually make out words from the conversation it was more like 2 (or more) people were talking with a low voice because they didn’t want to be heard. and this is what forced me to fall asleep every night with my tv on. because even when i was upstairs in my bedroom i could hear weird things going on downstairs. people talking…people moving about. so every night i would put my tv on and i would be able to block out anything freaky going on in the house. and my sister was also doing this too…

the kitchen. i have heard from a few friends that they have been in the bathroom and thought they heard someone in the kitchen, even though everyone was asleep. and i’ve been in the bathroom and have heard someone walk in the kitchen mess with cabinets and that would be it. like nothing violent just like someone getting something to eat or putting something away.

the back stairway. the back stairway connects the kitchen downstairs with basically my bedroom upstairs. it is a small, curving, creaky, old, wooden stairway. i’ve always thought it looked pretty cool. i mean how many people have a crazy stairway like that? it is very creaky, you can obviously hear someone come up or down. and it’s right next to my room….so just about every night i’ve heard that stairway make the noise as if someone is coming up or down….and everyone is asleep. and we have cats so you may be thinking it was the cats…well cece was on my bed and chloe has a freaken bell on her so we know where she is at all times. and mimi…well it’s been awhile since mimi has been in that house…just recently though my mom has confirmed that every night around 3 am she hears this creaking in the back stairway.

my bedroom. i believe that my bedroom is probably the most haunted room in the house. i dont know why. but even my sister who has slept in there has said she doesn’t like it. maybe because it’s so close to the back stairway? probably the craziest thing that has happened in this “haunting” occurred in my room. it was one night when i was trying to fall asleep. and i was just about asleep. i was laying on my left side. and over my right ear i heard “andi wake up!” it was a whisper…and i could feel the breath of whoever was whispering in my ear. and i was definitely awake for many hours after that. and i slept with the light on for a week. i was freaked out.

a few other small things…one time we came home and all my parent’s dresser drawers were wide open. recently my mom also told me that she has been in the house and all of the sudden smelled roses. and this would be anytime of the year but seriously…we didn’t have roses and if it was winter…

so after going through all these things i came up with one main theory of who this ghost is. i know that the house is over 100 years old. and when we first moved in i thought i remember hearing it was built by a father for his daughter as a gift. i’m not sure if it was a wedding gift…and maybe i’ve got this part of the house’s history all wrong but…anyway. i’ve read in places and heard…and dante just recently saw on a tv show that having a back stairway was usually for a servant or a maid. they would use the back stairway so they wouldnt be seen. so i believe that this ghost is possibly a maid…and that explains the use of the back stairway so much and possibly the activity in my room…because her room probably would have been somewhere near that back stairway. and also the kitchen…the maid is cleaning! and the smell of roses…the maid probably cut fresh flowers and put them in the house. as for the conversation that i’ve heard in the house…i dont know. but the rest of it seems to fit together. and i wish i had the original floor plan of the house and the entire history like of past residents…did anything weird happen.

so basically that’s it…that’s all i have about the house. and i’m serious about finding out anything i can about the house so if anyone’s bored…and is interested in finding out the mystery of this house…let me know i wanna work on it!

and when i go home…i still sleep with the tv on. but one thing i wanted to point out…even though these things are crazy and freaky…i dont really recall feeling terrified or really even that scared, just mostly freaked out. the things just really freaked me out…but i’ve never felt like i would be harmed or hurt. what do you think kelsey? and anyone else if you’ve had some weird experience…let me know!