Seder at Susie's

Tonight, I kept it "K for P," as my sister's friends would say. That's "Kosher for Passover," for everyone out there not hip to the latest Jewish slang. Even though my sister isn't Jewish, a fair number of her friends from college are, and for the last 4 years, she has hosted a Seder dinner for everyone who can't make it home to celebrate with their families. This year, Betsy and I were invited to participate in the feast and we enjoyed it quite a bit. There's plenty of drinking (sweet kosher wine, called Manischewitz wine -- I only had one glass instead of the required four), storytelling (we went around the table to read aloud from the Haggadah, the story of the Exodus from Egypt), singing (songs in Hebrew that I didn't know), and eating (brisket and matzah ball soup anyone?). Here are a few pics: 

The Seder table -- only recent college grads would use red Solo cups for the Manischewitz wine!

Three Gentiles enjoying the Passover holiday

Thanks to Sus and all her friends for cooking up such a delicious feast and including us in the ritual! 

LOST Lunch Wednesday: Ab Aeterno (Live Forever)

So what do we think about this episode? I apologize for not writing about the last few, but I just felt like we weren't learning anything new. The last 3 episodes (the Sayid-, Ben-, and Sawyer-centric ones) were amazing, don't get me wrong -- fantastic acting, good dialogue, and totally entertaining. But there wasn't much to blog about beyond being obsessed with Sayid, starting to feel a connection to Ben, and loving Sawyer's bad cop routine. But THIS episode really cracked open the proverbial can of worms. We got a boatload of religious references, and what I (and the Watcher) thought was a shout-out to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hee! Here are some random nuggets that we talked about at lunch today:

• Is the island Hell? Or some kind of Hellmouth? I personally don't believe the characters on the island are all dead. But there's definitely some kind of devilry going on. Given all the Catholic references we've got going on, is it Purgatory?
• Who's the bad guy -- Jacob or the Man in Black? They keep shifting the ground beneath our feet on that one. I'm starting to wonder if they aren't changing positions based on who they can 'recruit' to their side (note the hand-off of the white rock from Jacob to the MIB when he wins over Richard)
• There are some interesting parallels between Richard's story and Sayid's. Both are reluctant (or in Richard's case, accidental) killers, both are consumed by their guilt, in agony over their lost love, and both were very obviously portrayed as Christ figures before being dunked in water
• Also of note, the Bible passage Richard was reading in prison was from Luke, Chapter 4 where Jesus returns from 40 days of being tempted by the devil in the desert

I'm starting to feel like we're really building up to something with this show. The next episode is about Sun (who we learned is the Candidate, not Jin) and I'm guessing it will be similar to the Sayid/Ben/Sawyer episodes in terms of what is revealed. But then they've got to start showing us the goods and answering some of these questions!

Making way for baby

Jason and I made some progress today! We moved our bed as close to the door as possible to make way for the bookshelf and desk from the second bedroom. And we picked out some adorable bedding from Pottery Barn Kids. We've decided to go with a purple and lime green color scheme...super cute!

I'm not getting the quilt because we have a couple of handmade blankets coming from my mom and Jason's grandma. But we ordered the bumper, sheets, and crib skirt today! I know we'll have to wait on putting the bumper up until the baby is a little older, but the room will still look adorable with the polka dot sheets and crib skirt.

Next up -- order the crib and pick out a rug! Oh yeah, and we still need to clean out that back room, insulate the wall, and paint. Details, details...

Bracket -- busted!

Welcome to the Madness! My bracket is totally busted now that Kansas and Villanova lost -- I had both teams in the Final Four and Kansas winning it all. And I'm 0-6 so far on teams making it to the Sweet Sixteen. But I don't even care! It was so much fun to see those scrappy Northern Iowa Panthers take out a number one seed in the second round.

Who knows what else will happen, but so far this tournament has been awesome -- full of buzzer beaters and Cinderella stories. I'm going to keep on cheering for those underdogs and hope this is the year we see a 9 or 10 seed win it all!

Bachelorette party in the Nasty

Last weekend, Lindsay and I roadtripped to Cincinnati for Dana's shower and bachelorette party. It was a quick turnaround -- we got in around 9pm Fri night and then left at 7am Sun morning -- but it was so worth it. We hit up some of our Cincinnati favorites, including LaRosa's Pizza and Buskin's Bakery. And then we had ourselves a crazy time on Sat night at Dana's bachelorette. We started out at Dana's condo for gifts and games and then jumped on a party bus (complete with stripper pole!) and continued the party at FB, a Cincinnati club. I think this pic pretty much sums up the awesomeness:

Lindsay has some really good pics from the party bus, but she hasn't uploaded them yet. I'm not sure they're all appropriate for the blog though anyway!

Belated bday with the Bulls

On Tuesday, I took Jason to the Bulls/Jazz game as a belated birthday present. Although I am usually the type of person who plans ahead, I waited until the day-of to buy tickets and was able to score 10th row seats for half price. Not bad! Neither Jason nor I had seen Derrick Rose play in person, so we were very excited for this game. We also really wanted to see Deron Williams, point guard for the Utah Jazz and former member of the Fighting Illini's 2005 Final Four team.

The Bulls ended up losing 108-132 (high-scoring game!), but they played tough for the first 3 quarters. Regardless, Jason and I had a lot of fun and loved the view from our primo seats! Check out the awesome pics we were able to get:

Deron Williams and Derrick Rose embracing before the game

2 celebrity sightings! Matt Saracen (aka, Zach Gilford) and Adam Duritz (lead singer of the Counting Crows) were both sitting courtside

Belly shot #2 -- 21 and a half weeks

My shirt is a little bunchy, but you get the idea. The belly is getting bigger! And after dinner tonight at Xoco, the new Rick Bayless street food joint, it will probably be even bigger. Mmmm...Mexican food... :)

It's a...

We're SO excited :) Well, I'm so excited and Jason is shaking in his boots a little. He knows this child will own him :)

Anyway, I almost didn't find out again. The baby was all curled up in a ball, even though I drank an entire apple juice and had 2 pieces of chocolate in the waiting room. But with 5 minutes left in my appointment, she moved enough for the ultrasound tech to make the call. Woo woo!!

I would have been happy either way, but was hoping for a little girl. Yesss!!

Dancing with Ochocinco

I've never watched "Dancing with the Stars" before, but think I'm going to have to check it out this season. Cincinnati's own Ochocinco will be competing for the title!

Other contestants include:

• Evan Lysacek (yesss!!)
• Shannen Doherty (double yesss!!)
• Pam Anderson (ew)
• Kate Gosselin (double ew)
• Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (kind of awesome)
• Erin Andrews (yawn)
• Nicole Scherzinger (double yawn)
• Niecy Nash (who?)
• Aiden Turner (who?)
• Jake Pavelka (who?)

I will definitely be cheering for Chad, Evan, Shannen, and Buzz. How fun!