Father's Day Weekend

About a week ago, my dad found out that the family was throwing a 90th birthday party for my great-aunt Mary Grace. Mary Grace did a lot for my grandma when we weren't living out here in Indy and my dad felt it was only right that he come out here for the occasion. I was happy to go because I'm pretty sure that the majority of my dad's side of the family has no clue that I've been living in Indy for 4 years. (Can you believe it will be 4 years in August?) Anyway, so I went in hopes of meeting cousins and honoring my wonderful Aunt Mary Grace.

Well, in true Schroeder/Lauck tradition, there was booze there. My dad and I brought our own bottles of booze and began making drinks. So probably for the first hour, I tagged along with my dad and introduced myself to some members of the family. After that, I had liquid courage and I was all around the room giving out numbers and e-mail addresses. I found out that I have a bunch of cousins around my age living in Chicago, Detriot, St Louis, Cincinnati. All places that I want to go visit and sight see at. I found out that I have a cousin who is looking for an apartment right near me so I gave her mom Chris' business card. I guess that's what happen when your grandma has 8 brothers and sisters. You have too many family members to count. It was a good feeling. And I was pretty smashed by the end. Yay family!

On Sunday, I went to brunch with my dad and his cousin, Tom at Rick's Boatyard. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it. We sat out on the patio overlooking the lake and Eagle Creek Park. It was gorgeous. Our food was delicious and I was happy to be able to treat my dad to a nice meal. That night, Chris made pork tenderloin and his yummy potatoes. So I really think I gave my dad a pretty awesome Father's Day weekend. And I was able to check a few things off my list. :-)

Spice Girls!

Normally I have a love/hate relationship with my favorite radio station here in Indy. I love their morning show so its always on in my car so I can enjoy my drive into work. However, in the afternoon, its Ryan Seacreast who annoys the crap out of me. He's like a chick! Anyway, so a lot of times I just drive home in silence. Work can be loud and sometimes its nice just to have the windows down and listen to the sounds of the highway. Well yesterday, I decided to try some other stations to see if maybe there was one that I could deal with in the afternoons. The fourth station I found was playing none other than Spice Girls. What was even more disturbing was that I remembered every single word to the song and almost remembered some of the dance moves to the routines we had as teenagers for this song.




Then I found out that a girl I work with LOVED the Spice Girls and even still has her copy of the movie. I never saw the movie so she is, thankfully, bringing it in so I can borrow it. Now should I make Chris watch it with me or leave him alone??

Fishy Fishy Fishy!

This weekend, Chris and his friend, Sormalis, decided to go check out Eagle Creek Park and see what they had for fishing. It was supposed to rain, but isn't that the best time to go fishing. They ended up having a beautiful day and fished for about 6 hours! Here is the catfish that Chris caught. He thinks it was about 3lbs. Pretty cool! I'm just happy that everyone else seems to be on the same page about being outside this summer!

My Pal, Walter

So this morning, I get up as usual to get ready for work and I take Hank out on my usual walk. Hank is a very private potty guy. Our building is sort of nestled in this woods area and he likes to go into the woods to the bathroom. I have no problem with this b/c it means I don't have to pick up his crap. However, there are a lot of distractions in the woods; birds, squirrels, raccoons, bums, beers botttles, trash, bugs, etc.

This morning, Hank peed and then I could hear this purring kind of sound. Whatever it was kept purring and then squeaking. At first I thought it was a squirrel. You would be surprised to learn how much they will tease a dog once they are safely up in a tree. But it didn't really sound like a squirrel. So I looked around and that is when I spotted my new friend.

Its a baby raccoon, if you can't see! I tried to get as close as I could, but raccoons are vicious animals so I didn't want to risk it especially with Hank right there. I know that in the tree right outside our patio, there is a family of raccoons. Four babies and the momma. Chris and I like to sit out on the patio a lot at night and just enough the weather. We've witnessed this family coming out for the evening. Its pretty cute watching the babies. But I did see them earlier this week out in front of our complex so I thought maybe they had moved. I hope the baby wasn't lost from his momma. That would make me pretty sad even though he will just grow up to be a pain in my butt.

PS Go Blackhawks!

Indy 500 2010

Well, we have had two very busy weeks. It started with my parents coming in town in time to go to Pole Day at the track. On Sunday, we went to the Indians game. It was pretty hot and the Indians lost in the last inning, but we still had fun.



For Mother's Day, I bought my mom a spot in the Wine and Canvass class that I believe I have mentioned in another blog. We had a really nice time painting together. Although, we came home to two very drunk men!

One night, Chris made his famous burgers. We usually make these with ground turkey, however, my dad, the health nut, made a huge deal so we got ground beef. These burgers have feta cheese, spinach, and artichoke hearts on them. So yummy! And Chris also, very successfully, grilled corned on the cob in foil.

Race weekend rolled around and we headed to the parade. Butler's mens basketball team were the Grand Marshalls. They got a big reaction when they came by. Everyone was on their feet cheering. I tried to get everyone to drink every time we saw a Butler t-shirt, but no one wanted to play. :-( Sad day!

I had been harrassing the 500 Festival parade people for months about whether or not Roy Hibbert would be there again. His name was no where to be found in the line up, but as the parade rolled by, here he came. Our group of course went nuts and yelled Hoya Saxa a lot! He handed his foam finger to my sister Kat. That was really cool.

Here's the family after the parade. There are a lot of race pictures, but nothing really too interesting. Mostly the same old pics of cars going around the track. :-) On Monday, we had an impromptu cookout with some friends and family and finally on Tuesday, everyone left. Phew!! Now it's almost 10pm and I don't think I can keep my eyes open any longer. Good night folks!

Poor Hank

Well, I had to take Hank to vet again. :-( Poor guy. He seems to have a very sensitivie stomach. We have cut out pretty much everything out of his diet besides way over priced dog food and ice cubes. Alas, we saw some problems on Sunday night. So yesterday morning we spent two hours at the vet trying to figure out what the problem is. They did some testing, but found no parasites. We're trying a couple different medications to see if that works and if not, then we will do more intensive testing and see where that leaves us. He doesn't appear to be in pain or letting this affect his personality at all. He's just as crazy and happy as ever.

On a brighter note, my parents are here visiting. Kat and Jeff arrive on Thursday along with most of the gang. This is my favorite time of year. We will all be attending Carb Day on Friday to see the Indy Lights race and to hear ZZ Top. Then Saturday is the parade and Sunday is the race!! I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures to post!

Weekend

So this weekend, I was able to cross several things off my list and that made me really happy. Thursday evening, Amanda and her beau, Jim, came over for dinner. We also made signs for several friends that were running in the Mini Marathon on Saturday. Saturday morning, Amanda was knocking on my door at 7:30am and off we went! We didn't really have a plan which was quite liberating for me. I'm usually very uneasy when there isn't a plan in place. However, we knew we had plenty of time. We found a spot to stand about 1/4 of a mile away from the finish line. It was so inspiring to see all the different people finish this 13.1 mile race.

So I'm not sure if you are aware, but it is very difficult to look for one person in a race that has 35,000 participants. I kept looking and looking for my friend, Ally. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take her to do this race. I kept getting this feeling that I had missed her. Then I reached into my sweatshirt pocket (PS it was below 50 degrees with 30mph winds). I felt keys in there. I thought that's weird and I pulled them out. They were Chris' keys. Whoops! And he needed them for work in less than an hour. I immediately got on my phone to call him and guess who runs by and sees me? Ally! So I thrusted up the poster as she ran by. She says that she saw it, but I wish I had been paying more attention. Here's the sign I made her:

All and all, she did great finishing the race. We tried to wait for Amanda's friend, but after 4 hours of standing in 30mph winds, we were freezing. We left and missed Jaime by 30 minutes. Boo. But we are so proud of her! She definitely "trained not to suck at life!"

Saturday night, Chris and I used one of my Groupons to go see the play None of the Above at the Theatre on the Square. I had no idea how small the theatre was! I knew it only sat 60 people, but they have three rows of tables and then the stage is literally right there. Its very intimate. I loved the play.

Sunday, Tim came over to grill out with us. We finally used the grill! We had a couple beers, grilled some burgers and potatoes and then the boys went to go play disc golf. Here is a picture of what heaven looks like! :-)