Single Ladies Get Down on One Knee

In case you're interested, here's what I was reading today about Leap Year.
Interesting yet, virtually irrelevant truths or untruths.


The Gregorian calendar, which now serves as the standard calendar for civil use throughout the world, has both common years and leap years. A common year has 365 days and a leap year 366 days, with the extra, or intercalary, day designated as February 29. A leap year occurs every four years to help synchronize the calendar year with the solar year, or the length of time it takes the earth to complete its orbit about the sun, which is about 365¼ days.

The length of the solar year, however, is slightly less than 365¼ days—by about 11 minutes. To compensate for this discrepancy, the leap year is omitted three times every four hundred years.

In other words, a century year cannot be a leap year unless it is divisible by 400. Thus 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years.

What are your chances of being born on leap day?
About 1 in 1500.

How many people were born on leap day?
There are about 187,000 people in the US and 4 million people in the world who were born on Leap Day.

The rules for determining a leap year
Most years that can be divided evenly by 4 are leap years.

Exception: Century years are NOT leap years UNLESS they can be evenly divided by 400.

I also read that possibly originating in Ireland or Scotland, Leap Year was the ONLY day that a woman could propose to a man and if he did not accept, he was liable to compensate her with money or goods...

Our Trip to the Ghost Mall

Is it me or should they just CLOSE Randhurst? Dom and I ended up there on Tuesday evening because we purchased our cell phones there and his was acting funny. It wasn't cracking jokes or anything, the SIM card just kept failing. So, his phone was failing him. There are only like 3 good stores in there - - Victoria's Secret, where I rarely shop anyway. I mean, its still a great, pink store, its just too pricey for underwear in my opinion. Then, there is American Eagle, which I don't shop at either since I'm too old, but the teens love it, and then the old standby Carsons, which has shoes and Clinique and the occasional occasion dress.

Massimo was getting hungry, we weren't going to make it home in time to make anything decent, so we headed up to McDonalds - CLOSED??!! Huh? and the only restaurant actually attached to the mall (Applebee's) GONE too!

We almost went for the Chinese, where they shove a sample of some kind of chicken in your face and threaten to stick the toothpick in your eye if you don't take it, but I wanted pizza, as usual, and we went with Sbarro's. We had the whole food court to ourselves.

After taking Massimo for a ride in a disease infested train (which I wiped down twice with a WET ONE) and two minutes in the massage chairs for Dom and me, we finally left the Ghost mall and headed to Costco to shell out some real cash.

Here is my opinion on Randhurst - - rebuild OR knock it down. Its a waste of money and space when there is nobody to shop there, since the stores are all second-rate anyway.

What do you think?!

Good Eats in Wrigleyville

If you're ever in Wrigleyville and have a taste for Asain/Thai, GO TO Penny's Noodle Shop.

It's been almost 10 years since I've lived in the city and one of the things I miss the most is the great food. Not that 'burbs don't have good food, after awhile you just get used to what's around.

Yesterday Massimo & I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Mara & Ella. Neither Mara and I had been there in years, although we had talked about going there. Busy schedules permit very little time for getting together, but we MADE it there on a very cold DAY in February. Thankfully, it was not too busy.

Lucky for us we have kids that hang out, eat well, and enjoy each other's company. After more than an hour of noshing on Japanese Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Satay, and other goodies, we left there warm and full on gooooood food. (although Mara did jump out at a Bakery on Southport to grab us some brownies). It actaully brought back a lot of memories of being in college and hanging out in the one on Diversey too! I don't think I had ever even tried Thai before Penny's.

Anyways, its so great. If you're ever down there, stop by. Try the THAI ICED TEA!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is the perfect opportunity to communicate to those around you how much you truly love them. Cupid shot the arrow at me almost eight years ago and life has never been the same. You just "know" when its meant to be and it's ironic how somtimes unfavorable circumstances in your life cause you to detour, lead you down an unknown path and smack dab in to the "right" person. Rather than get all sappy in a blog, click here for a history of Valentine's Day!

PS I hope my boys liked their heart-shaped pancakes, even though they were
multi-grain and ughhh....healthy!!! They were made with love.

OLIVE OIL TIP

I have a slight crush on Dr. Oz. Every word he says is like the gospel to me. Hey, its okay my husband likes Fergie, Jessica Alba, AND Jessica Biel. Appearing on Oprah, yes, the Oprah I always claim to dislike, but mention all the time, he was doing chin-up and he's got himself some really nice biceps, mmhmmm, he really does.

Alright, he's talking about adding years to your life. Antioxidants, Green Tea, and OLIVE OIL....everyday.

Here is the interesting part: he said that when we heat the olive oil in the pan BEFORE we place the food in the pan, we are burning off the Heart Healthy Omega 3's contained in the olive oil which is the main reason we are consuming the olive oil in the first place.



The key is to MIX the food in the olive oil and THEN put it in the pan. The food absorbs the olive oil more efficiently and we get the Omega 3's!!!

He is a genius!!!!!!!! Don't you agree?? Anyhow, if you don't watch Oprah, I bet you've never heard it and I bet you're going to start doing it the way DR. OZ says you should.

Missing Mould

Here is a copy of an e-mail I received from WXRT Promotions last week:

Hey Erin,

Congratulations! You've won a pair of tickets to see a very intimate
performance from Bob Mould live from Studio X at Martyrs' on Tuesday, February
5th! Martyrs' is located at 3855 N. Lincoln Ave in Chicago. Doors open at
5:30pm and the show begins at 6:30pm.

Mara and I (who have seen him before) were so excited. If you don't know who he is, he founded an 80's punk band called Husker Du, and in the early 90's he fronted another band called Sugar. He is awesome and I've been a fan since college.

Needless to say, Tuesday morning I was running on very little sleep, caring for a sick baby, who required a trip to the "DAHK-TAH" (Massimo language), and awaiting yet another snowstorm.

I ended up persuading XRT to put Mara's name on the list since she lives RIGHT down the street from the venue. She didn't end up going either. The weather was bad and she'd rather of not gone if I wasn't - - awwwww, I love my friend. She said she was more content to hang out at home with her husband and her baby.

Ten years ago and I would have been so utterly disappointed if I couldn't make a concert, or anything fun, exciting, and adventurous for that matter. Okay, I was completely disappointed I couldn't go. But, ya know..things change, party girls eventually grow up, and babies happen.

I know I'm not missing a thing......

Enjoy the Bob Mould and if you like him, check out his new album at www.myspace.com/bobmould. He is terrific.