Convergence 2010 in Atlanta

So we lost, but it was close 10-9 I believe - no thanks to me. I went 0 for 4 at bats, I had no good plays in the outfield and my only shot at something good was the RBI, thank goodness my husband can run really, really fast. By the way, he played very well.

So lets talk about my trip to Atlanta, shall we. Most of the trip was spent at the convention center sitting in on sessions about CRM & SharePoint. The center was huge but the event was well staffed with happy people willing to answer questions and guide you to wherever you needed to go. Southern hospitality was all around. The weather was chillier than to be expected but the skies were beautiful.


The center is located right across from Philips Arena. We didn't have a chance for a tour, but it was pretty cool to walk by it every day.

The theme behind the conference is displayed by this photos here, "Today, Tomorrow, Together."


The Sunday morning session started with a lots of energy, why wouldn't you be excited for today, tomorrow and together?


Microsoft even brought in Sean Payton from the Super Bowl Champions, the New Orleans Saints to open up the day.

Along with attending many great sessions about CRM & SharePoint, there were lots of exhibits to walk through, some of which even gave away some shwag or flair. My boss filled himself up!

Our hotel wasn't too far away. However, we were greatful for the shuttle service. Outside of our hotel most of the weekend you could find this little beauty. A Tesla, you can see it plugged into a power cord here:


After seeing our room keys, we should have known that the entire city was going to be decked out with Microsoft branding:

Along with all the sessions, we did get to spend sometime sight seeing and networking with one of our vendors. I have lots of photos from the World's largest Aquarium and Coca-Cola world coming tomorrow!

Softball Game 2

Sorry for the delay in updates from Convergence 2010. I haven't even been home for 24 hours yet and I am exhausted with so much catching up to do at work and at home. Did I mention today is our 2nd co-ed softball game of the 2010 season. I am hoping that I will have a win to talk about tomorrow and some recaps of my trip to Atlanta.


Photo Found here

In the meantime, wish us luck - we totally need it.

My babies!

While I am away in Atlanta for work, I figured I would be missing my babies. So here's just some random photos of 2 very important people in my life!

This one is from Minne's first parade! What a proud pappa!


I took Minne to watch the hubs run his first 5K race. It was cold and she was exhausted, but she wouldn't want to miss any time with her pops.


Getting ready to ring in the new year 2009 style


While away from these 2 I usually miss their personalities a lot. I mean how could you not miss this, right?

But what I usually miss the most is just relaxing with these 2.


As great as this conference is, there's still nothing like coming home to these two. I cannot wait to get home tomorrow!

XOXO

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Although I am miles away, I cna't help but think about my smart, beautiful & funny mother on her Birthday!



Love you mommy, xoxo

Atlanta Here I come

Today I leave for Convergence 2010. I am totally geeked! I should be exposed to a lot of awesome Microsoft tools and resources and some interesting people down in Atlanta. My flight is taking off in just a little bit. A-T-L here I come!

We Lost BUT

Yup, last night was our first softball game and we lost. We put up a great fight at the beginning but it went down hill from there. In my defense? Well I played one of the best games of softball in my life. I got on base twice, because well I earned it. I didn't get walked by mistake and I really hit the ball. I was pumped.

I also was forced to play in positions that I am not very comfortable at, but I didn't play too bad. In fact, with my first time at second I almost bobbled a fly ball but I didn't, I made the catch (yup I made my first out actually happen - woot woot). If I can say so myself, I actually did a pretty decent job in the outfield as well. I didn't catch any fly balls, but I did a lot better in the grounding than I have in previous years. So yes, we lost but I feel like as an individual player I am finally (after 3 years) starting to contribute to my team. Now that is a good feeling.

**ADDITIONAL COMMENTS**

I went to bed dreaming about my next up at bat and I woke up feeling great. I new today was going to be a good day. I met my mom for coffee to start off her Birthday celebrations and guess what? When I went to leave I had realized I locked my keys in the car. Ooopps. Thankfully, the hubs is amazing and he jumped in his car and headed our way to let me in.
Let's hope I don't bring my bad luck to work. We have a huge Bulls game tonight at the United Center and the Blackhawks have a huge game away. Lets Go Bulls! Lets Go Hawks.

Softball Game 1

Tonight is our first softball game of the 2010 season. The Fill'em Up Phillies are ready to get back out their and try to win (despite the past 2 or 3 losing season - I might have lost count). Anyway it's a very late 9:30pm game with the weather predicted to be cold. We're not going to let that stop us.



Wish us luck!

Pie Party

The hubs recently took a new job and we are so excited for him. Depending who you ask, he seems to have a pretty sweet job. That's right he is working in a sweet goods department which means it is time for us to do some "sweets" research, to help him get acquainted with his new product. About a week ago, he suggested throwing a little get together to encourage other people to try the products, that way he could do little samples and check out packaging without leaving a house full of deserts for just the 2 of us.

So if the hubs can dream it, I try to make it happen. We started with an invite:


Followed it up with a pretty hefty grocery trip and we ended up with this:


And this:

And about 4 more pies and cakes that came out after we had all of this set up. It was a great night of yummies and research. As an overall take away, the hubs learned alot about the product (taste & packaging & easiness to prepare). Our guests all left with full bellies but before they went they shared a little bit on their favorite items.

The pound cake, a great basic for breakfast or a starting piece for a strawberry shortcake. The perfect amount of flavor to take it along ways.
Picture found here

The strawberry cheese cake bites were a huge hit with everyone. They were easy to piece on and super yummy.
Photo Found Here

The apple pie was another big hit. The crumbling goodness was delish and everyone in attendance wanted a bite of it. Check it out here

Last, but certainly not least was the delish breakfast sweets. The Pecan coffee cake & the cinnamon rolls came right out of the microwave in only a few short minutes smelling like something we had been baking for hours. They were so soft and delicious, everyone wanted a piece of it. Pic from here

The rolls were the hubs best man's favorite, quick someone tell his wifey: Photo from here

Overall, huge success. Thanks everyone who came out to support the hubs and his new job!

I Love Surprises!

It's true, I love surprises. Especially when you come home from work and you aren't expecting them. Or how about when they come in bags that look like this


When the hubs told me I could open it I am sure my face had a huge smile with excitement and nervousness all at the same time. But I opened it up to find 2 of the best items that Victoria Secret now sells. Are you ready for it? Well the Pink line now includes the MLB line. The hubs saw it when he was browsing the MLB store site and thought of me. I am just grateful he bought me something Chicago related yet alone something so cute and for no reason, other than he likes loves me....alot!



Thanks baber, this will be much appreciated when we go to the Cubs vs Phillies series xo xo

MLS Fire Game? En Fuego!!!

Now that our Final Four recaps are done we can go over some other fun things the hubs and I have been up to.

Recently, he had a buddy in town with his girlfriend. It was great to catch up. We played some bags and enjoyed this nice spring weather. A few days before they arrived, I got offered some Chicago Fire tickets, for their home opener. Neither the hubs nor I are huge fans but free tickets to any sporting event has to be cool, right? We found out later that the hubs friend had "attending an MLS game" on his bucket list, so that is one checked off in 2010!

We arrived at Toyota Park and were a little astonished about everything! People looked like they had been tailgating for hours, and some people might have only been there for the tailgating because they didn't look like they were going into the game. The park had set up beer gardens and corn hole games and everyone there was in great moods and pumped about being part of this event.

We made our way to our seats and were astonished! There didn't seem to be a bad seat in the house and our tickets were amazing! We enjoyed some of the pre-game festivities and anxiously waited for our first Fire game to begin.




Once the game started, we were quickly introduced to the "Section 8" group. They are the Fire's amazing fans that chant and sing and cheer the ENTIRE game. They are insane. We didn't grab any photos but here's some I collected via the web:

Found Here

Found here

The atmosphere at the Fire game was very relaxed, fun but still passionate. You can see just from the few photos above and below that no one is in suits, the game is about the game. In fact, during half time, instead of paying for entertainment, they bring out little kiddo-s and let them play soccer games in front of everyone? Cool right.

Soccer doesn't have cheerleaders, or an ice crew but they do have the Fire Girls. The hubs and his buddy were very interested :)



The Fire ended up losing (seems to be a trend for teams I follow lately). However, the team played hard, did some cool tricks and some awesome head butting. I would for sure go back to a Fire game for the atmosphere, the special effects, Section 8 watching and just for the game itself. Awesome!

Final Four, Butler vs State

Looking back at Saturday of the Final Four is a little bit of a blur. Everything happened so fast and there was so much excitement, it was so hard to keep it straight. Here goes my best attempt (and I am sure the hubs will correct me if I am wrong).

We woke up and got ready for the day, but we had to make an unexpected pit stop to Keystone Mall so that we could swing by Banana Republic to pick the hubs up a new belt (while getting ready he realized he forgot this men's essential). We grabbed some lunch with our girl JD and we made our way down town Indy. Once we arrived we decided to meet some of my BU college friends/sorority sisters and their men at Cadillac Ranch. Here we watched and boo-d the State fans who tried to ride the mechanical bull. We also consumed quite a bit of beverages. Overall, it was just great to celebrate being a proud alum with other alum. Recognize anyone you may know? Check it out:


After quite a bit of fun here, we worked our way over to Lucas Oil. Remember when I said that place was a beast? Well it is. Our seats were in the 600 level! But we had a great view of the entire place:

Overall, the fan experience was ehhh-ok. There were people from the 2nd game (Duke vs West Virginia) walking up and down the aisle the entire time with no ushers to be found. However, we did have some State fans walk by wearing these lovely State snuggies, is it bad i secretly want to make a Butler Bulldog snuggie now?

The game was intense. My nerves were all over the place and my battery was drained. This was probably a good thing because I don't think that I could handle the pressure of everyone elses nerves via text or facebook updates. As the final seconds approached and Butler won, we were able to snag some decent photos:

After the game ended, there was so much joy in Lucas Oil for every Butler and Indianapolis fan. Beating State was a huge game and even most State fans were wishing congrats to the dawgs (man I love the midwest). The hubs and I decided to celebrate with the rest of Indianapolis, so we made our way for the elevators down to the first level (remember I said we were on the 600 level!). All of a sudden we saw a rush of State fans selling their championship game tickets at the fan exchange booth. The lines was ridiculous so it looked like people were taking their own liberties to sell them on their own. Check out the chaos:


As we got outside, the roads were insane. Everyone wearing Butler attire was giving high fives, handshakes and I think there were even some fist pumps, no joke. We ran into the hubs old roommates from the Indians and then made our way to a few different bars before we ended at Rock Bottom to meet up with another girlfriend from college and her man.

We had some more friends who said they were either in Boradripple or headed that way so we figured we should jump on the B-ripple bandwagon. It's not every weekend I get to see so many friends so we had to capitalize on it. We met up with JD & her brother and headed to her car but first a quick stop at Victory Field, home of the Indianapolis Indians. This spot is huge for us because it is where me and the hubs met and it's where our friendship with JD began. If only we had taken some better more errrr serious photos?


We loaded in JDs car and headed north. As we were sitting in the traffic the hubs looks at me and says hey look is Clark Kellogg. After that awesome Butler win, I had to ask him what his thoughts were for the next game but my words got jumbled. I think I ended with something like this "Hey Clark, now that Butler took out State, will you be routin' for them" (yup I said routin, sometimes I pick up a little slang while I am in Indy, it drive my sisters crazy).

Clark looked at me with pointed fingers and said "Young Lady - pause - I can't cheer I can only cover the games." The next morning my husband was still talking about how I yelled at Clark Kellog, I feel a little bad looking back at it. I probably looked/acted like a fool, but when else would it be ok to yell like that?

Whenw e arrived in Boradripple the hubs was a little confused. Many new bars had moved in and some old ones out. One of hsi favorite little cantinas was now closed. Sorry pacos

At this point we realized our friends had bailed. It's hard to really blame them, those sort of festivities are a lot for a person to handle. And lets be honest, not everyone has the super strength of my husband. So instead of calling it quits we made one last stop, at Landsharks. The hubs ended up running into an old hs friend. Say hi

After that, we were ready to go but we realized we hadn't eaten in quite some time. There was no line at the Hot Box Pizza so we figured it was a great time to put in an order as we waited for our ride home. Here we ran into one of my younger DG sisters who now is on a local Indy morning radio show. Meet Hot Box & Monica of Radio Now


We headed home and crashed because the next day was Easter Sunday. We spent most of that Sunday playing with my Indy family kiddo-s and spending time with my Indy mom. We then headed to the hubs family's house and had an amazing Easter Dinner put on my his mom and his sister. It was a great way to finish up an amazing weekend and a great way to prep for an awesome championship game, Duke vs Butler.

Unfortunately, here's where our photos started to go bizerk again. We don't have many photos from the Championship game but we did get a few.

Since we were on the 600 level, the screens were a good shot for some of the player intros.

At halftime they did a special for some of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame that was presented during the Final Four. What was really cool about it? Well being from Chicago and working for the United Center, seeing Scottie Pipen was awesome. You can meet the entire class by clicking here or checking out this photo:


Some of the game


Despite the loss to Duke, I still don't feel like there was any real loser. Butler held their own against a very strong team and they ventured grounds they had never seen before. The overall experience was amazing and I am so glad that the hubs was so encouraging. It was great to experience something so cool with someone I love so much (even if he isn't a Butler Alumn).