Chick-Fil-A!! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Anyone who knows us well, knows that Ben and I LOVE Chick-Fil-A. For those of you who do not know of Chick-Fil-A, then you must check them out at www.chick-fil-a.com. It is a fast-food chain that serves chicken instead of burgers and waffle fries instead of standard french fries. The food is hot and fresh...and they have sweet tea! Yummmmmy!! While Ben grew up with it, I was only introduced in 2000 when I moved to Tennessee for school. The restaurant originated in Atlanta, which is the first one that I've been to! That particular one is called the Hobbit House and is quite cute! The rest of the restaurants are either regular free standing units or placed in a mall or university. One interesting fact we also like about Chick-Fil-A is that they are Christian owned, therefore closed on Sundays. Of course, when we are traveling on a Sunday and see a sign for Chick-Fil-A then we do not like the fact that they are closed! ha!

Now, when we moved to Wheaton, IL we were very disappointed to find out that there are no Chick-Fil-A's in our area. We emailed the chain through their website feedback and they replied that they have no plans to build any in the Chicago area! Bummer! But, for sending them a note, they did send us coupons for free sandwiches that we were able to use when traveling to Tennessee. Nice!

Yesterday (Saturday) Ben and I were sitting in our living room trying to decide our plans for the rest of the afternoon/evening. We knew our engaged friends, Hannah and Eric, were coming over later that night, but we didn't know what we were going to do for dinner. Then, we thought of it! The closest Chick-Fil-A is 77 miles away JUST over the Wisconsin border in Racine, WI! Unfortunately it is a mall one, but still... it's Chick-Fil-A and we were CRAVING it! So we called up Eric and Hannah and told them to come early because we were kidnapping them to take them an hour away to eat fast food! They were totally up for it...especially since Hannah has never had the privilege of tasting Chick-Fil-A and had no clue what it was!

They arrived at 5:30pm and we trekked up. Mapquest said it would take 1 1/2 hours, but it only took an hour. On the way we passed Ben's twin in another car. Eric bravely took a pic of him as we sped up to pass him for the prime opportunity. We then found our exit after passing many acres of farmland, then drove about 7 miles off the interstate to find our gold mine. We ordered the value-sized meals and of course Ben ordered the mint milkshake. I wanted to buy a gallon of their sweet tea but decided that I can just make it at home.

Ben and I decided the hour drive was worth it. We compared it to driving into Chicago in a lot of traffic which would take about an hour. So, if we can do that, then we can drive the easy hour up to Chick-Fil-A once in a while to satisfy our appetites. Anyone want to come along next time? :)

Nesting Season

Geese...they are everywhere. Even in the winters the resident geese remain because they do not know how to migrate south. Since we have a few ponds nearby, we can often hear them without seeing them. The past few weeks two particular adult geese have drawn my fascination, causing me to research a little about them.

The mating season for geese is from February to March. They find a mate for life, but will find another if one dies. Mid-march to mid-May is nesting season. This is where they are right now...in the nesting period. This is the part that drew my attention ---

There is a goose nesting in the parking lot at my local Meijer grocery store. Let me back up and give you a few nesting facts. Typically, a mama goose will find a place near water, near her place of birth...or even the exact place of her birth. The nest usually is on the ground in the open. The sweetest part is that the father goose stations himself nearby, but not too close in order to conceal the nesting location to predators. They stay here for about a month.

I initially noticed the father goose at the grocery store a few weeks ago. At this time I didn't know he was a father goose. He was sitting in the middle of the main drag in front of the store, where cars drive by and yield to pedestrians walking in and out of the store. This goose was literally right in the middle of the road...just sitting there! When cars would drive by (around him of course) he would squawk at them as if they were an enemy. It was really quite interesting. I figured he was just a typical goose there for one day, making cars yield to him as other goose do when they slowly cross streets.

A few days later I was back at Meijer and realized that the goose was still there! So, I took a better look and saw that there were several grocery carts tied together with a rope, forming a type of circular barrier. Orange cones were placed on the outside, one with a sign stating "Beware of the geese." I chuckled, went inside and shopped, then left without any more investigation.

Every time I went to the store for the next two weeks that goose was out in the middle of that parking lot road. I had to share the story with Ben. He told me to bring my camera with me next time and take a picture if the goose was still there. So, I did...and it was still there. This trip was when I realized there was another goose...inside the grocery cart barrier. I took a picture of both geese. Unfortunately, the father goose was not stationed directly in the middle of the road as he usually is, but he was on the side. Then I came home and researched... The goose I saw initially was the father goose stationed nearby the nesting mama goose! How romantic! ha!

I wonder if this is where the mama goose was born. Usually, geese start mating when they are 3 years old. So, was she born here at this Meijer store a little over 3 years ago? Were there carts set up in a circular barrier back then? I would love to know.

TobyMac

This post is way past due. My new amazing friend, Jenn, is completely obsessed (sorry, Jenn, but you know you are) with DC Talk and especially TobyMac. It's totally cool because it's been a while since I've had a friend nearby that is so in love with music and concerts...and just that whole scene. So, when I found out that she wanted to go to a TobyMac concert in Rockford, IL on a Sunday night but wasn't going to go because she didn't want to go by herself, naturally I hopped right on it and told her that I'd go! We bought our tickets and headed to Rockford on a Sunday night. Rockford is about an hour and a half from where I live...so it wasn't too convenient for a Sunday night since work is usually early the next morning. But, I asked for a half day Monday so that I wouldn't have to come in until Noon.

Now, this concert was a few weeks ago but I haven't had the time to post about it...and quite honestly I kind of forgot. We had a good drive on the way there and made it early enough to grab a bite at a local restaurant. We wanted to go somewhere "different" to eat. I saw Cheddar's and Jenn said she's never been there, and since I hadn't been to one since I was a teenager we decided that would be good. Well, it wasn't. ha! At least it was cheap, but we should've eaten at the Old Chicago across the street. lol

It definitely didn't ruin our night though. We found the church (where the concert was) and headed into the auditorium. To our dismay, even though we bought the highest priced tickets (that really weren't very expensive) they still were not the best seats in the house. The front row seats were all taped up as "reserved" for the 'Gold Star members" (whatever that means). So we found the best seats we could and decided to try to sneak our way up later. There were three opening bands and I don't think I can remember their names... I'll try: Building 429, ...ohhh...I guess I really can't remember the other two. But the other two were pretty hard rock...well, Christian hard rock...if that's a real genre. They were all very good.

The 'security guards' there were just teenagers from the church that wore black "SECURITY" shirts. I remember when I worked "security" for a DC Talk concert at Lipscomb and..well..yeah...I was up in the front enjoying the concert with the rest of the ticket holders. You can say I used the volunteer position to get prime seating and back stage access. :) However, this was not the case at this Tobymac concert. These teenagers really took their volunteer position seriously, which made it difficult for me and Jenn to sneak up to the front. Finally, we built up our courage to do it. We found that if we just didn't make eye contact with the "security nazi", then we would be fine. It totally worked. So, while others next to us were getting kicked out of the front and sent back to their seats, Jenn and I succeeded in securing our spots up front!

Toby did a great job. It was fun to bounce around a bit and just enjoy the concert. It had been such a long time since I'd been to a concert, so I was a bit rusty and felt a bit old, but I managed to really enjoy myself. I got a few pics, but my battery was very low and finally died near the end. My videos are better, but I'm not sure how to post them on here. So, I'll leave you with what I can in pics.

Oh...and Jenn bought a sweet sweatshirt!

Where Did the Corncob Come From?

Can someone tell us why there is a corncob sitting outside on our bedroom window sill? Maybe one of the condo maintenance men was eating lunch and decided to leave us the left-overs? Or did a squirrel drag it from the park across the street? Did Brian and Tiana find it for 70% off at Dominicks and think it would be a nice treat for Ben? What if it just grew out of the brick and we'll see more to come? Is it from a Field of Dreams?

What do YOU think?

Why I love Sanjaya

Yes, you read that correctly. I can't get enough of him. In fact, I voted for him, not once, twice, but three times this week! But Ben, what would make you do such a thing? It's simple really: American Idol is a joke. Originally, I was voting for Chris Sligh, but ever since he was kicked off the other night, I have lost all respect. American Idol is just like every other pop show on tv--driven by image. I disagree with Simon when he says "this is a singing competition." Umm, no it's not. It's about short skirts and mohawks. But that is not the half of it. The other half is "vote for the worst," or should I say "vote to bring AI to its knees." The producers of AI have probably realized that their show is losing so much respect it's ridiculous. But it's Fox's fault: they chose Sanjaya. Nobody forced them to put him into the final 24. I think that Sanjaya is the best thing for AI, because it's (hopefully) making them realize that if they are not careful, Sanjaya could win and destroy the entire AI ecosystem. Instead of picking contestants that have attractive images, maybe they should pick them for, hold on a sec, their voices.