The Fritsch Weekend Update

We put many miles on the car this past weekend, playing the part of college graduate nomads with our wonderful blow up mattress in tow.  It started out with me driving to Hoffman Estates on Friday, where we left my car in the parking lot at Ben's work and made our way down to the Sandwich Fair, in Sandwich, IL.  Now, Ben's family is a big deal down in Sandwich, as is evident by their permanent spot at the "Fritsch Oasis", and I have been told that the Fritsch name definitely holds some weight when it comes to fair judging.  So, this year, while I still had the shine on my new last name, I decided to enter the fair!  I entered the digital photography competition, submitting 12 photos in various categories.

That's right, the Fritsch Oasis AND conversation station!  Keeping you company and keeping you cool

And, wouldn't you know, I came home with a ribbon!  It might not have been a pretty blue first place, but a ribbon is a ribbon, second place or not, and I am happy to say it also came with $5 monetary award (ice cream is on me!).  Needless to say, my first fair entering experience was a success.  What made it even sweeter was that the picture that won me the ribbon was one that I took on the day that Ben and I got engaged... ah...

This is the face of a winner

We spent the night at Ben's grandpa, asleep on our amazing blow up mattress in the living room next to cousins and aunts.  It was a fun night, complete with nachos, warm brownies and a repeat showing of the Lego Movie.  It was good to spend time with the cousins, especially since some will soon be moving away to Kansas (super sad face...)

In the morning, after visiting the fair again (It is the second largest state fair in Illinois. Mad Respect!), we headed out to Notre Dame.  Our Fighting Irish had a night game against the always hated Michigan Wolverines.  We arrived there in time to grab some food and beers at a tailgate and then head into the stadium for the season's first night game.

Go Irish! Beat Wolverines!  Suck it Wolverines!

While the first drive or so may not have been the prettiest (I think we used all 3 first half timeouts within the first 5 minutes), we soon pulled away.  The rest of the game was spent, I am incredibly happy to report, kicking some Wolverine ass.  I am still a little confused about the last play of the game, but I don't feel too bad about that because 1.) Everyone is still a little confused about what happened there and 2.) We OWNED Michigan.  31-0.  As is shut out.  As in, GO IRISH!

Please ignore the strange clasping of my hands.  I was mid-clap for this panoramic

Anyways, we spent the night at the house of my roommate from college, once again blowing up our beloved air mattress (don't hate, I love our air mattress), took her to breakfast in the morning and drove straight home to Rockford.  And it wasn't until we were pulling into the driveway of our apartment, that we remembered that I had parked my car in the parking lot of Ben's work.  In Hoffman Estates.  Which we had passed on the way home an hour ago. Sigh...

All in all, besides the 2 hours of backtracking needed to go pick up JoJo the Jetta, a good weekend full of books on tape, tailgating food and winners.

Your Fritsch Weekend Update was brought to you by Cameron's Jamica Me Crazy coffee.  Because every Monday morning of mine is most likely brought to you only through the use of hot coffee.

The $1143.75 Knife

Against my better judgement, I recently went ahead and renewed my subscription for Bon Appetit.  And, because I have the will power of a 7 year old with an empty bag let loose in a Sweet Factory, when they asked if I wanted to subscribe for two years, for only 88 cents per issue, I actually said yes.  Since most people probably don't understand why this was such a bad life decision on my part, I am here to explain to you the pitfalls of Bon Appetit.

Whenever a new magazine arrives in the mailbox, it sits on my bedside table, where I read it page by page over the next days in the few minutes before the lights shut off before bedtime.  And there I was, just a few nights ago, new magazine propped up on my knees, leafing through slowly when I came across the following page:

So many knives...

Seems inconspicuous enough, right? Seven pretty knives, one would assume sharp and effective to cut your steak, stab your potatoes or pick your nails, or any of the other mundane activities that one might perform with a small handheld knife.  All of this is straight-forward, nothing to get your panties in a bunch.  But, let's zoom in a second here:

This was about the moment when my jaw dropped to the floor

That's right.  That 2nd pretty knife on the left there?  It is just north of $9000 for a set of 8.  Yes, my friends, that would be a steak knife that costs (drum roll please....) $1143.75.  A knife.  I think that all my wedding china TOGETHER didn't cost $1143.75.  And this is just one knife.  A set of 8 is going to set you back $9150 (plus tax, of course).  And Bon Appetit knows this!  And is apparently ok with this...

Um... those are my options?  Steak knives vs. a used car?  Cause used car wins, EVERY TIME

In the midst of my outraged rant that you could feed a thousand elementary school kids for a week as opposed to buying 8 $1000+ knives, Ben just shrugged and said "That's not their audience.  Their audience is opulence".

Anyways, this is why I worry about my life decisions.  When I, in full knowledge of this insane standard and rational (cause sterling silver trim is so worth it) of the Bon Appetit editors, make the conscientious decision to renew my Bon Appetit subscription for not only 1 year, but two.  Because that was the cheapest per magazine option.  I think there might be some irony there.  In conclusion, I don't know if I'm more ashamed of myself or of Bon Appetit.  Or maybe it's just the shame of my $4 steak knives.

Any one else make any poor, first-world, life decisions lately?

A Letter to Myself, 6 Months from Today

Dear Future Liz -

I know right about now you are probably cursing the frigid wind as you are attempting to scrap the ice off of your car in the work parking lot before your hands completely freeze through and lose all feeling. You are probably angry at your husband for deciding to go to school somewhere where it is normal for 3 feet of snow to fall in one night and where it is known to be so cold that they have to create words like "polar vortex" in order to describe the subzero temperature, instead of, you know, Texas.  You are afraid that this cruel practical joke will last forever, that your friend the sun, who you knew so well while growing up in Arizona, has decided that this long distance relationship just can't work and has finally left you for good.  Or you would think that, if you brain was not a frozen tundra at this moment in (future) time.

What you need to know is that winter is only a season. Even if it seems like this frozen hell is never going to end, it will. Granted, it may last till April or May. But it will eventually end. Eventually. And it's going to be beautiful when it does. 

I need to remember this.  When it is early February and I hate everything, I need to remember that the sun exists, that summer exists and that beauty still exists.  And when I do inevitably forget this golden nugget of knowledge, it looks like this:

Runs through shady paths

Bike rides with the hubby

Picnics on a blanket with goat cheese and fresh bread

And, of course, trips to New Glarus, complete with wonderful views and fabulous beer

To summer, long may you reign!  (I am totally reading way too much Game of Thrones...)

Gracias, Danke and Thank you

Friday marks the 5th brilliant month that I have been married to my lovely fool of a husband.  More importantly, it also marks the dreaded "1 month left!" date of how long we can officially wait to finish the thank you cards from the wedding before decades of etiquette labels us as ungrateful heathens.

I used to love these cards.  Now, they just kind of annoy me.

After dinner on Monday night, I put my head down and powered through.  I had 11 left to write and I was not getting up from the kitchen table until I had accomplished all of them, until the last name was crossed of the list.  And I did, all 11 complete, addressed and stamped.  And despite the hand cramp and ink smudges on my left hand (the bane of all lefties everywhere), victory had never tasted so sweet.  While Ben still has to finish up his (it must be said, smaller) half of the thank you card list and while I will probably guilt myself into helping him, I am still considering myself 100% over and done with the task of writing "thank you", "appreciate" and "wedding" in the same sentence, while trying to change up wording.  

We did have a wide variety of things to be thankful for.  A few favorites include, but are obviously not limited to:

Rachel Ray's infamous Lasagna Lugger:

Lasagna not included

This beautiful wine rack (and the same wine glasses pictured!)

Wine, very sadly, not included, but was soon acquired.  

And the juicer to end all juicers:

It doesn't get more impressive, or shiny, than this

All joking aside, we are incredibly thankful for both the generous gifts and (more importantly) the number of friends and family who traveled great lengths to come share our day with us.  We had quite the party going to help us celebrate becoming a "Mr. & Mrs" and we will always be eternally grateful for the time, money and travel headaches people endured for us.  It was an amazing day, made all the better by being able to share it with those we love the most.

Happy Hump Day Kids!

If this isn't dirty, I don't know what is...

This weekend, Ben and I spent some good quality time rolling around in about 1.6 million pounds of grade-A quality Wisconsin mud.  Now, before you go there, we participated in the Warrior Dash up in Johnson Creek, WI.  It was an exhausting mess of a run.  It was 3.3 miles, with several good climbing obstacles, gallons upon gallons of mud and even a small line of fire we were required to jump over.  It was fun, although at the time, you couldn't have paid me to do it again.  Look how happy we were when we were clean!

Before the mud bath

Admittedly, I was just as happy after the run, but that was largely due to the fact that I had a "free" beer in my hand (those of you who pay these race entry fees understand the meaning of "free") and the wisdom of knowing that my future was relatively free of giant, slimy mounds of mud that needed to be scaled.

The scary aftermath

By the end of it, after splashing down into a muddy pound and then floating our way across another length of mud, under some barbed wire of course, it was safe to say that there was mud in places that mud had never been before.  Including, but absolutely not limited to the nostril, my ears and a healthy handful that settled into my sports bra.  I easily walked away from there 3 pounds heavier, and it was all dirt.  Or mud.  Or clay.

The hardest part for me was hands down the so called mud mounds.  So picture this:

via: https://www.warriordash.com/obstacles/

except, those pits are filled with brown water up to your thighs and the mounds aren't dirt, but straight slick clay.  I basically was a beached whale trying to claw my way over (you know, should whales have hands and claws).  Not only was it an intense work out, it was also definitely a lesson in learning to rely on your fellow members of the human race (and not caring that there was some random dude's hand on your butt shoving you up and over the 7 foot mud hill). Because, when it comes to surviving the warrior dash, we are all one, unified, dirty brown mass.

Ben said that next up is the Tough Mudder, I said that I needed more beer.

Hope your weekends were just as fun, not as dirty and preferably with no mud in places that mud should not be.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Math

Last week I was lucky enough to escape the every day droning of work and spend my time rather with a bunch of young girls, hoping to get them excited about STEM topics and conducting various engineering focused workshops (STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).  It was a camp that was put on, almost entirely, by GE, at no cost to the girls or their families.  The content was developed by GE employees (including yours truly!) and mostly revolved in one way or another around technology or engineering.  We also had what I consider to be one of the coolest logos ever.

This is absolutely the winkled back side of my GE Girls shirt...

My week was awesome, getting to hang out with young ladies (rising 6th graders through rising 9th graders) and essentially celebrate being a nerd.  We talked about density and buoyancy, then made boats and sent them floating on the reflecting pool in front of the library.  We talked about chemical reactions, then made Alka Seltzer rockets and had a contest to see whose went the highest.  We coded and made some Lego Mindstorm robots dance.  We talked about circuits, switches and electrons, and then made our own working version of a dance pad (Dance Dance Revolution Style).  We made silly putty, ice cream and several batches of lip gloss.

And came up with some fabulous names for our lip gloss

On top of all of this, I got to spend the week hanging out on campus.  I jump upon any chance that gets me back to Notre Dame, especially  in the summer time, a rare season that I did not spend under the shadow of the Golden Dome.  Arguably, one of the best season to be on campus.  Hiding out in the new, shining engineering building during the day and running the lakes in the afternoon was how I would like to pretend how I spent my undergrad years, but it would be a lie.  I ran maybe once every 2 weeks outside (it was South Bend, and I do not run outside once the temperature falls below 40 degrees) and my time was usually spent in the rickety old engineering building, which will always be near and dear to my heart (students these days, I tell you, are spoiled).  But that is exactly how I got to spend last week and it was perfect.

In case you are wondering, yes, I desperately am trying to relive my college days.

Anyways, I just wanted to write and tell you about the good week I had last week and maybe even admit to the revelation I also had, that went something like this: I am very lucky to work for a company that values things like STEM outreach in girls.  So much so that they put on this camp, that besides some good PR, doesn't really benefit them all to much.  These aren't college students we're trying to recruit to join our ranks, these are young ladies that aren't even sure if college is for them.  And we're doing everything in our power to show them that it absolutely is.

Check my instagram feed for some more fun pictures and videos of the week.  Or you  know, #GEGirlsND.

San Antonio Fourth of July

While our friends jet-set off to fantastic places like Iceland and Brazil for much more exciting vacations, Ben and I (sans honeymoon) generally save our travel budget for various plane tickets to visit family that is spread all across the South and the West.  This last, long, very hot weekend, was spent in San Antonio, visiting Ben's sister, her husband and their two boys.

Handsome Husband, Adorable Baby

It was a quick visit (I am basically OUT of vacation days, again see Honeymoon), spent mostly drinking water to stay hydrated and finding shady spots to avoid the sun.  In hindsight, visiting the middle of Texas in the middle of summer wasn't our wisest decision ever, but we still managed to have a good time.

Car Seat Photo Montage

Tongues Out!

And, finally, kisses!

We were not the model San Antonio tourists, forgetting the Alamo and other must see sites, requiring a return visit soon.  But we did manage to fit in a decently full day at Sea World, watching the dolphins feed and spending time in the air condition world of the penguins.  We went to see Shamu, of course, and I have to say that I walked away from the show pretty disappointed.  You get their early and sit through what basically amounted to a series of commercials claiming all the good that Sea World does and even one requesting that everyone with a smart phone text some number with the word "world' to donate $5 to their efforts for conserving the oceans.  You know, after you already paid $17 dollars to park and $9 on a soda.  And then the killer whales finally come out, to the soundtrack of some terrible, trying to be inspirational but failing, music.  They do some great tricks, splash quite a bit with their tails and swim around the arena, momma whale with the baby calf in tow.  That part was admittedly fun; however, what I am disappointed in is the trainers and the actual show itself.  Don't they talk about the whales anymore?  What their names are and how their personalities differ?  How they are trained and what they spend their days doing when they aren't in the show?

No idea what this whale's name is... but I wanted to know!

I feel like Sea World really needs to take a look into the quality of their shows.  Teach the kids something!  You have a captive audience, use it for good, not for guilting parents into donating money to some random charity.  Alright, sorry, rant over.  Here's a picture of the world's most smiley baby looking too cute at Sea World:

You are welcome.

Overall, we had a great weekend and got to spend some great time with our adorable nephews, enjoy some of the local cuisine (aka margaritas and other tequila cocktails) and even found some cochitos, which is always a happy win in my book.  We plan to head back soon, when the weather is colder here and we are yearning for a little bit of sunshine and a couple of bottles of Dos Equis.