So this weekend was pretty big. But I can’t just overlook Friday. Friday J and I went to the Brewers game. The Brewers played the Twins and these tickets were one of the sets of Beer Pen tickets that I bought on in the beginning of the year. The Brewers picked up the victory and we met some nice people in the parking lot tailgating before the game.

This brings us to Saturday. So this was the big day as was previously mentioned. I had this day planned for a couple months but it almost didn’t come together. The day kind of snuck up on me and I booked the hotel and the dinner cruise the week before. It was tough finding a hotel and my original cruise was sold out. But it all turned out in the end. We woke up early and drove to our hotel, the Congress Plaza in Chicago, at about 11. We weren’t able to check in and I had the ring (which I bought online at bluenile.com) in my bag and wasn’t about to let Jose throw it in the corner of some room. So I told Jocelyn that I didn’t want to check my bag because my watch was in there and I didn’t want it to get stolen. She didn’t buy that so I told her that I had to go to the bathroom. She kept on yelling to leave my bag but I just ignored her and kept walking. I got down the corridor a bit and ducked down a hall where I took the ring out and put it in my pocket so I ended up having to walk around with the ring all day in the cargo pocket of my shorts. Once we got our bags dropped off we headed across the street to the Taste of Chicago. The Taste was a good time. It’s a big food festival and they have a “taste portion” at eat food stand which is a sampling of the food of the restaurant. Some of the taste portions were actually a good size and we had plenty to eat. After the taste we walked to Navy Pier and around Chicago a bit. Wired NextFest was going on at Navy Pier and I really really wanted to go. If it was any other weekend I would have probably put up a stink and went but it really wasn’t on my mind this weekend. I did get to peek in the entrance doors and I did have a little “doggy in the window” feeling. After Navy Pier we headed back to the hotel to check in and get ready for the night. We got back and I was getting ready to shower when I realized I grabbed the wrong the shirt. I grabbed my light blue short sleeve one when I wanted my long sleeve one. Then I realized that I had NO PANTS! I had laid out my outfit the night before and hung my pants on the hanger with my long sleeve shirt. So I started to panic a little and off we went to try to find some pants at 4 on Saturday. Luckily we were in Chicago and there was a Carson’s about four blocks down. We got the much need khakis and I was able to relax a bit. So back to the hotel we went. We both got ready and then cabbed it to Navy Pier for our dinner cruise. The cruise I ended up booking was the Odyssey dinner cruise. Since it was a special night I also booked the “special occasion” package where you get a souvenir picture and I got the champagne special where you get two souvenir glasses. So we sat down and had some drinks. We walked around the boat and checked out all the decks. Then we had our dinner. We both ended up ordering the same thing. It started with a tasting appetizer. Our first course was seafood in a puff pastry bowl and our main course was filet mignon with some potatoes and delicious creamed spinach. Our waiter was very nice and part of the special occasion package was a special dessert. I told him that we were there to celebrate Jocelyn’s birthday which was over a month ago but that really was what she thought we were there to celebrate. But never-the-less they brought out a special dessert with candles on it. I have neglected to mention that the weather was sweltering which made for some interesting weather on Lake Michigan. It was very hazy when we left the pier and continued to be very hazy throughout our cruise which actually kind of stunk. You couldn’t see the skyline too well which is a big part of the cruise. Then all of a sudden the haze lifted but it didn’t stay that way for long. It was crystal clear for about thirty minutes. You could see the entire city of Chicago for thirty minutes and then the haze got doubly worse. So after dessert they back the boat up to Navy Pier so you can watch the fireworks but it was so foggy that we could barely see the fireworks. It was kind of cool but there was no way I could give Jocelyn my jacket with the ring in it so she was forced to tough it out. After the sub-par fireworks we headed back to our table. It was kind of strange again because no one really came back into the dinning area until about twenty minutes after the finale, so this was my time to act. I told Jocelyn, ‘are you ready for the real grand finale,’ a funny pun on the fireworks, get it. Then, after that, I proposed. She was quite shocked and surprised and couldn’t stop smiling, it was great. After that we danced to a couple songs and waited for the boat to dock. Once back on land we tried to go to a couple bars but they were closing so we ended up going to the Hard Rock hotel. It was a very modern trendy type bar. It was nice and we sat down and had a couple beers. It was a long day in the sun so we headed back about oneish and called it a night, a very special night.

Sunday we woke up and went to Cosi to get some lunch before we checked out. After we finished eating we checked out and headed over to my cousin Steve’s in Lincoln Park. We went there and checked out the remodeling he’s doing on his condo. Then we went over to a bar with an outdoor eatery and had a couple beers and enjoyed the Sunday sun. After that we headed home. I being the computer geek stud that I am will have a wedding website. There will be some cyber invitations, cyber confirmations and information for the wedding. The website is not built yet but all the information you will need be able to be found at http://www.ryanandjocelyn.com.