*!*!* FISH *!*!*

Ran across this picture in my phone today and it made me laugh. Apparently they were really excited about the fish they were serving that day...

Also, where on earth was I that steak was $6.25?

UPDATE:

I figured out where I got steak for $6.25. I took one of my girlfriends out to dinner for her birthday at Hickory Park in Ames...yum!

Adventures in Omelet Making

Tyson and I ventured out this morning to the Madison Farmer's Market...lots and lots of stands of delicious locally-produced food (particularly cheese...these crazy Wisconsinites), flowers, plants, and other things. Tyson and I specifically went to buy ingredients for fresh, homemade omelets! (I actually went because I wanted coffee and flowers, but he can think I went for the omelets...)

Confession: I have never made an omelet before.

Neither has Tyson. (Yeah, big surprise there.)

Well, let's see how this works...

Attempt #1: Not bad, but half of the "egg pancake" ripped when I tried to flip it. Some emergency cheese melting over the top was necessary to glue the whole thing back together.

At least Tyson thinks it tastes good! (And it did.)

Attempt #2 (note the smallest stove ever)...

...Tyson, in all his manliness, decided that he needed to figure out how to flip an omelet after my first "failed" attempt. Instead, he ended up folding the egg pancake over on itself three or four times, fusing the whole thing together in one egg-y lump. Rescue attempt for this batch? No longer an omelet, but scrambled eggs. And darn it, that was supposed to be MY omelet, too...

Attempt #3: A perfect flip! By none other than yours truly. Perfectly browned and delicious.

Conclusion: Omelets: 1, Shannon: 1, Tyson: -1.

Why the World Needs Interior Designers (or Why You Shouldn't Just Trust an Architect)

For the past day I have been working on rendering the floorplan of a restaurant for our hotel project, which had been created and designed by the architect in our group. Thankfully I am looking this over, because so far I have found that...

1. the patrons would not be able to use one set of elevators, as there were walls drawn around all four sides of them.
2. the customers would not be able to use the restrooms, either, since there are no doors to get into them.
3. the mens restroom looked just like the women's restroom...i.e. no urinals.
4. actually the other set of elevators has walls around all four sides, too, so apparently nobody is getting up to this 5th/6th floor restaurant unless they are trekking up the stairs...
5. ...except that the stairs also have walls around all four sides. But there is a window curtainwall on one side, so if you managed to get trapped there somehow, at least you'd have a great view!
6. the bar had no chairs around it.
7. the circular booths had backs and seats all the way around them...meaning that there was no way to sit down in them unless you climbed over the back. But then that makes waiting on these tables interesting. Maybe your food is dropped down to you from the ceiling?
8. the area where you pay the big bucks to watch the chef prepare your meal also has no chairs around it. I guess you are paying top dollar to stand around.
9. the walk-in freezer room has no door to it.

In addition, when she first gave me the plan, the waiting/lounge area was completely blank and devoid of furniture so she told me to just draw in whatever I wanted...which is fine, except that area is a good 1/3 of the entire space! And the bar area just had large squares where she "wanted furniture to go". Talk about feeling undervalued as an interior designer...

Anyway, the architect in my group is actually pretty good, and built a rockin' model for our review...

...which is in only four more days!

A Week in the Life: Friday

3:45 am: Home again!

4:02 am: GOOD NIGHT!

11:12 am: Morning stop for Caribou. Bring on the caffeine!

11:17 am: Hello again, COD.

1:09 pm-1:30 pm: Photos of our presentation for the critique. Check out those rockin' boards and picturesque model. Yup, this is exactly what I have been staying up for all week 'til the wee hours...

4:59 pm: And my roommates wonder why I am never at home. Note: Crystal made me promise not to post this picture on Facebook. Did I violate any of those terms here? I think not.

6:33 pm-7:42 pm: Dress rehearsal for the dance recital that is (eep!) tomorrow! Too many cute (and crazy!) little kids in one place. These are just some of my favorite shots, but I took a ton more!

And now...TO B-E-D!!!

A Week in the Life: Thursday

3:39 am: Working on the boards for our project in studio. You can see my friend and groupmate Kraemer in the background. We've been buddies since freshman year here at ISU (eep-that's 5 years ago!) and took the same studio together this semester and happened to be placed into the same group for our project.

4:27 am (duh, silly): Arrive home! Yay!

9:18 am: One last, longing look at my bed before heading back to studio 5 hours after I left it.

11:46 am: The start of a rendering.

11:46 am: Breaktime. Dark chocolate M & M's Premium break time, that is.

2:15 pm: Heading back to studio after art history class, some good ol' Caribou Coffee in hand. My body has ingested more caffeine within the past few days than in the last few months combined...

2:19 pm: Rendering, middle stage.

2:36 pm: Realize that except for the handful of delicious M & M's I had earlier, I have not eaten all day. Yogurt covered pretzels to the rescue!

5:03 pm: Dash home to grab my glasses and my car. Take another longing look at my bed. I am pretty sure there is a Shannon-sized spot in there...

7:08 pm: Finished rendering. Yay!

At 1:48 am I am still here...no new pictures...this Thursday wasn't too exciting...but at least it involved chocolate and Caribou!

A Week in the Life: Wednesday

Well, it may be after 2:00 in the morning, but here I am...still at home studio. As there is a slim chance that I will be going back to my apartment anytime soon, (to people grilling again?), I decided to post up my photos of Wednesday now:

10:12 am: Eyeshadow in the morning...

10:31 am: ...before my daily dose of Bible. Today: Exodus 3. "I AM who I AM..."

1:19 pm: A delicious cinnamon crunch bagel from Panera, lovingly brought to me by my friends Jennie and Chad. :)

3:15 pm: View of my rendering wall in studio. I probably look at this wall about 1,340,987 times a day as a reference for our hotel.

5:53 pm: My lovely roommate Crystal has come to get me so we can watch our Pre-K kiddos at church.

5:54 pm: She even brought me dinner! Taco bread that her mom sent with her last weekend from home...and it was scrumptious!

5:55 pm: And here she is, ladies and gentlemen, in the flesh. This is probably the best picture ever taken of the lovely Crystal Ann. Did I mention that she is my maid of honor? And I am hers in July? Actually that will make her my matron of honor...but she doesn't really like to hear that title too much...maybe that's why she is making that face right now...

6:40 pm: Here's those darn cute kiddos I was talking about. They thought I should be able to fit into their 5-year-old-sized dress-up clothes...as you can see, it didn't quite work out...and though I have always wanted curly, red hair, this is not quite what I had in mind. Good thing Gavin was there to get it out of my face. Thanks buddy!

8:33 pm: I looked down while I was at a red light and noticed that my car was at exactly 97,900 miles on it's odometer. Not quite a significant milestone, but I thought it was interesting anyway.

That's it for today...I wish I had a photo of my bed in here...or just a bed in here...I'm afraid I will be rather bleary-eyed for photos tomorrow!

A Week in the Life: Tuesday

I didn't take quite as many pictures today. #1. I accidentally left my camera battery charging at home when I left this morning, so I only had my cell phone to take pictures with most of the day. #2. I was pretty busy with an exam and meetings and things. #3. I just plumb forgot! nevertheless, here is what at least part of a ShayJay Tuesday looks like...

9:27 am: Oh what to wear, what to wear? It would probably be easier to decide with a cleaner closet...

10:02 am: Bus ride to campus on a gloomy day...

10:42 am: Studying and breakfast in the design atrium.

1:39 pm: Walking to the MU after my art history exam (which I rocked...I think) for a meeting.

6:53 pm: On my way to Connection Group (Bible Study) singin along to my radio. The singing part is important, since I can't be in my car without singing along to something, so I purposely moved my steering wheel down for the second photo. How safe/legal was it for me to take these photos? I made it alive, so that's all that matters. ;)

2:01 am (obviously): Pulling out of the parking lot from the COD (college of design). On an interesting note, when I got back to my apartment, there were three guys grilling in the green space outside of my apartment complex. I was half tempted to inform them what time it was, but couldn't decide if they had either the best or the worst idea ever...