In case you missed it, we won! Here’s Mark’s victory speech:

It still hasn’t fully sunk in yet, but I’m so proud of Mark and our entire campaign team.

Anyway, in completely unrelated news, my dad, Sherry and the girls got a new dog on Friday. Her name is Lola. L-O-L-A, Lola… la la la la Lola.

I haven’t met the new pup yet, but she looks pretty darn cute.

That’s it for now. I’ll try to get back to a normal posting routine… eventually.

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Well, it’s been a month since Zack last posted on ibzp.net, but as you can imagine, he’s been a little busy. This election season has been inspiring, maddening, overwhelming, unending… and after all of that, today’s finally the day. No matter the outcome, I am so proud of Zack and the success he has had as Mark Schauer’s Communications Director. He has worked so hard and given so much of his time to this election process. 

Thankfully everything will be settling down after this week, and we’re going to have a lot of things to look forward to in the coming months.

Zack and I are attended my cousin Mary’s wedding on November 15th. The following Friday, I will finally be confirmed in the Catholic church with Zack as my sponsor. And then we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving with our families and preparing to go to Naples for a long weekend with my family. After a long election process for Zack, and a busy Fall quarter at school for me, that trip cannot come quickly enough. I’m really looking forward to the up and coming holiday season. 

It’ll be 2009 before we know it! And we know something very exciting is just around the corner!

So cut Zacky some slack. He’ll be back to ibzp.net once he’s been able to catch his breath… and catch up on guitar hero.

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This is still one of my all-time favorite Stefy pictures. I took it on her birthday the first year we were dating – what a knockout.

Happy b-day, Stefery!

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Washington Mutual, the giant lender that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom, was seized by federal regulators on Thursday night, in what is by far the largest bank failure in American history.

Regulators simultaneously brokered an emergency sale of virtually all of Washington Mutual, the nation’s largest savings and loan to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion, averting another potentially huge taxpayer bill for the rescue of a failing institution.

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“He can’t run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sara Palin. Where is she?”

“What are you going to do if you’re elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We’ve got a guy like that now!”

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Just to play catch-up… my birthday was great (thanks to all the well-wishers), I made spur of the moment trip to visit Stef in Chicago last weekend (lots of fun), and I already managed to beat Guitar Hero III last night.

That’s all I have time for right now. I’ll just leave you with our second ad of the campaign season, which I still think is pretty awesome:

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Bummer.

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24 going on 42.

Happy Birthday to me (and my cousin Jessi)!

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Stefy had to go to church early on Saturday morning for her first reconciliation, which gave Teri some free time to do a little shopping. Tim and I stayed back at the apartment and hung out for a couple hours while the ladies were gone, which gave me some time to catch up on my backlog of magazines and get some work done.

Everyone was back at the apartment a little before noon, and we all went out together to spend some time trolling through the beautiful Lincoln Park Zoo. This was my third time there, but there were still some things I missed during my first two visits.

We stopped for a late brunch at this restaurant up the street from Stef’s apartment a little after 1 p.m., then made our way back to her place to start getting ready for mass.

Stef and I got to the church shortly after 4 p.m. to get our game-time instructions from her teacher and the priest. At first the procedure seemed a little confusing, but once the service got started everything went smoothly for Stef’s first communion. After mass we hung out for a few minutes for a quick photo op outside the church with Teri, Tim, and his friend and his wife from high school. The whole thing went really well, and I’m glad Stef had such a nice turnout for her big day – I was so proud of her.

Once we were wrapped up at the church, we all took off for our dinner at this local Italian restaurant, which was delish. I had my dad texting me scores from the MSU-Cal game while we ate, so I never felt like I was out of the loop.

Afterwards we all hopped in the car and drove back to Stef’s apartment to watch the rest of the football game and spend some more time with Roger and Doty. While I was glad I got to see the end of the game, I was extremely disappointed with our performance. This was a tough matchup, but it was definitely winnable. Signs of the old penalty-prone Spartans were hard to miss, and Hoyer hardly instilled confidence in his ability to get the job done. So, I’m not too optimistic for the rest of the season… I think we’ll be lucky to hit 6-6.

But I digress.

Yesterday morning we all went out for breakfast at this place Stef had taken me to twice before, Toast, which everyone loved. Tim and Teri pretty much had to hit the road afterwards, but Stef and I hung out for a few more hours before taking off for Battle Creek.

Thanks to Stef’s masterful driving skills, we made it there with plenty of time. Unfortunately, the buses carrying Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden did not. We waited in the sweltering heat for about two hours before the show got started. The warm-up speeches were good, but I was especially impressed with my boss (I may be biased).

Obama and Biden didn’t take the stage until well after 8 p.m., and by then everyone was getting a little antsy for things to get started. Their remarks didn’t deviate too much from their speeches at the convention last week, but of course, it was still great to see them both in person.

Getting out of the parking area was something of a nightmare, but we actually caught a break when Biden and Obama’s motorcade drove right in front of us on their way out of the stadium. Stef was able to sneak in right behind the last cop car and follow them all the way to the exit, so we avoided the worst of the traffic jam.

Today was pretty low-key. I had a few minor things to take care of for work while I was at home, but it was definitely nice to relax after such a hectic weekend. Tomorrow it’s back to the grind.

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