Farewell, Nikki ... Hello, Illinois

Fun fact of today?

If you were anywhere near Google today, then you know today's the 100th anniversary of the standard crossword puzzle. I searched several unrelated things throughout the day and was met with the interactive banner several times before I actually obliged the thing...

tempting... temptiiiiiing...

I eventually gave in and clicked the blue play buttong... and proceeded to spend the next several minutes attempting to decode insinuating clues to words and abbreviations I never would've known. So, with the moderate assistance of Yahoo! for this one [is it strange that I felt like using using Google itself for this was somehow unethical? haha], I managed to decipher the hints I couldn't grasp on my own. For an English major, I am apparently not that versed:

Now, I had no problem at all with clues like "little bit," "Cleveland's lake" and strangely even "Start of many exclamations," but I really don't feel guilty for not knowing that 'KTS' is an abbreviation for "Chess Jumpers." So uhh, anyway, thanks again, Arthur Wynne!

And because it was Friday, we naturally had our weekly lunch, provided for by the bosses: Nikki's "last meal" as we sadly coined it. Elisa suggested Piada in Hyde Park, and we voted collectively yes.

the carnage....... we were hungry? (:

My first experience eating Piada was today and I have now added it to my official list of YES, PLEASE places here in the Norwood-Oakley-HP area. Speaking of good food, today happened to gift some other edible Christmas cheer in the form of Chipotle gift cards!

yes, please. yesssss, please.. & thank you!

Man, I'm blessed (:
That being said, we celebrated Nikki's last day in style, complete with lunch from Piada, a box of the decadent Express toffees, and some bittersweet farewells at the very end of the day. We'll see her one more time next week on Friday when she stops back by, but I know the office really won't be the same without her. Sad... sad face ):

Once work was out, I hopped in my car that I'd packed up last night and made a beeline for the highway. Fast forward 4-5ish hours and here I am now, in Illinois at Rob's house. He and Jesse rolled in the driveway right after I did; Jesse just left but we're in for a nice run of five days before I head back to Ohio.

*Yawn.

I'm done here, folks (:
Christmas is in .... five days, ya'll. Whoa.

xo | cmd