Dana Burland

My extended work team is in town for two weeks, and man are we living it up together. I only have one other local coworker in Grand Rapids, the rest of my team is dispersed in Monterrey, Mexico; Cluj, Romania and Strasbourg, France . Everyone minus our French manager—who recently had a baby—is here, including my buddy from Romania who had previously never been to the U.S. before. Last week was jam packed with meetings during the day and activities at night. We went out to dinners around town, took a team tour of the local Frank Lloyd Wright home  and watched my coworker’s faces light up as they saw their first hockey game. Have you ever really considered how weird hot dog cannons are? Today we returned from a quick weekend trip to Chicago. We took pictures at The Bean, shopped, walked Michigan Ave. and had a drink at the top of the John Hancock building. The girls seemed to love it and I was happy to show them a slice of the U.S. a little more thrilling than little o...

My brother is in the midst of a dog sitting gig. He’s dog sat before. He’s a semi-professional. And it’s typically good for him—a house to himself, minimal amount of work, some income. But this time… this dog… oh, it’s entirely too much. This is Mollie. She’s a 12-year-old, semi-blind, hard-of-hearing, occasional-vertigo-suffering, beyond lovable pug who captures the heart of anyone who sees her. She’s a sweet, sweet old pup who spends most of her time snoozing, staring at humans with her confused head tilt, or looking for her next snoozeprotunity. She’s got a sassy dispossession that seems to say why-are-you-cooing-over-me-I’m-older-than-you-in-dog-years, and she really only “smiles” when the belly scratches get so good she hyperventilates. Though, there are so many wrinkly folds on her face that her perma-grump may just be due to gravity. My brother is, understandably, having the time of his life dog sitting for this miniature gem. I’ve met h...

It’s 2017! How did that happen? We rang in the New Year in Chicago with a big group of friends. On Saturday we explored the Logan Square neighborhood including a tasty Ramen restaurant (and naps back in our AirBnB). We ate a fancy four course dinner for New Year’s Eve night, passing around bottles of wine and sharing lots of laughs. Perhaps not surprisingly we struggled to find a bar afterward that didn’t have a line outside to wait in. As a better (in my opinion) option, we went back to our AirBnB and sat around a big table playing our way through an entire box of Cards Against Humanity. That game is especially fun with this group because Ben giggles hysterically at almost every card he plays—causing everyone else to giggle hysterically at him—and Allan can’t seem to win even one hand. At the end of the night we changed the focus of the game to find the card Allan played so he could get a point. We cheered for Eastern Time New Years and found a really strange strea...

This is my sixth annual blog recap! #feelingold (and I don’t mean feelin’ gold) 2016 was a really good year for us. I’m thankful our corner of the universe stayed a safe and happy place, and so many great opportunities were provided to us. I’m thinking 2017 will be pretty great too. Here’s what we were up to: January I ended the prior year and started the new one with a shingles outbreak on my pinky finger. But things sunnied up quickly with good family time and a ski trip up north . February We threw a Super Bowl party at our house with a few friends. Later in the month Ben joined me on a work trip to Palm Springs, California . March We were hardly home in March. Upon returning from Palm Springs I flew out to New Orleans for a girl’s trip. We skied up north again and later I threw a wine tasting party at the house. April We traveled to Chicago with my brother, then I jetted off to D.C . for a work trip—where I tacked on another quick girl’s trip. We started...