Tomorrow, I go to Las Vegas!

My friend Julie Papadia is getting married in November (on my birthday. it's, like, the best present ever.) and we're having her bacherlorette party this weekend in Sin City. I've never been to Vegas and I am so excited that I forgot I still have to go to class tomorrow. I said "Have a great weekend!" to my officemate, Lisa, and she was a bit confused. I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about the trip when I get back, but I wanted to leave you with some fantastic images of Henry's new Halloween sweater. Trevor does not approve of it. But Henry told me that it's his favorite piece of clothing, so we're ignoring Trevor.

Last Saturday afternoon, I had supper club with Angie and J.C. at Fat Willie's. We'd gone a while back but Angie wasn't able to get the brisket (it'd sold out), so we took another trip for Hogaritas (yes, they're as good as they sound), brisket (for Angie and J.C.), and ribs (for me). It was scrum-diddly-umptious, though after dinner we hallucinated some flying porkers. Maybe we ate too much?

T. and I also celebrated our two year wedding anniversary on Tuesday (last night). He surprised me with a dinner out at the West Town Tavern after my looong day at work. It was a wonderful surprise and a great dinner. We started with spring rolls and peanut sauce, then T. had the tilapia and grilled sprouts, and I had the special entree butternut squash with couscous, wilted greens, mushrooms, and marscapone cheese. My, my. Yum. We didn't have room for dessert (though this 'peach tart' the waiter spoke up was mighty tempting), and we used the few block walk home to digest our meal. He also surprised me with a tote bag full of yarn! Cotton is the two year anniversary marker, so the tote and the yarn were all cotton. Plus, the tote has a picture of me and Trevor on it!

I had an uplifting teaching day today as well. My honors Comp 1 class is pretty much the best thing since book mobiles. Not only did we have a great Banned Books Week discussion today, but we're working on the chapter on faith and religion, and we had a thirty-five minute discussion full of respectful and thoughtful discourse on organized religion, morals, faith, and God. Yeah, did I mention that these are eighteen year olds? And we were talking about religion? It was glorious. I wish I could have these fourteen students for ever and ever and ever.

Well, that's all I've got for now. I'm finishing laundry so I can pack tonight, and I'd like to paint my toenails so that I don't have scabby green polish for the trip. But what else would expect from a lettuce-headed farmer woman? Not much.

Have a wonderful weekend, and everyone send Trevor a text message or e-mail, or call him because I'm sure he will be so lonely without me that he'll cry on Henry's shoulder all four days. Sure. That's what will happen.

School Has Never Been This Interesting!

Check out this link about the college. We just found out about it this morning; the board president sent out the e-mail late last night. Ugh. Double-ugh. I'll let you know how it all pans out.

Three days of not much...

...equals a pretty nice weekend. Some really wonderful news we got just before the weekend kicked off is that there's a whole new baby in the world: Gabriel Newman! Ann and Daniel had their little baby, and he's pretty adorable. So far we only have a few pictures to tell just how great he is. Check him out.

Isn't he a peanut?! We might not be able to meet him for a while, the Newmans living out in New York and all, but I'm hoping that we can get out there pretty soon. Ann had quite a time of it, and ended up needed a c-section, but mom and Gabe are doing well, though I imagine that they were all pretty tuckered out.

After such a nice beginning to our weekend, I had my normal Friday, and then Trevor and I went over to Dan and Simona's for dinner that evening. Maya was awake and cute, cute cute. She opens her little eyes and stares, though I'm not sure how much she actually sees. Everything about her is so small and fantastic.

Saturday afternoon I got my haircut, though it's still longer than I'd like. I wanted shortish short (I got longish short. Yes, there's quite a difference) so I might have to go back sooner than anticipated. The cut is, as usual with Bridgid, perfect, but it's still a bob. Ah, well. We'll see how it goes.

Saturday night, we went to Destiny's birthday part and had some pizza, beer, ice-cream cake (be jealous because it was delicious), and about half a round of Catch Phrase. We got some nice "pregnant Angi" pictures, although my favorite, this first one with Destiny, looks like my camera is haunted. This haunted camera-look happens every now and again, and of course, it always happens for all of the good shots. The girls still look nice, though.

Today was spent watching an amazing nail biter of a Manchester United v. Manchester City game (United won [yahoo!] 4-3 in the last minute, literally). We ate some lunch, I did some laundry, and then we headed over to the Downtown Bork's new place for dinner and picture-hanging. They've done much to the place since our last visit, and certainly since our last posting. So here are some pictures! (and Neill, these are for you.)

(The last picture is the view from their back balcony, and the two before that are the views from their front balcony.)

And now, while I'm supposed to be lesson planning, finishing the ironing, and sleeping, I'm watching The Mighty Boosh and blogging. But not for long, because...goodnight!

I had to share these two pictures with you all. The first one was taken on Friday night, and the second was taken quite early in our relationship (most likely within the first few months). Isn't it weird to see Trevor again without his beard? He loses about ten years! Unfortunately, I do not lose that many years. I only have a slightly different hair cut.

Happy hump day!

Camp Power

Last weekend we had a Labor Day holiday at Camp Power in Door County, Wisconsin. All of the Power siblings, their spouses, and John and Fran Power rented a house and we spent a nice long weekend visiting Grandma and Grandpa Madel and Jim, jetskiing, eating, hammocking, bonfiring, fireworking, and puzzeling.

Thankfully there are no pictures of us jetskiing. We had a wonderful time, although I walked like Frankenstein for the next three days (I kinda, sorta, hit some major air before coming down hard on the lake and spilling both me and Trevor off our waverunner...). For more pictures, check out Trevor's photo page.

Although it was a short week after the Labor Day holiday, it was a tiring one. School went well, though my body was still recovering (I really need more exercise). This weekend was an opening at T.'s gallery (some photos are forthcoming), and our friend Adam came to town to visit us. He's currently getting his Photography MFA in Fairbanks, Alaska, and is doing a tour of the lower forty-eight for the week. He flew into Chicago, went up to Milwaukee last night for a friend's wedding, and tomorrow he leaves for up-state New York for a workshop on Collodion, another friend's wedding, and a lunch with photographer Doug Dubois. I got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with him, shopping and breakfasting while Trevor was at work. Tonight the three of us went to dinner at The Publican, which T. and I have been wanting to try. Sunday night is their fixed-price dinner, and while it was good I'm more interested in going back to try something from the regular menu. It was really fish-heavy and the main dish was lamb, a meat that I'm not a huge fan of. The heirloom tomato salad, though, was absolutely gorgeous and unbelievably tasty.

We took the train out last night for my friend Julie's stock-the-bar bridal shower. There were about fourteen of us on the train, which is quite a different ride than my usual solitary commuting experience. The party was a lot of fun, and Julie and Jeremy (the bridegroom) got us all an Escalade limo for the ride home. Yes. I rode in an SUV limo. It was ridiculous and a hell of a lot of fun.

(Trevor does not look thrilled about me and Lisa snuggling with him. I can't imagine why.)

Trevor took some video on his phone of us singing to Pat Benatar. I will not be posting it anywhere. Ever.

It's now twenty to eleven at night, and I have yet to prep for tomorrow's classes. Adam has had me investigating lanyards and watching the U.S. Open. I must now go to fix up a powerpoint and an assignment for my honors class. Enjoy these last days of summer!