Archipelago

2011-12-21T01:19:00.001-06:00

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Obviously, we haven't posted anything in quite some time, and the explanation for that is to come at a time in the near future.

But for now, I'd like to do a short post on Christmas, which is quickly upcoming.

Tonight I hosted my monthly book club (which is worthy of at least half a dozen posts itself) and, of course, did it up in holiday style, with gingerbread cookies (not terribly good), some excellent cheese from Green Grocer, a terrific Tastefully Simple Fiesta dip I got from Fran's sister, and a macaroni & cheese dish I got from Amy Sedaris's I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, which was an enormous hit. Amy S. (not Sedaris, another "S") brought delicious pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and everyone else brought wine or Frango Mints.

We talked about Jane Austen's Emma, our latest read, and the conversation, as always, was good. But that's not really what this post is about. This post is really about Christmas, and sadness, which, unfortunately, go hand in hand.

While I was prepping my crudites for the party and frosting the mediocre gingerbread men, I was getting in the spirit by listening to Pandora radio's "Nat King Cole Holiday Radio Station," and one of the popular rotating songs on the "station" is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Now, when this song is sung by Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald, it's lovely. And when it's sung by someone who shouldn't be singing it, like Coldplay or Michael Bublé, then it's just strange. And wrong. But when it's sung by Judy Garland, it's perfect.

The first time I heard, and saw Judy Garland sing this was when I was in college, during one of a number of film studies classes I took while still entertaining the idea that I would eventually be a film director, and I was doing a shot-by-shot analysis of Meet Me In St. Louis. And it's only because of this assignment that I know this particular Judy Garland musical better than I probably should. And it's because of this assignment that I have a very special place in my heart for "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," for Judy Garland, and for the sadness of Christmas.

Watching Garland sing this classic to a very young Margaret O'Brien, knowing that the family would soon be moving and leaving everything behind; watching Garland sing to O'Brien, whose little eyes filled with tears; watching Garland, so young, red-lipped, and so beautiful, sing while looking mournfully out the window and into a winter night, is just wonderful. It's so wonderful, actually, that I'd forgotten how much I loved it and how sad it made me until I heard it about twenty times over the course of five hours this afternoon as I chopped green peppers and accidentally beheaded little gingerbread men while moving them from baking sheet to plate. It is a song that captures the hopefulness and the nostalgia of Christmas all at once. It looks both to the future as well as to the past, and, unfortunately for the characters, looks to the present only as a place holder. I heard Bing and Ella and Frank sing it today, and they sang it beautifully: Frank, with his slow, low whisper; and Ella, with her voice strong, clear, and powerfully energizing. But they couldn't sing it the right way. No one will sing it like Judy Garland. No one but her can sing this song and make the lyrics, and me, cry like she can--cry those big fat tears like Margaret O'Brien's tears, tears that sit in the corners of your eyes and wait a few minutes before dripping down your warm, red cheeks. Because ultimately, it's a devastating song. It's a song that shouldn't try to be happy or cute or popular. It's a song that should embrace the holiday, the season, and the sentiment. The sadness.

So, to all of you, Merry Christmas.

2011-07-23T09:36:00.001-05:00

Championes, Championes, Ole, Ole, Ole!

Manchester United plays the Chicago Fire this afternoon at Soldier Field, so Trevor and I got ready for the match by going to visit the Premier League trophy (our Premier League trophy, since we will win it again this season [hopefully, though without van der Sar (and without O'Shea! booooo) it will be a feat]) at the Temple Bar, a United supporters' bar up on Ashland. The festivities were invite only, and T. and I got to go because we're members of the MUFChicago fan club (yes, and we're very proud to admit that, so ha.). The place was jammed with super fans who started the soccer chants about an hour before the trophy arrived and continued after it was gone. I have a feeling they might have gone straight through the night and are still chanting right this second.

We met Jayson and Cristen there, and Jayson was first to hoist the trophy:

The gentleman in the white was one of the guardians of the trophy, and he actually donned white cloth gloves a few minutes after this picture was taken

And check out the details from the Red Eye's spread on MUFChicago!

T. and I held off until the line died down (though it never really did, since most of the fans went up for a second lift and picture) and then we took our turn.

T. is sporting United neckwear, and I think he looks like he could stroll off the tour bus right behind Ferdinand

CHAMPIONES! CHAMPIONES!

And it was really exciting to be able to hold it up, since we weren't able to really touch the Champions League trophy when it toured a couple of years ago.

So this afternoon, Neill and Fran are going to come meet up at our place and then the four of us will head down to the South Loop for some lunch before wandering over to Soldier Field. Juli and Matt are going to meet us at the stadium, and Jayson and Cristen have seats with MUFChicago, so we'll probably hook up with them after the game.

The weather is awful--about 90 degrees with what feels like 200% humidity, and we're supposed to get thunderstorms all day long. So that's terrific. But we've got some emergency ponchos (and I might even bring my rain hat, which is red, so I'll still be team supportive!) and, actually, if it's overcast, the heat might not be so bad. And, really, who cares? Because we're going to see MANCHESTER UNITED! Yahoo!

2011-07-19T10:57:00.001-05:00

Volunteering and a New Toilet (these things are not directly related)

This summer, other than taking Henry to the vet for his bi-weekly check-ups and chemotherapy medicine refills and readying our house for the kitchen remodel, I've also been volunteering at Open Books, a non-profit literacy center and used book store (best combination ever!). I'm part of the "Book Buddies" program, so twice a week a group of us volunteers head over to Cameron Elementary School in Humboldt Park to read for an hour with a group of eighteen first and second graders.

There are so many great things about this: first, I get to revisit books I haven't even thought about for well over twenty years (I could make that an even thirty years, but let's just not make me feel quite that old right now...), books like Are You My Mother?; second, I get to learn about great new (new to me) children's books, like Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Scott Magoon, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague; and then I get to realize that my first grade buddy can't actually read the authors' names on Spoon's cover because they're designed in cursive; finally, I get to hang out with some super cool little kids and read books with them. That, alone, makes it worthwhile. We've practiced new words like "chewy" (thank you, Bug Stew), "could," and "stegosaurus." We've practiced old favorites like "know," "what," and "busy." And we have also discussed a number of exciting things in my buddies' lives, like birthday parties, scooters (and falling off of scooters), Nerds candies, new haircuts, and puppies.

Unfortunately, tomorrow is the last day of our summer session. I hope that my Fall teaching semester will allow me to do Book Buddies again once the school year starts (and it should as long as my Saturday class has enough students enrolled). But if I can't, I'll absolutely be back next summer, and hopefully throughout the year with another one of Open Books' terrific programs.

Two of my fellow volunteers and their buddies (please also note the amazing notes on the chalkboard)

I was not supposed to take my button home, but I forgot to take it off my shirt

In other, home related news, we got a new toilet! Yesterday, a lovely man from E.J. Sievers Plumbing came out, removed our old toilet, which was, apparently, the real problem (not surprising since it's about twenty years old and was the cheap-o toilet contractors put in when they're turning a factory into condos and are trying to cut every possible corner [like placing studs more than 16" apart, neglecting to build electrical boxes for bathroom light fixtures, using glue to affix shower stall tile to the wall instead of thinset mortar...]). He was in an out in about an hour and our beautiful new toilet works like a dream. A happy indoor plumbing dream.

Um, I don't think this is going to work for us.

Yes. That's much, much better.

And while the plumber was going to his truck to get the new toilet, Trevor was able to sneak into the bathroom and paint that awful square of wall that no one had gotten to in probably, well, ever. It's one of those things that no one but us will really know (until they move the toilet), but we know that it's all clean and evenly painted, and that's very nice.

Yesterday, in addition to the plumber coming out, the electrician came out to fixed a minor crossed wires situation and to install our under cabinet lighting, which looks great but will have to be exchanged because Lightology gave us--out of the three LED strips we ordered to be linked together for one three-foot strip--two cool light strips and one warm. So, the lights don't match. After the odd week we had, Trevor and I weren't really surprised by this. It should be easy enough for us to change out, provided Lightology doesn't give us a hard time fixing their mistake.

The contractor's site manager also came out yesterday to check the work, and we brought a few things to his attention that needed fixing (mis-drilled handle holes, missing bolts for cabinets...); our man Dave is out here today taking care of the list. Once he's done, I should finally be able to put our kitchen contents back in the cabinets--knowing that the second layer of cabinets weren't completely bolted, and knowing that there would be more drilling and more dust made today, I didn't want to start putting stuff away over the weekend. So, while Trevor painted (the ceiling, the outer cabinet wall, and the "hallway" wall between the kitchen/living room and the bathroom/bedroom) Sunday and Monday, I just sort of stood around, feeling useless. I did manage to do our 1.5 weeks' worth of laundry, scour down the bathroom once the new toilet was in, and scrub the kitchen floor, but with the bedroom still chock full of kitchen wares, it didn't seem like I made very much progress. But today's the day! Keep your fingers crossed...

2011-07-16T16:24:00.000-05:00

Kitchen Remodel, Part 1

Our kitchen remodel officially started on Thursday morning. The two contractors started by removing our old cabinets, counters, and amazing back-splash tile. They patched everything up, gave us a bit of new dry-wall, and made way for the electrician, who prepped us for the under-cabinet light and the microwave (which he accidentally hooked up to our light switch, so when the lights are off, so is the microwave. This will be fixed.). Here is our newly emptied kitchen:

Weird, right? Check out Trevor's lovely paint job above the cabinet line!

Then the guys came back on Friday to start installing the new cabinets. They got almost through, but our main man Dave called me at 6:30 last night (after they'd been working since about 8:45 a.m.) to ask if he could come back and finish it today because he didn't want to rush through anything. I said, "absolutely," and he's currently in the other room screwing in all of the cabinet handles (they look great).

This was their work at the end of the day:

It's not a great picture because I only had my phone, but you get the idea

So, other than some minor issues with the kitchen (the temporary sink wasn't standard size and the handle screws were too long, so Dave had to run to Home Depot; the aforementioned microwave/light switch; a mis-ordered cabinet that opens on the wrong side), it all went pretty smoothly. They told us upfront that they thought it would take two days, and both T. and I thought that was pretty ambitious thinking. And it was. But other than some possible re-patching when the electrician comes back to fix the wires, we're pretty much ready for the next step, which is getting measurements for the countertop. The guy comes out to take care of that on Monday.

And you know who else will come out on Monday, in addition to the countertop guy and the electrician? The plumber! Want to know why? Because our toilet broke. It BROKE. Thursday morning, about twenty or thirty minutes before the contractors showed up to start work in our tiny kitchen, the one and only toilet we have in the place stopped working. So we called a plumber (after T. tried diligently to snake it himself, but to no avail [and actually I called two plumbers, and almost a third, because no one was getting back to me and I was freaking out]) who wasn't able to come until Friday.

So, the plumber shows up on Friday morning, right before the contractors, and he tries--also diligently--to snake it, too. But that fails and he suspects a bigger problem. He needs to take out the toilet to get in there with a "huge machine" (god only knows what the hell that means; I'm actually terrified of it already) and then when the machine and the plumber can fix the problem, he wants to install a new toilet.

Soooo, that's what we're going to do. We'll have three lovely men in our place come Monday, doing a variety of machining, measuring, and wiring. And, by the luck of Trevor's Irishness, we haven't really felt the sting of no toiletness because we've spent all week at Greg and Paula's dog-sitting while they were in Michigan on a mini-vacation. And they have lovingly and graciously agreed to let us stay the rest of the weekend with them. So our two workmen had to suffer and go to the Burger Baron when nature called, but we've been more or less okay, hanging out in Greg and Paula's basement and living out of a suitcase. I'll be so happy when Monday is over and this upheaval has more or less finished heaving.

2011-07-12T23:22:00.000-05:00

Boxes in, Cabinets Emptied

Our kitchen remodel will officially start this week, with the demolition of our old cabinets on Thursday and the installation of our new ones on Friday. We won't get the new countertops for another few weeks after that, and then the backsplash tile will get installed, but it's starting!

Yesterday our cabinets arrived, and they're kind of taking up half of our entire house.

The big corner cabinet in the front almost didn't fit through the door

So today I spent eight hours emptying out our kitchen cabinets and moving the contents into our bedroom, which is the only other room in our house. There are pros and cons to living in a two room, 650 square foot loft, and today I experienced both:

Pro--To move things to the complete other side of our place, I only had to move things about thirty feet
Pro--There were zero stairs involved
Con--There are no extraneous shelves, cupboards, or surfaces to use, since we already make maximum use of our space, so I had to use every nook and cranny available, which resulted in a bedroom that is covered in dishes, small kitchen appliances, frying pans, and cookie sheets, board game boxes, books, and an oddly high number of salt and pepper shakers (warning to all those about to get married: you will get a lot of salt and pepper shakers as wedding presents) and an unusable bed and a barely useable floor

As you'll notice, even though the "con" is long, there's only one, so I think that it about balances out. I can't imagine if I'd had to spend today climbing up and down stairs or walking down long hallways to move my stuff. Here are a few early shots of our stuff (as the day got longer, I got tired of documenting):

These are the books that used to live over our cabinets. They have temporary housing in the bedroom.

Now half of those books share space with our rice cooker, Cuisinart, and hand blender

The books made room for some of the cabinet contents. Some. Let's same a fifth.

Luckily, Greg, Paula and Bo are on vacation this week and T., Henry, and I are house/dog-sitting for them. It couldn't have worked out better, because if we wanted to sleep in our own place, we'd have to go horizontally on the bed to spoon with the ottoman, or sleep on the drop-cloth covering our couch, the couch that is smushed up against the t.v., record cabinet, globe, lamp, and end tables in the corner of the "living room" (a.k.a. the very small area next to the kitchen, which is also the place housing the giant boxes).

But the good news is that T. and I finished up (he spent all day at work de-installing the old show and installing the new show to be ready for Friday's opening, then came home and taped up what he'll paint tomorrow and tarped off the 300 pound bookshelf we can't move) and are now home at G&P's place; our bellies are full of pizza and beer and the giant television is keeping our tired brains happy with Office reruns and The Daily Show/Colbert Report tag-team. I got a little goofy with Trevor when he got home, since he was the only human being I'd spoken to all day long. I didn't even have Henry to keep me company, since he was at G&P's house with the girls. And talking and singing little songs to Henry usually keeps me sane, but not today, friends. No, not today.

And what was even worse was that I finished my audio book about 20 minutes before T. got home, and it was a great book--and excellent book--but kind of a sad one, so I'd spent a little time quietly crying to myself while relocating Cranium, Alfred Hitchcock's Clue, five versions of Trivial Pursuit (Original, Twentieth Century, 80s & 90s Pop Culture, Genius, and Baby Boomer editions), Scrabble, and about fifteen other board games.

So T. came home to a totally stir-crazy and slightly melancholy wife who was more than a little dusty and who had been standing still in the middle of the bedroom, hoping upon hope to find a place for her two cow-shaped creamers (one is small, like for a single afternoon tea, and one is large, for after-dinner coffee with guests. don't judge me.) and a stack of old photo albums.

But we did finish! Here's the result:

The last picture of our kitchen as we know it

You know what I really will miss, though. Our awesome, awesome tile.

Heeeyyyy, rosemary. You so pretty.

Yep, it's on the counter, too. Jealous much?

So goodbye, rosemary, sage, and basil. Hello smooth, green grout-less, spice-less quartz.

We'll keep you updated after the demo.

2011-07-10T20:38:00.001-05:00

The Door

We got back from our four day Door County vacation last week, exhausted and happy. We went up with the Power clan--John and Fran; Sean, Angi, and Sadie; Neill, Fran, and Destiny; and Rachel and Letty--to celebrate Grandma Madel's 90th birthday (which was actually in June, but July 4 seemed a great time to get everyone together to celebrate).

We got up to our rental house in Bailey's Harbor late Friday night, but were able to catch up with Rae and Sean, who were still awake. Neill, Fran, and Destiny were hot on our trail, and we all unpacked and hung around. Mothra paid us a visit, but did not succeed in chasing us away. If Letty had still been up to see him, however, it might have been another story.

We included the quarter to give it scale--this has not been PhotoShopped, I swear

We spent Saturday afternoon at Clark Lake, where the water was warm(ish) and the sun was hot. Sadie enjoyed her first time under water (a tiny dunk with Destiny) and she also managed to get buried in the sand. I don't know how it happened--we left her alone for one second, and when we turned around this is what we found:

(Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

We all headed home and showered up (though I still found sand in my bellybutton the next morning, so I don't think I did a good enough job...) and then drove down to the Log Den for a lovely dinner that T.'s Uncle Doug had organized for everyone. We ate good food and better cake, sang "Happy Birthday" to Grandma Madel, and the kids caught up with all of the many Madel cousins they hadn't seen in years.

(Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

Uncle Trevor and Sadie

Waiting for Cake

Grandma getting some help with the candles

Our Crew: Destiny, Fran N., Neill, Sean, Letty, Rachel, Trevor, John, and Fran P.

On Sunday afternoon we hosted a cookout so that everyone could visit more, and the whole crew showed up again. We had more gorgeous weather and the party was a huge success, but when everyone left about 8 p.m. we knew that there was more fun to be had. So Sean and Angi put Sadie down and Rae and Letty offered to babysit. John and Fran had to get to bed because they were leaving at 4 a.m. to get back in time for John to get some sleep at home and still make it to work on Monday evening. So me and Trevor, Neill, Fran, Destiny, Sean, and Angi went to Pirate's Cove. We did some go-karting first, and it was my first time. It was awesome, obviously. Then we played some mini-golf. I don't remember who won, but it was a lot of fun and even more mosquitoes.

Destiny cannot control her excitement

Angi, Sean, and Trevor, being awesome

Putt, putt

Quiet on the green

Some sort of goblin tried to scare us away, but he failed, just like Mothra failed

Destiny planking on the course

On Monday, the actual Fourth of July, we ran around doing fun, vacationy things. First we went to P.C. Junction to play around and eat some lunch. Trevor and I had never painted a plaque, and Destiny had never painted one for just herself, so the three of us got down to business.

(Photo Courtesy of Fran)

(Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

(Photo Courtesy of Fran)

After we took care of business, we took care of some fun.

Conductor T. Power

Two Pretty Ladies (Photo Courtesy of Fran)

Angi, Rae, T., Dest, Fran, and me (Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

(Photo Courtesy of Fran)

And then we took care of some more fun at the Yum Yum Tree.

Sean and Sadie

No Cholesterol!

That evening we headed over to Paul and Joe's rental house in Jacksonport for another cookout and some excellent fireworks.

Auntie Rae and Sadie (Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

Me and T in a stone bench on the beach (Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

T with his Proxy Uncle Mark (who lives in Amsterdam and couldn't make it) (Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

Dest walking on the beach (Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

Our very own fireworks display--thanks to Neill, Destiny, Cousin Ben, Cousin Matt, and Uncle Joe (Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

That night we got home, tired, but not too tired for some games. Henry opted out, though, and got to bed early.

I really don't know how he slept with that creepy egg lady snuggling with him

And then on Tuesday it was time to head home. The trip was a huge success and we're so glad we got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa and the family. And since T. and I mostly make our Door County trips in the winter, where our activities range from making cozy fires and watching movies to reading books and taking naps, we loved the change of pace. It will probably be a while until we see everyone again, so the laughs will have to last us until then.

Rae and Neill

Pop Power and Rae

Fran and Neill ((Photo Courtesy of Rachel and Letty)

Dest and Sadie (Photo Courtesy of Fran)

Letty and Rae (Photo Courtesy of Fran)

2011-07-10T18:49:00.000-05:00

The Flaming Lips

Trevor and I went to see The Flaming Lips at the Aragon Ballroom on Friday night, and it was a spectacular show--an event, even. It was a cross between the circus and a stadium rock extravaganza, and I think I smiled through every minute. Here's a little video I took of their encore song, "Do You Realize?" so you can see all of the strobe-light-confetti-spectacular with your own eyes (for the show itself, they played the entire Soft Bulletin album and then did Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" for their first encore. All of it rocked.):

(warning: the sound on this little video snippet only lasts for the first ten or so seconds, but it's awful [because it was so loud that my skin throbbed (in a good way)], so turn your volume all the way down)

2011-06-28T16:45:00.001-05:00

Sporty

Trevor and I had an unprecedentedly busy weekend. We spent Friday night at the White Sox game with Neill and Fran. It was mullet night and Fran came prepared.

Check out the tee-shirt

Peace. Out.

The view from our seats and some dude's head

The Sox were ultimately defeated, 9 - 5, by the Washington Nationals, and the four of us took off before the end of the game, which went into extra innings (14). But we had a great time and we ate some ball park food, so our night was a success.

Sunday was a soccer day. We went to the Fire game with our friend Jayson. We took a "luxury" bus provided by the Windy City Wanderers from Fado's to Toyota Park. The day was perfect for a game and we enjoyed every minute of it, from the bus ride...

To the field...

Jayson looks angry. Or suspicious. Or both.

And everywhere (the beer stand, the Dippin' Dots cart) in between.

We came home on Sunday afternoon, sun-happy and tired, so we took a two hour nap and then ordered pizza. The perfect kind of day.

Monday we went out hunting for the kitchen remodel. While noodling around the Clark and Barlow hardware store, we came upon the perfect cabinet pull for Pop Power's garage:

T. and I agreed that it would drive us crazy if it weren't actually level, though. But it's pretty sweet. As was the rest of the hardware store.

And we finally found a faucet! We're going to get a beautiful Delta stainless steel fellow named Trinsic.

He's one smooth guy

Now, I'm very excited about my new kitchen buddy, but I do have to show you the runner up, a gorgeous gal named Pilar. She really, really, really wanted to come hang out in our kitchen, but Trevor ultimately gave her the kibosh. He thought she was just too touchy-feely. She was a little fresh...

Oh, pretty, pretty Pilar

We've got the demolition and installation scheduled to start the second week of July, so we'll keep you in the loop about that. This weekend is our trip to Door County with the Power and Madel clan. Trevor got a new pair of swim trunks and some shorts (what?! shorts?? yes, that's right.), so he's ready. Henry's been spending a lot of time in the sun to get his base tan going--he doesn't want to get a burn when he's on the beach.

Can I call it "sun tanning" if I'm inside and the sun is coming through the window?

Stop judging me! I'm a lazy animal!

Bye, all!

2011-06-24T11:13:00.000-05:00

Bunco, Baby

I'm in a bunco league with some gal pals and this month was my turn to host. I decided to use the party room at Mom and Dad Bork's building rather than jam twelve people into our small place, and it worked out perfectly.

The ladies, getting their roll on

And, because I'm currently a lady of leisure, I spent two days preparing: menu planning, grocery shopping, getting liquor. I had too much fun at the party store and got some foam dice and a money bag (because bunco's no fun unless the stakes are high...)

This is what $3.75 gets you at Doolins

I made us some party food--layered bean dip, spinach dip, pasta salad, cucumber finger sandwiches (because we're ladies, after all)--and I enlisted Destiny's help to bake an awesome bunco cake. She rocked it out and the girls were thrilled with the delicious results.

Liz was the big winner of the night:

And I still have leftover cake in the fridge, so really, I'm a big winner, too.

Trevor and I are looking forward to a sporty weekend, with the Sox game tonight with Neill and Fran and the Fire game with our friend Jayson on Sunday. The weather's supposed to be clear for both, but I might pack emergency ponchos just in case. Wish us dry stadium seats and fun!

2011-06-19T23:41:00.000-05:00

Happy Father's Day!

For Father's Day this year, Trevor and I met Mom and Dad Bork, Greg and Paula (the "new" mom and dad Bork), and Bosco for lunch with the Nichols at the Evanston Country Club. The weather was perfect for al fresco dining and we all enjoyed mooning over Bo for an hour.

Mr. Nichols, Trevor, Bosco, Greg, Dad

And even though we didn't get to see Trevor's dad today--he and Fran just got home from their Ireland vacation--here's a picture of him and T.'s mom with the little guy who first made John a father, Sean (who is, himself, celebrating his own Father's Day today, with Angi and Sadie!):

Mom, Pop, and tiny Sean Power

And our Father's Day presents were the chocolate chip cookies I was moved to make by Craftwhack's recent post. Although they weren't exactly chocolate chip cookies--Nestle sells a bag of milk chocolate chips mixed with peanut butter chips (yu-hum), and this was, of course, the bag that I bought. So these were extra special cookies. And I made some teeny tiny cookie bites with the remaining 1/4 cup of batter so that I can eat them in one gulp and not feel guilty about the two sticks of butter and 1.5 cups of sugar that went into making them.

And in other news, earlier this week I got some information about the volunteering I'll be doing the week after next with Open Books. I'm going to be a "book buddy" and have two buddies from Cameron Elementary School in Humboldt Park who I'll visit twice a week and read with. I'm pretty geeked out about it, and at the info. session I learned that I can bring some of my own books, so this week I'll figure out which ones from our shelf are appropriate for 1st and 2nd grade readers and then get some supplementary material from the library. I'm betting that I have a few that will work (since my bibliophilia extends to children's literature...), but I'd like to pick up some classics, too.

And speaking of classics, and of things Craftwhack inspires me to think about, Jeanette from Craftwhack recently posted her top five kids' books. Among her choices was a book by Richard Scarry, who wrote about Lowly Worm. When I was little, I adored Lowly Worm, and as I got older I always remembered his tiny worm hat, tie, and smile, but I forgot his name. Until Jeantette reminded me, and I'm so happy that she did.

It's Lowly Worm! Wouldn't you like to have him around all the time? I would.

After getting my volunteering information, I kidnapped T. from the gallery for lunch. It was a nice day and we sat outside.

This week we're taking Henry in for a check-up (who is doing much, much better after a scary surgery he had last month) and then we might continue with a Movie Monday viewing of Tree of Life (we saw Super 8 last Monday and [although it's no E.T.] we really enjoyed it). Or, if the weather is nice, we might just ride around on the motorcycle like we did this evening. Whatever we do, we'll have a full report by the end of the week. So until then, Happy Father's Day, and happy mid-June nice weather!

2011-06-09T11:20:00.000-05:00

I'm On Vacation

I started my summer vacation at the strike of 3 p.m. on Friday, May 13, and it was at the last stroke of 3 p.m. that I promptly switched bodies with a student of mine who failed my class. We then had a hilarious three weeks of body-swapping fun during which I played the drums in her all-girl punk band and learned to love life as a teenager again, and she payed bills, did laundry, and cooked dinners and learned how to be a responsible adult who didn't fail English composition classes.

And that's what I've been up to. I also managed to hang out with Bo a little bit. This is what he's up to these days:

I've also made a list of things I'd like to do over the summer.

Get a new battery for my watch
Finish my Fall syllabus on time (July 1)
Go to the beach
Take Henry on numerous adventures, like The Search for a Strawberry Milkshake and The Dog Who Walked to the Coffee Shop (and other snack-related quests)
Clean the closet
Get a haircut (this is actually happening today, so I'll be able to check this off the list)
Take Bosco to the zoo
Continue Movie Mondays with Trevor (so far we've seen Bridesmaids [disgustingly charming], Everything Must Go [difficult to watch but rewarding], Midnight in Paris [whimsical and witty], and X-Men First Class [loud, violent, and fun as hell])
See the movies that Trevor refuses to see with me (Fast Five, Troll Hunter (I might convince him to see this one; it's foreign horror, which is a little classier), the awesome new body-switching movie The Change-Up, and Shark Night [which looks like the most fun ever but it doesn't come out until September])
Write some stories and stuff
Catch up to my Goodreads goal of reading 75 books this year (I'm currently 14 books behind my schedule)

We'll see how far I get.

2011-05-08T19:07:00.000-05:00

Some Bits and Bobs

I'm getting ready to wrap up my semester this week. I've got five days to grade, process, and calculate all of the students' papers so that I can submit my final grades by noon on Friday. I'm sure I'll be able to do it, but I really don't want to. I'd much rather just start my summer vacation right now.

So, to kick off the week before the summer vacation kick-off, here are some things from this weekend for you to look at:

Look out for the zombie, Henry! Why are you so calm?!

OMG, it's even worse than a zombie! It's BARNEY!

I went to an artist talk at T.'s gallery on Saturday and listened to Fred Stonehouse and Tim Tate talk about their show. I should have been grading papers.

My learning community (that's my co-teacher in the front, sticking out her tongue)

My creative writing class, giving me some jazz hands

I still have one more class that will meet for a final time tomorrow, and I have to prepare a quiz for them. But I'm going to make sure that it's an easy quiz. And then it's meetings, grading, meetings, grading, meetings, grading, meetings, grading until Friday at noon. And then it's no more meetings (except one in June I said I'd go to) and no more grading until August. Holy cow.

2011-04-13T20:51:00.001-05:00

Some Bosco Bits

Grand-mom Bork sent me some photos of Bo, and he's looking pretty awesome (and upright!). Check him out with some of his peeps.

Um, Dad and Auntie, my margarita is coming over so please put me down

Check me out, world! My toy totally matches my outfit!

Why yes, Grampa, I agree that E Bonds are a very secure long-term investment

2011-04-10T15:52:00.000-05:00

A Sunny Day in April

I haven't been out of the house other than to walk Henry around the block since Thursday night; I caught a wicked chest cold the Sunday after returning from Tennessee (although I'm sure that I caught in on the trip itself) and have been sick ever since. I of course passed on my illness to T., and the two of us has been laid up, cold-medicated, and pathetic, for the past six days.

So we decided to take advantage of today's weather and get outside a bit. First, to provide us with enough energy, Trevor made us breakfast:

This is the biggest omelet ever, filled with peppers, onions, and broccoli, with a side of veggie sausage

Our primary objective for the walk was to get the Jewel on Des Plaines to pick up some more Kleenex and cold medicine. I also got us some ice cream (very good for a cold), which we ate in the park across the street from the grocery store. We walked all around after that, even visiting T.'s old workplace, Flatfile Galleries. The space has just been rented by the Chicago Artist Coalition and they were having an open house, so we popped by. We walked most of the way via Kinzie, which took us right through a great and odd little industrial area just east of the meat packing district.

I'm going to steal this to use as the logo for our school's creative writing club

And now we're home and beat. We might head over to the downtown Borks for some afternoon hang-out time, but we're waiting to hear from them. They had Bo over for his first ever over-night and they might be too tuckered out.

We hope you all enjoyed today's weather, too, wherever you are and whatever you're doing. I'll leave you with the best view in the city:

A view from our couch--I could stare at this all day long

2011-04-03T21:56:00.001-05:00

Henry on the Town

Henry had some adventures on his walk tonight with Trevor.

2011-04-02T15:14:00.000-05:00

Nashville

Unfortunately, I didn't come home with a pair of cowboy boots--though perhaps it was fortunate for our bank account, since I saw not one pair of boots in Nashville for under $250.

Now, the trip was a huge success, and hopefully you've been following the ASB blog and checking in our our progress. We got home last night about 7 p.m., which was earlier than we'd originally expected, and nice for the group, who were tired. We had four volunteer-packed days, spending time with the Second Harvest Food Bank, a Habitat for Humanity home store (a thrift store for home repair and construction goods), and three Youth Encouragement Services (YES) centers around the city of Nashville.

We drove from Nashville to Maryville on Wednesday night to the Once Upon a Time retreat, which is a hostel-like wilderness retreat. The majority of guests are "break away" groups like us, on alternative spring breaks from high schools and colleges. We did service on Thursday in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a group of rangers; we spent the time planting grasses meant to help the landscape and feed the animals in the park. The rangers told us that our group of twenty-eight did in about five hours what would have taken them weeks to do alone, and they were grateful and thankful for our work, which made us feel spectacular.

And now we're home! I still haven't unpacked or laundered my duffel bag full of dirty clothes, but I'll get to that after I (finally) take a shower. Yikes. Here's a picture of the group from Thursday in the park, and I'll be posting more later on.

2011-03-27T22:40:00.001-05:00

We're in Tennessee!

I arrived tonight with my student and adviser crew for our 2011 Alternative Spring Break Trip. Here's a picture for you, and follow this link to read more about our trip on our "official" blog.

I'll check in more throughout the week!

Here's the gang, eating at Las Palmas in Nashville

2011-03-13T21:03:00.001-05:00

Art Fairs, Tenure, and Spring Break

Trevor recently got back from a week in New York at The Armory Show for the gallery, and it was a very successful fair. They sold out of one new Gregory Scott piece (he's the same artist they sold out of at Art Miami in December), sold a few more of his pieces, and sold pieces from a number of other artists, including Nan Goldin. According to T.'s boss, Cathy, it was the gallery's most successful fair to date.

The Armory booth on Pier 94

She and T.'s co-worker, Juli, are going back to NYC this week for AIPAD show (Association of International Photography Art Dealers), so T. will be manning the gallery with the new Steve Shapiro show. Stop by to visit him if you're interested in Taxi Driver and The Godfather, since the show features still shots from these two films.

While T. was out of town, I did a lot of not much. I hung out with Henry (I talked to him quite a bit more than he talked to me), did a lot of school work, watched a lot of trashy television, and spent one afternoon crafting with my friend Linda (she sewed and I knitted). She's pictured here hammering a snap onto a hand-sewn pouch:

I also had to take care of a semi-sick Henry, who'd decided to eat half of his blanket (about six pounds according to the before-and-after barfing weigh-ins the vet did...) and had some minor trauma to his inner eyelid, which fixed itself pretty quickly, but looked really awful (think walleye). We think he was so distraught at Trevor's absence that he started rebelling in strange ways. He's all better now.

Right before T. left for NY, I found out that I got tenure, which was exciting. The MCC Board of Trustees voted on it on February 24, and although the vote was really a nothing event (it was included with about thirty other "no contest" voting items, which they voted on all at once), it's nice to have it over. There was a Tenure Tea on Thursday for me and my fellow tenure recipients, and we got some sparkly tiaras to wear and some wands to wave:

Me and two of my six fellow tenurees (that's a lightsaber in the foreground)

Me and my friend Justin in his awesome airline sport jacket

In other exciting news, I'm going on our second annual Alternative Spring Break with school. We leave on March 27 and will be in Nashville for three days doing volunteer work with a number of different organizations. Then we'll head to Great Smoky Mountains National Park to help get rid of invasive species. We've got eighteen fantastic students--three are returning from last year, but the rest are new, including a new faculty member to bring us up to four trip advisers. We had our first meeting on Friday and snapped a picture of the group.

We'll be keeping up with the blog that we started last year (here's the link if you want to refresh your memory), and I'll be keeping this blog up to date with some postings as well.

And I'll end with a couple of images from the Learning Community I'm teaching. A Learning Community is a class composed of two different classes and two different teachers--usually a content class (like psychology or, in my case, art appreciation) and a skills class (like English or speech). The students enroll in both classes and get full credit for both classes, but go through the classes together as a cohort. The classes are co-taught by the two teachers, and the skills taught are taught in context using the content. My portion of my LC is a composition one class, so the students are learning the skills of composition and rhetoric, and all of the writing they're doing is about the art and artistic concepts they're learning. It's very cool. One of the first projects they did was a "sound interpretation": the students listened to six different songs and used pastel chalk to interpret those songs with color, line, and shape on paper. They each chose their favorite image from the six they'd created and wrote an artist statement, explaining what they'd done, why they'd done it, and what they hoped their audience would experience. And now those pieces are displayed! Check them out:

The sound interpretations are on the right, and another project our students did, a "texture and context" project, are on the left. Here's a close-up of those:

None of our fifteen students are art students--it's a gen. ed., and they're just in it for the humanities credit. This makes it even cooler that they've produced such interesting work, and they were so excited to see their pieces up in the art hallway, displayed for everyone. I'm so proud of them, and although this class takes a huge amount of preparation, I'm really excited to be doing it.

And now I'm going to stick some laundry in the dryer and organize a playlist of the Garth Brooks songs I just burned from Greg (was anyone else inspired by Scotty McCreery's rendition of "The River" last week on American Idol? The rendition was a little hammy, but it reminded me what a great song it is!). Good night, all, and have a lovely (and slightly warmer) week!

2011-02-21T21:23:00.000-06:00

New Kitchen, Part One

There will probably be many more parts to this new kitchen as it's completed slowly over the next months, but here's installment number one: the new appliances!

Trevor had to deal with the two fellows who installed them all--they were here for about three hours and managed to chip four of our counter tiles (luckily we got the appliances before the new counters and cabinets), lose the electricity to one wall, and have no idea how to get it back on. T. eventually realized the magical "reset" button on the outlet behind the toaster oven. He's pretty smart. And thankfully he used his noodle to figure it out before the installers had completely dismantled the fuse box. They'd gotten to the face plate and were about to start...god knows what. Snipping wires?

The microwave is hiding under the kitchen table (and when the guy set the dolly down on the floor, he set it on a floor lamp and almost broke it. truth be told, he sounds like kind of a disaster), and we'll put that in above the stove once the cabinets are fresh and new. For now, it stays in the box.

Oh, did you notice that we have two ovens? Yes, we do! We have a mini pizza-perfect oven and a second, larger oven for, well, I guess much larger pizzas.

2011-02-20T23:10:00.000-06:00

The Last Meal

Six months of Bank of America yanking our chain for an absurdly small refinance finally resulted in T. and me getting our money last month. And those six months of paperwork lost and redundantly sent, dozens of e-mails shooting between us and one unbearably inefficient loan processor, Jesus "Jesse" Velasquez (if I had his home phone number, I'd certainly publish it here), and one accusation of forgery later, we're able to finally start thinking about remodeling the kitchen, which was the biggest reason for the refinance in the first place.

We spent a couple of afternoons at Abt Electronics, trying to figure out the best appliances for us, and we settled on a lovely group from KitchenAid. We decided to take advantage of some of the deals Abt was offering and arranged to get them delivered sooner rather than later. So even though we won't do the full remodel until May, once I'm finished with school for the semester, we'll be able to use our brand spanking new appliances, starting tomorrow! Tonight I "cooked" our last meal (a set of frozen dinners because we figured that doing any major grocery shopping right before a new fridge is delivered was kind of silly) in our old oven. The oven and fridge have served us well, and the dishwasher has served us, well...loudly. Very loudly.

Henry says goodbye to the stove

We checked out kitchen cabinets and counter-tops at Home Depot last weekend, and wanted to head to IKEA this afternoon to compare variety and price, but the weather didn't cooperate. We'll probably head out there on Friday night when the traffic is a bit lighter--if not on the roads, at least in the store.

Greg, Paula, and Bosco were in Arizona this week/week-end, so T. and I dog sat. Tequila and the girls say, "hellooooooo!"

And G. and P. have gone a little nutso (or have they gone "bosco"?) over the Bosco website they've recently discovered.

The chocolate bar is actually pretty tasty; once they open the syrups, I'll do a taste test and give a full report.

And here's some other big news: after Thursday night, I'll be a fully tenured faculty member at McHenry County College. The MCC Board of Trustees votes at the monthly meeting on whether or not I and four of my new faculty "classmates" get tenure, but it's a no-contest vote and according to our union president, it's a very underwhelming event. So she's taking us to dinner first at the local Mexican restaurant, Pablo's, and then we'll have a tenure "tea" in a few weeks (where we'll get tiaras and light sabers!) to make the event a little more memorable. So, that's going to be nice, although after almost three years of working towards this, and after finishing the portfolio project and submitting it in November, I feel a little underwhelmed, myself. Or maybe it's just the fifth week blahs. One of my colleagues in the art department gave the explanation, after I'd been complaining about a particularly lackluster class last Tuesday, "Oh, it's week five." According to her, it's the time in the semester when the students top trying to impress you. The bloom is off the rose, and you start to see who they actually are, as students and as people. And the picture isn't always pretty. I think she's right, but the Thursday classes were back on track, so hopefully not all of the students will turn out to be toads.

And before heading off to bed, I've got to read some creative writing essays by some students (and some toads...), so goodnight, all, and if the weather is going to be as crummy as promised, please drive safely!

2011-02-06T23:33:00.001-06:00

We Survived the Thundersnow

Like most of Chicago, when the snow came, we'd had a few days of warning and were prepared. I had been sent home early on Tuesday afternoon from school, and luckily I'd taken the train and didn't have to deal with the early blizzard traffic. The gallery closed a couple of hours early, too, and Trevor, Juli, and Matt, had a few drinks late in the afternoon at our local bar before parting ways when the snow and wind really started to rip.

We listened to the thundersnow and watched it fall through the night, and then hunkered down on Wednesday after the storm--the gallery was closed so T. didn't have to go in, and schools were closed all over the Chicagoland area, including mine--to watch news coverage of the blizzard, futz around on our computers, nap, eat sandwiches, and finally, finally, watch our Netflix movie (Micmacs--quite enjoyable). That night Trevor took some photos on his walk with Henry.

The second picture is right outside of our building. They're (still) fixing our roof from the fire at the end of September, and some giant foam boards blew off the roof and landed on the sidewalk. Trevor claimed that they weren't heavy, but I contest they could have knocked him out if they'd hit him in the head. They're still sitting there, or at least, they were still there on Friday.

Not everyone was as lucky as we'd been on Tuesday night, though. My friend Angie had been coming home from After-Words bookstore (where she and I used to work together, and before that, CST), and her bus trip from Illinois and State to Wrigleyville wasn't altogether pleasant. And here, for the first ever guest spot on Archipelago (how exciting!), is Angie, with her account of the trek:

"I was on Lake Shore Drive during the winter madness. I got out of work early and caught the northbound 146 bus home at about 5:20 p.m. Things were slowly but surely moving and it took two hours to get from Michigan Avenue to just north of Fullerton Avenue and then we just stopped. The wind outside made it impossible to see more than a few feet. We could see the lights from the other cars but that was very limited. Luckily the bus was warm and dry and had a diesel engine so we didn’t run out of fuel and kept our spirits up. I must confess to getting very freaked out at times mostly when I heard the thunder and saw the lightning. Thunder snow may be a rare meteorological event, but it’s nothing you want to hear when you are sitting in a plastic bus!

The most frustrating was the lack of communication between the CTA and emergency services and us. No one from the outside was telling us anything. We had to rely on people’s smart phones and iPads to tell us what was going on. Our bus driver was even afraid to use his cell phone because it’s against the rules and he could be fired. I find that very disheartening that there is no central dispatch that connects all the drivers and they can’t contact anyone or have a direct line to anyone when it was needed the most. We had a great bus driver and his high spirits made things a lot easier.

So the hours were ticking slowly by and I must admit I was beginning to think that I would have to sleep on the bus and wait for morning. Around one in the morning we were beginning to see the fire department walking around outside checking on people in the cars surrounding our bus. One fireman came on board and said that they were going to get another bus to us on the southbound side to take us to a “warming station” and see where we would go from there.

We were finally bundled off the bus and had to cross the highway median to another bus already full of other stranded folks from buses and cars. It was a tight fit but we all wedged in and made our way slowly to St. Joseph’s hospital for the next part of our night. It was crowded and I was sweating into my very thick coat, but I was happy to be on a bus that moved! It seemed that everyone on the bus was still in good shaped but very tired and looking forward to being off the road and, hopefully, make it home.

After a slow crawl and some backing up we walked about a block into the hospital where we were greeted with hot drinks, blankets, food and to my GREAT relief, bathrooms! After eight hours on a bus I was doing a very elaborate pee pee dance let me tell you. I inhaled the bagel and orange that I got from the staff and was nice to sit and take off my coat. Unfortunately there was no transport out of the hospital and I spent the next seven hours trying to doze and think about how I was going to get home to my bed and a large pot of tea.

The hospital provided a hot breakfast of bagels, and oatmeal (the first and last I’ll ever eat I hope) with and apple and orange juice. It was warm and there so I ate and was grateful for a full tummy. My blizzard buddy Heather and I had had enough and along with a couple of other ladies decided we were going to the bus stop at Belmont and see if the busses were running. That bus stop was close enough to my place that if I made it that far I could chance the walk home. CTA bus tracker said that the 151 was running and we went for it. I never felt more out of shape in my life as when we were climbing over the snow. Some places were at least a couple of feet deep and no shovel had yet touched them. We were nearing the Belmont stop and there were busses lined up so we knew that they were at least on the road. We arrived at the bus stop and found another of our bus mates already at the stop. Every bus that went by wasn’t ours but we were hopeful and just when I had decided to walk, it arrived. The warm, moving bus took me the final blocks to my apartment and we saw men, women, children and dogs playing and running down the middle of Lake Shore Drive.

I was so happy to see my block, then my courtyard where the wind had not been kind and snow drifts had come up at least waist high in some places and the doors didn’t really want to close because of the all the packed snow. My apartment has never been so welcoming. I was never so glad to take off my clothes and put on my pajamas. I covered my eyes and plugged my ears and slept from 9 a.m. until at least 5:30 p.m. It was a great relief. After heating up some leftovers and making my long-dreamed-for pot of tea, I made my calls and was called by friends and relations checking in on me and catching me up on what had happened while I was stuck in the void. I went to bed again around midnight and slept through till eight this morning when my alarm went off. I was not looking forward to getting out again but it had to be done and I was not alone. The busses were running and they were full with people like me going to work and getting on with things."

Holy cow. All morning long T. and I had been watching footage of LSD, and poor Angie had spent the night there. I'm glad she's safe and sound, and can only imagine how good that pot of tea tasted. Just to end her story on a super high note, here's an image of her on a much, much happier day:

Thursday morning, T. got to go back to work, but MCC was still closed down, which meant another day off and a total monkey wrench in my class schedule. But I'm sure no one feels too bad for me, especially not my students. I spent most of the day grading papers, but still had time to do the laundry and watch two Tom Hanks movies (who knew he's appropriate movie material for a blizzard?).

And now, after five days away from school--some of it spent working, but much more of it spent watching movies, eating sandwiches (really delicious tomato sandwiches on this amazing sourdough from the Green Grocer), knitting (check out this scarf I finished for Maya!

And that's the very first time I've done a scarf with fringe--so exciting!), enjoying a date night with T. at Girl and the Goat (where we were pleasantly surprised by the variety of pescatarian options, especially the chick pea fritters and the grilled seppia), I finally have to go back to school tomorrow. Boo.

So, off I go. To sleep, or, rather, to bed to grade a few more creative writing assignments before falling asleep. And tonight, I shall dream of a world without thundersnow.

2011-01-16T21:40:00.001-06:00

Some Bosco Blogging Before Classes Start

So, I felt that Bosco was under-represented during the last blog post, so I figured that I'd post some excellent pictures here, after I started with a video from his very first swimming lesson (check out his awesome one-piece swimming suit):

Here are a few pictures of Bosco on Christmas Eve-Eve.

Uncle Trevor and the B-man

In case he forgets his name

Overwhelmed by all of his loot

And here are my favorite two of him hanging out with Grandma Bork:

He's already reading. Obviously, this is Grandma's and not Greg's influence.

Auntie Laura got him this shirt. I suspect that on this particular afternoon, some major grandson spoiling went down.

And Fran N. sent me some of the pictures from our New Year's Eve weekend with them up in Door County. Here they are:

Me and T at the Log Den for NYE dinner

Fran and Neill at the Log Den for NYE dinner

Trevor sporting Jim's old denim vest

Happy New Year!

And that's pretty much it! Classes start tomorrow, and although my syllabus have been done for a little while, I'm not 100% prepared (surprise, surprise). Trevor gets his ManDay Monday back, which I have a feeling he's pretty happy about. And I'll be off for now to get a little bit of tomorrow's lesson plan finished, and to figure out what I'll wear. Wish me luck!

2011-01-05T12:27:00.000-06:00

Leftover Miami

Guess what I'm supposed to be doing? Working on my syllabus!

Here are a couple of leftover pictures from my last day in Miami when Rae and Letty were in town; I forgot to post them here after I'd come home.

Rachel, Letty, and Trevor next to the CEG booth

One of the many, constant crowds around the Gregory Scott pieces at the CEG booth (and there's T's head in bottom left corner)

Okay, so...I guess that's it. I've already eaten breakfast, worked out, made a number of appointments for eye care and lunching dates, answered some e-mails and voice mails, bought a new calendar for the new year, bought me and T. some movie tickets for Thursday night (The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest!), and eaten lunch. And now. Now. I guess. I should work. bye.

2011-01-04T23:10:00.004-06:00

The Holidays Are Over

And I am thankful. It was so nice to see all of our family and friends, but the three solid days of shopping, wrapping, Christmas-carding, and pie-baking, followed by four days of parties, parties, parties was exhausting.

The Sunday before the Christmas festivities really kicked off, we had Dan, Simona, and Maya over for dinner. She got a new Cookie Monster from me and T (let's be honest: everyone needs a Cookie Monster). She enjoyed it, but had a time keeping it away from Henry.

I'm still working on her post-Christmas present--a trio of scarves made from yarn Simona and I picked out about three months ago. Yes, I'll make you a scarf, and yes, I will have it ready by your 89th birthday. I'm almost finished with the first of the three, and it's turned out pretty good. Here's a sneak peek before I do the finishing with fringe.

The week was then spent doing the aforementioned shopping, carding, etc., we were ready to really celebrate.

Although we didn't take any pictures on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day with the Bosco-Bux-Bork family (too busy eating? drinking? talking loudly? all three?! and I'm hoping that Mom Bork can send me some of Bosco doing his first Christmas thing), but we have some nice pictures taken by Trevor's Uncle Doug (and one by Trevor) when we went to Doug and Jean's house for brunch the day after Christmas.

Great Grandma Madel, Sadie, and Angi--picture by Doug Madel

The post-Christmas brunch--picture by Doug Madel (top right)

Angi, Destiny, Fran and Sadie, and me--pic by T-spoon

After brunch, we drove out to Batavia to hang out with Pop and Fran Power for some lunch, games, and all around fun.

Sadie with her new blue pal, Devin

Grandpop Power and Sadie

He's got a little Capt'n in him

Sadie doesn't like the cut of Trevor's gib, so she's coming to get him

Now, when Trevor and I found that blue dog for Sadie, we knew that it was a bit old for her, but we figured she'd grow into it. We are so happy, though, that she can totally bounce on him for at least a few seconds before tilting off! Here's more of her enjoying Devin at home.

The Monday after Christmas, Trevor, Henry, and I packed our bags and headed out of town (Henry, though, just layed around like a bum and watched while Trevor and I packed his rubber bones into the suitcase). We drove up to Door County to spend a week and ring in the New Year in cheese head style.
We stayed the week with Jim in his new log cabin--a cabin he built himself, with help from his friend Paul. He finished it about a year ago, but we hadn't been up to see it, so while it's not super new to him anymore, it was new to us. He did a terrific job on it and we truly enjoyed hunkering down in front of a roaring fire for all of the reading, knitting (Henry and I did a lot of knitting, but Trevor didn't), napping, eating, and movie watching we did.

One evening for dinner, we visited Jim's favorite supper club, the Nightingale, and the next night we took in a show at the Sturgeon Bay cineplex.

And True Grit was pretty bad a**. Not as violent as we thought it would be (the word on the street had me thinking it would be on par with Kill Bill), but it was just perfectly violent enough for a really dusty, gritty (sorry, it had to be done), gun-filled Western.

Neill and Fran came up on Thursday night to spend the New Year's weekend, and we added "playing board games" to the list of high-octane activities we'd been doing. Here's Trevor posing with some of the games we played--Wits and Wagers was by far our favorite, so thanks, Mom Bork, for picking that one up!

Hmm. That's weird. Pic by Fran Napier

We also got to see Grandma and Grandpa Madel a few times, which was really nice. The lake view from their house was spectacular and we were so thankful not to be a part of the Polar Bear Club that was taking a yearly jump into Lake Michigan on New Year's Day.

We also have some nice pictures from our NYE dinner at the Log Den (where the food was good but the service left a lot to be desired), and Fran's going to e-mail them to me tomorrow, so look for that good stuff.

And now we're home. Our laundry has been done, our larder has been re-stocked, Trevor has gone back to work, and Henry has been sleeping off the vacation for the past 72 hours. I don't return to campus until January 12 (my first 2011 meeting, and even though it's only going to be about an hour, I'll be officially back) so this week I've got to finish my syllabus (no, I haven't finished, and yes, I'm a month late, and no, I don't want to hear any proverbs about procrastination), get my hair cut, meet my friend Kate for lunch in Kenosha, meet Mom for lunch, meet Paula and Bosco for lunch (Paula, I'll be calling you tomorrow), meet my friend Angie for lunch, finish Maya's scarf, Adam's scarf, and Gabe's new hat, finish the two Brock and Kolla mysteries that just came today in the mail (and the other five new books I got for Christmas [and the two books I got in Door County]), get my eyes checked and my teeth cleaned, and use my Christmas present from Trevor, a Swedish massage (!). And I should probably prep for my first week of classes, too. Oh, blah.

Look for a few more posts while I procrastinate finishing my syllabi tomorrow!

2010-12-03T15:59:00.001-06:00

Welcome to Miami

I flew into Miami last night to meet Trevor, who's here with the gallery for Art Miami. This morning, Cathy, Trevor and I were picked up by another gallerist/friend of Cathy's and her assistant and the five of us headed to a very interesting space. Apparently, decades ago, the son of a very wealthy family started collecting art--he was 13 years old--and now he and the family have a massive collection that they have opened up for public viewing. They curate different exhibits from the collection, and this one showcased the work he collected from the start until he was 21. The space was huge, and there was some terrific art there. We marveled at the idea of someone having enough money to just go around to galleries and art fairs and buy what they like. I can't remember the name of the space (I have a query text to Trevor and hopefully he'll get back to me soon), but here are a couple of images:

There were a lot of installation pieces, and one interactive piece. The museum was a big warehouse, and there was a small house beyond a wall in the backyard that is set for demolition. So some artists set up a porridge walk. We started by going through a hole in the wall behind the warehouse (there was ivy dripping from the top and it felt like we were about to enter a magical garden) and up a little walkway into this little house in disrepair. The first room in the house held a big table piled high with little white bowls, which we were told to take. The next room held another table piled with soup spoons. Then, in the next room, the kitchen, was yet another table, this one packed with what must have been fifty crock-pots full of porridge. A girl was ladeling out the porridge, and after we had a little bowl full, we wandered to the next two rooms, where there were two more tables: one piled with packets of raw sugar and another with raisin boxes. We ate up our porridge and wound up in the back yard, next to the path we'd started on. It was just charming and a lovely way to start the day.

Trevor and Cathy went to the fair, and once it opened at 11 I came in and did a bit of looking around. I left them after about thirty minutes (I'll go back tonight and again tomorrow with Rae and Letty) and wandered up to the Miami Design District to see what they had going on and scope out an option for tonight's dinner. And this is what I found.

This awesome sight was organized by a group called Friends With You as part of Art Basel (another big fair going on right now here in Miami). Apparently, it's an interactive display meant to play on the Hindu festival Holi, where people toss brightly colored paint powders at each other (it sounds odd but is so much fun [though I haven't done it, but seen it portrayed in a movie T. and I watched]--it's sort of like a food fight, but more fun because everyone is covered in colors instead of meatloaf).

There were lots of people around, walking through and sitting on the blankets that the Friends With You had put on the ground. After looking at more shops and restaurants in the district, I came back at lunch time, got a grilled cheese from a food-stand-in-a-van (there were three stands: the grilled cheese place, a bbq joint, and a sweets mobile, where I scored some mini-cupcakes for me, T., and Cathy to enjoy later on tonight). My picnic was most enjoyable, as was the scenery.

Gruyere and apple grilled cheese, and sweet potato fries

I also wandered into a studio--Swamp Studio--across from the park. It was an odd little place, but there was a rooster. Not that a rooster makes things more normal, but certainly more interesting...

And now, I'll sign off to get ready for this evening. I'm meeting the working folks at the fair and then it's off to dinner with Lisa and Ashley, and Doug and Wally from another Chicago gallery. I'm sure I'll have more after Rachel and Letter come down, so look for it!

2010-11-30T19:39:00.001-06:00

It's Done

This was what I was finishing up last night:

My "hybrid" (deemed this by my dean) tenure portfolio

And this is what I'm doing tonight to celebrate turning in what I was finishing up last night:

Leftover cashew tofu and a glass of wine

I'm watching a little trash t.v. right now, and Henry is napping on the floor by my feet. Trevor is at the opening of Art Miami; he left early (6:45 a.m. flight) on Sunday morning, installed the gallery's booth yesterday, and was hanging around South Beach today before he and Cathy had to be at the opening. I'm leaving to meet him on Thursday afternoon, and I can't wait. The weather in Chicago today is getting me down, and it's currently 82 in Miami. Ahhhhhhhh, that sounds good.

And now, I must re-fill wine glass and watch more trash t.v. I should do some work, but it's just so nice not to. So, I won't. G'night.

2010-11-26T09:54:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Trevor and I have a visitor for Thanksgiving this year: our friend Adam, who's in town this weekend for his cousin's wedding. While Trevor grabbed him at the airport Thursday morning, I started cooking. The boys kept me company in the kitchen with a game of Trivial Pursuit, and then later on in the afternoon, we sat down for a Thanksgiving supper. It was all pretty good, if I do say so myself.

It was a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal, starting with a goat cheese and pumpkin dip snack, baked macaroni and cheese as a main entree, and sides of carrots with dill butter, candied sweet potatoes, stuffing, "Harvard" beets, jellied cranberry sauce, and crescent rolls. Here are some pictures (though please be warned that the jellied cranberry sauce looks a bit like liver):

Adam, getting ready to eat

We ate until we couldn't eat any more, and then Adam, Henry, and I took a nap while Trevor, amazing husband that he is, cleaned up the dishes.

Or we thought that he was doing dishes; he was really taking candid pictures of us sleeping.

When we woke up, we played a game of Scrabble while snacking on Maurice Lenell cookies (I got a tub of holiday cookies, which are almost worth it, but only almost, because they seriously skimped on the jelly stars...) and then some of the Indian rice pudding I'd made first thing in the morning.

We ended the day by watching a couple of movies and then heading off to bed. Today, Trevor's back at work and Adam is planning a lovely morning running around to the galleries and museums of Chicago. I am looking forward to a day of working on my tenure portfolio, which is due on Tuesday. I'm about ten pages into the narrative, with maybe another ten to go, and I have to organize and link up to all of my documentation, most of which I scanned in on Tuesday night before leaving campus. I plan to only leave the house twice more this weekend: once for my appointment with Bob, the personal trainer at the West Loop Athletic Club (I joined a gym in October. Yikes.), tomorrow at 10 a.m., and again to drive Trevor to the airport on Sunday morning (his flight is at 6:45 a.m., so I'm guessing we'll leave about 5, or even before because Cathy likes to get to the airport early. Gross.). But since the Sunday morning trip will be so early, it barely counts. And then I'll be up and awake and ready to start working when I get back home.

Before I sign off here to do some work, I'd like to show you all some of the Halloween pictures I forgot to post up here last month. Sadie and Bosco were both styling in their devil and pumpkin costumes, respectively.

She's also wearing a cape (because that's what devils do...)

Sadie, trying to figure out a glow-stick before Sean adds it to his awesome Halloween lawn display)

Trevor and me with the jack-o'-lantern, courtesy of Paula

So I guess that's all for now. I have two more weeks of classes and then one week of finals. I'm behind on my grading, and I wish I could use the tenure portfolio as an excuse, but I can't; I'm just behind. I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to this winter break. While on break, I might blog a little more, or I might just sit on the couch, sip a cup of coffee, and stare at the bookshelf.

Trevor leaves for Art Miami on Sunday (the 6:45 a.m. flight), and I'm going to join him on Thursday afternoon for just a few days. We'll be seeing Rachel and Letty, too, and I'm really looking forward to some post-tenure portfolio (but still grading) relaxation. And hopefully I'll post the pictures we have from the trip up here right away. But no promises.

Happy after-Thanksgiving to you all, and here's hoping no one gets trampled while shopping today!

2010-09-24T11:52:00.001-05:00

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof Is On Fire...

Trevor, Henry, and I had an anxious experience in the wee hours of Friday morning. We'd spent Thursday night hanging around at Juli and Matt's new crib, drinking some beer, eating some pizza, and watching the start of the new season of NBC sitcoms (Outsourced was d.r.e.a.d.f.u.l.). We were home and in bed by a little after ten and sleeping soundly.

At about two in the morning, our neighbor, Doug, pounded on our door, waking up Henry and Trevor instantly (I took a bit longer, as I tend to do...). When Trevor answered the door, Doug was already back down the hall, having banged on everyone's door, and he shouted, "Get out of the building, there's a fire on the roof." So we quickly got dressed, grabbed Henry, and were out. Our hallway was full of shattered glass from the door leading out into the parking lot, but otherwise, there wasn't much noise other than our muffled footsteps and the murmurs of confusion from us and our next door neighbors, Poppy and Jason. But as soon as we got outside and looked up at the building, this is what we saw:

The street was lined with fire engines, ambulances, and police SUVs. The men from Ladder 19 had their giant ladder up to our roof and they had the fire out in about thirty minutes (see some footage on the NBC website here and another story about it from CBS here). We saw right away that no one was being carried out of the building, and the ambulances weren't going anywhere, so we just stood around, watching the flames and smoke filling the sky, and then watching the firemen to firemen-type activities for two hours. Henry was in a state of pure excitement since many of our building's residents have dogs, and he was trying to get to all of them. We were finally let back in with the rest of the pajama clad residents at around four in the morning (and I was finally able to use the restroom--that'll teach me to say, "No, I'd better evacuate the building instead of waiting to use the facilities, because I might die in a fiery inferno," and blah blah blah).

The next morning--or, later on that same morning--Trevor took some pictures of the damaged deck from our common deck on top of the six floor roof.

The rumor in the building is that a coal grill turned over, setting the deck on fire. I wouldn't be surprised if that was true, since the wind was blowing like mad that night. Thankfully none of the other decks--and no roofs of adjacent buildings--caught on fire. Some of our neighbors, the ones in the center of our hallway around the same place as the fire four stories up, got a lot of water damage in their units, but we, thankfully, had none. The management company set to cleaning up the damage pretty quickly on Friday morning, and they worked on it all day yesterday as well.

We were exhausted at work all day--I usually don't go to campus on Fridays, but I had two meetings, one of which I'd called, so I needed to go in. And we of course had plans on Friday night to go see the MCA/Redmoon Theater collaboration, "The Astronaut's Birthday," on the steps of the museum. Here are a couple of pictures of the production:

They'd set up three levels of puppeteers in the front windows of the museum, and bleachers and empty space on the front. We were lucky enough to get bleacher seats instead of plunking down straight on the concrete (though our butts were achy nonetheless after a very long hour). The graphics and presentation were terrific, but the story left quite a bit to be desired. The show did, though, remind us of how much fun we'd had at a previous Redmoon show and that we should go back again soon, especially since their space is just a few blocks from our place.

By the time we got home that night, having both worked full days on just a few hours of sleep, we were ready to crash. And we certainly did.

So, that was our mid-week excitement! Friday morning on my way in on the train, there was a pedestrian accident at the Barrington Metra station, so my train was delayed--only about twenty minutes, while the in-bound trains were delayed over an hour. I was on pins and needles all day, thinking, "These things come in threes, isn't that what people say?" But thankfully there wasn't a third disaster; or at least not one in my immediate circle of life.

Well, now I've got to go, since I spent most of yesterday being a vegetable to make up for my lack of vegetableness on Friday (a day usually reserved for me doing 3.47 hours of work and then being a couch zucchini [a much lazier vegetable than a potato, f.y.i.] for the remainder of the day), which means that I didn't get much done. I'm doing laundry at present, and blogging instead of working on tomorrow's lesson plan, grading the forty-odd papers I have to grade, and working on my tenure portfolio. Yikes. I'll sign off, and here's to hoping that the temperature doesn't drop much below sixty for at least another month!

2010-09-14T21:50:00.001-05:00

Some Things I've Been Forgetting

First:

Trevor was at work last month, minding his own business, when he received a phone call from a fellow named Lucas, an artist and writer of the Meaning In Art. Lucas asked Trevor a few questions, and, for being such a helpful chap, Trevor got quoted in this piece! (scroll about halfway down the page) We were very excited about this, and even more excited that Trevor was called a "nice gentleman." Of course we know he's a nice gentleman, but it's always lovely when someone else recognizes it.

Second:

Trevor and I were home a few weeks ago, and we noticed some odd stirrings in the alley behind our building. For those of you who have never been to our place, or those who have never been in our bedroom (probably many of you have been to our house but not in our bedroom. too bad.), just outside of our bedroom window is an alley we share with a charter high school and a church rectory. Not bad neighbors. But, since we're also at street level on the first floor, we do get our share of weird passers-by.

But last month, we witnessed what was certainly the most hilarious spectacle we'd seen or heard in the past five years. It involves a middle school-aged boy with a great imagination and lots of time on his hands, some empty milk crates, and two total voyeurs with a video-recording feature on their camera (that's us). That's all I'll say, because now, YOU MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO. Thanks to Sean Power for the amazing editing and soundtrack.

We fondly call him Crate Boy, and we seem to constantly see him in the neighborhood, riding around. He lives somewhere on the street behind us and we share the alley. I've never been more thankful for that alley. I hope you enjoyed it; I know we did. That jerk near the end of the video is us bursting into hysterics and Trevor dropping the camera for a second. Please share it with your friends. But don't tell them what's coming. Let them experience it for themselves.

Third:

The 2010 issue of our literary arts magazine, Voices, came out a couple of weeks ago, and I must say that I'm pretty proud of it (though there's one typo that will drive me crazy for the next year, if not forever). Check it out on our website in the PDF or Flash editions.

And that's it! I think. If I remember anything else, I'll let you know. Until then, goodnight Maya, Gabe, Olympia, Jameson, Sadie, and Bosco!

2010-09-12T22:07:00.002-05:00

Playing Catch-Up

So, of course school starts and I absolutely neglect the blog. This is the story of the blog, and those of you who are regular readers know it by now. So I'll catch you up on the happenings around here since the end of August.

First, a few weekends ago, Mom and I had a lovely breakfast at the Palmer House restaurant, and then moseyed on down to the Gold Coast Arts Fair for some...art.

The lobby bar at the Palmer House

Mom in "front" of Buckingham Fountain (the mini-van snuck into the picture)

Me, with some art

Making a purchase

It was hot, so we only stayed at the fair for about an hour. Mom headed home and I went up to After-Words, where my friend Angie had just taken in bags full of Agatha Christie paperbacks. Of course, I left with quite a few.

The Choices

My Take-Home

Later that day we went to a Bears pre-season game against the Oakland Raiders. The tickets were thanks to Mr. Neill Power, and we brought along our friends Juli and Matt. The Bears lost the game, but we had amazing seats and a terrific time. Although the first interception/touchdown by the Bears caused the row directly behind us to fly into a frenzy, spilling beer down Juli's back (the guys responsible bought her a beer for her damp-shirted troubles), and dumping an Italian beef sandwich on Matt's leg (he was not bought anything for his wet-legged troubles).

The Crowd

Our Amazing Seats

Matt and Trevor

Trevor, Matt, and Juli--celebrating our non-victory in the urban tunnels of Chicago

The next morning, we had the gang over to watch the Man United game. We had coffee, donuts, bagels, and a lot of cheering.

We spent dinner that night hanging out with new Bosco Bork. And a lot of other Borks. He's gaining a little bit of weight and his tiny cheeks are rounding out the tiniest bit. He's even getting big enough to sit in his own chair. Not very stably, but he fits!

Mom is not too thrilled that I'm making her do this to her new grandbaby

And although Bosco is much, much too small to wear this shirt, Trevor and I couldn't resist getting it for him. We'll wait until he's in kindergarten to get him License to Ill.

Uncle Trevor and Bosco

Grandma Nichols

Labor Day weekend, Rachel came into town to surprise Pop Power for his birthday. We headed down to Bridgeview with Pop, Rae, Angi, and Sean (Sadie had a babysitter), and we met up with Fran and Neill for the Chicago Fire game at Toyota Park. The seats were in the "Party Deck" and we were practically on the pitch. The Fire played the L.A. Galaxy, so we got to see beady-eyes Donovan, although I was supremely disappointed to come back from the bathroom to find that I'd missed his corner kick about twenty feet from our seats. I missed my chance to heckle him from close range, so I made it my job to heckle him later on when he missed a goal attempt.

Stupid Donovan

I got to play on the practice pitch after the game. It's my first cartwheel in about ten years

We ended Rae's trip with some Smart Ass and Apples to Apples playing at Angi and Sean's. And Neill tried on Sadie's new NASA bib from Auntie Rae.

We finished up the Labor Day holiday weekend with a luncheon to celebrate Bosco's forty day blessing (who knew such a thing existed?!). And we got some nice pictures of the new parents and the new great-grandma.

The super attractive new family

Great-Grandma Bosco with...Bosco!

I'll leave you with a little something from my life as a commuter. Sometimes the bus is late to campus in the afternoon and I'm a few minutes too late for the train, which means I've got to wait about an hour until the next one. If it's not too late and the weather is okay, I don't mind doing this, and that was the situation the week before last. I'd gotten a Starbucks gift card for presenting at our fall faculty workshop, so I wandered through downtown Crystal Lake to the coffee shop for a totally gratuitous toffee mocha something awesome, and then I went to a fantastic little gift shop to spend some time...and some money. This was the result.

I'll make it an extra special point to keep the updates coming. For now, everyone enjoy the perfect weather, because as soon as we get used to the idea of Fall, it'll start snowing.

2010-08-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

OMG I'M DONE WITH SUMMER SCHOOL!

I finished up my grading this week and turned in my final grades on Thursday night. And this is what the parking lot looked like when I left campus.

It might have been kind of late, like, maybe about 9 p.m. But I got it done and didn't have to go in on Friday, which was fantastic.

The day before, I decided that I'd walk from campus to the train station in downtown Crystal Lake. I haven't been sleeping well, so I figured that a nice three mile walk would tire me out for bedtime. A former student of mine had told me that he'd once ridden his bike on the trail that starts next to our baseball field and it had taken him to downtown and pretty close to his house. So I packed my walking shoes, wore something loose fitting, and left campus at 3 p.m. in hopes of catching the 4:15 train.

The first half of the walk was great: it was sunny and beautiful, I was walking through corn fields, and the only sounds were crickets and my sweat dripping onto the asphalt (yes, it's gross, but oh my goodness was it hot out.).

So, after about forty-five minutes of walking, the trail...ended. Yes, it ended. It turned into a little cul de sac with only the Queen Anne's Lace and the railroad tracks beyond it. I stopped, wondering what on earth I was going to do, and then I decided not to waste all of my hard walking and sweat. I took the train tracks for about a block to the road (Yes, I know that's how people die, but I did not die, and I felt for a few nostalgic moments like I was Corey Feldman in Stand By Me. Is this the only time I've felt like Corey Feldman in a movie from the '80s? No, it is not.).

And the story ends on an anti-climactic note. I didn't have to dodge a train; I actually took sidewalks and was able to do more than a mile in the shade. But I did look hot enough (I think my face and neck were the color of sweaty radishes) for a woman in a Toyota sedan to pull a U-turn and ask me if I needed a ride. I told her, "Thanks! But I'm actually doing this on purpose." People are sometimes nicer than I give them credit for.

I made the 4:15 train, but only because it was running two minutes late. I should have waited for the 5 p.m., because although the train's AC felt just glorious, after fifteen minutes, my muscles were angry with not being stretched out and cooled down properly (after a week of exercising, I've got the jargon down). But my radish face eventually paled on down, and I was glad I'd made the walk (and of course, I was glad knowing that I will never make that walk again).

Friday was fairly uneventful, though T. and I watched Kick-Ass, a surprisingly violent, and surprisingly fun, comic book adaptation. We saved up our energy for the Neenan's Third Annual (I'm making that up) Air and Water Show Party on Saturday.

In the morning before Trevor went to work, we met Dan, who's back from Lithuania (Simona and Maya are staying the rest of the month), for breakfast at the Howard Johnson's Luna Café. Why is it called the "Luna Café"? I have no idea.

After breakfast, I headed home for a few hours to hang out with Henry before heading to the Neenan's place and meeting the gang. We ate, drank, laughed, watched some people jumping out of airplanes and parachuting into the city (I'm sure they were landing in the lake, but from our vantage point, it looked like they were landing on top of the Hancock), and after he was done with work, Trevor met us there. We stayed until dark and then rambled home to sleep.

(From Left) Rebecca, Julie, Mike, Jeremy, Rory (hand in the air, head blocked by her husband), Matt (Rory's husband), Mike and Amy's friend, Julie, Lisa's friends, whose names I didn't get

A poorly designed Blue Angels montage (I designed it)

Julie, Me, Rebecca, and Amy

Mike's New Little Lady Friend

Lisa's friend and her little baby, Mike, and Lisa

Julie's New Snooki-Do

And now Trevor's getting ready to take the bike to Dan's house, and I'm about to take my lazy self to the roof deck for some reading in the sun. By Thursday, I've got to re-read Devil in the White City, which is the book my One Book, One College committee chose and which is the basis for a couple of our Thursday workshop breakout sessions. I read it years ago, but should brush up on it. But I'd really like to finish White Teeth first, so I'll spend some QT with it this afternoon.

We're visiting the new parent Borks tonight for Paula's birthday BBQ, so we'll have some Bosco pictures for you all later on. Until then...go, lazy Sundays!

2010-08-09T01:19:00.002-05:00

Two Weekends Wrapped Up

I meant to post something at the end of last weekend, but I didn't get my act together in time. I'm finishing up the summer with end-of-semester grading and final planning for our Fall Faculty Workshop (on August 19), and since I'm such a procrastinator, I've saved all of it for the last minute. That means less time for blogging (and for sanity, as it turns out...).

But we've had some fun since our last post, so I figured I'd fill you in. Last weekend, I gathered a bunch of "treasures" I no longer needed to sell at my friend and fellow blogger Rory's garage sale. Rory, her other half, Matt, and their two sons, Cameron and Connor, have been dealing like champs with Cameron's health problems, so they set about for a garage sale to raise a bit of scratch and add some levity to a stressful weekend spent, by Rory and Cameron, in the hospital. But we sold a bunch of lovely junk to a bunch of craaaaazy garage sale hoppers. The fun-factor was high, since the company was great and the people watching was second to none.

Mr. Miller and Ditka, wishing they could hang outside

Lisa, looking right at home with the characters at the sale

Amy and Ditka, selling like mad

I also took a bit of video of Rory and Matt's little guy, Connor, when he was being especially awesome. Check it out.

I also found this small giraffe in a box of Cameron and Connor's old stuffed toys, and it reminded me so much of this amazing DirecTV commercial, which, if you haven't seen it, check it out. Like, now, please. Because it's so weird.

On Sunday, Trevor and I went to the theater to see Dinner for Schmucks. We were a few minutes too late to see the first show at the River East theater, so we decided to wait a bit for the 600 N. Michigan's first screening. We wasted a bit of time eating a breakfast picnic in the park. It was a beautiful morning, and we didn't feel guilty at all leisurely eating our bagels and cream cheese while all of the hard running half-marathoners, having finished their race, strolled through the sidewalks around us. Amy and Julie had both run the half-marathon and finished very well, beating some celebrities in the process (Al Roker and the Real Housewives' own Kelly Bensimon [a real nutbar if you ask me...]), so we're very proud of them!

After the movie (which wasn't nearly as funny as we hoped it would be and thought it could have been, and after our viewing the previous evening of A Single Man [a really subtle, beautiful, and sad movie] we'd set the bar rather high), we wandered up to Chicago Avenue to take the bus to the Five Star for some late lunch. On our way to the bus, we saw this:

It was outside of a church, and I do believe that it's got something to do with God. I found it a bit strange, but interesting enough.

We enjoyed some drinks at Five Star, once we stopped lolligagging to gape a giant red feet, and a couple of veggie burgers.


Frozen Lemonade (yes, with a bit of vodka) = Perfect Sunday Afternoon Treat

We went home for some rest after working so very hard, and then capped the evening off with the newest episode of Mad Men.

On Monday, Bosco Bork came home! We went to see him after dinner, and he was just as small (smaller, even) and as Benjamin-Buttonly adorable as ever. We didn't take any pictures, but we'll be seeing him again this week (Paula and Greg, I haven't told you this, so hopefully you won't mind if we invade your home...).

The rest of the week trucked on by with my last days of classes for the semester. And here are my absolutely adorable classes:

This weekend, I geared up for my friend Caren's wedding in Lake Geneva. Trevor stayed home with Henry (since our designated dog-sitters, Greg and Paula seemed otherwise occupied with a newborn baby. pshaw.) and I hitched a ride with Mary and Andy. On the way, we made a Brat Stop to indulge in sandwiches and cheese fries. We were by far the best dressed table in the joint.

Caren and her new husband, Tim, looked so lovely and happy at the ceremony, and the reception was loads of fun. The group of us spent the night at our friend Amy's summer house in Delevan, WI, just a few minutes drive from the reception, and the house full of eleven houligans was like having a great big wonderful adult sleepover. Sans pillow-fights and bra freezings, though I wouldn't have put it past some of the rabble rousers. It did include, however, a lively game of late night Catch Phrase. I, personally, laughed so hard during some of the clues that I had tears in my eyes and a stitch in my side. Here's what most of it our day looked like:

The Happy Couple Under Their Huppah

Mary and Lisa

The cake was pretty and delicious!

The view from the Riviera

We're blurry because we're laughing so hard

Amy, tearing up the dance floor

Now, I also took a bit of video of the evening (with my new and improved iPhone second generation thanks to Trevor's acquisition of the newest model--thank you, husband!). In order to best showcase everyone's talents, I chose the Polka footage I shot.

And now I'm home, having been reunited with my fellas earlier this afternoon, and we've been lounging around all day. We watched Man United trounce those Chelsea gorps, and then we took some naps (one each). We ate spaghetti, watched Five Minutes of Heaven--a pretty decent not-revenge revenge movie--and then settled in for another Sunday Mad Men.

Tomorrow, our friend Cat is coming into town (I'm hoping she's bringing her baby, Olympia, with her!), so I'll likely be blowing off more grading to hang out with her and Trevor. We'll have more photos from this week and more news about me finally finishing summer semester (grades are due on Friday, but I'm absolutely turning them in by Wednesday so I can have at least five days off before the fall semester workshop, training, and class hoopla starts), and pictures (and maybe more video) from Lisa and Matt's Air and Water Show Party. Until then, goodnight, Bosco!

2010-07-30T18:59:00.002-05:00

Bosco Blogging

These are Bosco's toes:

They are very small

I visited Paula and Greg this afternoon before they did their 2 p.m. feeding, so I got to see the tiny guy for a bit. I, obviously, took a few pictures and a very short video (13 seconds--my memory card filled up quickly or it would have been at least 20...).

Gettin' some grub

Getting burped (he's already super good at bodily functions.)

Checking out his new Aunt Laura who was making some faces at him


Getting tickled

2010-07-28T22:12:00.002-05:00

Introducing the Newest and Smallest Member of our Family:

Bosco Anthony Bork! Bosco is my mom's maiden name, and Anthony is Paula's dad's name, so it's all in the family. And although I can't help thinking of my grandma and grandpa Marie and Rocco Bosco, and Seinfeld and George Costanza's secret code, Greg has assured us that we can call him Bo or Boz (which I might choose, because Boz was Charles Dickens's pen name when he was writing essays) We'll have to see what he answers to in the next few months.

In addition to being the newest, Bosco is also the reddest and the wrinkliest, and certainly the softest and the squishiest. But although he was tooting a bit tonight, Henry still has the title of fartiest.

Paula had this tiniest of Borks on Tuesday night at just about 8:16 p.m. He came six weeks early, the little scamp, and has to spend the next few days in the Newborn (I just typed "Newbork" and had to delete...) ICU because he's a skinny little guy (5 lbs. 3 oz.). But he's doing great, as is new Mama Bork! Here are some photos of the new parents, Bosco himself, the new Grandma Bork, and the new Auntie Laura!

Dad, Mom, and Baby!

All Hooked Up And Feeling Good

The Prettiest New Grandma (I'm biased)

He has your hair, Greg!

You're So Very Small!

Auntie, Dad, and Bosco


Bosco's First Toot: way to go, kid!

I'll be posting more pictures of little Bosco as soon as I see him again (maybe Friday), or as soon as I steal some pics from the other people who are visiting him. Trevor and I enjoyed the view from Paula's room, too, and I took a shot of Trevor taking a shot.

Oh, right. And Paula had a baby shower on Sunday (the timing was perfect!), so here are some of the photos from that!

The Four Pregnant Girls (from left): Toni, Paula, Jen, and Stacy--Paula was not supposed to go first

In addition to being Bosco's birthday, Tuesday was also Sadie's half birthday, so we had a lot to celebrate. And here's a little video taken by Sean to show off how damn cute she's getting.

In other news, I had to report for jury duty today. It was wholly uneventful, though I got lots of papers graded. By the end of the day, though, I'd had quite enough.

And that just made me realize how long a day it's been. I'll sign off for now. Good night, Bosco!

2010-07-25T11:22:00.000-05:00

I've been neglecting my posting, so here are just some highlight pictures from what Trevor, Henry, and I have been up to this summer.

1. We went to our friend Meagan's wedding in Milwaukee, and it was a wonderfully fun time.

That same weekend, our friend Adam was in from Alaska and we got to see him for a couple of days.

2. Trevor and I had tuck-pointing done in the loft, which only took a couple of days, but caused a chain reaction of tarping, cleaning, and reorganizing our many, many books. We didn't get the house back in order until a couple weeks later, but it's so much nicer now!

The work coincided with the World Cup, so we had an excuse to do a lot of hanging out with Sean, Angi, and Sadie (who is a huge soccer fan).

We hosted our own World Cup Final party for the family. I made pulled pork bbq for the first time in my life, and it turned out deliciously! Sean, Angi, and Sadie, along with Neill and Fran, my dad, and Dan, Simona, and Maya were all over to watch the match together. It wasn't a terribly exciting game (Spain v. Netherlands), but Spain won in the end (yahoo!) and we had good food and better company.
And, most importantly, the babies had a good time with Henry.

3. I met a blob monster and he tried to eat me.

And Henry tried to eat him.

4. My mom and I threw a baby shower for Paula, and it was a huge success, and a whole lot of fun.

And, that's pretty much that! I've been keeping busy with summer school, which is almost over, actually, and I'm still marveling at how quickly the summer has gone by. Trevor's been keeping busy at the gallery, and took some great pictures of the newest show.

Mom Bork and I are going to another baby shower for Paula this afternoon, but we only have to be guests, and eat and chat, which is nice. Trevor and I are going to Lake Geneva for a wedding in two weeks, but otherwise we don't have any summer trips planned. And that's actually okay by me. I won't mind sitting on the roof in the sun reading for a few days. Doing nothing is sometimes the best sort of vacation.

2010-05-27T22:13:00.000-05:00

Two Days for Babies

Yesterday, Mom Bork and I met up with Paula and Mrs. Nichols to register for baby things! We had a wonderful time looking at cribs, bedding, strollers, car seats, and some of the cutest mobiles ever. Here are some of the shots of the ladies.

We ended the day with lunch and baby shower gabbing. It was so much fun to make plans for the tiny Pecan Bork. We can't wait to meet him!

Today, after doing a whole lot of nothing for the majority of the morning, I went out to meet Simona and Maya for coffee (Simona and I had lattes, Maya had an Americano with an extra shot) and then a walk. The weather couldn't have been better, and we had a great little trip to the park, where Maya seemed to quite enjoy her swing ride.

Trevor and I had a date tonight to go up to Chicago Soccer to check out their World Cup 2010 tee-shirts and jerseys. They had WC 2010 women's tees in five countries, none of which was the U.S. There were great shirts for the Chicago Red Stars (our women's pro soccer team), but none in my size (although they had excellent little jerseys that Sadie and Maya both will get when they're a little older). And all of the WC 2010 men's soccer tees-shirts were either really boring or were specific to old beady eyes Donovan, who I cannot support specifically (and I cannot let Trevor support him), even though he is a member of a team that we support.

So we might have to get some gear online, or try this new Nike soccer shop on Milwaukee Avenue, Nike x St. Alfred. We tried it after Chicago Soccer, but they'd closed a few minutes before we arrived. It was okay, though, because it gave us an excuse to eat dinner at Rodan across the street from the shop, and our meals were delicious; I had the tilapia tacos and Trevor had the veggie burger with wasabi fries. Both were tasty and really hit the spot(s).

And this weekend we go to Megan and Michael's wedding in Milwaukee! We'll come back on Sunday afternoon, after brunch with Kate, Jim, and the kids, to Henry and Adam waiting for us to go shopping and hang out for the rest of the holiday weekend. I'm sure we'll have more photos to document our mini-vacation. Enjoy tomorrow's weather--it's supposed to be another perfect one!

2010-05-25T15:35:00.000-05:00

Father and Daughter on Man Day

For this week's Monday Manday, Trevor and I had lunch with Dan, Simona, and Maya, and our friend Liz. We stuffed ourselves with tapas from Cafe Iberico, where Simona used to work. We hadn't been there in years, and the food was just as good as we'd remembered. Maya was the best baby in the joint (she didn't fuss or cry or fall off of her chair like some lunatic toddler did) and posed for a number of beautiful pictures for T's new camera.

After the feast (tomato soup with goat cheese, grilled mushrooms, two kinds of potatoes, octopus, clams, avacado salad, and more), Trevor and I were too jammed into our own jeans to go clothes shopping for him like we'd planned, so we went to the grocery store instead. It was good to go on a super-full stomach because we only go the necessities and then came home to putz around. It was hotter than we were ready for, so before we could turn on the AC, Trevor changed out the filter and then, while doing other fantastic man-maintenance, realized that our fire detector is a dud. Luckily we are fire-free and have a fire extinguisher, but we'll be getting the detector fixed a.s.a.p. just in case.

I got the car serviced today before our trip this weekend to Milwaukee for our friend Megan's wedding (she met her fella, Michael, a couple of weeks before our own wedding; at our reception she told Trevor and I that she was going to marry him--and hot damn, and now she is!), and then Henry and I went on a long, hot, hot, walk. We're back now so I could work on my syllabi (which were due a few weeks ago...blergle) and catch up on my backlogged American Idols before tonight's finale. Who do you think will win? I'm banking on the guy from Mt. Prospect, since his version of "Hallelujah" made me tear up. Seriously. Crying about American Idol. It's maybe already time for me to get off the couch and back to class...

And speaking of tearing up at the television set, last night was the last episode--ever--of my favorite show of all time: Law & Order. I'm planning a very special post about it. I have to pull myself together first. I shed a few tears last night while Trevor wasn't looking, so it's going to be an emotional goodbye. Until then...

2010-05-22T11:25:00.000-05:00

Robots in Disguise!

Trevor says that I look like Harry Potter in these glasses. I say, would Harry Potter wear rhinestones? Probably not. But Trevor does have a point...

I infiltrated Man Day this Monday since I'm home for a few weeks between Spring and Summer semesters. Trevor and I went out to lunch, went to the optometrist, and then to See to get some new eyeglasses. We had a lot of fun just trying them all on. Trevor settled on some nice new black frames that he should get next week, and I spotted some cool green frames that I'll come back for in a few weeks.

And that's been one of the most exciting things that I have done this week! I've been kind of a home-body, only leaving the house for Henry walks, grocery shopping excursions, a haircut, a volunteer gig at 826Chicago on Thursday, and...well, that's it. I have also done the laundry, cleaned the bathroom, washed the windows, made ratatouille and root-beer floats (for me and Trevor and our friend, T's co-worker, Juli, who came over for dinner yesterday after work and before they went to a gallery opening), watched three episodes of Columbo (the highlight of my week was discovering that Netflix has all seven Columbo and all nine X-Files seasons on "Watch it Now"), finished a book, started another book, re-potted my shamrock plant, and taken two naps.

And today looks like another adrenaline-pumping litany of high-energy activities. I started out giving some high school students feedback on essays for their AP class, and now I am blogging. I haven't left the couch in two hours except to fill up my coffee cup. It's been pretty nice, though I'll eventually have to stop blogging and take a shower. I think that ironing clothes and watching another couple of Columbo episodes is also in my future. It's a dreary day so I think that Henry will only get two walks instead of the four he got yesterday when it was beautiful and sunny.

So I guess that's my cue. "That" meaning the "Rock Doctors" segment on Sound Opinions that is intervening on a man who only listens to the jam-band, Phish. It's a good time to shower up rather than be transported back in time to my UW years, circa 1994. Have a lovely Saturday afternoon!

2010-05-17T11:02:00.000-05:00

SCHOOL IS OUT!

I'll be posting a lot over the next three weeks while I'm on break before summer school starts. So I'll (hopefully) make up for the lack of posts since March. Flargh!

2010-03-25T19:12:00.000-05:00

My Work Group Is The Cutest Out Of All Of The Groups

Just look at them! The picture the girls took on the tires couldn't have been posed better, I think. So not only are they the hardest workers, but they're the most adorable!

2010-03-24T20:14:00.000-05:00

More From Virginia Here are some great pictures and video from the trip. We're having such a great time, and working our butts off down here. It's not only eye-opening and interesting work, but the landscape is beautiful and the people we're working with are great. Each night I go to sleep on a wooden planked bunk bed, but I don't mind so much. I'm actually excited to go back to our job site tomorrow to get started. With each day we work comes new skills that I'm excited to apply to the next day's task. It's really exciting. Trevor was teasing me that when I get home I'll be able to re-do our kitchen. And in response to that I just laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed... Although I'm looking forward to coming home, I'm also looking forward to our last day's work tomorrow, and the "free" day we'll have on Friday before leaving. We plan to go to hiking on a natural cave trail, which I'm sure will be gorgeous. I'll take lots of pictures, but in the meantime, here are some from the group (and if you want to check out more specific group stuff, check out the school blog we're doing here.).

2010-03-22T19:41:00.001-05:00

Here are some photos of today!

My group did a lot of painting today (I leaned against a freshly painted wall no less than two times and got a white paint butt as a result), and tomorrow we'll go back to the same house (a lovely lady named Linda's house) to fix her basement stairs and build a wall to keep that cold air out. We'll try our hand at building a landing, too, which will be quite interesting. Quite interesting indeed. I'll hopefully have photos of a very successfully built and super-sturdy staircase by the end of the day.

2010-03-21T22:36:00.000-05:00

I'm In Virginia!

I'm one of three advisors for an "alternative spring break" trip with twenty of my college's students. We're volunteering at a community outreach centery in rural Virginia, and we just got here tonight. I'll have lots more to come, and lots of pictures, so stay tuned!

2010-02-03T10:26:00.000-06:00

Sadie Louisiane Power — The Film

2010-02-01T22:42:00.000-06:00

INTRODUCING...

...Miss Sadie Lousiane Power was born on Wednesday afternoon to Mr. Sean Power and Mrs. Angelique Power! She's a tiny little schmuchenbaquin (Angi's nickname for her that will probably stick. I tried to spell it phonetically...). Here she is!

There will be many more pictures to come, so stay tuned!

2010-01-04T16:26:00.000-06:00

Happy Man Day

Mondays are "man days" around the Power household, when Trevor and Henry hang around, doing various "manly" activities that do not involve me. They make their own sausage and drink beer and burp loudly. Or at least that's what I suspect they do. However, these man days are occasionally thwarted when I'm on a break from school, which I currently am. So this is how Trevor, Henry, and I spent this man day.

Both of us completed the Red Eye crossword puzzle, independently of one another. We then drank coffee and did our own "things" on the couch for about an hour. My "thing" was reading my new (new to me) Patricia Highsmith Tom Ripley novel, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, and Trevor's "thing" was catching up on various art and iPhone blogs on the computer.

After all of this rigorous activity, we had, obviously, worked up quite an appetite. We decided to make and eat soup and sandwiches. This was a great decision, not only because the food was good, but also because we got to use our new dining accoutrement--super cool b & w napkins and placemats--courtesy of my 2009 Secret Power Santa, Angi.

While we digested, we finished watching our Netflix flick, The Limits of Control. It's the most recent film by Jim Jarmusch, and it's an abstract and quiet, though very interesting and oddly likable, movie about a hit man. Well, it's sort of about a hit man. Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Gael García Bernal, and John Hurt co-star, and I think that Jarmusch is one of the only filmmakers who can make a movie that, although it's starring a famous and very talented cast, gets no press and you only discover it accidentally through a random indie-film rental trailer or shoved behind Terminator Salvation at the video store--a film like this that, when you watch it, is actually...good. Usually movies like this--with a famous and very talented cast, that gets no press, and is stuck behind Terminator Salvation--are...well, they're just God awful. You know, the ones that when you see the trailer or read the back of the box, you say, "Gee, this is starring all of my favorite actors! Robert DeNiro, William H. Macy, Sigourney Weaver...why haven't I ever heard of it?! Well, I guess since it has such a famous and very talented cast, it must be good. Even though I have never, ever heard of it..." And that so rarely turns out well.

Case in point:

We recently saw Shadowboxer starring Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding Jr., Mo'Nique (who is getting barrels and buckets full of critical acclaim for her portrayal of an abusive mother in Precious) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Now, although Shadowboxer stars famous and very talented actors, it is awful. It's that unintentionally funny-kind-of-awful. Lots of slow motion. A really false-looking and strangely present blond wig. A super--SUPER--creepy relationship between Mirren and Gooding's characters. Stephen Dorff, however, is another co-star, and this single casting decision should have been a dead giveaway to its badness. He hasn't made a good movie since Judgment Night. (And that's not an ironic statement. I love Judgment Night.) But this movie is no Judgment Night. In fact, its working title was probably "Check out Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Naked Butt for 30/90 minutes," or "Stephen Dorff Plays Another Heartless Bad Guy in a See-Thru Shirt and Heavy Gold Neck Chain with Ginormous Crucifix," or, "Helen Mirren is a Contract Killer Dying of Cancer and Has a Graphic Sex Scene with CGJr. (so gross) P.S. She Drinks Wild Turkey and Smokes Cigarettes, Which Means She's Super Bad-Ass." See?

Now, a word of warning, because the previous descriptions might have peaked your interest and you're feeling frisky enough to rent Shadowboxer just to test our critical merit. Or to catch a glimpse of naked CGJr. butt. But please, please, don't. Just take our word for it on this one. I beg of you.

Okay, so that turned into a rant I wasn't quite expecting to write. And back to the Jim Jarmusch movie that defied the expectation of badness. If you like Jarmusch and you're in the mood to look at how pretty the cities and countrysides of Spain are, and you don't mind a movie with a lot of plot but little-to-no story (not a bad thing, as it turns out!), then check out The Limits of Control.

And...back to man day:

So, after the movie was over, I broke out more new holiday gear, this kitcheny gift a handmade apron from Paula!

Yes! She seriously made that! She made one for Mom Bork, too, but I like mine better. Obviously, because it's mine! Don't be jealous of my fantastic slippers-'n'-socks look. I pull off tremendous fashion feats while hanging around the house all day. My jeans and tee-shirts looks are infinite...

I donned the awesome apron and got to baking. I had a few browning bananas left over (Trevor will not eat a banana that has any sort of tinge of brown on it, anywhere.), so I decided to make a banana bread. I'm usually not a successful from-scratch baker, but I was very conscientious with my recipe-following and I think I may have done a good job. It smelled good, anyway. Although, they almost always smell good. It's still cooling on the counter, so I'll let you know about its all-important taste tomorrow. But this is how it looked in the oven (and yes, I know that I need to clean the oven):

While the bread was baking and I was starting to blog, Trevor actually got one of his traditional man day activities accomplished: vacuuming.

He's pretty terrific.

And that brings us up to right now. I'm finishing this post, half-way through the laundry, and I'll start dinner after having a few sips of wine. All in all a productive day! Tomorrow I will actually leave the house to get some file folders for the many papers I need to file after my winter cleaning the other day (I forgot to take a "before" picture, so the "after" picture wouldn't have much of an impact. Sorry). So happy man day to all, and have a good man night.

2010-01-02T12:09:00.001-06:00

Trevor's New Band:

Trevor has discovered that his doppelgänger heads up a band called Wolcott. We haven't heard them, but I think they're from Indiana and according to their Facebook page, their genre is "stadium rock." Seriously. Their website shows that they have a bunch of Chicago shows this month and next at Elbo Room, Martyrs', and Goose Island, and I'm pretty sure that we're going to have to go see them play. Like, absolutely. My goal is to get a picture with Trevor and his evil, musical twin. And of course it will be posted here.

So the car news is that we might have to get a new one. I got a call from the insurance adjustor at the repair shop where poor Harvey has been locked up since last Saturday. Rich the Adjustor (a very nice fellow) told us that the repairs for old Harv might be more than he's actually worth, constituting a "total loss" on the vehicle. Meaning that they won't repair it, but will cut us a check for the difference in what the car's worth and what we still owe. Luckily, the car's worth is more--a little bit more--than what we still owe (according to some savvy investigation on the Kelly Blue Book's website), so we won't have to pay out any money.

Trevor and I have been looking at cars for the past three days to find a suitable replacement: something with four-wheel drive, good fuel economy, good wallet economy, and a not-too-large frame. Our garage isn't that big, and it'd be silly for two regularly sized humans and their regularly sized dog to get a car with seating and storage for 7. Although it would be pretty bad-ass to get an Escalade or something stupid like that. I'd invest in pretty huge spinners and maybe tinted windows. And then I would realize that I'm not a Real Housewife of Atlanta and I don't have a sugar daddy. Too bad.

We're looking at a Suzuki and a Subaru, and will hopefully test drive them both this week sometime to make a decision. We'll hear a for-sure answer about Harvey's fate on Monday, so then we'll be able to move forward--or not--with a new car. I tried to talk Trevor into the Dodge Challenger, but he was like, "No," and I was like, "Come ooonnnn, it's the coolest," and he was like "No," and I was like, "But Henry and I would look sooo good driving it around town!" and he was still like, "Not a chance." Pashaw.

Today I'm going to do some winter cleaning of my desk area. It's a bit of a mess, and today will be the day to de-clutter. I'll take some before and after pictures for you so you can see my sure-to-be awesome progress. Hold on to your hats.

2009-12-30T17:21:00.001-06:00

Some Christmas Day Pictures

These lovely photos were taken by Dan and Simona Segar on Christmas Day at the Bork's. Enjoy!

Here's Mama Simona, Mom Bork, and Maya

Trevor, Me, Aunt Char, and a ham (in case you can't tell them apart, the ham is on the plate, Trevor is in the green shirt. HA!)

The Party Room Gang: Grandma, Char, Dad, Uncle Jim, Auntie Irene

We're chowing down and I'm thinking about snacking on Maya's head. Carly and Erica seem undisturbed by that. I used to snack on their heads, too, when they were babies, and they turned out okay.

Mama and Baby. Very far away.

Daddy Dan and the super noodle-headed Maya

2009-12-29T21:32:00.000-06:00

It's been well over a month...

...and I've been hearing it from our readers. "Readers" meaning my dad. Hi, Dad! I've sent out a call for some holiday pictures from the recent gatherings we've attended, so as soon as I get some back, I'll post them up here. In the mean time, I'll tell you all about what's been going on.

I turned in my final grades on Friday, December 18, and...yahooooooo! It was nice to get it done, and I won't start classes again until January 18. The week before that I have some meetings and our back-to-school workshop (which I co-organized and is going to be fantastic!). I spent all last week Christmas shopping, which was a lot of fun even though the weather was less than ideal. Christmas Eve was spent at Greg and Paula's house with the Borks, Boscos, Buxes, and Nichols. Dinner was delicious and we got to see baby Michael Jameson, who's growing up to be a chubby-cheeked doll. We gave Michael and Sheena a coupon good for one night of babysitting with me and Trevor, and I hope they take us up on it soon.

We went to the City Bork's on Christmas Day and brought the Segar Trio with us. We had shrimp creole and lovely conversation with the Bosco gang, Grandma, and Auntie Irene in the building's party room. The Bosco girls took advantage of the movie room and the rest of us just spread out, eating, drinking, and laughing.

The day after Christmas was chock-full of family. We headed out to Uncle Doug and Jean Madel's in River Forest for brunch, where we got to spend a few hours with Grandma and Grandpa Madel and Jim. Neill, Fran, and Destiny were there with us and we caravanned out after brunch to Geneva to see John and Fran Power. Sean and Angi couldn't make it because Sean got the flu. Angi took him to the hospital that morning and it turned out he actually had H1N1--he's much better now and yesterday polished off a Whopper and shake from BK. That's the sign he's on the mend, I think.

On our way out to Geneva, the snow, which had started falling about 11 a.m. that day, got thicker and thicker. While on Highway 88, the car in front of us braked and Trevor braked in response, but our car lost control and skidded into the concrete barrier on the shoulder. No one was hurt and we didn't hit another car, thankfully. We were able to get to John and Fran's house and the insurance company made getting a tow truck and filing a claim super easy for us to do. We were a little shaken up, but nothing that a delicious dinner and a cozy night couldn't take care of. John and Fran dropped us at the train station that night, and we were pretty happy not to have had to drive home in the weather. It hadn't really stopped snowing all afternoon. The car's in a shop in Naperville and hopefully won't take too long to repair. Thankfully I'm off for a few weeks and Trevor doesn't need the car for work. So, we'll see how it goes!

Trevor got seasons 1 and 2 of Mad Men for Christmas, and we had a marathon on Sunday and Monday. It was just the kind of medicine we needed after a long stretch of going out and hustling about for the holiday. I had another day of futzing around the house today, finishing laundry, drinking tea, knitting, and hanging out with Henry. Tomorrow, though, I'll have to start some work. I need to finish the online training for a hybrid/blended course I'll be teaching next Fall, and I have to prep for a class I'll be teaching in the Spring but haven't taught since the summer before last. It's actually the class I had so much trouble with--the student of mine wanted to ban the book we read. I'm teaching the book again, so everyone had better just watch out. This time I have a content warning statement in my syllabus statement, and if anyone makes trouble, I'll just throw a pencil at their head.

I just remembered that I forgot to tell you all that I made the front page of the NW Herald for a second time in as many years! Last month the college hosted its annual MCC Night, when we invite all high school students and their parents to see what we have to offer. My officemate, Lisa, and I worked the English Department table that evening, and we got our picture taken for the article, which ended up on the front page! What was even odder is that it was the second picture the paper had of me in that Sunday issue. That week I'd been interviewed for a "man-on-the-street" sort of a thing. The little reporter girl asked me, "If you could ask Congress to focus on anything right now, what would it be?" And of course I answered, "Education," and explained why it was important. And she took a snapshot and I was in the paper! I don't have a copy of that picture, but my Aunt Carol said she'd give me her copy. I should start subscribing to the paper, or at least picking it up at the train station when I get into Crystal Lake. Who knows when I'll pop up in there next!

Well that's all for now. When I get some pictures I'll post them for you all to enjoy. I'll write something more interesting later on this week. Until then... happy post-Christmas and early New Year!

2009-11-08T22:33:00.000-06:00

Much to report!

My friend Julie got married last night, and we had a terrific time. She looked just beautiful walking down the aisle,

and the party that followed the ceremony was tons of fun. We saw our friend Amy--who we hadn't seen in years and years--and met her lovely husband. They're both veterinarians in Michigan. I actually got Trevor to dance with me, though I didn't get any photos of it. And the whole night was a success!

The night before that was an opening at Trevor's gallery. The artist, Gregory Scott, incorporates video with painting for quite an interesting effect. Jen, Trevor's co-worker, snapped this lovely picture of me and T.

And then I got one of Jen and Trevor behind their desk:

I enjoyed the pieces but didn't stick around for too long. I jetted off to Border's on State Street for my first "Write-In," organized by the Chicago National Novel Writing Month organization. I didn't get altogether that much writing done, but I got a cute NaNoWriMo sticker and knocked out about four hundred words. These were the rest of the writers:

I also had quite a productive week. Wednesday was MCC Night on campus. It's essentially an open house where we all get to showcase our departments for the community and prospective students. I'd volunteered to man the table with my officemate Lisa, and although we had a great time, our feet were in soooo much pain by the end of the night. Here are some of the shots I took during the event as well as the tremendously cool display boards I made (did you know that kids doing science projects no longer have to duct tape three poster boards together?! They come that way already now!!).

I also got to see Mom and Dad's gorgeous new bookcase. It was custom made and has space for lots of books (though probably not enough...) and two desk areas. I'm thinking that once they retire they'll open up their own detective agency, like a modern day Spade and Archer. Though one of them will not end up shot over espionage.

We did miss Rachel and Letty's visit to Milwaukee, though. The rest of the Power siblings and families headed up there to visit, and from a text they sent me on Saturday, they were having a great time. Trevor's heading down to Miami at the end of this month for an art fair, and we're hoping he'll be able to visit with Rae then. I wish I could work it out to piggy-back a trip down there, since he'll be gone from Sunday to Sunday, but it's the week before my last week of classes, and that might be a bit too hectic. You can all expect lonely calls from me and Henry that week as we drown ourselves in macaroni and cheese and stare longingly at pictures of Trevor.

And now that we've watched two back-to-back episodes of Mad Men's season finale (it was so good, but now we have to wait months for it to start again. And I'm not sure if we have the will power), I should most likely head off to sleep. So good night for now!

2009-11-01T22:21:00.000-06:00

Getting Ready to Write a Novel

November is National Novel Writing Month, and one of the students in Writer's Block, our new creative writing club at school, suggested that we participate as a group. We thought it was a terrific idea, but that also means that now we each have to write a novel. I'm not so much worried about the rest of them; these young student are excited and can be motivated about things other than school work. But I--ME--also have to write a novel this month. And it's different than the 3-Day Novel Contest I took part in a couple of times oh-so many years ago. This one is actually, sort of, do-able. The timer started at midnight last night, or today, the 1st of November. By November 30, we each have to write 50,000 words of a novel. Yikes. So, rather than get started doing that tonight I did an awesome MLA format crash-course PowerPoint for my Comp 1 class tomorrow. Yes, that's correct: I procrastinated writing my novel with school work. Double-yikes. But I think I'm going to get it started tonight. I'm also going to take my computer to school tomorrow to see if that helps me work on the train in to campus. We'll see how this goes.

In non novel-related news, we had the New City Borks over for a ghoulish Halloween dinner last night. There was little ghoulish about it, though. I made Walnut Gruyere and Spinach Lasagne and a chocolate cake. I wrote "Boo!" on the cake with icing. But that was as scary as we got. Dan, Simona, and Maya, however, got all hot-dogged up for the holiday! Check them out:

I think that it's illegal for this level of cuteness to occur, so we might have to call the authorities. Simona took the photo of Dan and their little Maya-dog. She did not, however, send a picture of herself, so I can only assume that she was dressed as a dill pickle. Or, perhaps, a side of french fries. Simona, please send me a picture so our readers can see for themselves.

Well that's about it. I should close out now to try to start my novel. I guess. I should go. Now. N.o.w. Right. Now. bye.

2009-10-26T22:27:00.001-05:00

This is not an official post!

It's just a few random thoughts and pictures from the last few weeks. I have to grade some papers before going to sleep and since I'm an obsessive maniac who can't just rip something off quickly (but rather spend an hour editing and revising each word and then still missing a typo or three), I've got to stop myself. But here's something fun to look at.

The cabana in Las Vegas during our early October weekend tribute to Julie P.'s soon-to-be marriage:

Preparing my office for the holiday:

Me being harassed by some skinny fellow at school:

An awesome lipstick blot made on my Chipotle napkin after eating some pre-Richard III tacos:

Me and Henry before going to dinner with Trevor at Neha and Bhupi's place:

Some weird teacher scarecrows in the elementary school garden down the block from Neha and Bhupi's:

Okay, that's it for now. More to come later!

2009-09-30T20:43:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-09-22T22:33:00.000-05:00

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.

2009-09-20T23:07:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-09-15T22:34:00.001-05:00

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!

2009-09-13T21:32:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-08-31T20:53:00.001-05:00

School is IN

So the past three of weeks have been buu-ss-yy. Sorry for the lack of updates, though. There is no excuse for that. None.

Today was the first day of the second week of the semester, and I'm starting to settle into the routine. The first week is always the most exciting--fresh-faced freshmen staring up expectantly, waiting for me to pour information over their spongy grey matter--but also the most erratic--former students popping in to say hi, last minute copies, meetings, changes, and everything else to maneuver around. Plus, with more than eight hundred new students due to the MCC Promise, the parking lot was full of eight hundred more cars than it usually has the first week of school. Hmm. Problematic. I'll be able to take the train on Mondays, and Tuesday through Thursday I'm at school by 7:30 a.m., so it's not a problem for me to park. Although I did park at an off-site location and take our college shuttle bus (which they asked us to do if we could) and got a cafeteria buck! So, tomorrow's coffee is free!

And classes are going well, so far. Because of the Faculty Development stuff I'm doing, I've only got four classes, which is a nice break. And my honors composition class actually does the homework I assign. It's kind of amazing, and I'm still waiting for them to rebel.

Other things are going well, too. We spent the week before classes started at Greg and Paula's house while they were out of town on a work/vacation trip to California. We hung out with the girls

and Henry had to get used to a smaller bed.

Trevor and I had a wonderful time watching the Harry Potter movies 3 & 4 on Greg and Paula's fantastically huge t.v. with a wondoriuous surround sound system. It was like being at Hogwarts! Only we were at Dogwarts! (I broke that one out while we were there. Trevor did not think it was as hilarious as I did.)

And the gallery is going well, too. Trevor is working on a new blog for them, and I'll post the link here when it's ready for public readership. It's called Cyclops (Trevor thought of the name).

This Saturday I went shopping with my cousin Erica for some delayed back-to-school gear. We really didn't get much that was schooly, but she had some success at the Alley and Belmont Army Surplus. Plus we ate at the Clarke St. Diner: she had pancakes and I had a grilled cheese and vanilla shake. So. Good.

Oh, WAIT, and DAN AND SIMONA HAD THEIR BABY!

Okay, wow. I can't believe that I didn't start off with that news! Maya Emily Segar was born on August 11th around mid-day. She was 7-ish pounds and beautiful. See for yourself:

(This is the day she was born)

(And this is more recently. As you can see, she's gained a little weight and has started playing X-Box. She's obviously brilliant.)

In other baby news, Ann Boger's due date is...in two days! I think she's pretty ready to have their little nugget, and we can't wait to see him. I wish they lived closer so we could see him in person (oh, and Ann and Dan, too. We'd like to see them.), but we'll hopefully visit them soon. Dan and Trevor are playing Scrabble together on the X-Box right now. What's funnier than the fact their board game is crossing over one thousand miles is the fact that their X-Box avatars look nearly identical. The hair color is a bit different, and Trevor's avatar is wearing a suit (I have no idea why). But otherwise, Ann and I could easily switch avatar-husbands and not know the difference for weeks and weeks. Ann, let me know if you're up for it.

Well, papers need to be graded. By Henry. He's got a lot of work ahead of him tonight. I'm going to make him a pot of coffee. And to leave you all with a giggle in your throat, here's a comic Trevor found for me.

2009-08-19T22:12:00.001-05:00

Today's Pros and Cons

Pro
Getting to meet the eighteen new faculty my co-chair and I will be leading through their first year. They all seem lovely (especially my new officemate, Lisa), even though the fact that I will be leading them through anything gives me a case of the willies.
Con
Waking up at 4:30 a.m. to be on campus by 7 to meet the new faculty for their day-long orientation.

Pro
Kicking fashion ass in my awesome three inch purple leather wooden-heeled wedges.
Con
Foot, toe, ankle, leg, and, for some queer reason, shoulder pain after nine hours of standing in my three inch purple leather wooden-heeled wedges.

Pro
Listening to two solid hours of my latest audiobook, The Girl Who Played With Fire, which is turning out to be quite good.
Con
A solid two hour commute home in a torrential downpour and the resulting stop-and-stop traffic on the Kennedy.

Pro
Trevor's gorgeous suggestion to order takeout from Butterfly and then watch the Man United game that he taped at our house (we're staying the week at Greg & Paula's, house/dog-sitting while they're away).
Con
Getting chicken instead of tofu in my order of Pad Thai With Tofu. I have never eaten a Pad Thai with chicken. Ever. It was a little weird.

Pro
Watching the game with Trevor while picking out the chicken in a still-decent dish of Pad Thai and drinking a cold beer from a frosty mug.
Con
Watching Man United play one of the most embarassing games I have ever seen. The 1-0 loss to Burnley, who's just come back from a 30 year relegation stint (yes. thirty. years), was just plain awful.

Pro
Curling up in bed with Trevor and the gaggle of dogs--one ours, three borrowed--for sleep as soon as I finish posting this.
Con
...nothing. That will be the best darn thing I've done all day.

2009-08-10T21:50:00.000-05:00

Updates, Updates, Updates!

I don't quite know where to start! I don't think I can go chronologically, since the most exciting part of our update doesn't come until tomorrow at 6 a.m.: Maya Emily Segar! Dan and Simona's newest edition is coming tomorrow, and we're thrilled to our toenails. She's the second of our seven babies, and I can promise that there will be a ton of pictures when she arrives (hopefully Simona and Maya will be resting comfortably by mid-morning).

Yesterday (Sunday), we took the train with Angi and Sean to meet Neill, Fran, Destiny, Fran's sisters, their kids, and Fran's dad at Arlington Park for a little gambling and horse watching. The afternoon was hot, but we had a nice shady table on the terrace and some frozen drinks to keep us cool.

(You can clearly see baby #7, a.k.a. "Poppyseed," a.k.a. "Girl Power" in this shot of Angi)

Saturday (the day before Sunday...looks like I'm going in reverse chronology), while Trevor toiled away at the gallery, I took a day trip to Madison. My college friend Anne and her husband, Matt came into town from New York, and some of the old gang was spending the weekend to see her.

Although I only came for the day, I think I made the best of it. I met everyone at Nick's around noon for Bloody Mary's, then we wandered State Street for a couple of hours, shopping, browsing, and getting sweaty (the early morning rain did little to dry out what felt like 139% humidity and 95 degrees).

One of my favorite new (new to me) Madison stores is Anthology, where I found a yellow onesie (for Maya, of course) that read, "Born to be a Librarian." I also got a gnome ring (yes, that's right) and a couple of greeting cards (you'll know what they say if you get one in the mail).

After shopping, we spent a few hours hanging out at the Terrace, drinking beer, eating ice cream, and just having a wonderful time.

And we stumbled upon an impromptu break-dancing competition on the Mall:

While everyone was freshening up for dinner, I stopped at my old shop, Paul's Book Store, and dropped a bit of cash on a sack full of books. Caryl, the owner, wasn't there (I think I'd just missed her), but hopefully I'll see her again soon. The shop was just as fantastic as it always is. I would have taken a picture, but I didn't want to freak out the guy working there.

It was so good to see everyone, but especially Anne and Matt, who I hadn't seen in about five years. I'm hoping that it won't be that long until the next time.

Last Thursday, Paula and I went to my grandma's place for a cake baking lesson. The cake baking was fun and successful, but the best part (aside from grandma's company) was the huge lunch of salad, mostacolli, meatballs, and garlic bread. We topped it off with spumoni ice cream and cookies. My Lord, Marie, you made our day.

(Although Grandma mixed, poured, and baked these babies, Paula and I frosted them. We worked so, so hard.)

Okay, I think I got us all up-to-date, but for more photos of everything, check this out.

I've got two weeks before classes start for the fall, but unfortunately I won't have too much time to do nothing (one of my favorite vacation activities). But what nothing I do, I'll be sure to document it and keep you all in the loop. Sleep well, all, especially you, Maya. It's your last night in the warm wombiness of Simona!

2009-08-04T22:23:00.000-05:00

We saw the baay-beeeeee!

So, as I might have mentioned already, Trevor and I have seven friends and/or relatives who got pregnant around the same time last year (Sheena, Simona, Ann, Caren, Cat, and Jeanette [Angi Power came a little later, but I'm counting her, too]), and every time--every time--in the past nine months that I've thought of seeing "the baby" (any of the babies), I've thought of the Seinfeld episode where the gang goes to the Hamptons to "see the bayyyyybeeeee." It's also a great episode because of the shrinkage and lobster poaching that goes on. But in case you've forgotten the phrase (or have been living under a rock for the past two decades and didn't catch this particular episode), here it is (at least the first nine minutes--shrinkage doesn't occur until part 2).

Now, this says nothing at all about the babies we're expecting, because we know how fantastic looking (not to mention charismatic, brilliant, well mannered, fantastically coiffed...) our friends and family are. And just to prove this, here are some photos of the very first baby out of the seven: Michael Jameson Bux, my cousin Michael and his wife Sheena's darling little potato! He's only eighteen days old, so don't mind his tininess.

(Here's Auntie Carol [a.k.a. New Grandma Bux] with the little guy. I took this picture with my phone. The next four shots were taken by Erica and look much, much, much better. Look on.)

(Jameson)

(Erica and Jameson)

(Carly and Jameson)

(Me and Jameson)

He's pretty smushily fantastic. I really can't wait until Sheena and Mike need a night out so I can come over and smother him with smooches. Like I'm about to do in the picture above. I look like a stalking smoocheralla.

Now that I have aunt fever (although technically he's, like, my second cousin? I think?) I am quite looking forward to the next six babies. Simona is next (she's also two days past her due date. C'mon Maya, let's goooooooo already!) and hopefully she'll be ready soon. And then I think it goes Ann, Caren, Cat, Jeanette, Angi. Or something like that. Pictures of all babies will follow in abundance once they arrive.

Also, my friend Angie sent me this picture from the fabric and folk art fair we went to a few weeks ago, and although I already wrote about it, I had to show you all how I fared against that old lady with this gigantic knitting needles:

Hopefully I'll have all student stories graded and grades turned in to the records department (one lady named Noreen) by tomorrow afternoon. Then it's back home for Bunco! I'll let you know if I win. Or if I get the boobie prize. Or if I do neither and just have fun, which always happens, so I'll let you know something for sure.

Good Night!