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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!