Monday, July 31, 2006




I went on my second Critical Mass bike ride this friday. Critical Mass is a huge organized bike ride that happens on the last friday of every month in major cities all around the world. You can learn more about it here:

http://www.chicagocriticalmass.org/

But more importantly, I got to see Henry's sister Ida there. Her owner rides around with her often on a sort of homemade rickshaw. She was a bit bigger than Henry and calmer, but I still think Henry is a better looking dog ;-)

Friday, July 28, 2006







More, more, more photos!

These are the pictures of the rainforest leg of our Pacific Northwest sojourn!
Portland Pictures!





Here are some of the Polaroids from the Portland leg of our journey: the coffee and food, the Rose Garden, the plastic horses tied up in the street...that's right. Plastic horses tied up in the street.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Photos of our trip!






All right, so these are the photos from our voyage to the Seattle Public Library, an absolutely fabulous, state-of-the-art facility. They start the Dewey decimal system at the top of their 10-floor building and spiral it town for 5 floors. It's amazing. I could move in there. But I won't.

Monday, July 17, 2006

WE'RE HOME!
After a week of city-hopping, Trevor and I are back home to Chicago, and happy to be off the road. We had a fabulous time and got to see a lot of the Pacific Northwest. We started in Portland, OR, to visit our friends Brenda and Derek (who are actually going to be moving back to the Midwest [Fargo, ND] sometime during the next year, which means more visits!). They took us around to see a lot of Portland's great sites, including:
1. VOODOO DONUT! That's right, the best damn donut shop I've ever been to! They had a donut covered in Coco Puffs, which was delicious. Derek reported that they do occasionally stock a maple bar w/ a piece of bacon on it (not good for Trevor, and actually, not sure if it's good for me...).
2. The Rose Garden in Washington Park which was the best smelling park I've ever visited! They also took us for a drive through the hills in/throughout the park where little bungalows were nestled among the trees. It was amazing, if not a bit steep for my taste (thank god I wasn't driving).
3. Shopping! We went to a bunch of neighborhoods and got some terrific shopping--both window shopping and actual shopping--done. It was great. Each jag was followed by a stop of some sort to get a bite to eat and rest our tired shopping feet. Which brings me to the greatest attraction...
4. The COFFEE (and food, and beer...but, mostly the coffee.). There was an amazing coffee shop on nearly every corner, and each one we visited had amazing pastries and just delicious coffee. B. and D. introduced us to the Americano, which I'd never thought much about before, since Chicago's such a drip coffee-town, but that's more normal out West, and since espresso is their specialty, we tried some and fell in love. Just great. It was most definitely the best tasting vacation I've ever had.
5. POWELL'S CITY OF BOOKS! I saved the best for last. It was the best book store I've ever been to, and I barely got off of the first floor! I got books, books, and more books, and had to jam them all into my suitcase (because of course I overpacked for the trip) and my purse to get them all home. But it was worth it. Trevor only got two, so I really needed to get as many as I did to make up for him! Unfortunately we were interrupted in the rare books section by the idiot doggie day care man, so we didn't get to buy anything old and cool, but Trevor found the first edition of a book we've got at home (one that his grandpa gave him a couple of months ago)--Trevor's is a first edition, fourth printing, and it was so neat to see an edition there in the special room!

Brenda and Derek were so hospitable and we had so much fun with them, so it was hard to leave on Wednesday morning. But Trevor and I gave them some hugs and got into our rental car to head for the Quinault Rain Forest. It was a lovely, if not a bit rainy, drive up. The lodge where we stayed was great: right on the lake, far from everything, surrounded by trees, across the street from some great hiking trails, and it didn't have any televisions or phones in the room. It was really quite nice. After Trevor and I snagged some ponchos from the gift shop, we headed out into the forest to do some hiking. Because of the drizzly weather, we were pretty alone on the trails, which was nice. The scenery was like nothing I've ever seen: lush beyond green, moss growing on everything, waterfalls and small rapids in all of the streams...it was heavenly. After a great dinner at the lodge, a game of Scrabble and some rest, Trevor and I took another hike before we left for Seattle in the morning. The second one was great, too, because we got to see a Banana Slug (they're quite friendly, and photogenic!) and the world's biggest Spruce tree, which was fun! It was very large, indeed. But we left the forest and took off for Seattle, still unable to put down the top on the rental car because of the spotty weather.

We arrived in Seattle in the late afternoon on Thursday to check in at the Moore Hotel in Belltown. The two of us were exhausted, but were made more so because our room wasn't quite ready for check-in. So we waited a while, got irritated, but finally got into the room and out into the city, which is what we were most anxious about. We hit the Pike Place Market for some wandering, grabbed a beer, and headed up to the Fremont neighborhood for dinner. The dinner (Thai food) was great, and the neighborhood was perfect for wandering around, so we hit a couple of record stores (scored some really good stuff...) and then headed back to Belltown to catch a drink at Rendezvous, a bar we'd heard of through a friend of ours (Jeremy Evans, who just got married to my old roommate, Jenn this weekend, which was the perfect start to our vacation!). And it turned out the guy we'd met at the wedding, Keith, was actually working when we arrived, so we chatted with him and, later, his girlfriend Rachel (who turned out to be a book nerd like me, so she was a blast!), and we had a wonderful time. We got free drinks, fabulous conversation, and Portland's smoke-free so we were able to come back to the hotel and not smell like a giant ashtray! It was great. Friday morning we grabbed coffee at Monorail Espresso (per Rachel's recommendation, and she was sooo on the money!), Trevor passed out one of his new buttons to a Seattle biker, who seemed very impressed, and headed up to the new Seattle Public Library. It was GORgeous. Steel and glass everywhere, a Dewey Decimal System Sprial that we walked (haven't we seen this corner before?) and a great gift shop where I went a little kookoo for book paraphanalia. Trevor had to drag me out of there to see some more sights. We headed up to the Ballard neighborhood to see a book store that turned out to be closed due to renovations, which kind of stunk, but the area was a lot of fun for more wandering, so we hung around for a while. I tried a Seattle style hot-dog at a gourmet frank stand (they had veggie dogs for Trevor!) which included onions, mustard, and cheese. Quite tasty. We had a great dinner later that night at a fancy but comfortable restaurant where we had a great meal made with all organic ingredients. My friend Brian (an old Chicago Shakespeare buddy who's moved out to Seattle to tour w/ his singer/songwriter sister Rosie, but who's going to move back to the Midwest in the fall.) met us out for a few drinks, and it was great to see him. By the end of the night we were pooped, but not too pooped to wake up and grab some breakfast from the Crumpet Shop at the Market! They were delicious, as was the tea, then we took off back to Portland. And the weather was finally nice enough to put the top down on our convertible!

So we cruised back down to Oregon, finally found their inconspicuous airport, and made a quite spacious flight back to Chicago.

Whew! It was such a fun trip, and Trevor's got some great pictures. I hopefully got some good shots, too, so as soon as I develop we'll post some up here!

Well, it's off to bed before work in the morning! Until next time, True Believers!

BORK-POWER!

Sunday, July 9, 2006

VACATION, VACATION!

Well, as Trevor and Henry sleep beside me, I wanted to write a quick blurb about our vacation tomorrow!

It's a much needed one, let me tell you, especially after this weekend. Some close friends of ours (my old roommate, Jenn, and her brand spanking new husband, Jeremy) had their wedding this evening, which I was honored to take a part in. I read a passage from Plato's Symposium (which Trevor helped me pick out)--the Aristphenese speech about human nature and love. The ceremony was just perfect: personal and lovely, and they both looked gorgeous. They had Chicago-style everything, including pizza and beef sandwiches for dinner, Goose Island beer to drink, and a Hancock Building-shaped cake with blinking antennae! It was so much fun, and I got Trevor on the dance floor for one dance, which was a thrill. The best man, Bryon, gave the most touching speech I've heard, and the couple danced like pros to their first official two-step. The whole thing was great, but after the work week, the rehearsal, and the wedding--and all of the working we've been doing since our last vacation in July of '05!--we're more than ready for a little r&r.

So, we're off to Portland, OR to stay with our friends Brenda and Derek (though this will be the first time Trevor meets Derek, which I'm so excited about!), the Lake Quinault Rainforest in Quinault, WA, and Seattle (to visit the new library, among other things [a crumpet shop and a bar whose owner we just met, and a Thai restaurant we got a tip was spectacular....so much!]).

Until we get back, have a wonderful week, and we'll be sure to send you all postcards!

Bork POWER

Sunday, July 2, 2006

SO MUCH TO WRITE, AND SO LITTLE TIME...
That's how I feel right now! Trevor and I are on our way to the movies to see Superman (whoohooo!), so I only have a few minutes to write. But the news over the past weeks has been a lot, I feel. Trevor's been swamped with work and has gone to Atlanta twice since we last checked in, but he doesn't have to go again until August 7th, which is really nice. But the most exciting news for him is that he just got a BUTTON MAKER! He's been making 1" buttons all over town and shows no sign of slowing down. So far he's made me a couple of roller derby buttons and a Steve Zissou button, and made the entire Team Zissou collection for our friend John! I was pretty jealous because the collection included two Jacques Couteau buttons in addition to the whole gang. Though, just thinking about it now, his set did not include Cody, the three legged dog. I'll have to talk to him about that.

And I have some pretty giant and exciting news: I'll be soon giving my boss two weeks notice and in August I'll be teaching full time! I've picked up five classes (pretty full load, I know) and three different community colleges (East-West University downtown, McHenry County College, and College of Lake County [where I did a teaching internship three years ago...seems like a lifetime!]). So my last day at the theater will be August 4th, I'll take some time off to get myself organized and nail down my syllabi, and then I get into the classroom! All the courses I've taken on are English composition courses, pretty basic stuff and there should be a lot of the same elements in all, which is nice. I'm just excited and terribly nervous! But, mostly excited.

And Trevor and I are planning our vacation to Portland, OR, and Washington State to see the Lake Quintault Rainforest and Seattle!
But more on that later....it's movie time!