Ahoy!

It's been a while, so although this will be lengthy, it's much needed. I even got scolded by our friend Daniel about not blogging about a recent visit we had with him and his lovely wife, Ann (sorry Daniel! This one's for you!). Before I get into the visit and the rest of our prosaic activities, I do have a BIG announcement:

NEILL POWER AND FRAN NAPIER ARE ENGAGED!!

Yes! Trevor's brother Neill and his soon-to-be-wife Fran got engaged on March 17th. It was the anniversary of the Power's parents' wedding, and he proposed in the Glen Ellyn church where they got married all of those years ago. The whole thing was a huge surprise to everyone (Neill craftilly faked a baptism for them to go to--he even had a fake baby name for the fake baby [Melinda, I think?] and a fake baptismal card stuffed with gift money so that Fran wouldn't suspect.) and we're thrilled to have another wedding in the works! We'll keep you updated with their plans (and I'll post a photo up here soon--I just need to find one).

We did have an excellent visit with Daniel and Ann, who visited from Brooklyn, NY. They were in town under not-so-excellent circumstances, but they made the best of their long weekend. They met Trevor at the gallery last Friday night (or two Friday's ago?), then came over to our pad where we hung out with Henry and were met by Dan Segar (HIS lovely wife was working, unfortunately). We all went to dinner down the street, talked a lot about movies, then came back here for some drinks and a spirited round of Catchphrase. On the way back from the restaurant, we saw some graffiti art (quite literally: it was labeled as art just like Trevor labels the gallery's art). Here's a photo of Daniel taking a photo and another of the back of his head.




We saw them again on Sunday for breakfast at the Original Pancake House in Lincoln Park, did a bit of shopping (Ann was tremendously successful and I restrained myself), then we dropped the pair off at the car rental place so they could head out to the 'burbs. It was great to see them and we're hoping to plan something for a visit East to see them in the Spring (if it ever gets here).

I'm on Spring Break right now (which is why I had no excuse not to post more updates), but before the break I had the Women's History Month Poetry Reading at McHenry County College. It was quite a success, and a lot more successful than I'd been expecting. We had four more applicants sign up before the deadline and I feared that would be all we'd have; however, we had quite a few on-site signer-uppers and the whole thing lasted about an hour and a half. The winner was one of my deaf students Ewa. She signed a poem she'd written (it was interpreted by our class interpreter, Mary) and did a terrific job. I was horribly proud of her--just the fact that she'd gotten up in front of the thirty or so on-lookers to perform was fantastic. Plus, her poem was great. She's in Poland visiting her family over the break, so I can't wait to let her know when she gets back!





So far over break I've caught a half-cold (it's sort of a cold but not in full force). We didn't have any major plans so it's not too bad, I'm just kind of a nose-blowing, orange-eating, Vitamin-C-popping maniac. The gallery was closed last Friday through Monday for a long weekend, which was great for Trevor. We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. There's a great exhibit by Gordon Matta-Clark, an artist who quite literally cut through buildings. There were pieces of the buildings on display, photos, sketches and plans, and documentary videos and film-strips. It was really neat, though sad because I learned that he died of cancer in his mid-thirties. Much too young for such an interesting fellow. I personally really enjoyed one of the upstairs' exhibits byKaren Kilimnik who does these sets or scenes, really, inspired by the news, current events, t.v....Her stuff was a lot of fun to look at (and, of course, think about). The whole day made me feel like a tourist, in a good way. We were hoping to see Angi there in case it was her Saturday to work. We didn't find her and I think that it's nicer that we didn't. Hopefully she was out enjoying the nice weather just like we were.

Easter Sunday was at the Borks' house in Arlington Heights. There were nineteen of us in all (I think) and the food, as usual, was deeelicious. My mom made special crab cakes for Trevor while the rest of us got a gigantic ham (not each, we had to share. Bah!). She sent us home with oodles of leftovers that we've been enjoying and even sharing with Henry (he's a huge fan of ham. But who isn't? Except for Trevor.). We watched a lot of soccer and watched some good rental movies. I got to see The Mist while T. was out meeting Dan Segar for a beer on Monday. I thought it was a lot of fun and totally creepy. It's based on the Stephen King novella, and with the exception of the ending, it was quite faithful. The ending was very different, though not in a bad way. I'm still deciding, really. They did a great job of using the witholding-the-monster idea for the ultimate creepiness, so while a lot of the monster effects were good and fun and icky, the scariest parts came when there was just the idea of the monster (which is always the best kind of scare!).

We also watched Rocket Science, which is the first non-documentary film by the guy who made Spellbound (the documentary about the spelling bee kids). It was an excellent teenage-angsty sort of a movie about a high school kid with a stutter (and parents who are separated and an older brother who's a thief/bully/surrogate parent) who's recruited by a cute girl to join the debate team. Of course it's just a nightmare for him and he suffers and comes through it and the whole thing was just so fabulously well done. It was hilarious, honest, touching but not corny or too sentimental, and just plain good. Trevor and I finished it marveling over the lack of attention it got while a similarly teen-angsty movie (Juno) got so much buzz. This one (and yes, we saw them both) was much better than Juno. The soundtrack was even great! It's sort of too bad, but everyone should now go rent Rocket Science (PLUS, Steve Park who played Mike Yanagita in Fargo plays the next door neighbor/mom's new boyfriend. And he's AWESOME!).
Trevor and I also went to see In Bruges, the Colin Farrell movie that takes place...you guessed it! In Bruges! It was a lot of fun and quite a bit bloodier than we were expecting, though not necessarily in a bad way.

I had lunch with Marie Bosco, my lovely Grandma today, and then we did a bit of shopping at the mall. She introduced me to the store that carries Sarah Jessica Parker's line, Bitten, and it was awesome (and all $8.98--all of it!). She filled me up on cupcakes back at her house, and then sent me on my way with love to Trevor, a tray full of cupcakes, homemade tomato gravy, cheese, and pasta. We have a deeelicous dinner all set for tomorrow night!

Tomorrow night is also Trevor's first motorcycle class, which we're really excited about. He looked on-line tonight and found out that the class is at capacity. I reminded him to bring a notebook and writing utensils to class in case he needs to take notes. Tomorrow I've got plans for laundry, meeting my friend Matt for lunch up the street, more laundry, possibly a nap, and watching a horror movie (there's a bunch of new ones from this year's horrorfest out at the video store, and with Trevor at class tomorrow night, the t.v.'s all mine! mwahahahaaaa!). On Friday I'll have to get some actual work done for school on Monday. But we'll cross that textbook when we come to it.

Until then true believers, have a good week and weekend. Stay out of the gross weather that's anticipated to come (though I'm steadily willing it away from us and down on Kansas or elsewhere), and keep cozy!

Breakfast and Breasts

Yes, that's what I said. This morning Trevor and I went out with Lisa for a delicious breakfast at the Breakfast Club. Although our food was quick and tasty, a table by the window had a close call with some metal box that broke through the cardboard ceiling panel. It looked electrical, and we three decided to skeedaddle before the rest of the sky started to fall.



Lisa and I parted ways with Trevor and she and I headed out to Crystal Lake and the lovely campus of McHenry County College for the Women's History Month film festival. It was the first official event of the month-long celebration at campus. Mom couldn't make it because she's sick with this gross flu that's going around (and hopefully she's much better now), so it was just the two of us.

We made it out there (Lisa was amazed at my commute--she thought that her 20 miles to Oak Brook was rough...) with plenty of time to hang out before the shows started. The first film was called "Gorgeous," an animated short by an Australian filmmaker. Next up was "Made in America," about reality t.v. makeover shows and plastic surgery. A panel discussion followed--which was terrific--then a short interval where Lisa and I stocked up on snacks before the final film, "Breasts." It was a terrific documentary interviewing about twenty women about...well, I think the title explains it all.





After that, we headed home. Trevor and I ate some Thai food, watched "Little Miss Sunshine," and I graded papers. All in all, the day was quite lovely--nice enough to match the weather. Tomorrow, though, is supposed to be freezing again, with snow. We've got bowling play-offs, so I just hope the snow brings me spare-and-strike-luck!

I couldn't help myself.

This morning I'm drinking coffee, doing laundry, listening to the NPR Saturday morning lineup, and putting off grading student papers. So while I procrastinate, I check out some celebrity gossip websites (I'm human, after all), and I notice that on a picture-page about matching celebrity children to their parents, the Hollywood gossip hotspot TMZ described a picture of Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise, and their baby as, "Katie Holmes' first husband's daughter, Suri." It just cracked me up.

This is a flyer I made for a poetry reading I'm co-coordinating for the Women's History Month celebration. I'm on the committee (I've never really been a committee member before. It's so adult.), and have even roped Trevor into the mix; I "volunteered" him to make committee member buttons for all of us to wear during March. Yahoo women's history!

This lovely basket of flower heads was sitting outside of the flower shop next door to my hair dresser.



And Henry and I went to the park before it froze over (you could ice skate on it now) to play around. He ate a bit of snow before we scurried back to our warm house. I'd like to stay inside until the Spring. I might just do that. Maybe I can have my students come out to Chicago for class...

The wall is up!

The garage/neighbor's wall. It was finally finished last week, and it does look beautiful. Last Thursday morning, while the wall was still unfinished, the garage door broke. It was no fault of mine (unbelievably), though it did contribute to our household woes. But it was fixed relatively quickly, and the wall was finished on Friday. It was so nice to be done with that, and our glorious neighbor stayed positive and wonderful through the entire process. I kind of love her. You should see how slowly I pull into the garage now--it's absurd, but I won't speed up. Ever!

Trevor and I celebrated Valentine's Day in style: with a heart-shaped pizza from Lou Malnati's, candy in a heart-shaped box (compliments of the Blommer's Chocolate Factory), a Benjamin Bird t-shirt for me, starring Batman and some of the Law & Order crew, and some fancy beer and gin for Trevor. Don't worry, he didn't drink it all at once (and I didn't eat all of the chocolate at once, although it was tempting).

Henry enjoys new art at home



the artwork of:
Jen Davis

Martha Williams (I'm not sure if this is really her website, but she works for TimeOut Chicago)

Gary Engle

Irena Knezevic (She has a show coming up at the MCA)

I believe the painting on the brick was painted by my great grandfather, Joe Madel. He does not have a website, but I did link him to the first image that came up when I Googled his name.

Where have all the intelligent employees gone?

Since I do have good customer service experiences every now and then, I don't think that ALL of the intelligent workers of the world have disappeared; however, recent events have led me to the conclusion that their population might be in dire straits.

If you read our previous entry, you're aware of the predicament I was responsible for getting us into with the car/scooter/wall debacle. Well, because of the flat-tire (which also occurred on Thursday, though for this I can't really claim responsibility--it was a screw, not me!), and an upcoming check-up, I dropped our car off for service first thing Saturday morning. I'd have preferred to drop it off on Friday, but they said that they couldn't change the tire until Saturday. Okay. So I dropped it off, went home, and, among other low-key activities, awaited a call to tell me that the car was ready.

Well, four o'clock in the p.m. rolls around, and no call from the dealership. So I called to check up, and lo-and-behold, the car's not ready. You'd think that if the dealership was closing within the hour, and they knew they had a customer expecting to pick up the car, they'd have called to let said customer know. And you'd have thought wrong, apparently. They hadn't thought to call, but Ken the service consultant told me that it'd get priority Monday morning and go in first thing. He gave me the name of their preferred car rental agency when I told him that I'd need to rent a car for Monday (no loaners available, though Trevor and I suspect that the Mercedes and Audi customers do have that option [sorry, mom and dad, we're not dissing the Benz (since hopefully someday that will be us!), we're just pragmatic]).

So, I picked up my Ford Focus at 7:28 this morning (Enterprise kindly let me in two minutes before they're officially open since it was a brisk 1 degree outside) and came back home to await the contractor working on our neighbor's wall. He called to let me know he was running late because of car trouble, and showed up three hours later than anticipated. Though, car trouble is something we obviously understand, so no worries.

But by the time he got there and started removing the drywall, he realized he hadn't gotten insulation for the wall, so he left for the day and will be back in the morning. My question is: since on Saturday you stuck your hand through the hole and investigated the crack and hole from all points of view, how did you NOT know to get insulation? So, he was here for less than an hour and has done little to no work. Which doesn't pose a problem directly for us, but my neighbor now has a slightly larger hole in her wall. Great.

On my way home from Crystal Lake, it started to snow. I'm still in the Ford Focus, and I quickly and unhappily realize that its windshield-wipers are gar-baahhhge. It's rolling up past four o'clock on Monday, and I've yet to hear from the car dealership. I check in with Trevor, but he hasn't heard from them, either. So I give old Ken a call. Well, given that it's after 4 p.m. and they're closing in less than an hour, you'd have thought old Ken would have given me a call to let me know that the car is STILL NOT READY. That's right. His assurance that our car would get priority-first-thing-service today, was a.....LIE. There was still another car ahead of ours and it certainly wouldn't be ready in the next forty-five minutes. So, "sometime tomorrow." Like, you're kidding me, right, Ken?

No, Ken is not kidding. "It's been very busy," he tells me. And apparently the busy-ness has prevented him from calling his customers to let them know that their cars aren't ready and they'll have to rent their cars for the second day in a row. Needless to say, since I'd been under the impression that the car would be ready same-day, I left our garage door opener, I-Pass, and CLC faculty parking pass in the car. So tomorrow I'll have to dig the rental out of its spot on the street and I'll have to again stop for tolls and pay twice as much, and I'll have to write the security patrol a note explaining my rental situation, and hope that they don't give me a CLC parking violation. Now, of course, these are really petty problems, but they're currently my problems, so I'll whine about them anyway.

I express to old Ken my disappointment and frustration with this situation, and I ask him the reason for not telephoning me to warn me about the car's un-readiness situation. Ken really has no answer; he simply tells me that they've been very busy. "Hmm," I say. "Even though I brought the car in two days ago and had an appointment?" Yes, according to Ken. "And even though you told me it'd go in first thing this morning?" Yes, says Ken. "Golly, well that's just shite!" I didn't actually say this, but I was pretty close to doing so. What I'd have loved is a simple apology from Ken--an apology for misleading me about when the car would be ready, and an apology for having my car two days longer than they'd let on. But Ken simply does not apologize. Guess I'm not even worth that.

When Trevor found out about this situation, he called good old Ken right back up and asked for his supervisor. He got "Andy," who was less than helpful. Andy, also, did not apologize for anything, and simply claimed "busy-ness." Guess the customer's never right, huh? And I guess they haven't taught customer service at Fletcher Jones Volkswagen. So, tomorrow I'll drive through the snow in an old Ford Focus, and hopefully get the car when I'm done with class, since, according to Andy, "It'll be done around noon, I guess?" Well, Andy, is that a question, an estimation, or just another fib?

Now, these problems and frustrations are trite compared to the frustrations my neighbor currently has in her condo. But they just reinforce this overwhelming dread I get every time I go to Starbucks and they sleepily, and with nearly closed eyes, take my order, then give me the wrong muffin (after I ask them, "Isn't that blueberry?" when I spy the obviously blueberry muffin in the bag they're handing over. I asked for cranberry. But I guess they know better.) or anywhere else that I run into poorly trained (or just plain lazy) employees. It kind of drives me crazy, and when it's bigger than a muffin (let's say, when it's car-sized), it does get to be more of a bother.

I guess for the time being, I'll focus on the young movie theater employee who blesses me when I sneeze while on line, then hands me my ticket and change and tells me to "feel better!" Or the smiling toll booth operator who wishes me a good day (although that one only reminds me why I'm going to a toll booth operator in the first place...). And, for the future, we'll never bring our car back to Fletcher Jones.

Antics? Whose antics?

Soooooo, we've had an eventful few days. Wednesday morning was awful outside, weather-wise, and my classes were cancelled at MCC because of the iciness, so I hunkered down with Henry to grade papers and such while it snowed-snowed-snowed.

Thursday I drove over some ridiculously unplowed and unsalted roads in Lake County on my way to school (according to the news, the streets and sanitation department didn't have enough salt for the whole county), and apparently on the way through the icy muck, I ran over a screw. By the time I got out of class at noon, my tire was flat. I got a pretty quick tow and headed back home. The streets were a little better by that time. However, as I was pulling into our garage at home, I got stuck on some ice on my way in, accelerated like a banshee to get over it, and ended up flying into Trevor's scooter, which then flew into the garage wall. Well, this hole didn't look too bad and I figured it could be easily patched up.



Until I got a call from our neighbor (whose unit is on the other side of the garage wall) to tell me that her wall seemed to be buckling. Ah-HA! Seems the scooter handle hit some studs and caused more damage than met the immediate eye.


Paula, wonder-sister-in-law, gave me the name of a couple of contractors she uses, and one of them came out this morning. He's able to start first thing Monday morning, so we're relieved. Luckily, our fabulous neighbor Sarah (whose wall I destroyed) is just about the most understanding person around. She said that she's "driven her share of scooters through walls," (figuratively, of course) and understood. She's pretty awesome.

This morning I drove the car over to the dealership to get a new tire and have our 30K mile check up (whew, that's a lot of driving...) , then let in the contractor to take a look at the wall. Trevor has decided to keep me on as a wife, even with these recent, costly shennanigans. I baked him an Apology Cake, which I think helped. A little bit.



That's all we've got going on so far. We'll keep you up-to-date with any developments. And hopefully none of those developments will include me crashing into walls!

Poooooooowwwwwwwer!

Super Duper Tuesday

abominable snowdog

Day 6

Day six of our trip was the last real touristy day and the last real day for photos. Trevor had started to come down with a cold Sunday night, and by the end of day six, both of us were pretty sick. But this was Christmas Eve, it was sunny and 60 degrees, (perfect!) so we packed it full of lots of good site-seeing!

We made our way first to Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi cathedral. It was really one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. It's very organic looking and feeling; it seems as though there was a tremendous hunk of stone in the middle of the city, and Gaudi just carved this out of it. It rises into the air in an almost gravity-defying way. The inside was unfinished (it's scheduled, I think, for another forty years of construction), but the columns were all complete, as was some of the stained glass.







Carved into the outside of the cathedral were Biblical stories (seemingly all of them, moving upwards chronologically), which was fabulous.






We left the cathedral and walked to an apartment building Gaudi had also designed. We only saw the outside--there was a block-long line to get in--but it was really interesting.



Our final Gaudi stop was to his Parc Guell, a public park he designed, much in his well known mosaic tile style. It was just perfect there, though awfully high (Trevor cajoled me to climb every stair and hill all the way to the top. I was about to collapse, but it was absolutely worth it.). There was a group of young people having a picnic at the top, which was really pleasant, and there were dogs running all over the place (both Madrid and Barcelona were dog-heavy towns. Henry would have had a ball). On our way back from Parc Guell, we stopped to pick up sandwiches, sodas, and cookies, and ate them on a bench before we took the Metro home. Quite a lovely day.







Our last day in Spain was Christmas day, and although we don't have photos, we had a nice mini-celebration. In the late morning we took sandwiches and cashews to the beach for a picnic, and were pleased to find that the beautiful weather had brought out lots of Spaniards to the beach-front. There were families and couples--just about everyone. It was great. We were going to see 'I am Legend' ('Soy Legundo'!) that evening and meet up with Trevor's cousin again for a Christmas dinner, but I was a fluish, aching mess, so we decided to hang out in the hotel. Trevor went out and picked up some dinner and deeeelicous pastries for dessert (I'm never too sick for sweets. Ever.) topped with little Santas. Fabulous.

The next morning we headed to the airport and home. It was an excellent trip, and I'm already dreaming of where we'll go next!

Day 5

Today was the futbol game day, so we decided to take it relatively easy to rest up for the big match. We went back up to La Rambla and another neighborhood, Raval. It was Sunday, so a lot of shops and galleries were closed, but we found a plaza that was setting up an artist's market, and--needless to say--I was very excited about it. We got a pair of volcanic rock earrings for Trevor's boss, Susan, and I got a shawl-ish/cape-ish jacket (it's adorable, really). There was a huge "gato" in the middle of the plaza, and after I gave it a smooch for this photo, some young Spanish boys asked me (excitedly and in Spanish [Trevor had to tell me what on earth they were asking me to do...] to take a photo with one of them. I felt sort of famous and dorky--it was fun.




We took a siesta, geared up for the game in our Barcelona togs (Trevor in his new Eto'o jersey, me in our new Barcelona scarf and my team socks) and took the Metro up to Camp Nou. We couldn't sit together, but Trevor was just behind me in the next row, so it was all just fine. The weather was perfect: a bit chilly towards the later evening, but clear skies and no wind. Trevor explained to me that whistling is a "boo" instead of a "yahoo!" noise, which I was glad about since I'm an excited whistler. We did a lot of cheering, we held up a colored sheet of paper and tried to sing along with the rest of the stadium while they sang the team song, and we had a wonderful time. Barcelona lost to Real Madrid (boooooooooo!), but it was so exciting to be there, and the game was great.







We did not take this video, but it shows the "mosaic" cheer that we were able to participate in.



And this is a video of the sad yet beautiful goal that won the game for Real Madrid.