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.

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.

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

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!

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!

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.

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!

Tomorrow, I go to Las Vegas!

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

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

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

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

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

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

School Has Never Been This Interesting!

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

Three days of not much...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy hump day!