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.

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!

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...

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!

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!

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!

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.).

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.

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!

Sadie Louisiane Power — The Film

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!

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!