The Flaming Lips

Trevor and I went to see The Flaming Lips at the Aragon Ballroom on Friday night, and it was a spectacular show--an event, even. It was a cross between the circus and a stadium rock extravaganza, and I think I smiled through every minute. Here's a little video I took of their encore song, "Do You Realize?" so you can see all of the strobe-light-confetti-spectacular with your own eyes (for the show itself, they played the entire Soft Bulletin album and then did Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" for their first encore. All of it rocked.):

(warning: the sound on this little video snippet only lasts for the first ten or so seconds, but it's awful [because it was so loud that my skin throbbed (in a good way)], so turn your volume all the way down)

Sporty

Trevor and I had an unprecedentedly busy weekend. We spent Friday night at the White Sox game with Neill and Fran. It was mullet night and Fran came prepared.

Check out the tee-shirt

Peace. Out.

The view from our seats and some dude's head

The Sox were ultimately defeated, 9 - 5, by the Washington Nationals, and the four of us took off before the end of the game, which went into extra innings (14). But we had a great time and we ate some ball park food, so our night was a success.

Sunday was a soccer day. We went to the Fire game with our friend Jayson. We took a "luxury" bus provided by the Windy City Wanderers from Fado's to Toyota Park. The day was perfect for a game and we enjoyed every minute of it, from the bus ride...

To the field...

Jayson looks angry. Or suspicious. Or both.

And everywhere (the beer stand, the Dippin' Dots cart) in between.

We came home on Sunday afternoon, sun-happy and tired, so we took a two hour nap and then ordered pizza. The perfect kind of day.

Monday we went out hunting for the kitchen remodel. While noodling around the Clark and Barlow hardware store, we came upon the perfect cabinet pull for Pop Power's garage:

T. and I agreed that it would drive us crazy if it weren't actually level, though. But it's pretty sweet. As was the rest of the hardware store.

And we finally found a faucet! We're going to get a beautiful Delta stainless steel fellow named Trinsic.

He's one smooth guy

Now, I'm very excited about my new kitchen buddy, but I do have to show you the runner up, a gorgeous gal named Pilar. She really, really, really wanted to come hang out in our kitchen, but Trevor ultimately gave her the kibosh. He thought she was just too touchy-feely. She was a little fresh...

Oh, pretty, pretty Pilar

We've got the demolition and installation scheduled to start the second week of July, so we'll keep you in the loop about that. This weekend is our trip to Door County with the Power and Madel clan. Trevor got a new pair of swim trunks and some shorts (what?! shorts?? yes, that's right.), so he's ready. Henry's been spending a lot of time in the sun to get his base tan going--he doesn't want to get a burn when he's on the beach.

Can I call it "sun tanning" if I'm inside and the sun is coming through the window?

Stop judging me! I'm a lazy animal!

Bye, all!

Bunco, Baby

I'm in a bunco league with some gal pals and this month was my turn to host. I decided to use the party room at Mom and Dad Bork's building rather than jam twelve people into our small place, and it worked out perfectly.

The ladies, getting their roll on

And, because I'm currently a lady of leisure, I spent two days preparing: menu planning, grocery shopping, getting liquor. I had too much fun at the party store and got some foam dice and a money bag (because bunco's no fun unless the stakes are high...)

This is what $3.75 gets you at Doolins

I made us some party food--layered bean dip, spinach dip, pasta salad, cucumber finger sandwiches (because we're ladies, after all)--and I enlisted Destiny's help to bake an awesome bunco cake. She rocked it out and the girls were thrilled with the delicious results.

Liz was the big winner of the night:

And I still have leftover cake in the fridge, so really, I'm a big winner, too.

Trevor and I are looking forward to a sporty weekend, with the Sox game tonight with Neill and Fran and the Fire game with our friend Jayson on Sunday. The weather's supposed to be clear for both, but I might pack emergency ponchos just in case. Wish us dry stadium seats and fun!

Happy Father's Day!

For Father's Day this year, Trevor and I met Mom and Dad Bork, Greg and Paula (the "new" mom and dad Bork), and Bosco for lunch with the Nichols at the Evanston Country Club. The weather was perfect for al fresco dining and we all enjoyed mooning over Bo for an hour.

Mr. Nichols, Trevor, Bosco, Greg, Dad

And even though we didn't get to see Trevor's dad today--he and Fran just got home from their Ireland vacation--here's a picture of him and T.'s mom with the little guy who first made John a father, Sean (who is, himself, celebrating his own Father's Day today, with Angi and Sadie!):

Mom, Pop, and tiny Sean Power

And our Father's Day presents were the chocolate chip cookies I was moved to make by Craftwhack's recent post. Although they weren't exactly chocolate chip cookies--Nestle sells a bag of milk chocolate chips mixed with peanut butter chips (yu-hum), and this was, of course, the bag that I bought. So these were extra special cookies. And I made some teeny tiny cookie bites with the remaining 1/4 cup of batter so that I can eat them in one gulp and not feel guilty about the two sticks of butter and 1.5 cups of sugar that went into making them.

And in other news, earlier this week I got some information about the volunteering I'll be doing the week after next with Open Books. I'm going to be a "book buddy" and have two buddies from Cameron Elementary School in Humboldt Park who I'll visit twice a week and read with. I'm pretty geeked out about it, and at the info. session I learned that I can bring some of my own books, so this week I'll figure out which ones from our shelf are appropriate for 1st and 2nd grade readers and then get some supplementary material from the library. I'm betting that I have a few that will work (since my bibliophilia extends to children's literature...), but I'd like to pick up some classics, too.

And speaking of classics, and of things Craftwhack inspires me to think about, Jeanette from Craftwhack recently posted her top five kids' books. Among her choices was a book by Richard Scarry, who wrote about Lowly Worm. When I was little, I adored Lowly Worm, and as I got older I always remembered his tiny worm hat, tie, and smile, but I forgot his name. Until Jeantette reminded me, and I'm so happy that she did.

It's Lowly Worm! Wouldn't you like to have him around all the time? I would.

After getting my volunteering information, I kidnapped T. from the gallery for lunch. It was a nice day and we sat outside.

This week we're taking Henry in for a check-up (who is doing much, much better after a scary surgery he had last month) and then we might continue with a Movie Monday viewing of Tree of Life (we saw Super 8 last Monday and [although it's no E.T.] we really enjoyed it). Or, if the weather is nice, we might just ride around on the motorcycle like we did this evening. Whatever we do, we'll have a full report by the end of the week. So until then, Happy Father's Day, and happy mid-June nice weather!

I'm On Vacation

I started my summer vacation at the strike of 3 p.m. on Friday, May 13, and it was at the last stroke of 3 p.m. that I promptly switched bodies with a student of mine who failed my class. We then had a hilarious three weeks of body-swapping fun during which I played the drums in her all-girl punk band and learned to love life as a teenager again, and she payed bills, did laundry, and cooked dinners and learned how to be a responsible adult who didn't fail English composition classes.

And that's what I've been up to. I also managed to hang out with Bo a little bit. This is what he's up to these days:

I've also made a list of things I'd like to do over the summer.

1. Get a new battery for my watch
2. Finish my Fall syllabus on time (July 1)
3. Go to the beach
4. Take Henry on numerous adventures, like The Search for a Strawberry Milkshake and The Dog Who Walked to the Coffee Shop (and other snack-related quests)
5. Clean the closet
6. Get a haircut (this is actually happening today, so I'll be able to check this off the list)
7. Take Bosco to the zoo
8. Continue Movie Mondays with Trevor (so far we've seen Bridesmaids [disgustingly charming], Everything Must Go [difficult to watch but rewarding], Midnight in Paris [whimsical and witty], and X-Men First Class [loud, violent, and fun as hell])
9. See the movies that Trevor refuses to see with me (Fast Five, Troll Hunter (I might convince him to see this one; it's foreign horror, which is a little classier), the awesome new body-switching movie The Change-Up, and Shark Night [which looks like the most fun ever but it doesn't come out until September])
10. Write some stories and stuff
11. Catch up to my Goodreads goal of reading 75 books this year (I'm currently 14 books behind my schedule)

We'll see how far I get.

Some Bits and Bobs

I'm getting ready to wrap up my semester this week. I've got five days to grade, process, and calculate all of the students' papers so that I can submit my final grades by noon on Friday. I'm sure I'll be able to do it, but I really don't want to. I'd much rather just start my summer vacation right now.

So, to kick off the week before the summer vacation kick-off, here are some things from this weekend for you to look at:

Look out for the zombie, Henry! Why are you so calm?!

OMG, it's even worse than a zombie! It's BARNEY!

I went to an artist talk at T.'s gallery on Saturday and listened to Fred Stonehouse and Tim Tate talk about their show. I should have been grading papers.

My learning community (that's my co-teacher in the front, sticking out her tongue)

My creative writing class, giving me some jazz hands

I still have one more class that will meet for a final time tomorrow, and I have to prepare a quiz for them. But I'm going to make sure that it's an easy quiz. And then it's meetings, grading, meetings, grading, meetings, grading, meetings, grading until Friday at noon. And then it's no more meetings (except one in June I said I'd go to) and no more grading until August. Holy cow.

Some Bosco Bits

Grand-mom Bork sent me some photos of Bo, and he's looking pretty awesome (and upright!). Check him out with some of his peeps.

Um, Dad and Auntie, my margarita is coming over so please put me down

Check me out, world! My toy totally matches my outfit!

Why yes, Grampa, I agree that E Bonds are a very secure long-term investment

A Sunny Day in April

I haven't been out of the house other than to walk Henry around the block since Thursday night; I caught a wicked chest cold the Sunday after returning from Tennessee (although I'm sure that I caught in on the trip itself) and have been sick ever since. I of course passed on my illness to T., and the two of us has been laid up, cold-medicated, and pathetic, for the past six days.

So we decided to take advantage of today's weather and get outside a bit. First, to provide us with enough energy, Trevor made us breakfast:

This is the biggest omelet ever, filled with peppers, onions, and broccoli, with a side of veggie sausage

Our primary objective for the walk was to get the Jewel on Des Plaines to pick up some more Kleenex and cold medicine. I also got us some ice cream (very good for a cold), which we ate in the park across the street from the grocery store. We walked all around after that, even visiting T.'s old workplace, Flatfile Galleries. The space has just been rented by the Chicago Artist Coalition and they were having an open house, so we popped by. We walked most of the way via Kinzie, which took us right through a great and odd little industrial area just east of the meat packing district.

I'm going to steal this to use as the logo for our school's creative writing club

And now we're home and beat. We might head over to the downtown Borks for some afternoon hang-out time, but we're waiting to hear from them. They had Bo over for his first ever over-night and they might be too tuckered out.

We hope you all enjoyed today's weather, too, wherever you are and whatever you're doing. I'll leave you with the best view in the city:

A view from our couch--I could stare at this all day long

Henry on the Town

Henry had some adventures on his walk tonight with Trevor.

Nashville

Unfortunately, I didn't come home with a pair of cowboy boots--though perhaps it was fortunate for our bank account, since I saw not one pair of boots in Nashville for under $250.

Now, the trip was a huge success, and hopefully you've been following the ASB blog and checking in our our progress. We got home last night about 7 p.m., which was earlier than we'd originally expected, and nice for the group, who were tired. We had four volunteer-packed days, spending time with the Second Harvest Food Bank, a Habitat for Humanity home store (a thrift store for home repair and construction goods), and three Youth Encouragement Services (YES) centers around the city of Nashville.

We drove from Nashville to Maryville on Wednesday night to the Once Upon a Time retreat, which is a hostel-like wilderness retreat. The majority of guests are "break away" groups like us, on alternative spring breaks from high schools and colleges. We did service on Thursday in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a group of rangers; we spent the time planting grasses meant to help the landscape and feed the animals in the park. The rangers told us that our group of twenty-eight did in about five hours what would have taken them weeks to do alone, and they were grateful and thankful for our work, which made us feel spectacular.

And now we're home! I still haven't unpacked or laundered my duffel bag full of dirty clothes, but I'll get to that after I (finally) take a shower. Yikes. Here's a picture of the group from Thursday in the park, and I'll be posting more later on.

We're in Tennessee!

I arrived tonight with my student and adviser crew for our 2011 Alternative Spring Break Trip. Here's a picture for you, and follow this link to read more about our trip on our "official" blog.

I'll check in more throughout the week!

Here's the gang, eating at Las Palmas in Nashville

Art Fairs, Tenure, and Spring Break

Trevor recently got back from a week in New York at The Armory Show for the gallery, and it was a very successful fair. They sold out of one new Gregory Scott piece (he's the same artist they sold out of at Art Miami in December), sold a few more of his pieces, and sold pieces from a number of other artists, including Nan Goldin. According to T.'s boss, Cathy, it was the gallery's most successful fair to date.

The Armory booth on Pier 94

 She and T.'s co-worker, Juli, are going back to NYC this week for AIPAD show (Association of International Photography Art Dealers), so T. will be manning the gallery with the new Steve Shapiro show. Stop by to visit him if you're interested in Taxi Driver and The Godfather, since the show features still shots from these two films.

While T. was out of town, I did a lot of not much. I hung out with Henry (I talked to him quite a bit more than he talked to me), did a lot of school work, watched a lot of trashy television, and spent one afternoon crafting with my friend Linda (she sewed and I knitted). She's pictured here hammering a snap onto a hand-sewn pouch:

I also had to take care of a semi-sick Henry, who'd decided to eat half of his blanket (about six pounds according to the before-and-after barfing weigh-ins the vet did...) and had some minor trauma to his inner eyelid, which fixed itself pretty quickly, but looked really awful (think walleye). We think he was so distraught at Trevor's absence that he started rebelling in strange ways. He's all better now.

Right before T. left for NY, I found out that I got tenure, which was exciting. The MCC Board of Trustees voted on it on February 24, and although the vote was really a nothing event (it was included with about thirty other "no contest" voting items, which they voted on all at once), it's nice to have it over. There was a Tenure Tea on Thursday for me and my fellow tenure recipients, and we got some sparkly tiaras to wear and some wands to wave:

Me and two of my six fellow tenurees (that's a lightsaber in the foreground)

Me and my friend Justin in his awesome airline sport jacket

In other exciting news, I'm going on our second annual Alternative Spring Break with school. We leave on March 27 and will be in Nashville for three days doing volunteer work with a number of different organizations. Then we'll head to Great Smoky Mountains National Park to help get rid of invasive species. We've got eighteen fantastic students--three are returning from last year, but the rest are new, including a new faculty member to bring us up to four trip advisers. We had our first meeting on Friday and snapped a picture of the group.

We'll be keeping up with the blog that we started last year (here's the link if you want to refresh your memory), and I'll be keeping this blog up to date with some postings as well.

And I'll end with a couple of images from the Learning Community I'm teaching. A Learning Community is a class composed of two different classes and two different teachers--usually a content class (like psychology or, in my case, art appreciation) and a skills class (like English or speech). The students enroll in both classes and get full credit for both classes, but go through the classes together as a cohort. The classes are co-taught by the two teachers, and the skills taught are taught in context using the content. My portion of my LC is a composition one class, so the students are learning the skills of composition and rhetoric, and all of the writing they're doing is about the art and artistic concepts they're learning. It's very cool. One of the first projects they did was a "sound interpretation": the students listened to six different songs and used pastel chalk to interpret those songs with color, line, and shape on paper. They each chose their favorite image from the six they'd created and wrote an artist statement, explaining what they'd done, why they'd done it, and what they hoped their audience would experience. And now those pieces are displayed! Check them out:

The sound interpretations are on the right, and another project our students did, a "texture and context" project, are on the left. Here's a close-up of those:

None of our fifteen students are art students--it's a gen. ed., and they're just in it for the humanities credit. This makes it even cooler that they've produced such interesting work, and they were so excited to see their pieces up in the art hallway, displayed for everyone. I'm so proud of them, and although this class takes a huge amount of preparation, I'm really excited to be doing it.

And now I'm going to stick some laundry in the dryer and organize a playlist of the Garth Brooks songs I just burned from Greg (was anyone else inspired by Scotty McCreery's rendition of "The River" last week on American Idol? The rendition was a little hammy, but it reminded me what a great song it is!). Good night, all, and have a lovely (and slightly warmer) week!

New Kitchen, Part One

There will probably be many more parts to this new kitchen as it's completed slowly over the next months, but here's installment number one: the new appliances!

Trevor had to deal with the two fellows who installed them all--they were here for about three hours and managed to chip four of our counter tiles (luckily we got the appliances before the new counters and cabinets), lose the electricity to one wall, and have no idea how to get it back on. T. eventually realized the magical "reset" button on the outlet behind the toaster oven. He's pretty smart. And thankfully he used his noodle to figure it out before the installers had completely dismantled the fuse box. They'd gotten to the face plate and were about to start...god knows what. Snipping wires?

The microwave is hiding under the kitchen table (and when the guy set the dolly down on the floor, he set it on a floor lamp and almost broke it. truth be told, he sounds like kind of a disaster), and we'll put that in above the stove once the cabinets are fresh and new. For now, it stays in the box.

Oh, did you notice that we have two ovens? Yes, we do! We have a mini pizza-perfect oven and a second, larger oven for, well, I guess much larger pizzas.