Saturday, December 03, 2005

Radar Love

A low pressure system from Oklahoma is making its way across Illinois this evening. The current forecast is for 3-5 inches of snow, which will make it the first substantial snowfall of the season.


Also, this is too funny: The city of Bryan, TX, decided to spice up their yearly water quality report by making it into a calendar with pictures of their water service employees. Check out some of the images here. My favorite is the guy sitting on the toilet.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

I am the Connect Four King!

Yesterday I was at the grocery store and happened to notice a display of games next to the checkout lane. Among them was Connect Four. I hadn't played it in many, many years, but I remember having much fun with it as a kid, so I bought it.

Wendy and I opened it up this evening and it didn't take long before the fun started. For her, at least. Five moves into the first game, she beat me. We were both rather surprised, not to mention very amused. One game was all it took for me to get my bearings, though. I beat her four moves into the second game! I then went on to dominate the remainder of our games. So far I am quite pleased with the purchase. :-)

In other news, Wendy threw her back out after we returned from St. Louis. We suspect it had to do with the transition from sleeping on a waterbed at the Calderwoods' to sleeping on our regular bed here. She's much better now, but for a couple of days she couldn't move or breathe or lay down or do pretty much anything without considerable pain. A steady diet of Advil helped immensely.

Our stay in St. Louis was very enjoyable. Grandma Gilda did, in fact, make a huge Thanksgiving feast. There was a lot of good food, and there were many games of Trivial Pursuit, along with lots of football. (I learned all about the Illinois high school football playoffs from Grandpa Jack.) It was fun to see everyone that Wendy grew up with. On our way out of St. Louis we even stopped to see the house and drive around the neighborhood that she grew up in.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

I am thankful for mostaccioli

We're going to St. Louis for Thanksgiving! I'm really looking forward to it - I grew up in St. Louis, and my family's gone back every year since we moved to Kansas. I haven't been able to go for the past four or five years, though, and Randy's never been.

Every year, we stay with our friends the Calderwoods. We lived across the street from each other in St. Louis from the time I was about 6, Brian was 4, Abby was 3, and Steven and Erin were 2. Kevin wasn't born when we moved in, but I remember the day he came home from the hospital. We grew up together - playing like best friends, fighting like siblings, leaving our shoes in the wrong family's living room, obeying (and disobeying) all four parents pretty much equally. Our backyard had a big swingset and theirs had a pool, and we spent all summer running back and forth between the two houses, our parents joking about the Calderwood-Drescher gym and swim club. Abby, Erin and Steve share the same birthday, February 3, and Kevin's birthday is February 2, so there were lots of shared birthday parties when they were younger. The Calderwoods over-paid me to babysit when the kids were little, and I taught Kevin, a fellow lefty, to tie his shoes. I couldn't possibly love them all more, and I am so looking forward to being there again.

And this year, Randy will finally experience the wonder of a Grandma Gilda Thanksgiving. She's not our grandma (she's the Calderwoods'), but she always spoils us like she is. I don't think there have ever been fewer than 15 people at her house for Thanksgiving, but there's always enough food to feed probably three times that many people. There's turkey, of course, but being an Italian grandma, she also serves mostaccioli. And mashed potatoes. And sweet potatoes. And green bean casserole. And gravy. And rolls. And peas. And stuffing. And pumpkin pie. And apple pie. And pecan pie. And angel food cake. And pizzelle. And I'm sure I'm forgetting half a dozen (or more) other things. She's not happy unless you're rolling home.

I can't wait to see everyone!

On an almost-completely unrelated note, I went to the dentist today (after finding one that did not have a five-month wait for an appointment). I was kind of nervous about it, since I haven't been in probably four years, but I would like to report that the dentist told me I have the best teeth he's seen all week, and my gums are fantastically healthy. I just realized, though, that he did not give me a free toothbrush. Hrumph.

Friday, November 11, 2005

You have one new message!

I ran some errands this afternoon, and when I got back, there was a message on the answering machine, an automated phone call from our congresswoman. She was calling to invite us to attend a town hall meeting on identity theft tomorrow afternoon. It's a growing problem, she said, particularly in the suburbs, and she's arranged for a panel of experts to speak. It was a very convincing message - I will definitely be there. Because it's being held at my conference center. And I am scheduled to work.

Okay, I know I'm a dork, but I got kind of a kick out of telling her recorded voice, "Why, thank you. I'd be delighted to attend. I'll be sure to get there early to get a good seat! And to unlock the doors!"

In other news, dinner tonight was an unmitigated disaster, to the point of throwing it away and going out to eat instead. It wasn't even a new recipe - something just went terribly wrong somewhere, leaving Randy and I staring at the stove and then at each other until I finally said, "Um...You want to go out instead?"

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Miscellanea

Not much has been going on since I returned from Texas; Wendy and I have both been working away this past week. So here are some random thoughts and observations to pass the time:

-- Thunderstorms rolled through Illinois yesterday, bringing rain for most of the day, along with a brief shower of nickel-sized hail for good measure. Last we heard, this part of Illinois is still about a foot below normal rainfall.

-- Kudos to the Kansas Jayhawks, who snapped a 36-game losing streak to Nebraska. Our friend George claims to have helped in the victory, by posing for a picture in the Kansas paper that, he says, "angered Nebraska so much they couldn't focus on the game."

-- Wendy has discovered a back way to get to work that shaves about 5 minutes off the commute. Not only is it quicker, but it's much more scenic, too. The road twists and turns, and is lined with large trees whose branches hang over the road. Judging by the number of palatial houses along the way, I would also say it's a fairly well-to-do area.

-- A small shopping center about a mile from our house recently opened up. So far it has a 7-11 and a Rosati's pizza. We tried Rosati's last week and we both enjoyed it. Hopefully it won't become too much of a temptation having it so close!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Our Love Holds On

Today I heard "Oh Sherrie" by Steve Perry three times.

To be fair, I was in the car (and thus listening to the radio) much longer than usual, since I drove Randy to the airport this morning. His grandmother passed away earlier this week, and he flew down to Texas today for the funeral. Luckily, the company his mom works for is affiliated with an airline, and she was able to get a free flight pass for him. It's nice that he's able to be there with his family. I've been thinking about them a lot today.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

I would like to apologize...

OU 37, Baylor 30 (2 overtimes)

I'm afraid I jinxed OU. Earlier today, when the Michigan - Iowa game went into overtime, the announcers pointed out that it was the first overtime game played at Iowa's stadium. I turned to Wendy and said "You know, I don't think OU has played an overtime game under Bob Stoops." So, of course, Baylor (of all teams) took us to two overtimes. Thankfully we still pulled it out.

To their credit, Baylor is a much-improved team this year, and I'll be rooting for them to become bowl eligible. I'm just glad they didn't do it against us.

After a quick check of the statistics, this is indeed Bob Stoops' first overtime game at OU. OU's last overtime was a win over Texas in 1996.

Monday, October 17, 2005

New Job and Other News

Good: Everyone has been really friendly and welcoming.
Bad: "Everyone" is, so far, approximately 578,459 new co-workers whose names and faces I need to remember. It's a much bigger college than my old one.
Redeeming: There is widespread nametag usage.

Good: I can set my own hours, outside of the events I need to be there for.
Bad: The events are sometimes on evenings or weekends. For instance, I worked yesterday afternoon, and this coming Saturday, there's an event with set-up starting at 6 a.m. For those of you playing along at home, that means I'll need to leave at 5:30 a.m. I am so not a morning person.
Redeeming: 6 a.m. events are very rare, I'm told.

Good: I have an actual office, with walls and a door.
Bad: It's pretty small, and I share it with two other people.
Redeeming: They're very nice and funny, and can answer the questions I can't, such as where the bookstore is, and whether we take credit cards (through the pillars and past the information desk, and yes).

Good: I really, really like my job so far, and can't stop talking about it.
Bad: Randy's getting kind of sick of hearing about my day in excruciating detail.
Redeeming: He's happy to see me so happy, even if it means reliving my day in almost real time.

In short, I'm really pleased to have a job again, and I'm really glad it's this one in particular. It was disappointing to be rejected for the other jobs, but I think this is the right one for me.

In other news, this weekend we went to The Pumpkin Patch and walked through a six-acre corn maze. It took us about 30 minutes, and was lots of fun. We also got some apple cider and pumpkin donuts, although we didn't actually buy any pumpkins. Priorities, after all.

Also,using the last of his birthday money to (partially) fund it, Randy bought The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. We've been working our way through it (all 23 pounds of it) and really liking it.

And in conclusion, poor Notre Dame. What a way to lose.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Weekend Recap



Today we made it to the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford. It was a very pleasant experience, and was made even more so thanks to the fall colors. The Gardens turned out to be a fairly popular place to be this afternoon; there were several employees out directing the flow of pedestrians.

One interesting sight we came across was a tree growing horizontally off of a hill. It was still growing strong thanks to a very tall log that had been put in to prop it up.

There were also several paths blocked off with "Private Property" signs; they all appeared to lead to a house at the top of a hill. We overheard a group of people in front of us say that the gardens were basically someone's back yard, open to the public. What a very cool back yard that would be. (Incidentally, we also overhead those same people discussing various creative ways that an ostrich could kill a lion.)

Most of the trips we take during the fall tend to be on Sunday, since Saturday is, of course, college football. Thanks to the magic of digital cable and ESPN Gameplan, there were 29 football games available for us to watch yesterday. When your team of choice is being trounced by their arch-rival, it's nice to be able to switch to any number of other (more competitive) games to take your mind off the resounding defeat.

On a happier note, Friday night Wendy and I went to see Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It was incredibly funny, with moments of absolute genius. We both highly recommend it.

Finally, a sunset from late August. If you look closely to the left, you can just make out the beginnings of townhouses that are being built across the pond. (Fortunately all of the trees are staying.)

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Employed!

I am very pleased and excited to announce that I am once again a productive member of society: I got the job! I will be a conference center assistant in the Continuing Education department of a nearby college. It's part-time, and will mainly be event planning and coordination. My first day will be next Wednesday. Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone!

Also, the weather today was fall-like and gorgeous. Earlier this week, we were back up into the high 80s, but today was mid-50s and delightful. Hurray for October!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

A gentleman's account of the weather

Autumn has arrived. It greeted us yesterday with a cold, rainy, and windy evening. We gladly welcomed it; the summer was warmer than expected, and led to much anticipation of a change in season.

I checked the weather as soon as I awoke this morning and discovered even further evidence of Autumn's arrival:

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Prostrate with Grief!

As part of my birthday celebration zone (™ Jill), we went to see The Corpse Bride this Friday. It was good, and some parts were quite funny (Randy and I have been using the phrase, "prostrate with grief" as often as we can work it into conversation). See if you spot a quick nod to Edward Gorey in one scene - we both thought we saw one, and it was the same scene, so we're pretty sure it's there. Overall, though, I think I still prefer The Nightmare Before Christmas.

We were also hoping to go visit some Japanese gardens in Rockford this weekend, but it ended up raining both Saturday and Sunday, so we went to IKEA instead. There's a huge IKEA (link is a PDF) store in Schaumberg - almost too big, in fact. It reminded us of visiting Powell's Books (link is a PDF) in Portland last summer, which takes up an entire city block. It's great to have so much stuff to look at, but unless you have some idea about what you're looking for, it gets pretty overwhelming. I don't know if either map successfully conveys the sheer size of both of those stores. You could pretty easily just disappear into either one, never to return...

One of the things I got for my birthday was Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. I love these books. The first time I read them, I could hardly think of anything else for the two weeks it took me to finish them all. I stayed up far too late on weeknights and got up early on the weekends to read them. They're incredibly absorbing. Anyway, my point is that I whole-heartedly recommend them, and you should all go read them.

Continuing my random hopping from subject to subject, I have another interview next Monday, with the same place I interviewed at last time. I'm almost a little afraid to mention it, given that I haven't gotten any of the jobs I've mentioned interviewing for before, but I figure having extra people sending good thoughts my way can't hurt. So, if just one more of you than last time (when I was second choice) could think good thoughts for me, I should get the job. Or maybe even two of you, just to be sure. Your assistance is much appreciated.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Birthdays, Tourism, and Trojans -- Oh my!

Wendy celebrated her 26th birthday this week! For her birthday dinner, she chose Chinese takeout, something we hadn't had in a long time, and which we both enjoyed. We also had a chocolate hazelnut/nutella cake, courtesy of a Nigella recipe. Very tasty. All told, it was a fine birthday, although Wendy is starting to feel really old. If anyone out there who has successfully navigated the waters of their mid-20's wants to offer her some advice or words of encouragement, I'm sure she would appreciate it. :-)

Earlier this week, I happened to notice an ad on weather.com with the following picture:

I'd seen it before, but I've become so accustomed to ignoring ads that I paid it no attention. This time, though, it caught my eye, and I noticed it was for the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, showing a trail in Tunnel Hill State Park. So, I (gasp!) clicked on the ad, and was taken to http://www.enjoyillinois.com. The site lists a number of attractions and trip ideas, and it reminded me of just how little of the state Wendy and I have seen. There are a couple of places it listed in Northern Illinois that I'd like to check out soon; namely the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, and the Starved Rock State Park, which is located in the Illinois River Valley.

And, finally, the USC Trojans. They dismantled OU in last season's national championship game. Now that the Sooners are firmly out of the national championship race for this season, I find it much easier to admire the incredible talent USC has. I watched the first quarter of their game against Arkansas last Saturday, in which they scored 28 points in a span of 92 seconds! It was almost unbelievable; they scored so effortlessly every time they got the football (the final score was 70-17). If they play to their potential every week, I don't think any team in the nation can beat them. But, you never know. I remember Florida State looked invincible in 2000, but OU shut them down, and Miami looked invincible in 2002, but Ohio State pulled the upset. In one game, anything can happen.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Hot Air For a Cool Breeze

Apparently we brought our drought karma with us from Colorado, because it's still been very warm and dry here, with temperatures well above normal. This evening, though, a storm front blew through, bringing my favorite kind of weather. I love it when it gets cloudy, blustery, and cool right before a big storm. (As opposed to the oppressive, humid stillness you sometimes get instead, which I don't like at all.)

By about 5 p.m., it was overcast, with the wind ruffling the surface of the pond and tossing all the leaves on the trees around. I opened the windows, and as we ate dinner, we watched what looked like a heck of a storm roll in, turning the sky dark and sending lightning bolts flying. We could smell the ozone and humidity. The wind kept picking up, at times blowing the reeds around the pond flat against the ground. The weather people reported that there was a severe thunderstorm warning, and we were eagerly anticipating it.

We got no rain at all.

The storm blew right by without stopping. At least tomorrow is supposed to be about 15 degrees cooler, much more in line with average temperatures for this time of year. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it stays nice for my birthday next week, but I'm afraid it won't.

Edited to add: Randy and I just got back from a walk around our neighborhood. Part of it is still under construction, and it was windy enough earlier that a Porta-Potty set up for the construction workers had blown over. That will be an unpleasant surprise for someone to find in the morning.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, is five months an unreasonably long time to wait for a dentist appointment? My eye doctor saw me the same day, my medical doctor saw me the next week, but my dentist can't see me until February. That seems way too long to have to wait, but maybe it's actually par for the course.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Argh!

I completely forgot about Terry Bowden. He means well, and he tries hard, and he gets excited about college football, but he's just not that great of an announcer. However, in today's loss to TCU, he had the quote of the day. Late in the game, OU's quarterback made a bad throw to a wide open receiver, who still had a chance to catch the ball, but dropped it. Bowden promptly said:

"Folks, that's rebuilding, not reloading."

And that, in a nutshell, sums up the game.

Friday, September 02, 2005

News and Notes

The Job Search
Unfortunately, Wendy didn't get the job she interviewed for. We're both disappointed. She was incredibly well qualified, and the interview went really well, but they decided to hire someone from within the department. Something else will come along, though, so we'll keep our eyes open.

New Orleans
Let me say first of all that I'm very glad that supplies have finally made their way to New Orleans. I'm extremely appalled, though, that it took ALMOST 5 DAYS for them to get there!! It's very, very wrong for that to happen.

The Weather
Wendy heard recently that this has been the 3rd driest summer ever for this part of Illinois. It certainly appears that way: I've been driving by acres of brown and withered crops on my way to and from work.

College Football
I'm still struggling with how sports fits into the national scene right now, but the fact is that the college football season has started. These are the games we're looking forward to this weekend:
* OU vs TCU: What will our offense look like? More importantly, how good is our defense?
* Notre Dame vs Pitt: Charlie Weis vs Dave Wannstedt. Whose coaching skills will reign supreme?
* Miami vs FSU: Usually a good contest, but why make this the first game of the season? It would probably be a better game if both teams had a few weeks of experience first.

The Local Sports Team
The Chicago Bears' preseason has been a trainwreck to say the least. Their starting QB got injured and is out for the season; their backup QB turned out to be so bad he's fallen off the depth chart; so their only option now is give the helm to Kyle Orton, a rookie QB. Not an auspicious start. At least we get to watch former Sooners Mark Bradley and Tommie Harris play.

On Instant Replay
I have to say I'm not a big fan of instant replay, and I'm a little sad to see it appearing at the college level. It slows down the game and seems to change the way that referees officiate.

Sometimes, we're a little lame
The light in our loft hasn't been working the past few weeks, and we were really stumped as to why. There are 3 lights in the light fixture, and they had all stopped working at the same time. It didn't seem likely that they'd all burned out together, and they didn't even look burned out. All the other electrical outlets in the loft worked, so we didn't think it was circuit-related (but we're not electricians, either). Finally, today, Wendy solved the mystery. There's a second switch for that light in the loft that we'd totally forgotten about, and it was neither on nor off, but stuck right in the middle. Wendy flipped the switch and presto! The lights now work. I think we're both a little embarrassed that it took us several weeks to figure it out.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

50,112!

I have over 50,000 words on my novel! It's nice, of course, but it honestly feels a little anti-climactic - probably because my story isn't finished yet. I guessed before I started that it would end up being about 75,000 words, and I still think somewhere around there is correct. It's anyone's guess what the length will be once I'm done editing, though.

I think my interview yesterday went well, and I have my fingers crossed that they want to hire me. They're planning to make a decision within two weeks, so we'll see...

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Four score and seven years ago...

George has finished his novel! That's right, he's done; a week ahead of schedule and 200 words over the minimum. He called this afternoon and we talked briefly about it - he's already making plans for the next novel...

And my novel? It's still coming along. I broke 40,000 words today, so I have a week left to write and 10,000 words to go. I don't think that 50,000 words will finish my story, though, as I'm only a little more than halfway through my plot. I started to worry a few days ago that I was writing the world's most boring novel, but today I wrote a fun scene between mortal enemies that restored some of my faith. I guess if I really start to struggle, I can always follow my dad's writing advice: "And now," said the heroine, "I will recite the Gettysburg Address." Or maybe she could turn to Shakespeare, or the dictionary, for comfort. Not that those would necessarily make my novel more exciting, but they would help me reach 50,000 words.

In other exciting news: I found out yesterday that I was selected to interview for a position that I really want and think I would be really good at. The interview is next Monday, so if you could all send good thoughts my way, I would definitely appreciate it!

Randy and I saw Broken Flowers this past weekend and enjoyed it, although we both got the impression that some of the people in the theater were there expecting a Bill Murray film rather than a Jim Jarmusch film. At one point, the man seated next to Randy muttered, "What the hell is going on?" That pretty much sums up every Jim Jarmusch film I've seen, but in a good way.

And I think that's probably enough from my rather scattered brain today.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

33rd Post!

For dinner last night, Wendy and I decided to visit The Village Squire, a local, medieval-themed restaurant that we both enjoy. One of the unique things about the place is that everyone is served popcorn as an appetizer, and, if you flip through the brochure at your table, you'll discover that they've written a short song about the popcorn entitled "Little Fluffy Balls of Golden Sunshine".

I'm also reminded of one of the 100 memories from our initial trip to Chicago that we didn't post online: The first time we visited the Village Squire together we happened to notice a sea gull hopping across the parking lot with a slice of pizza in its beak. Sadly we didn't have our camera with us.

Changing the subject slightly, Wendy and I are finding movie watching much more enjoyable with our new TV, so we've been putting our NetFlix subscription to good use. We've recently watched House of Flying Daggers (good, but not quite as good as Hero, in my opinion), The Incredibles (quite funny), and The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (when the best part of a movie is the appearance of David Hasselhoff, you know you're not exactly watching a triumph of cinema). We've also got Amelie and Ran to watch soon, but right now we're working our way through Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth, a 6-hour PBS series from the late 80's, in which Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell converse about anything and everything related to mythology. We're both blown away by how fascinating it is.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Help! Help! I'm Being Repressed!

Saturday was International Left-Handers Day. To quote from the newsletter my mom passed along:

Left-handers routinely encounter difficulties that most right-handers do not fully appreciate. For instance: scissors, can openers...power tools and kitchen utensils... For those of us who are right-handed, try using your left hand to do these simple little tasks. You will learn very quickly that it's quite challenging, and hopefully you’ll have a greater appreciation for those who are left-handed.

Darn straight. I celebrated my left-handedness by going with Randy to his company's annual picnic and holding my cotton candy in my left hand.

We had a great time at the picnic. The weather was perfect for an outdoor event - upper-70s and overcast. The event itself was much more elaborate than I had expected - there were carnival rides, bouncy castles, a giant slide, face painters, stilt walkers, a petting zoo, pony rides, bingo, and a catered cookout. We rode the rides, ate some lunch, and looked but did not pet at the zoo. I got to meet a few of Randy's co-workers that I hadn't met before as well.

This weekend was also Lakemoorfest, which is apparently a celebration of all things Lakemoor-ian. We didn't go, because it looked pretty similar to the picnic, only not free, but we did watch the fireworks they had last night. We're close enough that we only had to walk down the street and around the corner a bit in order to see over the houses, which was nice. We were both very impressed with the fireworks - Lakemoor's not a huge place, so we weren't expecting much, but they were fairly spectacular.

Novel update: I'm making good progress. I'm not quite matching George's furious pace, but I only need 1700 words by the end of tomorrow (very do-able; I wrote 2600 today) in order to reach the 25,000 word mark. Then I'll be halfway finished by the halfway point!

The book's definitely going to need editing once it's done, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll have changed my mind by the time I've rewritten half of it, but let me keep my illusions for now.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Scenes from McHenry County

It's been a while since we've posted pictures, so here are some things in the area that have caught our attention.



We find the logo on our trash can quite amusing. Wendy and I, of course, produce only the finest garbage.



We first noticed this rusty, beaten-up car in the Meijer parking lot when we came here for our house hunting trip in March. It hasn't moved since.



A live bait vending machine! This is located at a gas station in Harvard. It sells red worms, nightcrawlers, and leeches. In case you're interested, the leeches cost $3.50 per dozen.



The water level in the pond next to our townhouse has been dropping considerably the past few months. Illinois was recently declared a disaster area due to a severe drought this summer.





Finally, a couple of pictures from Moraine Hills State Park. I decided to go exploring one Saturday evening, while Wendy was immersed in the just-released Harry Potter book.

Monday, August 01, 2005

I should be writing...

We have a new TV! After looking at the Circuit City in Boulder, the Circuit City in McHenry, and the Best Buy in Crystal Lake, reading a gazillion reviews on Amazon.com, checking Consumer Reports, and a great deal of dithering, we finally bought one Sunday. We may not be the most exciting people, but boy howdy, no one can say we're not well-researched and deliberate.

It's great so far - much bigger, and with a flat screen, so we can finally see all the stuff in the corners. I'm glad the payoff is worth it, because it was kind of a pain to get it. We went to Best Buy, bought it, took it out to the car, struggled with getting the box in the car for a bit, finally realized we were going to have to take it out of the box to get it to fit, opened the box, and discovered it was broken. Part of the case was not just cracked but actually crushed. So...back in the box, back on the cart, back inside to trade it out. This time, we gratefully accepted their offer of help getting it into the car and were impressed with the guy who easily picked it up all by himself and slid it (no problem) into the backseat. Wow.

Randy also had a birthday! He's 28 now, so it was his Golden Birthday (28 on the 28th). Sadly, he had a bit of a cold on his birthday and only wanted to go to bed early, so we didn't do much then. He was feeling much better by this weekend, though, so we went out to dinner to celebrate and had a great time.

Finally...writing. Since I last posted about my novel, I've written, um, almost nothing. At the rate I was going, I would have finished around, oh, say 2034. Luckily, while George was visiting, we were talking about writing, and I told him all about NaNoWriMo and loaned him my copy of No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High- Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days. He was inspired, and we decided to have our own, unofficial version of NaNoWriMo this month, starting today. So, for the next thirty days, I'm sure we'd both appreciate any support any of you want to wing our ways. Any of you who are feeling particularly masochistic are welcome to join us!

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Boomer! Sooner!

Now that the Tour de France is over (Go Lance!), the countdown to college football season can begin. The first slate of games begin Thursday, September 1st, which, by my calculations, is 5 weeks and 2 days away. Since we're no longer in Big 12 country, we'll be upgrading to digital cable soon so that we can get "ESPN GamePlan", a TV package that airs games not typically shown in your region. In addition, we're in dire need of a new TV. The set we currently have gets blurry on warm colors (yellow, orange, and red), and the remote stopped working some time ago. We've looked at Circuit City, but so far haven't come to any decision on what type of TV we'll get.

This past weekend we had a mini-reunion of sorts with friends from OU. George, Danny, and Rubén all travelled up to our place to hang out for a few days. It made for a full house, but it was a lot of fun. The weather was incredibly hot (Sunday we had a heat index of over 110 degrees), so we pretty much stayed inside all weekend and played board games, with Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, and Taboo being our games of choice. There was much hilarity. Sunday we also went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which we all very much enjoyed.

Fortunately the weather cooled down remarkably today. Temperatures were in the low 70's, and it was gray and dreary with a light rain falling all day. It sounds dismal, but it was an incredibly refreshing change.

Monday, July 18, 2005

A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love

Wow, the new Harry Potter book is good! I really loved it - it's dark, and funny, and very intriguing. There's only one book left, and it seems like the series should really be winding down, but it feels like we're still being given lots of new information and that the world, and Harry's future, is actually opening up rather than shutting down.

Also, I don't want to give anything away, because I know that not everyone may have had the chance to read it yet, but I think the ending is a lot less straightforward than Harry thinks it is. In fact, I have very strong thoughts on the matter, and if you ask, I will tell you all about it, probably in more detail than you ever dreamed you wanted. And if you haven't read it yet, go! Get reading! It's worth it!

P.S. Many congratulations to Joy and Cory on your engagement! We wish you every happiness together!

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Harry Potter, You're So Keen

We had a really nice time with Jill! I'm so glad she was able to come visit. Final Trivial Pursuit tally: 3-3-1. (We had to call one game on account of extreme tiredness.) Other things we did while Jill was here included taking a nice walk at Chain O' Lakes State Park, watching the first season of Coupling, and going to Lake Michigan on a hot day without our swimsuits. We'll know better next time.

The day after Jill left, I got a rejection letter in the mail for a story I had submitted to a magazine for publication! This is actually much more exciting than it might sound, because, 1) this was my first rejection letter ever, and, 2) my rejection letter was personalized and encouraging. Some bigger magazines (which this magazine isn't, really, but still) have as many as 5 or 10 different rejection letters that they send out, depending on how thoroughly they're rejecting the piece. The meanings can range all the way from, "Please don't ever send us anything again," to "We really don't have space in this issue, but this was great, so please try us again." Mine was along the lines of, "We like this, but it's not quite right for us. Try it somewhere else." And an editor had taken the time to write a few notes about the story on the letter, including "Good Luck!" It may not sound like much, but it is encouraging. So...I'll try again.

Also, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes out this Saturday! I pre-ordered it from Amazon, and it should be delivered that day. I'm just frantically trying to finish re-reading the first five books before then - I have only two more to get through, but they are by far the biggest two. Luckily, they're pretty quick reads for me, so I think I should be able to do it. I can't wait!

P.S. You can download a song about Harry Potter here. It's the British-ish version, which is not as good as the non-British-ish version available for sale on that website, but it is free.

Friday, July 08, 2005

The Great Outdoors

Jill is here, and the epic Trivial Pursuit battles have commenced! At last count Wendy was ahead 3 games to 2.

This evening we went for a walk at the McHenry dam. There seemed to be a lot of wildlife out and about, which was very cool. We saw a muskrat swimming in a pond, several frogs, a few deer, many different kinds of birds, the coolest of which was a field full of at least a dozen great blue herons, and, as usual, many lightning bugs. Afterwards we went swinging on a nearby swingset which is next to a large grove of pine trees. The swings, pine trees, and lightning bugs all made for a very pleasant evening.

A little over a month ago, I posted a link to a google map of the state parks we've visited so far. Google has recently released a programming interface to create custom maps, so you no longer have to rely on hacks. There's really no limit to where this will go; the possibilities are endless. People have already come up with maps showing live concerts across the country, earthquakes in North America, and even a map of injuries during the running of the bulls in Spain.

My favorite so far, though, is Gmaps Pedometer, which helps you record distances between points. Simply center the map where you want it, and start double-clicking to plot points. It does all the work of calculating the total mileage. Here's a map I created of a walk that Wendy and I would go on when we lived in Longmont. And here's a longer walk that I occasionally went on. It's a lot of fun when you can effortlessly connect technology with your everyday life!

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Toor Day Frants!

It's Tour de France time again! I'm not sure why I love it so much, but I do. OLN shows the race live every morning starting at 7:30 a.m. CDT, and I usually watch it then.

I think part of the reason I enjoy it so much is the commentators, especially in the morning when it's live. They re-show each day's stage in the evening with extended commentary by Al Trautwig and Bob Roll (whose aggressively American pronunciation of Toor day Frants is pretty well known), but in the morning it's broadcast with Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. Phil and Paul are British and are themselves former cyclists. Phil in particular is pretty excitable, while Paul is fairly laidback. The following exchange, which took place during the prologue time trial a few days ago, pretty well sums up their personalities:

Phil (suddenly extremely excited): And it looks to me as though Stuart O'Grady has just gone through the time check in first place! Oh, this is amazing! No one expected -

Paul (interrupting): Uh, that's actually forty-first place, Phil.

Phil (immediately contrite): Oh, I beg your pardon, Paul.

They're a great team. And the race is amazing, and lots of fun to watch.

In other news, Jill's going to come visit us this Thursday and stay for a long weekend! She and Jay are in the process of moving to Connecticut (actually, Jay's already there), and she was able to take a few days away from visiting her parents in Indiana on her way up to come up and see us. We don't have definite plans, aside from playing Trivial Pursuit with each other. Hooray!

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Misadventures at the Mailbox

So today I checked the mail after getting home from work. I unlocked our mailbox, grabbed the mail, locked it, and I began to walk away as I started to pull out the key. The key, however, refused to come out. Since I was already moving, my hand slipped off the key and my finger scraped across the sharp end of the thin key ring. This wound up cutting my finger, pulling the key ring apart so that it disconnected from the rest of the keys, and also pulled the stubborn mail key out the lock. The key then fell onto the ground, bounced, and somehow managed to land in a thin crack between the curb and the concrete the mailbox was on. To illustrate:


Fortunately I was able to rescue the key by using a metal hanger to reach into the gap. Between this and The Green Tea Incident, though, I'm tempted to create a file called "Things I've Dropped In Unusual Places".

In semi-related news, today is our 3 and 1/2 year anniversary. While I was putting a Spongebob Squarepants band-aid on my finger, it occurred to me that instead of celebrating our full year anniversaries, which occur during the holidays when we're visiting family, we should instead celebrate our half-year anniversaries, which occur close enough to the July 4th weekend that we could have an extra-long vacation. Wendy thought this was an excellent idea. It's too late to plan a long trip for this year, but we do still have a 3-day weekend coming up. Perhaps we can find a cool place in Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin to visit.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

We Only Love Saturday!

This was a really nice weekend.

Saturday morning, I discovered some really excellent programs on our local access cable channel, apparently aimed at native Indians and Pakistanis. I came in toward the end of a program that seemed to involve the inhabitants of two apartments across the alley from each other arguing about whose music they were going to listen to, only exclusively in song (and Hindi). It was almost totally incomprehensible, but I couldn't look away.

That segued into a program that was ostensibly about the over-use of certain Hindi phrases in music videos, but which really seemed to be an excuse to show music videos. I mean, they were taking requests. And giving shout-outs. My favorite video (which they played twice!) was "Chak de Saturday" by the Balle Balle Boys. It was a Matrix-inspired, computer-animated video that showed the Balle Balle Boys' computerized alter egos running down a hallway, entering doors marked "Wednesday" or "Thursday" and doing battle with a buxom female version of Mr. Smith. It then cut to the real Balle Balle Boys dancing with a Trinity look-alike and singing the catchy chorus: "No Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday/No more Thursday or Friday/We only love Saturday!" It was the only part of the song that was in English. Anyway, the programs were excellent. You can, if you want, read more about them at Namaste TV and Chitrahar.

We also bought bikes this weekend! Honestly, this was more exciting than the South Asian tv programs, but I think there's less to say about it. There are a lot of parks with bike trails in them nearby that we're looking forward to exploring.

We also saw Batman Begins, which was very dark and very cool. We both really enjoyed it, and I would highly recommend it to everyone. (Except Mom, who won't like it.) We went for a late-night bike ride after we got back from the movie. It was really nice, with fireflies everywhere.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

We're (Almost!) Famous

We're in the paper today! Yesterday, a columnist from the paper called and interviewed me as well, so there's the original article about newcomers to McHenry County as well as a column about blogs. You can read them online here and here. Let us know if you want a clipping and we'll mail you a hard copy.

Also, my interview was yesterday. I think it went pretty well, but it's hard to tell sometimes. I've thought other interviews that didn't get me the job went well, too. The only one I was ever sure about was the interview at Naropa - I remember being almost certain that I had the job after I left the interview. (Luckily, I was right!) I guess I'll just have to wait and see...

Monday, June 20, 2005

Fireflies!

They were everywhere tonight. We first starting noticing fireflies a few weeks ago, much to our excitement, since we didn't see any the entire time we lived in Colorado. But tonight we went for a walk and they were out in force. It was very pretty. This evening was noticeably warmer than it has been recently, so perhaps that had something to do with it.

We both very much enjoyed Steven Wright's show. Here are some of our favorite lines:

"I have a theory that the end of the Cold War is what started global warming."
"I got food poisoning today. I don't know when I'll use it."
"If heat rises, then heaven's going to be a lot hotter than hell."
"Why is it that it's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your two cents in? Somebody's making a penny somewhere."

Friday, June 17, 2005

Exciting Things Are Afoot

So here's the scoop: Tuesday was quite a good day for us. The fun started when we got tickets to see Steven Wright perform tomorrow night in Crystal Lake. If you're not familiar with him, he's a comedian with a monotone voice and a very dry sense of humor (not to mention some wacky hair). He's absolutely hilarious. A quick google search will pull up plenty of his one-liners.

Later that day, we were contacted by a reporter from the local newspaper who was doing a story on people settling down in McHenry County (see the comment on our previous blog post). She was very nice and wound up interviewing Wendy about why we moved here, what our impressions are, and what we've been up to. So, if it makes it through the editing phase, Wendy will be quoted in the newspaper! We're not sure when the story will run; possibly not until next week. We'll let you know when we see it.

Finally, that afternoon, Wendy got a job interview! It's for a part-time job, which is what she's looking for so that she can continue her writing. The interview is early next week, so please be sure to send good thoughts her way.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Happy Anniversary!

My parents spent their twentieth anniversary washing windows.

They don't actually remember how they spent their tenth anniversary, but they had a five year old and a two year old, so I can only imagine it was equally as romantic. Their thirtieth anniversary is today - and they have no special plans.

My sister and I decided to give them a new dishwasher as an anniversary gift. Clearly, I joked, we inherited our parents' sense of romance and passion. Or their distinct lack of it.

What we have inherited from them, though, more than makes up for the dearth of wine and roses. Not that we don't all appreciate flowers, but flowers eventually die, no matter how diligently you water them. With proper care and feeding, a good marriage can last forever.

From growing up with our parents, my sister and I have learned the valuable lesson that love for your spouse isn't enough. (Although it's certainly a good start.) We've learned that you also have to acknowledge your spouse's faults while somehow still ignoring them. You have to let wife know that she has your unwavering support. You have to laugh with your husband, and occasionally, you must also laugh at him.

My husband and I married in our early twenties, as did my parents. People sometimes say to us, as they must have sometimes said to my parents, how young we are to be married. We may be young, but I’ve never felt unprepared to be married. Thanks to my parents, the thing I know, possibly above all others, is what makes a good marriage.

I see in them a couple who not only love each other, but like each other, and laugh together on a regular basis. My sister and I are incredibly lucky to have grown up with their example, and to have learned early on that there are more important things in a relationship than flowers.

I hope, in another few decades, to be washing windows with my husband on our anniversary.


Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad.

Monday, June 06, 2005

A Novel Idea

As some of you know, I'm working on a novel.

My major in college was Professional Writing, which required a class called Writing the Novel for graduation, in which you (surprise!) write a novel. Although I did well in the class both times I took it, I wasn't at all happy with my first two novels and thought that I could have written something better, or at least something less monumentally stupid. After graduation, I kept thinking about trying again with a different genre, or better characters, or a more intriguing plot, but I couldn't ever quite come up with the discipline required to write a novel that wasn't being graded.

Last October, Randy found a mention of an event called NaNoWriMo, where participants write a novel (or at least the first 50,000 words of one) in a month. It sounded intriguing, and I decided to give it a try. I was even, maybe, just the teensiest bit smug about my chances of succeeding, since both of my previous novels were about 50,000 words and I had written each of them in about a month, completely disregarding my professors' advice to spread the writing out over the full semester.

It was exhilarating, at first, to fling myself into a novel with no outline, no plan, only a few characters and a very hazy idea of where I was headed. But after about 17,000 words, I started to lose steam. I was writing myself into corners and I still didn't know where my plot was going, and I was really starting to like the story - I was worried that I was going to screw it up. So I didn't finish it, and then November ended and real life intervened.

I still really liked the story. I had good characters, and I thought the plot had promise. Best of all, this novel was actually interesting, in a way that the first two just really, really weren't. Since November, I've thought of it often and worked on it rather less so. But recently, I've come up with a plot - a complete plot, with no gaping holes or fatal flaws, and good characters doing interesting things. (I hope!) I'd like to finish it up over the next few months, in time for this year's NaNoWriMo.

So, I wanted you all to know I was working on it. Please, feel free to ask me at frequent intervals how it's going. Be disappointed in me when I haven't written anything since last Tuesday. Be pleased for me when I've gotten four chapters and a plot twist done since Thursday. It's a young adult fantasy novel. I won't be posting any of it online, since that's tantamount to publishing it and I could then only sell re-print rights. But I can tell you that it contains: a heroine with a mysterious past, a hero with a tragic past, an evil prince, a mystical necklace, a black fortress, and a legendary dagger lost for centuries. I'm really excited about it!

Friday, June 03, 2005

Trees Rule!

Wendy and I have always been big fans of trees, so on Memorial Day we decided to visit the Morton Arboretum, which is in Lisle, IL, about an hour away from us. It was founded by Joy Morton (of Morton Salt fame), and it turned out to be a fantastic place to visit. There are over 1,700 acres of trees, 9 miles of roads winding through the various forests, and 14 miles of hiking trails. We spent most of the day there seeing all the sights. We walked through a hedge maze, rode a tram touring the site, hiked one and a half miles through an Oak forest to see a giant boulder that was deposited by a glacier, ate lunch, and then walked around a bunch more. And there was another section that we didn't even get a chance to explore. We did get a slight sunburn, and a few mosquito bites, but overall we loved it and would totally go back again.

While we were there, I decided to purchase a book at the gift shop called "1001 Questions Answered About Trees". Here are a few things I've learned so far:

  • Trees as we know them today first appeared during the Coal Age 240 million years ago.
  • Animal inhabitants during the Coal Age included "dragon flies with a 29-inch wing spread, enormous scorpions, spiders, and cockroaches 4 inches long."
  • Hawthorne is the tree genus with the greatest number of species (165).
  • There are trees in the Florida Keys with bark very poisonous to the touch.
  • The title of the book is misleading; it's actually 1,044 questions answered about trees.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Link-O-Rama

One of the nice things about where live is that there are a number of state parks nearby. We've visited Moraine Hills State Park a number of times; last weekend we went to Chain O Lakes State Park; and today we briefly visited Glacial Park. Since one of the hot topics in technology right now is hacking Google Maps to create your own custom map, I decided to give this a shot. You can see the state parks that we've visited here. If you click on the red markers you should see a picture we took at each place. Doing this type of thing is still very new, but there are already some amazing applications of it. This one combines Google Maps with real estate listings.

Recently Wendy and I watched The Corporation. It's a very interesting, but somewhat disturbing documentary about the effects corporatization has had on our lives, on society, and on the planet. It does run a bit long (2.5 hours), but it is very well done.

Finally, one of the most incredible engineering failures/environmental disasters of all time took place at Lake Peigneur in Louisiana on November 21, 1980. You can read about it here, here, and here. One of my coworkers saw a program on the History Channel recently that covered this event and interviewed people that were there. In a nutshell, here's what happened:
- Texaco had an oil rig set up at the edge of a lake. The lake covered about 1300 acres, but was very shallow, only 3 feet deep.
- After drilling 1,228 feet, something started to go very wrong. The oil rig felt like it was going to collapse, so the workers abandoned it and headed to the shore.
- They watched as the lake started to turn, and a giant whirlpool formed that began sucking everything in the lake, including the oil rig, down a huge crater at the bottom.
- The lake was connected to the Gulf of Mexico by a canal. As the lake started draining, the canal lowered and began flowing in reverse. Water from the Gulf of Mexico actually started pouring into the lake in a 50 foot waterfall.
- Barges in the canal couldn't overcome the reversed water flow, and so they too got sucked down the lake.
- All of this mayhem was caused by the fact (unknown at the time) that the oil rig was drilling right above a salt mine. The drill punctured the roof of the mine, water flowed in, dissolved the salt pillars, which caused the mine to collapse, which caused more water to flow in, causing more salt to dissolve, etc.
- There were workers in the mine, but all of them managed to escape. No one was killed.
- The list of things sucked down the lake includes: 2 drilling rigs, 11 barges, 40+ acres of land from an island in the lake, a house trailer, a tug boat, and more.
- The lake, which was originally 3 feet deep, was now 1300 feet deep.
- Eventually, 9 of the 11 barges sucked to the bottom of the lake popped up to the surface like corks.

I can't believe I had never heard about this until now.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen, My Husband

Today after dinner, Randy and I went for a walk at the McHenry Dam. We were walking along, mostly in silence, when he turned to me and said, "I think if I could play any instrument, it would be the bagpipes. That just occurred to me."

And that's why I love him.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Abby and the Aquarium

Abby's gone home now, and it's once again very quiet here during the day. It was great to have her visit. While she was here, we played Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the Sorcerer's Stone for Gamecube, and beat them both. (We actually started with Prisoner of Azkaban, then CoS, and then SS. No sense doing things in order, we always say.) We watched all of Buffy season one and two and about a third of the third season (in about 5 days). We went to the library and checked out a bunch of books, approximately 3 of which we read. We did some shopping. And of course we did some sightseeing.

This past weekend, we went down to Shedd Aquarium, which was good fun. It's big, and right along the shore of Lake Michigan. We saw a dolphin show and saw belugas and sharks and penguins. And lots of fish. Then we walked along Lake Michigan for a while, but headed back to our car when it started sprinkling a bit. Also, it was cold and I left my jacket in the car. Oops.

Abby's plane left at 8 a.m. this past Wednesday, which meant we had to be at the airport at 7, which meant we had to leave our house at 5:30 a.m. Just for the record, that's really early. There was a little confusion regarding which terminal her flight actually left from, but we got it all sorted out and she made it home fine.

Here's Abby with her new boyfriend. He's a punk.



Randy and me on the scenic shores of Lake Michigan. That's the Chicago downtown skyline behind us (obviously).



Abby and me. I think we were discussing how nice the cloudy sky was. Also how surprisingly chilly it was for May.



Also, I know many of you are waiting on pins and needles, so I won't keep you in suspense any longer: I went with T-Mobile.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Tales of Frustration and Delight

Wendy's cell phone has gotten fairly old, technologically speaking, so we decided she should get a new one. It has proven to be somewhat difficult. We wanted to add her to my Sprint account so we can share the minutes (and the cost). In order to do that we had to call Sprint; we couldn't just order it online. So, last Saturday, I called their customer support and our tale of frustration began. Without going into the details, there was confusion as to which phone was being ordered, how much it was going to cost, how to change the order after the wrong phone was ordered, how to return the wrong phone that was delivered to us even after the order was changed to have the right phone (customer support said go to the Sprint store, the Sprint store said call customer support), and oh yeah, the area code ("We don't have an 815 area code for Illinois. All we have is 303," they said. No, you can't have a 303 area code for Illinois; that's a Colorado area code).

The end result is that we're sending back the wrong phone that they sent us and giving up on Sprint. I'll keep my service with them until the contract is up. So: Wendy will be getting a new cell phone with someone other than Sprint. Any recommendations?

Finally, our tale of delight.

As you probably know, FLR provides books to K-12 school libraries. Occasionally, books get returned for various reasons. Those books often have school-specific bar codes or stickers on them which makes them unable to be resold. Thus, FLR every so often has an employee-only book sale. Employees are allowed to bring 1 guest, and all books are only a quarter. A quarter!

This morning they held just such a book sale. We got there a half hour before it started and there were already about 150 people waiting in line. It was totally worth the wait, though. I couldn't believe how many good books were available. The best part (for me) was that they had a lot of graphic novels. All told, we bought 53 books for a mere $13.25.

Here's a sampling of what we got:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Secret Life of Dust by Hannah Holmes
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett
Alan Moore's The Courtyard
Teenagers from Mars
Essential Fantastic Four
Essential Avengers
Daredevil Legends, Volume 1
The Complete Concrete

There was no limit to how much you could buy. We only wound up with a box and a half but we saw some people with 6 or 7 boxes. Now we just need to buy another bookshelf to hold our new books!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Yummy Yummy! Right Here!

We had a great weekend. Abby's here, and we decided to begin exploring our new habitat.

Saturday we took a picnic down to the McHenry Dam and then hiked the 2-mile trail around the nature preservation area nearby. It was both woodsy and wetland-y and we saw a bunch of birds. There was a deck for observing black terns about halfway around that we enjoyed, although we're not really sure if we saw any black terns as none of us are quite sure what they look like. Canada geese, though - those we recognized. Also something that we're pretty sure was a crane. Or a stork. Anyway, it was really pleasant.

Sunday we ventured down to the heart of Chicago. We rode the Metra, which is a commuter train that offers $5 weekend fares to ride as much as you want on any of the lines. It was fun, and a neat way to see the scenery. Which, okay, was mostly trees (in the suburbs) and buildings (in the city), but still nice. We got off the train at Union Station, where that one scene in The Untouchables was filmed. It's a pretty busy station, with restaurants and souvenir shops. One restaurant, in a stunningly clever marketing ploy, was trying to attract patrons by having its (surely underpaid) employees yell, "Yummy yummy! Right here! Yummy yummy!" We decided not to eat there.

Instead, we walked to Sears Tower, which is only a few minutes from the train station. We had to wait in line, but not for too long, and then after a mere 60-second elevator ride, we were at the observation deck on the 103rd floor. The view is impressive, as you would expect. Kind of like going up in the Arch, only much more so.

Then we headed to lunch, where we ate real Chicago-style deep dish pizza. "It takes 30 minutes to cook, but it's well worth the wait," our waiter told us, and we agreed that he was right. After that we walked around downtown some, took a few pictures of St. Patrick's, Chicago's oldest church (it pre-dates the fire), and then decided it was time to head home. All in all, a very pleasant day!

Finally, a picture of our living room sans boxes!



This gnome came with the house. I think he's pretty saucy.



Sears Tower, from the ground up (tallest building in the US, second-tallest in the world)



The view from the Sears Tower, facing north



Downtown Chicago, near Union Station



St. Patrick's Church. The two different spires represent East and West.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Dune, Green Tea, and the Gap

One morning about a month ago, as the packers were just starting to pack up our belongings in Colorado, I realized I should find something to pass the time until they were done. I remembered a copy of Dune I'd bought once but never read (I did read Dune back in junior high but didn't recall much of it). So I grabbed the book before it got packed away, and started reading. It was very good.

I was close to the end of Dune by the time we arrived in McHenry. So we stopped at a used book store where I was able to find the next four books in the series. I paid for the books in cash, and as the lady handed me the change, a rogue dime fell out, bounced off my hand, and plopped right into her cup of green tea. It was quite funny, but also a bit awkward and embarrasing. She didn't seem too upset; I apologized and Wendy and I went on our way.

A couple of nights ago I was flipping through "God Emperor of Dune" (which I got at the bookstore) and came across a receipt. It's from the Gap, and is dated June 14, 1985. Just for fun, here's a picture:



Anyway, Abby is now here, and the weather has happily warmed up (a few nights ago parts of the Chicago suburbs got down to 21 degrees, setting the all-time low for the month of May in all of Illinois. It only got down to 35 where we live). We're planning a trip to Chicago this weekend, so we'll hopefully have more things to post after that.

PS - Happy Birthday, Joy!

Saturday, April 30, 2005

We Service Society By Rocking (And Yes, We Like Those Pants)

Today was a pretty productive day. We got car and renter's insurance for Illinois, browsed the Grayslake Library (it's very nice), returned a defective curtain rod and got a working one, bought some pictures for our bedroom and then framed and hung them, did some birthday shopping for...um, never mind...and watched School of Rock. It rocked. Seriously.

Oh, and I totally forgot about Kohl's. We went to the one in Crystal Lake to find some pants and a belt for Randy. While we were browsing through the pants, we saw some school-age guys also looking for some pants, and I noticed one was holding a video camera.

When Randy went in to try the pants on, we saw the guys again. They were filming what I can only hope was a video for their Spanish class. One guy went into the dressing room, changed pants, and then came out and said, "¿Te gusta los pantalones?" which I originally (and mistakenly) translated for Randy as, "Do you like my panties?" Oops. That's an entirely different kind of video. So yes. Hopefully for their Spanish class.

They got through about a scene and a half before someone noticed and kicked them out. Apparently Kohl's frowns on cameras in the dressing room. Which I find reassuring.

Abby's coming to visit us on Wednesday! We're really looking forward to seeing her. We don't really have any plans yet, but hopefully we'll spend some time down in Chicago sightseeing. I'd like to ride the Metra and go up to the top of the Sears Tower, although Randy is slightly apprehensive about the height. We also got a coupon for a free train ride at the zoo today from our gas company, so maybe that would be fun. Any thoughts, Abba? (Or suggestions from anyone else?)

Love to all!

P.S. to Abby: Die Hose gefaellt mir. Was kostet die Hose?

Friday, April 22, 2005

Pizza Night

So my first week at work is in the books, and it went quite well. All of my co-workers are very friendly and helpful, and they've kept me busy with plenty of things to do. By the end of my first day, I had a bug report assigned to me and I had started tracking it down (I found it and fixed it the next morning). There's a huge amount of stuff that I have to learn, but that's actually a good thing. After just one week, I can say that this job is already a lot more interesting than my old one.

When I got home from work this evening I discovered that Wendy had made sugar cookies with chocolate frosting to celebrate the completion of my first week at work. They are quite tasty. For dinner we made our own pizzas, and they also turned out to be very good.

The weather turned a bit gloomy today, with cloudy skies and rain (and a chance of snow tonight). After spending 3 years in sunny Colorado, this kind of weather is a refreshing change. Wendy saw recently that Miami, FL gets 236 days of sunshine a year. That's nothing -- Boulder, CO gets 300 days of sunshine each year. After a quick check on google, we also discovered that Boulder gets more sunshine than San Diego!

Finally, we haven't forgotten about posting photos of our place now that we're unpacked. We'll try to get some up this weekend.

Cheers!

Sunday, April 17, 2005

And we're done!

The last box is unpacked, and everything is (more or less) put away. All that's left to do is finish hanging our pictures on the walls, but that shouldn't take very long at all. Everything looks much, much nicer - we'll post new photos in the next day or two.

A few more random things:

- There are a lot of motorcycles here. The other day, we were at a stop light and probably 30 motorcycles in a row turned left in front of us. We're not too far from a Harley-Davidson shop, but I don't know if that really explains the sheer number of them.

- There are a lot of limousines here, too, and not just near the airport. We've seen them at the gas station, at fast food places, driving down suburban streets - pretty much all over.

- Ditto pizza places. There are 121 pizza places in the phone book for McHenry County, 16 in McHenry proper. McHenry has about 20,000 people. I don't really know if that is a lot, statistically speaking, but it sure seems like it.

- Pepsi is having a promotion with iTunes right now, where (so they claim) 1 out of every 3 diet Pepsis will win you a free song from iTunes. I was running 0 for about 11 on the free songs, but over the last 2 days, I'm 2 for 2! I haven't decided which songs I'll get yet. I don't want to squander my winnings on the wrong songs!


And last but definitely not least, Randy's first day at Follett is tomorrow. I'm sure he'd appreciate any good thoughts any of you would like to send his way!

Friday, April 15, 2005

Week One

A few random notes and observations from our first week here:

- We now have Illinios driver's licenses and license plates. We had to take a written test to get our driver's licenses, but fortunately we both passed with flying colors.

- When we were registering our cars, the clerk asked me when I bought my car. I said it was in '95. He looked at me oddly and said "But we're not to 95 yet." Wendy and I were both confused, and as we tried to figure out what he meant, he said, "Oh, 1995." For some strange reason he was thinking 2095. He apologized, with a look of embarrassment on his face.

- If you ever come to visit, be aware that the steps up to our 2nd floor are a bit steep. Plus, they're carpeted, so it makes for a slippery combination if you're just wearing socks. Wendy's already slipped down the stairs twice and myself once. Thankfully the worst that came out of it was a sprained ankle for Wendy, which was fine by the next day.

- I've accidentally locked myself out of our townhome... twice. Fortunately Wendy was home both times and let me back in.

- It seems to us that a lot more people here smoke. Wendy pointed out, though, it could actually be that a lot fewer people in Boulder smoke. I'm inclined to think it's a bit of both.

- When you step outside, it's hard to not notice the chirping of frogs. Apparently, Illinois has a lot of them. When we were looking into moving here, I came across this page, in which someone posts a comment describing what we can look forward to:


"I live in Lakemoor, IL and we have toad and turtle migrations. The turtles are easy to avoid, but get hit regularly nevertheless. The toads are impossible. It's like a hopping carpet covering the road a few days a year. Sickens me to drive home those nights. :-("
Wendy and I both agree that if there are going to be mass animal migrations, at least it's frogs and not snakes.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Home sweet home

We're here, and so is our stuff!

We've been here since Friday, when Randy's car (which we shipped) arrived. Sadly, our stuff didn't arrive until yesterday, so we were roughing it a bit until then. We have our bed and our Internet back now, and are very glad for both. A few more days and our Internet withdrawal symptoms might have gotten the better of us.

We've been (relatively) hard at work unpacking since yesterday afternoon, and we're making pretty good progress. The kitchen is totally done, and the bedroom and living room are mostly done. Every other room is at least a little done. You can see some pictures below - we'll try to post some more once everything's in its proper place and we're not quite so overrun with boxes.

The front door - which doesn't actually face the street



Our garage! (and our rental car)



Boxes in our kitchen



Boxes in our loft



The view from our front door - there are two Canada geese that like to hang out in the pond sometimes



On a "different" note: There's a radio station in Boulder that we both used to listen to some of the time called the Mountain. It sounds very independent and their tagline is, "It's different on the Mountain." Perhaps naively, I always assumed this meant they were independent - until we got to Chicago and discovered the Drive. Apparently, it's different on the Drive, too.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Incommunicado

After a weekend of cleaning, we're now almost fully prepared for the packers, who arrive tomorrow morning. We'll find out Tuesday how long it will take for the movers to get to Illinois. If it's just a few days, we'll head straight to McHenry with a stop in Wichita. If it's much longer than that, we'll take the long way: Denver to Wichita to Tulsa to St. Louis to Chicago. So, this may be our last post for some time.

The only thing we have left to do tonight is pack what we're carrying with us. Just the essentials: Mac Mini, GameCube, GameBoy, iPod, etc.

Finally, here are our thoughts on tomorrow night's championship game:

Wendy correctly predicted Illinois and UNC would be the last two teams standing. She's going with Illinois. I'll be rooting for Illinois, but I picked the Tar Heels to win it all, so I'm sticking with them in a close one: UNC, 85-80.

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Follow your bliss

Today was my last day at Naropa. I knew that it would be sad to say goodbye, but I think it was actually harder than I was expecting. I managed to avoid thinking about it too much for most of the day, even though I (like Randy) didn't actually have that much to do today. It felt a little bit like the last day of school before summer - everyone was terribly unfocused and unproductive today.

After work, my co-workers and I all went for a bowling-pizza party extravaganza, which was lots of fun until it was time to leave, when most of us ended up in tears. Even though the job itself wasn't always the greatest, I don't know that I could have ever imagined having better co-workers or friends than them. I learned a lot of wonderful things while working at Naropa, and very few of them actually had anything to do with university admissions.

One of the phrases you hear on a semi-regular basis at Naropa is "follow your bliss." I think that writing will give me the opportunity to do that, but maybe I hadn't realized just how much this job was allowing me to follow my bliss until it was time to give it up. On the other hand, I can't pretend I'm not glad that I'll never have to look at another visitation request form again.

It's bittersweet. And I'm melancholy.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

I'm a Follett man, now

Today was my last day at IBM. It was fairly uneventful; I spent most of the day waiting around for it to end. All in all, I think I came out ahead, because as a going away present I was given a small, but very tasty, cheesecake.

For anyone who's interested, here's the job posting at Follett that I applied to. You can definitely tell that it was written by a programmer (and not an HR person), and that it was written by someone who loves what they do.

Stay tuned for Wendy's last day...

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

The Trip to Chicago

Recently, Wendy read in a magazine about a couple that, to pass the time on their flights home from vacations, would take turns writing down a memory from their trip until they had come up with 100 memories. We decided to give this a shot when returning from Chicago. Just so you know, it takes MUCH longer than you would think to do this. Here are some that we came up with:

10. Quinn, my new boss's 3 year old daughter, burping loudly during dinner, laughing, and saying "that blew my hair back!" (Andy and his wife Amy were appalled and are now trying to find out who taught her that.)

12. Accidentally banging my head on a shelf in our new townhome, right after the real estate agent said they were looking for someone who would take good care of the place.

37. Our waiter at Pizza Hut being very nervous and eager (it was his second day of training).

38. Hearing the supervisor at Pizza Hut tell an employee: "Can you change the sign outside to say Hoppy Easter? I know, it's retarded."

39. Driving by the Pizza Hut later and seeing the sign say "Hoppy Easter!"

49. Seeing a Stanley Kubrick look-alike at Lake Michigan driving very slowly around the parking lot in his truck.

56. Andy asking Wendy if she'd read any good computer books recently ("System Administration? Code Complete, 2nd Edition?").

57. Wendy lying and saying "Of course!"

59. Taking the scenic route back from Lake Michigan to Crystal Lake.

60. Getting lost on the scenic route.

76. Leaving the hotel room to go take pictures of McHenry and almost forgetting to bring the camera. Then getting to the hotel lobby and realizing we somehow still forgot to bring the camera.

100. The pilot on the flight back to Denver announcing that Illinois had beaten Arizona in overtime.

Sunday, March 27, 2005

A tribe of superior men

Hello everyone!

So, Randy and I will be moving to Illinois in about a week. We decided that now would be a good time to start a blog where we can keep everyone up to date about what we're up to in the Land of Lincoln. (Side note: You may or may not be interested to learn that Illinois translates from Native American as "tribe of superior men." I was interested, but then I'm a dork.)

Randy has a new job with Follett Library Resources as a web application programmer. (Follett provides services, software, and books to K-12 school libraries.) I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing, but I think I may give professional writing a try.

We spent this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday up in McHenry looking for a new place to live. We found a townhouse that seems really great - it's comparable to our apartment now, but it has a two-car garage as well. Goodbye, ice scraping on winter mornings! I met Randy's new boss, who gave us a tour of Follett and went out to dinner with us, along with his wife and their daughter, and another of Randy's new co-workers and his wife. Everyone was very friendly, and I have a good feeling about Follett and Illinois in general.

Feel free to leave us comments or questions - we aim to please!