Much-needed update

It has been a busy month ... let's see how much I can type up here. First, I've been jogging four days per week pretty consistently and just this Monday I was able to jog the usual 2 miles without needing to pause. Exciting but slow and steady progress; I do 12-13 minutes per mile, if the distance markers are correct on the trail. What's funny is how the stairs wipe me out when I come back in afterwards.

We did indeed go and see Neil Gaiman read downtown. We tried to get the tickets the Wednesday before but found that they were no longer available on-line and I had to go get them in person at the place. So I took a trip via Metra and found myself at a darkened ticket booth which was still not at all set up but there were people milling about the area. It turned out the website failed to mention that the tickets wouldn't be available until Friday. So I was disgruntled but I remained polite and did let them know I'd come quite a ways. Long story short, they promised me two tickets would be waiting for when we got there Friday night. We needn't have worried because it wasn't sold out. After a quick dinner with Tom and Keegan, we arrived late for the reading but found that we were just on time. The reading was fantastic; the overhead screen showed a close-up of Neil's face so I could easily understand him. However, they neglected to turn on the video in the second half so I became quite bored and thought he'd forgive me for pulling out "Smoke and Mirrors" and reading it while he read. I was somewhat able to follow along when he was doing Q and A though. Afterwards, we hung out with Sally, Karen and her boy at their hotel room for a bit before finally heading home.

The following week things didn't go so well when I got into an accident. I was driving in the left lane of a four lane road and at an intersection where the light was green, I ran into the back of another car who was waiting to turn left. It's not entirely clear how it happened, but I remember seeing one car in front of me, then noticing "for rent" signs, and when I turned my attention back to in front of me, a different car was stopped. The distance was too small for me to do much but I did try to brake, knowing that the best way was to run into her rather than try to swerve into the other busy lanes. My airbag went off and the hot tea I'd just gotten spilled all over my pants, but otherwise I was physically fine (there was a little airbag rash that I noticed later but it never hurt and I was stiff and couldn't move my neck to look up for a couple days later but overall yes, I am okay). I couldn't open my door to get out and had to roll down my window. My car was totalled with the repair estimated at twice as much as my car was worth. The other woman's car was leaking gas so she had have hers towed too. Commence a lot of stress, insurance crap, trying to not let my general annoyance with area drivers become too out-of-control, etc. Let's just say I really hate the smell of airbags; I peeled off the K College window sticker but had to throw it away because it reeked of airbag.

The rest of the month has been dealing with that but a few other things have happened also. Colin and I both got Google Nexus Ones as birthday presents / this year's toys and overall I've been enjoying it, even without any data plan attached. Still playing around and trying out different apps. There is interference with my hearing aid when people call me but if I hold it a certain way it doesn't happen (unless I'm on the phone with Mom for half an hour and my arm is about to fall off) and I should be looking into new hearing aids soon anyway which will almost certainly have bluetooth connection. Then I'd be really cool!

Last weekend we went and saw a house in Zion. Even though it's two miles from a metra station, it'd be over half an hour drive to Colin's office, and the bedrooms are barely big enough to fit queens in, it's the one we've liked the most so far. Parking - check, puppy - check, good landlord - check. We're still looking though, all around north Chicago area.

We also saw my brother William who was in Chicago on a school trip. It was only for a couple of hours but it was really good to see him. He and his buddies were deceived by the look of the Chicago pizza and thought they could eat it all among the four of them but it turned out that they were only able to eat one slice each, so Colin and I got to eat their pizza after all, even though we ordered a separate pizza which came later and we just had boxed up.

Colin's birthday was Monday. It was pretty low-key but we managed to go out to dinner with a bunch of coworkers which was fun. I did play crossword puzzles on my Nexus One for the last bit while they talked shop.

Today is really warm. 81 degrees right now! I'm looking forward to Tom's birthday party tonight even though we (Colin) still hasn't gotten the beer for it and I'm not sure when we'll be getting there. Time to get back to accomplishing things.

OMG Neil!

This morning, I was slowly jogging earlier today for the second day in a row. Just getting my body used to the idea: "Body, this idea is called "jogging." Remember it?" "Oh my goodness! I'm heavier than I ever was when I jogged or ran before in my life! And I have whiny wimpy muscles! But this could be fun ... it's not that hard ..." Hence the *thought* rather than the action. The key is to go SLOW.

While I was jogging in between the raindrops (it's been thunderstorming and raining on and off the past couple days and I managed to go out when it's not doing those things), a bike passed me from behind. Things like this startle me. I've been hit by bikes because I don't know they're coming. Near my house in Charlevoix, there's a paved trail where some fanatical bikers go like 50 miles everyday so whenever I went walking, running, rollerblading, or biking on it I was constantly trying to not get run over by them. Then I started thinking "How could this problem be solved? Oh hey, that's easy - write something on the back of my t-shirt like HARD OF HEARING or DEAF. But probably not HOH ..." So now I need help figuring out what to put and how to put it on shirts. But doesn't that sound like a simple solution? I mean, sheesh, took me a while to think of how to avoid a certain type of accident ...

Then I got back and found Neil Gaiman had posted a new blog post and - oh my goodness! - he replied to my inquiry! You can see it at the bottom of the post found here: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2010/04/how-to-mortify-your-daughter.html And I wrote a reply thanking him and explaining that a sign language interpreter would be lost on me. So now I'm going to be getting one of the books at the library with "Chivalry" in it to read. And Colin and I definitely plan on going to the event :)

So now it's off to have coffee with Colin before heading to the library and the grocery store. Colin's had to go in earlier than usual the last couple of days because of morning meetings and this morning I missed my alarm because I'd moved from one side of the bed to the other and I slept in later than I have in a long while. I might have needed that sleep though.

About the last four weeks

I've been putting off writing an entry because I've been busy and there's a lot to cover, which of course means the task just gets more daunting as the days go by. This entry will probably be longish but more like a summary than most entries.

Lent is almost over but my hike/pic-a-day is not. Everything just kind of fell apart a couple days before the cruise when I was running all over the place dealing with parking tickets and shopping for clothes (not my favorite activity). I seemed to barely have time to sit and relax, let alone take an extra walk. Then it was back for a second round of running around with my sister and her boyfriend helping them get ready for the cruise.

Then there was the cruise itself - yes, there was a fair amount of walking on beaches and on board and yes, a ton of pictures were taken. I read "The Wordy Shipmates" by Sarah Vowell and stared at the waves a lot. Colin enjoyed running around the ship with the younger members of our group, even after he injured his ankle which is just now back to normal after wrapping it, icing it, and taking medicine for it constantly. We got really sunburned on the first island, Grand Turks, despite sunscreen, where we also did a bit of snorkeling, swimming, but mostly walking on the beach where we spotted a few crabs. I got a hat that I liked - black with "1492" on the front (Columbus may have landed first on Grand Turks but who knows) - but then I lost it. We didn't do much at Puerto Rico (we've both been there before) though we ventured on shore to a pharmacy for shaving cream and aloe then walked over to look at the outside of the fort. I'd given Colin a haircut before the cruise (just sent it in the mail to Locks of Love yesterday) and he shaved off his beard and mustache before getting much sun so he wouldn't look really weird. I'd been to St. Thomas before but didn't remember much except that was where the awesome snorkeling was. This time we went to an aquarium / zoo type thing where I fed a stingray and we saw tons of lizards lounging everywhere. We weren't able to visit the last scheduled island because the seas were too rough but an extra day at sea was fun - especially swimming in the pool while there was lightning (there was a glass roof). That's the short version of the cruise story.

After the cruise it seemed I needed a week just to veg - though I met with Ashley and we walked around downtown Chicago the Thursday after the cruise. The next day we had dinner with Susan and her boy (highly *don't* recommend the bbq place in Ravinia btw). I don't even remember what I did the rest of the time that first week back - there was laundry and some research done. The next week (last week) we picked up Emily and her Welshman from the airport and got to hang out with them a few days (I did taxes the day they went downtown) and then it was off to Houghton for Becca's wedding!

The wedding went very smoothly and it was fun hanging out with people I'd never met before, especially her brother's wife. I think I played "maid of honor" quite well, juggling flowers, ring, veil, and Becca's sanity. The weather was quite warm and we ate at the Library (a restaurant) both nights. I was exhausted after the day of wedding-ing and took a three hour nap - before sleeping almost ten hours Saturday night. We also got to see Laura and help her move her fish from her dorm room to where she really lives. The drives were nothing exciting - I read the entire "The Sign of the Four" (second Sherlock Holmes novel) out loud. We even got to arrange to meet up with my aunt and uncle who live in Appleton but were in Oshkosh celebrating my aunt's mother's 89th birthday.

So that brings us to the beginning of this week. It's been quite warm (75 right now!) and I've done some apartment hunting since our lease is up end of May and today is mostly chores such as seeing if I disassemble and reassemble the turn light blinky thingy on my car (I got it off just fine ... but just can't snap it back in place), dishes, less than half the laundry (there's a lot and I should do more in the next day or so but there's only so much drying space in the apartment), and dinner. Time to get back to that and hope I can find some time to do a little research too before shopping with Colin after work.

Ack craziness

Yesterday and today have been so hectic. I am so sick of clothes shopping but I've finally got everything set for the cruise. Laura and Nathan are here, currently parking their car at Colin's office..

Last night I cut Colin's hair - got enough to donate and we're not sure if the length it's at right now is good or if I should take more off. Pictures will come later, during the cruise.


I got only a picture of a sculpture at an odd mall yesterday but today it was even busier and no chance to snap a photo on a walk. I'm bummed about it, but what can one do when packing, cleaning, dealing with stopped up toilet, running errands, and needing a car blinker fixed ...

Downtown HP again

Today I realized I needed more than a cocktail dress after I tried on all my shorts and only found one real pair that actually fit. I have hiking and running shorts so it's possible I could get by if I don't find any before the cruise, but I'm going to need some for the summer anyway.

I went to one of the thrift shops downtown - which was having a huge sale. I found a dish rack (and a spice rack that won't work - the holes are too small for the bottles we have). It's a pretty nice one and it was only 4 bucks. But I ran out of time browsing the clothes. Didn't see anything really though. However, there's a lot of clothes and there's a huge sale tomorrow morning - fill a paper grocery bag full of clothes for ten bucks. If I don't find anything, there's the other thrift shop in town and then I'll head to T J Maxx. Yes, I'm a cheapskate.

Oh, and the photo is of the war memorial downtown next to the train tracks. It's like the local Vietnam War Memorial. I'll also include a picture of the whole thing instead of try to describe it, but I wanted to include the details which are more interesting.

Ooo I made fettucine with asparagus and salmon! Very tasty and not difficult to make, especially if smoked salmon is used. I highly recommend it - and so does Colin.

Giraffes spotted roaming free in Chicagoland

It seems that I never quite get to walk where I plan to and it's mostly due to the simple fact that it's winter and people in Chicagoland get reeeeally lazy. I tried two different nature parks and there was no way I could have hiked in them. The first there was no place to park because "roadside" parking is allowed for those who use it - but it's a narrow road with heaps of snow on both sides. The second was actually more of a marsh and there was a sign warning to stay on the path but I had no way of telling what was path and wasn't keen on getting my boots soaking wet or worse. So again, I walked along a boring sidewalk, where I saw a hornet's nest and a pond full of geese and ducks. But the statue of the giraffe and baby giraffe in someone's backyard takes the cake today. Or should I say a piece of the brownie in the oven that smells amazing?!

Today was a day I simply didn't want to get up. I wasn't overly tired nor was I feeling miserably sick - I just didn't want to get up. But I did. And then I did genealogy research until lunch, and then after the "walk" I went to Target with the half-hearted goal of looking for a "cocktail dress." Well, no success there, but I saw they had swimsuits and I realized that it's been maybe 10 years since I bought my last one. So yay, my first real bikini! The one I've had forever is technically a tankini. What better time to get myself a new swimsuit? :)

Save Ferris!

I'd known for a while that this apartment is close to where Ferris Bueller's best friend Cameron's house was. So, we walked there today. I'm a big fan of the movie - kind of a little known fact about me I suppose. Right now, the house is actually up for sale.

I'm going to post two pictures - one to show the actual house and the other to show the garage, which is actually not attached to the house at all but is almost entirely suspended over the ravine (the area isn't called Ravinia for nothing) while the house is only partially suspended. Here's the garage:

And, of course, to complement the walk, we watched the movie. I don't know how many times I've seen it, but I catch new things every time - this time it was the license plates, which refer to movies made by the director - MMOM (Mr. Mom), TBC (The Breakfast Club), 4FBDO (For Ferris Bueller's Day Off), VCATION (National Lampoon's Vacation) ...

In case you were wondering, a walk to Ferris' house won't be happening anytime soon - that place is in California. But I'm sure I could make a point to take pictures of the school and some locations downtown Chicago such as "Chez Luis." We'll see.

On the way back, I tried to think up a good "bread mith" with Colin but it's quite clear that neither of us are ever going to be a published novelist. Things like "Breadmas" and "bread miss" and aliens and the science of breadmaking and a mischievous baker's child and a grandpa who can't hear properly were all suggested but nothing made both of us jump for joy. If you're at all interested in any of these ideas, I could try to elaborate but I won't make you suffer through a story you don't want to read.