A Christmas Blizzard and Southern State Blitz -- Travel Documentary

This will be one of the posts dealing with our Christmas vacation, depending on how long they allow one post to be.  I may divide up the posts based on topics, and this post will be divided up as such as well.

One reason I've not managed to post is because I've been in Oklahoma and Arkansas doing family things.  I really did mean to post last week before we left but simply ran out of time.  The past 10 days have been nuts, so hopefully you won't think too badly of me for not posting.

Anyway, our Christmas adventure started last Tuesday, December 22.  We were getting snow in Chicago, it was supposed to stop snowing by nine...then noon, but at two when we left it was still snowing so we're not sure exactly when it stopped.  This is a picture of the car when I went to dust it off to go get Maggie from the airport.  It was snowing quite a bit actually and it continued to snow until we hit Springfield, IL.  We made it to Jeff and Ginger's house in Waynesville Missouri by about nine (weather added a couple of hours) and got to talk and hang out with them for a bit before turning in for the night.

Wednesday, we woke up and started driving to Tulsa.  After about half an hour we hit rain.  These were the storms that helped flood Arkansas, and we almost stopped several times.  We're talking we had 50' visibility.  Chris was driving through the  I normally don't talk a lot about the treacherous conditions we might be driving in, but we didn't have a clue that this would be some of the easiest of the driving we had to do during our week touring Oklahoma and Arkansas.  

Thursday, we woke up and it was raining.  It had been raining a while, but then it started sleeting about noon.  We managed to drive out to my dad's house and see him before it got too bad.  This is a picture of the sleet that had accumulated at my dad's.  I took this just before we left. 

The drive back to Tulsa was slow -- it took us at least twice as long as normal.  When we got in, we decided that we would not be going out in it again.  It was starting to snow by the time we made it back to Tulsa, and the roads were icing since it had rained and sleeted so much the snow was coming down on to a layer of ice.  As we were driving they were starting to shut down highways and there were a couple of fatal accidents.  Since it was snowing it continues to snow for the rest of Thursday (Christmas Eve).  We stayed in and missed church, but since we couldn't get out of the driveway and they canceled church we felt this was appropriate. We had horrific wind to go with the snow so we got a nice Christmas blizzard.  In Oklahoma.  We ended up with around a foot or so of snow when it was all said and done.  There were huge drifts in some places, like the one that blocked in our little Focus.  This picture was from about six at night -- so all of the snow had come down in about two hours.  

John actually was going out at this point in time, which is why you see the foot prints in the snow.  He managed to not make it back until the afternoon of Christmas Day.  He was unable to get up the driveway in his Tahoe.  There were random cars parked all over the streets though from when the cars just wouldn't go any further up a hill.  

Since we were snowed in for Christmas we left for Shawnee from Tulsa the day after Christmas, as opposed to Christmas.  There was so much snow that we couldn't see curbs and thankfully we let several other families brave the snow and packed it down for us so that we didn't have to plow it in our little Focus.

Saturday driving was all sorts of slippery.  We managed to not see many plows which was shocking to us.  Being from the Chicago area we typically see plows with the blades down as soon as there is enough snow on the ground for the blades to do any good.  We were driving on snowpack with the plows next to us and blades up.  We were very confused.  On our trip from Tulsa to Shawnee we counted cars in the ditch to help us pass the time.  We often saw packs of them together and were shocked at how many people were ending up the ditch practically vertical.  Our final count was: 62 cars in the ditch or on the side of the road, 10 plows with only 6 of them having the blades down, and 3 tow trucks (not counting the one in the ditch below).  This was in a 90 mile stretch of road.  Also are a few pictures of the side of the road.  Some of the snow drifts show evidence of lots of wind. 

 Then driving around Shawnee for a couple of days, well, we probably need a new suspension on the car.  They never really plowed and were simply waiting on the snow and ice to melt.  In Oklahoma that is really a good plan most of the time, the only problem is that with this storm it stayed cold for several days after it.  We left Shawnee on Monday (28) and managed to have a dry day of driving.  That was by far the easiest drive of the trip.  We managed to see a few friends on our way to Chris's mom's house, but then we just wanted to stay there for a while.

Yesterday we managed to drive back to Aurora.  We left from Arkansas and it was a good thing as Oklahoma had gotten another couple of inches of snow.  We were also lucky in that we didn't have to go up I-44, which of course was getting snow all day long.  We hit snow about Springfield (again) and it didn't stop from there.  The plows were out salting and moving snow as it was coming down.  We ended up with only an inch or snow from the storm yesterday, enough to cover up all the nasty colored snow that's plowed into nice piles everywhere.

A Mighty Wind

This past week we got our first taste of winter.  The snow storm that hit most the rest of the country managed to only drop about 6 inches here.  With all the wind and such though you would think we got several feet of snow.  We had 30-40 mph winds that were bitter!  It was interesting though -- last Mon & Tues we had snow and it melted, then we got the "blizzard" and the wind and temperature dropped so quickly that it created a very nice skating rink.  When the plows went out they mainly plowed the snow off of the ice and left a nice tractionless surface for everyone to drive on.  Naturally everyone forgot how to drive on the ice and snow, but we did manage to make it home in one piece. We had so much wind that anything leeward of the wind had a lot of snow, while the stuff that was out in the wind had no snow so to speak.  These were some of the trees that were sheltered from the wind by a building and they show quite a bit of snow.  I think they are quite pretty.  I also think it a shame there isn't that much snow everywhere, but I'm weird. 

Thursday was our first sub-zero day and the top of the Sears Tower froze!!  I mean it had frost along the top couple of layers of the tower.  My building was cold -- we had snow on the inside all day.  I'm not sure if it actually blew in (the windows don't always seal the best) or if because of the wind the metal sills became so cold that snow formed from the water moisture inside and just sat on the sills.  The picture of the frozen Sears Tower...

The big news is that I got my endoscopy results back.  The mast cell numbers are still way too high.  Since I'm eating stuff like I'm supposed to this means its not actually food or that there is something I'm continuously ingesting in water or simply by breathing that is making me sick.  I get to go back to the stupid allergist -- the one who decided not to give me shots last fall when I asked for them.  The allergist that had to give me anti-histamines half way through the test because I was reacting so well to them.  The allergist that had to give me the interdermal shots spaced very far a part because simply having the essence of the environmental allergen on my skin reacted half way up my arm, made my eyes itch, and made my arm swell so much they couldn't actually make out what I was allergic to -- but apparently couldn't give me shots because he wanted to try me on medicines I'd already been on and they hadn't done enough.  Also, the doctor who doesn't discuss medicines with me.  My GI doc said she was going to try and get me an appointment with a different doctor, so we'll hope that she can pull those strings and get me in at the other clinic.  

A good note -- the semester is over!  We made it through.  Chris is busy cleaning the labs and getting ready for after the break.  We have one week after we get back from Christmas before the semester starts again.  I will be taking biochemistry and biotechnology next semester so hopefully it will go well.  I don't know my grades for this term yet, but I can't imagine that I didn't pass my classes.  Then in May I will be looking for a job as I finish up a Masters.  I'm already looking really, but in May I'll really need one. 

Christmas Trees and Holiday Magic!

Saturday, we went to the MSI to see the Christmas trees!  We also got to see a gingerbread house of the white house.  It was made recently enough that standing around the edge that you could still smell the sugar and ginger from the house.  It smelled sooo good!!  The shrubs were made of rice krispies and trees were made of popcorn balls!  It was very neat to see the white house on such a small scale.  They also had the white house decorated for Christmas.  The MSI has christmas trees decorated by different community groups that are found in Chicago.  Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be as many trees this year as previous years.  We're not sure why, but both of us felt there were fewer trees.  While there we also got to see some Royal Scottish Dancers.  The guys in kilts were pretty entertaining.  I joked with Chris about joining them, but he doesn't think he'd look that good in a kilt -- apparently his legs are too hairy.  We didn't really go through much of the rest of the museum while we were there. 

On Sunday I worked Holiday Magic at the zoo.  They've decorated the zoo with lights every where!  A few of the animals were out an about -- like Whirl (a tiger), Hudson (polar bear), Aussie (polar bear), and Jim (alaskan brown bear).  But since its cold you'd expect those animals to be out an about.  It was about thirty degrees or so and it was nice to see the polar bears not being green!  At the zoo there is also the sleigh set up with polar bears pulling it.  It was great.  I liked all the cute things around the zoo -- the wreaths around the statues to go with the endless lights.  Some of the lights were impressive and the reflection pools were really cool.  Now though, the pools (what are fountains in the summer) will really start to freeze over, so that means the reflections will be different. 

We also got some snow today.  It was nice.  It was our first snow and we only got about an inch.  It was nice to finally get some though.  It was naturally enough to cause massive problems.  They didn't get plow because there wasn't enough snow.  It was also gone by mid-day, but it was here.  We're actually supposed to get quite a bit of snow tomorrow.  Hopefully it will snow so much that all finals will be canceled.  This is finals week so that means I've got exams on Wednesday and Friday.  I've also managed to get through this semester.  I now have one semester left before I get my Masters.  I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet.  If you know of anyone in the Chicago area in need of a MS Chemist let me know.  I'm looking at doing some teaching at several community colleges around us or looking at some of the food companies around here.  There are several of them and it could be interesting.  Chris is still looking at taking the stockroom over at some point in the next year. 

Starting December off right

Well, we've started December now and we've not had any snow.  We typically get snow starting around Thanksgiving (though Chris says that it doesn't actually start snowing then since we don't get a couple of inches on the ground and they don't have to bring out the plows) and so far nada.  Tonight is the first night we're supposed to get snow, and not even half an inch at that.  I'm hoping that the snow will help me feel more festive.  It simply getting colder has.  So did looking at all the Christmas lights along the interstate from Minneapolis to Chicago when we drove back on Sunday. 

The past few weeks have been a blur and now the semester is over.  Papers, projects, and exams are done, so now full force into finals week.  I suppose I should start with a few weeks back though to keep everyone up to speed on what's happened.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving I flew to Tulsa to do the Route 66 Half-Marathon.  It was my only half for 2009.  It went well, not quite as well as I expected, but sufficiently well that I'm pleased.  My mom ran the race with me and we both finished.  It was a very hilly course and I managed to get through all the hills with very little problem.  Here's a picture of us after the race...

After I flew back to Chicago I had another test done.  They did an endoscopy and it was pretty eventful apparently.  I don't like anesthesia or people sticking tubes in me.  The drugs have kind of reset my brain too, which isn't so good this close to finals.  It's either the drugs or the sheer exaustion that have re-set my brain, but it isn't wanting to work right right now. 

For Thanksgiving we went to Minneapolis.  We had a lot of fun with our friends there and enjoyed just being out of Chicago.  A pic of us from the weekend...

Other than that, there hasn't been much going on.  We're still trying to make Christmas plans so I'll let you know when we get around to finalizing them.  

This past week has been fairly crazy for us here in Chicago.  It was one of those weeks that the cosmos aligned properly for absolutely everything to go wrong, and even things that you didn't think could go wrong some how managed to go wrong.  Nothing huge -- no hospital visits for us, no sicknesses -- just general mayhem all week long.  We are both glad to see the week over.  We also both excited that there are only a few weeks left of this term.  We can't decide why we don't start a week or two earlier in the summer though.  We've not had a break all semester and our first one will be Thanksgiving.  We're both burned out along with everyone else around us.  And after we come back from Thanksgiving we will only have a week of classes then a week of finals and the term will be over.  It hard to believe that this term is already over, but especially after the general mayhem of this past week, we are ready for it.  That means I need to get more serious about finding a job, so hopefully that will go well. 

It has been unseasonably warm, and we're sure that means we'll be in for it once winter finally arrives.  We've even thought of turning our air conditioners back on and we have definitely opened the windows again.  We think the drastic weather is somewhat responsible for the illnesses going around campus.  We've managed to be lucky though and not get sick. 

It's November?

Well, we have a couple of weekends off before Thanksgiving. We don't really have much planned except to stay home and rest up. We're still not sure about Christmas plans so if you know when you are going to be in the Tulsa/OKC area please let me know so we can try and work something out.

We've got four weeks left of this semester. It's wild to think that in a few short weeks this too shall pass. Hopefully the meetings I've suggested to debrief from this semester will form and be productive. The meetings will make both Chris and my life easier, so now to get my boss to comply and then show up!

Overall this past week went well. Monday I had an esophageal manometry test (they stick a catheter down your throat and measure how the muscles work together as they pull it out 1 cm at a time) and a 24 hour pH test done. I'm not sure about the results yet, but the tests are done. I had the manometry done because I perpetually feel like there is something stuck at the back of my throat. The doc says that any GI oriented auto-immune disease can cause that, and since I've actually got 2 different GI based auto-immune diseases, she thinks that's really it. I had the pH test done to monitor stomach acid and such. I'm not going to put much weight on that test -- I wasn't able to eat much with a catheter stuck up my nose, down the back of my throat and into my stomach. And we know that if I don't eat then I don't get sick or feel bad. However, we're not exactly pleased with the idea of me not eating... After starting a week like that the rest of the week seemed very uneventful.

We've had really pretty summer like weather here this weekend. We had thought about putting the a/c covers on the beginning of October because it was cold and rainy all the time. For the past week we've had nothing but sun for the most part and though we've got slight rain forcasted this week, we're going to continue with the above average temps. I just hope we don't pay for the extra warm weather come January and February.

That's really it from this part of the country. We'd always love to hear from you and hope that all is well with you.

A shot of history

For Halloween we got to go to the Illinois-Michigan game at Illinois. We weren't sure if we were going to get to go or not since our friend with the tickets was supposed to work. Friday he called though and was like, "I get the weekend off. Still down for the game?" We said yes and piled in the car Saturday morning. We drove down to Champaign and went to the game. It was interesting going to a Big 10 game. Chris and I still contend that no one plays football like the Big 12 South, and that we're just simply spoiled by being able to watch good football. We walked around campus some and then walked to the stadium. Since it was Halloween several people were dressed up so there were all sorts of fun costumes to see. Linda and I went as butterflies while Chris went as a "serial killer" or Morpheous (as a kid on the street called him) but in reality had his trench been leather he would have made a good Neo. Our seats were high in the balcony, and on the end zone, but we got to see several second half touchdowns. We were also amid both Michigan and Illinois fans so it was interesting to hear the banter. While we had been out walking we heard someone try and compare the rivalry to OU-Texas. The fact that the fans can sit peacefully in the stands together is a red flag that the rivalry doesn't compare to OU-Texas.

The first half of the game Michigan seemed to have control of the game. After the half though they got denied a TD because the guy's knee was down on the 1. So they had a 1st down and 1 to go. They ended up not making the TD from there and that really seemed to beat Michigan down. Illinois ended up scoring 3 TDs in the third quarter. Then in the fourth quarter they got a turn over and ended up scoring another TD and a FG. At this point the banter between the Michigan and Illinois fans around us got pretty heated. One Michigan fan was like, "Orange is an awful color. I hate this state." and so on and on. Since Juice was the QB she was even talking about how stupid a name Juice was and how she never wanted any juice again. Illinois ended up winning at home -- something they hadn't done since 1983. A pic of the final scoreboard...
Other than that not much has been up here. We're glad that October is finally over because hopefully that means it won't rain as much. Since it is now November we're likely to start getting cooler temps and snow. If it snows as much as it rained in October we'll easily be under several feet of snow. I honestly think we've been under a flood watch the entire month. We've got so much water around everywhere it looks like spring floods after all the snow melts. We're not really looking forward to the time change either because now it will start getting dark at 5, and the days will only be getting shorter until Christmas. I'm getting excited about the prospect of snow, but Chris isn't really. School is almost over as well, so we're getting excited about that. Not much else is new right now. Hope all is well with you.

Pumpkins and Fall Fun!

Since my last post a lot has happened. After Stoops and Seven left we had our small group over. It was small, but it was fun. Its nice getting to know a few more people around here to hang out with. I'm also playing volleyball with them for the winter, so moving to indoor volleyball has been interesting. We really need to have a team practice, but can't seem to find the time to practice.

The weekend after that was OU/Texas. We went downtown to the OU sports bar and watched the game with other OU alum and supporters. It was great to have everything in the bar decorated in Crimson and Cream and see random people who we didn't know, but were all cheering for the same team. After the LONG OU/Texas game I ran a 5k. It was kind of chilly, but it went well. It was my first 5k of the year. I did 8:40 miles, and managed to not get soaked or filthy (impressive since it has pretty much rained all of October and the course was a chat trail). After the race we went to my friend Sara's place for an apartment warming party. She and her boyfriend have a GREAT view of Chicago and the lake. We managed to see fireworks off of Navy Pier which was really cool. The skyline was decorated in pink for breast cancer awareness month.

That Sunday we went to a pumpkin patch with Linda and John. We tried going to a pumpkin farm but it was way to long of a line for way too much money to even think about it. Plus it was geared for having children with you, so we just went to a small pumpkin stand. We managed to find four pumpkins to carve. We actually carved the pumpkins yesterday and ended up with some fun ones. I still have one left to carve, but not sure what I want to carve into the pumpkin.

I've been working at the zoo the past couple of weekends. The zoo has a special dinosaur exhibit and other fun Halloween stuff to do. We're actually talking about going there for Halloween to ride the Tram of Terror, the Haunted Carousel, and see the animatronic dinos at night.

We've both been busy with school as my project has gone live. When the students actually start working on the research projects and no one has read the module it causes all sorts of headaches for both Chris and me. We had a TA think it wise to put paper in an oven and a whole host of other fun things like that last week.

I went to the doc on Friday. I have to have another scope done, as well as a 24 hour motility (to see why I'm having trouble swallowing) and pH test (to see why I still have heartburn). That actually happens next Monday and I'm not sure about the next scope.

Here are some random pictures from the month...

Toy Story in 3D

Our big excitement from this past week was getting to see Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D. We watched the first one, had a 10 minute intermission with Toy Story Trivia, then watched the second one. We went on Saturday with a few hundred other parents and children. We bought our tickets early that day and then showed up about an hour before the movie was to start. We had to stand in line, and we were the only ones without children. It was crazy, and we even got to see a 4 year old dressed up as Buzz! That unfortunately was the only costume we saw. I suppose though that those adults who dress up for Star Wars and Harry Potter don't really dress up for animated kids movies they grew up on so that kind of makes sense.

The movies were really neat. I did not get to see them in the theater the first time around so seeing them on big screen wearing crazy glasses was fun. It was funny to see kids reach for things they thought they could touch. Several of the kids around us did that several times thoughout the movies, so I think the 3D was realistic enough. It was also really cool to hear the gasps and exclamations of surprise for the effects that happen in the movie. You know like when Buzz proves to Woody that he can fly and the angle was from Buzz's helmet, with the movie being in 3D it actually kind of felt you were doing the car track yourself.

It was also nice to go out on a date. Since we can't go out to eat anywhere we've kind of become homebodies and don't ever go out. We still weren't able to go out for dinner after the movies, but it worked.

We've also really gotten involved in a small group from the Lutheran church we've been attending. They started a new group that meets later so we don't feel bad about showing up late, since we start later and that makes it less likely that we will be late in the first place. We're doing a "One Church" study -- so imagining what could happen if all the denominations stopped fighting and bickering over minute things that don't matter and all truly focused on doing God's work while here on earth. It reminds me of Mosaic in Little Rock and how they didn't care what your theological background was, just that you had a passion for serving Christ.

Anyway, I need to get going with my day. I hope everyone is having a good day and that all is well.

Race for the Cure

Last weekend was the Race for the Cure here in Chicago. They added a 10k race this year and I decided to participate. Chris discovered that if I have some external motivation (like races to run) that I stick to my diet significantly better than if I don't have some external motivation. I decided to run the 10k because of the challenge the distance would bring. I've been regularly running 4-5 miles for 4-5 weeks now, so taking an extra couple of miles was something I thought I could handle. I did well. I averaged 10 min miles, which is very slow for me. I also had to walk several times and so know that when I was running I was doing significantly less than 10 min miles. I'll get the time down, but I was just happy to be out there. It was a pretty run, even though it was so humid we felt like we were swimming. We ran through Chicago's Grant Park and on the Lake Front. The lake was steely gray and choppy. I missed having my mom there this year, but am looking forward to next years race. We are trying to get a team of people together to do the race next year so think of us! If you want to plan a Chicago trip to do the race with us you're more than welcome to! :)

Last week was pretty mild. Fall finally came and we had warmer temperatures the first few days of fall than we did most of summer. Last night though we had wind, as in 50+ mph standing wind. The wind whistled as it went through the screens and the air conditioner. Normally it only does that when we are getting a lot of snow (and having the phenomenon of blowing snow -- which really really sucks by the way) so I expected about 6 inches of snow when I woke up this morning. Apparently I even dreamed that it snowed so when I got up this morning and there was no snow I was kind of disappointed.

Other than that, I'm finishing up my first round of midterms for this semester. I can't believe it is week 6. I have been prepared, but its wild with everyone catching on to the fact that we are over 1/3rd of the way through the semester. I do have an exam tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. Hope all is well with everyone.

White Sox win!

We had the opportunity to go to a Sox-Royals game last night and we took it. We took a very slow train in and then managed to get lost in the stadium. We've decided that U.S. Cellular (or the Cell as it is referred to around town) has the worst signage of anywhere. We sat behind the bull pen for the Royals. The Sox ended up winning 13-3. The Sox hit two grand slams. Since my interest in baseball is all of zero (or approaching zero if you want to take the limit of it) Chris was like, "If you were waiting for something exciting to happen, it just did."

Anyway, we went with some friends from church, actually it was the softball team. They've even asked me to play softball again with them next year. We'll see if that happens. Who knows what will be going on next summer. We've decided that we kind of like our holding pattern right now -- we are managing with our jobs and we like the Chicago area, so we don't really want anything to change. That's typically a good recipe for change though, so we'll see what happens.

Right now we're just waiting for the season to change. We're having a nice Indian Summer here and it finally rained today. We're not really looking forward to the autumn equinox coming up this week -- that means we'll start seeing less and less of the sun. But we do have some fun trips planned for the winter that will allow us access to sun in normal daylight hours. This will be our third winter in Chicago, hopefully it won't be as bad as last.

We've got a busy week ahead -- Chris is alternating working early and late shifts at work since his co-worker is back. I have a pchem exam, and work to do with my adviser so we can get undergraduates in the labs starting the 28th. Does anyone know where September went?

Week back at work

We had a safe flight back from Boston last Monday. It was uneventful for the most part. We landed very early -- as in had our bags by the time we were scheduled to land, so that was good. A friend picked us up at the airport and we got to chat. We found out that two members of the small groups we've been in the past two years are pregnant, so that's going to change the dynamics there. We are no longer going to the church that small group is associated with so we're changing small groups and this is probably a good time for that.

Basically this week we've just been working. Over the weekend we wanted to catch up on sleep (since we didn't really get enough in Boston) and it didn't happen. We ended up sort of helping some people move out. Their U-Haul woke us up before eight on Saturday and they kept needing tools from us. We just sort of helped them with what they needed and asked for. We didn't do much though on Saturday. Sunday we went to church (finally!) and then I went searching for a winter parka. I want one that's about 3/4 length (so that it covers my bum and some of my thighs) and has both a zipper and clasps of some form to cover the zipper up) that I can wait for the trains/buses/whatever in and not freeze. The farmer's almanac is forcasting a frigid winter with averages in the upper teens. The NWS is forcasting a mild winter though. I'm more trusting of the farmer's almanac than the NWS but hoping the NWS is correct.

Not a lot is going on. We're trying to add foods into my diet so that I don't start getting sick from the dozen or so foods that were initially okay. Friday when I went to the doctor she agreed with me. Apparently my immune system is in full blown reaction mode and we can't exactly figure out how to calm it down. We've changed some medicines around and we're going to see how that works before any more tests are done. We've also started experimenting with tapioca pudding and seeing what we can put in it. I made some pretty good banana tapioca the other day, and made some cocoa pudding today. Both of them are very tasty, so that's encouraging to keep trying new things in the pudding.

So that's basically it for us here in Chicago -- work, school, church, feeding me. I'm off to bed and I hope that all is going well for you.

Boston for Labor Day

Well, we went to Boston for Labor Day. Actually we are still in Boston and are leaving today. We rented a house with some friends and its been a lot of fun. I just got in from a very pretty run and no one else is up yet. I need to go shower and pack as we leave in a few hours, but I just don't want to. I ran on some horse trails and it was very pretty to have the tall trees with the sun just starting to come through. I mean, the sun wasn't fully up yet, or anything. It was also nice to have hills. Granted the hills mean I have to work that much more, but running on flat can get old.

Saturday we walked the freedom trail backwards. Meaning we started at the Old Courthouse and ended up at the Bunker Hill Memorial. It was pretty with lots of fun places, but I recommend starting at Bunker Hill, especially if you're from a flat part of the country like we are. Surprisingly enough the Bunker Hill Memorial is on the top of a hill and is in a very hilly part of Boston, so walking up and down those hills after having rolling hills or winding through the flat parts of town is kind of a killer on the legs. It was cool to see the old buildings and the Old North Church. Paul Revere Square was neat and we realized that a lot of the old "founding fathers" were neighbors.

Sunday we went to the Museum of Science here in town. We were kind of disappointed with it actually. Thankfully our tickets were free (with our Field Museum membership and all) and our planetarium tickets weren't that expensive. A lot of the museum exhibits seemed very very very basic. I know that for general admission in a museum it has to be fairly basic, but the show on electricity and lightning was so boring we left after 10 minutes. There was a very large van de Graff machine (one of the largest in existence and built by van de Graff himself) that was supposed to be "shocking" but wasn't, either that or we weren't patient enough to wait for the shocking part of the talk. However, the museum here is getting the Harry Potter Exhibit and it opens in October. I'd almost like to see it again, but there probably won't be nearly the same amount of stuff in the exhibit here. The only real place to put the exhibit is inside and so that means there will be several pieces that won't really fit. They did have the knight Ron rides in Sorcerer's Stone in the main foyer though, so that was neat to see.

Anyway, coffee is done and I'm starting to shiver because I'm cold. I need to go wake the masses, or at least Chris so that he too can get packing.

School started this week

so we've been absolutely exhausted. The stockroom Chris works in has been one man down this week and has been checking people into labs and all sorts of fun stuff like that. I have been working at the zoo and classes started, but thankfully I only have class on Tuesday and Thursday. So I went to the zoo MWF and the uni TR. We've had a long week, and are looking forward to the trip we're going on this week. The third person in Chris's stockroom should be back this Monday, so that should help Chris some.

I leave on Wednesday for New Hampshire and Chris will join me in Boston on Friday. I get to see Maggie and then we're meeting friends in Boston. :) We need some time away from Chicago I think. We've not been away all summer. We've been grateful for everyone coming to visit us, but I think we need to get away a little too. We're staying in a house while in Boston so that we can cook and all that jazz. I think we need a vacation from cooking, but not sure when a vacation like that will come.

We're still trying the very restricted diet. We're tempted to start trying foods, but kind of unsure about what will happen. I've tried adding apples a few times now and have always ended up feeling worse, being in a bit more pain, being nauseous, and burping a bit more than normal. It doesn't seem to matter if I incorporate apples with a meal or eat them alone as a snack or just have apple juice. I just wasn't aware that apples have proteins. Apples are typically known for being a good fructose and fiber source, so I really can't imagine what protein my body is attacking here.

LEAP MRT Test results

A few weeks back I had a special test run for food sensitivities. I finally got my results. They are about what I honestly expected, with a few surprises.

My list of foods that I should never eat: cauliflower, pinto beans, and tilapia
My list of foods that I shouldn't ever eat, but may be able to try in a few months/years to see how my body handles them: Amaranth (african grain that is typically used as a wheat replacement), Apricot, Barley, Blueberry, Broccoli, Cabbage, Candida albicans (a chemical preservative), Salicylic acid (another preservative), whey, cottage cheese, coconut, parsley, honey, plum, pineapple, hops, sweet potato, white potato, wheat, catfish, yeast mix, sunflower seed and pecan.

Some of the foods are a surprise because they don't seem to make sense. I mean -- who's sensitive to cauliflower or broccoli? Some of the fruits are hard to understand. In terms of how the program groups foods though there are entire families of foods that I can't have. And some they've listed as being acceptable, but we probably won't try those for a while. For example, Kamut is a starch that I'm supposed to be able to eat. However, it is in the gluten family and is highly related to the gluten family so we aren't wanting to try it because having an adverse reaction can set me back several days in trying to figure out what I can eat or not.

This week I can eat: pork, eggs, quinoa, tapioca, asparagus, spinach, green pea, carrot, banana, avocado, cherry, pear, cow's milk, coffee, sesame, hazelnut, cinnamon, lemon, and black pepper.

Tonight Chris made some fried quinoa. He cut up the carrots and asparagus and made quinoa like you make rice. Then he fried and egg in a skillet and added the peas, carrots, and asparagus. After cooking that a minute he added the quinoa and it ended up being quite tasty. It will definately be done again. Plus he even liked the quinoa that way! The quinoa naturally has kind of a nutty taste to it that he doesn't like, so frying it like this pretty much made it a great food.

We're also discovering how to make real old fashioned tapioca pudding. I'm eating it as a snack, as breakfast, as dessert. Its a good thing I like tapioca pudding. Making the tapiocas has been fun. Its nice to see them swell and then become soft. Since we haven't figured out how to add the whites to the hot tapioca mixture, we keep getting little egg pieces in the pudding. :)

Anyway, if you have any recipes that you'd like to share, or ideas of what we might be able to prepare with easy modifications let me know! We can only do pork and eggs so many ways before we get sick of it. Next week we get to add more veggies and fruits for the most part. The week after that we get to add chicken, so it will be a while before we can do a different protein source.

Week of fun

On Tuesday (August 11) I played softball again. I managed to get base hits and to get pelted with a ball. They were trying to get me out and the dude threw it from center field to third...but my leg got in the way. I've got quite the bruise to show for it. I think it is still swollen almost a week later.

Besides playing softball, my mom, Bill, and Maegan came to visit this past week. We had a lot of fun for their short trip. We started Thursday morning going to MSI. Maegan and Mom got to explore the Harry Potter exhibit, while Bill and I went through the Smart Home. The Lego exhibit was still around so of course we had fun building skyscrapers again.
After the MSI we went to the Robie House and then on to the zoo. Here's a pic of us on the carousel (where else do you take a picture at the zoo?). We managed to see a lot of the zoo in the short amount of time we were there. Hudson was out, as was Wicket, but not Obessa. We also saw Abby (the ostrich) and the giraffes.

On Friday we explored downtown Chicago. We started by going to Navy Pier. The Air show was in town so we got to see them practicing. We got a pretty good view of the planes as they turned around and stuff. Here's a picture of us on the anchor at the end of Navy Pier watching the planes. When the planes took a break we decided to go to the American Girl store. Wow. Just Wow. It was crazy in there. Some of the clothes needed to be a few sizes larger, and Maegan did manage to get a couple of very cute outfits. I was shocked by the amount of people there! I asked one of the workers and she said it was a light day. It was busy enough that I bought Maegan's Christmas present now so that I won't have to go back and get another one... While the girls did American Girl Bill went to save seats at the top of the Hancock Tower. You'd think with the Air Show practically at the base of the building that the lounge would have been full -- oh no. We got good window seats that looked out west and managed to get a few good glimpses of planes flying around while we were sitting there. After that we walked around Millineum Park and went to see Buckingham Fountain. It was being renovated when Mom was here last so it was nice for her to see it. At the Bean I bullied Maegan into doing handstands with me against the bean. She kept saying she could do it and I kept asking her to prove it. We eventually were able to get a handstand together. :) I was just happy to be able to do handstands again. I haven't really been able to do one since I hurt my wrist a few years back, so it was nice to see I have the strength to do one and hold it a while (we won't mention that I balanced by putting my feet on the Bean).

That basically sums up the week though -- we had guests in town and managed to see a lot of Chicago on foot. We wore our guests out, which may not have been the nicest thing to do in hind-sight, but it was fun and you only get so many chances to see all this stuff, right?!

Anyway, its late, but I wanted to get this up before going to bed tonight. Off to sleep so that tomorrow I can ride a bike to work for what looks to be the only rainless day this week.

A Weekend of Harry Potter

Since I got sick when Harry Potter came out we finally decided to go see it again last Thursday. I really liked the movie overall. I think that it fits with what they've previously cut from the films, so that's exciting to me. I'm curious how they are going to do a lot of the stuff in the upcoming movies, but other than that it was good.

We also ended up seeing it on the Omnimax screen at the MSI. We had friends come down from Minneapolis for the Harry Potter Exhibit at MSI. Since they were showing HP 6 in IMAX on the dome screen we decided to see it that way as well. Seeing the movie in 3D on the dome screen was simply amazing. It was wild to see the graphics and have it literally be larger than life.

Before we managed to see the movie or explore the world of Harry Potter, we played with Legos. There is a temporary exhibit at the MSI about architecture and legos. The guy has created a replica of the Chicago skyline completely of Legos, well he did all the buildings over 1000 foot in Legos at least.

There were also tables set up so that visitors can create a skyline. Naturally, since we played with Legos as a child we wanted to add to the skyline. But we wanted to build buildings from the groud up.
After we played with Legos, went to see Harry Potter on IMAX, and through the Harry Potter exhibit, we went to the zoo for the employee picnic. We went a bit early and were able to see the butterflies, and the pachyderms, but by then we were hot and sweaty so went to eat. After dinner we got to ride the carousel and see the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. The exhibit has about 30 animatronix dinosaurs. They've used animals sounds (like Lions or gorillas roaring) as their sounds. They are kind of cheesy, but kind of cool at the same time. We got our picture taken with the Triceratops.Overall it was a good Harry Potter weekend, with a bit of the zoo thrown in. We're just trying to keep cool and out of the humidity. This weekend was lollapalooza here in town though, so we should have known it would be a steamy, sweltering weekend.

Peaches

We've decided that we miss peach season. We keep trying to buy peaches in the super market but they just aren't the same as the ones you get at food stands along the side of a road. Peaches don't grow here, so we've got no roadside stands to get peaches from. It is unfortunate, but we'll make due.

Other than missing peaches the big event of the past week was having our power out for several hours on Saturday. The power went out about 430 am Saturday and I was at the zoo when it came back on. We looked outside when it went off and couldn't see anything. The entire grid was out on the way to the train station -- we looked for open windows as tell tales that the power was out, and there were a lot of those. Chris was around, but he went out for lunch and it hadn't come back on by then, so it was a good long power outage. There were a TON of trucks lined up around the streets here. We still don't know what caused it, but it made up grateful for our electricity. It was interesting trying to do things in the dark and all. It was an overcast dreary kind of day so there wasn't much ambient light to be had. We got some much needed rain, and hopefully we'll continue to get some rain.

1st Base

We've decided that we can take -25, but hate 80. The weather is starting to get warmer here, we've been in the 80s a few days in a row now. We can't believe that we've started thinking of 80 as hot. Not warm, downright hot, mind you. Its still pretty cool during the nights (in the upper 50s low 60s) so we're not having to use the ac much. Hopefully the summer will finish out like this.

With the gorgeous weather and wanting to get involved with a church I recently went and played softball. Yes, the soccer player who has never played softball in her life went and played. I got stuck on catch duty, which got me lots of practice throwing. We had a good pitcher so there were lots of strikes and I got to practice throwing. I apparently bat left handed though and I managed to connect with the ball the three times I batted. (I actually was on deck four times, but the first time the male in front of me was walked so I got to walk as well :) which saved me an embarrassing chance at hitting) The last bat I made it on base while the first two were outs, but close with my running ability.

In terms of food stuff -- I'm having a specialized blood test done that will test 150 different things and will give me back a rotation type diet. So it will tell me what food I can eat safely anytime, what I can eat occasionally, and what I can never eat. They messed up the blood they took last week so I get to have more drawn tomorrow for that. Hopefully they'll get it in less than three pricks.

One of the guys Chris works with had surgery yesterday so he is working late. He is back on leaving on the last express train and coming home on the last express train, putting him home about seven. It makes for short nights, but we have fun anyway. We're currently working our way through the John Grisham movies, well the movies made from his books. We want to work through the Harry Potter movies, but apparently so does everyone else in the Netflix world. We still need to go and see the new one. We actually went out and saw it opening night but I missed it so I want to see it again.

That's the news from Chicago. Hope all is well with you guys.

Ikea 101

Rule #1 of Ikea: Never take Chris. Chris hates the store. According to him anytime a map is required to get out of a store there is way too much stuff and you just don't need to go there.

Rule #2 of Ikea: Ikea actually has some pretty good stuff for fairly decent prices since we don't have a lot of money to spend on furniture. The problem is this often means Chris has to go to Ikea which conflicts with Rule #1.

Rule #3 of Ikea: Never let Carolyn wander around Ikea. Carolyn doesn't entirely mind the maze of stuff and can get really cool ideas from wondering around Ikea, however, it takes FOREVER. For example, we needed a cabinet to put all our blankets in (to be referred to as a blanket cabinet for the rest of this post) and we ended up getting something that will work as a blanket cabinet, but it didn't come in any of the more traditional spots. This rule often conflicts with Rule #1 (Big surprise there!)

Rule #4 of Ikea: On the trip home the Focus will be full. The back seat will need to be put down, and one person may or may not have to ride in the back with the Ikea boxes. Since Carolyn inevitably has a skirt on her riding in the back doesn't work so well. Chris then has to ride in the back of the packed Focus holding onto boxes from Ikea that he is cursing after having been drug through a store he didn't want to go to in the first place.

Rule #5 of Ikea: Chris turns the boxes he sat with into beautiful pieces of furniture. Carolyn can have no part in the furniture construction because she might actually look at the instructions, never a good idea as they are invariably in Swedish.

Today was a "Break Ikea Rule #1" day, and as you might have guessed we had a lot of fun. I actually went by on Friday to scope out the joint and figure out what might work for the myriad of things we were looking for. The cabinet blanket was just one of the things, but it did take Chris several hours to put everything together this afternoon. It looks great and hold all of our blankets. This means we're getting rid of the last few moving boxes we've got! Yay! We've lived here close to two years (has it really been two years already?!) and we're just now getting rid of the last remnants of boxes.

After putting together the blanket cabinet, a DVD tower, and a desk chair, I talked Chris into playing volleyball. We managed to go to church this morning and one of the people in charge for getting people our age together asked us to go play. Since we've been trying to do something with the group since January, and they were playing sand volleyball on a nice warm (low seventies and overcast) day. We've not had many days without rain this summer, so we decided to take our chances. We had a lot of fun, both of us making fools of ourselves being so uncoordinated and all. They want us to come back though, so we must not have been that bad.

Happy B'day Carolyn

So Harry Potter came out for my b'day. Well, not technically, but we said it was since it came out at midnight. We decided to do something stupid and went to the midnight release. We had a bit of trouble getting tickets, but Linda ended up finding tickets for us at a really neat theater. We've managed to see several of the other movies at the midnight showing, so it was kind of a tradition for us, which is why we decided that even though the midnight show was on Tuesday night we were going to go anyway.

The theater is a "dinner and a movie" kind of place. So they let us in to the theater super early to take our dinner and drink orders. On Tuesdays the movie place has half priced pitchers of margaritas. Since it was Tuesday we had margaritas in the lobby with a few hundred other Harry Potter fans waiting to see the movie. I took the picture with my new phone that Chris got me for my b'day. Its a pretty spiffy phone and a pretty decent camera to boot.


A couple other pictures that I took...
The first picture is of Chris and me displaying our margaritas in the lobby. The second picture is of Linda and me inside the theater. Anyway, we ended up watching the movie and having a ton of fun. I actually got sick so I couldn't see much of the movie, but I did see the beginning and the end. I managed to read the books leading up to seeing the film and from what I saw I was fairly impressed of how closely to the dialog they stuck. The few diversions seemed to make sense logically based on what they've cut in previous movies and such.

Anyway, if you're ever in Chicago and want to see a movie then let us know and we can see what's playing at the dinner theater. Its kind of an interesting thing -- no sharing drink holders, and you get to sit in high back executive chairs.

Happy 4th of July

Well its the fourth and we are awkwardly stuck in Illinois. Its raining and it has been all day. We aren't at the lake which is weird for both of us. Despite what's been going on we typically go to the lake with Chris's family for the 4th. I have to work and with the holiday being on a Saturday this year, it just didn't work out for us to go. That doesn't make it any less weird though. If we were at the lake and it was rainy like it is we'd be doing all sorts of indoorsy stuff -- like playing Skip-Bo or video games with Chris's cousins.

This week was crazy. I went to Tulsa for Go-Go's funeral while Chris stayed here and took his bike around town. It apparently rained for the entire time I was gone, except for around the times Chris was riding his bike. He said it was an interesting week. My week was busy and I drove more this week than I have in the past six months I think. I mean I racked up something like 20 hours driving in the car and I typically don't drive more than 20 minutes in a week. We both got to catch up with family while I was gone so that's always good.

Working at the Zoo

I've been working at the zoo this summer and its been fun. It is a nice way to get off of the university campus and fresh air. Today was a free day at the zoo (for everyone under 11) and so everyone brought their kids, their kids friends, and their kids friends friends. It was crazy and it will only get more crazy this week. I was very flattered that people thought I could magically call the animals out of their hiding spots or make them do tricks. However, it was also annoying to have them ask me why I couldn't do it when it didn't work. I spent most of the afternoon being told, "No" or some variation thereof, while watching the Tapir (a really cool pachyderm) in his watering hole. We said if we got 30 rejections between the three of us working at one spot then we'd get to ride the carousel. I got 20 rejections myself and we decided to not ride the carousel because of all the screaming children. I got to watch the hippos for 20 minutes instead. The full size hippo is named Wicked and she's just cool. I mean she hangs out in the water and comes up for air every 6 minutes. It is strangely fascinating for me to stand on the fence and just watch the water waiting for her to come up for air. Next door to Wicked is Obessa, the pygmy hippo. Obessa was in her mud today. She was just laying there. At first it was difficult to tell where she was, but then it was easy. I was jealous, though both hippos had people yelling at them to do things too. Though if I weight 700 lbs or even 7k lbs and someone yelled at me I'd probably do something to scare them into no longer yelling. I wish I could take my camera around the zoo with me, but I'd probably lose it and then be disoriented in the world when I had no more camera.

We're coming up on the Fourth of July here in Chicago. There are firework displays planned for Chicago or over the lake, but we plan on going to none of them. They are INSANELY crowded and we just want to not deal with that many people for a while. Summer school is still keeping Chris busy.

Other than that there isn't much new this week. Its been a week of working and the craziness that goes with that. Hope everything is going well for everyone else.

Catch up

Spring is gone in Chicago. This past week we've had thunderstorm after thunderstorm and ended up with 90 degree weather. I don't think we had a dozen days over 90 last summer and we're getting close to that here soon. We want the thunderstorms to give us our Canadian air back and take the Kansas air back to Kansas.

Two weeks ago we had our 4th anniversary and it was different for all sorts of reasons. I'm continuing to have trouble eating most foods and so we had to be creative in what we did for it since going to dinner was out. We had a lot of fun though just hanging out and amazed at the fact that it has been four years since we got married. Time flies when you're having fun...

In terms of jobs Chris works at the University and summer school is getting underway. It started last week, so this is week 2 of 8. Its easier in the summers for him, but he likes the busy-ness of the fall and spring semesters. It gives him something to do. I'm going to finish a Masters in Chemistry by next spring. I've decided that with my health issues I don't have the ability to complete a PhD right now. It was a difficult decision to make, but I think I'll be better off for it. I won't have to decide if I want to take care of me or get a degree.

We've enjoyed the cool spring so far. We went hiking at a place called Starved Rock, just outside of Utica, IL, last weekend, as seen on the left here. We went with our small group. While there we grilled, played frisbee, hiked and had a good time. It was nice to get out of the metroplex and see some of the flat state of Illinois. Now that we've been here two years we decided to see the rest of the state. We've mainly seen highways driving to OK, lined with corn and soybean fields, so hiking was a lot of fun. Here are a couple of pictures from the day.

Welcome

This is to journal what has happened to Chris and me. I've recently stopped sending out mass "state of the Sehorns" e-mails because I've been blogging more on other sites. There isn't always a lot to tell, but you can check back here to see what's going on with us. I will try and put something up once a week, maybe more, maybe less, depending on what is going on.