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.