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.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
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. Surprising
ly 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.
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. Surprising
ly 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.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, August 17, 2009
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 lou
nge 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.
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 lou
nge 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.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, August 3, 2009
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.
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.
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