Since it is the end of October, and I haven't blogged since the beginning of October I suppose I should fill everyone in a little. It has been a busy month, and even though I originally planned on blogging about the NYC wedding back the first weekend of the month, all of a sudden it is the last weekend of the month and October is over. This month has been filled with all sorts of emotional roller coasters. We've had both good news and bad news, and news that is double edged. The double-edged news is why I'm able to sit down now.
On Friday Chris's grandfather passed away after a long battle. It is really an answer to prayers that he finally did, and that everyone let him. Since about 2003 grandfather has been having issue after issue, and hospitalized multiple times for any number of things. It was almost a yearly occurrence in October to start, and then it grew to August and October, and then every few months, and then every few weeks, etc. For the past few years grandfather has been living in a nursing home. He didn't really have his mind at the time, and only ever seemed to have about three good days a year. This is "double-edged" news because it is great for grandfather to be gone. It is a good thing he is finally at peace and no longer in pain. However, for those of us left behind, well, we miss him. I'm unable to get to OK for the funeral so Chris drove down solo yesterday. As a family we will continue to miss him, especially as we are heading headstrong into the holidays. I'm reminded forcibly of when my own grandmother died. Her battle wasn't nearly as long as this one has been, but it was just as violent of a roller coaster, simply compressed into about two years versus seven or eight. I was glad when she died, simply because I knew she was no longer in pain. Since I do believe in a life after bodily death, and she had talked about going to angels, so it is simply a good-bye for now. Like saying goodbye to a friend that you don't really know when you'll see again. However, the part when I decided that I was missing my grandmother, was when I started to have problems and really be sad. If we focus on the situation around us, and the people left behind, then we see death as a bad thing, if we focus on the fact that it is just a temporary good-bye, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing.
Another good thing that has happened is that I've started working at the Trinity Cafe. It is open seven days a week and is a lot of fun. It will be more fun once business picks up. We had a "soft opening" this week and overall it went well. I think we did better than the "average" that we'll need each person to spend, we just need more people. The "grand opening" is Nov 9. We didn't want to send out any advertising this close to the elections, which is why we are having the grand opening later. It is interesting being a barista, and they are essentially putting me in as assistant manager. I'll hopefully get a key this week so that I can open and the managers can go home.
Anyway, I hear my pumpkin pie in the oven almost ready to go, so I should go check. Knowing me once I get up from the computer I'll forget to get back, so I'll just post this before I go.
Hope everyone has a great day as this one here in Chicagoland is shaping up to be.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
New Jersey Aquarium
Last Wednesday we flew to Philly to meet up with Josh and Anna for a day (or two) of fun before the wedding mayhem began. We had a bumpy ride, but made it safely. Thursday morning when we woke up it was windy, rainy and grey. I didn't run :( and we didn't get a chance to do a lot of outdoorsy things, but we did make it to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. We got on a train about a mile from Anna's place and got a tour of Jersey. As always, train tours are interesting, you get to see a bit of industry and main street for the different towns. We also got to see a lot of the river (the Delaware), and the river was white capping most of the time.
Once we made it to the aquarium we were across the Delaware from Philly, just a bridge away.
Inside the aquarium there were all sorts of fishes, frogs, penguins, seals, sharks, and hippos! We spent a lot of time with the hippos, Jenny and Button. At first the two hippos were simply hanging out, sleeping, as hippos do most of the day.
We went through the hippo area to the jellyfish and shark tanks. There was also an octopus, a really big octopus, that was hiding from the world. We managed to see just his tentacles, but those were quite large.
After the shark tank we decided to go check on the hippos again. The aquarium had underwater viewing, which I had seen for bears (at brookfield) and heard about happening other places, but never really seen. It was really neat to see the hippos in action under the water. As hippos can spend about 18 hours a day in the water, and up to 10 minutes at a time (if inactive) underwater, what they do underwater is a big deal.
After we eventually left the hippos and went to see the other stuff. We got to see really neat corals and fishes! The penguins were also neat and outdoors. After seeing the penguins waddle around, we went back inside (it was also starting to rain again by then).
We rounded out the day with more hippos and got to listen to a hippo talk. The keeper also gave the hippos kale so it was fun to see them eat.
After the aquarium we got to hang out with Anna and Josh and simply rest some. This was good as we had a busy weekend before us. I'll write more about that in my next post, with more pictures of course.
Inside the aquarium there were all sorts of fishes, frogs, penguins, seals, sharks, and hippos! We spent a lot of time with the hippos, Jenny and Button. At first the two hippos were simply hanging out, sleeping, as hippos do most of the day.
We went through the hippo area to the jellyfish and shark tanks. There was also an octopus, a really big octopus, that was hiding from the world. We managed to see just his tentacles, but those were quite large.
After the shark tank we decided to go check on the hippos again. The aquarium had underwater viewing, which I had seen for bears (at brookfield) and heard about happening other places, but never really seen. It was really neat to see the hippos in action under the water. As hippos can spend about 18 hours a day in the water, and up to 10 minutes at a time (if inactive) underwater, what they do underwater is a big deal.
After we eventually left the hippos and went to see the other stuff. We got to see really neat corals and fishes! The penguins were also neat and outdoors. After seeing the penguins waddle around, we went back inside (it was also starting to rain again by then).
After the aquarium we got to hang out with Anna and Josh and simply rest some. This was good as we had a busy weekend before us. I'll write more about that in my next post, with more pictures of course.
Monday, September 27, 2010
It is Wedding Time!
Now I'm currently waiting to go pick up my dress for my brother's wedding, which is this coming Saturday. I'm praying and hoping that she did a good job with it and didn't mess up my Vera. That and I'm pretty sure I'd be toast if I messed up the dress, but that's besides the point. We are leaving in 2 days, as in 48 hours will have me and Chris on a jet plane heading east. :) We'll get to stop by and see friends for a day or so (Chris will get to have 2 days with them, as Friday I have wedding things to attend to) and then we'll do the wedding. The rehearsal is Friday night, and then the wedding is Saturday afternoon with the reception starting at 5. I'm really excited about seeing my family and seeing this all come together. It has been a busy few months for all the planning, but as is typical with a wedding, it is nice to see the finished product. You'd better believe that next week there will be several more wedding pictures. I have a charged battery and will take the charger with me to NYC. :)
I think I have my food stuff figured out for this week in NYC -- its quite simple really. Simply survive off of S'Mac. I'm not sure if I posted anything about S'Mac after my NYC trip two weeks ago, but let me tell you, the stuff is simply amazing (so its so good I'm writing about it twice because I'm salivating thinking about it). Its good -- no fantastic -- mac and cheese. They can make it gluten free (check one) and then add only stuff you want (check two) plus they don't believe in preservatives (check three). It comes out in a cast iron skillet (they use separate ones for gf pasta -- check four) and is creamy, cheesy goodness. I ordered mine and then had it halfway done before my friend parked his car. I hadn't really eaten a lot that weekend, but still, that's how tasty it was. I originally ordered the larger size hoping to take some home with me on the plane the following day. I ended up simply eating it all, so I starved the next day on the plane. I may only make it once in my several days in NYC, so I'll order several things "to go" and eat mac and cheese all weekend. Ah, I better be careful though or I won't fit into my perfectly tailored dress.
Overall this past week was interesting. On Thursday Chris sliced his thumb open at work. He ended up with 5 stitches in it, but it is healing nicely. We're planning on taking them out this week while we're in NYC, because we're pretty sure we can do a decent enough job, if not better job, than what they've done. The doc who sewed him up, well, let's just say I hope he was a first year resident or an intern. I've done better stitching just about any time I've had to sew anything.
Still no permanent job offer for me, so I'm working more at the college next term. The term starts Oct 12 and runs until Dec 16. This means that I'll be free for the holidays at least. I''ll do two sections of Earth Science and one section of Physical Science -- Yay for physics and chemistry. :) I'm excited enough about the Physical Science that I started working on powerpoints for the course today. I'm done with the first one, now I've only got a few more to go. I can only dream about hearing the screams. I'm also kind of concerned because it looks like several people will earn bad grades this term -- something about missing tests and not turning papers in. Who knew right?
I also figured out how to make a chocolate cream cheese frosting/icing to put on stuff. I made some more of my friend Katie's vanilla velvet cupcakes and wanted to try a different frosting, but didn't have any butter. It turned out really really well -- ultra creamy. I may not ever make a frosting with butter again, I may convert to using cream cheese or a comparable cheese. That makes it healthier right?
Well, time to go see if I fit into my dress at all I suppose.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Blissfully Quiet
This week has been blissfully quiet. We were able to get back to our regularly scheduled lives. It was interesting to say the least. We got to get up at 4 to have Chris on the train at 430. Then I attempted to go back to sleep until I needed to be up for work, or house cleaning. I mainly ended up resting more or less though, so it was an interesting week. We also got to attend small group for the first time since the beginning of August. It was quite nice to see everyone. We've got several new additions to the group, as well as a new baby (who was a week old), so interesting to say the least.
This week several new seasons of shows came out on DVD as well. We've got to catch up on all the TV from the past year. Its so nice to only be a year behind the times. ;)
I was asked to teach a third section of sciences at Westwood for the October term. This is quite a blessing really. I'm having a difficult time getting a job and with the weddings having to only work Tuesdays and Thursdays will be nice. I'll make comparable money to what I did at UIC, so it is a blessing, like I said. Plus I don't have to take days upon days off for the weddings after just starting a new position. :) I've also recently remembered that our church is opening a coffee shop with the new site in October. They will be looking for baristas, so my barista dream may come true yet. I'm still looking for a full-time position that uses my Masters to its full extent, and it will come. Eventually and in the right time. We've got absolutely no reason to believe otherwise, in fact, full faith and reason to believe that it will happen that way and all prior evidence points in that direction as well.
Anyway, with the whole 4 am wake-up time I'm going to get to bed.
This week several new seasons of shows came out on DVD as well. We've got to catch up on all the TV from the past year. Its so nice to only be a year behind the times. ;)
I was asked to teach a third section of sciences at Westwood for the October term. This is quite a blessing really. I'm having a difficult time getting a job and with the weddings having to only work Tuesdays and Thursdays will be nice. I'll make comparable money to what I did at UIC, so it is a blessing, like I said. Plus I don't have to take days upon days off for the weddings after just starting a new position. :) I've also recently remembered that our church is opening a coffee shop with the new site in October. They will be looking for baristas, so my barista dream may come true yet. I'm still looking for a full-time position that uses my Masters to its full extent, and it will come. Eventually and in the right time. We've got absolutely no reason to believe otherwise, in fact, full faith and reason to believe that it will happen that way and all prior evidence points in that direction as well.
Anyway, with the whole 4 am wake-up time I'm going to get to bed.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Yuca Experiment
Well, Chris decided to experiment with Yucaroot tonight. We were having meatcakes (hamburgers sans buns) and while at the grocery store he decided to pick the yuca up. We've been talking about trying it for a while now, just hadn't ever been able to find it. So we boiled it this time with hopes of making mashed yuca, similar to mashed potatoes.
It naturally has a sweet taste and a texture similar to a potato. We probably needed to boil them longer than we did as they were kind of hard and didn't exactly mash well. The mashing wasn't a problem for the mixer though. So then what to do with them once we got them mashed. We split up our mashed yuca into two parts. We couldn't decide if we wanted to do simply butter and salt like mashed white potatoes, or brown sugar and cinammon like sweet potatoes -- so we made both. With the salt version though we learned that copious amounts of salt simply brings out the naturally sweet yuca, so having a strong cheese makes a good counter balance. We had some gorgonzola that we needed to use so we threw that in, and it was quite tasty actually.
This means we're looking forward to a winter of yuca in this and yuca in that I imagine. It will be great!
We're starting to get cool here, and the weather has been great. I went on a quick trip to NYC this past weekend and it was truly a whirlwind. In the future I won't go to NYC when the U.S. Open, Fashion Night Out kicking off Fashion Week, and during September 11. It was difficult to get cabs and do anything. I was in NYC for less than 48 hours, and managed to do a fair amount. The highlights were getting to hang out with my family, getting to go for a run (and a bit lost after listening to Lauren) with my brother and mom, and then getting to eat Mac and Cheese from S'Mac. I could eat the Mac and Cheese as it was rice pasta, and the shop has no soy or yeast. It was amazing too! I'll probably write a review for it on facebook, so look for it there with a picture of my amazing mac and cheese. I went to NYC for Lauren's shower. It was held at a country club in the burbs that was really really nice. They currently have a flower from Nola Jane on top of their roof though, as it went overboard when Nola got sick of it being in her hair. We got to go to Times Square at night, which was neat seeing it all lit up, and near Times Square was the M&M World. It was neat to go in and see all the M&M Merchandise and colors of M&Ms.
Anyway, i need to go shower as I kind of smell. I went for a run today when it was 83. It had been a while since we experimented with foods and this was quite successful, so I felt I should journal/share it with everyone in case they ever wanted to try yuca root.
It naturally has a sweet taste and a texture similar to a potato. We probably needed to boil them longer than we did as they were kind of hard and didn't exactly mash well. The mashing wasn't a problem for the mixer though. So then what to do with them once we got them mashed. We split up our mashed yuca into two parts. We couldn't decide if we wanted to do simply butter and salt like mashed white potatoes, or brown sugar and cinammon like sweet potatoes -- so we made both. With the salt version though we learned that copious amounts of salt simply brings out the naturally sweet yuca, so having a strong cheese makes a good counter balance. We had some gorgonzola that we needed to use so we threw that in, and it was quite tasty actually.
This means we're looking forward to a winter of yuca in this and yuca in that I imagine. It will be great!
We're starting to get cool here, and the weather has been great. I went on a quick trip to NYC this past weekend and it was truly a whirlwind. In the future I won't go to NYC when the U.S. Open, Fashion Night Out kicking off Fashion Week, and during September 11. It was difficult to get cabs and do anything. I was in NYC for less than 48 hours, and managed to do a fair amount. The highlights were getting to hang out with my family, getting to go for a run (and a bit lost after listening to Lauren) with my brother and mom, and then getting to eat Mac and Cheese from S'Mac. I could eat the Mac and Cheese as it was rice pasta, and the shop has no soy or yeast. It was amazing too! I'll probably write a review for it on facebook, so look for it there with a picture of my amazing mac and cheese. I went to NYC for Lauren's shower. It was held at a country club in the burbs that was really really nice. They currently have a flower from Nola Jane on top of their roof though, as it went overboard when Nola got sick of it being in her hair. We got to go to Times Square at night, which was neat seeing it all lit up, and near Times Square was the M&M World. It was neat to go in and see all the M&M Merchandise and colors of M&Ms.
Anyway, i need to go shower as I kind of smell. I went for a run today when it was 83. It had been a while since we experimented with foods and this was quite successful, so I felt I should journal/share it with everyone in case they ever wanted to try yuca root.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Labor Day
Well, we've successfully survived our first month of mayhem. Chris has started his new position, I'm currently just teaching, and we've now done two of our five weddings for the year. :)
The new position requires Chris being on the 430 train, so this is taking a bit of adjustment. It doesn't help that we have so much unusual stuff going on so a routine is difficult to start. Hopefully next week (as in Monday 13) we will be able to get into a routine enough that we stop going crazy. He's managing the stockroom, and so far the first two weeks of the semester went well. He's got the usual complaints about training his replacement and stuff, but that's just kinks to be sorted out.
I'm working at Westwood still. I'm teaching Earth Science again this term. I've been asked to teach both Earth and Physical Science next term, so that would take me to Christmas in terms of having a job. It doesn't pay well, but the work is fairly straight forward and allows me a LOT of flexibility (which is a blessing right now with all the weddings) and possibly a different part time job. As opposed to having to take a ton of time off for all the weddings I've got this fall, I'm simply scheduling different times to have the classes. :) I'm actually thinking of doing a barrista gig for a while since I'm already up at 430 with Chris, being at work by 5 wouldn't be such a big deal. Plus it would be nice to be on a similar sleep schedule.
The zoo is mostly done now. I'll go back in October for extra money, but that will be all. It ended up well, we got a TON of surveys and I didn't kill anyone. Chris still contends that I need to find a research position so that I can not have to deal with the general public -- my patience for not trying and not reading have gone down significantly. So, me doing a barrista thing may not work so well, but we'll see.
I still need to get my dress altered for John and Lauren's wedding. I haven't had time with the zoo gig. The zoo ended last Tuesday and then I had to do nothing but wedding stuff for this coming weekend.
As one of our crazy things that have happened the past month -- we had friends get married here. Chris and I were the best man and maid of honor, so it was really quite fun. We got to play Barbie and Ken. It was a nice ceremony that was close to here. It was nice to see everyone and here are a few pictures from the wedding.
The wedding cake! It was apparently delicious, and most people ate about 5 slices. The top two layers are a chocolate gluten free, with the bottom layer being a carrot cake. Chris salivated over the carrot cake, and couldn't believe it was gluten free!
I suppose if you make anyone up enough they look good, right? This was before the ceremony. It was outdoors and about fifteen minutes before the ceremony it started sprinkling, so we got to play inside a few more minutes.
What else do you do at a wedding? I'm starting to get Chris to dance with me some, and from this angle you can kind of see the intricacy of my hair. It only took a lady two hours to get my hair done...
Anyway, 430 comes early in the morning so I'm going to go now. I realized that the past few posts have mainly been picture posts without much commentary. One of these days I may go back and update the posts, but it will be next week at the earliest. I'm off to New York this coming weekend for Lauren's shower. I'm looking forward to meeting my mom, Ida, Nola Jane, and Maegan there. We'll have an interesting weekend that will hopefully bring its own sets of pictures and stories.
Have a good week.
The new position requires Chris being on the 430 train, so this is taking a bit of adjustment. It doesn't help that we have so much unusual stuff going on so a routine is difficult to start. Hopefully next week (as in Monday 13) we will be able to get into a routine enough that we stop going crazy. He's managing the stockroom, and so far the first two weeks of the semester went well. He's got the usual complaints about training his replacement and stuff, but that's just kinks to be sorted out.
I'm working at Westwood still. I'm teaching Earth Science again this term. I've been asked to teach both Earth and Physical Science next term, so that would take me to Christmas in terms of having a job. It doesn't pay well, but the work is fairly straight forward and allows me a LOT of flexibility (which is a blessing right now with all the weddings) and possibly a different part time job. As opposed to having to take a ton of time off for all the weddings I've got this fall, I'm simply scheduling different times to have the classes. :) I'm actually thinking of doing a barrista gig for a while since I'm already up at 430 with Chris, being at work by 5 wouldn't be such a big deal. Plus it would be nice to be on a similar sleep schedule.
The zoo is mostly done now. I'll go back in October for extra money, but that will be all. It ended up well, we got a TON of surveys and I didn't kill anyone. Chris still contends that I need to find a research position so that I can not have to deal with the general public -- my patience for not trying and not reading have gone down significantly. So, me doing a barrista thing may not work so well, but we'll see.
I still need to get my dress altered for John and Lauren's wedding. I haven't had time with the zoo gig. The zoo ended last Tuesday and then I had to do nothing but wedding stuff for this coming weekend.
As one of our crazy things that have happened the past month -- we had friends get married here. Chris and I were the best man and maid of honor, so it was really quite fun. We got to play Barbie and Ken. It was a nice ceremony that was close to here. It was nice to see everyone and here are a few pictures from the wedding.
Anyway, 430 comes early in the morning so I'm going to go now. I realized that the past few posts have mainly been picture posts without much commentary. One of these days I may go back and update the posts, but it will be next week at the earliest. I'm off to New York this coming weekend for Lauren's shower. I'm looking forward to meeting my mom, Ida, Nola Jane, and Maegan there. We'll have an interesting weekend that will hopefully bring its own sets of pictures and stories.
Have a good week.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
A quick Trip in the beginning of August.
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