things i'm very excited about:

spring!!!
trying out Google's Gmail (yes, i am a dork)
Kevin coming to visit
going to New Orleans for the Jazz + Heritage Festival
open-toed shoes season
Jamba Juice (okay, so this isn't exactly a new thing, but we went there twice this past weekend, so it's really top-of-mind)

i suppose it's only fair to write about things i'm also not-so-excited about. we have a big office move coming up this friday. they are shutting off everything and kicking us out on thursday at 5 pm (which is good -- i need encouragement to leave at a reasonable hour). however, in the move a lot of us are losing our offices and moving to cubes. ew. i have no idea how we'll do our group meetings and i have a lot of stuff and a big fear that it won't fit. i already have a helluva time keeping clutter under control (my office frequently looks like a war zone). i have learned that i am the sort of person in the sort of profession that either needs a secretary or a lot of space. when i have neither (such as at my last job in pizza-land) the resulting workspace isn't pretty. in addition, i'll actually have to go oustide (!) to get to the new building. it's just right across the street from our apartment building, but STILL! hmph. the upside is that our new building is connected to a much larger pedway system than the current building, so i shouldn't really want for anything. mike (my star employee) and i gave it a quick look-see today and found: dunkin' donuts, cosi sandwich shop, fedex, starbucks, hallmark, several independent delis, a newsstand, kinko's, a chinese place, a key maker/watch fixer stand, and a secret-looking doorway to a bennigan's (god forbid i ever somehow need to go there!)

a couple of pedway links:
http://www.gapersblock.com/detour/archives/subterranean_city_a_tour_of_chicagos_pedway_part_1.php
http://www.dirtyoldtown.org/blog/chicagopedway.php

maybe i should take a pedway tour from the chicago architecture foundation:
http://www.architecture.org/tours_3.html
actually, i think i should take a bunch of tours from them: some of the buildings here are amazing and i'm intrigued by the history of it all (as opposed to my time in detroit, where there were awesome looking buildings left in such sad states of decay that i really didn't want to know the sad stories of their demise).

there were tornadoes just south of chicagoland this evening. crazy! i had no idea, and i was still at work on the 35th floor. i guess i kinda assume that if it was bad here in the city the building management would do some sort of alarm/alert.

steve has been very into the hockey playoffs, and i have been watching quite a bit over his shoulder. it's neat that they ended up with quite good matchups -- both between historical and neighborly rivals. other than that he's just been working. i am trying to encourage him to be social, but it hasn't worked yet. we had an awesome picnic this weekend in the park with some fancy-schmancy stuff from the local zingermans-ish deli. and then of course we went to Jamba Juice: twice (Steve insisted!). did i ever tell you that i looked into whether or not they'd franchise to me? i was convinced after my first trip to Jamba that if only they'd let me open a store in Ann Arbor i would not only be financially set for life, but happy and healthy and probably even prettier and wittier (okay, so i'm adding those last two on just for fun, but you get the point)...

i am really anxious to check out the white stripes/loretta lynn album.

final note for the evening: i wish ralph nader would go away.