omg, bob costas is soooo mean! what a horrible commentator for the olympics on NBC!
i mean, he can't seem to come up with anything nice without it being some sort of build-up to a snarky comment! during the parade of nations at opening ceremonies he was so amazingly creative with his nasty comments (which i'll paraphrase):

"sweden has been very successful at the winter games. that success, however, has not been matched at the summer games."

"armenia has a very small delegation. of course, they have no real chance at a medal."

"denmark, of course, is here under heavy security because of the recent cartoons controversy."

so anyhow, he's basically a jerkypants. and then tonight he interviewed poor lindsey jacobellis, and was practically taunting her about her stumble that led to losing her commanding lead in the snowboard cross. at the end he even said "congrats on your silver medal" with what i swear was a sneering emphasis on the word "silver." sheesh. what an asshat.

i do have to say that i think joey cheek's excitement over his speed skating gold medal was super cute. what do you think?

we had our housewarming shindig this weekend. we had folks over to watch the wacky euro-nutso olympics opening ceremonies (what was up with playing disco during the 'parade of nations'???) while having opening ceremonies of our own. these torches were the coup de grace. seriously, we may have gone through two batteries each in 3 hours, but they ruled.

we had a great weekend overall. i'm pretty much well again (although my head still fills with a bit of snot overnight) but the weather was so great and i was feeling well enough that we did all kinds of fun stuff. we went to the chinese new year's parade and out for indian food (hooray! there's a good indian place right near our apartment!) with melissa and david on saturday. and on sunday, after steve got back from his first soccer game, explored a bunch of the parks. we loved walking along baker beach. soooo beautiful!

and now, after that fun... back to work. it's going to be another long week at work. luckily i can listen to the olympis telecast in the background, and replay any superexciting great performances (and wipeouts). dvrs rule!

wow -- these are truly amazing cakes. i especially love the "marge and homer simpson in a bathtub" cake under the new creations heading.

god, i love what white castle does in advertising. it was the most fun brand i've ever worked on, even if my time on the brand was brief. check out this viral campaign that they've been doing, trying to get the day after the super bowl to be considered a holiday! steve and i were just saying that last week, and if only we'd known, we could have joined forces with them and lobbied together!

check it out -- the san francisco chronicle did a big story all about the building that we're renting in. makes us sound ultra-swanky (of course, assuming that the plumbing is all working).

i arrived at work this morning to find that my voice had disappeared overnight (and since i left home before steve was up, i hadn't noticed it sooner!). argh! i've never lost my voice before, and it was extremely stressful! i cancelled most of my meetings for the day and tried to do everything via email, but did find myself whispering/croaking at my coworkers and trying to stifle my hacking cough.

i never admit that i'm sick, but i do believe steve's sickness has indeed caught me this time.

by around 3 pm i was beat, so i actually headed home and went straight to bed. of course, now that's got my sleep schedule a little out-of-wack, but i think i should be able to pass out pretty soon, thanks to some sleepytime tea.

our place is still a mess of boxes, but i did make a little progress this evening, and steve made me some yummy soup, so the day wasn't a complete wash.

i just hope i feel good enough by sunday (and non-infectious!) so that i can go to my friend derek's for his HDTV superbowl-watching fete. we don't even have cable hooked up, so we can't watch it here!

on the plus side, we found out tonight that the contamination test (to see if the flood from the toilet contaminated the carpet) came back negative, so they don't need to replace the carpet, and we can fully unpack. hooray! hopefully we can also get our washer + dryer hooked up tomorrow. it's been over two weeks and we have a massive pile of dirtydirty things!

croak. gnight.

wow, i'm tired.

there is a ton going on for me at work. luckily, my clients and co-workers are very cool, and the campaigns themselves are much more interesting than i thought they'd be. i *almost* didn't mind working 11+ hours every day this week so far.

we're still not very unpacked, but we're getting excited about feeling more at home. we've got the bathroom upstairs mostly functional again (although not the toilet of doom, for which a new valve is on order) and my clothes are finally all in a closet. steve's office is still pretty much in boxes, but he's been working at the kitchen table, and is now using a land-line internet connection instead of his cellular connection. hopefully he can find his apple airport somewhere in the boxes soon so that the wireless network can be set up and we can both be online at the same time.

the weather here has been just as we expected -- 50s or so, and a mix of rainy days and blissful blue-sky ones. for some reason the rainy days here are extra rainy, though, since my hair product couldn't come even close to standing up to the weather-induced frizz. :)

i can't wait for this weekend. i want to sleep in and get the rest of this place unpacked. i want to feel like we're home again.

miss you all!

well, we're finally both 'home' here in san francisco.

home is still full of noisy dehumidifiers, torn up carpeting and floorboards, and no furniture, but, hell, it's home. our stuff arrives in the morning, which we're really excited about. it'll be great to have furniture, dishes, and a coffee maker again.

steve is sick (shocker!) but it sounds like his japan trip went well.

i saw three great movies at sundance, and found out that my clients are super fun.

i already wrote that 'thank you for smoking' was great, and i'll stand by that. it was our group's favorite, and had lots of laugh-out-loud moments. there's some controversy about katie holmes's performance, since her character supposedly has great tits (she was quite miscast, both physically and dramatically) and the fact that the movie premiered at the toronto film festival with a long sex scene showing her boobies, and then was shown at sundance with a shortened sex scene with no jugs. the rumor has it that tom cruise demanded that they cut the scene, and that he wasn't even able to watch it without his crazy e-meter going off.

weirdo.

anyhow, the director has said that it was a technical problem. um, sure. and apparently they're claiming it'll be released with the original, longer scene intact. i guess i'll just have to go and see it and see if i have to take back my "physically miscast" comment.

the second movie was 'alpha dogs' which was really well done, but incredibly hard to watch. the story is disturbing because it's true, and it further convinced me that i could never live in LA since i'm convinced that while it could happen in other places, somehow it seems like it's such an LA-valley sort of tale.

the third was 'quinceañera' -- and it won the dramatic prize. we were kinda worried about it, since we saw it at the end of a long day, and weren't really in the mood for a dark or downer sort of film after 'alpha dogs' but we were pleasantly surprised. it was touching and lovely, and i'd tell you more, but you can look it up online if you'd like.
i'm pretty tired, and steve's already in bed, so i'll sign off now...

remind me to tell you about the wild night at the bar that followed.

it was all fun, but i'm just so dang glad to be home!

hello from park city!
i'm at sundance today with some clients, and it's snowing *beautifully*!!!
we saw the movie 'thank you for smoking' which was hilarious. definitely a must-see.
i was really torn between my desire to see something really good ('thank you' had positive buzz) and something completely crappy/wacky, since it would be kinda fun to see a movie that isn't going to be picked up for distribution. however, i laughed tons and forgot about my waterlogged sf apt for awhile, so it was perfect.
gotta run -- i'm typing this from the intel lounge, and there are others awating their internet fix.

i'm writing ya'll from NYC tonight...

our first week in SF has not exactly gone according to plan. :(

first of all, let me clarify by saying that work is going extremely well. i really like my colleagues, am pleasantly surprised by the cool stuff that our office is doing, and they are so dang glad to have someone in my role that i'm veryverymuch appreciated.
so all of that is good.

what's sucked is my apartment situation.

as mentionned previously, we spent sunday night at the airport.

monday i went to walgreens and picked up the provisions i needed to stay in the new apartment for the first time: toilet paper, paper towels, shower curtain, detergent, soap, etc. i was really excited. i got everything from our suitcases unpacked and on various shelves throughout the house and was feeling really good when i went to bed.

i got up around 2 am to use the bathroom and found over an inch of water on the bathroom floor, and water seeping into the carpet all around it. there was water dripping into the kitchen (which is almost directly underneath the bathroom) via a lighting fixture. needless to say, i freaked out.
building maintenance was extremelly fast at responding (thank god) and was able to shopvac up the standing water in the bathroom. apparently the toilet had overflowed. the water appeared clear, but well, nobody knows just how clean and clear it was.

luckily the water didn't seep into the bedroom, so i was able to try to sleep that night. i did set my alarm to go off every couple of hours (although i was awake both times) so that i could feel the floor around the mattress and make sure the water hadn't somehow crept that far.

at 7:30 am the water removal experts came, with large fans and lots of other miscellaneous equiptment. they put plastic runners down the hallways and cautioned me not to walk around barefoot until they had water testing experts come in to see if the water was contaminated. they hooked up their fans and then i went to work.

i got a call from our landlord that afternoon. he told me that there was debris (specifically, wads of kleenex and a qtip) in the toilet and basically accused me of causing the mess. he said there was damage to 4 other apartments and that although he was going to file a claim with his insurance, they would reject the claim because he was renting it. he asked if we had renters insurance...

well now, normally, we would have renters insurance. and we do have our property insured, but since it's en route to san francisco (in a truck somewhere, heading west) i hadn't insured our place in san francisco yet. i simply didn't make it one of the first things that i did that one day i'd been in san francisco (instead i focused on getting the electricity and phone hooked up and some addresses changed on our chicago bills).

argh.

so our landlord basically tried to get me to admit to wrongdoing (when i suggested that it was the previous tenant, he said "we had no problems the whole year she was there") and said that he'd keep me posted as the costs were determined.

arrrrrgh.

today i was on a flight most of the workday, and then finally spoke with building management this evening. not only was the building manager (perry, who seems like a good guy, and -- if my memory from 2 am serves me well -- is quite good looking) very responsive and nice the night of the disaster, but i wanted to get the scoop from them since i figured they don't have any skin in the matter of who's paying for it -- they know that the bill will go to the owner.

perry confirmed that there was indeed a qtip in the toilet (he also said he'd send me digital photos). i was *relieved* to hear that it was one with a blue 'stalk' since it confirmed for me that it couldn't have possibly been me that caused the flooding. i only have q-tips with the white paper 'stalks', and while i'd been 99.9% sure that i hadn't even used one that evening it was great to get that burdent of potential responsibility out of my head (seriously, who cleans their ears at night? i do it after i shower, and i didn't even shower there until the following morning, in the downstairs bathroom). it's little solace though, since i know that i can't really prove my innocence, and i'm still really freaked out because perry also confirmed that there was damage to multiple units in the building. he said the costs could be as high as $20,000. that made me almost drop the phone.

i don't know what the next step is, if i have to get a lawyer or what. i am really freaking out and am wishing steve was here (he's in japan this week).

originally i wasn't looking forward to traveling this week (first here to ny, then to utah for a weekend at sundance) but now i'm extremely grateful not to be in that apartment with the whirling fans and the potentially contaminated carpet.

argh.

everyone reading this: please cross your fingers for me that justice will be done and they'll realize it wasn't me, but instead the previous blue q-tip using tenant who caused my apartment's plumbing catastrophe.

we made it!
we arrived in sf this evening, and then went into town and got the keys for our apartment. woohoo! our new mattress was already delivered, so now we have a lovely apartment with just suitcases of clothing and a mattress in it.
tonight we're at a hotel near the airport, since steve flies out tomorrow morning for japan. i'm taking the bart (best name for a public transit system, ever!) in to work in the morning. woohooo!

(more later...)

i am sooooo full...
this week has been a blur of packing, dinners with work folks, and pile-ing up stuff in our apartment. i am tired. and -- did i mention? -- full.
although it's been nice to be invited to a bunch of dinners (and also very convenient since our cooking implements are en route to san fran), it's not as flattering as it sounds, since they were all with reps. i mean, i guess i can assume that they like me, but i'm still doubtful that they all wanna be my friends forever.
tomorrow will be flattering, though. at least, i think.
one of the members of my group at work sent out the sweetest "Send Off" party notice. i got all misty/teary eyed reading it. i love my group, and can only hope that they have liked having me as a coworker and boss.
i know it sounds very junior high of me, but i'm really hoping we'll have a good turnout tomorrow night. going away parties are so bittersweet...
i remember my going away fiesta in nyc very well. we had dinner at rancho (unswanky place on the upper west) and there were many more people showing up for the shindig than had RSVPed. the waiters were really annoyed that we kept needing more chairs. and i couldn't have been more flattered.

----

speaking of flattered: thank you, sharon, for the lovely voicemail. i miss you too, darlin'. if i'd gotten home before 10:45, i would have called, but i know that's darn late for me to be callin' the next time zone. :)


----

ps. sleep well, zac, and safe travels.

sorry i haven't posted, amigos.
this week has been super crazy.
steve and i spent a lovely weekend last weekend in san fran, searching for an apartment.
steve had made us many, many appointments, and so we spent friday running all over town. we had two that we really, really liked, and so we were psyched right away. i mean, we realized we were going to have to pay and arm-and-a-leg, and so we focused on just finding something nice within our price range.
the two that we were excited about on friday weren't beat by anything we saw on saturday morning, so we went to see them both again.
both happened to be in south beach, which is a newer area, and right by pacbell park. the upside is that it's got a lot more going on than the 'newer' area that we live in here in chicago, and that it's still within walking distance to work if i feel like it (and there is indeed a train if i'd rather do that).
so anyhow...
the first one that we saw and reallyreally liked was in a community that was built in 1988 and has several buildings around some courtyards with a pool. the buildings are various heights, and the apartment was a two bedroom/two bath with pretty good closets and an *amazing* rooftop deck that was basically the size of the living room.
the second one was just built last year and has a two floor open area for the living room, tons of built-in storage, in-unit laundry and has a gym on the building's second floor. there's a gigundous master bedroom, an open area upstairs off of the living room (kind of like a large balcony) and a den that is where you enter the apartment. it's not really the sort of place where you'd have two bedrooms, but it's the *perfect* place for a huge bedroom, a home office, and a den (for my library and the TV).
so we ended up going with the second one, even though there's no roofdeck. we were silly and didn't take photos, but there are two sites online with renderings of the building. you can see it here and here.
we're really psyched!

then we got back to chicago, had a moving company (practically a squadron of people -- 6 of them) come in on tuesday and pack and cart away all of our stuff (very traumatic for a control freak like me, but still very cool that we didn't have to pack it all up!) and now we're living out of a couple of suitcases. we left our mattress here and ordered a new one for san fran (we desperately needed one anyway) and we've got the fun things that moving companies won't take to keep us amused: the open liquor bottles, my matchbook collection and our plants. :)

work is a little crazy since i'm pretty focused at this point on the west coast accounts. i was actually told not to come to a client meeting at my chicago client's office today, which made me sad. i know i need to learn to let go, though, right?

tonight i went with a vendor and my awesome team at work to dinner and then the bulls game. i'm going to miss a lot about this town. the people i work with are amazing. it's an awesome restaurant town. the architecture is beautiful and inspiring. the bulls, however, don't make that list. :) i think i'll still root for the sox, though. time will tell. after all, we'll be living just a stone's throw from the giants. maybe i'll expand to actually liking baseball overall.

nah. probably not. i'm from michigan.

just a short note to ya'll to apologize for not writing.
i've been pretty swamped trying to get up-to-speed on my new west coast accounts, as well as trying to figure out how to explain all of the things i learned about my midwest clients over the past two years to my replacement.
steve and i are in san fran, looking at about a zillion apartments this weekend. steve did an amazing job booking the heck out of our schedule, so it should be exhausting, but good. we'll have lots of options. :)
cross your fingers for us. more soon...

favorite things discovered in 2005

movies:
um, we didn't really see very many movies.
i guess we saw five that i can think of.
we loved March of the Penguins (or rather, La Marche de l'empereur)
we liked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland.
...and we saw The Aristocrats and Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, but were underwhelmed by both. Perhaps our expectations were too high.
oh yeah, we also saw Chalte Chalte, which is a Bollywood film that i borrowed from a friend. i wrote about that sometime ago, but i'm too lazy to link to that right now...

books:
Three Junes by Julia Glass -- beautiful book, and not as girly as the cover would have you think
A Round-Heeled Woman by Jane Juska (which i just leant to my mother-in-law)
Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan by Jamie Zeppa -- my bookclub's favorite book this year
Sammy's Hill by Kristin Gore -- it's not going to win any literary prizes, but i snuck down to the hotel bar to read this late at night in scotland, and kept laughing out loud
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld -- so perfectly captures adolescent awkwardness you'll find yourself shaking your head and grimacing at the narrator's faux pas
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer -- just like Zac said, "sweet, clever, and totally engrossing."
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell -- just finished it, and it's a perfect light read for a foodie like me

music:
CDs:
- The White Stripes "Get Behind Me Satan"
- Reginald Robinson "Euphonic Sounds" (crazy good ragtime, composed just this decade!)
- Carla Bruni "Quelqu'Un M'a Dit"
- this crazy compilation called "Sons of Yma: A Collection of Peruvian Garage + Instrumental Bands From the 60s"
- the new Talking Heads boxed set
- Michael Buble (cheesy, but he has a voice like caramel and i love his covers of standards)
- Josh Rouse "Nashville"
- i'm embarrassed to admit it, but there are a couple of songs on "12 Songs" by Neil Diamond that are great

Live Shows:
- Lollapalooza (i can't believe i'm saying that since the name itself is so '90s, but despite the 105 degree weather, it rocked, especially The Black Keys)
- The Farmington Community Chorus Christmas Concert

foodstuffs:
Hema's Kitchen: yummy, yummy Indian food
This cool teashop called Tea Gschwindner (no, don't know how to pronounce it) that has awesome tea and that gave steve free tea because he was drinking some crappy tea from somewhere else
Argo Tea, where i got really into the mojitea (like a mojito, with mint tea and lime juice) and their yummy blend of hibiscus tea and apple cider
LuLu Petite's vinegars, especially the fig + meyer lemon version
The Ferry Building, in San Francisco

miscellaneous stuff:
White Sox World Series sweep (and going to Game 1 with Tracy -- thanks, Tracy!)
the game "Ticket to Ride"
the game "The Great Dalmuti"
our penguin humdifier
kickboxing together at Lakeshore Athletic Club on tuesday nights

up all night...

for those of you that i've already talked/complained to this vacation, i'm sorry to do it again.
for those of you that are wondering what's going on since i haven't posted, here's the latest:

steve and i are trying to figure out how and when we'll be moving to san francisco when we've both got huge amounts of work the next three weeks, and then we are scheduled to go to japan around january 20-ish (he would be leaving before me for work meetings, and i'd join him on the 26th).

anyway, i've been unable to sleep.

we're already freaking out that we're going to lose money selling our condo in chicago (there are 16 units just like it for sale in the building, and the building is offering two years without condo assessments -- ugh). and then i spent today trying to pin down the details of our japan trip, constantly running into problems with incomplete train schedules (eg: i found them for one direction, but not the other direction) and fully booked towns (no room in sapporo prior to the snow festival!). then steve told me about some crazy new projects he's going to have to do right after the japan trip that are already stressing him out.

steve and i decided tonight that both financially and stress-wise, we're going to do two things:

1. not go to japan for fun. steve will go for work, and sara will just concentrate on moving. that means we'll save a bunch of money that we'll need for the move, and that we can move in late january/early february (a timeframe that was previously available due to the trip). and that means steve can be focused on work stuff after the japan trip.

2. we are going to hire a realtor. we really wanted to sell our place 'fsbo' but even with me staying in the US we can't figure out how we'd be around to show our place since steve will still need to go to japan and i will still need to be working in san fran.

ugh.

i don't like these two decisions one bit.
i realize that they are probably for the best, and that we will be able to get out to san fran a bit sooner, but i'm sad about it.

i'm trying to comfort myself with the knowledge that there are cheap tickets to asia a heck of a lot more often from california than there are from the midwest, so hopefully we can reschedule our trip for sometime when we're not moving and i'm not supposed to be training a new employee (did i mention that i have a new employee who starts in SF on 1/17???). and that would probably be more fun anyway, since japan is pretty cold with not-a-whole-lot going on in late january.

(sigh)

this has not been a relaxing holiday break.
i am excited about the move, but i've been so stressed about it that i'm sleeping too little and drinking too much coffee. and then to add to the stress i've had to go through all of my childhood mementos at my dad's place (aka my childhood home) since he is now pretty much living full time at his girlfriend's. don't get me wrong: i am really happy for him and it is the best possible reason to put a house up for sale. i cried a ton when we went through my grandma's house, cleaning it out to put it up for sale. that was really sad because she's not well and wasn't with us. but saying goodbye to your childhood home isn't easy if you're a sentimental sap like me.
i save everything.
i cry at every movie.
and i lived there until i moved out for college.
...so i bucked up and went through lots of boxes and cabinets of old stuff: yearbooks, love letters, cross-country medals...
i didn't even cry until we drove away.

i'm just not good at dealing with this many things at once. i'm generally a pretty good multi-tasker, so i don't think it's just me -- i think it's probably a lot. it hasn't helped that it's been rainy and gloomy every day (although it is what i expect -- it's michigan in winter, after all).

i am really happy with life in general, but i can't wait until march, when hopefully this is all said and done and we're living in sunny california. i could really use some sun.

now here's something i *could* help with, but it's a little bit odd: toilet flushers are needed in louisiana.

holy crap, when will it end? according to ad age, gillette will launch a new razor, the six-bladed 'fusion' system, during the super bowl. wasn't it just recently that men only needed one blade to shave? when did this whole multi-blade thing start, and can we get shick and gilette to stop escalating it? i am petrified at the thought of having steve use something with 32 blades on his face!

this is the first time i've really wanted a video ipod. i don't have a commute (well, not for another month or so) and i'm not a big TV person, so i haven't really seen anything that's made me want one. however, this download really strikes a chord with me. i have always loved that WPIX airs this on christmas in nyc, and i remember really enjoying the fact that my dad's friend had a videotape of a fireplace playing on his tv when we went over there for christmas.
happy holidays, everyone. i hope one of you out there reading this is able to download and enjoy this.

whoa! thundersnow!!! sweet!

this site is going to make my life much, much better (regardless of where we live). on the downside, i will really have to get back into going to the gym!

i'm in california for a conference...

things i love about the midwest:
- autumn leaves
- cider mills (with cider mill donuts)
- daffodils and crocuses in spring


things i love about california:
- fruit trees full of beautiful citrus in the wintertime
- the ocean
- walking barefood through the grass in december (as i did today)

today we received our first holiday card for 2005. thanks, cousin robin!
in honor of that, i hereby determine today the beginning of the holiday season in the hall household!

the move is looking pretty solid. the details have to be straightened out, but my boss is pretty committed to making it work.
i am saddened by the prospect of having to navigate the political and personal waters of a whole new office (i *love* my coworkers) but i'm excited about the opportunity to move to a fabulous new city. i never would have thought i'd have the opportunity to move out to san fran with a secure job -- it's almost too good to be true.
since my boss is convinced it's happening and since the san francisco office all knows that i'm considering it (and coming out to meet them all) it's pretty much public knowledge. i could always turn it down if it doesn't go well next week, or if steve decides he doesn't want to go. however, i can't imagine my first impressions of the folks out there being completely wrong, and steve is really excited.
my head is spinning. thank goodness i was completely swamped at work today (i counted and at one point today had 12 different things going on concurrently -- all of which i did piss-poor at!).
i have to leave home at 5:45 am tomorrow for a trip, so i am going to bed RIGHT NOW.

g'night.

this site seems too good to be true (so somebody should let me know if they can poke some holes in it). some guy started this search engine that's powered by yahoo! search and gives part of their profits to charity. you can select which charity, too.
they even have a convienient "Add GoodSearch to Your Firefox/Netscape Search Bar" link, which means they're thinking of us non-IE folks (NICE!).
can anyone poke a hole in this? anyone?

wow, what a crazy week it's been.
it looks like we may be moving, folks.
my company is really interested in moving me out to san francisco, and since it sounds like they're going to make things work out in terms of salary/support staff/etc. i still don't know all of the details, but my boss has been insistent that he can make it work and that the rest of the details (relocation, etc.) are just en route from HR in NY. meanwhile, he has me going out there for a day next week to meet with everyone in the office and has steve meeting me out there to go apartment shopping.
this whole thing has happened so fast.
i am really excited about the opportunity, to say the least. sf is such a great town, and i love the idea of building a group from scratch for OMD. i've done it before at companies that i didn't like as well, and i know that i'll be well supported here. i also love everyone that i've met in that office, which is a good sign.
more to come. stay tuned...

sorry i've been so bad about writing. there's been lots going on, especially in regards to work.
i can't say much since i don't know who all is reading this, but i'll update ya'll as soon as possible (maybe even tomorrow).

thanksgiving was lovely and mellow. my dad was in florida and i still haven't heard from my mom (not a peep from her on my birthday), so we spent a couple of days with steve's family. it was nice not to have to rush around, and we finally caught up on sleep. we've both been fighting off colds, so we really needed it.

we had a really nice time visiting with some friends in A2 yesterday. things were kinda thrown together at the last minute, but i did get to have my favorite dish ever, chicken hyderabadi, at shalimar. mmmm... travis is now a convert, as he even wrapped up the leftover "crack" sauce to take home. mmmm...

we flew to michigan on thursday and back on saturday, and i'd highly recommend doing your turkey-day travel then, if you are able to. there weren't really any lines at o'hare, which was great (to be fair, we were at the northwest/continental terminal, which is usually pretty mellow compared to the united and american ones).

i'm catching up on all kinds of random stuff today, and getting all of our lists ("to do" list, holiday card list, shopping list, wish lists, etc) organized.
i am a big list maker, so this isn't such a bad thing.

i was going to run out to the verizon store to get my phone fixed (for the second time this week -- for some reason it can't hold a charge and they already tried replacing the battery), but it's nastynastynasty out. ick.

i have a lot of things on my wish list for christmas. even though i don't need it, i so totally want an ipod nano. it's just so dang cute. and i don't use my ipod all that much, but i'm sure if it was smaller (oh say, nano-sized) i would take it everywhere.
anyhow, i think the ipod accessory craze may have finally gone too far. check out this crazy ipod shuffle accessory. eek.

check out this slideshow on the nytimes site from a guy who skiied the king's trail in sweden, and saw some amazing northern lights.

i forget if i had it on my list of 'things to do in life' or not, but i definitely want to ride a dogsled someday.

my fave podcast that i can't download to this here computer ('cause it's owned by my company): bruce springsteen's six-part "born to run 30th anniversary podcast."
and yes, i'm a dork.

steve had taken advantage of this awesome deal where hilton hotels in japan were $4 a night on expedia. can you believe they're not honoring it?!? sheesh. at least we got a $250 credit out of it, which will help when we pay for oh-so-expensive hotels in japan during our stay next january.

did i already link to this awesome commercial from sony? it's received so much attention in the ad industry lately, i have no idea if non-ad people have heard as much about it as i have. i guess it doesn't really matter to me -- i love the ad, and just hope you do too.

once again, keenan is right: this sounds like the only reality show i'd watch (well, other than 'dancing with the stars')

speaking of 'dancing with the stars', have you seen this video of yoda getting down? classic.

i was in ohio this weekend, seeing family.
since my cousin had to run an errand at a nearby mall, we stopped in at abercrombie + fitch to see what all of the hullabaloo surrounding their new tshirts is about.
i think this is my favorite photo ever of us.

my wish for all of you (five) dear readers, of course, is that your love never goes sour. however, if it does, i hope that you'll be badass enough to consider doing this to your wedding band. yowza.

apparently we're not the only fans:
Comedy Central has extended The Colbert Report to air through 2006 (originally only ordered for 8 weeks). on average, there are 1.2 million total viewers per show.
so apparently we're not the only fans (and we're not nearly as hardcore as this dude. sheesh. i hope he doesn't break into stephen's house!
is it just me, or is allstate a bit of an odd sponsor for the official online site?

this is my favorite spam ever. i keep getting it, and i'm so tempted to call and order.

steve said "let's go flip some cars!"
i pointed out "it's raining"
and he said "oh yeah, nevermind"

still, ROCK ON WHITE SOX!!! nobody here in town doubted you today! i heard there was even a big crazy line of sox fans at harry caray's. :)

there are fireworks going off here. chicago loves pyrotechnics!

omg, steve just started freebasing lunesta due to their heavy advertising within the world series.
damn you, advertisers!

i can't believe what this poor guy went through. wow!

and i can't believe what we went through last night watching 14 innings! sheesh. and then for the game to be run-less at this point, i mean, geez, it's way frustrating...

i have been passing the time sending stupid IMs (with steve's permission) to a cute boy whose company is throwing an event on "thursday, 11/8", which doesn't exist. he's shirked all responsibility and now i'm sure he's never coming back to this town again (i can imagine him going "that girl from x company keeps bugging me even when i'm not the contact person. i wish she'd quit stalking me!")

baseballbaseballbaseball -- i'm just not used to the pace of it. i mean, c'mon -- i'm from detroit and we haven't been into baseball since the 80s.

this is my favorite 'opinion' column ever.

holy crap that was a long baseball game. go sox!

check out this lovely video. trust me.

...

steve wanted to find an indoor soccer league to play on this fall/winter. i'm trying to convince him to join a cornhole league instead. he thinks it sounds gay. he's right.

...

we so totally want these ice skates but they don't come in our sizes. drat!

sorry to tell you guys this, but bernie mac sucks.

omg this has to be the stupidest thing i've ever read. well, at least today. anheuser-busch is discontinuing it's 'beer pong' promotion because people are using beer when they're playing. i love that they're claiming that people were supposed to use water for this.
sheesh.

on the other hand, this hard hitting news blurb about hot dog sales during the sox games this weekend is exactly the sort of news bite i needed at the end of a long monday. thanks, chicagobusiness.com!

thanks, kdogg, for bringing this hot-off-the-presses news story to my attention.

GO SOX! (man, am i glad that i went last night instead of tonight -- it's nastyrainycold tonight)

it makes me an even bigger loser to admit it than it does that i found the article, but i'm not going to hide my nerdiness from the three of you that read this, no way! i completely understand how this guy feels about sudoku. there, i said it.

omg these little emergency kits are so funny. i wish they had an "i'm at work but feeling hungover" version. that never happens to me, of course, i'm just sayin'.
i think it would be awesome if they had one and a media vendor sent them out to ad agencies. :)

now this is just plain weird. apparently the government has been working with printer manufacturers to implement some sort of coded tracking system into all printed pages. spooky!
that makes me want to send a whole bunch of money to the electronic frontier foundation.

i've just gotta see this musical when it comes out!

also, i've gotta remind myself to view statler & waldorf's movie reviews when they come out. good stuff!

goooooooooooooo sox!

what a great cap to a really nice weekend!

yesterday we very blissfully did a whole lotta nothing (well, except watch the crazy UM game at home and the gym), then made a big meal for our friends danny + ann and our little homeless eva.

today we walkedwalkedwalked up to lincoln park, where i met some girlfriends for a girly afternoon at the chocolate cafe (a trend that i'm excited to see catching on after going to one with melissa in san francisco last year). mmm... fun truffles like earl grey, ginger and mojito! and (bien sur) fondue. mmm...

we got together not only to talk about expanding our (shrinking) bookclub, but also to talk about what else we want to do in life. i've been on kinda a kick lately, debating this with friends. i guess i am at the stage where i am pretty happy and yet am wondering how i can fit in the things that will really make my life kick ass, when i'm so dang busy doing non-ass-kicking things all of the time. i was pretty inspired by this book and also by this one. so my girlfriends sally, cass and i got together to discuss what sorts of things we want to do, and to help make some plans to start doing them together. we're going to take dance lessons of some sort. and cass and i are going to go glass-blowing. and in the spring we'll go skydiving (sally has said that she'll be right there on the ground with martinis for us afterward).

here are some other things that are on my list:
- go dogsledding
- see the Northern Lights
- take a bullet train
- try surfing
- learn about ikebana
- go to Greenland
- learn Spanish
- stop fearing downhill winter sports (skiing, snowboarding) and give them another try
- learn to flyfish
- start playing piano again

what's on your list?

dude! the daily show has booked the white stripes to be it's first-ever musical guest. sweet!

in other celeb news (yes, i'm pretty much ignoring the tomkat news), looks like martha stewart gets to go to canada. i wanna go and paddle a giant pumpkin too!

during a hearing in the u.s. senate today, army general john abizaid, chief of u. s. central command, said al Qaeda is not a monolith like IBM. rather, it is a franchise operation like mcdonald's. um, okay dude.
eva pointed out that he's probably just trying to use mcdonald's in a positive light, since it's the most well-known franchise organization.
um, okay. still kinda an odd thing to say.

did you know that if americans used public transportation 10 percent of the time, the u.s. would reduce its dependence on imported oil by more than 40 percent?

r.i.p. don adams.
long live get smart.

steve pointed out that we need to pick up some new habits.

and my brother pointed out that i'd probably get a lot more enjoyment out of this 80s slang dictionary than he does. and he's right.

and now, for a news roundup.

i knew the apple nano was too cute to work properly in it's initial version, but i didn't predict that the screens would crack. i'm waiting for the second release, at least.

yet another reason chicago rules (and where we beat new york): we now have two ikeas. splorgen!!!

and the most exciting news story i've seen in awhile: some japanese scientists took the first photos of the giant squid. i like the coverage that the moscow timesgave the story.
i like the infographic here.

damn! i can't believe they are limiting this model search to women 27 and under. i was gonna be the best spokesmodel ever. check out the official site, which has a pretty killah soundtrack.
damn!
i am so bummed.
on the official site, he even explains that the contest is for *all* ladies, black/white/hispanic/whatever. i soooo got back, and i can't believe they don't want to see me strut it.

wow, check out the awesome liner notes from the silly bollywood movie that steve and i watched last night. my friend parul recommended it to me, but i think i'd prefer one with less domestic disputes and more singing and dancing. the description asks some really awesome questions:

Priya & Raj two sides of a coin, different as chalk & cheese. Raj – the impulsive, middle-class, hard-working, emotional fellow allows cupid to play havoc with his heart strings & in comes Priya, the prim & proper, sophisticated & practical girl. Both are smart enough to see their differences because it’s rather visible to the naked eye. They throw caution to the winds & dare to fall in love. And then suddenly the game changes….& so do the rules.

The initial rush in your veins when you see a loved one becomed trying. The joy of canceling an appointment to be with your lover remains, but it just becomes abit impossible. Love sort of goes into the background…..the wound made by cupid’s arrow begins to heal. The need to impress no longer exists. What does all this stand for? Cupid gone stupid or cupid gone tepid?

Is there any chance this relationship can see what destiny has planned for it? Or does destiny really play a role in a man woman alliance? They say relationships are made in heaven…...but are tailored here on earth. Will the gravity of familiarity get them or will love shine through it all?

The problem is eternal. The issues are the same. Men will be from Mars & women come from Venus. Is this story any different…No….we say with full confidence & glee. It is the story of every man & woman, only what remains to be seen is….are they going to walk into the sunset hand in hand? Is what happens to all of us….or has someone just changed the end credits.

from john kerry's speech today at brown university:

"Katrina is a symbol of all this administration does and doesn't do. Michael Brown -- or Brownie as the President so famously thanked him for doing a heck of a job - Brownie is to Katrina what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq; what George Tenet is to slam dunk intelligence; what Paul Wolfowitz is to parades paved with flowers in Baghdad; what Dick Cheney is to visionary energy policy; what Donald Rumsfeld is to basic war planning; what Tom Delay is to ethics; and what George Bush is to “Mission Accomplished” and "Wanted Dead or Alive." The bottom line is simple: The "we'll do whatever it takes" administration doesn't have what it takes to get the job done.

ahhh, detroit.
i can't imagine how those knuckleheads could possibly re-elect kwame kirkpatrick, but then again i have no idea how gw got re-elected president.
apparently kwame threw out some wonderful insults at the motor city suburbs during an election debate last week. it resulted in this awesome quote from oakland county executive l. brooks patterson:

"Kwame has largely been a very affable person to work with, but once in a while he makes comments like these that really hurt relations," Patterson said. "I'll continue to work with him because he's the leader of Michigan's largest city, but he's not going to be on my Christmas card list."
...yes, but is he on his kwanzaa card list?

i guess it is time for me to (sigh) make my first retraction/correction. on sept. 8th i gave credit (where credit is not due) to keenan, for a box of wiggles fruit snacks that mysteriously appeared in our kitchen cabinet while we were out of town. while it is completely in character for keenan to leave such a surprise for us, it was actually danny who left the wonderful present for us.

um, thanks, danny. and, um, sorry k-bob.

again, i'm going to have to say that i think everyone should speak about the recent tragedy as hurricane katrina. i saw both a sign and a red cross ad today that talked about helping victims of katrina and i think it's definitely gotta suck right about now to be one of the almost 78,000 women in the u.s. named katrina.

on a somewhat unrelated note on this day of national disaster remembrance, remember when everyone in the south was worried about attacks of killer bees? i didn't really find a good answer while searching around on the web, but i did find a weird christian site with a killer bees game. this is supposed to be fun for kids? sheesh! creepy! and to make things even more super fun, i followed the links (you should too) and read about what things will be like in the biblical millennium. um, okay guys, whatever you say.

i don't know why i'm so smitten with the idea of the egg and muffin toaster, but i am. i don't eat breakfast sandwiches often at all, but i love the idea that a toaster can have this added function so that we can all make egg mcmuffins at home. of course, from a work perspective, i hope nobody buys the damn thing.

keenan: i am sorry that i keep forgetting to 'thank' you for the wiggles fruit snacks. i am sure that they are probably really delicious, but i have not yet overcome my fear. on a positive note, each time i open my kitchen cupboard and see them i think of you. :)

congrats, porchsleeper, on having the
third-best-selling cd on the web's biggest indie music retailermilesofmusic.com. you guys rock. of course, i think you rocked harder when you had supercute drummer steve #1, but then again let's all just be glad i feel that way, okay? (no hard feelings, steve 2.0, right?)

finally! some mainstream criticism of the disastrous hurricane katrina rescues/recovery efforts and the even more disastrous "let's not criticize the rescue/recovery effort" stance that the retards in the republican party were originally taking.

thank you colleen patrick and eric boehlert.

-------

in other news, here's more proof that yahoo is evil. funny how it took a search to unearth this article on yahoo! news, when it was easy to find in the technology news listings of all other sites.

i'm not usually all that excited by the j. crew catalogs that still come, inexpicably, in the mail each month. however, they do have some awful purty shoes this time...

these are pretty fun. i have no idea where i'd be able to wear them...


these are also hella fun, and isn't it true that you can wear fur with everything?


ooooh...

still, i think my leading favorite wantthemnow shoes for fall are these absurdly colorful ones from fornarina:



if only i had a shoe budget for fall! (drat!)

home alone: day 2
steve would be so proud of me: not only did i make myself dinner two nights in a row (and it was healthy!), but i also made myself breakfast smoothies both days, worked out both days, and packed my lunch today.
i had no idea i could function domestically this smoothly without him!

and now on to random thoughts:
i was sooooo down with that 'dancing with the stars' thing this summer. well, i was at least down enough that when i was at the gym during the rebroadcast of the penultimate episode i ran home and tivoed -- then watched immediately -- the final episode. however, i think i'm going to even more into the follow-up trend, scheduled for next winter, since they've got much better stars participating: "(ice) skating with celebrities" which will be 'starring' deborah (a.k.a. debbie) gibson, dave coulier, bruce jenner and todd bridges. nancy kerrigan (!) will be one of the skaters participating.

on a more positive pop-culture note: i know there are people out there (myself included) who think people magazine is trash. well, it's trash that i find amusing now and then even though i know it's a waste of my time and brainpower. however, it turns out that when they feature 'regular' people instead of vapid celebrities (like their disgusting coverage of britney's baby shower) it can have a really positive effect: they recently ran two articles that resulted in outpourings of donations by readers:
- story #1: jeannette murphy, who volunteered in an institution housing mentally disabled children and then grew up to adopt (with her husband, john) 23 children, most with special needs.
- story #2: terrell pough, age 18, of philadelphia, became a single parent and is responsibly raising his daughter, diamond, while working and going to school.
readers offered money, clothing and a house (!) to the murphys, and sent pough enough moolah for him to rent a two bedroom apartment and pay his bills for a year so that he can save up to give his daughter a better life.

of course, there have been all kinds of wonderful stories (once you get past the FEMA f**kups) this week about people helping in the wake of hurricane katrina. isn't it nice to see other examples too? :)

when steve's out of town i tend to stay up late, puttering around. i guess it's just not that exciting to go to bed when there's nobody there to hang out with.
and then, when i finally give up on being up-and-about, i can't fall asleep 'cause there's nobody there, lying still next to me, calming me down.
i am such a spaz.

okay, so i decided to cheer myself up. therefore, here is a list of things i'm really into right now:

* sudoku puzzles
* the sights
* this random cd of 60s peruvian surf music that i bought yesterday
* smucker's natural peanut butter on apple slices
* blue diamond flavored almonds (especially the wasabi & soy sauce ones)
* better made bbq chips -- an old favorite of mine, and my brother just brought me some from michigan. yum!
* the idea of these crazy bars called larabars (i've only tried one, so i can't say that i love them all): there are only 2-6 ingredients total, and they're totally natural
* the scent in love again, by yves saint laurent (my favorite summer perfume, which fortunately for our budget only comes in perfume and not all of the other add-ons (bath gel, soap, lotion, etc) or i'd have to have them all
* hanging out on our deck, where this weekend it has been party central

i can't understand how anybody -- even a die-hard republican -- can be a fan of this administration after the f**kup in the wake of hurricane katrina (which i refuse to abbreviate to "katrina" since i've decided i'm against naming natural disasters real 'people names').
check out this interview with the mayor of new orleans. sad, sad stuff, but i love that he's taking the federal government's inaction to task.
i also get really worked up reading michael moore's open letter to w.. say what you will about michael moore's tactics (which i don't always agree with) -- but he is spot-on this time, in my opinion.
what i find particularly horrifying is that this disaster is something that has been predicted for the last few years. the times-picayune (a great newspaper name, in my humble opinion) wrote a great series of articles in 2002 about the subject. of course, this didn't prevent federal funds for much-needed repairs and upgrades to the crazy levee system from being cut in the past few years.
and then there are the awesome features of the nytimes's interactive graphic, so that you can overlay household income and non-white population statistics over the map of the new orleans area.
do you think they're related?
i do.
argh.
sooooo angry.
i have a wonderful colleague/co-worker/employee/friend (i hope she considers me a friend! she works for me, but is really a great partner in running things in my group at work) whose family is from the city of new orleans, and who lost everything this week. she has 11 people arriving to stay with her short-term, and then after some of them head out to stay with other family members across the country she will probably have four people living with her long term. i just hope i can help get her what she needs to help them all, since i can't really do anything about the pain and stress she's felt this past week as she struggled (and continues to struggle) to get ahold of family and friends (there are still some she hasn't heard from) and to help them get to safety.
we've had beautiful weather here this week, and it feels so unfair (note: i wanted to write something like "it feels ironic" but i knew that wasn't the right word. i went to wikipedia, hoping they would suggest somewhat similar words, and found that the definition of irony on wikipedia includes an awesome star wars reference. enjoy.)

i was in nyc on sunday night, staying with my friend andy (whose g.f., my b.f., was out of town). we couldn't get enough of hurricane coverage. we both had work to do, but we kept CNN on. and then once he went to bed (and i kept working) i couldn't stop hitting 'refresh' on my browser window to see if something else had happened in hurricane katrina's path.
was it just me (and steve, who mentioned it when i got back to chicago), or did the band 'katrina and the waves' come to anyone else's mind during this whole thing? horrible i know, but true.
at one point on sunday night, as the world waited for the storm to move slowly north to make its next landfall, there wasn't anything to show on t.v., so the newscaster actually showed the covers of sunday newspapers, sharing their ridiculous headlines. my favorite headline was published on monday, and i believe it was by the new york post (figures); 'the big queasy'.

...

tonight, i went with some friends from work to ravinia, which is an amazing outdoor concert venue here. strangely enough, you can't see the stage from the majority of the 'lawn' seating area, but it doesn't really matter since everyone is having too much fun picnicing. :) we saw the gypsy kings tonight, which was fun, and downright relaxingly therapeutic.

g'night.

so i downloaded the new google talk when it 'beta' launched this week (side note: i find google's habit of releasing things to the wide-open public and calling them 'beta' products for months and months completely ridiculous). i am completely torn on my opinion. it's super basic, so it doesn't have any of the frills/toys of the other 'big three' messenger services (AIM, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger). while i know i don't need those frills, i have to admit that i find the cutesy yahoo messenger avatars kinda fun, and that i update mine on a semi-regular basis. and i really like being able to listen to streaming radio every now and then via messenger.
and then conversely, i like what some guy named christopher hall said about google talk:

"The program is efficient, streamlined, and down-to-Earth in its execution.
I won't deny that it's extremely Spartan in its appearance, but the presentation is textbook Google elegance. I'm not interested in emoticons, skins, and file transfer. I need this to communicate, not fancy up like a 12-year-old girl's Trapper Keeper.
If this is what I have to endure to avoid being assaulted by ads (*cough, AIM, cough*), I'm in."

...or maybe i just like his mention of trapper keepers, and i miss spending time customizing one for back-to-school.

come to think of it, what's stopping me? maybe i need a bitchin' trapper keeper for post-labor-day work fun.

i found this article about northwest airlines and their mechanics union strike contingency plans really interesting. i would love to see the airline industry figure out a way to keep the legacy carriers operating so that there's plenty of competition. and i was surprised to find that northwest only has 79% market share at metro airport (it seems like 90% at least) and that it's less than their share in minneapolis (80%).

aug. 9

can you believe i'm still updating this with entries from my vacation? sheesh!

well, folks, this is the day when it all started falling apart. we had booked ourselves on a one day tour to get out of town and into the countryside a bit. steve had picked the tour because he was excited to see the nature-y stuff like europe's oldest tree, and a waterfall. i was excited to visit scotland's oldest working distillery.

the tour was actually quite lovely, despite my fear of guided tours being utterly schlocky. our tourguide had lived in the area that we were touring for his entire life (he was definitely grandparent-age) and told us quite a few personal anecdotes. our tour bus was only a little bigger than a van, which helped too. we saw plenty of bit tour buses, and i kept feeling like we were somehow cooler.

the first stop, the distillery, was a bit campy. not only do they take you around the distillery (cool!) but they have a big 'experience center' for their popular blend of scotch, the famous grouse. it was kinda fun to have scotch for breakfast (since we hadn't eaten that morning), and i have to admit that the ads for the famous grouse are cute and the music is really damn catchy (in fact, i'd definitely download the jingle as my mobile ring if i had a nokia -- but that might be saying more about my dissatisfaction with all of the pre-loaded rings in my new phone).

a good portion of the rest of the day was spent driving around the countryside, which is *beautiful*. we stopped in several small villages to see sights like churches and the oldest tree, which is actually not all that much to look at (the sequoias in cali are much, much more impressive, as are the virgin white pines at hartwick pines in michigan. the lakes were amazingly pristine and shimmery, but the waterfall, unfortunately, was pretty much nonexistent because they'd had such a dry year (damn global warning!). it made me remember my family's big 'trip out west' when i was in jr. high, because we'd been at yosemite during a dry year and most of their extremely popular, beautiful waterfalls were nonexistent that summer. (sigh). to make matters slightly sadder, it started to rain while we were out hiking to the dried-up waterfall. fortunately we did see one salmon, trying to make his way upstream despite it being very early in the season. that made the lackluster waterfall a bit more unusual and scotland-y.

salmon-y waterfalls or no, steve wasn't really able to enjoy this day much at all. as the day progressed he felt worse and worse, and when we stopped in kenmore, a cute little town where i bought the yummiest homemade shortbread, steve decided he just wanted to lay down in the grass in the little village park. i had felt little pangs of carsickness during the day, since scotland is extremely hilly and our guide drove like a madman, but apparently steve wasn't just carsick.

by the time we got back to town, steve needed to rest. however, we had tickets that night to the famous edinburgh military tattoo. it had started to rain, but we decided to purchase ponchos and brave it out, since the tattoo took place rain or shine. in addition, we had spent way too much on tickets, so we weren't about to let a little rain dampen our spirits.

this was probably all fine and good for brad and i, but definitely was not wise for steve. he was out like a light the minute that we got back to the hotel. brad and i had a couple of drinks at the hotel bar, and then called it a night.

aug. 10

steve needed to sleep, so brad and i went without him to the scotch whiskey heritage center, where we learned a bit more than we had at the distillery, and had our second liquid breakfast in a row.

by the time we got back to the hotel, they'd kicked steve out (despite us requesting a late checkout) so we headed for the train station, and on to glasgow.

steve was pretty much the living dead at this point, so we checked into the nasty hotel he'd found us there, and unfortunately that was all he was going to see of glasgow. we did get him out for japanese noodles (although all he had was miso soup) that night, hoping it would help, but it didn't seem to. however, while we were at the noodle shop the craziest thing happened. the noodle shop was on the second floor, and apparently a pigeon flew up the stairs and then got trapped in the noodle shop (since all of the windows were closed). it kept flying around and trying to go out the windows, but while we all scrambled to open more windows, it unluckily kept aiming for ones that were still closed. after it had knocked itself silly for the third time one of the cooks came out and grabbed the pigeon and placed it outside one of the windows with his bare hands (i can only assume he washed up thoroughly afterward). it was surreal.

there didn't seem to be a ton to do in glasgow, but we lucked out because we were there during 'piping live!', which was the second annual bagpiping festival and competition. there were bagpipers all over the place, and we were staying along one of the busy pedestrian-only shopping streets, so there was crazy bagpipe music outside our hotel most of the daylight hours (not such a good thing for poor steve). however, the lucky part was that, for brad and i, there was an awesome concert by the st. laurence o'toole pipe band which was attended by a ton of pipers that were competing that week (the emcee asked for a show of hands and we were totally surrounded in the audience!). it was very unusual for a concert, since the attendees were very openly allowed to take photos (we even took some video, which i'm not sure was allowed). i would link to my photos here (and would have throughout this narrative) but we took so many during the trip that i ended up downloading them from my memory cards onto brad's laptop, and he still hasn't sent them to me).

anyhow, that concert ruled. and then at the end of it brad and i went to a 24 hour kebob place where we had a late night feast. :) good brother/sister bonding, i'd say!

aug. 11

brad had booked us another countryside tour this day, and unfortunately steve was too sick to join us. not only did we feel horrible that he couldn't go, but we felt sorry for him since the hotel was such a dump. i had the breakfast room manager make up some toast and tea for him, but he couldn't even eat that. :( apparently he was able to go across the street to the pharmacy (which wasn't open until after we left for our tour) but otherwise he didn't get to leave the room all day, and boy! did he hear a lot of bagpipe music (and apparently some random cover bands as well).

brad and i had a pretty fun day. the tour we went on really focused on two big attractions (as opposed to a lot of little ones like the previous tour). unfortunately the bus was a bigger one, with a pre-recorded tour tape. brad and i guessed that it was somehow synched by GPS, but we forgot to ask.

the first big attraction we went to was stirling castle, which really is spectacular. like edinburgh castle, it's way up on a hill and the views of the surrounding countryside are awesome. we did the whole self-guided tour, but my favorite part was when we were eating at the castle cafe and shared a table with an elderly fellow. i asked him if he was enjoying the castle and he said "all of these castles are basically the same -- old falling-down buildings." and he basically said that after having traveled all over the world, he'd learned that the view is usually the best thing. that definitely helped me calm down my 'see it all' instinct and relax. :) i was really proud of myself, and realized that i hadn't thought about work much at all and (other than worrying about steve) was having a pretty damn good vacation.

the next major stop was loch lomond, which is the largest freshwater lake in the uk, and has castles and huge mansions along the lake's edges. we took a boat tour, and despite it being a bit chilly in the wind outside on the boat, we had to keep going outside to take pictures of the scenery as we went along. (man, i wish i could link to those photos!)

last, we went to the neighboring loch lomond and the trossachs national park, which was stunningly beautiful with crazy windy roads. there were several places to stay in the park (mostly timeshares, with a few b&bs) and i kept thinking that i'd have to bring steve back to stay there.

we were exhausted by the time we got back to town, and it was all we could do to drag ourselves out to dinner. brad and i did our usual 'drink in the hotel bar' but only really chatted for a few minutes and read our books together for most of the time. i guess we were really beat!

aug. 12

we have come to the end of the story, friends. all that is left is a painfully delayed flight to o'hare out of glasgow airport, and sending steve home to our new condo while i continued on to detroit (on another painfully delayed flight) so that i could attend my cousin's wedding the next night (steve's brother kevin was my wonderful date).

i wish things had gone smoother, that's for sure, and steve didn't even really get well for another week. it took him 4 days before he went to the doctor, who couldn't really figure out what was wrong with him, but ran tests and gave him antibiotics anyhow. it turns out he lost 10 pounds in one week (which he didn't need, and i did!), but that he's finally back to normal, from an eating and sleeping perspective.

this weekend we had a great time hosting his uncle brian and cousing barrett, but it's already way past my bedtime, so i guess i'll have to give you the scoop on that tomorrow.

g'night, folks.

dateline, aug. 7

we got up and headed to heathrow. they were doing maintenance on the tube (not because of the bombings) and so we took the lovely heathrow express.

our flight up to edinburgh was wonderfully uneventful, and we made it to our hotel without any hassle, and met up with brad (steve's youngest brother). he had just finished a month long program at cambridge and was therefore done with his undergrad career.

the fringe festival was going on, and edinburgh was crazy. there were street performers almost everywhere, and where there weren't performers there were people promoting their shows by passing out flyers, harassing passerby or otherwise trying to garner attention. my favorite was the guy who ran up to steve and started beat-boxing in steve's face. he was actually really good, but when we told him so he said there was another guy that he works with who's even better. :)

that evening we took a guided tour of mary king's close which is a narrow medieval street that ran from the main drag through town (high street) down the steep hill of the city to the lake at the bottom of the hill (north loch). it was basically covered over to build a large municipal building in the 18th century, and has been a series of creepy underground chambers since. we really *loved* the tour and the history. definitely take a look around on the web. there's a pretty comprehensive site here and a review here.


aug. 8: edinburgh

we got off to a late start, and i was a bit grumpy. i got up and used the bathroom first and then went to the hotel's breakfast room to wait for steve and brad. neither of them came. i finally confirmed with both of them that they weren't going to meet in the morning as planned and decided to sleep in instead. sooo... i went to the mall across the street from our hotel. it was a fun place to kill a couple of hours, but the exchange rate kept me from buying anything except a couple of pairs of socks (i didn't pack enough) and some sunblock (there's some sort of newfangled thing called meroxyl that is used in sunblock in europe now but is still being tested by the fda here, so i decided to load up).

anyhow, once we got going we went to to the castle. the views alone were amazing, and the sense of history in a place like that puts our country's puny past to shame. i mean, they haven't even really used the place since before we were even fighting for our independence.

that evening brad and i went out to a bar and spent some good ol' quality time over pints. unfortunately steve wasn't feeling all that well. :(

i've got to run now, but stay tuned as brad and i drink more, and steve gets even less well...

soooo... on to a recap of our trip.

aug. 3-4
we flew out on the evening of august 3rd, and actually had a lovely, on-time and smooth flight into heathrow. since steve is really bad at dealing with jetlag, we both attempted to put ourselves into drug-induced sleep. i used ambien, and steve tried sonata. he claims he didn't sleep at all, but i *swear* he was breathing really evenly and seemed really still in his little makeshift tent under the airline blanket.

anyhow, we were still pretty beat once we found our way into london and dropped off our stuff at the hotel, so we didn't do a heck of a lot on august 4. it was my mom's birthday that day, so i thought a lot about her and about our relationship. steve and i wandered around knightsbridge, and spent time browsing around the more ridiculous shops at harrod's. we didn't really look in any of the clothing areas, but spent time exploring the famous looking in the weird boutiques, like the antique map store, and the crazy little boutique in the basement that sells really unusual liquors and decants them into bottles in front of you (sara's booze purchase #1).

even though we downed several starbuck coffees (which, i realized, were probably the first 'dine-in' starbucks coffees i'd consumed in the last 9 months, at least), we were still extremely tired. we decided that we wouldn't be able to stay up much past dinner, so we found a really cool sushi place where we sat at the counter and ate sushi from the selection on their sushi bar conveyor belt. that amused us for quite some time, and then it was back to our hotel, where we slept super soundly.

aug. 5
this was our hard-core london tourist day. we hadn't really planned it as such, and we didn't even really get going until quite late, but we ended up seeing pretty much everything that was on our (mental) to-see lists (no, we didn't really have lists).

i had been to london before, but pretty much only when traveling by myself. i've found that going to all of the touristy things is easiest alone since then you can pace yourself however you want. luckily, we were pretty much up for the same pace of touristy-ness that day. i only got annoyed with steve's tiredness once. :)

we started out slow and by the time we were done with our leisurely first meal (breakfast food for me/lunch for him) we passed by buckingham palace. well, it just so happened that it was only 15 minutes before the 'changing of the guard' so there were tons of tourists waiting around. for some reason there was a big sign that said "the next changing of the guard is at 11:30 tomorrow" we didn't hang around. we walked around in the parks nearby and then noticed a group of guards practicing some sort of event over at the parade grounds. i asked one of the policemen what was going on and he told me that it was not actually a practice, but the pretty boring manner in which they change guards at the nearby buildings. he then instructed me that i shouldn't miss the changing of the guards over at buckingham palace -- which is much more interesting -- and is happening in 10 minutes.

steve and i cursed the inaccurate sign and ran back to the palace. we happened to run right past the gate to the guards' barracks when they were heading out, so we walked alongside the parade for awhile, which was awesome. by the time we got back to the palace, there were too many people lining the route and blocking the gates, so we didn't actually see the changing of the guards. however, i think steve probably preferred watching them march and play their festive patriotic marches more than he would have enjoyed the changing ceremony.

after that, we headed to westminster abbey. i had never been there, and it really impressed us both. steve was so enamored with the ornate carvings and dedications that he spent over 15 minutes right in the entryway reading the first few that we saw. i had to point out to him that there were hundreds, and that if he wanted to read and study them all, it would be all we'd see that day (and we'd be pretty hungry by the end of it!). we then walked through the self-guided tour and saw all of the 'sights', but i think the regular plaques extolling the virtues of various exalted dead were steve's favorites. he loved the tributes, which often stated things like "this is in remembrance of X, a steadfast and noble gentlemen who loved his country above all things and served his majesty with honour and dignity..." (you get the picture).

we spent several hours there, and by the time we were done we were hungry again.

there's not much in that area, so we wandered for awhile, amusing ourselves by constantly repeating "look kids, big ben, parliament!" (from lampoon's european vacation) many, many times. we finally found a pub and had a pretty dang traditional meal of fish-n-chips (me) and shepherd's pie (him). i also realized then that i don't like tetley's beer. ah, well.

the only way we were going to make it to the tower of london in time to see it before closing was if we took the tube, so we played our own little part in 'not letting the terrorists win' and headed east on the district line.

steve has been reading these obscenely large and heavy hardcover books by neal stephenson and a good deal of them is set in london back in the 1700s. he was therefore really psyched by the tower of london, especially since some of his novels' characters spent time there. we did the traditional 'beefeater guard' tour, and then had just enough time to see the crown jewels and run through the torture and arms exhibits before closing. it was really great to see steve enjoying himself so much. :)

we bought ice cream cones and walked across the tower bridge and over to the tate modern, which is one of my favorite places in london.

unfortunately steve doesn't really share my interest in modern art, and our legs were pretty much collapsing at this point, so we only walked through a few galleries before we decided that we needed a bit of a break. we went upstairs to the bar, and had a couple of drinks while watching boats on the thames. it was pretty crowded, so we were only able to score one barstool up against the windows, but it turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise. we started talking to the chap next to us, who was supposed to be meeting some family friends who were in from out of town so that he could show them around. he told us about all kinds of fun things we could (and should) do on our next trip, including a crazy through-the-city rollerblade ride that happens monthly (i'll have to train first) and a beautiful horsetrack just outside of town that doesn't have computerized betting systems and instead has bookies with chalkboards (!). we bought us a round and we chatted awhile before he gave up on waiting for his family friends and surrendered his barstool to steve.

after watching the river awhile more, we headed out for dinner. i convinced steve to let us get indian food :) and that was it for the night. we went back to the hotel and passed out.

aug. 6: are you bored of my blog yet?
having seen pretty much all of london, we had no idea what idea what we wanted to do on saturday. we knew that we weren't really interested in being inside very much of the day, since it was beautiful out (and friday had started out quite rainy).

we headed over to the british institute of architects, where we thought we'd see the winning design for a new arctic research station. according to the time out magazine that we had, it was the last weekend of the exhibition. unfortunately the magazine was wrong, because the exhibition had closed the day before, and the new exhibit, which was on low-income housing, wasn't all that exciting. :(

a nearby park was hosting fruitstock, which sounded right up our alley, since it meant smoothies, healthy food and free music. we happened to arrive in the downtime between bands, but we still had a really awesome time people watching and then caught one band's set. they did an awesome cover of the white stripes's "seven nation army" with a female vocalist and an electric fiddle. it made my day!

we didn't do a whole lot else that day. we tried to get standby tickets to see guys and dolls, starring ewan mcgregor (who i have a huge crush on), but we didn't have any luck. we waited in line for about 40 minutes and a few people ahead of us did get in, but we had to comfort ourselves with the fact that we saved a ton of money by not getting tickets. steve also helped further comfort me by buying me indian food for dinner (which was amazing, considering we had it for lunch that day as well).

steve went to bed relatively early, and i wasn't quite ready yet, so i hung out in our semi-posh hotel lobby, drinking gin-n-tonics and reading my fluffy but fun bookclub book.

---

okay, i'm guessing that you're really bored by now. i'm also really interested in going to join steve to watch the news and see how the crazy pull-out in the gaza strip is going, so i'll sign off for now...

xoxo

well, amigos, the three of you that read this have been wondering about me, and wrote to ask how i'm doing. thank you.. i really appreciate it.

here's what happened: i was working, working, working. then we moved to a new place (a different unit in the same building, although now we are owners instead of renters). then we had a bunch of houseguests. and then we went on vacation.

so now i'm back. and i'm really enjoying our new place more than i thought i would. it's pretty much a mirror image of our old place, but we were concerned that the view (although from a higher floor) wasn't as good. we used to face the lake, but decided that it wasn't worth the $40k premium, so now we face the city. the north-facing windows in the living/dining room are somewhat blocked by the ugly back of the hyatt, but then we can see the top of the hancock building over it.
the view from the study, where i'm writing, is amazing at night. not only do you get a nice view of some of the bridges over the river, but you can see some really amazing buildings.
at the end of the river-bend is the riverbend condos building, which has a few fun lines of bright blue lights across the front of the building at night, but you have a view of my favorite building in town, the carbon and carbide building, which is the home of the hard rock hotel nowadays, and the awesome building at 35 e. wacker, which i guess is known as the north american life building.

since we're now on the 34th floor (we were on 20 before) there are a few little upgrades to this unit over the last one. we still have crappy quality rental carpet, but now we have tile in the entryway. we have the same sink (we miss our old bart-installed sink in ann arbor sooooo much!) but at least now there is a pull-out faucet. the bathrooms are the same, but the subtle upgrade in this unit is that we get much, much larger medicine cabinets. i have hogged them with my crap, and i love it. we also have a cooktop range stove, which slightly scares me because steve's mom keeps telling me all about how it has to be cleaned with the special cleaner and we can only use certain pots on it. i guess it's an upgrade, though, and since i don't really cook anyway, i guess i shouldn't worry about it too much.

the condo purchase and move went pretty smoothly, although there was a big fat bump. we only had the freight elevator reserved for a two hour block, from 5-7 pm. unfortunately the building wasn't exactly being generous with the elevator, since we only have one and there were about 150 moves taking place this month. so steve hired some movers to help us, and we had them scheduled from 4:30-7:30. he figured that we could have them move everything down the hallway and ready to go from 4:30-5, move things up and down from 5-7, and then probably end up with some things that needed lugging again from 7-7:30.
well, by a little after 5 the movers hadn't come, and i had been sneaking boxes and hanging stuff up in the regular elevator for a couple of hours. we were anxious to get going on the big stuff and were wondering where in the heck they were.
it turns out they had our reservation down for a friday, when the day of our move fell on a tuesday.
sooooo... after some begging and pleading steve convinced the moving company to find a couple of guys (i can only imagine the conversation their manager had to have to get some guys to come out in the pouring rain immediately that evening -- thank goodness it was an indoor move!). the two movers arrived around 6 and moved us for an hour, although steve and i had already done much more than we should have without the wheeled carts that the movers brought. i had packed my books (and other crap) much too heavy, and boy! were we sore the next day. :(

so that's our moving story. i hope you enjoyed it. and i hope that sometime soon you can visit to enjoy the view. we've already had alex & sarah and keenan & carrie visit, and we hosted a little shindig for some of our chicago friends on venetian night, when we started with cocktails at home (which has been christened Super Sky Hut, or Sky Hut II: Electric Boogaloo>, then had a pretty elaborate picnic at grant park while watching the boat parade and fireworks. venetian night is definitely my favorite chicago event (steve loves the upcoming air & water show).

anyhow, i'm rambling.
and i'm tired.
and i'm sorry that i have been a piss-poor correspondent.

tomorrow night i shall update you all on our trip to the UK. i have a work event (focus groups -- oooh!) that may last as late as 10 pm, so i may not get to blog the entire trip memoir, so i appreciate your continued patience and loving thoughts. :)