I Hate Yardwork

When we bought our house I vowed I would never lift a finger to work on the yard. Back when we were house hunting, I actually wanted to get a condo, partly to avoid having to deal with a yard. Even as a kid, I managed to avoid mowing the lawn. I think I used the lawn mower about two time in all my years living with my parents. We've currently got a lawn service that comes by most weeks and mows our lawn in about 5 minutes.

Well, recently I did something I thought I would never do. We had gotten quite a bit of rain recently, and for some reason the lawn service hadn't been by in about two weeks. Looking out the front window I see all these dandelions poking through the grass. Maybe I'll go out a yank just a few of them up, I said. Can't take more than a few minutes. Well, those few minutes turned into about half a hour of weeding. And more than that, now every time I walk to the garage I look to see if there are any stray dandelions that I missed. I think I've turned into my dad.

Starbucks Again

Now that its finally warm, I've found myself splurging on coffee frappucinos at Starbucks. Its getting harder to avoid, we've now got 6 Starbucks within 2 miles of our house, three of which opened in the past year. I've gotten a Starbucks VISA card which works kinda like airline credit cards. For every 100 dollars we spend, we get one Starbucks dollar. Given how much we put on our card every month, it generally means I don't ever have to pay cash for my caffeine fix. Unfortunately, Kelly has recently caught on and started cashing in the Starbucks dollars for herself. (She likes the Horizon brand organic milk). We may have to start buying more stuff to accommodate our Starbucks cravings :)

Hole in the Wall

A few days ago, I met a friend from medical school in Chinatown for dinner. We met at this restaurant called Seven Treasures, which is at 2312 S. Wentworth Ave. We've always called this restaurant "the hole-in-the-wall" for its conspicuous lack of decoration, rock bottom prices, and vaguely unintelligible menu. When we first started going there over ten years ago, you could get a filling meal for about 4 dollars, which was great on our student budgets, and the prices haven't changed much since then. Over the years they seemed to have upgraded the decor ever so slightly, but it mostly still feels true to its name. Another great thing about the hole in the wall was that it stayed open till 2 AM. It was perfect for a quick snack on the way back to Hyde Park after an evening on the Northside.

A lot has changed since medical school. We both graduated and left Chicago for residency. I went to Boston, and A- went to New York. We came back, married, started our "real jobs", and, of course, Kelly and I had Julia. We can afford much nicer restaurants now. Still, after all these years and all the events that have occurred in our lives, its comforting to be able to get together with an old friend, at our old restaurant, and order from a menu with the exact same garbled English translation as before. Some things never change.

Cutest Video Ever! Sea Otters holding hands from Vancouver's Aquarium

-Kelly

Win an ERGO BABY CARRIER

You can enter to win an ERGO BABY CARRIER that is just one click away at:

Along for the Ride: Babywearing Fashion Finds.

This link gives you the chance to win a free ERGO baby carrier. It is the absolute best ever, since it distributes the baby's weight to your hips and shoulders. There is also versatility and scope for this product too which included three different baby wearing positioins (back, front or hip) and it can be used from newborn to 40 pounds. I highly recommend it to anyone who asks, and so many people do just that.

West Looping

It was 80 degrees and sunny this past weekend. We thought it'd be a nice day to go into Chicago. Ended up in the west loop, the neighborhood directly west of the downtown business district (the loop). This is a neighborhood almost completely transitioned from warehouses and old factories into lofts and condos with a smattering of restaurants and bars. It has a very urban feel to it, not much greenery around. The Sears Tower is only about half a mile or so east of where we were. We walked around with Julia on my shoulders most of the time. She enjoyed seeing all the people and activity from that high perspective. We saw all sorts of twenty to thirty year olds jogging, walking their dogs, and hanging out at the few cafes we passed. Kelly remarked how only a year or two ago, we would be living that lifestyle.

There were a few parents with strollers out for a walk. In a year or so, they'll probably be moving out of the city to Oak Park for more green space.

Oak Park Elections

Despite our recent preoccupation with domestic matters, life around us continues to move on. This past Tuesday was election day around these parts. Politics in Chicago is considered a full-contact sport, albeit one which not infrequently involves a lot of indictments. Out in our leafy suburb, we've avoided the criminal prosecutions, and focused on the usual issues: property taxes, development, schools, and traffic.

Having been a resident for under two years, I'm stilling trying to sort out all the issues and interest groups. I never paid much attention to the local political landscape in Massachusetts, but I've been vociferously reading the local papers and watching Village Board meetings on public access tv. In fact, I've gotten somewhat hooked on the Board meetings. Kelly can't stand it, and walks out of room when meetings are on. I don't blame her, the production values are low, and people tend to drone on and on and on. Still, I've enjoyed listening to the nuts and bolts of issues, as well as watching the rhetorical sparks fly on occasion. Yes, I know, I am a dork.

Baby Talk

Well, its been a long time since my last post. Having a little baby tends to get in the way of other less important things like blogs. It's hard to remember what life what like before she came to us. Kelly's actually be quite prolific in writing a baby-specific blog (littlemissjulia.blogspot.com), separate from this one. Because we're a bit paranoid, we've decided to password protect that one. If you're interested in reading it, send us an email.

I'm going to minimize the baby stories posted here, which will be a bit odd, since she's about 90% of what's going on in our lives right now, but hopefully I'll try harder to find other topics of interest

-Brian