Must... post... something...

Boy, I've gotta find a way to post more often, don't I? I'm sure you all must miss me terribly when I'm away... :)

So let's see, what's been going on lately... oh yeah -- THE YANKEES ARE HEADING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!! I'm a wee bit excited about that. :) I'm a little bummed, however, that I missed the end of game six -- it was supposed to be on Saturday night, which I was really looking forward to, because I can stay up as late as I want on Saturday nights (since I don't need to be up by 5:30 the next morning). But apparently NYC was innundated with a monsoon on Saturday night, and the game was postponed until Sunday. So I stayed up last night until about the sixth inning, and then decided I'd just let Rick tell me who won later. I happened to wake up around midnight, when Rick was finally getting ready to go to bed, and he said something like, "well, the Yankees are heading to game 7..." And I was like, "what??? Nooooooo..." And then he told me he was just kidding. Oh, that Rick, always the kidder... (so NOT funny!! :))

And I just read this morning that this will be Arod's first World Series ever -- for some reason, I thought he'd been a Yankee for longer than he's actually BEEN a Yankee. So now we just have to hope he can keep up his decent postseason momentum. The Phillies have some scary players -- I had Raul Ibanez on my fantasy team this year and he was awesome. (Awesome for a fantasy team, not so awesome if your team has to play AGAINST him... I'm hoping for a World Series Ibanez slump...)

Anyway, that's about all the time I have for now. Eventually, maybe I'll figure out how to be a better (more frequent) blogger! Have a great week, everyone!

"Oh, you're FINALLY writing a new blog post?"

That's what Rick said when he saw me getting my pictures organized. Yes, I know, it's been a while since I updated -- busyness abounds... not as much time to post as I used to have...

So here are some pictures from our trip up to Chicago last weekend (unfortunately, I didn't get any Ghirardelli pictures -- but we DID stop in for ice cream on a chilly 35-degree day... :)):


We didn't see too many colorful trees while we were up there -- I think it was about a week or two away from "peak" season -- but I saw these few across from Eric's place...


We walked down to the Lincoln Park Zoo on Saturday -- Eric is so lucky to live just a couple blocks from this place. He can walk out his front door and ten minutes later be standing next to a giraffe or a rhino... (or, he can walk the other direction and be drinking a latte at Starbucks... it's a win-win... :)) These were some kind of owls -- I thought they were rather cute and fluffy...


Melman from Madagascar! (I love that movie... yes, I know I'm a ten-year-old... :))


Big kitty...


Kitty on the move...


That's a monkey between two other monkeys -- they were like monkey contortionists... actually, I think the lighter-colored monkeys were grooming the darker one, but it looked rather uncomfortable...


I call this, "Contemplative Gorilla"...


The view from Eric's condo -- love his view of downtown...


On Sunday we headed to Shedd Aquarium. I didn't get too many great pictures in the aquarium, because it was dark, and there were a lot of "no flash pictures" signs (and fish move around so much that it's hard to get a decent still shot...). This thing was actually some kind of seahorse -- it looked like a plant, but it was alive and swimming...


I did use a flash for this frog -- it was so funny, just hanging there like that...


Beluga whales...


Chicago skyline...

Well, I'm off to finish some laundry and get dinner ready before tonight's Yankee playoff game -- GO YANKEES!!! :)

Under the weather...

That’s a strange expression… “under the weather.” What does the weather have to do with anything? And what if the weather is warm and sunny? If you’re under the warm and sunny weather, well, that doesn’t sound so bad… Now, if you’re under the gray, stormy thunderstorm, THAT could be unpleasant…

Anyway… Rick and I both came down with some sort of coldy/fluey thing this weekend. (Yes, I know I’m making up words… I suppose I should say “cold-like” and “flu-like,” right? Nick has already given me a hard time about using “coldy” on my Facebook status update today, and my self-proclaimed “wordologist” friend Faisal is in agreement with Nick… I can’t believe that… you’d think the guy who invented “comfortability” could at least give me “coldy.” :)) So I’ve been feeling sort of puny and icky the last few days. I’ve been hanging out at home, resting up, and hoping I’ll be (at least almost) 100 percent by Friday, when we’re flying up to Chicago. The last time I flew on a plane with a cold, I couldn’t get my ears to pop when we were landing. It was remarkably painful, and something I have no desire to go through again. I WILL be taking a decongestant before I get on the plane on Friday…

But it hasn’t been so bad – I mean, at least I have a good book to read:

And this adorableness to keep me company:

Plus this one, who decided to help me write emails:

And, of course, I have plenty of ginger ale:

And colorful glass bottles for random picture-taking:

Okay, so maybe my pictures aren’t very interesting when I’m sick… :)

And on an unrelated note, I just saw the first official television advertisement of the Christmas season… and it’s, let’s see… October 7^th. Not even Halloween yet. I’m waiting for the day when Christmas ads are just run year-round. They seem to get earlier and earlier every year…

Sigh… I guess this means I need to start my Christmas shopping… :)