Random...

I just saw a comment on another blog, referring to the amazing sight of a jar of cookie-flavored peanut butter, and the commenter said that she "literally died and went to heaven" when she saw the picture. This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine -- "literal" means LITERAL. It means that whatever you're talking about, it actually HAPPENED in reality. In this case, it means that the commenter ACTUALLY died and went to heaven. This person is now dead. Dead because of a picture of a jar of peanut butter. How tragic and strange...

Anyway... look at this picture:

It looks like a big pile of bedding and towels ready to be washed, right?

But look again:

See anything strange?

How about now:

Yeah, Piva decided it would be a good idea to burrow into the middle of the towels and hide for a while. Needless to say, I didn't get my laundry done in as timely a manner as I had hoped... I still haven't re-made the bed. But c'mon -- I couldn't just evict her from that cozy little hideout, could I? She looked so comfy... and I suspect that she felt like all those towels were good camouflage to protect her from crazy Riff.

I have eaten approximately 4,376 Christmas cookies today. And I've already been informed by several people who were also in possession of my cookies that I need to make more. More cookies will be coming, adoring cookie fans!! (By the way,  I really appreciate that so many people like my cookies... maybe I should start charging for these things... Or at least Eric -- I should charge Eric. :))

Okay, while I'm on my Christmas-cookie-sugar high, I should go make the bed that still needs to be made...

Is it just me?

Or does it feel like this year FLEW by? Like even more quickly than usual? I mean, it seems like just a couple weeks ago that I went downstairs to the Whole Foods in our temporary-apartment building and bought the necessary ingredients for Christmas cookies... I can remember mixing up the dough in my tiny kitchen, in preparation for a night of cookie-baking and Elf-watching with Eric. I don't think that first batch lasted more than a day... I made more cookies a few days before Christmas in our rental condo -- we'd JUST moved in, so boxes were haphazardly strewn about the condo, and half of my kitchen utensils were still missing. But I made a point to find what I needed to make cookies -- because Eric never would've forgiven me if I'd used the "I can't find my rolling pin" excuse for neglecting to make more cookies...

Last year, because of our moves and the fact that we were far from settled, I didn't even THINK about putting up my Christmas tree. All of my holiday decorations were in storage, and even if I'd bothered to find them, decorations of any kind would've served as nothing more than extra clutter in our already cluttered condo. But THIS year, we have our own place, and although I can definitely do more to de-clutter (especially since Rick decided to build a new computer and there are now random parts/boxes in our living room... ohhh so many random boxes...), at least we have a bit more space and a nice tree-appropriate location in front of the windows overlooking our balcony.

So yesterday, we trekked over to our storage unit down the street to look for boxes of Christmas stuff. We have a history of needing to find seemingly unimportant (and usually very small) things in our storage unit... so many bad memories... don't remind me. But in the course of searching for Christmas stuff, we serendipitously came across something I've been looking for since we moved up here -- the magnet for my treadmill. It's attached to a bungee cord, and you're supposed to wear it on your wrist while you're on the treadmill -- the point being that if you fall off, the magnet disconnects from the treadmill and it automatically stops. I never actually wear it... but the treadmill won't START unless that magnet is in place. And since I was unable to find the magnet, I couldn't use my treadmill when we first moved into our new place. I tried to find a refrigerator magnet or something that would trick the treadmill into thinking the magnet was there, but I couldn't find one that was big enough. Fortunately, dad has the exact same treadmill, and he was nice enough to bring his bungee-corded magnet up so I could use it for my treadmill. And dad DID manage to find a suitable magnet to replace the cord -- but now he can actually have the real magnet back.

And we also found the Christmas stuff, in case you were wondering. I just finished putting the tree up, as Rick reminded me that this is actually the first Christmas that Riff has seen a tree. I braced myself for an onslaught of curious cat hijinks, but surprisingly, it was Piva who was the bigger nuisance. (Although Riff HAS already managed to knock one of the ornaments off the tree...) I also realized that I need about two more strings of lights for my tree... it's looking a little sparse. Oh well -- no way am I heading out to a store this weekend, so I'll just save that for next year...

 

Onward...

One year ago today, Rick and I pulled our car into the parking garage of an unfamiliar building on Superior Street. The car was full of only what we absolutely needed (which turned out to take up EVERY available space within the interior), and, unlike every other road trip we'd taken to Chicago, we did not end the night in a a fluffy-duvet-cocooned hotel bed at the Sofitel. No, instead, we carted our car-sized load of things up an elevator to the 20th floor, and opened the door to our tiny -- er, COZY -- 600-square-foot temporary apartment, where we attempted to find space for our pared-down possessions and spent the first of many nights on a much-too-hard-and-too-small bed...

Since that day one year ago, so much has occurred:

We moved from one temporary place to another. Our condo was still small, but the view made up for it:

We survived our first Chicago blizzard and celebrated with Caribou coffee!

Our attempts to purchase not one, but TWO downtown condos fell through, leading us to believe we'd never find a place we really loved. And then, just as the lease on our temporary place was about to end, we found THE condo -- it may not be absolutely perfect, but it covers most of the bases: tons of light, cool loft design, great exposed brick and cement, decent view, more square footage than either of the other places we tried to buy, and a great location. (The cupcake store that just opened across the street doesn't hurt the appeal, either...) And everyone -- especially Riff -- is very comfortable here...

Mom and dad bought their own downtown condo so they'd have a place to stay for all their visits up here. Which turned out to not only be great for them, but great for those of us who need a place to park, or do laundry, or have impromptu pizza parties as well... (have I mentioned that my mom and dad are awesome?? :))


And then, of course, there's this guy:

Over the past year, we've tried new restaurants; learned the best routes for driving from one side of the city to the other; hung out with new friends and spent more time with old ones; fell asleep with window-rattling street-paving trucks just outside our building; discovered that having everything we need within walking distance is pretty darned cool and convenient; marveled at fireworks and sunsets and skyline views; eaten more Indian food than we ever have in our lives (YES!! :)); and have still barely scratched the surface of all this city has to offer.

Bring on year number two...

Tuesday random stuff...

Today IS Tuesday, right? I had to think about that for a minute before I wrote it...

Well, mom and dad have been introduced to Connor, and I don't think Rachel and Eric will ever be getting him back. If they want to see him again, they'll have to have another baby, so mom will switch back and forth. Otherwise, mom is going to be holding him indefinitely...

I have decided that I really need to order some throw pillows and maybe a table runner from World Market. I need to get this condo looking more "put-together" than it is now. I will excuse myself for the fact that the box containing the Christmas tree has been sitting by the hall closet for a couple of months... because we'll actually be using that in a few weeks, anyway. So I can SORT of justify the fact that I haven't bothered to drag that box down to storage -- I'd only have to drag it back up again, anyway. But there are still so many other areas of the condo that need to be straightened up or spruced up or tidied up or otherwise up-ed... I figure throw pillows and table runners are a good place to start...

Speaking of Christmas -- as usual, the Christmas commercials on television started way too soon. I think I even saw a few BEFORE Halloween this year. And don't get me wrong -- I LOVE the Christmas season. But when it seems to last for a quarter of the year, it sort of makes it seem less festive and special. I wish advertisers could hold off until at least a week or so before Thanksgiving. Personally, I think that's a good point to start the immersion of holiday songs/decorations/food/etc. (Although I have to be honest... I HAVE listened to Christmas music a couple times lately when I've been on the treadmill... but I've been tempering it with a good dose of Indian music and random pop tunes. Come to think of it, my workout playlists have been quite eclectic the last couple weeks...)

So the other night, Rick and I were sitting on the couch watching TV, and apparently an accident occurred a block away at the corner of Ohio and Orleans -- we somehow managed to miss it, even though we have a clear view of the intersection. But we heard the sirens of an ambulance and a firetruck, which stopped alongside the accident to offer assistance. It looked like a cab ran a light and broadsided another car. Someone from the back of the cab was loaded into the ambulance, a few cops and firefighters stood around and talked for a few minutes, and then everyone dispersed -- leaving the two damaged cars sitting on the side of the road for the tow truck. Well, about an hour later, we heard MORE sirens, and ANOTHER ambulance and firetruck stopped in the exact same location -- we're guessing that someone saw the disabled cars on the side of the road, assumed the accident had just occurred, and called it in. I couldn't help but laugh -- I could only imagine the reaction of the emergency workers when they peered into the cars, only to find them empty. Needless to say, after that, a police car with flashing lights was parked next to the accident until the tow truck arrived...

Well, I'm off to work out... where I'll possibly be listening to Christmas music... but maybe not... :)   

The Day Which Must Not Be Named...

My friend Nick has an unusual fear (not that I can talk -- I have plenty of rather bizarre phobias myself...). He absolutely can not stand to look at the clock when the time reads 11:11. According to Nick, this is simply because it's the only time during the day when all four numbers on a clock can be the same. And I'm not sure what's so scary about that, exactly... but again, who am I to talk??

So it would stand to reason that years and years ago, when 2011 seemed miles away, I wondered how Nick would handle today's date -- 11/11/11. Because if one minute of 11:11 on a clock is bad, how much worse must it be when an entire DAY is comprised of that single number? Twenty-four hours of the somehow-for-some-reason evil number... calendars everywhere proclaiming its existence, newspapers shouting it out like a headline, the internet rife with superstitions and stories of its perceived significance. What would Nick do on such a day??

Well, for starters, he blocked his Facebook profile so those of us who know of his aversion to the Time and Date Which Must Not Be Named wouldn't be able to inundate his wall with posts. I'm also fairly certain he turned his phone off, even though I, personally, haven't tried to call him. But anyone else who has attempted to call him today has been met with nothing more than a voicemail message. Silly Nick... 11/11/11 is harmless. Everyone knows that the world will be ending on 12/21/12.

Besides -- historically, GOOD things have happened on this day. For instance -- Faisal was born!! Probably sometime back in the 50's... but he WAS born on 11/11. And how can it be a horrible, scary day when this was the day that one of my very best friends arrived on the planet? How can it be evil when we have an excuse to head out for a great dinner (and hopefully some kind of chocolate for dessert)?? A day that gives you a chance to eat chocolate is NEVER a bad day...

And there's no doubt that the world became a better place when Faisal showed up... without him, there's a fish and chips restaurant in Lincoln Park that would be out of business... Rick and I would still have an entire storage unit filled with unused stuff, instead of extra cash... I may have never discovered the wonder that is British chocolate... my iPod would be decidedly lacking in awesome Indian music... random strangers wouldn't be offered help with heavy suitcases or unwieldy boxes nearly as often... and I'd have one fewer person who still talks to me even after I demonstrate my obvious bouts with insanity. In short -- Faisal rules. And, therefore, so does 11/11.

But for some reason, I don't think Nick will ever agree with me... :)

Welcome to the world...

Just got back from meeting my new nephew, Connor. He arrived about three weeks early, and only weighs in at 5 pounds 4 ounces... but he's healthy and strong and can already make a touchdown sign with his arms, so he's obviously a football fan. He's pretty awesome.

He's even tinier in person than he looks in pictures... and it occurred to me, as I was holding him, that he only weighs about half as much as Riff... (Eric suggested we put a little saddle on Riff and let Connor ride around on him... and Riff is so laid-back that he MIGHT actually allow that...)

I kept patting his hair... I couldn't help it -- it's so soft! And he has so much of it!

 Okay, Lisa... Step. Away. From the baby hair.

Connor has already requested that I make him cookies... although I have a suspicion that his dad will be eating them. But still -- how can I refuse? Besides, I wouldn't mind some cookies, myself... and I figure "Connor wanted cookies" will be a great excuse to make cookies in the future... right? :)

I am a creepy cupcake stalker...

But who can blame me? Every day, as I innocently look outside my living room window at the cacophony of city life on the street, I can't help but see them: rows and rows of adorable little cakes, which taunt me with their billowy frosting and high sugar content. So close, and yet, from my condo vantage point, unattainable.

I mean, really -- look at them:

Look at them!!!

How am I supposed to resist them?

Okay, so I couldn't resist them forever.

We happened to be walking up out of our parking garage into the lobby of our building at about 6:50 tonight, and looked through the window across the street at the cupcake store, which is only open until 7. But the great thing about living across the street from a cupcake store that closes at 7 is that you can leave your condo at 6:50 and still make it to their door with plenty of time to spare.

 A chocolate cappuccino for Rick...

And chocolate/vanilla for me...

We haven't tried them yet, but hopefully they aren't TOO good. It's one thing to stalk cupcakes from afar... but it's much different to invite them into your home on a daily basis...