What do you mean "eleventy" isn't a real number?

FYI -- the movie "Contagion" is NOT a good movie to watch if, like me, you're a bit germaphobic and don't like to think about all the ways that one random person can transfer germs to another random person. Seriously, I wasn't even paying that much attention to it and I still had to change the channel...

Also FYI -- My condo is full of either floor varnish fumes or paint fumes (or possibly both) from the condo renovation going on downstairs. I have my balcony door open to get some fresh air in here, but it is really, annoyingly strong... if I start to babble aimlessly and use nonsense words like "comfortability," you can assume that the chemicals have affected my brain...

Anyway... so apparently I took a little blogging break, which was not intentional. I've just happened to not have much to talk about lately. What with my super-exciting life and all. I did, however, have one of those "milestone" birthdays on Friday, when I turned eleventy years old and spent much of the day crying in the bathroom and obsessing over my own mortality...

Okay, okay, that's a lie. It was actually quite a nice birthday, and I was busy enough to not have much time to contemplate all the years of life I've lived. The many, many years... Rick surprised me with a room at the Waldorf Astoria, because I'm a bit of a hotel fanatic (in which I put aside my germaphobia and try not to think about all the other people who've been in the same room as me... please don't remind me... *fingers in ears* lalalala, not listening...), so we checked in Friday afternoon and had a really good dinner at the hotel restaurant. I'm usually a bit wary of hotel restaurants, since they always charge exorbitant prices for food that never seems to be as good as what you'd find at a stand-alone restaurant. But the place in the Waldorf Astoria was quite good... we went back for brunch on Saturday and it was excellent. (They make their own chocolate-hazelnut spread, a la Nutella... I would go back just to eat more of that stuff...)

Eric and Debbie and Patrick and Matt flew into town from New Jersey, and I managed to extend my birthday until Sunday, when we had a birthday dinner at mom and dad's place. Eric and Rachel and Connor were all able to come over and hang out, too (you know how it is with Connor -- he's super-popular, so his calendar is pretty full...). And I received quite a few great birthday gifts from friends and family, but THE best is obviously Eric's present. I mean, my brother knows me so well:

Yeah!!! Oh, you KNOW this is going in my living room, right over the TV. Or maybe I should just hang it on the front door, so everyone who passes by in the hallway will think, "hey, a super-cool, mega-awesome Justin Bieber fan lives here!" They could also be thinking, "hey, a twelve-year-old girl with horrible taste in music lives here!" Whichever...

I can always count on Eric to make me laugh... :)

And hey, why not? A couple cat pictures to end the post:

Riff, attempting to look regal on my purple pillow...

And Piva, mid-yawn, looking like the most adorable evil vampire EVER... hehehe... this picture makes me laugh... (I am Count Catula from Tunasylvania... I vant to eat your tuna...)

Uh, yeah, I think those varnish and paint fumes are hitting juuuuuust about now...

Look before you pour the coffee...

I just read that yesterday was National French Fry day... and I did not partake of a single fry. I don't think I even ate a potato product of any kind yesterday... let me think... um... nope. Not one potato. That's too bad -- I really like French fries...

Rick just returned from several days in Los Angeles. As I've probably mentioned before, I am one of those strange people who actually enjoys solitude now and then, so I didn't mind my few days alone. I'm a quiet person by nature anyway... while some people might find it weird to not speak to another human being for a couple days, I'm quite comfortable with it. Sometimes I consider selling all my possessions, moving to Tibet, and joining a monastery... because I would OWN that vow of silence thing.

So while Rick was gone I did a lot of cleaning... and laundry (my laundry basket is totally empty right now -- it's been a while since that was the case)... and I almost dumped half a cup of coffee in the sink right before I saw this:

How can the sink be more comfortable than the couch? Or the bed? Or basically anywhere else in the condo?? He's such a weird cat...

And yes, I am aware that this is the most boring post ever. I blame it on my lack of French fries...

Hey! It's a bunch of random stuff!

It has been craaaaazy hot, y'all... (why did I just say "y'all"??? I never say y'all... I'm way too East Coast to ever say y'all... the word y'all has never escaped my lips, and my usual "you guys" would never allow it to do so. I can only assume that the heat has frazzled my brain and tricked me into believing I'm back in Texas, where "y'all" is quite ubiquitous and no one gives you a second look if you use it. Which I never have. Rick, however, says it all the time...)

Speaking of the heat -- why does 104 in Chicago feel hotter than 104 in Austin?? Maybe I just EXPECT it in Austin, so when I leave a nice, air conditioned building and walk outside into a stifling blanket of heat, it's not much of a surprise. Here, however, I have more of a "temperate" expectation... or maybe "pretty warm"... possibly even "pretty warm bordering on hot." But this week has been HOT hot. Like the kind of heat that makes you ask, "do I really have to walk a WHOLE block and a half to the CVS to buy soap/toothpaste/shampoo or refill a life-saving prescription in this heat? I mean, is it really necessary for me to shower/brush my teeth/stay alive?" I'd say that it feels worse in Chicago because of the humidity, except a quick search on Weather.com tells me that it's about the same here as it is in Austin. So I'm going with my "unexpected heat" theory...

Hope my U.S. readers had a good 4th of July yesterday. I did pretty much nothing. :) Rick and I walked to breakfast around 9:30 a.m. and it was ALREADY so hot that I couldn't imagine walking much farther than the three blocks to the cafe... I had a Belgian waffle -- I've been really into Belgian waffles lately for some reason. I used to be more of an exclusively Pancake Person (with some occasional French toast thrown in), but I've recently discovered a love of waffles. Or maybe there are just a bunch of places around here that make REALLY good Belgian waffles. (Sometimes I think I'm a bit too obsessed with breakfast foods...)

We missed out on fireworks last night... we COULD have walked a mile down the street to Navy Pier, but again -- it was HOT. So I made do with colorful flashes of light in the distance and a few sparkly reflections in the buildings a few blocks away. Besides, Navy Pier has fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday in the summer, so maybe we'll catch another show soon...

This is extra super random, but my blog is ninth and tenth in Google's "comfortability" search list. (But it's still not a real word. Just sayin'...)

And more extra super random: I watched the end of How to Train Your Dragon this morning -- I love that movie. I think mostly because the animated dragon was totally based on Riff. Seriously, whoever came up with that character obviously had a cat. But even the animated look of the dragon reminds me of Riff -- to the point that when I first saw the movie, and the dragon is stuck on a sinking boat at the end, I was yelling, "don't kill the dragon-kitty!" at the screen. Yeah, that's not weird at all...

How to Train Your Dragon dragon:

Riff:

Hehehe... :) Okay, that's enough randomness for today. Off to watch TV and drink some iced tea... and possibly eat some Ben and Jerry's that I may or may not have bought at the store today... okay, I DID buy it -- have I mentioned that it's hot??

Stormy weather...

I had every intention of writing ONE more blog post before the month of June was over... what's that about the best laid schemes of mice and men? (Speaking of mice and men -- we were walking down a nice, quiet, Lincoln Park street last night on our way back to our car after hanging out at Faisal's place, and a rat the size of my head scurried across the sidewalk. This is the third time I've been startled by rodents on a city street -- although to be fair, one of those times the rodent in question turned out to be an adorable fluffy bunny. But that fact didn't register until AFTER I'd seen something gray and furry moving next to the sidewalk...)

Since I don't have much to write about tonight, I'll instead post some pictures of the storm that rolled into the city yesterday:

The cats love it when I open the balcony door:

And a couple pictures from a storm that passed through today -- pictures courtesy of Faisal, who is now in possession of the view I used to have. But he did let me watch the fireworks over Navy Pier from his place last night, something I really miss being able to do from my own place. (The funny thing is, I'm now RIGHT down the street from Navy Pier, but because I'm only on the third floor, I don't have the decent vantage point necessary to see the fireworks...) 

That's about it for tonight. Off to drink some (iced) tea (too warm for hot tea right now) and watch some TV...