You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2008.
Enough biology. Look at pictures of The Boy at Lake Superior.
More than 1,600 miles in a minivan in five days. That’s all the details you need.
Friday: We left early-ish, although not as early as we had planned because of Father-In-Law’s appendix issues (as in, it had to come out the day before we left). Yes, Father-In-Law went in for surgery the day Thursday afternoon and still drove along with us (well, he sat, slept and took drugs, but I’m still impressed). We drove to New Glarus, WI, (America’s Little Switzerland) which is a tiny Swiss-influenced town somewhere in the southwest quadrant of Wisconsin. Very cute, and dude, we had fondue for dinner. That alone makes the entire trip worthwhile. We then got back in the car and drove to our hotel in some random Chicago suburb. I believe we drove for approximately 10 hours that day.
Saturday: Back in the car. We drove north into Indiana and spent about half an hour playing in the sandy beach and dunes around Lake Superior. We then kept driving (and driving and driving) until we got to Ann Arbor, MI, where we stayed with my brother-in-law Nate, and his fiance, Selena. They recently moved to the area and bought a cute fixer-upper house. Ann Arbor is definitely a college town! Nate brought us on a tour of the University of Michigan (where he’s a professor), which is beautiful and has an awesome Oxford-looking law school.
Sunday: We spent a couple hours at sister-in-law’s second reception (her husband’s wonderful, incredibly nice family is from Ann Arbor, so they had a picnic for everyone who couldn’t make the trip to MN for the wedding) then Dan, Noah and I left for Chicago around 5:30. We stopped a few times along the way for food and whatnot and arrived at our hotel around eleven.
Monday: Chicago (more on this in another entry).
Tuesday: Chicago, then we left for home around 3:30 or so, drove and drove and drove, and arrived home around midnight. Oh my god the driving. I was so eager to get home, and was within miles, only to find that all of our exits were closed. I couldn’t get off the highway! Damn roadwork. That would be the point in which I nearly lost it.
But huzzah, we made it.
Chicago is such a beautiful city! I love the mixture of old and new architecture and the crowds and the noise and the bustle and the lake and everything.
I still love Minneapolis and St. Paul, but in comparison everything here seems so tiny and separated.
We took Noah to the Shedd Aquarium, which was a lot of fun (if not incredibly noisy; I don’t think I’m wrong in wishing to feed a few of the other visitors-especially school groups-to the sharks). This is a sculpture in front of the museum. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in the sculpture, but it strikes me as being rather…unnatural.
Here is Noah at the aquarium. I had to give a few little kids my evilest of evil looks to make them go away and not jump in the picture. It totally worked.
Awesome light dealie at the Shedd Aquarium. It’s such a pretty building and a great aquarium, when you get past the hoards of screaming children.
I have many more pictures, but oh my god I’m so tired! It’s going to take a while longer to recover from this trip, I’m afraid. So tired.
It is a dark and stormy mid-morning, and thanks to the kindness of strangers Marcoda I am fully immersed in Harry Potter-ville. The air is fragrant, the wine is plentiful, and the water is lovely. For some reason there are now emails and Excel tables in Harry Potter-ville, but they’re largely ignorable.
Harry Potter! On my iPod! So I don’t go crazy and have my head explode all over my in-law’s van during our ridiculously long road trip to Sister-In-Law’s second reception this weekend! And, of course, a bit of Harry Potter on the ol’ iPod during work today, too. I’m enjoying this WAY TOO MUCH.
Thank you Marcoda. Thank you thank you thank you. The in-law’s van thanks you, too.
And Nibbler, you be a good godson and stay put while I’m gone! If you do this, I promise to buy you a puppy for your first birthday.
Ha ha ha!
I really don’t have any respect for segways, or anyone on a segway.
Thank you to Mr. Bingmar for sending this.
Dan and I bought Sister-In-Law’s wedding present yesterday (along with wrapping paper and mascara and much fake meat and ribbon and brownie mix and damn you Target!) They had registered for an adorable twirling metal spice rack dealie, and now I totally want a spice rack even though a.) I don’t have any spices and b.) I don’t cook. But hello! So cute!
This is the spice rack we purchased:
I would very much like to own either this spice rack:
or this spice rack:
(I would write “this rack” or “this rack”, but it makes me giggle too much. Because I’m mature. I want this rack!) The main reason I want these is their nice Harry Potter, potions class feel. This is as close to being Professor Snape as I’ll ever be.
And since I know you’re all about buying me stuff, I would quite like this, too.
I just noticed that on Target’s wedding registry it lists bride, groom and partner as the options, not just bride and groom. That’s nice.
The bridesmaid shoe debacle has been solved, thanks to a very quick shipping eBay seller. One hurdle hurdled. The only bad part is the crazy folks who made the shoes decided that most people have pancake toes. I don’t have pancake toes, I have cute, normal toes (in desperate need of a manicure, or at least some nail polish), so the toe strap KILLS! I’m trying to stretch it to fit my normal-proportioned feet; wish me luck with this most harrowing and painful of tribulations.
Sadly, it took me a good five minutes last night to figure out which way the ankle straps go. Apparently I’m not smart enough to wear fancy shoes.
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