The BK

I like how there was no way to take a picture of the horse without the BK.

Day off

Taking the day off...

Results

I don't have any razzle dazzle photos from today...not even bad photos to share. I just didn't feel like taking any. We picked up Beans tonight. After sitting in the waiting room filled with someone else's HORRIBLE b.o. for an hour, I was getting pretty angry, frustrated, worried...I just wanted to see my cat. I kept crying. We finally see her and she melts into my arms. I kept trying to hide that I was crying from the butchy nurse. Beans now has diabetes so I practiced giving her the shot and Ryan took notes for me. We headed home and I barely even remembered how agonizing that waiting room wait was after that.

My mom called tonight. I guess my dad had a heart attack. He seems ok but he's in the hospital. They're going to go in and check it out tomorrow. I'm worried about them both.

I love Beano

I'm breaking all of my own rules here and posting a photo from two days ago that I didn't even take! Ryan took it of Beano sleeping during the day. Today Beans is at the vet - sedated - while they do all kinds of tests on her. I'm beyond worried and sad but I thought a cute picture of her would rally good thoughts.

Another night of Willy Wonka

I probably never mentioned this but the other weekend Ryan's son, Henry, spent the entire weekend wearing his top hat and using a cat toy as a cane staying in character as Willy Wonka. I was given approximately 22 Wonka Bars, 17 chocolate eggs and 3 gobstoppers by tiny Willy Wonka and it was decided I should play Violet. Then I was given several tours of the facilities and chided for not working as diligently as the Oompa Loompas. What gives? The Oompas (or Loompas, whichever you want to call them) work there all the time, man! I'm new! Cut me some slack!

So tonight was another night of Willy Wonka down at the Beat Kitchen. My co-worker Nick was doing some stand-up (I wonder how many of those -s I can put in one sentence? Should I push it? Dare I? No. You try it. I'm not going to do it!) with the Chicago Underground Comedy folks this evening. His set was the best of the night. A large part of his material was Willy Wonka and he had people laughing harder than they did for anyone else all night! If you ever get a hankering for some improv, check him out here: http://www.iochicago.net/ht_mr_fahrenheit.html.

Hang on

I wish I could have gotten a photo from the front to show this kid holding onto his dad's fedora as his dad carried him down the street on his shoulders before work this morning...but this one is still pretty cute.

Trimming the tree

They're trimming the trees outside! I'm up but can't start doing that after 8am at least? Anywho, this is the view out my window this morning. Beans is flipping out looking at the guy in a bucket looking in at us. It's depriving her of her favorite morning ritual of lying on furniture near the windows, looking at a bird or two and then passing out for several hours. Hurry people! My cat is going to be sleep deprived!

My bus hates me

Transportation everywhere and my bus is not to be seen. That's how I felt this morning AND tonight! I waited patiently this morning for the 147 bus. I had checked the traffic report and saw it was only 20 something minutes on Lake Shore Drive today so the bus was the ideal choice. I got a Red Eye and stood in the brilliant sun and waited. I paced around a bit, looked out down the street and then went back to reading. I read a few more pages, paced around, looked up at the train going by, looked for my bus, looked around at the crowd of other strangers waiting and then went back to reading. It wasn't until I was finished reading the paper that my bus arrived. That was something like 25 minutes after I got there. The problem was, if I had abandoned the dream of the bus ride I would have assuredly been late on the red line so I had no choice but to believe in the system.

So tonight I signed out downstairs at 6:19pm, shuffled up to the bus stop, turned on my new Andrew Bird album and waited. I chose not to read this time so I basically stared at the people in Subway getting sandwiches and then went back to staring down the street. After seeing everyone else's bus come at least twice, a half dozen trains go by, countless cabs, I began to think my bus hated me. Instead of being a helpless victim I decided to hop on the 151 - the THIRD 151 bus that had come by. I knew it would get me somewhat close to home. At about 7:40 I became that bus' only rider (because nobody takes that slow bus way up to my house!). The bus driver looked around and said, "Well, I'm your chauffer for the rest of the ride! Where do you want to go?" I told him it was my first time on this bus, we talked about other bus routes, neighborhoods, the great houses in Logan Square...it was fantastic. He was super and let me out on my block with a "Have a great night!" Of course, it was now at least 7:45pm which was way slower than even that blasted red line train. But hey, I had a great adventure and a nice chauffer.

It was all yellow

More flowers outside my house. :)

Sunny Sunday

Party hardy

I'm now going to be posting just a few images from tonight's festivities.

Vending confusion

What does this symbol look like to you? I thought it was a little fish in someone's belly or maybe a person's head in someone's belly. Ryan cleared this up by saying it's a coin going into the slot to purchase your snacks. Ahh...that Ryan! He's a genius!

Crawling with cats

We have three cats at our house. They torment Ryan during the day by hitting the litterbox around the same time. His two cats are, apparently, less used to being photographed. Unlike Beano, they don't stand still when I grab my camera OR pose. Arrrrg. They are Vashti wearing the gray coat and Ralph wearing his camouflage gear to blend in with the hardwood floor.

Setting sun

I saw the sun set at the impound lot. It felt like I went to prison.

Which is cuter?

Janet and Henry showed up at the office today. You tell me which one is cuter. I couldn't decide! Then tell me which photo is cuter!

Unexpected

This morning I ran out the door to move my car since I drove around for nearly 40 minutes last night and never found a spot. I had to park it at a meter and it was to start running at 8am. I turned the corner and saw...well...I saw nothing. My car was gone. I instantly checked my phone. At this point it said 8:01. I come inside, check the computer, find where my car is (way way south and sketchy) and call. I'm enraged. I say, "It's 8:06 now. How is it possible that you towed my car after 8am?" "Well, because we towed it before 8am. You were parked in a snow zone," she said with certaintly. And yes, after Ryan and I went back out to look, we saw the sign a little bit down. Gaaaaahhh. So, what, next time I'm supposed to park by a fire hydrant? Which is worse? Do they just ticket you by a hydrant? I guess I just have to figure that out so it'll only cost me $50 instead of $160.

So then Ryan decided to walk me to the train. As I stood there waiting for him to get an umbrella I saw the first flowers popping out in our lawn.

So what I'm out 160 bucks. I still feel happy today.

I saw the curtains first

Tonight I came home from a fun evening with Heids and Gretch, walked the big box of cereal from Costco back toward the kitchen and said, "You got curtains for the back porch?" As I set everything down I saw all the junk was gone back there...and then I looked again, rubbed my eyes, blinked four times...and I saw a new room out there. Ryan had completely redone the back porch into a room that I can work in today. LIKE cleaned the room out, went to IKEA, put up curtain rod and curtains, put together a desk, hung artwork, got me flowers...

To say that I am overwhelmed is an understatement. It's hands-down the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.

So, as I wind down so I can sleep, I want to say "Thank you, honey. I love you so much. You are the best!!"

XOXO
kk

The little ham

This little fuzzy ham gets out of her chair and stretches on the floor to look cute whenever she hears that camera turn on.

Handwriting sample

Thaaaaat's who's handwriting that is! My next-door neighbor! Anywho, looks like somebody is frustrated with the mailman, doesn't it?

Ladie's Room

After seeing a sign on Clark for "Ladie's" haircuts, I've decided to adopt this spelling. Who needs that confusion of the ' after the s? Superfluous! Ridiculous! Obtuse! Keep that ' in front of all s like it should be!

The light

...at my house, my house

I really wanted to title this post, "Daft Punk is playing at my house, my house" because I instantly thought of the LCD Soundsystem song but it kinda didn't make a whole lot of sense. But, who knows, my neighbor in the basement might play Daft Punk in his late night pumpin' dance parties that drive us crazy. Speaking of neighbors, the guys on the first floor must have put that sign out front with the doggie and I'm completely thrilled with it. The other thing I'm thrilled about is seeing the bulbs starting to come up and dreaming of how lovely our little yard is going to be. I think the guys are serious gardeners downstairs. Hoooray!

Ms. Clean

I spent much of my day cleaning. I got a hankering to disinfect the toothbrushes too.

Wintry Mix

STUPID WEATHER!
Philly is having a "wintry mix" and flights are cancelled. Subsquently, I spent the evening with the boys at the rinky dink mall and ate Ruby Tuesdays. It was our night of dabbling in all things suburban. We had fuuuuuuuunn.

divi-i-i-i-i-i-ine

I didn't bring my camera today so the best I can offer is a bad photo from my phone. We saw Of Montreal tonight. I was a bit scared to see them...hoping they would live up to my affection I have for them from hearing them and really not knowing how he'd pull off like 8 harmonies at once (yes, I know that's a run-on sentence). The show, however, was, at times, brilliant. It was amazing to see the throbbing crowd downstairs throwing their arms in the air, bouncing in unison, tossing bras on stage (YES! I SWEAR!) to a man who was wearing ladies' boots and fishnet stockings during part of the show (he had several costume changes). There was, however, my typical nemesis in the audience...the arm throwing gangsta rapper in front of me. I'm just not sure why that kind of "yo-yo-yo" arm movement and pointing with two hands is appropriate or necessary at such a show. Plus, the guy stood directly in front of me so it grated on my nerves even more. The big question is this: is he the same arm throwing guy from Belle & Sebastian? Oooh...I wonder! Oh, so in that photo, that tall bright thing is the lead singer in this giant dress-like thing over a ladder that he had on for one song. It was pretty super duper spectacular.

Still won't let me

I had a rough day. I'll give myself a break.

Won't upload photos!

Hey guys,
Sorry about the lack of photos for yesterday. It seems Blogger isn't uploading photos. As soon as it is I have some images to upload.

Thanks,
Management

Chagall

What a spectacular night for walking around the city and revisiting pubs from our past.

Heart in my pinky!

So on Saturday we wound up hitting this new market on Touhy called Grand Mart International Food. We didn't realize it was only the second day they were open. The place is certainly worth going to - tons of Korean, Japanese, Mexican, food and lots of other imports from all over. The best was the Japanese candy all over the place. Hoooray! In line to pay I saw this little tube of sugar free candy called Pinky. Actually, I had no idea what it was but I liked the shiny packaging and the cartoon characters on it. Inside were all these tiny peach-mints. They don't have any flavor of mint...just peach (those LIARS!). But anyway, today I pulled one out and it was heart-shaped. I'm assuming that there's one heart in the tube and I got it today. Just wait, tomorrow Amy will get another dang heart and I'll feel way less special but I'll blame it on the fact that I can't read Japanese and that they are LIARS anyway.

That's a good steak rub

So tonight, after being at work for something close to 10 hours straight with no lunch break today...he had dinner waiting for me when I got home. Not only did he make me dinner but he made me a really stinking good dinner. It wasn't the steak rub that made my eyes teary.

Eggs

I made egg salad!

CTA smoke

On our walk home from the Heartland Cafe, one train had someone talking really loud on the microphone. We laughed and made stupid jokes about the conductor doing a shout out to his buddies in the buildings next door. Then I looked up and saw smoke starting to come out from the under side of one of the cars. The train came to a halt and the smoke only got thicker and instantly STUNK up the whole area. We had to go down another block to walk down the street to get away from that smell and, for the rest of our walk home, that train never did start up again. It's hard to see the smoke but look closely...if there's a dark gray patch near the bottom half of a train car it's because it's burning CTA train funk.

Goatee

Oh, I guess I forgot to say that he's nurturing some new facial hair. I can't wait to see how that grows in. Meanwhile, I think I win the award for taking the best photos of him. He looks really cute when he's across the table from you.

Diva's

My morning at Diva's Tiki Hut getting my hair cut!

My Beano