Some firsts!

I am currently waiting for Phil and Karen to arrive - and just received a text that they are minutes away.  No time to post now.

But just a tease - I feel like a true Chicagoan and a true chemistry teacher thanks to the "firsts" from this week.  And I am not talking about voting for mayor!

Until another day.  For now, fun with siblings.

-alan

Showers galore!

We are blessed to have great family and friends to throw us amazing parties for our baby.  Because I am growing our little guy, I get the honor of opening all the fun gifts for the baby.  I can't really remember my excitement level at my bridal shower but these parties have been pretty rad.

The shower season kicked off with a wonderfully coordinated shower hosted by my sister Sarah.  The theme was "B is for..."  All the food and decorations started with a B accompanied with decorative labels. 




B is for blanket made by Grandma Miller


B is for best friends who are great to hang out with...



Fast forward a week....This weekend we travelled to Michigan to get showered by the Allmen family.  It was great to see everyone, eat yummy food, and oogle over the completely adorable cake. 

Alan's mom did a great job giving this amazing concept to the bakers!  I hope this little guy doesn't pop out too soon!

Sharon's fruit salad pram was too cute to eat, but that didn't stop me :-)

Oh yes, the roses are baby socks!  Made by the ever-patient Karen.




The amazing diaper bear made by MomII.

The toughest game of family feud ever...we all had good laughs at our collective incompetence!

More cake shots!  I just can't resist!!!!

It was huge!!!!

With the lovely organizers, we did not get a whole group shot but a lot of other great people were there too!


Sorry this isn't a lovely narrative but it is bedtime.  I look forward to one more shower at church in March.  Overall these parties are awesome to just see everyone in one place and to get me even more excited about the little one on his way.  Feel free to continue to shower us with advice before and after he is born.  We will need it!

-rachel

Re-start the blog!

After a bit of a hiatus, I return to post on the blog.  This is mostly thanks to our early return to Chicago from Detroit this evening.  Despite the snow (heavy snow in Michigan - 9" at my Mom's house this morning) we were home at a reasonable 7pm, leaving time to unpack AND get something on the blog before bedtime.

We spent President's Day weekend in Michigan, both to visit and to attend Rachel's baby shower.  Since I was not in attendance, I cannot comment on that event...I passed the time re-living my teenage years by racing go-karts against my brother and brother-in-law at Zap Zone.  3 times around the course confirmed that being the father of a tweener apparently gives you a huge psychological advantage in the go-kart department.

With a little prodding from my brother, I spent some of the weekend looking through some things in the basement and the garage at the house.  Amazing to see how many memories of childhood are tucked away there - many toys from my siblings' time are long gone, but a lot of mine are still stored away.  Once we get a house, the question arises - will my anti-packrat efforts (spent to counteract my other half) give way to the hoarding tendancies that are so clearly in my blood?  And is that such a bad thing, when things are well organized?

In the work sphere - things are going well at my school.  I am settling more into my chemistry course, working reasonable hours without having papers piling up at home.  It is a nice place to be.  Now, I just need to keep things this way over the next couple months...to be in a good position when the baby arrives.

At home, the house is filling with baby-related paraphernelia.  Again, this is mostly Rachel's sphere (since the bounty is a result of her being "showered" with gifts) and I will withhold further comment.

Rachel at 30 weeks

Last Monday, we went out to Amelia's, a surprisingly upscale restaurant at Halsted and 46th.  It was recommended by our friend Katy, and when our primary options for Valentine's Day dinner fell through we made reservations for the un-romantic, but very teacher-friendly time of 5:30.  It was a lovely dinner, with great food and excellent service.  Thanks for the tip, Katy!

Rachel loved that her salad had a slice of warm goat cheese!

Rachel's entree was chicken with pineapple, asparagus, and fried polenta

Alan's clam chowder.  Warm and yummy!

I wanted to go Italian.  We did not, but I was not disappointed.  This plate of lobster ravioli was awesome!

Last Saturday, we attended an all-day birthing class at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.  My sense is that it was appropriately informative, but I honrestly spent much of the day in a sinus-induced haze.  I was impressed with the facilities - you get a huge private room for both labor and recovery.  It was much more hotel-like than hospital-like.  Granted, in the past 5 years I have been to more hospitals in China than I have in America, so maybe I am just behind the times.

This week will be a short, 4-day school week.  There are lots of exciting things going on:

• Municipal election.  Will Rahm win the mayoral election outright?  Who will get my vote?
• Dinner guests on Wednesday, dinner hosts on Thursday.  Fun!  Yay for social time.
• Phil and Karen are visiting this weekend.  It's not spring (snow is in the forecast tonight) but we can have some fun in Chicago anyway!

Goodnight everybody!

-alan

Sick!

It has not been a good week so far. 

Beginning on Monday afternoon, I felt it in my throat; by the evening, I felt that distinct soreness tightening around my vocal chords.  By Tuesday it was unpleasant to talk without the aid of cough drops, and while I powered through the school day, my body was wiped by Tuesday afternoon. 

I laid down for a bit on Tuesday afternoon, but we have been having furnace trouble lately.  So instead of napping I was making trips back and forth to the laundry room to check whether the gas was flowing in our furnace.  I would have curled up in a blanket and forgot about it, but we had people coming over to our house on Tuesday evening for a new church group that was starting up.  We were forced to apologize and hand out blankets to our guests, because the house never managed to get above 65 for more than a few minutes.  I left it running all night, but we woke up to 61 degrees on the thermostat.  I do not know what we will find when we go home.  Our landlord brushed off earlier complaints about it, but the recent arctic cold seems to have exacerbated the problem.  Perhaps he will be hearing from us again.

And today I am back at school - I took off enough days already, and this is just a sinus-related illness.  No fever, no flu.  Just need to tough it out.  I am doing a lab today - a synthesis and combustion reaction.  Yes, involving fire.  I am asking for trouble - hopefully I can stay vigilant.  The first period went fine...but there are only 12 students in that class!!

-alan

Snowmaggeddon Part II

The unthinkable happened - snow day #2 for Chicago Public Schools.  We slept in for the second straight day, and have taken this as a sort of Sabbath rest following all the crazy activity and travel of the past 2 weeks.  Our house is still not cleaned up, but with Rachel leaving later today for 4 days at a hotel downtown, it has been hard for me to get the momentum to clean things up.

I heard that Michigan had less than a half foot.  A good amount, but nothing compared to what we had here.  O'Hare reported 20.2 inches, making this the #3 snowfall in Chicago history.  Not bad, eh?

Things are getting cleared out - and school will resume tomorrow.  However, I have no classes (parent-teacher conferences) and Rachel will be downtown at the Model UN conference.

Here are a few images from the storm...

 

The view from our front door, looking north on Princeton.  The snow drifts tended to build on our side of the street.

Looking south down Princeton from our front door.  I had shoveled the sidewalk less than an hour previously.

Here I am in front of the car, just before digging it out.

This is the car, after being dug out.  Not bad, eh?  (I did have some help from a city worker riding around on an ATV with a snow plow attached.  But still it was a lot of work.  My back is sore today!)

We also took a pleasure trip to Quarry Park, which has a giant hill that is great for sledding.  We met some friends from church and had some fun.

 

Finally, a quick video that Rachel shot towards the end of the blizzard, as the clean-up was just getting underway.

-alan

SNOWMAGEDDON 2010

There's a lot of snow outside.  I slept in until 8:30 with no trouble - but that did not help the white mess outside go away.  I had some breakfast and went out the door - and only saw snow drifts in all directions.  The street was unplowed, and none of the sidewalk in view was cleared.  The wind made the snow drift, and the blowing snow made me feel like I was on Hoth (think Star Wars, Episode V).

I cleared one shovel-width on the sidewalk out front, and found that the drifts were waist-high in front of our house.

Then I helped some people who got stuck at the intersection - one 4-wheel drive Wrangler, and a Hummer.  Rachel had illusions of having a snow-day meet-up with her sister, but unfortunately she did not see all that.

I came in before tackling the car - the snow is piled 2-3 feet on all sides, and if not for the antenna I would hardly be able to recognize it. 

-alan

White-out

The best three things about the Blizzard of 2010?

1) Going outside your front door in Chicago and seeing a snowmobile drive by as thunder rattles the windows....and wishing you had cross-country skies while going down the street to visit a friend.
2) Replaying Y2K at the grocery store - fighting the old ladies for the last loaf of bread and standing for 30 minutes in line trying to get provisions before the storm hits.
3) Having the first snow day in 12 years in Chicago announced early enough to enjoy your evening and be able to sleep in.

Sharon and Karen were both lamenting the coming snow - knowing that a snow day was likely.  I, on the other hand, welcome it with open arms.  The house needs to be cleaned, after all.  I guess that shows who the mature, experienced educators in the family are.  (at least you can tell who is in the first year at their position!)

Happy snow day, everyone.

-alan