Two disconnected events
Now Playing: Come un fiume tu - Andrea Bocelli
1- Violet and I were out walking this morning. We've just turned the corner out from our parking lot onto the main street, and this jogger comes up to us and stops. I've seen this woman probably every morning - she wears pretty much the same noticeable thing every day, so she's easy to spot - but we've never talked before.

She says to me, "You're the person whose dog bit me, right?" Needless to say, I was shocked - Violet isn't the biting kind (and during this whole conversation, was just standing there, sniffing a tree and completely ignoring the jogger).

I reply, "No! She (meaning Violet) has never bitten anyone." At this, the jogger gives me this knowing look, as if to say, "Well, we both know better" and continues her jog.

Honestly - where would someone get the idea that it's ok to come up to another person out of the blue and accuse their dog of biting someone? (And, if you were bitten by a dog, don't you think you'd remember what the dog looked like?)

2- We got to see some Sheil folks yesterday - Fr. Ken and Katie B. were in A2 and we all went to Starbucks to chat. Jimmy reported that we got some interesting looks - I guess people aren't used to seeing priests hanging out, drinking lattes and talking about NU football at the local coffee joint :-D

Go U!
NU!

What a nice rear!
So we're watching the game... and after Tyrell Sutton scores to make it 24-13, the ESPN announcer starts talking about how Sutton has great lower body strength - and a nice rear end. I'm sure Sutton loves having comments about his butt on national TV.

Memories...
If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want--good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.

(Stolen from Crissy.)

Why does jeans shopping have to be so difficult?
Now Playing: Rancid - Radio Havana
We went shopping for jeans over the weekend. I currently own one pair of jeans in my actual size, and Jimmy's jeans were getting worn out, so the shopping excursion was needed.

After hitting a couple of stores, I once again was faced with the incredible lack of jeans that actually are made to fit the female body. Jimmy tried on about six pairs of jeans - they all fit. I tried on about 10 pairs - different brands, different styles - none of them fit. Actually, to be correct, they fit the front part of my body fine. And most of the back. But, as usual, any jeans that fit my butt are too big in the back of the waist.

Now, I don't have this problem when I buy dress pants or khakis, just jeans. Honestly, why is it so hard to design jeans that don't gape in the back? I even tried on a pair that specifically said it would not gape in the back... and it did.

----

Total side note - I had this post pretty much done, and the dog needed to be walked. Keep in mind that Violet is the calmest, friendliest dog we've known, and usually, when she meets new people, just wants to be loved. However, she does try to protect me from what she perceives as threats (the cable guy, the FedEx guy, etc.) So we're out walking our usual route, and two Mormons on their mission try to say hello to Violet. What does the sweet little puppy do? Bark like mad, with the deepest tone I've ever heard from her. Pretty darn funny - I felt bad for the guys.

Back in Chicago (again)
Yep, I'm back in town for a couple of days... and unfortunately, not going to the Sox game tonight. However, I do get to go to dinner with one of our very good friends from college and his fiancee, so that is nice.

We had a very long but fun weekend. UrbanTherapy came to visit, and their train was delayed, getting in to A2 at about 1 a.m. Of course, because of the playoffs, I was still up & working for another couple hours, so we hung out and played with the puppy for a while. Saturday, we all dragged ourselves out of bed and J & I showed T & E a little bit of A2 (some campus, some downtown) before heading home to watch the NU game. Best. Game. Ever! We cheered so loudly that we scared the dog.

After the game, we threw a housewarming party, which turned into a "Let's watch sports in HD party," and tried to stay up to watch the Pads get eliminated. Yes, there has been a dearth of posts about the Pads in the postseason - because they were pretty darn bad. I mean, I didn't think it was possible to ground into a double play almost every single inning of a three-game series, but they managed. And, Jake Peavy is an idiot. In any case, I fell asleep before the end of the game, but I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything. At least the Western Division champs stuff I plan to get is going to be on sale soon!

I have to admit to getting on the train yesterday with some trepidation, but there were only about an hours worth of delays. Much better. Here's hoping tomorrow's train will actually be on time!

Pads Clinch!
The Padres won the West last night! Go Pads!

I got the final inning play-by-play from J on the train home, which took 12 hours (instead of the 4.5 scheduled). What fun. We stopped moving three times - once for a signal that was out (45 mins), once for for a drawbridge that was up (30 mins), and finally because the snowplow on the front of the train hit a rail, bent under the engine, and ground the train to a halt, knocking out all power on the train (3 hours). I left the office in Chicago at 5 p.m. yesterday and arrived home at 5:30 a.m. this morning. Yay! Oh well, at least I got home safely.

Couch moving video and more
Now Playing: Bears vs. Bengals
Wow, we haven't posted in a while. Been meaning to put this video up for a while, so here goes:

In case you wanted to relive it, here's what happened when we tried to shove our couch down the stairs, featuring great quotes from Laz and Nick.



And, in case you were wondering the outcome of the couch story: The building was able to get the couch out on top of the elevator, without damaging it (more than we did when trying the stairs, at least). We then managed to convince the board of directors of the building management company that they should ship the couch to us at the location of our choice (hooray for UrbanTherapy living in another of the management co.'s buildings and their/our "influence" over Chicago residents). By this point in the tale, however, we had moved into our apartment in A2 and realized that moving the couch in here would have been just as big of a pain as moving it out of Chicago. So, we had the management co. ship the couch to J's parents in Rock Island, who were in the market for a couch anyways. At least this way, we can still visit the old couch.

What else have we been doing for the past three weeks, you ask?

Well, I've had my first two trips back to Chicago. The first time, J came along to finish up some work in his old lab; the second trip was solo. UrbanTherapy & I went to Pockets for dinner (yum, I miss Pockets in AA - we don't have Chipotle here either). Then, Ms. E and I crashed on the bed in my teeny-tiny, story-inspiring hotel room (read Troy's story here, although the room wasn't THAT bad) and watched the season premiere of Gilmore Girls (Luke, shockingly, said yes).

Back in A2, J and I have been putting the finishing touches on the decor. Our dining table was finally delivered last week, and we've been enjoying not having to eat all our meals at the breakfast bar. We also got a grill for the patio - so now we can grill more than our George Foreman could possibly handle at one time!

We've also been teaching Violet some new tricks - she already knew "sit" and "come here," so we've been working on "stay," "sit up," "lay down," and we started "shake" today. She picked up "sit up" in one night!

And, we got a box in the mail from the U of C bookstore Friday - containing bound copies of J's thesis! Yay!

We went apple picking yesterday, and they had really cool sunflowers at the orchard - here's a photo of J and Violet enjoying the outdoors.

Other than that, nothing much new to report. HD football rocks! How did NU manage to lose yesterday? Listening to the Lions postgame on the radio last week was really fun :) although the Bears seem to be sucking this week to make up for the game last week.

We're throwing a housewarming on Oct. 8 - want to come?

Picture Time!
Photos of the new doggy...

Jimmy & Violet chilling on the couch.

Violet in her bed (sticking her head under our bed).

And of the new apartment...

The living room - that's Violet's towel on the sleeper sofa and Jimmy's bike on the balcony.	Other side of the living room - yep, that's a fireplace :)	Kitchen - we're having a bit of a organizational crisis here.
Dining Room (the new table and chairs have yet to arrive).	Guest bath - with our CTA map shower curtain. Come visit :)	Office. I sit here (a lot).
	Bedroom (Violet's bed is on the left side. She was sleeping in it when this photo was taken.)

Apart from the kitchen and the boxes in the office, we're pretty much unpacked and settled in.

Violet's a pretty calm dog. She's a total love sponge, and has to be near us all the time - by my desk when I'm working, by our bed when we're in the bedroom. Jimmy took her to the vet today and she got a clean bill of health, which is great, and we've all been enjoying exploring the neighborhood together.

Continuing our tales and tribulations (at long last)
Moving story first... then news at the end :)

So, moving actually started on Friday, August 19, when we got a phone call from U-Haul saying that the equipment we had ordered hadn't "landed" in Chicago yet. We were told to await a phone call later that day with the time and place where we could pick up our truck and car transporter. The call never came. Saturday morning, we packed and sorted with U-Haul's fantastic hold music as the background on speakerphone, trying to find our truck. Finally, we got a call on the other line telling us that we could get our truck, but they wouldn't have the car transporter until later Saturday. We figured, fine, at least we can load the truck. However, the truck U-Haul had available was not the 17-footer ordered, but a monstrous 26-footer (suitable for moving small houses). We decided to go with it, picked up the huge truck and brought it back to the building.

We ended up with about 15 people helping us move out of the apartment in Hyde Park, and one of the first things we tried to do was get our couch out to the truck. A bunch of the guys turned the couch on end, got it into the hallway and to the elevator – but the couch wouldn't fit. None of us could believe it – the couch had fit into the elevator when we moved in, and therefore should fit back into the elevator so we could move out. However, in the interim the elevator had been remodeled, and decorative molding was added about 4-6 inches below the ceiling. Short of ripping out the molding (which believe me, we wanted to do), our couch just wasn't going to fit. The guys then tried to shove the couch down the indoor emergency stairs, but no luck. We thought about using the outdoor fire escape, but the building manager shot that idea down. Then the maintenance guy had a brilliant idea – put the couch on top of the elevator car, take the car down to the basement, and offload the couch on the first floor. But the building manager wouldn't let us do that, either.

Meanwhile, everyone was moving the rest of our boxes and bags out to the truck (which looked even more ridiculously large without a couch in it) and our apartment was pretty much empty. Anthony supervised the truck loading, and everything we owned (sans couch) made one layer on the floor of the truck. We were still awaiting a phone call from U-Haul about our car transporter, and at this point seriously thought we were leaving both the car and the couch in Chicago. Since the apartment was empty, we said goodbye to everyone helping, and turned in our keys to the building manager. As we were preparing to leave the car for 10 days, we got a call from U-Haul – they had a tow dolly for us! We said farewell to our couch, shut the truck and headed for the U-Haul on 25th and King Drive.

Once at the U-Haul place, Jimmy and the gigantic truck had an unfortunate run-in with a concrete pylon while we attempted to get the car on the tow dolly (Word to the wise- ALWAYS get the insurance when you rent a moving truck...). Then the U-Haul guy "helping" us told us to turn the blinkers on in the car, to prevent it from getting hit (I guess he was out of the little magnetic lights).

At long last, at about 5 p.m., we hit the road to Ann Arbor. We stopped to put some gas in the truck and hit the $50 limit without even making a dent in the truck's gigantic gas tank, but decided to leave it at that and see how far we could go. We had to drive about 45 mph the whole way, thanks to the trailer, and got to Ann Arbor at about midnight ET. Then we tried to take the car off the tow dolly. Surprisingly, running your blinkers for six hours makes your battery die, so we had to wait for Hyundai motor services to come jump the car (woo! for unlimited roadside assistance for 2 more months).

We finally got into our apartment at about 1 a.m. and crashed in our sleeping bags in our new living room. At 10 a.m., the folks from Jimmy's new lab showed up to help unload the truck – and we were done by 11:30. We spent much of the rest of the day unpacking, rested a little, and continued to unpack for the next week.

Our cable guy came on Tuesday to hook up the TV and internet, which we had for about 5 hours before they turned it off again, since we were still on some mysterious "disconnect list." But the guy came back out again Wednesday to re-hook us up, and got us off the list (yay).

At this point, pretty much everything is organized and out of boxes. The pictures are hung on the walls, and we're feeling at home.

And big news – we've adopted a dog! She's a two-year old mutt named Violet. Photos of Violet, and the new apartment, will be posted soon, we promise.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us move. We couldn't have done it without you, and we miss all you Chicago people already!