oh ‘ello there blog

Well that was a bit of a breather, wasn’t it!  Not really intentional, but anyways lots to catch up on, which I will do in my characteristic “giant post with lots of pictures” format.  In other words if you have already hopped over to that Flickr link on the right, you might as well skip this one. 🙂

My Seattle trip was awesome, but I didn't actually take that many pictures. I might write more about it later, but for now let me just say it was my favorite trip out there yet.

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of my beautiful night arrival into Seattle, but I also had some great views on my departure.

I had only been back from Seattle around 24 hours, when "The Storm of the Century" blew into town and this time the weather forecasters actually got it right. Crazy winds (and thunder), over 20 inches of snow and my first TWO snow days during my time in Evanston made for a pretty thrilled Abby.

 

Wednesday afternoon I got to flex my snow-shoveling muscles and discovered that I find a perverse pleasure in clearing 3 ft drifts of snow (of the powdery type) off the front porch, I am less ethusuased about the 2 plus hours it requried to dig out my poor car.

Of course the lake was also so beautiful after high winds had scraped the beach almost clear and added layers upon layers of ice.

It was a lovely surprise on Friday after my first day back at work to come home and find a new animal in the front yard.

What can I say, I have a very talented housemate!

Then after the blizzard had settled down a bit, I went over to a neighboring house to hear an evening of music provided by some talented local singer/songwriters. Once again my housemate Anne got to show us all how amazing she is. Unfortunately my camera battery died before I got to take pictures of Jess singing some very lovely songs with her mother.

So that should bring us roughly up to date, other highlights include a rocking Chinese New Year’s party, dinner with an old friend from junior high and her adorable family, another week back at work and the quickly approaching weekend.

As an added bonus to this already way too long post, here are three things I thought were cool today:

Unhappy Meals by Michael Pollan – I finally finished reading this article that the always amazing Katie recommended on her blog recently and while long it is really worth it, especially if you haven’t read much by Pollan already.  He every so succinctly presents why nutrition in its current form isn’t the healthiest for Americans, why we should eat more food (and less of the stuff that just resembles that concept) and the dangers of trying to fix your diet with the newest health craze.

Valentines by NPR for the public radio nerds among you – I don’t normally find valentines that entertaining unless of the snarky vein, but these were both hilarious and cute.  Plus they are free to send to any and all of your friends/lovers/arch-enemies/etc.

World Press Photo Contest 2011 – I tend to find the field of photojournalism a fascinating one and this link proves over and over again the incredible power of the perfect image to inspire/sadden/frighten/disgust/comfort/etc