before 32

31 things I want to do before turning 32:

 

- make homemade smores (homemade marshmallows and graham crackers- have made both before at different times...  am dreaming about how good these would be as a smore)

- send an unexpected package

- wake up early and go on a photo walk to catch the soft early morning light

- go on an impromptu day trip

- give a new life to a side table

- reupholster a chair

- print the honeymoon album

- frame the prints i have been gathering

- make a little picnic napkin thingy

- train for a marathon

- make homemade crackers and goat cheese

- send an unexpected package to family

- go to an outdoor concert

- visit a photography exhibit

- stop saying "ya think" (yeaaaaah I am mature sometimes)
- take a photo course
- file photos of our primary home furnishings
- make it a practice to shut everything down early enough to leave a few minutes for reading before bed
- wear skirts and dresses more often

- dress up for a date

- plan weekends that have no plans

- go to a second annual movie in the park night

- make homemade jam

- have a barbeque

- spend an afternoon in China Town

- spend an afternoon at the beach

- ride my bike to brunch

- go on 4 more hikes out of the 60 Hikes books

- go on the Architecture Tour on the Chicago river

- finish the Fundamentals of Photography book

- clean out my closet (really clean it out) (on my path to decluttering in 2010!)

I better get busy as I only have three months!

First Dining on the Patio of the Season

Friday night was planned to be a couple run followed by grilling burgers.  But as we headed home on the first completely lovely spring weather evening for the past couple of weeks Dan planted the seed for taking the dogs up to Roscoe and eating at one of the places with patio seating.  After sitting in an office wishing to be outdoors, it was a pretty tempting idea.

 

So the run was replaced with an absolutely awesome evening that included beers, dinner on the patio, a very long walk to Whole Foods for mint (for mojitos of course), a bouquet of daisies, and a movie.  It was awesome.  And gave us a little reminder on why we deal with the long winters.

Welcome Spring?

It is amazing the difference 24 hours can make in the weather.

Last Friday we had an amazing spring day, the temps were lovely, the sun was shining, and spirits were high...

The next morning we awoke to a blustery, snow filled day.

It has been cold and blustery ever since that little glimpse of warm spring weather last week.  Bleh.

A Literary Sunday

In a quest to get out of the house, do something different, and maybe add in a bit of culture but do so with minimal money spending we found ourselves having a literature soaked Sunday.  There was an exhibit at the Harold Washington Library on the Burnham plans for the city so I used this as an excuse to visit the library.

The exhibit was not exactly what we had in mind... but the library itself was an amazing building.

After the library we found ourselves in Wicker Park wandering around... and I was able to get Dan to go to a used book store.  I was amazed when he was game for heading into Myoptic Books as it is not typically his scene.  But the mood was just right for browsing around and making discoveries.

A couple days later we were in Lincoln Square and Dan exclaimed "Oh there is a used book store, we should check it out"... I am loving this change.  It was a very lovely afternoon.

Changing the Jeep's Oil

It's been a while since I have changed the oil in a car, or SUV for that matter.  Most of my mechanic skills are applied to the motorcycle, which I do everything for, so this was the first time changing the oil in the Jeep. 

After jacking it up and securing it on stands I slid underneath to discover a huge transfer case skid plate.  Removing it was a challenge since it had four bolts attaching it to the frame and I didn't want it to land on my face, so my chest was volunteered.  Next I loosened the oil drain bolt, placed my oil pan underneath and unscrewed the bolt by hand till what seemed like 10 gallons of oil came pouring out.  Removing the oil fill cap let the remaining oil drain out till I was able to remove the oil filter using a combination of swearing and cursing to remove it.  

Attaching the new oil filter was the first step, then tightening the drain bolt and finally measuring how much oil I took out gave me an idea of how much I had to put in, the full 7 quarts.  When I was finished putting the new Mobil 1 oil into the Jeep I started it up, checked the bolt and filter, and made sure the oil level was in the green. 

Disposing of used oil is the one thing Illinois does pretty good.  You just have to put it into either a clean container, or the containers of the new oil and take it to any repair shop that does oil changes.  They have to take the oil, add it into their stockpile and have it picked up by a recycling truck.  No additional cost to you. 

Overall it cost me about $40 bucks for Mobil 1 5w20 fully synthetic oil and filter, a far cry from the $95 you pay at some shop for the same service. 

Best thing is, I don't have to do it again for 10,000 miles.  Leave it to my wife to take artistic pictures of an oil change.  Cheers!

A November Walk

It most certainly is November.  Today was blustery, cold, gray, and just about as November as it could be, especially when compaired with the recent relatively warm days.  Earlier in the day we decided that tonight we would use up the remaining ingredients from our sushi making night and have homemade california rolls but we needed more wasabi powder so an outing to Old Town was added to the agenda.

We have always loved walking around the Old Town area and that section of Lincoln Park.  I find this area of town to be inspiring and all together lovely.  And during a late fall afternoon it has the extra charm of quieter sidewalks than say an afternoon in August.  Yesterday we took a walk around our current neighborhood and while I had taken the camera with me, I didn't feel inspired to take a single picture.  This afternoon I was busy trying to sneak in as many shots as I could before Dan's patience was thoroughly tested.

We ended up walking through a courtyard where some of our wedding photos were taken so took a quick family portrait...

A New Leaf is one of my favorite places in the city.  I sometimes have made sly suggestions on routes for afternoon walks so that we would end up walking by but today no extra coniving was required as it was on our route.  They did not disappoint me...

But once we hit the edge of the park there was not a chance of getting out the camera as Shelby's feet started flying.  That little dog was ecstatic to be in Lincoln Park.  It has only been two weeks since our Halloween walk but that must be an eternity to her compared to the days when it was nearly our front yard.  She ran us straight to the beach with only a few breaks to play with some friendly dogs.

Shelby prefers these fall beach trips as they are significantly less crowded and she doesn't have to worry about being squished by all the foot traffic.  Both the dogs had a blast running on the sand.

This little lucky husband gets to spend more time walking dogs when I tote along the camera. 

Then after a walk down memory lane of Clark and Shiller streets we hit the Spice House.  This is becoming one of Dan's favorite places to haunt. 

This time I am the one holding the dog leashes while he disappears.  I think I love this place even more since they let me know that I could bring the dogs in while I waited instead of standing in the cold.  But then just imagine two wild little monsters in a spice store.  I think they were in heaven.  Each one of them got a chance to go off with Dan and do some shopping.  Yup, they thought they were pretty important.  Eddie may or may not have snuck his nose into a spice jar and into a lady's basket.

My pictures at the Spice House were not quite what I wanted.  It is quite the challenge to hold a wild thing's leash in one hand and take a non-blurry photo at a shutter speed of 1/4.  I am curious if they would let me bring in my tripod next time... There is just to many great photo ops in there so I am tempted to ask or maybe just go on a sunny day.

It was quite the fun little afternoon.  And the sheer November-ness of the day made it feel like Thanksgiving really could be approaching very soon. 

Fall Fun in Chicago

The weather this fall has been all around pretty crummy but we have had a few nice days where we escaped rainstorms and were able to head out for a nice brisk fall walk.  The dogs are loving the cooler temperatures and all the new scents that come with a changing season.

It is funny how many places go all out for Halloween decorations these days.  I remember a couple of paper skeletons and pumpkins that we put in the windows back when I was a kid but now people are decked out with lights, generator powered pumpkins, and all kinds of cobwebs with googly-eyed spiders...

All the decor is fun for a change of scenery.  And here we thought we were going all out with jack-o-lanterns this year!  It was our first year doing pumpkins and the dogs thought we were a little nutty as it was a lot of work and in their opinion did not result in anything tasty.

Can you guess which pumpkin was carved by Dan and which one was by me? 

October was both a super slow and a super fast month.  Though the crunching of leaves underfoot, extra layers for the walks, and meals in the crockpot for a movie night were a pretty lovely start to fall.