A Favorite Painting

It's a portrait by John Singer Sargent, at the Art Institute of Chicago. It's one of the many beautiful things I saw when I visited there with my St. Louis friend Bonnie on Tuesday. She and her family spent Monday and Tuesday night with us, so Tuesday we went out on the town.

Our beautiful day was slightly marred when we returned to my car after visiting the museum. The parking enforcer had left a ticket on my windshield-not for being illegally parked, but for having tinted windows. The fine is $250, which hurts. So today, I hate the city of Chicago and Richard M. Daley, Mayor.

For Nick

Utah Highlights

W, my nephew

Henry, Caesar and I went to Utah for a week. Here are some of the highlights:

We visited all first degree relatives, saw a few second degree ones too.

Had lunch with a few friends, including Jessica R. S. and Christy R. C. There are lots of friends I'm hoping to catch in the next visit or two (for example, Sarah and Sara.) We did catch my mom's quarterly luncheon with her childhood friends, which is always too much fun.

We went to the Utah State Fair. I hadn't been in years. Henry had his first trip down the big yellow slide. Nick said he doesn't get emotional over many things, but he was very sad to have missed the first yellow slide experience. Henry's favorite thing at the fair was the chapstick I bought. He took the lid off and put it back on repeatedly, until he finally lost the lid, then he focused on eating the chapstick.

Had a sweet pork burrito from Costa Vida, but someone stole my leftovers which put on damper on the experience. Also, I ate one of their delicious coconut Popsicles.

Shopped at NPS, where I bought Henry a jacket for $3.50. Henry had a haircut by his aunt Samantha at her beauty college. He basically took it like a boss. She also straightened my hair, which made me realize how much my current haircut is not working. I haven't done anything to change it yet, other than find a barrette.

I used my mom's "On Demand" to watch an episode of "Burn Notice," which naturally makes me think of my grandma. Oddly enough, it was her favorite show (what can I say, she was very modern.)

I am now scared to drive on Utah freeways at night. People are going upwards of 70mph, and in Utah County, the freeway is pitch black. That's so different than it is here, where 55 mph feels like speeding and everything's bright.

Of course, there were lots of things I wanted to do that we didn't. Hopefully we'll get them done soon.

Neighborhood Adventures

I dropped our car off at the dealer this morning for a repair. It's been making a horrible noise when you turn (power steering problem) but of course, it wasn't making the noise as I drove it the single mile to the dealer, and now they can't get it to make the noise either. I left the car with them, and went next door to Goodwill and then Aldi. I then had the stroller covered in shopping bags, perhaps looking a little homeless, except there was an actual child and not a bag of cans sitting in the stroller.


We passed McDonald's on the way home, so I bought a drink but faced terrible disappointment. Not only was the drink flat, but an older lady spilled coffee on my foot and sandal. She picked her tray up from the counter, loosely, with one hand, and the drink crashed on the floor. My foot was only splashed, so there was no real injury, but that coffee is one degree away from molten lava. If you are going to buy hot coffee, pick up the tray with both hands. A few minutes later, I saw her where they keep the ketchup. Her tray was covered with coffee- she had spilled the second cup of coffee they served her, just on her tray this time. Two hands, lady!

Blogging in the Sky

I'm in a chair in the sky, going 500 miles an hour. For $5, I have Internet on my southwest flight from Denver to Chicago-Midway. I didn't need it, but I bought it because I COULD. It's my first wifi plane. Henry and caesar are both asleep. Best flight ever.

How I Learned to Drive

Photographic Evidence

I finally found photographic evidence that I was once a baby. I had been suspecting that I didn't exist until I was about 12 (because I've seen pictures from that age.)

After His Haircut

Henry had a haircut yesterday, given by Nick's sister Samantha. It was very successful. Three months ago we tried there, but he had just woken up from a nap and it did not go well. This time he was well rested, fed, had a lollipop an ipod and a pez dispenser. It went much better- there was no screaming and his hair looks great.

Stereotypical

Day at the Museum

Me, my new friend, and our two kids reflected in "the Bean."

My new friend Emily and I went to the Art Institute today. As usual, the museum had many beautiful treasures. I found a painting by one of my favorite artists, Bouguereau, that I hadn't known they owned. We hurried (because Henry was only going to last so long) to hit some of the most famous highlights of the museum: Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, American Gothic by Grant Wood, the impressionist collection, and the portraits by Sargent. When Henry was showing signs of meltdown, we went outside and ate lunch by "the bean," whose real name is Cloud Gate.

Emily in front of the museum, from accross the street. On the way home, I took Emily to Aldi for her first visit/orientation- sort of Aldi Shopping 101. I love introducing people to Aldi. On our way home, H and I stopped at CVS, where our new insurance forces us to fill his prescription. Aside from our new copay being ridiculously high, the experience was SO MUCH BETTER than I've ever had a Walgreen's. In St. Louis, you could never just drop your prescription off and pick it up in a single visit. Four hours seemed to be the minimum turnover time, and that's the time they would tell you, but it would actually be longer. We were in and out with the filled prescription in twenty-minutes. I've never tested her wisdom on this before, but Heidi C was completely right- CVS was so much better.

When we got home, Caesar showed that he had really missed us. We'd been gone practically all day.

To The Rescue

One of my favorite St. Louis people is in town, visiting her husband's family. Natalie sneaked away in the wee hours of the morning (9:00) to come over to my house. I was very excited, but also very conniving. I knew Natalie has experience and taste in painting, and we all know from the pictures of my living room that I need to do some painting. She took the bait, and within moments of coming into the house, was throwing tape on the wall to create sections for sample painting. I've been accumulating samples since moving here, but I've been worried that I'll never actually make a decision.

Natalie showed me a lot of painting tricks, and in no time, she had the paint sample up and there was no mess anywhere. A lot of the tricks are to contain the mess before it even starts. This is something that would be very good for me to learn in many aspects of my life.

Here are the paint samples. Click on the picture for a larger view. There is now a poll on the blog, to ask your opinion of which color I should use. The poll is non-binding, but I'm very susceptible to peer pressure. Natalie and I felt really great about one of the colors, but then Nick came home and disagreed. In fact, he doesn't think any of them are good enough. In his view, the perfect color would be between the Toasted Cashew and Hush. Hush is a Benjamin Moore color, and the rest are Behr.

Vote in the poll, and share your thoughts in the comments section.