Hello, Autumn, my old friend

Nothing says, "Goodbye, and hope to see you real soon" to summer like a cloudless, warm day with family, pizza, new friends, cheap books and half-price gelato at midnight. It makes fall in Chicago--the harbinger of never-ending winter--a little easier to take. Thankfully, that is precisely the kind of solstice that Mike and I were privileged to celebrate this past Saturday. Beginning late, as do all the best Saturdays, we listened to our favourite radio programme--"Wait, Wait, Don't tell me!", cleaned and had a leisurely lunch of delicious leftovers from the gourmet dinner the night before, when Mike's parents came by to begin the afternoon's festivities.

We walked through the tree lined, sun spotted streets of Hyde Park to U of C where we met up with new Div School friends from the previous night's downtown excursion. Loading on to the yellow school bus, we headed up LSD to Navy Pier where we met up with some of Mike's siblings and took an architectural boat tour to find out the history of Chicago's very distinctive skyline. Faces kissed by summer-feeling sun and the reminder-wind telling us that fall was right around the corner, it was a wonderfully pleasant and informative trip with fascinating history of may buildings that were before nameless to me.

Leaving downtown, we all went back to Hyde Park and continued our architectural sensitivity by looking around U of C. After a bite to eat at Giordano's we were all pretty tired. However, after the family left, midnight madness was only beginning. 57th street came alive after 9:30 where Powell's had a fabulous 50% off sale, and so did the Istria cafe. We got to scope out and enjoy the deals and deliciousness that was the last few hours of summer in Hyde Park with some of our new friends from the Divinity School. Now that is the way to ring in the fall, summer style!

So after just over a month in our new place, we are finally settling in to our fall routine with Mike in class full-time and doing work as a research assistant. Not the first day of school, but it was close...:

Venturing out in Hyde Park

Well, for maybe one of the last days before it got pretty cold here, we took a long walk around the neighborhood. We got as far south as 57th street, under the Metra tracks where we tried out a coffee shop/cafe' that we had heard a lot of good things about--The Istria Cafe'. And let me tell you, it was worth the wait and worth the hype. Here is us enjoying some FANTASTIC gelato--I got coconut, and Mike, lemon...

Then, since it was such a great night, we went for a walk along Promontory Point, and saw the sunset (of course it wasn't over the lake, but it was nice nonetheless). Here are some shots by the lake, and of the skyline...

two months, three moves, four jobs, and 1 international trip later...

Yes, it has been awhile. And yes we have had several requests to post. But after all this time, too much has happened to fit in a blog. We are going to get better about posting, and when I say "we" I mean, undoubtedly, me. So, here is the skinny.

Two months--
In the last post we showed you pictures of our future place, just about a month before we moved into it. Now we have been here for a month and are all settled in and loving it. Here are some pictures of the view:
And here are some pictures of the sunrise near our place:
Three moves--
Leaving our DeKalb sublet situation in the beginning of August, we moved briefly into my former boss' house (also in DeKalb) while they were on vacation and we were otherwise homeless. Unfortunately, the wanted to come home much before we wanted to leave their very comfortable, spacious and quiet house, and we moved for the second time in two weeks to my very generous in-laws home for a couple days. Then comes the discrepancy about the third move--two days later, we moved all of our stuff (REMARKABLY) into U-Haul's very biggest trailer, and a truck bed, and an emptied out van (and the trunk of our car, and another couple trips...). While I just count this as step one of the final BIG move into our Hyde Park home, you may differ, and are welcome to it--it helps the pitious sounding-ness of the end of our summer. Finally, on August 15 we moved into the apartment that we have no intention of leaving anytime soon. Here are some move pictures:

Four jobs--
And that's just in the last week! After saying good-bye to the sweet situation at the Laundry Lounge and Tan (and with it my fakey tan), I have been in high job-search gear--maybe a little TOO high. Of course, I have been teaching at Trinity College ever since August 23, but this was still going to leave me quite a bit of time on my hands. So, I started a job dog walking near where I am taking a class (at Loyola) in Rogers Park. Realizing at just about the same time as I got another job as barista at The Grounds of Being coffee shop that it was a huge toll on me and the car to have the burden of a daily additional commute to the entirely opposite side of the city, I, not so gracefully, backed out of it just recently. This takes away some of my car-dependency and allows me to stay nearer home, two things that I really like (especially since "home" means Hyde Park). In addition to these permanent situation jobs, I also joined Mike and the Fay's crew at the yearly Sandwich fair this past weekend as table-wiper-upper and meat server. What a fun, though very tiring couple days. I can't complain though, since I was only there for part of the day, and got to be inside the tent--not near the fires outside for the whole day like Mike. Anyway, next week, dividing my time only between the coffee shop and TIU, should be just right--for now, that is...

1 International trip--
Yes, for those of you who haven't yet heard, this was the trip to Toronto to finish my MA with my MA defense. Thankfully, it was just days before I needed it done-- to teach undergraduates at Trinity. Our next Canadian trip is planned for Mike's defense in early November--how exciting! Here are some pictures of Ontario, but not the defense: