Vida

Guys, things have been insane.  I'm at the typical point in my summer where I just feel exhausted.  And then I think, 'Good job, Lisa, you've done good with summer.'  Here in Chicago, where we have 4 months of lovely weather (in my opinion) a year, you have to make the most of it.  And every summer around this time, I start to feel the exhaustion set in. Also, I noticed during my wake-up call Wednesday, the days are getting shorter, friends.  Boo. So let's see, what have I been up to? Lots of time outside.  This whole central A/C thing in our new place is really throwing me off.  It's the first time I've had central A/C since I lived with my parents 11 years ago and I am not used to waking up and not immediately knowing what the weather is like.  So patios are all the sweeter. We moved!  We successfully moved.  Moving weekend was not fun at all.  Not at all.  But we saved so much money and I was sore for probably 4 days.  (I'm counting that as

Of course I'm following the story of the bicyclist who was hit by a flat bed truck and killed Tuesday morning on Milwaukee Avenue.  It made me cry when I first read about it (although I think I'm starting to become more of a crier).  Milwaukee is one of the few Chicago streets I actually feel felt like I could let my guard down just a little bit. I read a comment that stated: " The city absolutely needs to be held accountable for their negligence in failing to protect both cyclists and motorists. The array of construction projects on Milwaukee have eaten away at the bike lane and often there is no adequate signage or markings provided to indicate where cyclists are entitled to ride. I ride this stretch every day and it's terribly unsafe during commuting hours. This was entirely preventable, and a tragedy for both the dead cyclist and the driver of the vehicle who has to bear the guilt of this accident." I get the outrage from bikers.  (Today one smashed the

When we moved a couple weeks ago we used a U-Haul truck to make the move.  It was A LOT of work.  A lot.  It's possible we will not do it ourselves again...  The only thing that made us feel better is how much money we saved!   As we drove our U-Haul all over Chicago, one stop in Wicker Park, to Logan Square, to Lakeview, to Logan Square, I noticed a sign that they will reuse boxes.  This excited me!  Almost all our boxes were already used before we packed and they had more life to them.   They even say you can leave the boxes in the U-Haul when you return the truck.  We did not have time to fill the truck with boxes before we returned it, but we took some boxes over the next day.   No need to just put them in the recycling bin.  Recycling is good.  Reusing is better! U-Haul actually has several programs. Need to connect with someone while you're looking for boxes or done with yours?  www.uhaul.com/Exchange/ Check out Take a Box, Leave a Box:   www.uhaul.com/Article

We moved!  We're in our new place and we just got wifi.  Wahoo! I definitely broke in the kitchen quickly.  I was making a panini type sandwich for a potluck get together so I preheated the oven.  The next thing I knew the fire alarm was going off.  Let me tell you they did not skimp on a very loud fire alarm.  Ahhhhhhhh I opened the oven, which I know you're not supposed to do.  In the moment, I think I needed to see what I was dealing with.  There were definite flames.  Ahhhhhhhh So I called Mike while trying to google what to do.  He was super calm the entire call while I freaked out (it probably helped that he couldn't see the smoke billowing out of the oven).   He said to throw baking soda on it.  I did.  It seemed to fizzle but came back. I searched the apartment for a fire extinguisher (maybe I should have looked for one before this moment). This is while I kept trying to silence the fire alarm (to no avail) and open windows to let out smoke. Then Mike