June 30, 2009 by kim.

Today, June 30th, is my 3rd Blog-i-versary! Hooray! For three years now I’ve been entertaining you (and me) with this little blog of mine! What do you think?

Here are my June 30th posts over the years:

Pretty full of myself, aren’t I?

I should go out and get a cake!

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June 29, 2009 by kim.

MONTH
Blueberry Month
http://www.blueberry.org/contenidos.php?seccion=1&categoria=1&codigo=70

Cell Phone Courtesy Month
http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200806/1214496916.html

National Horseradish Month
http://www.horseradish.org/homepage.html

WEEK
International Chicken Wing Weekend - July 3, 4, 5
http://www.tgicws.com/

National Independent Retailers Week - July 19-25
http://www.profitsplus.org/national_independent_retailers_week.htm

DAYS

10th - Cow Appreciation Day
http://www.cowappreciationday.com/

15th - Saint Swithin’s Day
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/stswithun.html

17th - Wrong Way Corrigan Day
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?id=5184&action=tdihArticleCategory

22nd - Spooners (spoonerism) Day
http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/quotations/spooner_oxford.html

30th - Cheesecake Day
http://www.chiff.com/a/national-cheesecake-day.htm

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June 27, 2009 by kim.

Last Saturday, June 20th, Chris and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary! Yay us!! We celebrated by bumming around town a bit. We took an architectural boat tour, watched the movie UP, and went bowling … all before 2:00pm! We’re early risers.

Here are some shots of the city (taken by Chris) from the boat which sailed on the Chicago River and Lake Michigan:

Chicago as seen from the boat on the river

Chicago with the John Hancock Center in the center as seen from the lake

Chicago with the Trump Tower in the center as seen from the lake

The Tribune Tower as seen from Ogden Slip

The Trump Tower and The Tribune Tower as seen our walk on the way to the movie theater

Here is a ticket stub to prove that we did indeed see the movie UP:

And here are a couple of pictures of us bowling at Lucky Strike:

We didn’t have much luck at the Lucky Strike bowling alley, which is why I’m not posting our scores. Chris didn’t do too bad, but I’ve never bowled so terribly! We were next to a wall, and the darkness plus the crazy flashing lights affected our (my) game …

Seriously. It did.

All in all, we had a wonderful anniversary day and we look forward to many, many more!

Posted in Celebrate | 1 Comment »

June 25, 2009 by kim.

I am SO SAD that Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson BOTH died today. I know Farrah was sick, but Michael? That took me by surprise.

We also found out that our beautiful little car, Suzi, is totaled. Done for. Dead. Kaput. Drowned by the storm.

We were so depressed, we broke our moratorium on McDonald’s and grabbed some burgers and fries to ease our pain.

2001 – 2009

I’m off to drown my sorrows in a chocolate shake.

Posted in News | 1 Comment »

June 24, 2009 by kim.

Well, we really have no news about our car yet. Apparently a large number of people brought their cars to the body shop after we had on Friday. When we talked to the owner of the shop, he said that the insurance company was classifying the storm as “catastrophic” and that it would take time for them to get through processing all the cars. Meanwhile, we’re still using our rental car, and boy – is that thing smooth. We can barely feel all the potholes that are so prevalent in Chicago!

Anyway, I thought I would share these pictures of a car we drove by in our neighborhood. We are so thankful that this didn’t happen to us:

Amazing what nature can do.

Posted in Nature, Observation | No Comments »

June 19, 2009 by kim.

… it pours. And pours. And pours.

Today we had one of the heaviest rainstorms that Chris can remember. I say Chris only because I was at work and didn’t get to witness the torrential downpour firsthand.

It rained so hard that it flooded our street:

That’s our car in the back of the picture. Look how high the water was:

Chris took those pictures to show me how bad it was. When I got home, we decided to check out the car to see if there was any damage.

There was.

The floor of the car was flooded:

We just sat there, stunned. The water didn’t look like it came up that high in the pictures! What happened? We called our landlord (he lives downstairs) to see if he had a Shop-Vac we could use to get the water out. He did, and he helped us. However, even though half the Shop-Vac filled with water, the water in the car came seeping back. We had a much bigger problem on our hands.

We called our insurance company and they referred us to a body shop. Off we went. I decided to take a little video of the sloshing water in our car, which can be seen here:

The guy at the body shop took one look and knew that this was going to be a big job. We had to leave our car, and he called Hertz to get us a rental car to use until ours could be fixed:

We might not know until Monday whether or not we can take our little Suzi Suzuki home again.

Poor Suzi!

Posted in News, Nature, Observation, Annoyance | 3 Comments »

June 18, 2009 by kim.

Chris and I found this building to be kind of cute:

The top sign was a little confusing, if you tried to read it from left to right:

It was easier to understand if you read it in three sections from top to bottom:

And:

That’s the point, right?

Posted in Observation | No Comments »

June 15, 2009 by kim.

Chris and I decided to attend Andersonville’s Midsommarfest this past weekend. No, I didn’t spell it wrong. Andersonville is a Swedish neighborhood in Chicago, and Midsommar is Swedish for Midsummer. So there.

Anyway, we walked up and saw that according to the sign, it cost $5 to get in:

Really? Most street fairs don’t charge admission. They generally make enough from selling overpriced food. I wasn’t sure I really needed to go in there, but Chris convinced me, so we went. We paid our $5 each, got our hands stamped, had some papers shoved at us, and off we went. I was given raffle tickets we could buy (we didn’t) and Chris had some other flier that he folded and put into his pocket. We began to wander.

It wasn’t really any different than any other street fair we’ve been to. There were various tents housing art, henna tattoos, clothes, knickknacks, food, and beer. Loud music was playing from three different stages and throngs of people were milling about. Not really our scene.

People milling about

After going into a couple of shops to look around and get away from the noise, we decided to leave. We made our way through the crowd and emerged on a side street. As an afterthought, I asked Chris if I could see the piece of paper he had put into his pocket. When I looked at the teeny tiny fine print, I saw it:

SUGGESTED and DONATION means that we wouldn’t have HAD to pay to enter the fair! Not that we wouldn’t have given a donation if we were so inclined, but we didn’t like the fact that they made it seem like we were required to pay to get in when we really weren’t.

I feel so duped!

Posted in Celebrate, Observation | No Comments »

June 10, 2009 by kim.

My Uncle Topsy had a birthday last Friday and a gathering on Saturday at his studio to listen to his new RUSH Tribute Band, Vital Signs (http://vitalsignstribute.com/). Awesome as always!

Vital Signs

Topsy

Vital Signs members: Dan (Goober) Lautenschlager, Walter (Topsy) Phillips, Brian Le May

It also turned into a kind of impromptu Phillips Family reunion, with five of the seven siblings in my Dad’s family present as well as numerous cousins:

Back Row: cousin Brad, dad Dana, uncle Dave, uncle Bill, uncle Topsy, cousin Michael, cousin Robert, cousin Craig

Front Row: cousin Krystle, me, brother Kari, cousin Mark, aunt Linda, cousin Keith, aunt Patty

Rock on!

Posted in Fun, Entertainment, Celebrate, Happy | No Comments »

June 3, 2009 by kim.

A lot of times when we are driving (I should say, when Chris is driving and I’m riding along), I see cars and trucks that end up in little groups of red, white, and blue together. It doesn’t have to be in that order, either. It could be white, red, and blue. Or blue, red, and white.

You get the point.

I finally was able to take some pictures of this crazy phenomenon:

See if you can do it!

Posted in Observation | No Comments »