Celeb Sighting (Updated with brighter pics)

Last night I met my girlfriends, Sarah and Erica, at the Crimson Lounge for a charity event benefiting breast cancer research. Normally I'm a total bum on Friday nights and go straight home and pass out on the couch at 8:30 from my exhausting week. But the highlight of this event was that celebrity DJ Samantha Ronson (better known as Lindsay Lohan's girlfriend) was spinning at the event, so I gladly passed up my normal Friday night activities for the chance to see someone famous (the only celebrity I've ever seen was Cate Blanchett in a diner in Rome). Anyway, it ended up being really fun, and it was for a good cause. I'm nursing a bit of a hangover today, and I didn't catch any glimpses of Lindsay, but it was fun to hang out with the girls.

Erica, Sarah and me




The first of many pictures of Samantha

John's Typical Evening Activity

Rock band with Simon

Ice Skating at Millennium Park

We've lived here for nearly four years, and we finally made it to the ice skating rink at Millennium Park last Saturday. John, Steph, and I went for dinner at The Gage on Michigan Avenue, then headed across the street for a little skating. I hadn't been on skates for 10 years or so, so I was a little rusty, but it was a lot of fun. In fact, John liked it so much that we are considering getting our own skates so we can skate for free at any of the outdoor rinks whenever we want, at least until the end of this month when they close for the season.

Nature Museum

It's been so snowy and cold that we've been spending most of our time inside (unfortunately for me, inside my office). But a couple of weeks ago, in our continuing efforts to be cultural, John and I ventured out to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park. Everything in the museum was pretty gross -- lots of stuffed dead animals and nasty little bugs pinned into bulletin boards. The highlight was probably the butterfly garden - a tropical-ish room full of butterflies. Normally that sort of thing would have creeped the heck out of me, but it wasn't so bad. At least it was warm in there! The whole thing reminding me of this really great book I read last year called I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crossley, where the author volunteered at the New York nature museum and was assigned to the butterfly room, and she spent all her time being completely terrified of this huge nasty Atlas moth in the exhibit.

Overall, the museum was neat - just geared to people much younger.

One of the residents of the butterfly garden.

Gross bug collection. Ick.

M.I.A.

Long time, no post - we know. We have lots to catch up on, that's for sure. For one, it's been totally freezing around here. It was lovely this week when we were lucky enough to hit 32 degrees - it felt like a day in the tropics.

Speaking of the tropics, we just returned from a nice weekend in the sunny oasis that is Scottsdale. John played lots of golf with his dad, and I ran a half marathon with my mom and her friend, Luanne. Note to self: you should probably train for half marathons. I was sort of in denial about this race. And although the running itself wasn't bad, the pain I was in after (and still am experiencing, thank you very much) was unbearable. I have a wicked case of shin splints and officially have cankles because of all the swelling in my shins. Lovely. I have to say, it was fun, and I'm planning on doing another half in Seattle in June and here in Chicago in August.

We promise to do better about posting. But really, until relatively recently, we didn't have much to say.

Luanne, Me, and Mom - yay, we finished!

Probably the grossest picture ever taken of me. To my credit, I was suffering.
And in major need of a tan.

Pretty Good Drummer

Congratulations Lisa and Niel!!!

Last night we got some really great news -- John's sister, Lisa, got engaged to her boyfriend, Niel!! Apparently he proposed while cruising down London's Thames River, with the London Eye in the background. Very romantic and cute! Lisa and Niel will be visiting the states for the fall and Christmas, and they are making a stop in Chicago, so we can't wait to celebrate this momentous occasion with them in person! Congrats you two - we are so happy for you!