Month: June 2013

Father’s Day

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On Sunday we picked E up at noon and decided to have lunch at Lone Star Steakhouse since there is one between his house and my parents’ (our final destination) in good old Crestwood, IL which happens to be one of my old stomping grounds. Even with a $5 off coupon our meal came to just over $60 (including tip), but damn was it good! I got the five star filet, E got a sirloin, and Joe got a sirloin with chicken breast. It’s probably a good thing that there isn’t a Lone Star by us anymore because I just love their steaks but cannot afford to eat there often, and much to my disappointment Discover card doesn’t offer a gift card via their cashback program for them even though they do for the inferior Outback Steakhouse.

Side note: I just ordered a Buffalo Wild Wings gift card from them and am looking to visit the newly built one that replaced the local Ruby Tuesday. I hope their food is good! We had their wings once several years ago so I can’t remember what they were like.

We killed some time after lunch by taking the “scenic” route to my parents’, including crossing into Indiana to get some gas and then riding past my grandparents’ old house (ahhh… memories – I spent my whole summers there for years). When we got to my parents’ we immediately headed to Brother #1’s room in the basement to hook up the new computer he had commissioned us to build him. He got the works, including new speakers and an HDMI monitor. I must admit, I’m slightly jealous, because there’s nothing better than a brand new computer, but I’m pretty happy with my machine overall so I really can’t complain. Plus we made $100 for doing the work. :)

After dinner and two rounds of Aggravation we had to leave to drop E off and get home at a decent hour since Joe had to work.

As for me, I’m still looking for work but not aggressively. I’m looking forward to the 1st week in July when Joe is off and E will be staying with us as we have a bunch of fun things planned and in years past I’ve always had to miss some of that time working. That being said, I spoke with a recruiter today and if she finds me something interesting I will definitely consider it but I don’t just want to end up at any old job. I have a feeling the right thing will come along. Despite how much I worry about money and the future (and trust me, I worry about it a lot), on the flip-side I’m actually optimistic that things will work out in the end and I will find the fulfillment I crave.

My College Buddy

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Last Friday I drove to Rockford to see my college friend, Jessica, whom I haven’t seen in over 12 years. We’ve kept in touch, sporadically, over the years via email and the occasional phone call, but with her spending some of those years living in North Carolina and then having babies, the time was just never right to get together. I’ve got a lot of free time on my hands so I figured I’d go see her since she has three boys to look after – two 6 year old twins and a 12 month old. We spent about five hours hanging out at her house and what was great was that I never felt self conscious around her even after not having seen each other in so long. I think it’s hard sometimes to find people who make you feel relaxed and free to be 100% yourself, so when you do you must cherish it. I only hope it won’t be another 12+ years until I see her again.

MSI Chicago

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Monday was a free day at the Museum of Science and Industry so Brother #2 joined me and Joe for an excursion into the city. After much deliberation, I opted not to bring my camera along because a) other than the baby chicks, nothing in the museum thrills me that much to photograph (not to mention I’ve been there many times before) and b) I’m tired of lugging my heavy camera around everywhere. My back and neck were killing me after our day at the zoo thanks to my zoom lens and the backpack I was carrying with my wide-angle lens. I decided to travel light and depend on my iPhone for any photos I was compelled to take.

Baby Chicks

I was a little worried I’d regret my decision not to bring my camera but it turned out to be a great idea because even the baby chicks exhibit wasn’t as interesting as our last visit, plus the lighting in the museum is very dim so it was too dark in the majority of the exhibits to get any good photos anyway, not to mention how crowded it was. By the time we left around noon the place was bursting at the seems with people!

We decided to drive up North to grab lunch from our favorite BBQ place, Smoque. As we neared the restaurant I had a feeling something wasn’t right because there wasn’t a line out the door like I would expect at lunch time. Turns out they are closed on Mondays! What a bummer. We ended up checking out a little food stand called Hamburger Heaven instead. Their double cheeseburger was really good – it reminded me of a Big Mac from the 80’s (because they were bigger and tastier back then) minus the special sauce. Hamburger Heaven puts their own special sauce on their burgers which is a pale yellow (mayo mixed with a little mustard perhaps, although mild as I didn’t taste much mustard) and really compliments the burger. Their crinkle cut fries are damn good too. I know we’ll be back again sometime this summer.

Zoo

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Giraffes

Saturday we took E to Brookfield Zoo after scoring free admission passes, including tickets to the dolphin show, from a friend I made through the cat rescue I work with. I took a lot of pictures of the giraffes because Brookfield has the largest collection I’ve ever seen. Plus they were really cute and inquisitive about the tortoises that share their habitat.

Giraffe investigating tortoise

The dolphin show sucked. It wasn’t anything like I remember when I was a kid, not to mention it was only 20 minutes long. They used to jump out of the water much higher and often than they do now. Had we wasted $4 per person for tickets I would have been pissed. I also wasn’t too happy about the fact that the only way to see the zoo’s lemurs is to pay extra to enter their children’s zoo, although we opted not to as it’s $3.50 per person and lemurs aren’t that exciting.

Look, I understand the zoo needs to make money to update their exhibits and care for the animals, but at some point it just feels like they are nickel and dime-ing the public. Next thing you know there will be a fee to enter Tropic World Asia, and that will be the last time I ever see the gorillas. They look bored out of their minds which is painful to witness as it is.

Joe’s sister came over for dinner that evening and Bella had a great time running around with Winston and licking him. He wasn’t phased by her at all and she wasn’t scared of him like she was with the cats or our hamster, Nougat. It was really cute how excited she got being able to play with him. Winston is very friendly with everyone he meets and I’m glad we adopted him.

Introducing Winston

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Winston

This is our new rat, Winston, who we adopted from Craigslist on Monday, June 3rd. His previous owner was moving into an apartment for college and the landlord would allow her cat but not the rat, so for $20 (she only asked for $15 but we were feeling generous) we got him, a cage (including a hammock which he actually uses and doesn’t chew up like my Templeton once did), and some supplies. He’s approximately a year old but no one is sure because the girl adopted him from Petco three months ago after the woman who had him since he was born couldn’t keep him, also due to a move.

Since we are his third family I’m hesitant about changing his name – it’s rather cute anyway, but we’ll see. In any case, he’s very friendly and energetic. I took him out when we brought him home and he was bouncing all over the place exploring. I put his cage in the loft and I take him into the former kitty room for playtime twice a day. He loves running around and then lying in my lap while I scratch and pet him. Today, however, he started “attacking” my hand and humping my arm. Apparently, based upon my Internet research, he was playing with me as if I was another rat as well as asserting his dominance over me and claiming me as his. Cute!

One thing I managed to forget about male rats is they like to scent-mark new territory as well as their human so he’s been leaving little drops of pee everywhere. Luckily rat pee isn’t really smelly like cat urine is, but it’s one of those things I’m not thrilled about, and the reason he won’t be running freely downstairs on the nice carpeting.

I’m debating whether I should acquire another male rat to keep him company as I’ve been reading conflicting information on how difficult introducing two older rats, particularly male, can be. They do best in pairs, though, and I’d like to think I’ll find a job sometime this year which means he could use a buddy to keep him company. As luck would have it, after months of searching for some cute rats with no success, now that I got Winston there are many more showing up on Craigslist. One pair in particular caught my eye today – one of the rats is brown and the other is white with black Dalmatian markings which is super cute according to the photos that were posted. The woman looking to rehome them has raised them since they were born (she even included pictures of them as babies and they were adorable) so they are well-socialized. I’m just not sure I want three rats, though, and males to boot. I was really looking for females to begin with but wanted a gray rat which is how we ended up with Winston. Plus I don’t have a big enough cage for all three and can’t afford to get the one I would like as it’s $250. The cage Winston came with is decent but only for a single rat. And even then I feel bad because its not that much space for him.

Oh well, I’ll have to sleep on that decision for now.