Ice Trap

No School Today

With temperatures outside in the 20s, this snow is not likely to melt much today. So today, Tuesday, is a snow day for us. What will I do with it? I don't know, but right now it feels pretty luxurious. I think I will go upstairs, pour myself another cup of coffee and pop a Trader Joe's blueberry waffle into the toaster.

Bamboo in Snow

The bamboo made a lovely sound as the wind brushed across it's snow laden leaves. I am glad I took this picture last night because this morning there is no snow on the leaves.

Snow Gal

So, after the game I was irked at myself for sitting in front of the TV for 3 hours while all this beautiful snow was blanketing the ground outside. Chris thinks I am a little nutty about snow and I suppose he is right. There are probably not many middle aged women who love to make snowmen (unless it's with their grandkids). But there I was, from 8:30 till nearly 10:00 at night, making this snow gal. It used up nearly every flake of the snow in our upper yard.

More Snow

Well, Seattle schools were open on Monday so off to work we trudged. Then, if you were watching Monday night football (as I was) you could see the white stuff coming down again with more vigor. Being as the Seahawks were playing the Packers it seemed quite ironic to see snow on Qwest Field. It looked more like Green Bay than it did Seattle. For those of you who wonder, whenever the Hawks play the Packers I am a Packer fan so you know that the final score kind of stung although the game was really pretty fun to watch up until the last 7 minutes. I took this photo of our deck rail at half time.

Snow!

OK, it may be bit hard to see in this picture but it did start snowing at 3:30 in our neighborhood and that means there is potential for a snow day tomorrow. Yippee!

Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving was at our house and we were joined by our friends the Kornowskes and my teaching partner, Sharon. We stuffed ourselves and then introduced Sharon to a short version of the dominoe game Mexican Train.
Friday morning at 7:30am I braved the crowds
and did a little shopping at Southcenter. It is SO luxurious to have a 4 day weekend, especially one that starts with a feast. The leftovers can carry us almost all the way to Monday.

Mole

Now I've heard people say that they had mice in their house and we even had rats in the attic of a former residence. But a mole? A couple weeks ago I went into my laundry room to toss the clothes from the wash machine into the dryer and much to my shock the dark fuzzy blob on the floor that I thought was a fallen sock, MOVED! That's no sock I shouted, it's a MOLE!
I scampered out of there pretty darn quickly and let Chris do the capturing. After this photo he released the little guy into our neighbors' yard.

We are not at all sure how the mole got into the laundry room although we speculate that he crawled in on a day when the weather was warmer and we kept the downstairs door open as we did yard work.

Lake Michigan

Chicago View from Navy Pier

Navy Pier

See that big black building? It's luxury condos.

Ferris Wheel

Our Monday flight back to Seattle wasn't until early afternoon so I had time to take a brisk walk down to Navy Pier. Aside from a few dog walkers and joggers the place was pretty well deserted. It was really kind of spooky because carnival music was broadcasting out to the open air like it was a festive day in mid summer.

Yes, this is still at McDonalds. They have this Corvette and Elvis Presley memorabilia in a glassed in display room that is in the parking lot.

Lounging at McDonalds

A Unique McDonalds

Our hotel was right across from this humongous two story McDonalds. But there was more to it than just size. It was like a museum of furniture and cultural artifacts from the 1950s to 2000. Also, on the top floor, they sold gelato in disgustingly huge porportions (even the small would feed two people) .

Glowing Sculpture

This sulpture is by Richard Hunt, a Chicago native. Chris tells me he actually met Richard Hunt back in 1969 when he (Chris) was just kid which means he was a freshman in college, just like Anna Rae is now!

It's an owl!

Chicago Library #2

Chicago's Downtown Library

I love Seattle's modern, all glass library. But Chicago's is also beautiful but in more traditional way. The creatures on the roofline give it a very Gothic flair.

Guess the Impressionist

Van Gogh's Bedroom

American Gothic

Grant Woods' American Gothic: Did you know that the woman was Woods' sister and the guy I believe was his dentist!

A Georgia O'Keefe

I was surprised to learn that Georgia O'Keefe had attended the Art Institute of Chicago. She has gifted the Institute with many of her works.

Art Institute

Behind me is the Art Institute of Chicago which has a breathtaking collection of works that impressed me just as much as anything I saw in the museums of Europe (maybe with exception of Picasso's Guernica which is at the Sofia Reina in Madrid). There are works by Picasso (I was disappointed that Man With a Guitar was out on loan), Monet, Van Gogh, Hopper, Matisse, Miro,
O'Keefe, and many, many more. It is definitely a place worth visiting.

Fountain

This is half of the fountain in Millenium Park. There are 2 of these large rectangular prisms with faces of people that constantly change. The rectangular prisms face each other. Water spouts out of a hole between the lips of the images and spills onto a large shallow reflecting pool (only about an inch deep). As you can see, it lights up too.

Constuction

Everywhere we walked there was a new building going up. I really liked the cityscapes seen from the bridges. The buildings hug so tightly to the shoreline.

The Chicago River

Showtime!

And now for some pictures of the Windy City!

Blue on Blue

Blue on Blue
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Chicago. I think the picture has great perspective and lines and the reflection of the sky on the buildings just adds to the 'cool beauty' of the composition.

This is a wide boulevard that cuts through the campus. It has a name that escapes me just now. Anyway, it is where intramural sports are played. I also saw elementary school age kids playing soccer here on Saturday. There is an ice skating rink in the middle of it, almost directly across from the hall where Anna Rae lives. My guess is that she will be adding that to her repetoire of sports activities. Goodness knows, she won't be snowboarding, this place is way too flat! The U of C has a beautiful campus and Chicago is an awesome and friendly big city, but for landscaping and geographical setting, you really can't beat the University of Washington.

A Fierce Gargoyle

I love these mythical creatures! In France or here on an entrance gate to the U of Chicago; I find them all equally mysterious and powerful.

Family Weekend on U of C Campus

While Thursday and Friday were cloudy and rainy, the remainder of the weekend we had glorious fall weather.

Burton - Judson Dining Hall

Burton - Judson Dining Hall
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

University of Chicago

University of Chicago
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Rockefeller Chapel

Rockefeller Chapel
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

'Dad's House'

'Dad's House'
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Burton-Judson Hall

Here is Anna Rae in front of her dorm. It is a very old building full of character.

Monkey on the Bannister in Ida Noyes Hall

Here she is in her dorm room. It was all cleaned up neat as a pin for our visit. Among the many things we brought to Chicago for her was 6 covers of the Seattle newspaper, The Stranger.
It's all about decorating on a shoestring when you are in college.

This was our first sighting of Anna Rae. We flew to Chicago on Thursday Oct. 26 but her schedule
was too busy and quite honestly, I was too bushed from travel and lack of sleep, so we didn't see each other till Friday. We met her as she was 'on the job' at the Oriental Institute, doing her best security job telling people to keep their mitts off the glass of the cases of mummies from the middle east. That shirt is ridiculous! I think it is a men's XL. The shirts are supplied by the institute and as I understand it, a morbidly obese person did the ordering and she had no concept of size other than BIG, BIGGER and BIGGEST!