Apple...HOLLA!!!

Last Friday my good buddy Grace and I met halfway (her from the Milwaukee area and me from Chicago) at the Apple Holler in Wisconsin. The Apple Holler is a restaurant, apple orchard, petting zoo, corn maze...basically, everything that is fall in the Midwest. We ate a delicious lunch and then went apple pickin'.

We picked tart and sweet Cortland apples, mild Macoun apples, and gorgeous Asian pears.

It was a beautiful day with warm sun...that seemed to get warmer as the picking went on.

Grace found a lovely, interesting mushroom.

We came home with quite a bounty....lots of delicious fruit. I thought I would make apple and pear butter. But I just can't help eating them just as they are.

Facebook is awesome!

Ok...so I know that I have been that person who doesn't always believe the internet is all that great. In college I said that email would never catch on, and of course now I can't live without it. However, in the last couple of weeks I have fallen in LOVE with Facebook.

It's fun and a good way to waste a little time. But the greatest thing is when old friends find you! This happened to me a couple of weeks ago....

I met Nigel the summer before my senior year in high school. I was part of the New Orleans Youth Action Corps (NOYAC), which was an environmental service program run by AmeriCorps. Nigel was the office worker, and I was a corps member. We hit it off right away, even though we came from different neighborhoods, experiences, etc.

We hung out a bunch my senior year, and then life happened. I can't even remember why we stopped hanging out, but we did. We lost touch. I've moved a ton, and although I have thought of Nigel often, I had no way of finding him. Until a couple of weeks ago, when he found me on Facebook.

Now that's crazy awesome enough. But what's more amazing is that we live a mile apart! And we've gotten together twice since finding each other! He's married now to the beautiful Nancy, and they have an amazingly cute daughter Amalia. It's been so great to have him and his family in our lives. Nigel and Vince have a lot of common interests, which is great, and I can see us all spending a lot of time together.

The message here....HURRAY for FACEBOOK!!!

Almost Unpleasant

Yes, we're alive and well. Our last couple of months have been both wonderful and hectic. And basically, as much time as we both spend on the computer at work, we have lacked the desire to spend time on the computer when we get home. But there is also too much that is good going on in our lives to hinder us from sharing. First, though, I would like to share an almost unpleasant experience that we had the other day.

On Friday morning, Vince and I had the rare pleasure of walking together at the beginning of the day. Vince usually rides his bike to work, but the afternoon weather was going to be gross so it was off to the El for him. I take Fridays off, so I usually am not out and about in the morning. However, this particular morning I had a doctor's appointment in downtown Chicago, and I was taking the bus.



Anywho, we were walking along and enjoying each other's company and conversation, when suddenly we saw this...





Now this particular picture does not recreate the situation well. I was about to say, "Oh, look at the kitty." When I realized that this was not a cute little kitty, but rather a skunk butt...poised to spray. We had startled it, and we both took off in a short sprint. We spent the final block of our walk speculating about our day had we been sprayed! Vince would have called in "skunked" for work and would have to take his Greek quiz another day. I would have tried to explain to my new doctor that I don't normally smell this way, but it was unavoidable today.

Despite the fact that we live in Chicago, we have quite a bit of wildlife around us. Lots of squirrels, raccoons, and yes, skunks. This was our closest of our close calls so far. We are usually glad that we notice the skunks before Gumbo does!