Chicago Ramblings

I bought Christmas cards this year, but never sent them out, sorry. So for Christmas me and Mom went to Michael and Christine's in Oklahoma City. I stayed until Monday. So, I left work Tuesday (Christmas Eve Eve) around 2:00pm to go to O'Hare. I knew that there were delays and the weather was kind of sketchy because I had driven way out to Naperville that morning for work and then back into the city. The good news was that there was no more construction on the blue line so instead of taking over an hour to get from work to the airport, it was only 45 minutes and was quite speedy. So I got there and after I got all checked in (and paid $15 to check my stupid bag) and to the terminal my 4:50 flight was already delayed. Then it was delayed again, and again, and again, then it changed from Terminal B to E, then delayed again, and then as the plane was finally landing that we were supposed to go out on, they cancelled our flight. By now it was 9pm and they told us to go stand in line to get rebooked. This line was at least 200 yards long and going absolutely nowhere. I stood in it for about 15 minutes and it never moved. Well, earlier Nikki had given me the phone number for reservations so I called them as soon as I got in line. After going through an extremely annoying voicemail I only had to wait for 30 seconds for a customer service agent. He spent a half hour on the phone with me rebooking me. Well, there was barely anything available, but he got me on a 12:15 to Kansas City, which connected to Dallas, which connected to OKC. So I went home and decided to open me and Izzie's stockings:

This is what she got me. It's called a Gal Pal. It's an old fashioned hot or cold water bottle. It's nifty.

Here's Izzie in her elf outfit with her loot

She really like these little plastic toys

Queen Izzie. Doesn't she look benevolent?

The Loot again. For the first time I think she actually liked everything I bought her. Except maybe the Elf outfit. The balls rattled - she only likes things that make sound.

Close up of the plastic thingies

Empress of the World Izzie

Oooh, Vicious!

So I got up the next morning and realized while getting in the taxi to go to the train station that with all the suitcase wrangling and sitting on the floor and tensely driving in bad weather the previous morning that my back was spasming. It was quite painful to get in and out of the taxi. So by the time I got to my terminal and saw that my flight was already delayed and that meant that I probably wouldn't hit my connecting flight in Kansas City and what with all the pain, I had had enough. I called Nikki and promptly burst into tears. Ok, maybe not burst into tears, but weepy enough to be embarassed about it. So a kindly flight attendant was sitting next to me and after I hung up with Nikki she talked me down a bit. She explained why the flights were all delayed (couldn't land at O'Hare - they'd shut down one runway and the weather was just bad enough to screw everything up) and just kind of told me how everything worked. We talked for a while and as the flight kept getting more and more delayed she told me to call reservations and try and set something else up. Well, this reservations guy wasn't nearly as nice or helpful as the one from the previous night (and yes, they were both Indian), and he said the only other flight out of Kansas City to Dallas was fully booked. So he booked me on a direct flight to Dallas that left Chicago at 5:45pm, but then Michael would've had to drive 3 hours to pick me up and then drive 3 hours back. The flight attendant also went and talked to some other pilots and attendants that had come from Kansas City to get me some "inside" information. She was really, really lovely. So I decided to chance getting on standby on the flight in Kansas City because I just wanted to get out of O'Hare! I actually reserved a car in Kansas City so that if I didn't make it I could drive one way 5 hours to OKC ($180!). But in the end I didn't have to use it because they got me on the next flight in Kansas City. So I ended up getting into Oklahoma City at 10pm on Christmas Eve. I was so very sick of airports at this point. I figure I put in about 20 hours in the airport in those 2 days. Due to this we decided to postpone Christmas by a day. So we had Christmas Eve on Christmas day and Christmas on the 26th.

Unfortunately everyone was a little sick. Michael and Christine and Abby and Mom all had a cold like thing that I didn't get until the day I left, and as luck would have it I got hives on my hands for no apparent reason. I have a lovely picture of it later. Eventually I figured out that washing my hands with cold water does the trick. So, side story: For the last month or so I've thought that Izzie had fleas. That is because after her vet's appointment the vet said she must be allergic to something because she had these rashes on her ears. And Nikki said that the thing that cats are most often allergic to are fleas. I didn't think much of that until I started getting these little red bite looking things on my hands after petting Izzie. So then I decided she might have fleas and became unbearable paranoid and always felt like they were on me and washed all my sheets and bedding etc., and slept on the couch for a week because I was certain they were in my bedroom. Then people started trying to give me advice saying maybe it wasn't fleas (since I couldn't find any evidence of them, just the red spots on my hands), maybe it was bedbugs (ew) or other things. What I couldn't figure out is why my "bites" looked kind of white. Then at Michael's, they just turned into these huge swollen things that covered entire fingers and stuff and I finally figured out that they were hives. They start out as little tiny red dots and grow from there. Nikki told me that if I had told her long ago that they were white and they didn't last more than a few hours she could have told me they weren't flea bites. Sigh. So Yay! We don't have fleas! Izzie's ecstatic to be able to sleep on the bed again :) If you click on this picture, especially on the hand on the left, you can kind of see them. I took this picture to show the Dr. and what you can't see is how swollen all the upper digits of my fingers are. It's not comfortable.

Here's Christmas!

Abby's FooFah (spelling, no idea)

Mom and Daughter in matching PJ's. Unfortunately when I got there I realized they had already bought Abby the pair that I had bought her, but they hadn't thought to get Christine the matching adult pair, so it still worked. As a side note, now Peanut has pajamas to look forward to for her 2nd Christmas!

We decorated Christmas cookies, and this is my rendition of Brobie. Judge for yourself what kind of artist I am!

Three generations! Hee! Isn't that so cool?

Christine opening the matching pajamas!

Abby unfortunately developed a common Christmas ailment known as "Bow-Butt".

So after Christmas me and Mom kidnapped Abby and took her to Starbuck's. She REALLY liked the cinnamon coffecake. I mean, REALLY. :) I am proud to be the one to start her inevitable Starbucks addiction. Like Aunt, like niece. Or something like that.

Playing at a really neat indoor playground at the mall. We went to the mall solely to let Abby play there, but me and Mom MIGHT have bought some clothes at the Children's Place across from it (talk about good planning, huh?). And they weren't for Abby. Wink, wink! Peanut is going to be the best dressed 3 and 6 month old ever!!

At dinner later that night, Abby playing with Chrissi's credit cards. Like she hasn't already wreaked enough havoc on my credit cards ;)

And some pretty pretty pictures of the cats: Eros is the Siamese, Avery is the pretty white one. Avery and I were good friends during this trip. He slept on my lap most nights. Avery, being King of the World, has a serious aversion to Abby because she upsets the balance of the universe (namely, that he is the center of the universe). Avery (King of the World) and Izzie (Empress of the World) should really meet sometime. They'd have a duel of licking to see who rules the World. I was trying to get a really good shot of both of their really blue eyes, but I don't know if I really did.

Whew! Haven't done this in a while! On the agenda - Glogg, Beaujolais, and Leverage.

First off - Glogg!! (and Beaujolais)

Glogg is a swedish winter drink, which is very much like mulled wine, but without as much of the cinnamon flavor. Mom came up a few weekends ago and we tried it out at a Christmas festival in Lincoln Square, and then while shopping found it at a cooking store, so we both bought a bottle. I've seen it both with the alcohol already in the bottle and without. Without, you can mix with red wine (beaujolais or merlot), vodka, or brandy. Me and my friends did it with the Beaujolais and the brandy. It's very sweet and you heat it up so it's very nice for the winter. The lady that sold it to us recommended Beaujolais to go with it because it's fruity, but not too sweet. She couldn't think of another wine that would work, but based on that description, I think merlot would work just as well. The Beaujolais that I bought is Louis-Jadot and it's pretty good. Not very tannic at all (that biting-puckering feeling you get when you drink red wine) but also not too sweet. So if you have a taste for red wine - very good, if not you probably wouldn't like it.

Leverage is a show on TNT that I just watched for the first time online. Think Ocean's Eleven on TV with a lower-profile cast and set in Chicago, which might be part of the reason I like it so well. Also, I love Timothy Hutton, who is the main character. My dad used to not like shows about thieves (or anyone really) getting away with their crimes (he hated Chicago, the musical, not the city) and in this show, they only target corporations or very rich people that have done wrong (think Madoff or Enron), so you don't even have to feel guilty about rooting for the thieves. Anyway, I've only seen the premiere, but I like it quite a bit, especially if you ignore the subtext that says that corporations and big business are evil. I don't really think that's what they're going for. The cast is fun and I like all the actors, which is rare.

I probably won't post again until after Christmas. I leave on Tuesday to fly out to Oklahoma to visit Michael & Christine & Abby for the holidays, so wish me luck with this lovely weather we've been having!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!