My boss made it in the Onion!

And if the Onion is mocking you, you must be making some kind of splash. Check it out.

Weird weather

The weather itself isn't weird - rain and thunderstorms are par for the course in the Midwest. But check out the crazy spinning pattern of the storms - it's like Chicago's own brand of mini hurricane.

Buried treasures

This week we finally took the plunge and bought...a new computer! Neither of us had replaced our college computers, meaning mine was over 7 years old and really struggling. It struggled so much that I never bothered to load photos on to it because it took so long.

With the new computer, I decided to finally break out my camera and load up photos and movies from the last 8 months or so, and among them, I found some buried treasures. Enjoy :)

Our ski trip to Colorado for Christmas:

Good Old Faithful with its busted windows:

A few shots from Michigan this summer:

Now that I have a computer to put them on, I'll try to be better about taking and uploading photos :)

10 years later

10 years ago yesterday, I was a sophomore in high school sitting in Health class when the first plane stuck the World Trade Center. We watched the live coverage in horror as the second plane hit. It was a devastating morning, to say the least, and even as high school students, I think we knew our world would never be the same.

In the days that followed, stories of incredible courage flooded the news, and we were reminded that no matter how terrorists from distant countries attacked us, this country would rise up together, rebuild and life would go on.

Personally, I remember standing on my high school football field before the game on Friday after 9/11 holding candles with my friends and listening to the words of our national anthem like I'd never heard them before. It was a moving experience, and I remember a deep sense of patriotism and appreciation for the personal sacrifices that built this country into a great nation.

Yesterday, 10 years later, I found myself filled with that same sense of patriotism and appreciation at another football field - Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears. It was my first NFL game and the game itself was really fun to watch. But before the game began, the NFL honored the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 by broadcasting the national anthem from Chicago to all of the other NFL stadiums with games about to begin, while unfurling a flag that covered the entire field.

A lot has changed in 10 years - finished high school, went to college, got a job, got engaged, got a different job, moved home, bought a condo, got married - but I felt as moved by that flag and that anthem yesterday as I had ten years earlier.

P.S. The Bears looked pretty darn good yesterday. What a pleasant surprise :)