Early October Adventures

In early October I got to go to Washington D.C and to Virginia. I LOOOVE D.C. There is an incredible energy there and I just love the fact that everyone looks so important. Here's me in front of the State Department...maybe I'll work here one day!

My boss, my coworker and I took an afternoon to tour around Williamsburg.

1 Sept. D-daddy's 90th birthday

We had a great party at Aunt Amy's and Uncle James' house.

We took Mima to the Atlanta Aquarium. She loved it! That's her looking up at the tank.

Everyone gets a treat

My parents have 4 dogs plus 1. They have adopted 4 dogs and most recently, a little 6 week old puppy adopted them when he showed up outside the gate to their property. So, the fifth dog is called "Roger Dodger." He is now 9 weeks and so smart. He's pretty wrinkly and gets even more pliable when he's tired. I think he hasn't grown into his skin yet.


Michael and I took our two rugrats to go visit my parents a couple of weekends ago and all the pups had a great time running around wrestling, sniffing all the trees, having "who can pee last on the same spot" competitions, and chasing my dad on his tractor lawnmower. Bodhi (our boy dog), Conaan (parents 2-year-old boy), and the baby (Roger) all went swimming in the pool.


Here's a picture of Roger as a very tired puppy. I wanted to take him home, but Michael said we had enough dog at home with our two hyperactive canines.


Here's a picture of me giving treats to 5 of the 7 dogs. You can't see Roger or Boo-Boo in the picture. Boo-Boo is my parents' girl dog who is sooo shy. She ended up coming up to the line a few seconds later. Roger was behind all the other dogs so he wouldn't get squashed since he's the smallest by a lot. I made sure he got a treat also. The two on the right are ours (Bodhi and Harley).

Girls are cute

This past Saturday, Michael and I had brunch with our good friend, Anne, and her 1 1/2 year-old daughter, Penny. I chased Penny with a camera capturing her every move as if I had never seen a child before. Of course I have, it's just that my photo subjects are typically just my dogs and my parents' dogs so this was a nice change. Penny's dad, our great pal James, is in Afghanistan right now. We can't wait to have him back home.

McGinleys in Chicago, 20-22 July 2007

Michael surprised me with a trip to Chicago for the weekend. When I was in architecture school a few years back, some of my friends went on a trip to view the architectural marvels the city had to offer. Due to work, school, and lack of money, I was unable to go until now. I think it may have been worth the wait to see it with more mature eyes....well, mature, I don't know about, but it was definitely worth it to see the city with Michael.







Here's us in MARTA (Atlanta's not so convenient rapid transit system) on our way to the airport.


We got in about lunch time on Friday and took the Chicago Transit into the city...it was fantastic not to even have to rent a car. Here's Michael as we stepped out into our first view of the city from the underground subway. He's standing in front of Rock Bottom Brewery....and a Chicago garbage can...not the best set up of a photo that I've ever done.







We walked to the hotel and got some world famous stuffed pizza at Giordano's based on a friend's recommendation. We ordered the small pizza and both of us couldn't even eat half of it. Here I am taking a big, vulgar bite. (I didn't get a picture of Michael eating pizza...but there's a vulgar food snapshot of him further down...keep reading!)

Later on we took a stroll to the Navy Pier and saw a Blues Brothers cover band. Here are a couple of pics of us at the pier. We went on a ferris wheel (something neither of us had donw since childhood) and on a twisting-swing ride that I coined the "gut buster." We got a pic on the ferris wheel ride, but not while on the gut buster ride....the only thing I was doing with my hands was hanging on until my knuckles turned white. Here's a pic of Michael leaving the "gut buster."




That evening, we found a real Chicago Jazz club to go to called "Andy's." There was actually Blues playing and the guy was an older man who was flirting with all the ladies in the audience. He sang a song called "I'm a Hoochie-Man".....if that doesn't help describe him then I don't know what will. Michael got called up on stage with 2 other unsuspecting males and helped make the entertainment even better.

That evening, we unexpectedly saw a sign for another one of Chicago's cultural attractions....as Borat would say....."NOOOOT." It was a sign for the Jerry Springer show...Michael is pointing it out in this picture.












The next day we went on a riverboat architectural tour given by the Chicago Historic Society. Our tour guide was fiesty older lady with a straw hat that had birds on it. She provided some very funny ad-lib commentary along with her architectural narrative. Here's a picture of her...you can kind of see her fiesty-ness in her face...I just wish I had sound bytes.

Later we saw Millenium Park which has an awesome Frank Gehry pavillion (see pic on left) and a big reflective lima-bean like sculpture...you'd just have to see it.

We had lunch in the park...Michael had a big ol'

Chicago hotdog. This is gross, but he's burping in this picture. We continued the afternoon with a quick tour of the Chicago Institute of Art...fabulous.

On a much less sophisticated note, we also saw a mailbox that looked like R2D2 from Star Wars. We don't have those in Atlanta so we felt compelled to take a picture.

This picture of an Armenian restaurant is in honor of our friend James Partamian.




Later that night we went to an awesome Italian restaurant that was bursting with people. I swore to Michael that I could tell this is was where Italian gangsters came to eat. We had oysters, homemade pasta, a bottle of wine, dessert and cappuccino. Here's a pic of Michael's opinion of the dinner and the cannoli...and here's me with a thumbs up to my favorite drink...cappuccino.

We had a fantastic time and we've already decided we'd move there if the opportunity ever came up. If you have never been to Chicago...do it!

If you take every step deliberately, then if you fall, at least you'll fall forward.

part 2 of what seemed like forever

I found this old draft that I never got to post in May 2006. I never finished it, but here it is, Part 2 of what seemed like forever.

Chris and I passed more time comparing our slick field adaptation for a towel. I had used my pillowcase and he had found a roll of paper towels. He told me that luckily he had found an extra pair of socks in his back pack so he was able to change those out; simple pleasures.

Here's me on a C-17. It might have been 3 am, but I love traveling like this. We basically only had to share the plane with 8 other folks. VIP!