tobermory's Diaryland Diary

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I'm a big lazy idiot

Note: yes, Virginia � I AM an idiot. I thought I had posted this by then realized I hadn�t. Oh well � old news is better than no news. Extra note: there was a glitch when I posted this and it showed up 6 times. Duh.

Yes Virginia, it is possible to plan too many fun things to do in too short of a time span. I am one pooped-out gal. Since my last update I�ve seen three bands at three different venues, gone to one Cubs game, washed about 20 dogs, and (finally) cleaned up the yard and planted all my herbs and tomatoes. OK, so the last two things weren�t so much fun but the dog wash was for charity and the yard really, REALLY, needed to be taken care of.

Last Wednesday I picked up Steve at the airport � what a debacle! His original return flight had been uber-delayed but he was able to get on an earlier flight that had also been delayed. This translated into him arriving into O�Hell at roughly the same time as his original flight. However his luggage didn�t make it onto the rescheduled plane so he had to wait until all of the luggage had come out for his flight (just to make sure) and then wait in the looooong line at the baggage assistance kiosk just to be told to come and get his luggage the next day. This wouldn�t have been a problem, but apparently his cell phone wasn�t working in the terminal and he didn�t bother to go to a payphone to call me and let me know what was going on, leaving me to incessantly call his cell leaving progressively more irritated messages. I am not known for my patience � it is not my virtue. I finally roared away from the hot and sticky pick-up area when I was shooed away by a cop and parked in the short-term parking and went in, which is what I should have done in the first place. It was a prickly reunion to say the best, but we kissed and made up.

Thursday we went to see the Waco Brothers at the Field Museum. A few times a year the Field hosts one or two local bands who set up stage in the mail hall near Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, and the two ancient stuffed and mounted elephants. The parties are geared towards twenty-something singles and are usually sponsored by a radio station and a beer and/or liquor company. The acoustics are truly awful � very echo-ey � but a reasonable $15 entry fee gets you: two bands (although only one was worth seeing), one free drink ticket, and access to the exhibits on the lower level of the museum. I�m not a big natural history buff but I do have a strange fascination with taxidermy, so unlimited and crowd-free viewing of the vast collection of dioramas with mounted specimens is kind of cool. And kind of gross when you realize that most of them were made in the early 1900�s. It�s amazing the spectrum of taxidermal ability the specimens show � some like a leopard I saw are amazingly liflike while others like the lowly residents of the rodent exhibit all seem to have been done by boy scouts in hopes of getting the elusive taxidermy badge. Plus, some of the old ones are getting a little run-down looking. I mean people � how hard can it be to get a new raccoon?

In hopes of reclaiming my childhood, I went to Ravinia with Allison on Friday to see Cheap Trick, Mmmmmmm�. Robin Zander and Tom Petersen. I want you to WANT ME! It�s probably a good thing that our seats were far enough back that I couldn�t see how old they really look � I�d rather just think of them way they were on the cover of In Color. Were they any good? Yeah, they played all the hits, but age has taken its toll � they just didn�t seem that into it. In a moment of shameless consumerism I did buy a $30 hot pink concert t-shirt that is way cool. Steve remarked that it would be a good shirt to wear to flea markets and crowded street fairs because it�s so bright. This brings me to��

Saturday. I got up and hustled over to the animal shelter for the spring dog wash. This year the weather was absolutely perfect � hot and sunny � so that neither the dogs nor the humans minded getting wet. I manned a station with Megan and we probably washed between 15 and 20 dogs. No bad apples this year, I guess the heat meant that most of the dogs enjoyed the cool-down, plus my friend Barb is the person who assigns dogs to washing stations and she tries her best to send me either smaller dogs or dogs with shorter coats. In addition to all the random dogs, we also washed Lucky, Alli�s dog, and Lexy, Megan�s dad�s guide dog. My shift thankfully ended at 11:30 and I rushed home and hopped in the shower to rinse away the dog hair and then Steve and I were off to the Cubs/Red Sox game at Wrigley where a fine time was had by all. All Cubs fans that is as the Red Sox lost. As for myself I was a little tired and I took a wee power nap during the third inning which I�m sure embarrassed Steve to no end, but I have to grab my sleep where I can and it was so hot it was making me tired. It also made me sweat and the dye from the aforementioned hot pink Cheap Trick shirt ran a bit and turned the edges of my white bra a bit pinkish. After the game we took the El home and ate at Rockwell�s Neighborhood Grill.

Sunday Steve and I dedicated ourselves to working on our yard and garden. You would think this might be a small task considering that the backyard is only 25� X 25� and the garden consists of two strips on either side of the yard: one about 2� X 15� and the other about 2� X 10� and a small patch in front of the house. But take into consideration that we are monumental lazy-asses and hadn�t done any pre-winter cleanup last fall, and the god forsaken weed maple tree had just finished its annual dump of twirly helicopter seed pods and suddenly it turns into an all day project. We had to remove the packed and damp layer of leaves and pull out all the weeds and maple seedlings from the garden, rake up the whole yard which was covered in a thin layer of maple pods, old leaves and grass clippings, pull the 8000 weeds out of the front garden, trim back the maple and catalpa trees, cut the grass, sweep the parking pad, edge the grass near the back garden, dump 800 lbs. of topsoil into the back garden and then plant 12 basil plants, 12 tomato plants, and about 12 different herbs, one jalapeno plant and two corn plants and then finally water the lawn and garden. Then like an idiot I went inside and vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom and swept and Swiffered the kitchen, and brushed all three cats, because all that gardening just wasn�t enough work for one day. Now I go to the gym about 4 or 5 times a week and I lift weights, take spin classes, yoga classes, aqua aerobics classes � all manner of exercise - but the gardening kicked my sorry ass. I was positively crippled on Monday, but every time I look at my little tomatoes shooting up towards the sun from their weed free bed of fresh topsoil I figure it was all worth it, and in August when I�m eating a fresh mozzarella sandwich with home-grown tomato and basil the back-breaking work will be nothing more than a fuzzy memory.

Tuesday night there was a planning snafu and there were two events to go to � a Cubs/Marlins night game and tickets to see the Go-Betweens at the Abbey Pub. No surprise, Steve took a friend to the Cubs game and Tam came with me to see the Go-B�s. We met at the Abbey around 8:15 for a quick bite of pub grub, which turned into a leisurely dinner when we were told the Go-B�s wouldn�t take the stage until 11pm. 11pm? I�m too old for this shit and the Go-B�s are definitely too old to be up that late! So we lingered over our tasty fish and chips and a couple of beers and still managed to score prime spots right up in front of the stage. I snagged a set-list and during one of the encores Grant McLennan came over and sang a verse of a song RIGHT TO ME. Sigh. What a great show, but Oh! How tired I�ve been all week.

This coming weekend promises to still be busy, but not as incessantly so as last weekend. Friday is completely, blissfully free, Saturday Steve and I are going to see the road show of Prairie Home Companion (shut up � I know �hipster people like me� aren�t supposed to like PHC but I do. So there.), and then on Sunday (Father�s Day!) we�re going to the Sandwich Antiques Market and then to Ruth�s Chris Steakhouse with my parents and Harry and Eleanor for a beefy dinner. Hopefully something of note will happen so I can post about it next week.

Until then�..

1:24 p.m. - 2005-06-28

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