Chicago

Friday
Forest's dad had a conference in Chicago this past weekend and invited us to enjoy the city with Teresa while he attended. We got in to the hotel late in the afternoon on Friday, and despite below zero temperatures, we ventured out in the cold a few blocks away to an Indian restaurant while Parry went off to his own dinner meeting.

Nothing like spicy curry to warm you up inside and out.

Saturday
It's been a while since I had a "belly shot" taken. Here she is, looking quite round and baby-ful. Thanks to Carol, my mother-in-law, for providing this maternity outfit. It is getting more and more difficult to negotiate the belly with my old wardrobe.

Teresa and Parry

While Parry had to go to more meetings, the rest of us saw a bit of the city. Luckily it had warmed up to about 20 degrees F.

If you don't know Teresa, something you should know is that she is a fabulous portrait artist. In fact, below is a picture of us she did as our wedding gift:

Despite her talent and appreciation for art, it has been years since she visited the Chicago Art Institute. It seemed only appropriate that that should be our first stop.

Below are a few of the works that most stood out to me on this trip
Modern Japanese Prints:
Portrait of Nakamura Kichiemon, kabuki actor, by Sekino Jun'ichiro

China:
Carved cinnabar lacquer on wood--18th century

Italian Drawings from the Renaissance and Baroque Periods:
Chalk depiction of Saint Bonaventure by Fra Semplice da Verona

"The Adoration of the Magi"attributed to Vincenzo Meucci

Depiction of Moses and the daughters of Jethro by Jacopo Vignali

The Impressionist Gallery:
Teresa and me in front of Renoir's "Woman at the Piano"

Monet

Monet

After having lunch at a cafe across the street we set out in search for Dick Blick's--an art supply superstore that Teresa has heard about but never been to. It was only a couple of blocks away from the art institute, and once we got there she got all stocked up on artistic odds and ends. Overall it was quite the artsy excursion.

That evening Parry invited us to accompany him to the conference dinner held at Crystal Gardens in Navy Pier. Forest and I felt a little out of place, but we were pleased to tag along. We all enjoyed the bus driver who shuttled us there and back--he provided passengers with a miniature tour as he gave a humorous, very personalized description of every building we passed. I loved the commentary he threw in about Oprah Winfrey.

You could see the famous ferris wheel from our table

Amid the tropical vegetation, there were arches of water spraying in laser-like streams over peoples' heads. I kept wondering what would happen if there was a sudden drop in water pressure.

We had a fun time . . . thanks, Parry!

After dinner, Forest and I took time to savor a few glimpses of nighttime Chicago before heading back to the hotel

Oskee-Wow-Wow

It feels great to beat Michigan.

Sushi Italiano

Sushi is one of my favorite foods to make. I must admit, however--I could be a lot more creative with this dish. I tend to stick to my standard rolls with vegetables, egg, and ahi tuna, which look something like this:
Lately I've even been omitting the usual slices of ahi tuna, since I am supposed to avoid raw fish during pregnancy. So they are even more simplified.
A while back Forest encouraged me to try making sushi with a few Italian ingredients thrown in. A couple of days ago I gave it a shot.
I still have some tweaking to do, but for this attempt I just used balsamic vinegar instead of my usual sushi vinegar mix, and rolled in tomatoes, cucumbers, and strips of fresh mozzarella. If I added basil leaves, it would have been a caprese salad in a sushi roll.
We dipped them in olive oil and balsamic vinegar instead of wasabi and soy sauce. Forest approved for the most part, but said something was a little lacking without the fresh basil. I guess I will go caprese all the way for the next try.

Substitute Teaching

It is amazing how inquisitive and uninhibited children can be toward a person they are meeting for the first time. I see this firsthand as a substitute teacher for the Urbana schools as I take over someone else's students for a day and they each observe my disproportionately round belly. I've had some great reactions, often before class has even begun:

3rd grader: "Excuse me, but are you pregnant?"
2nd grader: "Are you going to have a baby?"
5th grader: "You look PREGNANT!"

I have been in the district for a while, so several of the kids know me now. Upon finding out that I am pregnant, they say:

sophomore: "Oh, so there's a bun in the oven."
7th grader: "She's pregnant? I thought she just had some FOOD!"

I saw a few students today who have known for a while now that I am expecting.

6th grader A: "Did you have your baby already?"
me: "No, she's still in there."
6th grader A: "Oh...you look skinny, kind of."
(I think she was just seeing me at the wrong angle)

6th grader B: "Mrs. Dixon, aren't you so excited to have a baby?"
me: "I am really excited."
6th grader B: " Aren't you nervous about being in labor?"
me: "Well, I have to get her out of here somehow."

New Year's Eve 2008

Call us lame, but Forest and I spent our New Year's Eve at home in Urbana. We decided to try out this new ravioli roller Teresa gave us for Christmas.

We rolled out strips of pasta dough with our pasta maker, then pieced them together to make one giant pasta square.

Then we filled covered half of the pasta with filling for the ravioli...

...folded the pasta over...

...and rolled out little raviolis!

Forest took charge of boiling the ravioli and making a sauce for them

A shot of our homemade meal

Of course it looks more romantic by candlelight

Happy New Year!

Papa Del's Pizza

Papa Del's is by far the best place to eat Chicago-style deep dish pizza in Champaign. We managed to convince several friends to come in town for dinner here after a weekend of Christmas festivities. Most of them were Forest's friends from high school or earlier.

Gavin and Darren chowing down

Gavin unfortunately dropped one of his pizza slices face flat on the table. Despite his disappointment, most of the remains eventually made it to their intended location.

After dinner we had everyone over at our apartment. With this particular crowd, Strawberry Crush is a must for any party, so we made sure to stock up before they came.

Dan and Christie

Forest, Gavin, Dan, Chris, and Darren posing under the "festivus" lights

A Bloomington-Normal Christmas

When we got to my parents' house on the evening of the 25th, we were greeted with a warm dinner and a giant braided loaf in the shape of a Christmas wreath. We were also greeted by two dogs--my childhood dog Shean and Annie.

Above is Shean on the left and Annie on the right. My parents were dogsitting Annie for the holidays.

Below are some food photos from our stay:

Pumpkin-chocolate pie with ice cream and homemade cranberry sauce

Pancake slice with blueberry jam and blueberries

Another slice of pumpkin-chocolate pie

I also had a chance to visit with some old high school friends while we were in town. Below is me with Brittany Ruch.

Me, Kathy Briggs, Anne Marie Hardy, and Denise Fornoff all used to play in a string quartet together in high school.

It was a wet and rainy weekend, but Sunday cleared up enough to take the dogs for a walk.

Since my dog is 17 years old, he can't do much walking anymore--but he still scampered around for a bit.

My one request for the weekend was to eat some Japanese udon noodles at some point. We enjoyed the warm meal for lunch after returning from our Sunday morning walk.