Dim Sum and Sharks

Lately we have been pretty busy on the weekends. I think we are trying to do as much enjoyable events as possible while Travis has time...and while the weather is nice. This Saturday we went downtown with two of Travis's classmates, Jason and Raquel. We started off by having dim sum in Chinatown. I always thought that dim sum was a specific Chinese dish, but it is not. I looked it up and literally it means "a bit of heart". It is a meal of small dishes usually served as a brunch. The restaurant we went to had ladies pushing carts around with different food options. I was very glad we had Jason with us, who is Chinese, and could suggest what to try. I can't remember what everything was called that we ate, but all of it was fantastic! We also ate everything with chopsticks, which was a trick for me, but I believe by the end of the meal I reached intermediate level of chopstick use.







After our wonderful meal we head off to the Shedd Aquarium. We had to stand in line for about an hour waiting to purchase tickets, but it went by quick. We started off with the 4-D Planet Earth experience. It was one of those short movies where the chair vibrates, puffs of air come from the floor, etc. Our movie was mostly about penguins in the Artic. We had "arctic winds" blow through the theater and at least three squirts on water on our faces. The aquarium is huge, filled with fish and mammals from all over. Some of our favorites were the beluga whales, sea/river otters, penguins, and tank of sharks. Travis could have spent all day in front of the sharks. He really wants to swim with sharks. He also enjoyed the anaconda... me, not so much. We had a wonderful time and would recommend the aquarium to anyone visiting Chicago.









Finding Nemo didn't lie to us: Clown fish really do live in anemones!


These are shark eggs with baby sharks inside!



Here is a very short video of the Beluga whale. I tried to get pictures of the whales but they wouldn't stay still long enough. :)


I had my interview at Travis's school last Thursday. I felt it went very well. For the small amount of time that I was in the office I could feel such a difference in the attitude and overall ambiance from the job I am at now. Now I am just waiting to hear back.

4th of July Weekend

I apologize for the lack of blogs lately. We haven't had too many super exciting things happen. We had a very relaxing weekend without lots of plans made. I had Friday off which was very much appreciated. Friday morning we went out to breakfast at a fantastic place in Lake Forest. I almost always get pancakes at breakfast restaurants and proceed to rate the restaurant based on the taste of the pancakes. This place received five, if not 6 stars. We took it easy the rest of the day and went out for ice cream in the evening.

We did start a 1000-piece puzzle on Friday night and continued it throughout the weekend while watching episodes of X-Files (birthday present for me). I haven't put a puzzle together in quite a long time and forgot how enjoyable it can be. Travis is quite the puzzle master. We planned to go to one of the many fireworks shows on Saturday evening. Since all the towns up here are so close together you have a choice of which maddening crowd you want to mess with. We ended up not heading out to any of the parks, but instead hanging out with some of Travis's classmates at their apartment building on the other side of the school. The building has a large balcony where we sat and could see about three different fireworks shows in the distance. It was a perfect way to spend the 4th, and it was the first time I have had to wear a jacket while watching the fireworks! In the evening it got down into the 60's.

Sunday we had a barbeque with some of Travis's classmates. It was a bring your own meat and slap it on the grill type of function. There was so much food! We had hotdogs, brats, steaks, chicken, sausage, four different types of chips, corn on the cobb, potato salad, ice cream sandwhiches, popcorn cake, and a white sheet cake. We both were so full by the end of it.

After such a wonderful weekend it was hard to go back to work. Work has been pretty rough. This job is not what I expected it to be and does not fit with what I really aspire to be doing. Also our company is planning to move locations. We will be moving near O'Hare in February...the worst part of winter. Right now it takes me about 20 minutes to get to work. Without traffic (or snow) the drive to O'Hare takes 30-40 minutes. I have been looking and sending my resume out to other job opportunities. I'm trying to find something in the education field which is my background and my passion. I received a call last week about a job opportunity at Travis's school. I have an interview set up for this Thursday. The position is for an admissions officer. If I get this job I would be able to walk to work which would come in handy during those snowy months. We both would appreciate it if ya'll would keep this in your prayers.