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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Bad Bad Alison.....

I'm such a bad bad Alison - I haven't posted in so long as I've barely been on-line with my laptop and its way easier than posting from my phone....

So - here's what you missed (I think - but I can't always remember what I've missed let alone what YOU'VE missed!).

I've had two Saturdays where I've been able to hang with my friend Kate on a Friday night - we kayaked on the lake outside her place and then sat on her deck - so relaxing....

Work has been keeping me busy.... This is my new logo for working with some of the people who I'm working with -- I'm not saying names here....

My week in GA was composed of lustfully watching downpours and trying dodge raindrops that I was not prepared for.....

There was one week that I was able to hit bikram yoga THREE times in one 7 day period .... a few different studios, some of them hotter than others, but THREE times none the less!

We got the dogs groomed as their hot little bodies couldn't take all their hair so we got them shaved - maybe a little too much, but they were cooler!

I baked cupcakes for a bridal shower so while they were in the oven, I did some fun family research.  I had gotten all this information from Norway and I was able to trace back about 12 generations on mom's side.  Those Norwegians really keep track of people!  It was pretty cool...

An aside -- IF ANYONE OUT THERE SPEAK NORWEGIAN -- I could use your help!!!!!!!

Back to Kate's for a quick kayak around the lake and then some grilled pizzas - they were delish!

Last week was a trip to MN and the cities where some of the most American-Norwegian research and books reside.  Just so happened that my one major site I work at is connected with two of the universities that house the most research so I stopped by after my meetings and just looked up a few things.  Again - because its Norwegian, its really hard to decipher whats what - I did find the family name and the place though --- Egelandsdal and Stavanger, Norway.

Another week with rain - that we didn't get....

And then back home where I watched Calvin relax on the back deck on our new patio furniture....

And here is the actual presentation of the bridal shower cupcakes I did.  It was a really dark room so the picts aren't that great, but everyone thought they were beautiful!

I went to the bridal shower for a while but was so exhausted that I walked home (it was right down the street).  I came home to see my little Cal Cal anxiously waiting at the window for me!

The other cupcake I made was strawberry that everyone loved - I had a few extras so when I got home, I had a sit down with some coffee and one of my strawberries -- OK, I admit - it was pretty awesome!

And Cal kept an eye on me with a bit of anger that I wasn't sharing.....

This past Sunday, my friend Heather and I went downtown for the afternoon to the Randolph Street Market.  Some junk, some treasure, but it was pretty fun!

The festival was held in the parking lot and the building of the Plumbers Hall - a historical building.  Kind of cool.

They had TONS of food booths there and we were SO excited to see Jennis which is a Columbus, OH based co that I had talked about in an earlier post.  AMAZING ice cream with tons of funky weird flavors.  We had to get some!

Great view of the city from the Market.

And then enough time to come home and take Cal on his little excursion to the dog park.

I'm getting ready to take off for Columbus, OH again today - there until Wednesday night and then have to go to NY for two days - working in the Bronx.... yay.... :(

We'll see how long it takes to get my next post up - and how long it takes to get back to Portland, OR (as per request....) :)

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Another Week Update

Back on the road again ... its been pretty slow lately, but things should be picking up for the next few weeks.

Today I hopped a plane for Georgia.  I'm here until Thursday.  A couple meetings and I get to hang with my friend Michelle.  I even get to do dinner with my nephew and his wife.

Its sad that Georgia is more green and lush and cool than Chicago is - whats that about anyways?  Its actually refreshing and so pretty.  Ah - the shades of summer in the midwest - brown.

Thats it... nothing more exciting to post than - I'm in Georgia!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Back To Family - New Side

Saturday was the "Behn" day.  We had some info the cemetery where the Behn's have a plot - Oak Woods Cemetery.  So I wanted to go down to see who we could find and just see where the family is.


This was the first headstone that I saw when I walked across from the office.... All in German.

Its a HUGE cemetery and so we had to drive all around to the back.  There are tons of famous people buried in Oak Woods - Jesse Owens is the only one I remember, but I know there are tons of others.

After wandering around, with rain pelting our heads and squinting to make out names that were 100 years old - we finally found the Behn marker facing towards the wall and the road (I think it was Stony Island).  I ended up taking all kinds of pictures so we wouldn't forget where it was.  I'll have to go back because we didn't have much time to look as the cemetery closed at 4:30 and we didn't get there until almost 4.  I know there are others buried there.  Uncle Raine says that Grandpa Behn is buried right by her grandparents (with the markers) but he apparently doesn't have a marker?  We'll have to look at that more and get dates and such before we go down again.






This was really weird - its a Jewish cemetery in Oak Woods.  It completely separated by a fence and the grass is all grown up and the headstones are all close together.




Then there are all these Civil War headstones and this big thing in the center of the cemetery.


Then Tom took us all around the area and University of Chicago.
This is a statue thing called Fountain of Time.  Its pretty cool.


This is Father Time

All these people across represent the "march of time" and all the people throughout time.




The back side is the coolest...


This is actually the artist of the fountain - Taft - he sculpted himself into the statue in the back.

This is a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

UIC