saturday

i woke up knowing that the cold i had suspected for the last few days had definitely arrived. i felt like shit, throat was sore, big headache. di made me toast and tea, and i stayed in bed until almost 9, i think. di walked seth, then went to the gym. i got some advil down, then some sudafed, but puked soon after.

made more tea, had more toast, and eventually felt functional, though never 'good'.

paul brinkmann came by after looking at a house with jason and hilary. we replaced the check which had been lost in the mail, and he hung out, eating a clementine in one bit (peeled).

i took off for the dianogah space to pick up some amps, then went to kip's house for a brief practice sans drums at 2pm. we have some guest musicians coming to our next shows, and we wanted to walk them through the song we're playing together.

left kip's just after 5pm, drove home, got di, and we went to visit shailesh and his family in wilmette. great to meet his new daughter, and to see the improvements to the house. shailesh and mary manage to keep the living area truly sparse in a minimalist way. very admirable; i don't know that i could do that.

from there, we drove down to irving park and the expressway to a party at audrey niffenegger's new house. gorgeous, amazing old house, filled with books. di and i were understandably jealous of the fact that her walls were completely painted, etc. we cut out pretty quickly, despite the wonderful dinner spread, as i was starting to feel like the crap again.

home, hang out in the yard with seth, then inside and to bed. can't sleep, get up to type this.

now, back to bed.

friday

woke around 3:30am, couldn't sleep. by 4:30, i got up, showered, made lunch, made tea, and left by 5:30. went to TBM, and spent the day mudding, patching the last few drywall spots, and working on the durock for behind the tiles in the spray-out booth. the durock is really hard to cut - you are supposed ot be able to score it and break it like drywall, but this doesn't work well in real life. it's heavy as fuck, too, so to heft one up near the ceiling and hold it in place while screwing it in is something which makes me happy that i'm as big as i am.

left around 5:30, went home to shower.

yann and sarah were coming by to get us, and we were going to dinner. they called, having arrived in evanston a bit early, so they came by, met seth, and we went to trattoria DOC on main street. yann and sarah got two pizzas while di and i each had a different risotto. dinner was good, more expensive than i would have liked in week where i'm trying to not spend money. well worth it, though.

after dinner, we came back to our house, made a fire, drank tea, listened to jazz records, and talked until almost midnight. they took off, and we went to bed.

thursday

woke at 6:30, had a slow morning getting out of the house. made a sandwich, di made me tea. went to work on the shop. spent the day piecing in a few more small bits of drywall, and putting a first coat of joint compound (aka mud) on most of the drywall. went out to get two more buckets, as well as some philip's bits, at the crafty beaver. spent the day listening to NPR. put up what i hope to be the last coat of mud in my office. hope to finish off most of the rest of the walls tomorrow. hanging the durock around the spray-out booth is going to take longer.

came home at 6:30, cut my hair:



di had made some mushroom soup based on christy's recipe from three or four days ago. so amazing. i had two servings, and four slices of rosemary bread.

typing this now, answering emails, then we'll listen to the iowa caucus coverage in a bit.

wednesday, hookey

hookey? hookie? hooky? i played it. didn't go to the shop, is the point.

various errands, got my computer fixed, picked up a mixer for cooking.

met the mike barron briefly for coffee around 1pm. good to catch up a bit.

put away a bunch of laundry which has been sitting out for months. got all my shirts on hangers, straightened up a bit.

i editioned the remaining spoon posters at the kitchen table.

really cold today. diana and i re-negotiated the settings for the programmable thermostat. i am usually too warm.

low-key day, i think.

tuesday, coming home

woke at 8 again, happy new year. colder this morning.

breakfast was again delivered, served, and eaten with great excitement.

di went out to visit kirby, i built a fire, we all took turns trying to finish the puzzle (pieces were missing), and we started cleaning up to get ready to leave.

around 11am, we sadly left, drove towards madison, stopped for lunch (burgers, root beer floats), then on to chicago. john and christie dropped us at home, and took off.

di drove the house-sitters home, while jason came by with the twins so we could finally take advantage of the snowy weather to realize our oft-delayed sledding venture.

we took the boys to the hill on oakton, and had a blast as it got dark out. the smaller hill was crowded, but i think the guys liked it.

home again, emails, catching-up call with my old friend shailesh, then typing up the weekend's activities, and to sleep.

i think i caught a cold.

monday, new year's eve

woke at 8am, just as our breakfast was delivered. two loaves of hot bread, fresh jam, farm eggs, milk, juice...

not sure exactly how the day was spent - there was sledding, there were hikes into the back 40, there was cooking, reading, sitting by the fire. john and i bashed ourselves up pretty well on the steep-back-road-come-sledding-hill, using kids' binding-less snowboards. eventually, after dozens of attempts, we both made our way from the top to the bottom without falling.

lunch was a mushroom soup made by christie, awesome, with heavy home made wheat bread.

one of the most remarkable aspects of the weekend was the avian attendance at the sunflower feeder just outside the living room window. di counted eight species at the feeder, including a handful of blue jays, several male and female cardinals, juncos, some red-breasted woodpeckers, tufted titmice (titmouses?), and others. we all spent hours watching the birds take turns at the feeder. the jays, surprisingly, seemed the most timid and easily frightened off by the smaller birds.

on walks, di also saw a pileated woodpecker, white breasted nuthatches and northern flickers.

sudyka:


john and christie made dinner tonight - broiled romaine salad, and a great entree of winter squash with mustad seed and coconut milk over rice. dessert was walnuts baked in ground coffee beans, served in locally-made vanilla ice cream.

di got something in her eye, which was strenuous for a while, and she turned in before midnight. christie stayed up with john and i, and they took off soon after the new year was rung in. i stayed up to work on the puzzle i had been assembling all day. by 1am, i couldn't see straight.

sunday!

i got up and packed for the weekend, and di took seth out for a walk while i ran up to central street to get a chai. when i returned, john and christie were at our house. we loaded the van and drove into wisconsin to a little town about 5 hours from chicago, where we've gone the last few years. we went to the general store for cookies, wine, etc, and then to the local co-op (lots of hippies in town) for groceries, then off into the rolling hills of the amish countryside.

this is the third year we've spent dec 30 and new year's eve at this cabin on a farm in wisconsin, and we have yet to find our way to the place without getting lost. this time we were only slightly off, and arrived with plenty of daylight left (a first for us). the snow was substantially deeper than in chicago, and i was glad we brought the sled.

di ran out to see kirby, the miniature donkey, who guards the sheep of the farm. sudyka and kirby are old buddies.



di made dinner (gnocchi with pesto), i made a fire, we did some sledding, split some wood (with a hysterically oversized splitting axe/wedge), and had a blast. eventually, i fell asleep on the floor in front of the fire, waking only after everyone else had gone to bed.

saturday

walked seth, editioned spoon/ sea & cake prints at the kitchen table. craig jobson stopped by for a visit, updated me on the politics at columbia college. met john hastie at TBM at noon (i was a few minutes late), and we spent the afternoon drywalling. john took off around 4:30 or so, and i worked until about 8. ran home, bathed, di got back from shopping. we took her car to drop off at tyler and stephanie's, then we took the spoon prints to the metro. home again, and to bed.