Basil and Nathalie

No, it's not the title of some weird English drama. I just bought a basil plant the other day, it will be interesting to see how it survives in our east-facing kitchen window. Lots of light, but no more than a couple of hours of direct sunlight - thoughts, anyone? Amanda has her doubts, but I'm confident...



Mr. Basil tucked away behind Amanda's bike.

Also, Nathalie arrived yesterday! I got stuck in traffic on my way to the airport and was worried I would be late, but as it turned out she came out through customs five minutes after I got there. We drove home (through even more traffic) and had a nice evening with dinner and mindless TV watching. Amanda came home late after attending her cousin's graduation party in Milwaukee, so she actually yet to see Nathalie, whom went to bed early and slept in this morning... Tonight should be fun though, dinner at Marché!

Toronto

Almost two weeks ago I flew to Toronto to attend a conference, and since the program ran Sunday - Thursday, I had time to hang out with my good friends Rick and Meena. I met Rick on my very first day at UIC back in 2004, when we both attended the international student orientation, and last year Amanda and I went to their fantastic wedding just outside Toronto.

The conference in question is the American Industrial Hygiene Conference & Expo, "my" professional organization's annual event. This was my second time of attending it, last year it was in Minneapolis where I had lots of fun, but I must say this year was even better. I feel like I met many great and interesting people, which serves as inspiration in my efforts of finding out what I actually wants to do with my life. In addition, it was truly awesome to see Sam and Ali again!



The awesome art and design college!



This museum is brand new. We didn't have time to see all of the collections, but next time!



Rick in front of a pub named after him.



Meena and Rick.



Me and Nicklas Lidström's face at the Hockey Hall of Fame. And yes, it was a cocktail party, and yes, I did take a photo with the Stanley Cup.



Chirag and CN Tower.



Ramon, Sam, Chirag, Lacey, me, and Ali in a rare photo of normal faces.

Turtle 911

Anders is back from Toronto, so I had him meet me at the museum after work on Friday. We were walking through a park/garden area near the zoo when we saw a turtle running through the grass. Of course we were like "Oh great. There's no water around here. He's not going to survive over here. We have to save him!"

So I made Anders pick him up to carry him back to the pond outside the museum. The turtle was swinging his arms and legs around and scratched Anders, which made Anders drop the turtle on its back on the sidewalk.



Here is Anders carrying the turtle in a bag that we had to empty out for him.



The crabby turtle kept trying to climb out of the bag.



Can you see the turtle running to freedom? He was pretty ungrateful. After this, we sat in the park for a bit and then headed to dinner.



Here's Anders after a really good dinner at Mon Ami Gabi with an almost full moon in the background.