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.

Memorial Day Weekend!

While Anders and his pneumonia were in the lab all last weekend, I spent several days at my parents' house, gardening and celebrating Jessie's birthday.



Jessie and Adam at her birthday dinner.



Galya and David.



Uh, I don't know these people.



Me, dateless and randomly in black and white.



Happy birthday, Jessie. That's awesome that you got your birthday wish - the ability to shoot lasers out of your eyes.



The cat loves going outside. Hooray for beautiful weather.

Ulf Themed Day

Last Tuesday happened to be a true Ulf day. On my way home from school, the record store called and told me that the LP I ordered had come in - Urban Hymns by the Verve. Sweet record that I never actually owned before, but I've listened to it tons, in Ulf's parents' house, in his car, Ulf playing "Lucky Man" on guitar... I got a record player from Amanda last year and I've been buying records since. My rule is that if there's a new album out that I want, I will look for the vinyl first. In fact, most new vinyl comes with a coupon for the songs on MP3 so that works out well for the most time.

In addition, this happened to be the day that I made Ulf's indonesian chicken recipe for the first time in a long time... It turned out great, even though I forgot to add the mango chutney before the oven, and we had to add it on the plate.



The record player I got from Amanda last year!



My growing collection of vinyl...

Last night I finished off 80 hours in the lab over the past 8 days. It would have been fine if I hadn't felt sick for most of the time. Oh well, it's over now and I hope it will be a while before I have to go in again. Tomorrow I'm heading to Toronto, first to hang out with Rick and Meena for a few days, then to attend the American Industrial Hygiene Convention and Expo. I'm bringing a research poster for the student poster session at AIHCE, and I will also work a few sessions, but I hope to have time to see old friends also.

Relaxing May Weekend

I thought I was gonna be stuck in the lab all weekend, but late Friday afternoon my advisor called to tell me that they were not done with the trial experiments, and that we weren't gonna start anything until Tuesday. This meant a sunny weekend hanging out instead!



Amanda down a sunny street.



Reading Kallifatides in Winnemac park.



Amanda's coffee and hi-tops.



Out in the sun.



Making dinner Sunday night.

Mother's Day Weekend 2009

Last Friday night, we saw one of my currently favorite bands, the Kills, at the Metro. Maybe you can't really call them a band since it's just a guy and a girl, rocking out and being awesome. But they are super rock and roll and really talented and a great live show. Highly recommended.



I have a soft spot in my heart for silkscreened concert posters, and since it was such a sweet show, we bought a poster for the collection. It'll probably take us 3 months to frame it.



Anders enjoying weekend breakfast with his usual giant press pot full of coffee.



We had a Mother's Day dinner with my family at a super-Polish restaurant. From left: Aunt Denise, a monkey, my mom, Aunt Lori, and my dad.



And now for some earth shattering news: I bought my MacBook Pro! It is a-maz-ing. This picture was taken right after taking it out of the box. I'm pretty much just staring at the thing because it didn't have any software loaded on it at first and I was just really in shock. Thanks again to mom, dad, Birgitta, and Göran for your generous contributions.