happy summer!

So I finally got to stop going to school. Patrick and I moved into our condo, and it's wonderful. Gwen, who lived here with her husband, Clint, left us a lot of stuff: these stiff lacy window dressings, a dining room table, a huge old desk, a cool lamp. Silk flowers to put in the kitchen because the lamps under the cabinets killed the real ones she had at first, and a catalogue for more silk flowers, just in case. Labels for the mailbox and buzzer, two versions of each: Louie/Iber and Iber/Louie, so we have a choice. A chart with all our neighbors' names and little descriptions of what they do. Cans of paint labeled with colors and which rooms they go to. It's amazing.

My mom came out and helped paint the dining room, which is still yellow but a much milder tone. She's still here, just hanging out with me, the good people of Dahn Yoga and Dahn Mu Do, and Mrs Gomez (who I am now supposed to call "Diana"). We went to see the da Vinci exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. Leonardo sure had an impressive mind. I wonder if he ever got lonely.

Patrick's mom drove up last weekend, too. We took a walk in Jackson Park and saw tons of birds. Barn swallows, an oriole, a great blue heron, a night heron (seeing a lot of them lately, despite their supposed elusiveness), some kind of goldfinches, redwing blackbirds, eastern kingbirds, canadian geese, purple martins, house sparrows, monk parakeets, a cardinal, mallards, rock doves. I'm really enjoying the birding in Chicago (even though it makes me feel very elderly). I'm curious to go back to San Francisco and see if I've been missing all kinds of birds or if there just aren't as many species there.

I started using the handblender I got a couple of months ago (after extensive research into various makes and models on amazon.com). It's great. I made yam and peanut soup (tell Sarah thanks for the recipe, Dustin!). It was delicious.

On another random note, my sewing machine broke. It was made in 1948. I paid Singer Sewing Machine Repair on Milwaukee $60 to fix it. I figure it's worth it. After all, I got it for free, and the use I've already gotten out of it is worth at least that much. 1948 was a long time ago.

I'm leaving on Monday. Tel Aviv--Buenos Aires--Santiago de Chile--San Francisco. Bay Area from August 3-8. Holla atcha girl!