Windy City

First off....my hubby of 366 days has a new blog (his fourth). As he is a much better writer than I, I suggest you go and visit his blog to read about our little weekend getaway to Chicago this past weekend. The trip was mostly to get out of the house, since we haven't traveled for fun since our honeymoon, however my other motivation was to see the Smart House at the Museum of Science and Industry. Other side benefits, my darling friend Rachel lives in Chicago and it happened to be our first anniversary.

While Andrew's recap is great I'll throw in my two cents. We decided to take the train to Chicago to 1. save money and 2. be good to the earth. The train ride up wasn't so great, but mostly because we were delayed 2 hours and didn't get to Chicago until 1:30 am. The train ride home was great! We had our own sleeper room, had dinner with a very interesting 78 year old German gentleman from Toronto and had a great time watching the scenery pass by.





The Smart Home was disappointing. They rushed you through the house in groups of twenty and only gave you moments to take everything in. It was way too rushed and I thought our guide was not very well educated on all things "Green". She couldn't answer any off script questions and explained VOCs incorrectly. The only highlight of the Smart Home were the bathrooms. Andrew and I are planning to renovate our main bath soon and both baths in this house were exactly what we were envisioning. We ended up getting a great list of resources to look into.

The architectural river tour was awesome, an unexpected treat.

Seeing my darling Rachel was also awesome! You look great Rachel and we loved spending time with you!


For opinions on our meals....see Andrew's blog.

Other things going on.....

• Andrew started fixing the plaster wall in the dining room. Lesson learned: take the time to cover your furniture before sanding plaster for 30 min. There is still white dust covering parts of the living and dining room...
• I was very surprised by all the cards and phone calls we got for our anniversary. So, so sweet to know that there is so much love and support out there for us.
• Getting ready for a family visit. My mom and two aunts are on there way to St. Louis soon. Got to clean up the plaster dust!

Some items of interest:

• I found this musician via Dooce and have been listening nonstop for the last few weeks.
• Get rid of your vinyl shower curtain! It is full of toxic chemicals. Get a nylon curtain that you can wash, over, and over in the laundry.
• Found this bag designer over the weekend in Chicago...I'm lusting after this one for the work days and this one for the weekends.