Category: everyday life

Another New Mac – My Own

I got another Mac, and it is my own, and not Mac Air. I never thought I would purchase a Mac for myself, and the most recent model, but here I am.

There were a couple of things that I did for the first time with this Mac. my first trade-in (I traded in my old Mac Air), my first time applying, and getting an Apple card – for the sake of getting 0% financing for a year. They also said that I could order a physical card for this account – a “titanium card.” I ordered it; to be honest, I thought that the usage of the word “titanium” had no more to do with reality than multiple “gold,” “diamond,” or “sapphire.” But when the card arrived, it turned out that it was titanium! Which means it’s too thick to put her into my phone case.

But I guess, it’s OK since I have it in the Apple Wallet 🙂

Or and also, that was the first time I completely restored my new laptop from the time machine, and I was surprised that it actually worked (like I didn’t have to look for all the passwords and licenses one more time :))

Igor’s Article

Today, one more time, a person who has known me for a long time, but does not talk to me too often, asked me “how am I” other than “lots of work.” I told him: there is a war in my life; it is here, it does not go away, and it will never go away from my life until it will be actually over.

That’s how I am, and although most news sources moved the war in Ukraine to the second tier of coverage, I didn’t move it there.

That’s why I was so happy that Igor’s article about the war in the Wednesday Journal made it to the front page of the Opinion section. I hope that enough people will see it – here is it.

Rogers Park Adventures

I still can’t believe that Lena and I did each and single thing we planned for that weekend! Today, it was raining in the morning, and I thought both our biking and swimming were not going to happen. But the rain suddenly stopped at 6-30 AM, and Lena didn’t leave me an option to think about whether it was too late or too wet – she just emerged out of her room and said that she was going to walk to her car to get her helmet :).

We biked to the “Windmill” and returned to a late breakfast, then went swimming, trying to catch the time before the lifeguards would be in. I was skeptical about swimming at 72F and with no sun, but it was perfect -the water was already so warmed up that even the cool temperatures of the previous two days did not affect it.

Continue reading “Rogers Park Adventures” →

Chicago Adventures With Lena

Yesterday, my friend Lena from Ann Arbor came to visit me for the weekend, and today was a blast! Not even mentioning how much I enjoy Lena’s company, what a fun person she is, but we did tons of cool things together.

We started the day with the Millennium Art Fair on Michigan Avenue, where I bought two rings with flowers inside, and Lena bought a pair of earrings with butterfly wings (they explained to us that they collect the wings from dead butterflies).

Continue reading “Chicago Adventures With Lena” →

Not Again!

Even though the inspection a couple of months ago confirmed that there are no rodents in my house, I still had some doubts. Recently, I realized that somebody was cutting into the plastic bags with the bread and eating tiny pieces.

I vividly remember that on Wednesday morning, I thought: I need to call exterminators. And on Thursday, when I woke up and when to the bathroom, I heard these squeaking noises, and I saw that one of the mouse traps which an inspector left changed its position on the floor… Here we go!

I am capable of picking up and discarding mouse traps without looking, but since this one was not transparent, I was not sure whether the mouse was indeed there. And I was afraid to look. Then I remembered that the painter who will be working in my apartment next week was going to stop for his advance later in the day, and I decided to ask him.

When he came, I told him: I wanted to ask you for a favor. You know I am a strong woman, but there is one thing I am afraid of – I am afraid of mice! And he looked at me and said: I am afraid of mice, too!

Then he said: if it’s not a rat, but a mouse, I can look! I showed him a trap and told him that I could discard this mouse. He looked and then said – where is your broom? I handed him a broom and a shovel. He asked: are you ready with a garbage bag? Because I am not going to look! I said – yes, and with this collective effort, we successfully deposited the mouse into the garbage, and I took the garbage out:)

The Lake At It’s Best

This year, the spring was cold, and it took a while for the lake to warm up. Today was the first time that I didn’t want to get out of the water. It was a perfect moment in the evening when the air was still warm and the sun was just about to start to come down, and the water was magical.

Thank you, my lake!

My Fair Lady

I went to see a new production of My Fair Lady on Thursday. This was an outing I planned to do with mom (with hopes that she still remembers the plot she knew!) It turned out that she only remembered the name, not the plot, but it was still good, because it is a beautiful show, and I wanted her to experience the atmosphere of a great classic musical. So at least that worked 🙂

Broken Ties – Andrey Loshak’s Movie

Highly recommend watching this movie to all my friends who ask me “how Russian people feel about what’s going on”. There are English subtitles

Highland Park

Yesterday, Igor went to see the scene of the shooting and took a lot of pictures, which can be seen here.

The ones that actually gave me chills are those with the abandoned folding chairs, which were left behind when people ran in panic. And the sight of a completely empty downtown…

Central/1st - southeast corner
Central and 1st - northeast corner
IMG_3277

Different Views On Abortion In Illinois

This article was printed shortly after the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe/Wade. I sent it to one of my colleagues to illustrate how complicated the issue is and why many companies are careful about not explicitly condemning this decision. It is not so unanimous even in the Blue State of Illinois.

Not like we didn’t know before.