Tag: friends

It’s The End Of The Weekend…

… and if you ask me right now about my weekend, I would say that I was working! This would be at least partially true, but I do not feel miserable about it. This impression comes mostly because I was working for the past nine hours, more or less nonstop. There are two reasons why this does not make me miserable: first, I had many meaningful activities before these nine hours, and second, I had been extremely nervous for the past two weeks about not finding time to do all this work. So now that a big chunk of it is done, I feel much better :), and feel like this weekend was well spent.

One of my old friends from Palatine visited me for the first time since I moved to Rogers Park, and we had an amazing time together! She liked my house, the neighborhood, and the beach. The weather was not especially beach-friendly, so most likely, if I were by myself, I wouldn’t even go, but since she already went that long way, we went, and the rain retreated :). While we were sitting chatting at the beach, a lady approached us and said that she was advertising a chess tournament, and how there were not enough women in chess, and maybe we could give it a try. I had no time and no desire, but I loved her enthusiasm, so I took the information from her. It was so “Rogers Park-like” that I could not explain better what I love here!

We visited my mom, then went to Charmers, got some coffee, and ate the buns that my friend had brought from a Polish bakery.

She loved our courtyard and wanted to take a picture of it, and then she said she wanted me in the middle because my clothes matched our beautification color scheme.

After she left, I changed from the beach outfit to the nice one and went to a coworker’s 50th birthday party. I really admire and respect this person, and he might be the only person for whom I would go all the way to Berwyn! An over-an-hour one-way Uber trip, plus staying there for an hour and a half, and a trip back, and 50+ people in the bar from whom I knew maybe five or seven… I am telling you, I would not do it for anyone else!

Montreal

When I started planning my trip to Montreal, I notified my old friend from Ottawa that I would be in Canada, and she graciously suggested that she come to Montreal to see me. We used to visit each other often, but later things changed, and the last time I saw her in person was in 2016. I planned on coming a day before the start of the conference so that we could have the whole day for ourselves, but later I learned about the Postgres Extensions Day, a day before the opening, so the organizer convinced me to attend. As I mentioned yesterday, I attended for a half-day, and at about noon, my friend messaged me that she had arrived, so I left the event.

We had an amazing time catching up. Since my friend shares my thrust to culture, we could not just “walk around.” After lunch, we went to see the Notre Dame Basilica, and then Chateau Ramezay – a former governor residence, and currently a history museum.

Continue reading “Montreal” →

Showing Chicago To My Guest

One of the conference attendees (and my good friend) stayed at my house for the whole event and the weekend after, which was great for both of us, and we were each other’s moral support :). It was her second visit to Chicago, and this time, not only did I show her places in the city she hadn’t seen before, but also, I walked with her around Rogers Park and showed all the best local spots, because she and her family will stay with me in August.

An L-train turning
A bridge going up
Lunch at the Art Institute Member’s Lounge
Continue reading “Showing Chicago To My Guest” →

Post-Christmas Helsinki

The weather was/is really miserable; it’s warm, but no sun, no snow, no nothing. Probably the worst I ever saw at that time of the year. However, still a lot of Christmas decorations up!

I met up with my friend Natasha, and we walked around a bit before sitting and chatting at the Fazer cafe.

The city is still beautiful, even with this miserable weather 🙂

Cards And Cookies

It’s that time of the year again! If I know you, IRL or virtually, this post is for you!

Do you want a Christmas card from me? Please let me know!

Do you want a box of my cookies? – Let me know!

Do you live in Chicagoland and want to bake and decorate with me? I will have an Open Cookie House on December 6, 7, and 8; please come!

You do not have to send me a card or cookies as a reciprocation unless you want!

I am ready to share the joy of the season:)

Another Chicago Weekend – 2

Sunday was equally amazing. As it became our tradition, when Lena comes in summer, we do Loop activities on Saturday and Rogers Park activities on Sunday. And once again, it’s great that she enjoys the same activities as me.

We started the day with a bike ride. In the past, Lena was way slower than me, and she said she didn’t do much biking this season either, but somehow, this time she kept pace with me without any issues. If I only knew, I would suggest her to wake up earlier, and we could bike all the way to the Field Museum. But even a relatively short (15 miles) ride was great!

A spectacular sunrise!
Continue reading “Another Chicago Weekend – 2” →

Another Chicago Weekend

I love having Lena in Chicago because she likes the same things that I like, so her favorite weekend is also my favorite. If she had a mini-vacation (which I hope she did), I also had it!

She arrived on Friday, and we even had some time to talk, but I was too tired to stay up late (on Thursday evening, my Amazon Fresh order was delayed, and I had to wait until 11:30PM!). But the next two days, we had a blast!

I made salmon and broccoli quiche for breakfast. My balcony is in the middle of repair, but they allowed us to but the furniture back during the non-working hours
Millenium Park had only two entrances open because of the 20-years celebration, and some parts were permanently closed, so we had to go through security multiple times
We were the first to enter the Art Institute on Saturday, and it was my third time to see the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit.
We also saw the Christina Ramber retrospective, but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.
Then we went to the Member’s Lounge Bar
… and took tons of pictures of ourselves. BTW, Lena talked me into wearing a dress that day, saying that her only opportunity to wear a dress was when she visited me in Chicago.
Continue reading “Another Chicago Weekend” →

Lena In Chicago

Lena arrived an hour after my friends from Helsinki left for the airport (and I am happy to report that despite the World-Wide-IT Crisis, they safely made it home). I barely finished washing the sheets and towels.

Lena brought lots of cherry-flavored goodies, some fresh pickles from her garden, and lots of enthusiasm for doing touristy things in Chicago. And if you ask me – I am always in!

Georgis O’keefee for the third time 🙂

Porches Painting And Planting

I started to write this post two months ago, but then things became more interesting, and I held off on posting it. Now, the whole process is finally in progress, so I can at least report on the current status.

How it started. Last year, there were talks about painting porches, but they died away with no outcome. I planted everything I wanted to plant, and life was happy. This spring, I planned to hang up my flower baskets while Boris was here in April because it’s a job for two people. But shortly before he came, we received a notice from our association that this season, we are definitely having the porches painted and repaired, so “please do not take the deck furniture out and do not plant anything; we hope to be done in May.”

How did it turn out. I didn’t plant anything, but my furniture is always on the deck, just covered for winter. At the beginning of May, I started to suspect that it would not happen in May. In mid-May, they told us that they chose contractors. At that point, I decided that I would be planting, and when my girls were here during the first weekend of June, we went to the Windy City Garden Center. Right then, another message arrived stating that the work would begin “after the holidays.” This was a total crush because my friends from Finland would arrive just before July 4, which would mean that they would have this construction for the whole duration of their stay! Also, I felt so miserable without the plants that I decided that I would be happy even if they would hang on there for a month!

Development. Since then, the dates have shifted multiple times. Finally, this week, the work began. I know that my tier won’t be started for at least three more weeks. That means that my flowers will last for two months! My only regret is that I listened to the “do not plant” statement and wasted almost a month!

The equipment is arriving

My guests are saying that so far, it was not that noisy and they can survive, so I hope it will be all OK!

Showing The Best Of Rogers Park

I had a total of five days off work, including two vacation days I took on July 3 and 5 to help my friends feel at home and show them all of the Rogers Park highlights. I think I succeeded: they love it here!

We went to the beach several times (actually, at least twice, they went without me).

On July 4, we went to look at the Artists of the Wall:

We went to Devon Market and Morse Market (and to get to the former one, I made sure that all of them had a bike they could ride. My friend Natasha didn’t ride a bike for several years, and she never did biking in the street traffic. I could understand her anxiety – I felt the same way when I first biked in Rogers Park, but she survived :).

This morning, we went for breakfast to the Common Cup:

And then to the Glenwood market, where we got purple and yellow beans, Benison bakery pastries, Mickii’s cobblers, flowers, and tart cherries. And Natasha got herself a new neckless, and then we all got different flavors of popsicles.

And then we went to the Art Institute, where, to my deepest disappointment, we found the Ryan Canter closed because of the NASCAR race – don’t ask what it has to do with that! However, Sonia compensated this loss with another round of slashes in the Crown Fountain:

Tomorrow, I will be back to work, but I think my friends will find their way around and things to do!