January This Year - Brady

I don't have anything particular to check in about today, but it's been awhile since I posted, so I thought I'd do a roundup of all that we did last month.

January, 2014, in photos:

We spent New Year's Eve in Nashville, Tennessee and had a really nice time. We heard some good live music, did a lot of walking and eating, and rang in the New Year with champagne at a nice restaurant downtown. 

Once the holidays were really truly over, we settled into a frigid winter in Chicago. We've been enjoying the city as much as possible in the cold, taking Molly on adventures, drinking lots of hot coffee, getting work done, hanging out with family (the pretty sunset photo below was taken from Kevin's sister and brother-in-law's deck).

What else? I've been doing a bunch of yoga - it was my New Year's Resolution to do it everyday, and so far I've stuck with it. I baked some pretty amazing chocolate chip cookies using this recipe. I work from home on Mondays and Wednesdays with Molly napping next to me. During the Polar Vortex, I threw boiling water into the air and watched it turn to snow. Fun stuff. 

January is not my favorite month. It may be my least favorite month, actually, but life was pretty good around here this year. 

These Boots Are Made for Walking (In The Slush) - Brady

Grandma and Grandpa, Fred and Cindy - thanks!

I just wanted to show off the new snow boots I bought with the money Santa left at both of your houses for me this Christmas. I used it to buy these heavy duty Sorel snow boots.

I have a bad habit of buying cheaply made stuff in order to save money and then hating it and having to spend double to correct my mistake. So goes my relationship with snow boots. I bought some inexpensive ones at DSW several years ago. They're cold. They leak. They're flimsy. I actually broke my ankle in them two winters ago. I was goofing around, kicking Kevin, tripped and twisted my leg until my fibula cracked. I 90% blame me and 10% blame the boots for having zero structure. I was being an idiot, but I was being an idiot in shoes whose lack of support is rivaled only by flip flops.

Anyway, gross, I don't want to think about broken bones anymore. The important thing to know is that my ankles are safe and sound and supported in these awesome new boots. Plus my feet are cozy warm. I've found living in Chicago that surviving and even enjoying winter depends heavily on having the right gear. I'm having lots of fun breaking these in, stepping in all the slush puddles I want, stomping around with Molly, looking like a serious Midwesterner.

So Grandma and Grandpa, Fred and Cindy - tell Santa I said thank you next time you talk to him!

It Will Be Lovely - Brady

I just finished reading the book Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. In it, he tells the true stories of Daniel Burnham, the architect who created the "white city" for Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who murdered an unknown number of people during the same time period. It's great historical reading, and I highly recommend it to anybody who's interested in learning more about Chicago.

Toward the end of the book, Larson explains what happens to each of the main characters he's followed. Daniel Burnham, who went on to design all kinds of important buildings and planned whole areas of cities, including Chicago, is getting older and knows he's nearing his death. On July 4th, 1909, three years before he dies, he's on the rooftop of the Reliance Building - which is now called the Hotel Burnham - with some of his friends. As he looks out over Chicago, his favorite city, he says, "You'll see it lovely. I never will. But it will be lovely."

100 years later, I feel lucky to be able to see a Chicago that's got to be even "lovelier" than Burnham imagined. A lot of people, myself included before I moved there, think of big cities as dark, crowded, and dirty. Now I think Chicago is absolutely gorgeous. Below are some of my favorite pictures, taken by Kevin when we lived there. They're mostly skyline shots, but sometimes little streets in pretty neighborhoods are just as nice.

The Chicago River

The Sears Tower

View from an airplane

The Sears Tower again

Pretty view from our old apartment's window

The holidays are so pretty there. Believe it or not, living in Chicago made me like winter.

Skyline from Lake Michigan

Ferris Wheel! Invented for Chicago's Columbian Exposition as an answer to the Eiffel Tower.

Northerly Island. We saw a great Jack Johnson concert there. He called Lake Michigan an ocean. :)

Another skyline view

From U.S. Cellular Field

Millennium Park

Lake Michigan is BEAUTIFUL.

Buckingham Fountain

Skyline view from the park where outdoor movies are shown all summer

Millennium Park again

How could there ever be a better place to live than this?

Harbor at night

Lake Michigan can be beautiful even during the winter.

I love this shot. Buckingham Fountain and the skyline on the kind of day that makes you forget all the horribly hot and cold ones. :)