Thanksgiving is always a good time to take stock of what you’re thankful for, and CNDKmen are thankful for quite a lot! First, we all agreed that Rory is what we are most thankful for in 2014. We just can’t get enough of his story of premie triumph! And we’re so impressed with Colette and Colman’s parenting of him both in the hospital and now home. Rory was discharged from the hospital Nov. 22, and like his other moves between levels in the hospitals, it came up very suddenly and he did great with the change. Here he is at…

After New Delhi, London felt like familiar comfort food, even though every time you visit, it seems like you discover little nooks and crannies that are pure delight. But the big thing that struck me this time was how much the skyline of London has changed since my last visit. I climbed to the top of St Paul’s Cathedral (funny enough built around the same time as the Mughal mosques in India) and had a great view of how futuristic the East End of London is looking. St Paul’s Cathedral: East End Skyline:

Just finished a three day trip to New Delhi for work, which because it was for focus groups left me all morning and afternoon for sightseeing (as well as coming back to Chicago with a new found appreciation for our traffic situation – North Ave and the Kennedy all is forgiven!) New Delhi is a huge city, 70 mln, and very poor, you never get over all the crowds of people, many of them, young and old, doing backbreaking manual labor with few or no tools. It’s also on the side of a dessert, so is incredibly dusty all the…

Hello, readers! In case you feared that we’d lost our wordpress password or something, nope. We’re back! So first of all, it’s gotten pretty chilly in Chicago. Because of the cold and a pre-holiday sale at REI, I got a new sweater that I really like. Finally I have a sweater like those seen in Jan Brett’s lovely children’s book The Hat. I will have to report this to Apple, but my iPhone must have malfunctioned while Miles was taking the photo of me in the new sweater because somehow there are now 12 selfies of Miles stored on my…

For day two of the open house events, we decided to visit sites that were in more on our side of town, and also sites that made stuff. Really, the focus was the Prairie Material concrete works. I have been somewhere between appreciative and obsessed with the concrete factory at the corner of Chicago and Halsted for a loooooong time now. Getting to take a tour was really a dream come true! In the yard area between the silos and the conveyors, they had samples set up. There were a lot of concrete cores, and depending on the density of…

This weekend was Open House Chicago weekend, with the Chicago Architecture Foundation hosting open houses at 150 spaces (not always traditional buildings!) around the city. I’d heard about this event before, but we’d never gone, so this year we decided to check out some of the open houses. On Saturday, we went downtown, stopping first at a really good ramen noodle place called The Slurping Turtle. We decided to try a few of the open houses in the financial district. I’m not sure we’ve ever really walked around there, which is kinda crazy, considering we’ve been in Chicago for 21…

Until several days ago, this weekend was going to have John heading off to a conference in Lisbon, Liam staying down at college, and Miles and me flying to Florida to see Debbie, Jeff and Madeline. In the end the two trips were postponed and Liam came to town. John will be going to Lisbon in November or December, and I’m also hoping to get to Florida before the end of the year! It was great to have Liam around! Liam’s friends Sophie and Sebi came over today, and we went to Unami Burger in Wicker Park for lunch. Teddy…

As many readers know, I have been in training (strong word for a 5K fun run, I know) for the Comer Children’s Hospital 5K race. I’ve never run a race before, and while I enjoy my runs, running for me has been a very solitary activity. Just me and some podcasts on my headphones as I circle Smith Park! Today’s race route went around the main campus at the University of Chicago and Midway Plaisance, and it was a really lovely morning for it. John and Miles came down to cheer me on, and take a few photos. We also…

Yesterday evening John and I went downtown to see the Chicago Fire Festival. Miles stayed home because he’d been outside volunteering at a pumpkin patch all day, and was really done with being outdoors in the very chilly weather! The fire festival celebrated the great Chicago fire, which lasted from October 8-10, 1871. It just shows how changeable the weather is this time of year, since the year of the fire was so hot and dry the city burnt very easily and this October… not so much (details on that to come.) The entertainment / story itself was set on…

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone! Thought I would share some photos of my adventure in jury duty. The jury duty part itself has been uneventful so far, just waiting in a big room. But lunch break has been interesting. I brought my lunch. Good call! Dining options are limited! Nice ornament on courthouse exterior. Bull of justice? Beautiful chocolates from john and miles that I will enjoy later! More exteriors This one’s for you, Liam! Reminiscent of a BrBa Albuquerque still! (Maybe I flatter myself!) More of those bulls above the arches.