Go Cubs Go 2008

Help Please-Passport Photo

Anyone know of a good/cheap place to get a passport photo taken?

If You're Bored

Food Safety Music Videos

Another reason to love Starbucks.

Another reason to love Starbucks. You can say whatever you want about how prolific, blah blah blah. No matter which one I go to, the people are always happy. The soy latte is always good and here I am sorry to say that is not always the case with other places. I could list more reasons but I have a test to study for.

My Very Long Vacation Summary

First, I want to express to my friends reading this post that I love them dearly. I miss them all and I am so very glad that I was able to see them. Most of the things that happened are laughable now. I know it is hard to imagine but I can be pretty dramatic in the moment (read: big crybaby). Now that my feet are firmly planted on Illinois soil I wish I was back in Philadelphia. I would jump at the chance to do it again. I am working on putting a picture slideshow together. I realized that I don't have any pictures of my friends. I am such an idiot sometimes. Okay, on to the vacation summary.

Day 1: Flying in to Philadelphia on the day that Southwest grounded their planes for maintenance issues. Our flight was a couple of hours late which meant that I arrived in Philly on day 2. I did have some fun times while waiting at the airport. The man who went through security behind me was escorted away by authorities. Apparently, they didn't like what was in his bag. The employees at the Southwest counter were being yelled at by customers. The authorities had to be called twice and then they just stayed there. I was offered a chance to join the three foot high club. I passed. When I finally got on the plane the flight attendants were great. I started talking to them while we were waiting in the airport. They gave me tons of food and beverage.
Day 2: I arrived in Philadelphia and went to sleep. We did see a few sights on the way. I woke-up and started to plan out my day. Originally I was going to visit places during the day and then meet my friend after work. Her car didn't start that morning and she didn't make it to work. I took the train out to see her for a bit. I then came back and started to see the sights. I made it to the Philadelphia Free Library which was very nice. I love libraries. I then visited Penn's campus. They were on break so it was not busy and some of the buildings were locked. It was pretty and their bookstore had a lot of great deals on books. I didn't purchase any but that was my own fault. We then walked back and deposited me on the train to the suburbs so that I could visit my friends. I made it just in time for warm from the oven chicken pot pie. (I really want that recipe.)
Day 3: I spent a nice day indoors working on a few things for school. I also made a ham and macaroni and cheese. The ham took about twice as long to cook as predicted. Note that now for day 5. The food was good and it was one of my better sauces in terms of consistency. I should have added more spices. I did manage to burn myself which resulted in me dropping the pot holder. I dropped it on to the burner that was being used to boil water. I picked it up before it caught on fire but it was still ruined.
Day 4: We went to the Rodin Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art. I strongly encourage you to visit these places if you are in the area. Also, make sure that you have enough film/digital media and batteries available. We also did quite a bit of walking around Philadelphia and had lunch at a cute Mexican restaurant. I had tamales which were good but a certain person here makes better ones. We took the train back and ate split pea and ham soup which we put in the slow cooker before we left. It was quite yummy with toasted bread.
Day 5: We went to church in the morning. My friend made an excellent breakfast and it was nice to worship with them. I also was able to meet two of their friends while I was there. It is nice to put faces to names. After church we brined a whole chicken. We let it soak while we went out to look at their new house. They also showed me some of the model homes. They were quite lovely. Their house seems to be coming along and I was honored to be their first house guest. I LOVE the solarium. After visiting the house we went back to their apartment and started to cook the chicken. It went in the oven at 3pm. Now, I remind you that the ham took twice as long to cook on day 3. Keeping that in mind, I increased the oven temperature by 25 degrees. The chicken skyrocketed in temperature so I turned the oven back down. At 7:30 the chicken still was not up to temperature. At one point, the temperature of the chicken dropped while it was in the oven. I am not really sure what happened. We ordered Chinese food and then I headed back with my other friend to Philadelphia.
Day 6: We visited New York City. I saw the Statue of Liberty from the New Jersey Turnpike. It is really green and you can see the light from quite a distance. I am not sure what I was expecting to see but it surpassed my expectations. My first glimpse of the Manhattan skyline was also moving. I have seen it in pictures and movies but you can't capture it perfectly. I honestly felt that way about all of Manhattan. We saw a lot of things but I didn't take many pictures. The ones I took seemed so inadequate. It was like the photographs of the paintings from the Museums. They simply don't do the works justice. While in Manhattan we saw these things: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Staten Island, Ground Zero, Wall Street, Stock Exchange Annex, Merrill Lynch Bull Statue (I think), Tiffany's, Trump Building, NYU, Washington Square, City Hall Park, the Subway, Union Square, NYC Library, Times Square, Broadway theaters, Greenwich Village, Fifth Avenue, Central Park, Carnegie Hall, Empire State Building, and I am probably forgetting things.
Day 7: I woke-up and went to Trader Joe's to purchase snacks for the 36 hour train adventure to return home. Then I went looking for a place to get coffee and walked way farther than I needed to because I thought surely if I just keeping walking in Center City I will find one soon. Oh well. We walked to the train station. I collected my ticket from the kiosk and noticed that they didn't have my other reservation listed. I thought that was weird. I found out that they had cancelled it. My friend purchased a next day ticket for the last leg of my journey. It cost three times as much but at least I got home. I had a connection in Pittsburgh during the middle of the night. Of course my train was late and so I waited there for 6 hours. Finally after 2am, we made it out of there. I did meet a nice 88-year old Celiac. I sat with here so that she wouldn't be alone. I was glad to have company because a very oily looking man kept staring at me and scratching himself. I thought that I was imagining it at first but she also noticed. We were late getting into Chicago and she missed her bus. I hung out with her and made sure that she caught the next one. Then while I was waiting for my train a drug dog hopped over the divider and approached some people near me. Next thing I know, people are walking by and the dog started howling. Apparently, he found something. Then a newly paroled man sat next to me and offered me money to use my cell phone. I told him to keep the money and let him use it. My train came and I made it home. Fruittart was there and had some food for me on my seat. She is awesome!! I ate and went to bed.

THE END

Elvis has left the building

or... MY FATHER IS HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL!!! PRAISE GOD!

Spring Training

I love baseball and I love the Chicago Cubs. It does make me sad that Gameday Audio doesn't play all the Spring Training games. I need to get my Cubs fix somehow because I can't WATCH every game.

6700 Pounds of Pot Seized

So much for this small town.

I Love Her Voice

This song is not my favorite song but I like them all.

Contact Isolation

It appears that my dad has a hospital acquired infection. He has been placed in contact isolation. I think that this might also be the same "bug" that is causing his pneumonia. Fortunately, it appears that it is not a drug resistant strain.

My Dad's Obstacle to Returning Home

When prayer requests have been sent out for my father, God has responded in amazing ways. I humbly submit this update and prayer request.

I have updated information about my dad that is quite concerning. According to the doctors, the thing that is keeping my dad in the hospital is not his heart. He was experiencing kidney problems but now his liver is also being affected. He is on dialysis but he has too much ammonia in his body and his white blood cell count is also elevated. He is coughing up some things from his lungs that are dark green and black. These things are not improving with the dialysis. The doctors feel that his body is at war with itself. I think that my father is at war with something of a more spiritual nature.

My stepmother has been quite fortunate in the fact that her work has allowed her to use all her stored vacation. She has to return in two weeks. She and I had a long talk on the phone and she conveyed her fears to me. She is afraid of what will happen when she has to leave my father alone in the hospital. He is disoriented right now and it makes him really upset.

I really appreciate your prayers and so does the rest of my family. Please pray that my stepmother would have peace when she has to leave my father. Also, please pray for mercy on my father as he fights . I know that when it is God's timing then He will take my father. Clearly there is still more that God has planned for him. My father has been sharing his testimony with his caregivers in the hospital and some of them have asked for books to read more about it. It is clear that God is being glorified in all of this. He provided me with the right words to encourage my stepmother and allowed me to pray with her. That is our praise.