Merry Christmas

to all and to all a good night...


May the good news of great joy for all people be with you today...

Jesus loves you

JAN 6-9

for all who live in the capital city of NC (or neighboring cities, ie. morrisville, cary, wake forest, chapel hill, durham), mary and i will be in town... we're coming just for a visit... no business, just pleasure...

on another matter, 1st semester of grad school is down and 3 to go... then i'll be a master.. haha

in other news, the church we have been attending (www.thenewcom.com) has been absolutely wonderful.. pastor peter has a true gift of speaking Gods word and it has been wonderful to hear convicting and inspiring messages at the same time.. God is good...

ok, i'm out..

love to everyone who reads this... and those who don't :)

you know you're a chicagoan

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you live in Chicago


If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in Chicago


If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in Chicago.


If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you live in Chicago


If "Vacation" means going anywhere south of I - 80 for the weekend, you live in Chicago.


If you measure distance in hours, you live in Chicago .


If you have switched from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again, you live in Chicago


If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you live in Chicago.


If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you live in Chicago


If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live in Chicago


If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and everybody is passing you, you live in Chicago


If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you live in Chicago


If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you live in Chicago.


If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you live in Chicago


If you find 10 degrees "a little chilly", you live in Chicago

If you actually understand these jokes, and forward them to all your friends & others, you live in Chicago

wooo SNOW!!!

ok folks... i've been busy with school and the likes, but today i must post... whew... SNOW!!! i remember it now.. how fun it is... throwing snowballs at.. trees :) driving in it.. walking in it.. looking at it.. there, for me, is no negative aspect of snow... and to show you what i mean, here are a few pix... enjoy..

oh, and one other thing i find rather amusing... i was watching the news this morning and looking for the "closers".. not thinking my school was going to be shut down, but i was just curious... i saw one school that said, "SCHOOL NOT CANCELLED, BUSES NOT RUNNING" so really... get your butts to school... haha.. i remember, and i'm not poking fun, raleigh... for all you raleigh, cary, wake forest readers out there... you guys would have the next WEEK off.. :)

wish you were here!
dan

sorry for the delay

wow!!!! school is crazy! very hard, but fun and a great experience...

so, i STILL have not finished my top 10... but, i have taken some RAD pix of the city... here are a few...

mary and i are good, mary is working a ton and really enjoying her job. mary's sister got hitched this last weekend, so we saw a bunch of family, even a few we haven't seen for a long time, so that was fun.. rosie got to play out in the country and run around free with a large german shepard... it's so funny to see those two chasing around the yard... one bite and rosie is gone, luckily, mossy (the german shepard) is a VERY well trained dog... luckily rosie is not in heat anymore so that is good too...

let's see here, i don't think there is much else to say, i'm tired and still have work to do tonight but i thought it had been tooooo long since i posted on here... so... here you go...

oh... and thx to everyone that text'd me on "national speak like a pirate day" that was awesome... you brought a smile to my face... YAR!!!!






this is the view walking from one class to the next on wednesday night...












waiting for a bus, the city still moves












view from my school... my building is the one on the left... doesn't the sears tower almost look fake back there, i probably could have faked a building in there and it would've looked better, but this is real... promise

well... bummer

i was SOOO excited to start school today! and then... i got an email saying class will not start until wed.. the new prof is stuck in germany until next week.. so, that class won't even take place until NEXT wed since next monday is labor day...

anyway... it's another day of me sitting at home trying to get rosie not to bark at every little noise... augh!

otherwise, things are going great here.. mary just went to her parents place this weekend for a bridal shower for her sister... getting married sometime in sept i believe...

tomorrow, mary has the day off, so we are going to go over to uic together and walk around the campus and just check the whole thing out.. find where all my classes are going to be taking place.. finding other things on campus like, oh.. pepsi machines, where to get donuts and maybe the library :) haha..

it's raining here today, but it has cooled off outside because of it, so i'm loving it, dark, gloomy and cold is the way i like it...

peace i'm out
d

another post? yes sir're bobber

my apologies for the recent blog slump... i've been soooo busy doing chores around the house... i can't wait for school to start... one more week... i start on the 28th... woooooo

so today mary and i went downtown and to navy pier and watched the annual (give me some dumb and dumber love, that's a tough one) air and water show... FREE! woohoo, Adam: we were totally thinking of you, we were like, man, i bet adam would love to be up there doing that stuff...

so the coolest part that we saw were the blue angels... those things are soooo loud and fast, it's ridiculous, the pix don't do it much justice, but these things were flying so low to the ground it was crazy... they'd come out of no where and then all of a sudden, you'd hear this loud thunder and a blue streak through the sky... it was soo cool... we walked around a bit, and i got turned around and walked west, looking for the lake (ooops!) but we caught a bus and got back on track...

so we found this totally wicked (give me some mr deeds love) church called the new community... it's a multi-cultural/ethnic church comprised of a bunch of people around our age of all different cultures.. seriously, the oldest people we've seen are like 50, and they were visiting their son... the sermons have been ridiculously awesome and totally practical.. we've only met a few people there so far, but hope to get plugged in somewhere... they call small groups, connection groups...

i got the whole car tax thing figured out... well, actually i thought i had it figured out after a TON of math and digging up old paper work.. got to the secretary of state and the lady said, oh, you didn't need to do all this, just fill out when you bought the car and when you brought it back into the state... you don't need all these numbers... well... i didn't have to pay any taxes and i got to brush up on some basic math... and spend some quality alone time while waiting in lines.. haha

ok, so last bit of news... we got new cell phones, i might have already texted a few people my new number, but i haven't got around to sending one to everybody... so if you haven't gotten a call or text from either mary or myself, give us a holler and we'll hook you up with our new numbers...

enjoy a few pix from the windy city
the car and trailor (sp?) is a sculpture infront of the museum of contemporary art

off with her head

i cut rosie's head off and put it in a comforter to suprise mary... not really... she was sleeping like this and woke up when i came over to take a pic... what a crazy dog...


anyway... things are going pretty good... i'm all registered for classes and have my new student ID... mary is at work and i'm being a good housewife (laundry, dishes, pick up around the house)

i haven't forgot the top ten, i'm just trying to get a bunch of cool pics to post at once...

peace out
d

image testing

let's see if this works.. this is mary and me infront of our new place with our landlords dogs

it's official

we both passed our written exam for our illinois drivers license... whew! we were a bit nervous. i even passed the motorcycle test again, so i can still get my harley :)

now we have the struggle of registering our car... for those of you who have moved from another state and have had to register a car, i feel your pain.. again... not only did we pay tax on the car when we bought it, we had to pay tax on it when we moved to raleigh, and now.. yep, having to pay 7% tax on the cars value WHEN WE BOUGHT IT! does that seem right? we paid about 19 or so for the car 4 years ago, the car isn't even worth 10 anymore and we have to pay on the 19... oh man, i get so dang frustrated... why can't they make moving more simple, it's not like i'm moving to another country, just from state to state... augh!

well, i still haven't figured out how to put pix in here, so the top 10 will have to start without images... (once i figure out how to show images, i'll add them)

10) have you seen the skyline? screw the hills and mountains, give me cement and iron!

9) mass transit that actually takes you places other than the mall, and you don't have to walk 5 miles to get to the nearest stop

8) it's called pop, not soda

7-1 still to come...

anyone know how to do pix on these things?

top 10

well, i need to give andy much deserved credit... he has already FINISHED his top ten for Carolina. i feel as if i should post it here instead of being hidden in the comments links...

here it is, and i will start my list soon... promise!

____


#10) No matter how "Great" you think your lakes are... They're no Ocean!
#9) You left your golf clubs in the Falls Lake
#8) - We invented Humidity!
#7) - We keep our trains on the ground were they belong... Oh, and there not crowded either!
#6) In Chicago, It's called a "heatwave". In Raleigh, it's called a Tuesday.
#5) Free and ample parking!
#4) Everyone knows Hockey is a southern sport.
#3) Chapel Hill is the biggest mission field on the planet!
#2) Becky's Cookies, Crystal's Chicken Enchiladas, Carrie's sghetti salad, and anything Jackie makes
#1) We Love YA'LL!


_____

thank you andy... we love you all too!

WHEW... almost unpacked

wow, unpacking just may suck MORE than packing... especially in this chicago heat... it's been 100 degrees, plus humidity.. they're saying it feels like 110... 6 people died this week from heat related causes...

we're loving it.. i'm sipping on root beer at a local pub that has free wireless internet... mary is helping a friend do flowers for a wedding...

gotta run

loaded up on something

well, it seems as though we are loaded up and ready to go... thank you all for helping and praying for this process... we will miss all our friends (family) in nc...

we leave tomorrow right after church... one last hurrah!

i need to figure out how to post pics on here.. anyone know how?

getting close

wow,

it's tuesday... everyday we have left in NC is packed full of excitement... and non-excitement(packing) i've packed big and small boxes today, some probably too big..

on top of having to pack, rosie is KILLING me... she barks at everything because nothing is normal anymore... boxes here, stuff moved over there... all of this keeps her very uneasy, so even when the AC kicks on, she barks... augh... silly doggie....

thank you andy for the start of your top 10... i quite enjoyed it.

7 days to the move

Well Friends, it is officially 7 days until Mary and i start driving to our new home in the windy city. we have had a great time in north carolina and look very much forward to visiting in the hopefully near future.

We are starting this blog to keep everyone posted on our ventures in chicago and our lives there in the big city. we will hopefully figure out how to post pix and will be able to keep everyone up-to-date visually as well.

i'm also going to start a top-10 list on why everyone needs to come visit us, but that will be later, hopefully in collaberation with images. :)

see you all soon
dan and mare