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Well, it’s been ten days since my last post. That’s much longer than the few hours I had anticipated in it. To start things off, here are a couple of good things that have happened recently: Chris and I celebrated our second anniversary (three times) and I interviewed for and was offered a new job at the Administration Center! We have also gone to Ravinia twice, and seen a few movies.

Our anniversary is on the 17th. We decided this year that we’d be taking turns each year to figure out how to celebrate, and Chris took this year. On Sunday, we went to the Barn of Barrington for brunch. This was a terrific way to start the week. I tried lox and bagels for the first time, as well as caviar. Maybe I ate the caviar the wrong way, but I wasn’t so impressed with it. The food was great, and we finished it off with fruit and other treats diped in the chocolate fountain!

On Monday we dined at Café La Cave in Rosemont. A couple of years ago Chris brought me there for my birthday, and we loved it so much we had to go back. This is one of a few places that I have the opportunity to eat escargot prepared by expert hands (I’ve tried unsuccessfully to prepare it myself). For the main course, I had lobster, shrimp and scallops in lobster sauce. Chris had the filet mignon with Bordelaise sauce. We finished dinner with cherries jubilee, prepared tableside. The cold and creamy vanilla ice cream was a perfect match for the warm and tart cherries. After dinner we drove around downtown Chicago, enjoying a great skyline and wonderful weather.

On Tuesday, I interviewed for the position of Technology Support Technician. This position is based at the Administration Center, but it also supports our two alternative schools, LEAP and the Academy North. I was offered the position later in the week, and I have accepted it. In addition to the responsibilities I have at Conant, I will now have hardware maintenance, additional server administration and inventory maintenance for the three buildings I will support. I will be able to put my computer science background to good use with programming duties, as well. It will be interesting to see what it is like to be primarily outside of the schools, while still having to keep the schools in mind.

On Friday, we went to The Melting Pot with Chris’s family to celebrate our anniversary and my promotion. We had never been there with either of our families (Mel may have come with us once, but I’m not certain). Good food and good times were had by all, even Emily

Before all of this celebration, though, Chris and I have already had a pretty full summer. We went to Ravinia to hear The 5 Browns, and again to hear Itzhak Perlman play Mozart. The 5 Browns are a quintet of pianist siblings who all attended The Julliard School. They play an interesting combination of classical and pop music. Perlman sounded wonderful, as well, but I do not feel like I could appreciate it as much as the others who were there with me.

This post is lengthy enough for now. I will have to save the movies for another time. I’ll leave you with a list of the movies we have seen this season: Superman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Clerks II and Monster House. By the time I post about them, we may have added more to the list. We’d like to see The Devil Wears Prada; Click; You, Me and Dupree; My Super Ex-Girlfriend and A Scanner Darkly. OK, a couple of those I’m not so sure Chris wants to see, but that’s OK. I did get her to see Any Given Sunday once…