Babies and Stuff

Just got back from Illinois, where I've been since Friday. Busy time...

First, I met Gillian and Mark's daughter Ellie, and Sarah and Woody's daughter Zola. They're both wicked cute. I found that Ellie likes to squeeze my finger really hard, and Zola likes to throw her bowl from her high chair over and over and over... Sarah calls that the "gravity game." Apparently she's played it before. I suspect Gillian and Mark will be playing the gravity game soon enough.

Then saw the fam. My lil sis dressed up as a cat for Halloween.

Also went to U of I with Alitza to recruit some energy nerds. Went well. We manned the FERC booth at the U of I job fair, interviewed some potential energy nerds, had lunch with some profs, and talked to some electrical engineering students in class. We also had beers at Murhpy's, tried to eat at Radio Maria's (but it was closed Mondays), ate Thai food at the YMCA eatery (yum, it almost makes me want to go back to Urbana just for that), watched some students give "free hugs" on the quad (Alitza opined that "there's no such thing as a free hug"), walked through Krannert Center, drank coffee at Espresso Royale, and other stuff. We drove back to Chicago yesterday. Marty and I showed Alitza around a bit... Giordano's, Signature Room. Then today I met Alitza in the Loop and we went to visit the FERC Chicago field office. It was full of civil enginerds who do dam inspections. Then we walked through Millenium Park and saw the Vagina Building before hopping a blue line to O'Hare.

Pics of my trip here... Still waiting for a few pics of Ellie that have to be emailed to me. Hope to post them soon...

Elaina has informed me that November is National Blog Month, and that there is an open challenge for people to post to their blogs every day in November. I'm not sure if I can do that, but she double-dog dared me, so I will give it my best shot...