Saturday we attended the MTTS – Mini Takes The States Rally.

We’re new Mini Cooper Clubman owners, so we didn’t really know what to expect. We got up super early on Saturday, and drove down to Lincoln Park Zoo to start out the rally. Thanks to our new mini friend Dan, we got there in plenty of time, and were 5th in line for the rally!

Mini Cooper Rally!

It was a gorgeous day for motoring. After an unsatisfying continental breakfast at the Zoo, we gathered with over 400 other mini coopers and their owners for the drive up to Road America Wisconsin. It was quite a sight – hundreds of various-colored and shaped minis, all on the road together, traveling north. The only impediment to our driving fast, real rally style – was the stupid traffic on the Edens.

But we made it!

The festival was well-organized and pretty fun. The area was beautiful and the Mini-ambassadors made us feel welcome. We made Mini bumper stickers:

We also walked around, met some lovely people from Rhinelander, WI, made friends with Paul from Minnesota, talked to Steve from New Jersey, learned about teardrops from a fellow from Oklahoma, drank free vitamin-water, got swag, people watched, bought Mini t-shirts, met Todd from White Roof Radio, test drove the new Mini Cooper John Cooper Works car on a tiny track, got lots of sun, ate ice cream, and generally had a swell time.

The most surprising thing about the day was there were no two minis alike. We thought for sure that we’d find our Mini Cooper Clubman Twin, but we didn’t! There wasn’t any car that looked like ours. I love that. It makes us feel unique in this world of sameness.

The highlight of the day for us was driving on the 4.2 mile racetrack at the end of the day. It made me laugh – the sight of all these tiny minis, motoring around the track, and we were one of them! I giggled the whole time.

Sometimes, objects in mirror are smaller than they appear.

We did the wave, mini-style.

We finished driving on the racetrack and made our way back to Chicago.

A perfect day for Mini Friends, for Mini Togetherness, for Mini Fun and for a Mini Rally. The Mini owners we met were all very nice, and the event made me glad that we bought a Mini. I wish it happened more than once every two years – I’m ready for the next one!

I have a book addiction. It all started when I was a child, reading was a comfort and my favorite activity, and then in high school, I worked at Waldenbooks in the White Oaks Mall, which was my dream job. That job enabled me to support my addiction – to buy books, and I haven’t stopped since!

This picture was taken a few weeks ago when I reorganized my bookshelves in our “library / guest room” upstairs. Yes, it’s a lot of books, I know. The books just multiply up there, left on their own.

But, I donate the books that are ready to leave the collection. You can always tell the books that want to leave – they grumble around, look shifty-eyed, and fall off the shelves. There’s a new great literacy charity in Chicago that we support:
Open Books. They will take most any books for donation, and then they sell them to support literacy programs. They are always looking for donations and volunteers, check it out!

My new, favorite summertime pastime is going to used book sales, and rescuing poor, lonely books to add to my ever-growing addiction – I mean collection. This upcoming weekend is my favorite used book sale in Chicago – the Newberry Library Book Fair. If you live in Chicago and have a chance to go, it’s an amazing, weekend-long event where the books are all cheap, and there’s over a 100,000 to choose from! Even the squirrels are into it.

It’s a book-addicts dream – I can’t wait.

We’ve all been walking around Chicagoland lately, all cocky, with a spring in our step, sunshine on our backs and a “Spring is finally here!” feeling in our hearts.

Mother Nature’s about to put us back in our place. Tonight, 6″ to 8″ of snow expected, with a huge red flashing winter storm warning on the weather.com. No one believes the weather report though, because the sunshine is beaming here right now and the sky is as blue as a pair of Dutchman’s pants. We’re pretending that we don’t hear them.

I’m sick about it. I thought today was the first official day of spring?

I guess I’ll be put back in my place of being bummed about winter.

Not only has our basement flooded three times since we’ve moved in (and dear readers, for those of you who may have lost count, that’s three times in nine months, THREE TIMES in not even a year yet) but the water plague is following me to my place of employment, too.

Last week, while working downtown in the loop at my job, we heard a terrible commotion in the hall. We looked down the hall, and saw some water dripping from the ceiling – we’re on the top floor of a 6 story building. Suddenly, the water turned into a veritable flood, like someone above us on the roof had turned on a fire hydrant.

The water quickly began to fill the hall. Burst pipe! It was a frozen and burst pipe in the fire sprinkler system. We were very lucky where I work, because no water got into our office. Across the hall and all five floors below us, not so lucky. A lot of damage. The water even got down to the basement – it’s amazing how fast the water found it’s way downstairs. The fire department came and shut off the water – they said they’d been responding to frozen pipes all over the city.

Anyway, water seems to be following me wherever I go. I need to do a non-rain dance or something.

Last weekend, we went to the Chicago Auto Show, here in Chicagoland. I’m on the search for a new car, but haven’t had much success.

We were hopeful that the new car would just find us – like in 2003 when we bought Robert’s car. We went to the Auto Show and we had never even seen the Honda Element, but Robert loved it and we bought it. And now, it’s my turn. I currently drive a car I love, let me emphasize that – love. It’s a blue beetle bug that we bought it in 1999. It’s been all over the country on road trips, has moved us from Chicago to Atlanta and back to Chicago, and has been a faithful friend. If you’re looking for a new car, trust me – the beetle bug is the way to go.

Now fast forward to 2008 and us walking through the Auto Show, uninspired. You may think this post is going to a positive place – of “and then we found the car of my dreams!” but it’s not. There’s no happy ending yet. Sometimes happy endings take time!

I liked this advertising though:

Fun to Drive at the Volkswagen booth. Maybe I need a new Beetle Bug. Perhaps a convertible.

We went to the Auto Show on a Saturday night – and it was crowded. There were tons of people, and we often had to wait to get into the cars. But it was fun and interesting to see the new cars for 2008. We sat in a lot of cars, and the most surprising button was this one:

I didn’t know a button on a random car could turn my own Extra-Sensory Perception off. What does this button do?

The only car I really loved was the new Mini Cooper Clubman S. I liked the giant illuminated sign:

And I also liked the advertising:

But most of all, I liked the tiny car. Even though it’s smaller than the Beetle Bug, it’s zippier. But I’m not in love with it. I think it’s just infatuation right now. The next step is to drive one, and see if the infatuation turns into real love.

Two weeks ago I battled my sickness and emerged from our house to a once-in-a-lifetime event in Chicago. We went to the Museum of Modern Ice at Millennium Park downtown. It’s hard to find the gumption in the winter to actually leave the house, especially at night in the cold, dark, frigid air. But we did it, and boy are we glad we did!

We bundled up and headed out in the cold night weather, parked at a very very expensive parking garage underneath the park, and headed out to see the sights.

This is the beautiful ice wall, by sculptor Gordon Halloran. It was quite awe inspiring to both of us, and quite chilly.

We saw the Bean. And that made us want to eat jelly beans. And yes, I know that’s not the official name of it, but I would much rather call it the Bean instead of Cloud Gate.

After seeing the sights, we headed to the nearby tent to see one of our very favorite musical groups, Plaid. They were incredible. Their music is electronic, and makes us both happy when we hear it. And there were free non-alcoholic drinks in the tent. And it was heated. And it had LED lighting. And it was sponsored by American Express and Canadian National Railroad. And there was an orchestra who kicked off the evening by playing some Plaid and other interesting music. And best of all, it was FREE! Free, to see Plaid! Free, except for $24 for stupid parking.

That’s Plaid sitting up there behind the computers in the cool blue light. That’s how they roll.

The Museum of Modern Ice is open for the month of February, and ends on Leap Year Day. Check it out, it’s totally worth $24 for parking.

Winter has set in for sure in Chicago-land. Coming this weekend is a deep freeze unlike any we’ve seen so far this winter. It will be so cold the squirrels will freeze to the trees. So cold that any exposed skin will feel like it’s going to crack off if you’re outside. So cold that without long underwear, you’ll be miserable. So cold that my friend cancelled a party this weekend, because no one likes to go outside in this kind of weather.
It’s the wind chill that will get ya. This is the time of year that I long for a fireplace, or at least a puppy to keep my feet warm. Robert – what about a puppy?

But then I think of my Canadian relatives, in the plains of Canada, who deal with this kind of weather often, and huge amounts of snow, not these wussy 5 or 6 inches of snow that we’ve been getting this year. And then I pretend I’m in Canada instead of just outside of Chicago, and then the cold is easier to bear.

Speaking of bears – we even saw two bears when we were up near Calgary at my Aunt and Uncle’s house – one was a baby bear, alone in the woods.

I like bears.  Maybe we should get a bear instead of a puppy.

It’s winter here in the Chicagoland region. Officially winter because now we have snow – we got about 5″ of snow the other day, with another 4″ expected tonight, if the weatherpeople aren’t lying.

Here’s our little tiny garage covered in snow:

Notice the shoveled paths, courtesy of early-morning Robert. It makes me cold just looking at it.

I like to explore all sides of the issue. Here’s some reasons why we do not miss living in the city of Chicago, and why we like turn to each other when we’re there to say “I do not miss (insert below reason here)!”

1. Parking problems – tickets, the boot, parking meters, exorbitant parking fees in parking garages.
2. Mayor Daley…well, I kind of miss him.
3. Traffic
4. Tourists – except now WE ARE THE TOURISTS
5. Gunfire on holidays
6. Living among steel and concrete instead of anything green.
7. Gasoline being much more expensive in the city
8. Really, everything being much more expensive in the city
9. Marathons, ballgames, festivals, parades, fairs, and other traffic-delaying commotion
10. Too many dogs, with over-enthusiastic dog owners who don’t leash them, and un-picked-up dog poop on the sidewalk
11. The El – too crowded
12. Rats
13. Pigeons
14. Car stereos turned up to a mind-numbing level
15. Fighting with fellow neighbors on winter street parking with their passive aggresive chairs

Now we can breathe a sigh of relief that we live in the suburbs. Sure, there’s two sides to every story and reasons not to like the suburbs too, but I can’t focus on that, because we live here now.

But we are glad to get away from the rats.

I thought it would only be fair to publish the other side of the story – the reasons we miss living in the city of Chicago. As you know, Chicago is an amazing city – and there are millions of reasons we love it, and why everyone should love it. But here’s some of the top reasons that we miss living there.

1. The restaurants.
2. The culture.
3. Our friends who live in the city, and being able to make plans with them at a moments’ notice.
4. We miss being able to say we live in Chicago. Now, we’re just another boring couple from suburbia. I guess we miss the cache of saying that.
5. The lake, beautiful, freezing-cold-year-round Lake Michigan, just down the street.
6. The takeout available at all times.
7. The sense of the city never closing – everything closes early in the suburbs. And a lot of things are NOT OPEN ON SUNDAYS. That is a very irritating reality of the western suburbs.
8. Having a 312 home phone number.
9. For me, living 5 minutes away from where I work. But now Robert doesn’t have to commute, so it all evens out.
10. The tourists. Oh, wait, we don’t miss that.
11. The lights of the skyscrapers at night, and the moon rising over the skyline.
12. The fun shops and stores we used to visit regularly, like Uncle Fun, and Paper Boy, and Paper Doll, and CB2.
13. All of the Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants.
14. The parks, especially Millennium Park.
15. The holiday celebrations – and the holiday lights and trees, and festivals, and fairs, and just general fun stuff to do downtown.

The good news about the majority of this list is that most of what we miss about Chicago is just a short train or car ride away. We just do NOT want to become one of those suburbanites who never go into the city, ever.

I don’t think that will happen to us. At least, I hope it doesn’t.