look out hedgehogs

Today Chicago is in the middle of a winter storm warning. Supposedly we are going to get 12 inches of snow before midnight tonight. I'm of the opinion that I will believe it when I see it. Winter did not show up with his pants on this year and only the last few weeks has decided we are going to get snow. The snow is usually starting to melt by this time of year. So far this is the scene outside the window in our stairwell. 

Pretty standard snow fall so far. Nothing out of the ordinary. Two years ago we had the whopper snow storm where some parts of the city had 20 inches. That's nearly two feet ya'll! And the build up in some areas was as much as three or four feet.

This was Lakeshore Drive after that whopper. I hear some people were stranded in their cars for nearly 6 hours. Peter and I had snow days and went urban sledding around the city.  Stay tuned for more updates.

Going to the chapel

My baby sister is getting married in May and I finally have something that I am doing for the wedding.

Sweetly enough she didn't ask me to be a bridesmaid as that is something I have never done and feel I would be terrible at it. Me thinks I'm not girly enough. But Peter will be an usher and I got to make these...

They are kneeling pillows. In Catholic weddings there is a lot of stand up, sit down, kneel, sit, stand, kneel and so the bride and groom don't sully their attire they usually have kneeling pillows. The center horizontal strip of green is the color of the bridesmaid's dresses, the burlap that the ribbon is laid over just goes with their color scheme and everything else is just a general wedding scheme. Who knew that lace and linen where such expensive items. I can see now why they were used as currency throughout some periods of history.

They are nearly complete at this point in time all I need to do is secure the lace in a few different places with some small hand stitches. Peter supervised me at the sewing machine as that is not really my area of expertise. I'm much better at hand sewing. Take me out in the wilderness with you and maybe I'll stitch you up! Also pictured underneath the pillows is an afghan that Peter's godmother made him some years ago. As you can see it matches the pillows perfectly.

We FonDO!

The other night Peter and I had made fondue. It was mighty tasty and thanks to the cousins Katherine and Matt that gave us the fondue set for a wedding gift. We don't get many opportunities to use it as the process takes quite a long time. That is unless you just want to eat one cheese course.  I did not know until recently that fondue is foreign. Evidently the Swiss Cheese Union (we need one of these America) declared fondue a national dish sometime in the 1930's. With the earliest recipe for fondue coming from Zurich in 1699, "Käss mit Wein zu kochen" roughly translated means to cook cheese with wine.

It was very delicious and next time you come visit perhaps we will make some for you.

A similar idea with a communal pot and dipping items in it to cook comes from Japan and it's called Shabu Shabu. We have partaken of this practice as well in China Town. I love dipping food as do most people I feel. Otherwise why would McDonald's chicken nuggets be so popular?

It's officious!

So all negotiations are complete and Peter and I will move into our new home on April 3rd! Whew it was a long ride but I learned quite a bit.

 Also got so fed up with not having any control over a lot of situations that I dyed my hair. It's purple. Over the years I've used dying my hair crazy colors as a therapeutic way to manage myself. In this case I had no control over how long it was taking these negotiations with the seller's of the home. Needless to say I'm glad I'm not buying them.

So more to come soon that is not house related. And then when we move more to come that IS!

House update

Well after many long hours of negotiation and over 100 email threads we are nearing the end of this arduous journey. Right now Peter and I are waiting to hear back from the sellers about whether they are going to make all the improvements to the home we have requested.

After we receive that it will break down to sorting things out the bank and the move. Hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to get my mind back and resume my life chronicles.

The New Adventures of Peter and Katherine

Big news, and the reason I haven't been posting lately, is because all of my free time has been devoted to house hunting and now house business. YES Peter and I are in process of buying a house. Tomorrow is the inspection and the attorney review should be done by the end of the week. The closing date is not till the end of March so it will be a long two months for us. I do have some photos but unfortunately it is illegal for me to post them on the internet without direct permission from the owners so I will just ad a link to the property listing online. That might disappear some time soon though.

http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3428-W-Beach-Ave-60651/home/13285603

The one thing we have done recently that isn't house related was this weekend at Navy Pier an event called Snow Days Chicago was held. It was a snow sculpting competition with 15 adult teams and around 12 student teams participating.

The above photo is the winning sculpture. It is impressive but there were some that were even more amazing.  There was a Batman Vs. Jaws that was pretty stellar and my personal favorite was titled Feast or Famine and was a bear and eagle hunting salmon along a river. Crazily enough there were sculpture teams from all over the world. The furthest team came from Czech Republic and oddly enough Mexico City has a snow sculpting team. I imagine it's pretty hard to find snow there.

This city just keeps on getting better the longer that I live here and soon I'll be putting down permanent roots. From that girl who has moved 20 times in 10 years that seems crazy scary but also riveting.

Silly String Massacre

As promised some photos of the Annual Wallace Family Silly String Massacre!!! I'm not sure when this tradition started (perhaps one of my regular readers *DAD* will fill me in) but we have been doing it for a number of years now. It's quite fun as you can see.

Above is my future sister in law Ali. Below is obviously Me and Peter.

Peter doing some clean up mid-battle which is really bad form :)

HA HA! The Camera guy was attacked by moi!