conference time!

Friends, at the sprightly age of 44, I've gone to my first professional work conference. I've had my first business trip. I'm a true adult now, I guess. Or something.

The conference in question was the Association of National Advertisers Nonprofit Conference, and it was held in downtown Chicago, so my friend Jill and I each got to take the train in (her from the suburbs, me from the South Shore station at Dune Park) and spend a couple of days promoting our employer and telling people all about how much everyone needs a proofreader. Yes, even me, and even you. We ALL need proofers.

I was very nervous about going because I'm not exactly the epitome of "professional," but it ended up being a really great time. I learned a lot, met a lot of new people, and even met one of my bosses for the first time (after 12 years of working for the company). Plus, at the end of the conference, the companies that donated to the swag bags (that's right, I got my first swag bag) were giving away more swag and were going to throw it all away rather than haul it back to on their flights, so I loaded up a bunch of bags filled with earbuds and yo-yos, and schlepped it all back to the train and brought it home and distributed the goods to Henry's fourth-grade class and my sister's third-grade class. A win for everyone!

I might never go to another conference again, given the nature of my work, so please enjoy this very professional selection of photos from the two days.

kittehs!

There are new kittens at my parents' house. Everyone stop what you're doing and prepare to be overcome by the cuteness.

first day of school!

It's so quiet! I'm working, and the only sounds are the clack-clack-clack of my keyboard and the mournful rustle of the dogs wandering the house, bereft because their boys left for school this morning. This afternoon I'm sure there will be a joyous reunion, but in the meantime, pups are sad and I am not.

Behold: a sophomore, an eight grader, and a fourth grader!

well that was weird

Liam had tennis practice this morning, so I had to sneak away from work to go pick him up. I was in a hurry, so I almost missed that I was behind this truck:

Do you recognize that patio? I see it every day. That's right, it's our actual patio! With our actual patio furniture! And our actual pasture. We're stone celebrities! Seriously, though, it was deeply weird to be stuck at a light behind this truck, thinking, "Wow, that's a nice patio. They must do nice work. Wait a second ... that patio is awfully familiar." Once I started thinking about it, it made a lot more sense, because the man who used to live here works at a company that manufactures these vehicle graphics, so I'm guessing the advertising was part of the deal when they had the patio put in. Still, disconcerting, to say the least!

weekend update

It's the last weekend before school starts and life gets hectic again, so we tried to take advantage of it. Friday night, Mike and I spent some time out on the patio just hanging out (which we rarely do, so it was really nice) and watching the birds. We got some good hummingbird shots, but even without the camera, it was fun just to watch them flit around from the pigweed and milkweed in the pasture up to the feeder and back.

Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to Potawatomi Wildlife Park, which is only about 20 minutes away in Tippecanoe, but somehow we had never been there before. We were hoping for a good sunrise and some bird sightings, but instead we got a creepy walk in the fog. And since I never mind a creepy walk in the fog, I had a good morning. It felt great just to be outside doing something I like, even if the only bird picture we ended up with was a sparrow. (We did see and hear a lot of birds; they were just too quick for us!)

Then this morning, the grand finale: We decided to take the dogs to the dog beach. We first drove to Grand Mere State Park, only to discover that the dog beach is completely gone as a result of erosion. The water just goes right up to the small cliffs. That's been a huge problem the past couple years on the Lake Michigan shore, so we weren't surprised, but it was still sad to see. We had a backup plan, though, so we took the dogs to Warren Dunes State Park, which also has a dog beach. It's a much bigger and more popular beach, so there was still plenty of sand, but there were so many people, so the dogs had a hard time relaxing and enjoying themselves. We thought at least one of them (probably Pluto since he's a Lab) would enjoy being in the water with the boys, but we were wrong. So mostly they just spent their time getting wet and sandy and barking at everyone who dared step on the beach. Fun times. Oh well, now we know. The water was really cold, but the boys still had plenty of fun until the dogs made it known that they would like to go home right now please and thank you.