Updates

Not too much has been going on lately, hence the lack of posts. For White Sox fans, the baseball season ended a good 2 weeks ago, but at least we have the Bears to keep us going. In a couple of days, Scott and I are going to Texas to see our (almost) 6-month old niece Katelin. From the pictures we've been getting, I know she's been growing up fast, but I'm sure we'll be surprised to see just how much bigger she's gotten.

In other news, I'm going back under the laser next week to have my eyes redone. My left eye is almost 20/20, but my right eye is only about 20/40. As long as they're redoing the right one, they're going to touch up the left, too. The hope is to get both eyes to ~20/15.

Not too much else is going on, really. Just looking forward to our Texas trip and getting Take 2 of the LASIK done the following week. More later, including some cute Katelin photos from our trip. Later...

NOT Circling the Drain

After about a week of raising my blood pressure, the White Sox FINALLY clinched, though they certainly didn't take the easy road. Rather than taking advantage of Minnesota's losses - or actually beating the Twins head-to-head - they lollygagged until their backs were against the wall. They then proceeded to win their last scheduled game, forcing a must-win makeup game against Detroit, which in turn forced a must-win tiebreaker game against the Twins - which they just won tonight.

With good reason, the collective *PHEW* you heard tonight was the sound of thousands of Sox fans (myself included) letting out their collective breath. Now, on to the playoffs!

Circling the Drain

What's going on with the White Sox? A couple of weeks ago, I was confident that the White Sox would make the playoffs. Last week I was worried that they were just limping into the playoffs, that they'd lost their competitive drive. Now I can only hope that they limp into the playoffs! While they are technically in control of their own destiny, I am very uneasy about what will happen after this weekend. Last night the bullpen (again) threw away another game (again) and lost a chance to gain ground on Minnesota (again). Not that the Twins have been playing stellar ball either - except against the White Sox - though, but the Sox have not been able to take advantage of the Twins' mistakes. I wonder, if the Sox played south of the equator, would their season be swirling down the drain in the opposite direction?

In other news, Maggie is now in Puppy Elementary class and bowling season has started for me. I've got about a 158 average on both nights, after 2 weeks of Tuesday league (where I bowl every other week), and 4 weeks of Thursday league. My high score so far is 232, but I don't feel like I've really gotten the feel of it back yet. I'm hoping to be up around 170 by the end of the year. Last year my composite average for the two leagues was 166, and that was after an even slower start.

I'm still baking off and on, mostly for people's birthdays at work, and I'm currently knitting a sweater for myself, though that's really slowed down from the knitting blitzkrieg I was on before Katelin was born. One of my new hobbies is working out on the Wii Fit. It's a lot of fun, and depending on which "games" you play, you can get a really good workout. There's a step aerobics workout that you can do while watching something else on TV (if you don't want to watch your Mii for 20 or 30 minutes, that is).

My niece Katelin is 5 months old today, and she's already ready for Halloween. Her 6-month doctor's appointment is on Halloween, and my sister got her a pumpkin-themed onesie. She's also got a separate costume to wear later, but I thought this picture was ADORABLE.

Guess that's it for now... Here's hoping the White Sox pull out of this nosedive!

Back again...

Maybe I'm taking the "sometime" in the blog title too literally - it's definitely been a while since my last post. Speaking of "literally", it's literally one of my biggest grammar peeves when people misuse that word. Happens all the time in sports announcing, for example when "He literally carried the entire team on his back". Really? Wow - he must be REALLY strong! :^)

I've had a lot going on lately, though at the same time it's seemed like the same ol', same ol'. My softball team just wrapped up its season - summer park district women's league. We had a slightly different team than last year, with a variety of subs filling in for missing people and often we had people playing out of position, but we still managed to tie for 2nd place out of 9. Softball ran a little late this year due to 2 rescheduled rainout games, and while I'd always like to play a few more games, it ended just in time. Last week, softball ended. This week, bowling league begins! They take place on the same night too, so if they did overlap, I'd have to choose one or the other. Hmmm... tough one!

The other thing we've had going on lately has been Puppy Kindergarten with our pup Maggie. She did pretty well in the class - she seemed to learn the commands pretty easily, and encountering new, potentially scary things was no problem at all. Now we have to work on reinforcing them before she starts the next round of classes - Puppy Elementary (naturally!). Here's a photo of Maggie coming over to say hello during a brek in Puppy K. Her border collie friend Sam is in the background:

So anyway, that's where I'm/we're at right now... Between summer and fall, softball and bowling, and (Puppy) Kindergarten and Elementary. And every now and then I actually make a post in my sometime blog.

Happy 4th of July!

Popular activities on the Fourth of July include cooking out, and going to parades, festivals, fireworks, etc. My big activity for the Fourth... catching up on sleep. I haven't gotten very much good sleep over the last few weeks, so this was my chance to recharge my batteries a little.

One reason for the interrupted sleep was our puppy Maggie. She continues to improve in regards to housetraining and general obedience, including starting Puppy Kindergarten this week at the Dog Training Club of Champaign-Urbana (http://dtccu.prairienet.org/). She has not yet made many strides yet, however, in sleeping through the night. Another reason for needing to catch up on sleep - a much more fun reason - was going with my sister, niece, and parents to the Women's Nationals Bowling Tournament in Detroit. We got to attend a Tigers game, watch my sister and her team bowl, and I even got to do some bowling myself, as a sub for another team. It was a very busy weekend, but I had a good time. For more info, including photos of little Katelin at the ballgame and in the hot tub (don't worry, it was more like a warm tub), see my sister's "Baby Hicks is Here!" blog in the link to the right.

OK, I admit it... I did participate in one Fourth of July tradition - at least in our household. Scott and I tuned in for the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. As expected, we saw a very close battle between Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut, with an eventual overtime victory by Chestnut. What I did NOT expect to see was a contestant I went to high school with - Juris "Dr. Bigtime" Shibayama (IMSA class of 1992, one year ahead of me). I didn't know him well, but still... Weird! I will give him credit for throwing the "IMSA nerd" stereotype out the window - spinal surgeon, bodybuilder, fitness model, and now, internationally ranked competitive eater (thanks, Google!).

So, anyway - Happy Independence Day to all... I'm going to bed.

Family weekend

Scott and I (and the dogs) just got home from a VERY family-oriented weekend south of Chicago. On Friday evening we had my cousin Robert's wedding, yesterday we celebrated my sister Trish's 30th birthday, and today we celebrated a belated Father's Day for my dad and brother-in-law Chris. Trish and Chris live in Texas, so we don't get to see them all that much, so it was nice that they were up for the wedding, etc. And the best part... spending the weekend with my 8-week old niece Katelin. I visited her when she was only 2 weeks old (and tiny!), so it was neat to see how much she's grown in the ~6 weeks since then. The first picture below is Katelin all dressed up for the wedding, and the second is her at 5 weeks old. I know I'm biased, but isn't she adorable? You can see more pictures by visiting the 'Baby Hicks is Here!' blog link to the right side of this page.

It was nice to have the family together for the weekend, and if that wasn't enough, I'll be seeing them all again - well, all but Chris - next weekend when we head to the Women's Nationals bowling tournament in Detroit. Trish will be bowling in the team, doubles/singles, and 40-frame game tournaments, and it looks like I'll be bowling in the 40-frame game portion. I'm looking forward to the bowling part, but also to spending more time with the family. I'm really enjoying being "Aunt Jen"!

LASIK complete!

Yesterday I had my LASIK procedure, and everything went very well. It's amazing that a procedure that only takes about 10 minutes can turn me from worse than 20/200 (what would be legally blind without my contacts/glasses) to 20/20 at the follow-up appointment the next day. My right eye actually checked out at 20/15, and my vision in both eyes may improve to 20/15 over the next couple of weeks as the healing progresses. I am having occasional dryness (despite using the various eye drops constantly) and halos at night, but those should decrease over time.

The only real downside was that once the numbing drops wore off on the way home from the surgery, I had strong burning pain in both eyes, with extreme light sensitivity. I took some Tylenol on the way, and took a 2-hour nap once I got home - and felt a LOT better after that. They tell you that you will likely have 'some discomfort' afterwards, but if you're considering LASIK, I strongly recommend taking some sort of OTC pain medicine (if approved by your doctor) before you even leave the doctor's office so it can start working before the numbing drops wear off.

Other than that, though, I highly recommend looking into LASIK. As with any elective surgery, there are risks that have to be considered, and the decision is ultimately a very personal one - but I do recommend at least checking into it if you're considering it at all.

LASIK surgery

Yesterday I had an evaluation appointment for my upcoming LASIK surgery, scheduled for next Thursday. Everything went really well at the appointment, where they evaluated the health of my eyes and took all the measurements they need to program the different types of surgical equipment. As with any surgery, there's certainly risks involved, but there's nothing about my eyes that indicate any specific issues, so I'm not too nervous. I did find out at the appointment that I would be considered legally blind without corrective lenses (worse than 20/200)... for the next few days, anyway. Even if I don't end up with 20/20 vision after the surgery (though 99% of people treated by this group/procedure do), it'll still be a VAST improvement. As long as I don't have any long-lasting complications, and I'll be all set!

New puppy

Last weekend our new puppy arrived home - a 9.5-week old Harrier we named Maggie. Maggie joins our 4-year old Harrier, Abby. So far they're both adjusting pretty well to the change in situation. Abby's used to being the only dog in the house, and Maggie's used to a house full of hounds. Maggie comes from a breeder we met when we lived in Oregon, Ellen Parr, who runs Wynfield Hounds. Below are pictures of Maggie, and of the two dogs meeting for the first time.



We're looking forward to taking Maggie to Puppy Kindergarten at the end of June. I don't think she's used to her new name yet, but she's learning other commands and we've got high hopes for her. Now, if we could just get her housebroken...