I got up damned early this morning to fly off to Chicago to stay with judiang for Thanksgiving before going to ChicagoTARDIS later this weekend. I sent a text message when I boarded the plane, when we landed, and when I was at the baggage claim where I was to meet Judi. Nada… My flight was nearly half an hour early, so I waited half an hour and still no sign of Judi. So I called her cell phone – nada. Then I called her home phone – ah! There she was! Still in bed! Poor thing overslept!

No matter, I took the blue line to LaSalle and Judi met me there and walked me to the apartment. It was raining at the time, and me without a hood – whoops!

No matter, Judi loaned me a hat once we got to her place. After a short rest, we went off to have brunch. Hackney’s and Bar Louie were both still closed, so we went to a local cafe for breakfast. (They know Judi by name. She introduced me.) I had French toast and hashbrowns and a tall glass of milk. Yum!

We returned to Judi’s to plan our grocery shopping. Tomorrow we’re doing Thanksgiving dinner. One of our friends from Canada will be joining us (so her second Thanksgiving dinner of the year), so that’ll be lovely. Judi bought a smoked turkey and she’ll make dressing using a recipe from barbthebrazen. She’ll also make bean greens & bacon, broccoli & cheese sauce (frozen in a bag), and a chocolate cake. I’ll make sweet potato souffle and a cheeseball. We worked on two other lists – one for Target and one for the tasks she has set upon me.

Outside again where we experienced Snain – a cross between rain and snow. And damn, was it blustery. Politics my ass, they call Chicago the Windy City cuz it’s so damn windy! 😉 With Judi’s hat snug on my head and my lovely new coat and gloves, I was warm. But my pants and shoes got soaked.

No matter, while we shopped at Jewel, I managed to dry off somewhat. We bought a load of stuff and tomorrow’s going to be a great spread. (Lots of leftovers for Judi!) The way back, OTOH, was worse than the way there. Even more snain and wind and this time we were walking in the wind. Bleh! I was doubly soaked that time.

No matter, once we put away the groceries, we sat for a bit. Lance loved the attention (as always – wait til he gets a lot of the PMEBers at the convention!) Once we were rested and somewhat drier, we moved onto Target. This is a new store that has opened in the area. It’s two stories and Judi wondered how it compared to the Target Mahal (pronounced Tar-zhey ma-hal) that’s in Minneapolis. Actually, I’d say it was the Target Mahal South. 🙂 More walking in the blustery snain, more soaked trousers & shoes, and back to Judi’s flat. I dumped the packages in the apartment and we moved onto the Thai place for dinner.

Judi and I got pot stickers, pad see eiw and tofu pad thai. Yummy! It was warm, I was sort of drying, and we watched the snain as it died out some. After the lovely dinner, we ambled (stumbled?) back to the pad. This time, with my shoes on the heater and my gloves, hat, and pants (that’s jeans for you Brits, not undies) in the dryer, I sat and read some e-mail.

The jeans out of the dryer, my shoes practically dry, and the hat & gloves still damp, Judi and I walked the couple of blocks to the theater and watched The Incredibles. Wonderful movie! Definite DVD purchase and we want to see the sequel already. 🙂

When we got back to the flat, Judi had more things for me to do. First, reformat her oldest laptop. There was no way to do the 1s & 0s format and she has no magnets (I know, I was shocked too – actually, I just remembered that I gave her a magnet for Xmas last year and she doesn’t have it on her fridge! The BITCH! er, um, nevermind…) We just ended up doing a straight “format c:” style format.

Next we moved her dining room table over. Not as easy as it sounds because it’s completely made of glass and damned heavy. But we managed it.

Then it was time to put new bulbs in her huge moon light. Putting the bulbs in wasn’t the problem, but rehanging it on the wall was. I finally figured out a way to do it and then she didn’t have any masking tape. *sigh* I stood on the sofa and waited while she finally found some scotch tape and we got the light hung.

The next job was to get her closet door back in. It’s another odd job which I did figure out, but didn’t do it well. Judi just informed me that it’s back out of its socket again. Ah well!

There are still things on the list to do. Hook her stereo back up, hook up her new VCR (which we got at Target tonight), and do Judi’s t-shirt transfer. And to bake the cake and make the cheeseball. Thankfully we can sleep in somewhat tomorrow. (Though I must watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.)

Apparently it’s now snowing for REAL – it looks very pretty. If Judi wasn’t so tired, she says she’d head on out with Lance and walk in the park. I love her snow enthusiasm. 🙂 (I have it too, but not as strongly as she does.)