January 27

Dear everyone,

We are a two dog family now.  Robbie is a very quiet, well behaved, terrier who loves to snuggle.  During his 3 weeks here we have not experienced any serious accidents (two, but these have been our fault).  He seems to understand where and when to go to the bathroom, although we don’t trust him uncrated when we leave the house for more than a couple of hours.  Meeko doesn’t trust him at all.  She is constantly watching what he is doing (at least when they are both awake; they both spend most of their time sleeping), just in case he is getting a treat that she is not.  It’s going to be ferociously cold and snowy over the next week, and I will have the joy of taking them out before 7 AM, when it will surely be well below 0 F.  Fun fun.

Later this afternoon we will be driving up to HP.  Gail and Cindy are going to start cataloguing some of Barbara’s belongings, and then we will go out to dinner with Roger, Andy, Gail, and Maddie in Highwood.  Last Sunday we ate at Birchwood with the same gang (sans Maddie).  Last Saturday Cindy and I took Nicola and Wes out to dinner for Nikki’s birthday (#26!).  We went to a fun Basque restaurant on 1450 W Chicago Ave (basically Chicago and Ashland) called Bar Biscay.  We had some tapas, and some large dishes.  The most memorable was the pepper stuffed with sausage, where the chef had (delightfully) used a heavy hand with smoked paprika.  Dessert was also memorable – a chocolate ganache bar, and a coconut cake with pumpkin puree. Nicola got to take home the leftovers.

This past Tuesday I had the honor of being joined by Andy at a Blackhawks game.  The weather was supposed to be wintry, and I left work with way too much time to spare.  Andy was already at the United Center; however, so our entry was smooth.  We chose poorly for dinner (avoid the BBQ beef at Lillie Qs), but watched a close, exciting game, which the Hawks (currently worst team in NHL) won in overtime against the Islanders (currently one of the best teams in the NHL).  I will be at another game in a few weeks with Jami Walloch.

Nothing much is new at work, except that Jami is now officially retired.  We hired him back as a contractor for half time (and half pay), so he comes in every other week.  His office has been taking over by Lily Mei, and the dynamic in our office suite has definitely changed.  I’m interested see how Jami likes having ½ time status, since I am planning on retiring at the end of 2020 (given that Japser will be out of college, our house is paid off, etc.).  I’m hoping that I won’t have too many extra expenses that would require a living wage.  Of course, I could try to work for the federal government, and get no pay during the constant government shutdowns.

Love, H.