The 4th

Had a pretty good first Independence Day as a Chicago resident - but we didn't actually spend it in Chicago. Kristen's old grad-school roommate had some people over and we knew most of them so we decided to hang out there for the night. They have a nice place down by Kristen's parents' house near Orland Park in a town called Frankfurt. The couple just had a pool installed last year and had some landscaping and a new patio put in this year. They were all ready to break it in, but unfortunately the rain was too much to bear. It was a slight drizzle, nothing really more, but just enough to annoy you and make it too chilly to swim. So needless to say we kept the party indoors. It was a good time and they had a nice spread - complete with a variety of beers. They had a small fireworks display, but the highlight was the neighbors' displays... wow! Some of their neighbors must have spent a few grand on artillery.. seriously! There were so many big and loud fireworks. What our party had was quite modest in comparison... but still fun. We also had a slight stint on the Guitar Hero World Tour, which is always a blast! Since they live so close to Kristen's parents, we decided to stay with them for the night - good decision considering we live an hour away from this particular friend.

It wasn't all fun and games though. As it turns out, which we learned Jake's first Independence Day, he is extremely frightened by the sounds of fireworks. He can pick up the faintest sound of one from quite a distance and even off of the television. So unfortunately when they are right in our backyard - which this year they just so happened to be - he gets scared shitless! Literally, considering he won't even go potty whilst these things are going off... quite frustrating but you gotta feel sorry for the little guy. It really takes a toll on him psychologically, so as much as I enjoy fireworks, I look forward to them being over so he gets back to normal. Cap that off with the fact that we just moved him into a completely new living environment and that makes a nasty recipe for an otherwise happy-go-lucky pup.

So this Independence Day is not just ceremonial as being my first 4th here, but today also marks my 4th official day living here. So far we have actually been having a really good time. I had to move stuff that I brought in on Wednesday, so that wasn't so much fun, but otherwise we have tried to enjoy our first four days reunited. We just hung out on Wednesday (after Kristen got home from work) and Thursday - and I even spent some time getting work done at the office on Thursday! Friday afternoon we went to the Taste of Chicago which was cool and we got to try some local cuisine and hang out downtown for a little while. That night we went to Pete's Pizza with Kristen's sister Jaime and her fiance Dan... more local cuisine.. and it was delicious! Of course yesterday we spent time down south for the holiday and today I spent most of my time watching sports, capped off by a GREAT performance in Wimbledon by both Federer AND Roddick (I was pulling for Roddick.. U-S-A, U-S-A!!).

So that has been our past few days. I hope everyone is enjoying keeping up. I also hope everyone is still reading. I know I took a brief break there in June, but I am back to writing regular updates on here, so I hope everyone still comes around every once in a while to read and especially to comment - I sincerely enjoy reading and responding to everyone's commentary so keep the chatter alive!!