Isabel says, "Blog, dammit!"

I'm still in vacation mode. I went to Door County for five days with the family and now that I'm back in Chicago the school is on break so I don't have any classes to teach. Check out Ben's great pictures from Door County here. Can you believe he took them with his fancy new cell phone?

This past weekend was jam-packed; 3 gigs with Baba Mnouche, Ben's sister in town, driving to and back from Milwaukee to sing at Tosa Pres with the family and attend a Brewers game. Except for a bit of band drama, everything was fun.

In my down-time from classes I've been hanging out (with Emily Monday and Julia Tuesday) and putzing around. Normally I'm not a big fan of the stereotypical hang-around-in-your-pajamas-all-day game, but I did just enough of that on Monday and it was awwwwesome. I have vague plans to get things done and do some class planning too, but work at the front desk has been busy when I am there, and chilling out in my house has been oh-so-nice. Especially in the rainy weather we've had.

My drives to and back from Milwaukee were in pouring, storming rain. It was not fun. Today Chicago got hit by a flash thunderstorm, right after I had left to take my break from work. I had gotten one block away from the school when the two raindrops I'd felt were followed by a dumping, swirling mass of water and wind. I immediately sprinted back to the school, and in that 20 seconds got drenched. The A/C which is always a little too cold anyway felt extra chilly.

One of the things I've been doing in my downtime at home is googling songs from this list, finding videos of them on YouTube, checking the keys and measuring their rockability. Because on Tuesday I am going to compete against the other rockstars-at-heart for FREE BEER AND PIZZA FOR A YEAR. Live band karaoke contest. At Piece. Celebrity judges. For a good cause. Check it out. I am thrilled by the challenge. Leaning towards some Bon Jovi.

Now I'm trying to figure out if biking home is a good idea. T-storm warnings, but it seems light enough right now.... I'm gonna race!