Attempting blogging again....

It's been a while since I tried this blogging thing, and a lot has changed! It is no longer winter in the midwest, I have not snowshoed since February, and I am no longer living in Mankato--or in Minnesota for that matter!

I finished my clinicals, found a job, graduated from school, took a board exam, got married, went on a honeymoon and a half, and moved to the Chicago area. Ross and I are now residents of the state of Illinois and have the drivers licenses and temporary voters cards to show it. We were both kind of sad to give up our identity in our native states, but have enjoyed exploring our new area. We have found--with success--the grocery stores, many Targets (unfortunately just one SuperTarget), bike trails, and easy-to-assemble furniture. We even took an afternoon/evening to be tourists downtown Chicago. Yes, we visited "the bean" and Navy Pier. We have not yet taken in Chicagoland sporting events, but hope to see the Sox and Twins later on this season. I hope to make some great friends with ticket connections for the Cubs.

Today we took the opportunity to have another Chicago experience. We received some coupons for Brown's Chicken, a local restaurant chain that specializes in fried chicken, as well as hotdogs, Italian beef, and chicken/beef burgers... and pasta. If you are craving fried gizzards, we found your place. Anyway, since we are Dutch, the time to check out a place is when you have a coupon. I really wanted to try the Chicago Way Hotdog, with onions, mustard, dill pickle, tomatoes, and peppers. Ross went with the Italian beef sandwich so we could utilize a coupon. When asked if he wanted it "Dry, wet, or dipped," he went with dipped, anticipating that they would give us a cup of beef juice/broth for dipping. We got home, pulled out the food... and his ENTIRE sandwich had been dipped in beef juice/broth and then wrapped up! I have no idea how he even managed to hold the sandwich, let alone eat it. After seeing that, we were curious as to how that differed from the "wet" option for the sandwich. And how is a wet sandwich appetizing to begin with?? But the fries were good and I enjoyed the hotdog. All I can say is that it is definitely a good thing we had a coupon. :)

Tomorrow we are headed to Michigan for a quick camping trip at Holland Beach State Park. Hopefully the thunderstorms are very scattered so we do not spend a lot of time soaking wet as we did in Boston. We are planning to spend some time with Ross's family and some college friends. We probably will not eat at Brown's Chicken.