Weekend recap

Good weekend. It was L.'s 33rd birthday, so I showered him with fun gifts and treated him to a nice dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for a delicious steak and cake.

Today we slept in, and then went to have lunch and saw a movie with one of our friends, F. We saw Blades of Glory with Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. It was really funny, as you'd expect from those two.

Then tonight we sat down and figured out our itinerary for our trip to Chicago this summer. We're going to visit my grandma for a few days, then drive to Michigan to visit L.'s grandparents for a couple of days, and then head back to downtown Chicago for a couple of nights before we fly back out. It will be a packed trip, but I think we'll find some time to wind down a bit, too. It should be a good time.

It's always really hot and humid in Illinois that time of year, so I've already explained to L. that we'll be taking a cab everywhere downtown. Things look close enough to walk to on a map, but once you get out in that pressing heat and humidity, it zaps literally every bit of energy out of you. I remember one year my step mom and I were walking around a lake near my grandma's house. We used to walk a good 3-5 miles at any one time at home, so we figured it was no big deal. About a mile into it, we both felt like we were dying. I'm thankful that Seattle only experiences heat coupled with humidity like that for a couple of days a year. And even then, the humidity isn't even close to those days in Chicago.

I read awhile back that Seattle was one of the most healthy cities in the US, and I kind of scoffed at it when I read it. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. We do have a very temperate climate here, and even in the dead of summer you can usually be outdoors hiking, walking, etc. without feeling like you're melting away. Not so in Chicago. I don't know how people live in climate like that. And my grandma is at the age now where she uses the air conditioner pretty sparingly because she's very old, thin, and fragile and chills easily. So, it will be interesting to see how hot the house gets when we're there.

Luckily, L. and I are staying in a hotel nearby so as not to offend my grandma, since she is a very staunch fundamentalist Christian, and wouldn't hear of L. and I staying together in her house. Which is fine, since it's her house, but it always makes me chuckle a little bit. I mean, I've been married before, so no longer a virgin. And L. and I have been together now for a year and a half. The jig is up. Oh well.