Jip the hunter

Last Monday, Jip came running into the house with a gift for me: a chip munk, which is like a small squirrel. He proudly presented his catch by dropping it onto the carpet in the living room. The chip munk, still alive, thought luck was on his side and tried to escape, but he might have been better off just staying put there on the carpet because now the hunting game was on. Every time the chip munk moved, Jip went after him, tried to hit him or catch him. Driving the chip munk into a corner was the best. I felt sorry for the small squirrel, but was not sure what to do: they have sharp little teeth, too! Anyway, the game ended quite fast, by Jip dropping the chip munk in a plastic container for me and me taking the present to the burial grounds at the far end of the garden. And off the cats went outside. Literally 20 minutes later, Jip came back with a new, fresh one, again! Pictures say more than a 1000 words, so please see for yourself. FYI, this one ended up in the same corner of the garden as the first one.

Busy unpacking

Now that our stuff has arrived, there is work to be done. Some big pieces are easy to unpack, but the books and smaller pieces will take more time to find a place in the house. Also the toolbox comes in handy again since some small adaptation are necessary to existing pieces of furniture. Give us a few weeks and our new home will be ready.

Drive-in movie theater McHenry

Staszek came home and asked if I wanted to go out to the movies with him. What a nice thought, how romantic. This is where we went: the drive-in movie theater in McHenry, about 20 minute drive from Mundelein, together with Staszek's colleagues. We thought these things only existed IN the movies, but it is for real! Everybody goes: families with kids, groups of friends, people on dates, couples. And to make sure everybody can see the film, there are rules for parking according to the size of your car. You pay 6 dollar per person make sure you bring enough beer/coke and food and you're set for a whole evening of entertainment with two movies. The sound comes out of your car radio on frequency 81.5!

The container has arrived!

Thursday 15 June was THE day: our container with furniture and other posessions arrived. After almost 6 weeks we would be able to sleep in our own bed, sit in a comfortable chair and drink from our favourite wine glasses again. The operation of unloading all the boxes took about 5 hours, but then all our stuff was inside and now the unpacking can begin.

1352 Huntington Drive Pics

We are online again on Huntington Drive so we have some catching up to do on the news from our side. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of the place we are calling home now. There is a lot of green around the house and the grass has to be cut every week this time of year. Fortunately we don't have to do this ourselves, but a team of 3 comes in on their lawn mowing scooters and does it in 20 minutes.

Andersonville Midsommarfest.

Andersonville is an old Swedish neighborhood in Chicago. Although most of the Swedes are long gone, it still has kept some of its ethnic flavor and each June, nearly 40,000 people find their way to Andersonville's Midsommarfest, for two days of eating, dancing and music. When we arrived, we were just in time to see the performance of the 'big band' in the pictures: a very entertaining mix of big/showband with very good music and fun acts.

Staszek's new car

Staszek came home on Friday afternoon in his new automobile. A very nice all-leather-inside family car: a Volvo XC70 turbo Cross Country. Now we both don't have to worry about getting stuck in the snow this winter!

We moved!

Yes, we moved last weekend to the house on 1352 Huntington Drive. Unfortunately we don't have internet there yet, but that should change next week. Now it's taking the Apple to Panera lunch cafe where they have free WiFi: I have become a regular customer! The new house is great with the big garden and lots of space inside. The cats are very happy too and they wake us at 5 am everyday because they want to go outside, which they can, but at 7.30 am. So far, they have always found their way back home, but there are of course a lot of interesting places to be discovered in our neighbourhood, not to mention a lot of intrigueing animals like, chipmunks, ground badgers, skunks, racoons, rabbits and according to the neighbours even deer and coyotes!

The only thing we are waiting for now is our furniture. It has arrived in New York and should be on its way to Chicago, where the customs clearing will take place. A little bit more patience and if all goes well, we should have our stuff in about 2 weeks. In the meantime, the IKEA sofa bed and wooden garden set are the only items in the house so it's a bit like indoor camping, but this should all change soon!