this brings coffee addiction to another level. lucky that we have our trusty no frills six cup black and decker coffee maker to meet joe’s daily needs. funny that coffee is called ‘cup of joe’…hee hee…he.

his stress level is getting higher as exams are in less than one week, after which he’ll try to deal with his addiction. please pray for him (…i meant for his exams…).

less than two more weeks until joe’s exams. he has his method, and it seems to work; multiple vocab cards in purposefully arranged piles which he will systematically go through. it’s a tricky balance now trying to memorize facts without inadvertently pushing another one out. hate it when that happens.

no bird, just a couple F-16′s. i saw them flying around during a practice for the chicago air show this past weekend. i saw one F-16 climb vertically up and up, then (it seemed like) free fall vertically down and down before levelling out again. nope, not for me…i get nauseous on a swing.

the art institute is featuring a special exhibit of jeff wall, a vancouver-based artist, who is especially known for his photography mounted in aluminum light boxes. it was really interesting to see his artwork in person. my favorites were After “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue and A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai)…the lightbox made me feel like i was looking outside. it was also fun trying to identify vancouver landmarks.

yesterday we stayed in for joseph’s birthday. menu: insalata caprese, stuffed portobello mushrooms, linguine with scallops in white clam sauce, and hazelnut gelato. and then birthday cake!

it’s always fun getting visitors! today pam and scott spent a few hours with us in Hyde Park. this is pam pretending to be joe at his desk…”uuggh”:

then we had a nice thai lunch where we got to know scott better. after a small scuffle, pam and scott won the bill and treated us for joe’s birthday…thanks guys!

pastor gene and susan smillie graciously invited us and a few friends over to their home in Wheaton for dinner…enchiladas yum! asher kindly showed joe how to use his daddy’s camera, and then showed everybody how to blow like the wind (1.75Mb, .wmv)

too bad kurtis accidentally locked his keys in the car…but thanks to some friendly police officers we all got back home for bedtime.

we made a trip to chinatown to stock up on some chinese food goods, including emergency food aka frozen dumplings (on sale for four packs for $7.99!…so we got eight). we also stopped for lunch and had some noodles.

we received the biggest serving of noodles we had ever seen. joe managed to finish his, while i ate only half of mine and brought the rest home, which then supplemented our dinner. two meals for one…not bad.

joe has been busy studying for his comprehensive exams, which will be in exactly one month from now; five eight hour exams within one week of time. i took a peek at what he was studying yesterday and this is what i found:

it’s a ugaritic letter to a master complaining about the destruction of a city apparently by some bandits. obviously.