What's new?

I thought for some reason that I would be able to find time to write, but that has clearly gone by the wayside.  I think a lot of it is that I'm searching for something to write about, and still coming up short.  Either way, I figured I would provide some insight as to what we have been up to... I'll start with a recent trip to New Orleans --

 First, we lost Dani... luckily she surfaced, albeit with some new plumage.

We were lucky guests for a beautiful wedding for Jacob and Colleen.

They led the way of the Second Line Parade through the French Quarter.

We took a carriage ride through the French Quarter with a stop over at the cemetery.  (Story of note - while in the carriage and riding past the police station, we noticed an old man dressed in bright orange with inmate written across the chest -- apparently he still has a few years on his sentence and washes the police cars.... so weird, and frightening.  If I hadn't been so shocked, I would have taken a picture)

We walked around the warehouse district.

We went to the French Market and ate fresh crawfish.

Stopped in for some beignets (and chocolate milk for me!) at Cafe du Monde.

After a long weekend of drinking and eating in New Orleans, it was time to come back home.  Immediately after returning, I went on my last bridge inspection (phew) -- went through the pain and sadness of turning in my two-week notice to Baker -- and came out the other side with a new job. 

I started with Thomas Engineering at the beginning of April and have just finished my first week.  I'm working from home (weird), I have a car (more weird), and all in all I'm completely overwhelmed with starting something new.  It was much harder to leave Baker than I ever imagined, and I think it will take a few weeks to acclimate.  So far it seems like it's going well though - they all seem like really great people, so I have high hopes.

One of the perks of working from home is that I was able to take a stroll around Wrigley for opening day yesterday.

Even though the Cubs lost, everyone seems like they still have a lot of expectations (good ones even) - and I have to admit, so do I.  Go Cubs go!

And with the start of baseball, it's clear that spring is sprung.  The trees have all bloomed, the flowers are all out - it's absolutely beautiful in Chicago.  It has been such an amazing "winter", and I am so grateful for the blue skies and sunshine that we have had -- now if only it could get back to the 75 and 80 that it was back in February and March, that would be great!

Oh - and it turns out I'm still crazy... I registered for TWO races this year.  At least to get me started.  I registered for the Soldier Field 10 mile (yesss...... 10 miles, not to be confused with kilometers) at the end of May, and then I'm going to try and better my time from last year in the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon.  Hopefully it goes well.  I haven't really started training for the 10 mile which could prove problematic, but I have confidence that I can at least finish it, even if it's not as quickly as I would like it to be.

I've had all sorts of ideas for what this blog could turn into... nothing seems to stick with me for long enough to try and transform it.  We'll see what happens.  I should probably post some of our New Orleans experiences on the travel blog since it was through traveling that we got there.... Running one blog for me is seemingly difficult, I don't know why I thought I could do two.  Ha.  But we did just get a new camera, so hopefully that will inspire me to want to add more pictures and therefore lead me to post more.  Hopefully we will also have some fun trips with the car in the area that I can post.  Lots of exciting things will be happening this year I think ... so hopefully lots to share!