Sick...

...I am...

Sinus infection....

Yesterday was my first day in a week not falling asleep in the middle of the day....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble gobble....

So, a much needed break from work and studies is here at last. In-laws are driving down from Chicago tommorow (Thursday) morning, and we'll have a fun extended weekend together.
On the menu for tommorow night:
- spiral sliced ham with a brown-sugar glaze
- mashed potatoes
- roasted zucchini
- steamed aspragus
- roasted acorn squash, with turkey and fuji apple stuffing
- and whatever else I can think of between now and tommorow night

Ah...cooking is so relaxing, takes all the Ph.D stress away.

So this morning, Sylvia and I are sleeping, and there's a mysterious knock at the door. "What the..." is all I can think of, since few people actually knock on our door, and even fewer at 8am. When I finally got the door - surprise, surprise! - it was Sylvia's sister Cecilia, her husband Jae and our niece Evelyn! We had a great day spending time; should be even better when the in-laws show up.

hiiiilarity

So I'm a student at HUC...and there's been a rash of minor crime in the neighborhood around school (no worries; I'm only there during the day) - mostly theft and stuff like that, typical urban neighborhood business. Anyhow, the school got some extra security, and they have their patrol car out on the main campus drive to provide a "visible presence." Their car of choice? Just imagine a set of flashing lights on this bad boy:













(sorry, no original pic available...yet).
On a totally different, but related thought, a dream that Sylvia and I have is to move to Europe one of these days, where we could get our speeding tickets from gentlemen driving this:














Or something like this?













Keep hope alive...

Eh...

So the Cubs signed Aramis Ramirez - 5 years, 75 million. Of course, they could have added a few years and bucks to his last deal, which he opted out of (10.5 million per year), but...Not a terrible price for 3B with power, although his defense is just so-so. The worrisome part is how he choked it last spring - pulled a .197/.321/.394 (for the uninformed, the last two numbers of the set are OBP and slugging) during April; .266/.296/.495 in May. Maybe he missed having some protection in the lineup.

The big news, though, is that the Cubs traded two minor leaguers for White Sox reliever Neal Cotts. So-so 2006; but a phenomenal 2005 - shifting to the NL should be good for a 1/2 run improvement on his ERA. But why is this the big news? History, my friend. Way back when in 1998, I was living in a 500 sq. ft. studio with a roommate(!), making a little above minimum wage, and the Cubs traded away a pitching prospect for a Sox reliever - Matt Karchner for Jon Garland. Karchner went 3-1, 28ip, 5.14 ERA for the rest of 98 and played in one game of the NLDS loss to Atlanta (2/3 of an inning, one hit, one run, one K). And so, for a glorious 60 2/3 innings, we gave up Jon Garland, who's won 76 games since 2002. Oh, and since you're wondering, total wins for Wood and Prior since 2002 - 80.

So my wife...

...wanted me to put some pictures up, but we haven't taken any in a while, so...
We did go to Lexington two weeks ago, but no pictures to speak of.
So, here's one from halloween...



Studying has been going...I'm done reading for my exams. Took about nine months, but I managed to work through
about 250 books and articles. Now, I have to re-read all the notes and try to retain as much as I can. Yeay...

Baby Choi update. Had the 14 week check up last Monday. Everything is good. Mommy is doing fantabulously - no more barfing, no more nausea...now she gets to move into what the doctors called the "chowing down" phase. I don't think that is a real term...
So at 15 1/2 weeks, our little booger looks something like....