A Long Winter ... And Summer Will Soon End

For no particular reason worth sharing, this winter season has been dragging on. This Friday I'll leave Chicago's winter and head toward Sydney, Australia, but I'm only about 60% excited about that. There must be something wrong with me!

Don't get me wrong, I am truly looking forward to experiencing some of the dog days of February with my Australian mates. The crew down under are very amiable and fun, so I'm sure that after work we'll be spending some quality time enjoying Australian local brews, Asian food, and perhaps I'll eat some wallaby or kangaroo. I think it's just that I'm ready for the next step in my life.

For me, at least, the next step would be to work for a company or organization that I can truly believe in or else one that is a little bit more dynamic and fun. If I knew precisely what company or organization that would be, well, my life would be a lot easier. All I do know is that, after almost four years working for the same company, I'm ready to start looking outside. But that is tremendously boring, so I'll switch the subject.

Weekends in 2006
Some of the great experiences of 2006 thus far have been the more frequent visits with family and friends. Thor and Kaylin continue to amaze me with their progress. And on 28 January, Thor came to the Palacio for the first time!

During Thor's visit, the Palacio phone rang. This truly is remarkable because we rarely use this phone. Anyway, my cousin Kyle was calling from downstairs, he was taking a break from the work he was doing in the building right next to the Palacio. Needless to say, Chico Blanco and I had quite the busy early morning, much to the contrary of our typical young bachelor habits.

Back to a typical weekend's activities, on last Saturday Chico Blanco, Mark and I went to a diner in Humboldt Park for some breakfast. After breakfast, Mark and I scoped out four possible locations, including one close to the diner in Humboldt Park. As of today, there are three places we like and, as soon as something newsworthy occurs, I will share more details.

Super Bowl 2006
For the first time in a few years, I watched the Super Bowl. I can't promise that I'll make a habit of it, but I can say that it was fun to hang out with some of the old Calvary crew, even if my preferred team lost.

Back to Today
In a few days I'll be back in Sydney's summer. This is the fourth local winter in a row that I'll get to exchange some of the winter for Southern Hemisphere summer. If and when I move on from this gig, this pattern will be one of the features I miss most.

But, any amount of summer is good, even if it will end soon. Now, it's off to work out so that I'll be ready for Bondi Beach!