can this happen at the loyola red line stop every day?

Ready-Raska-Strait Reunion

We were so thankful to have time to be with the Raskas & the Readys while in Spokane (we missed Ben & Maile--you two would have completed the bunch!). We spent an entire day vegging together on Susie & Duffy's sofas, then had a kick *ss New Year's slumber party at Erin's parents' house on the river. We made some serious New Year's resolutions & particularly enjoyed Brent's liturgical dance that rung in the New Year. Let me tell you, Erin's parents make a mean slumber party breakfast. Mmm...

Nothing, however, could beat the experience of cuddling, for the first time, Miles Duffy Ready!!! Troy & Jenny, you two have a gorgeous son & we cannot wait for the memories we have with him to come.

Christmas with FAMILY!

We officially had FOUR CHRISTMASES. Forget Reese Witherspoon--we did it for reals. 1. With the Cranes & Straits @ the Cranes in Anacortes, 2. With the Jacobsons & Straits @ the Jacobsons in Seattle, 3. With the Hamblets in Olympia and 4. With the Straits in Spokane. Four. Count 'em. The fun never stops!

Wish we had more photos of the other events, but we made out with some goodies at the Jacobsons. Sherrill & Jack put on such a special day--complete with Brian's unbeatable hors d'oeurves, Elliot's bartending skills (best cosmos yet!) and Sherrill's ingenious hand in the kitchen. My parents joined us for dinner & we all shared laugh after laugh.

See? Winn made the men & women Christmas aprons & Kevin loved his sooo much...

He forgot to take it off for the annual family photo. Hot!

My dad was a hit playing in Grandma Winn's wheelchair. He's the coolest wheel-chair-wheelie-doer I've ever seen. The best part was...




When he gloriously tipped over backwards (on purpose, of course) while we were getting a shot of these 3 together. Talk about a candid shot! Yes. We were all giggling.

Unfortunately, we never got a group shot! I have no photos of Sherrill & Jack, Courtney, Brian or Elliott. You'll all just have to believe me. They were there, in fine form.

Brrr....

Once we made it to Washington we were so very thankful for such romantic Christmas weather! The photo (of me snow-shoeing at Priest Lake) is a fabulous example of such weather. Although it made getting out of the house difficult (we were snowed in with my parents in Olympia for days & then on to Spokane for more snow)... there's just nothing better than sitting around in peace with the family you've missed for so long. We loved the Hamblet fire that Dad had perpetually roaring in the fireplace, plenty of hot cocoa, big breakfasts, wearing pajamas for much of the day & bundling up to head outside. Here in Chicago we don't have a magnificent amount of snow but the cold keeps us inside. It felt WARM in Washington!!

Once in Spokane we had plenty of outdoor fun. We shoveled 2 roofs (well, I helped shovel 1 & Drew helped with 2), took an overnight trip up to Priest Lake for snow-shoeing with Debbie & Kevin and loved all the time we got with friends (thanks to the Raskas, Readys, VanAnrooys, Joe Hewa, Johnsons & Barbours!) and family (both of the Strait sisters + Janie's husband Chris were in Spokane with us). PLUS we enjoyed a rowdy Gonzaga game at a classy tavern. What could be more fun??

Here are my favorite father-in-law & favorite husband clearing the roof of the cabin bunk house @ Priest Lake. 70" of snow--oh my!


Here are the guys show-shoeing out at Soldier Creek. Check out my view from the other direction--breathtaking!!

Oh how we loved our trip.

Happy New Year's!

We won't be sending paper cards this year (it's a biannual phenomenon in the Strait household), so e-cards it is. Happy holidays to all!

God Bless La Canada

Vancouver, British Columbia. We thank you.

a) Thanks to Dave Ormesher we found an airline that flies direct, Chicago to Vancouver (as opposed to using Seattle or Portland as the pacific northwest hub). We purchased brand spankin' new one-way flights for the 23rd.
b) A snow storm was predicted for the 23rd in Chicago, to begin just hours before our flight. Awesome.
c) Because the snow storm did, in fact, arrive it was impossible to call a taxi & all our nearby friends hit the roads early to avoid the bad weather. Not wanting to bother those not so nearby, we used our luggage as snow plows (literally) to make it out to a main street. I'll spare you the details, but in the end--we made it to the train. And, for you Seattle-ites without snow shovels (looking around it seems they're sold out???), we recommend heavy rolling luggage. Sure helped out our neighbors.
d) Made it to the airport. Gate changed 3 times. Got on plane. Could not see out plane windows due to white-out snow storm. Said "There's no way..." many times. But guess what. There IS a way. Because our plane took off in the middle of a snow storm, leaving 500 other flights canceled & many passengers stranded overnight at O'Hare.

Don't know how we got out, but we've enjoyed a full 24 hours with family already. We're at 2 Christmases & counting (both in Anacortes), & it's not even the 25th yet! 2 more Christmases tomorrow (1 in Seattle, the next in Olympia). Must... eat... more... food!!

Winter Wonderland... but Missing Family!

Well, our flight was canceled yesterday so, even after 5 hours working to get another flight, in Chicago we remain... dearly missing family & wishing we were sledding with Daddy D down the 33rd Av hill, as we had planned! Chicago's -35 oF (okay, with windchill) has been keeping us indoors for the past 24 hours, to Mollie's dismay. I had efficiently cleaned out the fridge in preparation for our trip so with no food in the house we had the ideal excuse to order in Thai last night & committed to watching 2 movies, drinking hot cocoa & sharing buckets of laughs & cuddles before calling it a night. Mollie even sacked out for the evening next to the couch, ready to veg. What began as a terribly disappointing day ended as a wonderfully relaxing day together.

As we hadn't planned to be in Chicago for Christmas we didn't go all out prepping the house for Christmas, but last night we were thankful for the simple decor we did install! We had a cozy home. With some of my newly found spare time, I thought I'd share with you a few of my current holiday faves! Above are our stockings, a gift from Drew's mom. Mollie & Tink have the little boots, & Drew & I have the larger stockings. Mollie & Tink's stockings are stuffed with goodies but Drew's & mine remain empty... Funny how that works. I stuck a few candy canes in them last week, sensing their jealousy.

We have this wreath on our kitchen wall. We intended it for our entry door but it was just too cute inside the house! The matching garland is particularly cute in the living room, housing candles, our silver Christmas tree & white bird house. I've been scouting out these reindeer at PB for the after holiday sales. They strike me as whimsical... Love them & their spindly legs!

We purchased one-way flights to Vancouver, BC, for tomorrow afternoon & are hoping the Chicago snow permits our departure. With Seattle, Spokane & Portland airports still closed, Vancouver was the final remaining option. We'll be able to spend Christmas with family after all--Chris & Janie will be picking us up in BC for our first Anacortes Christmas. Momma K & Daddy D, we're on our way to you, full speed ahead!

Just a Little Obsession

Just a little something I found online & absolutely adore. The graphic buttons & fresh yellow are magnetic... on sale at Etsy. It certainly beats the wrap around scarf option's trend factor and provides the necessary warmth for these blustery Chicago days!

See this & others here. Don't miss the precious hair clips she makes as well... pictured below... and, most importantly, STAY WARM!!

meet N.T. Wrong

This guy kills me. Drew has introduced me to the world of "Biblioblogs." Basically, this group of obsessive theologians--many quite prestigious--use blogs as academic vehicles for exchanging news in the field, ideas & to cultivate discussion.

Then there's N.T. Wrong (a farcical name coined from the real "Bishop of Durham"--N.T. Wright). He takes a rather unorthodox approach to exegesis, but regardless-he's hilarious. No one knows his real identity. Drew & I have enjoyed following all the blog posts these last few weeks postulating who he truly is... which has often resulted in these theologians taking humorous shots at one another.

His recent post is absolutely hilarious. Not only is this mystery blogger creative, but he is truly brilliant. What he writes about is, fortunately enough, quite true. Yes, farting. And ass. In the O.T. Read on, if you dare. http://ntwrong.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/breaking-wind-from-your-ass/

Can Scientists Dance?

So, I guess Scientists can dance... or, at least try! Science held a competition this year called "Dance your Ph.D."... they had separate categories for grad students, post-docs & professors. A colleague of mine up in Canada applied & I wish I had known about it sooner! These videos are so fun. Maybe not the highest caliber dancing, but getting a professor to bob his head in a loincloth for a national audience? Impressive.

The "grad student" category winner:


Student winner. Had I been judging they would have received extra points for the loincloth, as that takes guts:


For more info on the competition, or to watch other videos: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5865/905b

$400 tickets to the Lyric Opera

We set out this weekend determined to avoid making "plans" of any sort. The past few months it seems our weekends have been brimming with far too many engagements. We often end up backing out of at least one engagement per weekend... or finding we'll have to miss things we were very much looking forward to (birthday parties, church get togethers, celebrations of other sorts, shows around Chicago...).

We reaped the fruit of "having no plans" this weekend when my advisor asked if we'd be interested in taking over her season tickets to the Lyric Opera for Saturday night's production of Gershwin's Porgy & Bess. I've been wanting to see Porgy & Bess since my junior high years, when I first played the primo part for "Summertime" on the piano (a lyric duet with my teacher, the beloved Mrs. Moody). I was most certainly not disappointed--a fabulous cast & a fabulous set made for a fabulous production. And these were not just any tickets: they were $200 apiece, 2nd & 3rd row tickets. I swear Crown spit on me at least once.

In other news? The final version of my paper's been sent back to EJN, we found coats for all the refugees at our church, I've decorated for Christmas and we're looking forward to a late night dinner with our Cuban friends tonight. Pollo "di tu"--whatever that means. All I know is they're very excited to introduce us to this classic Cuban dish. :)

candidate i am

just yesterday i learned from my committee that i have advanced on to candidacy. this means you are no longer allowed to call me a "graduate student"... from here on out, i'm known as "Dana Strait, doctoral candidate."

since i've made it this far, i might as well finish. ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We've enjoyed one of our favorite Thanksgivings yet.

We have Drew sister Janie & her husband Chris in town from Washington State--& are having such a great time together, playing in the city, catching up & getting plenty of laughs in. Mollie's particularly fond of her Uncle Chris: they're pretty much inseparable. She'll be exhausted when he leaves, I'm sure.

With Chris & Janie at Grant Park's ampitheatre downtown:
Cooking for Thanksgiving dinner has been particularly thrilling. Janie & I stirred the seasonings in the sink last night to soak the giant 20 pound bird.

Drew did superb (& apparently exciting) work stuffing herbs & oranges into the turkey's nooks & crannies:

Janie & I did all of our cooking in matching aprons... and the turkey, by the way, was incredible... our eco-friendly Domino recipe worked!!

After slaving away all day in the kitchen we enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal with friends from Burundi (Analisa, Japhet & Vanissa) & their children. We ended the meal with a thrilling game of Spoons, which was quite the hit! Analisa laughed so hard at one point she actually fell out of her chair, sending us all into fits of laughter!

Simion worked diligently at the computer for quite some time, & here is receiving some assistance from Drew & Janie.

A joyful evening was had by all, & I believe we're all truly thankful for family, friends & full bellies.

yippee

My first article has been accepted for publication in the European Journal of Neuroscience... hard work pays off! "Musical experience and neural efficiency: effects of training on subcortical processing of vocal expressions of emotion." Sound exciting?

Goodbye Felikis... And Hello to New Refugees!

If you've been reading my blog over the past year you may remember my introducing our precious friends from Burundi, the Feliki family. Jeanetti, Feliki & their beautiful 7 children became very close friends during their 1 1/2 years in Chicago, just blocks away from us. We got to know them through Exodus World Service's "New Neighbor" program, that connects willing volunteers with nearby refugee families, just arrived in the U.S. from refugee camps. As you can imagine, their learning curves are steep and physical needs can be overwhelming at times (especially in light of Chicago's harsh winters!). Chicago accepts an overwhelming number of refugees yearly, and there are not near enough social agencies to tend to them all sufficiently.

Thus began our relationship with the Felikis, who we visited along with friends Nick & Jenna Bott. We shared meals, a church, language-learning, new cultural activities and much laughter together! After searching for work for Feliki for quite some time, he became very depressed & frustrated with city life. With so many immigrants in Chicago, finding work as a non-English speaker is competitive!! They moved this past summer to Memphis, and we have missed them terribly. It was hard to say goodbye--not only for us, but for the many friends of ours who became close with the family as well. Their farewell party at the church hosted a meetinghouse full of people--from children to adults--all in tears before the night was through.

Feliki, having lost his parents & siblings to genocidal war in Burundi, made it clear that we were the first people to step up and take care of him as a parent would have. He is now in Memphis working his first successful job, but boy do we miss them! Here, Feliki shares about how we taught him what having a parent to help you along is like through a translator, our friend Leonce:


Frank (the 4th grade son) had my camera at the move & got shots of us all helping. This is one of the few non-blurry photos he captured. Thanks, Dave et al., for all your hard work! It was a hot night if I remember correctly.


We are now getting to know another refugee family, this time from Cuba, in addition to continuing relationships with other Burundians we got to know through the Feliki fam. Our church has progressively filled with refugees--from the Congo, Burundi, Burma and, now, Cuba. Services are becoming increasingly international, though we're all in agreement that there's much room to grow as we learn how to incorporate individuals from various cultures into leadership roles and foster non-segregated community. Regarding the Cubans, it's refreshing to be able to speak the language of our new friends--it certainly makes understanding their needs easier!! And boy has my Spanish been needing a workout. We'll introduce you to our new friends more thoroughly in a later post, but for now I can tell you: our tummies have been happily full of tostones, frijoles & lovely Cuban seasonings lately! As they know we have little time to cook ourselves, they've been blessing us with incredible meals whenever time permits.