Belle Belly

Following some queries on how Biz is shaping up these days we took this picture today to show her current state of pregnancy - polite comments only please : - )

Snippets of Spring - a poem!

Temperatures have increased dramatically in Chicago over the past week or so - it even got into the 60's (that's about 15 degrees celsius) one day. So in honour of this event the following jumped into my mind:

The temperatures are a rising,
My heart is all a flutter,
The snow and ice is melting,
And flowing down the gutter!

Francis : - )

Granny Murphy

I got a couple of photos from home this week one of which was a picture of my dad's mother - the often referred to matriarch of the Murphy clan 'Granny Murphy'. She was an amazing woman - twelve kids, scores of grandchildren and great grandchildren but more than that she was an epicentre for almost all the family. She only learned to drive when she was about 65 but took to it enthusiasitically and I can remember sitting into her car one day as a kid and she 'floored' it in an effort to race my dad to her house - as they say in Limerick she was a 'gas card' at times.

She was strong willed (stubborn to some) and not afraid to speak her mind while also wanting the best for her own. It's a testimont to her that over ten years after she left this world that she regularly comes up in conversation and more often than not in a reverential way. I have heard it said that my dad and three of his brothers are referred to as the 'sopranos' in one of the local bars they frequent- the 'heavy gang' that roll in to their local! If that's true then 'Granny Murphy' was definitely the 'god mother', the one they all looked up to, the one that kept them in line.

It's easy to realise that you miss her, she was such a dominant character and had such an influence on us.
Francis

Bonjour de Montreal

To get away from the cold of Chicago we headed to Montreal for the weekend! Well actually I was working in Canada the following week and so Biz and I decided to go early. It did warm our hearts though as, despite being even colder than Chicago, old town Montreal is beautiful and very reminiscient of some of the European towns that we have been to and have fond memories of. Indeed I have since heard that for those Americans who don't have the time or money to visit Europe, a trip to Montreal is considered the next best thing.

It was bitterly cold (Igloofest, an ice themed outdoor music festival, was in full swing) so possibly not the best time to sightsee the city - we walked outside for 20 minutes or so at a time and then ducked in somewhere to thaw out before going outside again. It provided plenty of opportunity to drinks lots of hot chocolate and beer which wasn't so bad! We managed to visit the local Notre Dame Basilica - it has an amazing interior. It turns out the cathedral was designed by an Irish architect - James O'Donnell (an Irish protestant from New York who converted to Catholicism)- back around 1824.

The food was great, a strong french influence of course, and generally Montreal was a nice change of scenery - speaking the 'cupla focal' of french was a challenge but well worth the effort.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

A weather advisory was just broadcast today for the Chicago area - from midnight tonight to midday on Friday the wind chill factor will be minus 30 to minus 40 farenheit - not even sure what that is in celsius other than very very cold - brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Winter time

Talking to some of you back in Eire this past week, I hear that temperatures dropped significantly, even falling as low as -10 celsius. I don't recall such lows there in recent times but it will stand to any of you brave enough to come visit us in Chicago during the winter.

It starting snowing here again this weekend after a lull of about ten days. Its been coming down heavily creating a white blanket over the city. As seems typical at this time of year the rivers and lakeshore freeze over and the snow sits on top - its quite a sight. The local beach where we happily played volleyball and enjoyed post game beers in the beautiful sunshine this summer is now covered in snow and ice and unimagineable of such activity. A few hearty souls still run outside this time of year and you even see the occasional cross country skier in nearby Lincoln park - we finally relented a few weeks back and joined an athletic club with an indoor running track.

Living in these weather conditions has it's challenges but people here appear to be well adapted to it - the snow ploughs keep the roads reasonably clear and salted while everyone (and their dogs) wraps up well and drives to wherever they need to go.

I did spend an hour shovelling snow (a first for me) from the entrance to our apartment block and driveway yesterday only to see it covered again by some more snow about an hour later. There is some strategy involved - getting the snow cleared before it freezes that night is much easier than trying to clear it the next day. Thankfully someone else in the building did the honours again later in the evening. I now appreciate garage parking - I do not envy those people parked on our and other streets struggling to dig their cars out from feet of snow and ice each day - it can take up to and even beyond an hour to get some of them out.

I am really enjoying the variability of the weather - having four proper seasons is still very much a novelty. I am however also beginnning to appreciate why Chicagoans love their summers.

It's a Boy!

We went to the Doctor today. I took one look at the ultra sound and knew I had a son. Francis is over the moon. I think he is primarily excited because he won our bet and we are both very happy that our little boy is healthy. We have a 3 minute ultrasound DVD of him if anyone wants to see it. He's adorable. During the ultrasound he had his hand over his face just like Francis does in his sleep. We finally managed to coax him to look out and get this photo - he looks a little stunned!