I will not take this for granted!

It is nearly 70 degrees today and sunny and breezy and WONDERFUL! I refuse to take such a beautiful day for granted, so I'm trying to engineer reasons to go outside. Doing laundry - check! Going to the bank - check! Windows wide open - check! Maybe now my house will stop smelling like the scallops I cooked last week. I have never had a home that held onto food smells like this place. Seafood is always the worst and though the scallops were tasty, I don't really need to smell them when I walk into the house at the end of the day.

So Matt and I and youle and her friend Matt went downtown to watch the river being dyed green on Saturday. It was a nice day that day, too 54 and sunny... lovely. We got there early, were right in front, participated in the wave and resisted joining the chant "dye the river! dye the river" There were plenty of people in flamboyant costumes. I think my favorite was a guy who had a neon green Hef-style bath robe. That's pretty creative.

March Already!?

So the date is 3.10.09 I am sitting in my living room. it's 60 degrees outside, but the "bottom" is scheduled to "fall out" around 10 p.m. leaving us with a low of teens to 20's. I think that's March in IL for you. Matt started his latest Second City class at long last yesterday. He left the charger for his laptop in the classroom and when he went back today, he ran into a friend from his first class that he really enjoyed. The friend is interested in making funny movies, and it so happens, matt is too. So we'll see what comes of that.

I have made a pretty big life decision after months of feeling like i was not quite where I needed to be... I'm not going to put it out there for the whole world to see until something actually comes of it.

I'm hoping to get this old bloggin' thing back up and going. I think that the Chicago winter has thrown me off my game. Though, it's really not been as bad as I thought it would be, it does have a way of making you want to come home and do nothing. I'm looking forward to nice weather so I can get off my duff. And for now, getting off my duff includes me writing to you all again.

Happy Holidays

I'm sorry it's been so long, friends. I hope that some of you are still with me. I got out of writing when matt was away and the Christmas pretty much hit us like a Mack truck. We usually ease into Christmas by starting shopping in Oct. or Nov., but with Matt gone I didn't start and we had to shop quick and crazy in the first two weeks of Dec. so that we could get everything shipped back to Texas.

It was an odd Christmas for the Chicago Lyles. For about 8 Christmases, we've been so active seeing all of our family and loved ones over the week off (or month when we were in school.) It was a frantic week, but always nice to see everyone and I love to plan things, so the tight scheduling was a challenge and satisfying. This year we literally had no where to go. We went to the movies on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and had a nice dinner on Christmas Day. So laid back and nice to be just me and my hubby.

We saw

It was GREAT! What a creative plot set-up and an unexpectedly sweet love story. A really fun ride of a movie with a bizarre Bollywood dance sequence at the end.














also saw this

A little long, a little bland, lovely to look at, but had to wait 2 hours for the motorcycle money shot. Had sort of a Titanic mixed with Forrest Gump type of thing going on. Pretty fantastic effects, but jut too long!










and this

Saw this on New Year's Day. Clint Eastwood is terrific! And his cast of mostly non-actor Hmong-Americans offered really "real" performances.


A good holiday week at the movies.

Pretty half-assed reviews...

Matt and I sent off Bootstraps' application to take The Boxer to the New York Fringe Festival. I blew angel kisses into the envelope before it went. We're feeling confident that we've got what it takes to get in, but won't find out until the end of April. I guess we'll just try to put it to the back of our minds until then.

We're going to see a student-directed production of The Boxer at University of Michigan at the end of Jan. and will be back in Dallas for the Premiere of matt's new play, Hello Human Female in Feb.


I was going to do a 2008 year in review for ya... maybe a little later :)