A Show of hands...

I was very excited to shoot my first ever hand modeling job a month ago. The joys of working at a photography studio! It's funny, for years my mom has said "you have such lovely hands, you should be a hand model." I hemmed and hawed about it and could only find flaws in my clappers, but last summer (while working at the photo studio) the producer asked to look at my hands, and apparently she liked them. I was whisked upstairs to shoot a Pampered Chef catalog. This gave me the courage I was seeking to contact the print department of my agency to be considered for hand modeling jobs. After a few weeks a meeting was set and I went in to have my hands judged. According to my agent "It takes two seconds, it's either a yes or a no, and nine times out of ten it's a no." (encouraging!). I placed my hands and as luck would have it they were a yes! Felicitations! Shouts of joy! However, he was quick to point out that my knuckles were a tad "rough" and I need to be more diligent about using hand cream. Well ok, since you said it so nicely. Nothing came of this meeting for awhile, until recently and now I have a legitimate comp card. Hopefully (nicely filed and polished fingers crossed) I can embark on a new career path! I will keep you posted. (thank you for the awesome appendage-genetics passed onto me from my grandmother, Annie)

More James Photos

Day three of Flanagan's Chicago Expedition was spent expanding our minds and stomachs. We traveled to Hyde Park to visit the Museum of Science and Industry where a fully functional "Green" home has been built in the courtyard of the museum. It is the most eco-friendly and efficient home out there and we had a great time exploring it. From the recycled deck, solar paneled roof, Chardonnay glass tiled shower and the dual flush toilets it was interesting to learn about how we can make changes, big and small, to make our homes more safe, efficient and enviro-friendly. If you are in Chicago from now through January 4th (hmmmm.....) be sure to check it out!

After the home tour, we traveled north to show James the Chicago History Museum, which is of course the site for our upcoming reception. We had a little too much fun with our camera on the old time El car.


Um...excuse me while I grope your leg and take your stuff.

After our museum trips we stopped at Chicago Oven and Pizza Grinders, a local haunt specializing in pot pie pizza. In a word: delish. After which we rolled ourselves home and tried to force ourselves back into hunger as we had dinner plans that evening with Ira. A few hours later we succeeded in making a yummy Summer bouillabaisse with smoky rouille. The recipe is forthcoming! Followed by more hoopla and another favorite game, Apples to Apples.

Mr. Flanagan has arrived!

The weekend of July 19th heralded the arrival of the infamous James Flanagan, creator of the word Blürg, and best man for the impending nuptials. Sadly we did not document our first night with James, but we will tell you it was filled with succulent mussels, fantastic beer, a rousing game of mini-golf (which Blair won by the way) and many games of Hoopla on Blair's deck, certainly waking the neighbors. Day two we spent the late afternoon attempting to see Lang Lang, a piano virtuoso at Ravinia only to have our plans thwarted by lack of parking (Blair was not pleased about this). Proving ourselves to be adaptable (well sort of in Blair's case) we instead payed a visit to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, which are actually located in Glencoe but let's not fight with semantics. It ended up being a lovely evening as the gardens are stunning and the weather was cooperative. Here are some photos of the day! More can be found at

http://picasaweb.google.com/jurgenhooper/JamesVisit

Blair calms down when she enters a beautiful garden
James heeds the advice: For your safety please do not climb on the fountain
Blair does not: Rock on!
Not. A. Good. Picture. At. All
Take two, much better!
James and Jürgen take time to "sense" the tree in the sensory garden.
An arty photo through the arches. So deep.
The esplinade. Kinda pretty if you ask me.
Look Ma, a catfish, can I touch it?

After our trip to the gardens, we drove back to Blair's abode and played more hoopla. Everyone needs to know about this game.

Happy 4th O' July (many days late)

(I am sad this photo is dark, but I like it nonetheless)

Alright I will admit that we have both been very lazy when it comes to updating the Blürg. We hearby solemnly swear to be better about this henceforth and promise to bring you many updates and images from the life of Blürg! Several weeks ago (I cannot believe it is almost August) Jürgen and I had the extreme priviledge to attend a fantastic fourth of July party held on the 16th floor of my dear friend, and voice teacher's, lovely condo in Chicago. Now it must be noted that for some reason Chicago always hosts their annual fireworks display on the third of July, not the conventional fourth day of the month. Why this is we do not know, nor did we spend much time speculating about it because there was much merriment to be had. Jürgen and I had the great honor of attending this soiree last year, and we were thrilled to receive an invitation this year. Thank you John and Pasquale for hosting such a lovely affair! Below are some pictures (which turned out to be very small) of the fireworks and the amazing view: