A few weeks before my birthday, Amy asked me, "do you want to do anything special?"
Steve's 36th Birthday
I'm usually pretty low-key when it comes to this type of thing, but after thinking about it for a little bit, presented this crazy idea: "I think it would be fun to get some folks together and watch the Back to the Future trilogy back-to-back-to-back!"
Amazingly, Amy pulled it off.
Over the weekend we hopped the "L" downtown to watch the traditional dying of the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day, something that has been taking place since 1961.
Steve & Amy with a GREEN Chicago River
The first coloring of the waterway happened by accident when a plumber used green dye to track a rouge waste line that was dumping sewage into the river.
Well, the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2011 has come and gone. The "Snowpocalypse" hit us February 1-2, officially dumping 20.2 inches at O'Hare, making this the 3rd largest in Chicago history (following blizzards in 1967 and 1999). Heck, the Chicago Public Schools even canceled classes for 2 days… which never happens.
Amy stands next to a yardstick... yes, lots of snow!
We lost power for 14 hours during the storm, but luckily our condo retains heat very well. We just played boardgames in the dark and listened to the radio reporting all the crazy happenings in the snow.
Snow attempts to bury the fence
Speaking of our condo, because of the way it was built, we saw some pretty huge snow drifts piled up against the building, doors, and windows. It also took a few days to clear out enough snow to get Amy's car out of the garage… and many days later to dig my car out of the street.
Playing "Dominion" by LED and candlelight
Aside from vehicles getting abandoned on Lake Shore Drive when it was shut down during the storm, the city actually did a pretty good job of handling the blizzard… as is typical of a municipality where a snowstorm once determined a mayoral election!
Snow as viewed from our atrium
I should also mention that our 9th wedding anniversary took place during the blizzard… and it was an odd way to celebrate it!
Over the weekend, while shopping at a vintage toy store with some friends, I happened across a View-Master Model C viewer. I don't think the seller knew the value of the product, because I got a really good deal when I bought it!
View-Master Model C Viewer
As many of you know, I'm somewhat of a vintage View-Master collector (remember our Christmas trip to View-Masterville?), continued from my fascination with the 3D product as a kid. These days, I'm mostly interested in the real-life scenic reels of tourist attractions. It's very fun to look at images from Niagara Falls or Washington D.C. as they were depicted in an era long ago. The View-Master is still in production, owned by Mattel these days and marketed as a Fisher-Price brand. However, it's primarily targeted at the pre-school age group with reels based on cartoon properties.
Today Amy & I had our yearly physicals at the doctor's office. I had to get some blood work done. As everyone who knows me knows… I just hate needles and blood!
Steve gets stickers!
However, the nurse taking the blood thought I was a "big boy" for not crying and gave me some stickers as a reward! I got Spider-Man, Finding Nemo, and Thomas & Friends. 
Continuing a tradition we started in 2006… and continued in 2008 and 2009, Amy and I thought it would be fun to post a few photos from each month to create a photo recap of what we've experienced, written about, and shared with all of you over the past year. We're sourcing the photos from our personal blog at SteveandAmySly.com, our beverage review site at BevReview.com, and for the first time, our odd site about Disney trash cans, MagicalTrash.com.
We didn't blog as much in the early part of the year, but then we relaunched our personal site using WordPress in August, which accelerated things once again and enabled the use of larger images. At the same time, we started actively posting on MagicalTrash.com using the Tumblr platform. Because of that, our posts were distributed across many sites.
Looking back, we posted a total of 80 personal blog stories this year, including 985 images, in addition to 73 beverage-related reviews and 42 trash can-related posts. Yeah, we've been busy on the blogs!
Enjoy the recap and thanks for reading!
January
We got snow on Christmas Eve here in Chicago, so Amy and I took a walk around the neighborhood. Here are some things we observed — when we weren't throwing snowballs at each other…
Pretty lights
It's almost Christmas!
Amy & I continued our 4-year Christmas tradition of watching White Christmas at the Music Box Theatre as part of their annual Christmas Show.
Music Box Theatre in Chicago
It's a fun time where they not only show the movie, but also have a visit from Santa, group caroling, and all-around Chicago holiday fun. (For those interested, recap posts from our Christmas show visits in 2008 and 2009.)
Steve & Amy in blurry, cameraphone self-portrait at event
The Music Box has been putting on a double billing of White Christmas/It's A Wonderful Life for 27 years and it seems to be getting more and more popular.
Welcome to the 8th annual installment of the State Street Showdown, a yearly tradition here at SteveandAmySly.com. This series was started in 2003 to evaluate the holiday windows on State Street here in Chicago. Of course, back then we had numerous stores showcasing their art. Today we're down to just one… Macy's.
Amy & Steve at Chicago's official Christmas tree
Before we jump into the windows themselves, I like to use this introduction post to take a look at Christmas in downtown Chicago.
Back in January 2005, we bought a used 2002 Toyota RAV4 for Amy to replace her ailing Honda Civic. We've been really happy with the RAV4, having put it through a lot of road trips and general daily commuting. Since purchase, we've had it serviced at our local Toyota dealer, which despite a higher labor cost, has always done us right.
Our 2002 Toyota RAV4
