Let me tell you...

We have on our hands one large dog who is STEAMED that he was not invited along to Florida. He's totally giving us the cold shoulder. Won't even look at me. It's awesome when dogs are moody.

Captain Noah

And a happy (and sunny) 31st to my prom date.

Happy 50th Birthday Momma

Anna Maria Island

We're heading to the airport this evening and will soon find ourselves in the house from which this scenic photo was taken. Oh yeah. Can't wait to see my whole fam and FINALLY have some summer weather (with maybe a tid bit of hurricane thrown in there).

Part Deux of Allison's interview. (And (part of) a photo taken last Saturday with my camera by a grumpy irksome stranger man.)

Congrats

Our friend Chris (occasional guest blogger extraordinaire) and his new daughter Morgan. (And a photo from his facebook that I stole without permission.) Ain't she sweet?

I'm a sucker. I open the door to Jehovah's Witnesses. And today two friendly people told me that someday soon the world is going to be perfect. Which is a nice thing to hear, especially on a Monday.
It turns out that in a perfect world you'll find these guys (and deer and waterfalls) all over the place.
Hmmm...it sure is stormy all over these feats of science...
And volcanic all over these coke sniffers and doctors and nurses...
But someday things will get better. And, then, blue-eyed blonds with windy hair for everyone.
And no more war!  (Um. But. Then. Big strong dude? Why the swordsmithing?)

At least I'll have questions for when they come back.

He Has Arrived

It's official. :)

I had the good fortune of spending a lovely morning on the Chicago River with the lady gals (and LK's ghost). Took in some of the world's finest architecture from a cozy boat and then lunched on the river walk. I've always dreamed of lunching on the river walk.

Being a tourist in my own city is sometimes irresistible.

Adam (the movie)

I must admit. The first chunk of the movie had me rolling my eyes and thinking we'd made one big bad choice, what with the lines said almost directly to the camera about what Asperger Syndrome is and the girl being strangely bubbly and not in the least uncomfortable around this stranger who has her locked in a laundry room in one of the first scenes. But then the rest of the movie started. And I totally fell for it. 100% loved it. Kind of want to see it again, actually.

Adler Planetarium

This is what it would be like to be at the Adler Planetarium

This is what it'd be like to be sucked into a black hole feet first.

This is what it'd be like to be on the sun (that's a big sun behind me).

This is what the gravity/it would be like to be on the moon.

Paris, Je T'aime

I'd bother to blog tonight but I'm in the middle of this flick:

And I seriously can't my eyes off it.

Here's a cool article about my friend Allison. Stay tuned for more!

Labor of Love

Saugatuck

It was lovely. Through and through. The scenery was heavenly and the eats were delectable. Above all, the theater was great and my very own Eric got to join the cast of 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee as a contestant. He did not win (I think the whole thing was rigged) but was comforted with a juice box and big hug from James Earl Jones II. Soooo fun!
[A and C, thanks for having us!] [And Chris thanks for the guest blog (and for clueing us into Groupon). You'll be happy to know that our very first stop in Saugatuck was the ice cream store. :)]

Correction: James Earl Jones II is not the son James Earl Jones the actor. Had I bothered to look it up I would have known better. Instead, I chose to blindly believe our otherwise trusty tour guide. ;)

Golfing and Groupon

Chris van B on guest blogging duties today. Given the opportunity, I will always guest blog. I feel a bit like a the Regis to Jessie's Letterman. Wishful thinking I'm sure, but who's it hurt?

Anyway, today I played 18 holes of golf at the Tamarack Golf Club. Eric could have been in those pictures with me, but he's too busy being a good husband and going on little summer weekend jaunts to Michigan with his wife. I am the bottom most picture, feel free to enjoy the view of my golf appropriate plaid shorts. Matt, in the blue shirt, is significantly better than me, as you can see from his much less awkward follow through. The fellow in the Illinois hat is David. He and his friend Jerry were paired with us. David has almost as wicked a slice as I do, fortunately mine only reared its head on the back nine so I was able to keep ball loss somewhat under control. I also have to mention that the hole placement today was insane. Some of the holes seemed made me think we were playing on Sunday at Augusta.

Anyway, two items of note from this walk through the woods gone bad, are that (1) I walked the course, which I rarely do. This decision was motivated by the weight loss bet I'm involved in that concludes tomorrow. Hopefully carrying ~30 lbs. of golf equipment has put me over the top. I'll tell you what though, walking 18 holes is rough if you're not used to it. Particularly on a course that (a) has no benches, and (b) had some SLOW golfers on it: our round took more than 5 hours (4:30 is about par, pun intended) and we had multiple holes where we got to the tee box and the group in front of us was just getting ready to tee off. One bench. Please!

Item (2) of note is how I ended up on this course that's a 45 minute drive away. I paid for the greens fees using a "groupon". Groupon is a deal of the day type website that negotiates pretty impressive deals for residents of a specific area (started as just Chicago, but they're expanding to include other cities). The caveat of these deals is that they promise the merchant a minimum volume -- get it, coupon + group of people = groupon! So people sign up throughout the day and once they hit the minimum, then the groupon is officially on and you print out your groupon and enjoy your purchase. In this case, I got greens fees for a twosome for $50 at a course that normally charges $65 for a onesome.

What a great concept, ey? Particularly in this economy. I think everybody really does win too. Admittedly, I don't think these sorts of things (Groupon, the Entertainment Book, etc) actually save me money. I likely end up spending about the same amount money in the end, but I enjoy slightly better food, a nice course, or what have you. And the merchants get customers they wouldn't otherwise have. I certainly wouldn't have driven that far otherwise.

Side note: Jessie, you guys are in Saugatuck!? I spent many a boyhood summer there. Get some ice cream at the 'Round the Corner Ice Cream store -- 50 flavors! I believe it's on Mason just west of Butler (the main drag in town). And bring back some Kilwin's fudge.

I'm probably on the beach. Or on a historical tour of Saugatuck.

Running out the door to see Michigan for the first time in my life! I'll try to blog from there but I'm also setting up a cheater post that will pop up automatically tomorrow. Though Chris, if you're reading today and you still have my password, feel free to guest blog tomorrow. Happy weekend!

I always feel like a dip when I drive down Addison Street right smack at the same time as a Cubs game. And not just a Cubs game. But a Cubs game that is just letting out. I always try to stay chipper and make a game of it guessing if we won or lost based on the way the crowd is moving (It's usually not hard to tell. Today I guessed that we not only lost but got spanked. Seems this was true.). Then, after the little game, I become irate (mostly at myself for not checking about game times) and try to outsmart the barricades and traffic cops by taking the perfect shortcut only to meet up with about 400 other cars trying to do the same and find myself sitting in even less movable traffic. This is all until I become deliriously maddened and start taking photos of building I am stuck next too (albeit with awesome painted ads.) Oh Chicago... You mean well.

195th takes 2nd at Wild Cow Milking

Never a dull moment for my brother Wes. Yes, this is the same guy who jumps out of airplanes on a regular basis. So he was in Montana for some training with his unit (division? squad? section?---sorry Wes. You know me and military lingo. I need to take a class or something.) Anyhow, they all mosey into town and take on the locals in their wild cow milking contest...and win second place! If you look close you can see Wes third stall from the left, tall guy with a white shirt and white ball cap acting "utterly crazy." :)

Pop Culture Trivia King

My prom date and I walked down to the library tonight. Eric got his very own card and promptly checked out The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits (Updated and Expanded 5th Edition). I got a fun history lesson on the walk home (because the man has read another edition of the book 20 times already) in which I learned that right after The Beatles stormed the charts for weeks upon weeks, the very next non-Beatles hit was "Hello Dolly" by Louis Armstrong, which just downright makes me proud to be an American. Eric has also been pulling out old Beatles cartoons which I am totally falling in love with. Mostly because I swear a woman does all of their voices, especially George's.

Classic Bowl

Some Serious Crafting Going On

Max loves flies more than anything in the world.

There is so much of Chicago that looks like you could be hanging out in any of the past 50 years.

To me, nothing says summer in Chicago like driving around in the sunshine with the windows rolled down and a Wilco album in the cd player. Today I went 3 miles and plowed through Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in its entirety thanks to it also being Construction season in this here town. Anyhow, all of the above is nothing new. What IS new is that I discovered (via that stolen Spin magazine) that Jeff Tweedy's 13-year-old son (who has his own name and it's Spencer) has a blog. And it has just become my favorite place on the world wide web. The post dated 7/7/09 might very well be the best blog post ever in existence. I know I should be reading The New Yorker or something, but seriously, he's a read for all ages (and, I'd argue with ease, more entertaining than The New Yorker).

I love the optimism that all the open air bars and restaurants of Chicago exude. They are absolutely everywhere. And are opened up at every single fleeting moment possible.

Supper of Champions

When I dream at night of eating dinner the dream does not take place in the cozy nook in our kitchen nor does it take place in our new dining room, no, the setting of such a dream takes place at a picnic table with a loudsepaker and a glowing menu. That is how often we eat at Superdog. We now consider it our back patio. The grilled cheese on rye is crave worthy and I consider the winking hotdog statues to be some of the greatest American folk art out there. Eric even stole Spin magazine from the gym so that I could see a photo of one of our favorite bands standing on the roof. Sigh. Superdog may very well be the best part of our new neighborhood.

There were people dancing in the water fountain in Millennium Park today. I felt like I was in a Fellini film.

It was one of those perfect Chicago evenings for going on a bike ride with at least a thousand other people.