Category Archives: chicago

Fun and games

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This weekend we’ve had our share of fun and games. Yesterday the weather was cool and rainy but today it was perfect: sunny and in the high 60s. p10501251.jpg In addition to getting another van, which was exciting enough on its own, we made a trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden along with 10 million other people (or so it appeared) to see the Spring blooms. p1050142.jpg Cohen was a real stinker the whole time, running away when he was told to stay put, climbing on things he wasn’t supposed to, stepping in the flower beds, and on and on. Not sure what was wrong with him; maybe he was just more excited than usual. Brinley, on the other hand, was pretty quiet and meek the whole time. She has been unwell for a few days now with fever and sore throat so it’s no wonder. She slept on the way to the gardens and then sort of kept behind everyone else as we walked everywhere. Even though the place was crawling with people, more than we had ever seen before, it was worth the trip. The Spring flowers were gorgeous, especially the tulips. p10501281.jpg We went on some walkways that led out into the lagoon a little bit and were amused to discover a great big ‘ol carp looking for us to feed it, surrounded by a large school of bluegills. (I wish I had had my fishing pole to catch those bluegills!) p1050161.jpg Overall it was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. On our way home we stopped and ate a nice meal at Chipotle’s. Click here to see the full set of photos from the trip.

Earthquakes and cougars and bears, oh my!

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We certainly live in interesting times….

I’ve written a couple of times before about the weirdness of cougar (a.k.a. mountain lion) sightings where I live. Last week a cougar was cornered and killed by Chicago police on the North Side. Yesterday everyone was abuzz about the news that another cougar had been sighted early in the morning by a security guard at a large business, as well as by a few other people. Although the Chicago Tribune didn’t specify which large business, I can tell you that it was MPOW. Freaky. No cougar could be found when people went looking for signs of it based on the report, but many people are certain there’s another one out there. I don’t know what to believe. I mean, who would have ever thought one cougar would be found here? Well, that turned out to be true, so it’s not hard to believe there is more than one. But the weirdness doesn’t end there…

Early this a.m. I get an email from my brother who lives near Indianapolis, asking me and another brother who lives in central Illinois if we felt an earthquake. I didn’t but my family in central Illinois sure did. It was the biggest earthquake in the area in 40 years, a 5.2 on the Richter scale. Weird. Now I’ve been in a few earthquakes before, one of which was when living in central Illinois and another time when I was visiting Los Angeles (that was the Northridge quake). But still it is a little weird to have it happen and on such a scale. Later there was a fairly significant aftershock felt throughout the region.

When on a conference call with a colleague in Germany this morning, I was telling him about these strange events. He marvelled about it and then mentioned that something similar had occurred in southern Germany last year, when a wild bear started frequenting urban areas and had to be shot eventually.

Chicago is a beautiful city

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Chicago is a beautiful city and the following photo shows it.  Yesterday we were at the lakefront to visit the Shedd Aquarium for the first time since March.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm but not too warm.  Lots of people were out and about enjoying the day, including lots of people out on boats on Lake Michigan.  This will probably be one of the A nice view of the downtown skyline of Chicago last weekends for boating whether before the fall and winter weather comes.  In this photo you can see the Standard Oil building to the far left (it may be called something else now).  The Hancock Building is peeking out just to the right a little ways.  Lake Point Towers on the far right.  One of these is where Sammy Sosa lived for a number of years.  I remember attending a NASIG conference reception on the top floor of the Standard Oil building in 1992.  It was a beautiful setting and was one of the last formal dinner receptions NASIG hosted.  In a way, I miss those formal occasions!

Chicago as possible site for Olympics

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I was excited to read the news last night that Chicago was picked over Los Angeles as the site nominated by the U.S. for the 2016 Olympics. How cool would it be to live near the Olympics, if Chicago happens to win the international bid? I think Chicago is a great choice (prejudice aside). Chicago has a history of making very big things happen. Think of the famous 1893 Columbian Exposition. I’ve known about that event for most of my life but never really understood how important and “big” that whole event was until I read the excellent book, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. I am particularly excited by the prospect of new venues built in and around Washington Park near my old stomping grounds at the University of Chicago, which was a key part of Chicago’s bid. Interestingly, my place of work (and even some people in my department) is playing a key supporting role in trying to make this dream happen for Chicago.

Link to Chicago is U.S. candidate to host 2016 Games – Yahoo! News

Warm weather, sunshine, and a date night

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February has been incredibly dull and gloomy here in the Chicago area. It always is. So it is a relief to finally experience warm temperatures and lots of sunshine the last few days. Yesterday we were able to go outside without wearing jackets for the first time in who knows how long.

Friday night, Keegan went home with his Grandma and stayed overnight with his grandparents. Yesterday, Michele and I and the younger kids had a leisurely day. We drove to my in-laws in the late afternoon and dropped off the other kids there. Michele and I then had a date night out to ourselves. Much needed! We ate at The Claddagh restaurant again (we had first eaten there a few months ago and really liked it). I had some wonderful trout and Michele enjoyed her fish and chips. She had a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for dessert, while I had bread pudding. Afterward we went to the new IKEA and enjoyed the fact that we were able to leisurely stroll through the store, going our own pace, without the hassle of kids running everywhere. We decided to buy a four season down comforter set and we also picked out a nice duvet cover, as well as new pillows and matching lampshades. This was our combined wedding anniversary and Valentine’s Day present to ourselves.

When we got home last night after picking up the little ones from my in-laws (Keegan decided to stay another night with them), we discovered an extremely loud and raucous party going on a few houses down from ours. Everyone was screaming and laughing and generally so drunk it was pitiful. A group of guys stood near their pickup, entertaining their lady friends up on the balcony of the house by pulling down their pants. Talk about juvenile. I finally had had enough when one of them nonchalantly strolled to the side of our building and urinated in full view. I called the police. Once he appeared, things magically settled down.

Today we are having everyone over for a theme dinner tonight. Michele is making a menu of Indian dishes. We are really looking forward to it!

A wonderful anniversary weekend

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For the first time in our married life — in other words, in six years — Michele and I were able to spend a night away from our children. We had a wonderful weekend celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary by staying at a four star hotel near the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago. In addition to walking around Millennium Park, which we hadn’t seen before, Michele and I spent several hours touring the Art Institute of Chicago. We spent most of our time in the American artists area, an area neither of us had seen before. I was dazzled by two large paintings by Frederic Remington. Remington is of course well known for his bronze sculptures and there were several of them on display, but his paintings had far more of an impact on me. Their luminescent, bright colors were stunning. We also saw famous works of art by Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, John Singleton Copley, and many others. We had a leisurely lunch in the Art Institute’s cafe and went in search of even more areas of the place that we hadn’t seen already. It was a very satisfying and enjoyable visit. After that, we checked into our hotel (the Swissotel – Chicago) and rested for a bit before venturing out for a fabulous dinner at one of my favorite restaurants anywhere in the world: Frontera Grill (owned and operated by world famous chef, Rick Bayless). We had a great dinner there and then walked over to Michigan Avenue where we window shopped for a while before heading back to the hotel. As an interesting side note, our visit to the Swissotel – Chicago was fitting because we spent part of our honeymoon there six years ago.

The next day (Sunday), we drove back to the suburbs, stopping at Oak Brook to have a great lunch at The Cheesecake Factory followed by a leisurely visit to a nearby Borders, where we bought some books for the kids before picking them up at my in-law’s. They had a great time, also, and it sounds like they behaved very well in our absence.

It was a very nice time for all of us and I am really thankful for the generous giving of Michele’s parents that enabled us to do this. Now that we’ve done it once, Michele and I are eager to do it again.

Home delivery for libraries

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I was quite interested to read last night that a group of three nearby public libraries (Arlington Heights Memorial Library, Skokie Public Library and Indian Trails Public Library in Wheeling) have decided to offer a new service to their users that gives them the option to check out library material via their websites and have the material delivered to the user’s home. Ah, but as Rick (Humphrey Bogart) says in the movie Casablanca to his ertswhile friend, Ugarte (played by Peter Lorre), “For a price, Ugarte, for a price.” I think this is a great idea and I would be interested in using the service as a user. However, I think the price (the article says it would be $4 per item checked out) is too high. Also, one of the participating public libraries stated that it would not encourage return by mail “because of the availability of 24 hr. drop boxes.” This, to me, is an example of where the library needs to think more clearly about the needs or wants of the user. In other words, I think this library is placing too much of a priority on what is convenient for it vs. what is convenient for the user. Think of the Netflix model. One of the main reasons for Netflix’s success, in my view, is the way that the whole delivery and return process is so easy.

So…a big thumbs up for these libraries that are willing to try something very new (and probably disruptive) in an attempt to better serve their users. Thumbs down, however, for the cost for the user to use this service, as well as for not finding a way (at least in one library’s case) to enable return of library materials by mail.

Guys day out with Keegan

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Keegan and I are at home by ourselves this weekend because Michele and the younger kids went with her family to her uncle’s funeral. Uncle Donny died last week from an unknown form of cancer. I wish we could have gone to the funeral but Keegan had a test at school yesterday morning and I couldn’t take another day off of work on Friday to be able to go. Yesterday was a guys day out for the two of us. We had a lot of fun. Yesterday afternoon we drove downtown to the big Apple store on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I weakened my resolve and allowed Keegan to buy a Star Wars game, which he is currently deeply engrossed in playing on our iMac downstairs. After that we had supper at Heaven on Seven, a Louisiana/Cajun eatery that I like. Keegan was dubious about going (he’s not really fond of trying new foods) but he ended up liking it a lot. After that we bought tickets to see Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It wasn’t showing until about an hour later so we killed time by walking down to the Borders next door to the historic Water Tower. After we saw the movie we both agreed that it was definitely worth watching and that we really had a good laugh. I like the movie a lot except that it seems to be taking the Shrek approach to kid’s movies by slyly incorporating many adult-themed jokes here and there. I don’t remember previous movies doing that so much. It was late by the time we got home but we had had a really fun time together. I am glad we were able to do this — we don’t often get time to spend together, just the two of us. It seems like lately we have been in constant conflict with each other. Spending time together helps us reconnect.