Monday, May 16, 2011

3rd Time in the Chi

The first time I went to Chicago I had a blast. Sure, I was young, childless, committed but not married, and had little in the way of soul-crushing responsibilities. A couple weeks ago, I went back. The main reason was to support my sister as she defended her thesis and earned her PhD. At your leisure you can pop over to my previous post here, detailing all my proud sisterly love.

Ridiculous travel times aside, I had an amazing trip. I got to finally catch up with my buddy Jeff, and met his girl Quince. It bums me out sometimes having my friends so far away. The upside is that it gives me future excuses to journey to distant cities. Jeff's next destination is Dallas, so at some point in coming years I'll be having a brew in a badass Dallas pub. Jeff even rode the train with me back to the airport. That's a true friend!

I took way to many pictures on the trip to Chicago, but I really do like that city. If I considered myself a big city guy, I'd consider Chi Town. My sister lives downtown, so everything is a short train or taxi ride away. Speaking of which, on the way to a cool little club in a taxi, I swear we were going to die. It's hard to imagine driving in a city like Chicago, let alone driving a taxi in a city like Chicago. The driver, at one point, was driving 60mph! No, it wasn't on a highway. There were streetlights and everything.

Check out all the pictures I took below.

The tavern downstairs and across the street from Jane's place. Great spot to hang, and I tried a new beer!

The view from Jane's balcony.


There were like three of these trucks. We never figured out where or what was being filmed.

Navy Pier

My yacht...no, it's not:(

I blew this pic up because, if you look closely, under mixed drinks in a drink called 'Horny Goat'. Wish I had tried it.

Seems a little extreme...right?

Harry Caray's


Jeff and Quince posing with my and my dad. It was great catching up!

This was around 2am at the club. Apparently, I had something on my face. Thanks Sean!

It's late. Jane's friends may be a little "tired"

These next few pics were sent by my wife Kate while I was gone...
Roe wearing the cute little outfit Uncle Don bought her

Kaya, Row and Kate making dinner

Happy face

Sad face

Eleven City Diner. What an awesome place to grub. Gotta eat there if you're in Chicago

This was my omelet. It was just phenomenal!!

The gift shop at Eleven City was just sweet! (get it?) There was a ton of old school candy and gum like Bazooka. I had to buy a t-shirt and pint class.

These building were under construction last time I was there. Wow...

Soldier Field from a distance


A crazy huge demonstration downtown. Everything is always bigger in the city.



Crazy cool statues

Either the lion is HUGE or Jr. is shrinking.

Don't give that look sis...I mean Dr. Sis


Uncle Don's not sure which way to go...again.


I love all the artwork in Chicago. This is one of two huge stone blocks with digital faces looking at each other. Creepy, cool and a little weird. Just my style.


That silver bean thing in the background was also under construction last I saw it. Once the quinceanera moved on, we got a much closer look.

closer...

This is actually our reflection



Views from inside




Pretty cool idea.


My mom is notorious for giving cask to the less fortunate.

My last meal at Midway airport before my flight home. Sadly, I took too long and my plane was about to leave without me! Oops.

Dragon on the Ledge

Friday, May 13, 2011

My New Writing Gig!

Some of you know I've been obsessing over this new Star Wars game that may, or may not be coming out this year. Site jumping frantically everyday, trying to find out the latest game info, I found myself checking one site more than any others: TORWars. After months of listening to their amazing podcasts, and perusing frequent updates about both the game, and other Star Wars news, I inquired about possibly writing for them. I felt somehow compelled to not only do more writing, but to contribute to a site and a community that I was already a quasi part of. Long story short, they agreed to give me a shot! My first and second posts went up this afternoon.
TOR stands for The Old Republic
If you like what you see, if you are interested in the game, or just want to follow more of my ranting, writing ways, you can follow TORWars on Twitter @TORWars, or 'like' TORWars on Facebook. (You can also follow the links on my main blog page to follow me on Twitter and Facebook.) Check the links to my posts below. To all my friends and family, thanks for all the awesome support. By the way, this weekend I will finally post my pics and antics from my Chicago trip...promise!

1st Post: ...I am Your Father
2nd Post: 57 out of 60?


Dragon on the Ledge

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Forest felled just in time for Mother's Day

Three days, 1 dead mower, and a half dead trimmer, my backyard finally, (with a little more work tomorrow), looks like exactly that: a backyard. I have excuses for days about how/why I let it get this point, but the biggest, most realistic excuse is that I put every single other obligation in front of my need to cut my lawn. I work everyday with the youth of our community, I play in a Monday night golf league, it was raining (and it was), a ridiculous amount this year and on and on... The bottom line is that my "lawn" (mostly weeds at this point) has reached nearly 4 feet high and my poor dog had to carve out a small sanctuary, near the pine tree, to be able to exist out there during the day. These pics were taken yesterday when I was on the home stretch.

You might be asking how I let it get this bad, and my only answer is...um...time. Time works against me on a level where if I had only 2 more hours in a day I'd have it made. As it stands, our meager 24-hour day only allows for so much to happen, so many things have to be cut. Unfortunately, one of these many things is not my lawn:)

So, it's Mother's Day, and once again, I'm up before 7. It's not because I'm an early-bird, but because my little girl is always up before 7. During the week it's great because I never oversleep and miss work, but on the weekend, the only thing I want is for Roe to sleep past 7...
Once I finally dragged my "I only slept 5 hours" butt out of bed it was time to get Roe dressed, hair combed, to Safeway and back before Kate came downstairs. Clearly this was too ambitious a plan, because she was on her way down soon after we got home. The upside is that I got the flowers Roe picked out, and the presents on the table just in time.


 A funny little moment during breakfast


The entire goal of getting the yard done was so Kate could spend the day getting her garden in order. We headed to Hare Creek Nursery to get supplies...



Of course, she wanted to ride on the wagon
Ultimately, we got Kate's garden bed turned over and ready to plant while Roe took a nap. When she woke up, we finally planted her placenta under a lilac tree we bought, (better late that never). Roe had a blast finally being able to run around the backyard with Dag.
Time to feed the fish!
That last pic was from the last leg of the journey. We, of course, had to go wish my mother in law, Anne (otherwise known as Gaga), a Happy Mother's Day. Super bonus, they asked if we wanted to go get Thai food, so, naturally we had to go. It's been an incredibly long, productive day. Happy Mother's Day to all the hard working, under appreciated mothers out there, and check back in the next couple days for all the Chi Town fun from last week.
Baba's swing goes way higher than the one at the park
Roe munching on sour-grass and chatting with Gaga
You can't tell, but she' s watching the trailer for the new Winne the Pooh movie. No doubt that''ll be the first movie we take her to.


It's crazy how hard she focuses when she drawing.