Welcome to the Ledge. The intent of this blog is to create a space where I can rant, write, share stuff and update folks on what's going on for me. Enjoy! I'm open to any feed back you want to share so leave any and all comments on posts you like.
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.
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!
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.
A few days later I'm still at a loss for words. In most families there is a shining star. Someone who really stands out. Someone who not only meets your expectations, but proceeds to blow those expectations out of the water with a Hiroshima sized atomic bomb. In my family, as much as I wish it was me, I have nothing on my sister Janai. I have called her Jane for as long as I can remember, and as of two days ago, you've got to call her Doctor Carr. Yes, my sister has done something few can say. She has earned a PH.D in Biochemistry. My entire family has always been aware of her high intelligence. She skipped the 1st grade for crying out loud! That aside, as snarky, playful and witty as she can be, this has never masked the fact that she is scary smart. I flew out to Chicago to watch her defend her thesis in front of a room of friends, family, peers and other scary smart scientists. She not only defended it, but made me wonder why or how anyone in their right mind would question her work when her roughly 50 minute talk ended. It was absolutely brilliant. Just listen in to her mentor introduce her:
As you can see, her colleagues not only admire and support her work, but they think what we've always known Jane to be: way above the rest of us mere mortals. One of the heads of her department made a point of pulling us aside and informing us that she was the best student they have ever seen. Did you catch that? EVER! While following all the terms and processes of her work was hard to follow to us laymen, it was obvious that what Jane's doing is nothing short of groundbreaking. I have included a coupe of videos and pictures capturing this occasion below. What goes without saying is that my sister is well on her way to making her imprint in this world and our family could not be any prouder if we tried. Me personally, I couldn't help but puff out my chest as wave after wave of her friends, coworkers and colleagues came by to shake my hand, say congrats, and share their experience with this most extraordinary member to the Carr family. Best of luck Jane, we love you so much. You've made us so proud!
(I apologize for the audio in the videos; she wasn't miked)
Okay...Now say it in English.
This is a longer video, but the thank yous are toward the end. You might see and hear some familiar names *cough* Carr Family *cough, cough*
This is the part where Sean and I got pretty defensive of our sis because how dare they question her awesomeness!!
Carr family dressed and on aproach
She looks amazing, I know, but if only you could see the shoes...
Title of Jane's presentation
Long name; longer hallways
This room will be nearly full by the time Jane starts talking. Of course Jane's friend Yalda had to get into the picture.
Jane talking to her mentor Pradip and another really smart sciency guy
Just one of her many amazingly detailed and informative slides. This made total sense at the time.
Carr family hanging on Jane's every word; even if we didn't understand it all.
Sean Jr. (my nephlet) didn't quite make it all the way through, but he couldn't have picked a better time to nap
Jane's peers had everything all decked out
If you didn't know, Jane's favorite cake is strawberry shortcake. I normally don't do cake, but this one was phenomenal!
Jane arrives to the party met with roaring applause
Hugs all around!
One for Uncle Don too. It was great to see him again. He seems to fly around the country in order to show up to our stuff. Thanks for all the years of support. We love ya Don!
Nephlet and DeeDee. I hadn't seen DeeDee in a long time. It was great to see you!! We gotta hit the links again soon.
Proud mother
Yeah, it's the cake again, but this time it's not covered!
Yalda, Jane and a proud father. He seems to be talking instead of smiling, which is unusual because he's normally so quiet:)
Looking good Carr family
Uncle Don, Jane and nephlet.
Jane's friends
Looks like they are holding her up. Figuratively that's what they're doing
Yalda, Jane and her other friend Matt.
It's a little blurry, but you can feel the love, right?
Jane standing next to her avatar. As Rowan would say: "Same, same!"
Jane's very "tidy" workstation
Jane promised that they weren't doing anything bad to this cute little mouse, but we had our doubts.
The guys down the hall doing a little "work"
This pic was hanging on Jane's workstation wall. Talk about a blast from the New Year's Eve past.
By the way, check back soon for the pics and vids from the rest of my antics in Chi Town...
After hours and hours of screen time, my seniors' rough drafts are finally graded. Managed to finish the last one during the first 10 minutes of my last period class. (I know, I cut it close) Huge weight lifted. After another couple hours I got sub plans written, my classroom organized and ready for the next two days. At the moment I'm trying to get Roe to sleep so I can hit the road and head to Sacramento. Tonight I'll be staying with my little bro and jumping on a plane to Chicago at the crack of dawn tomorrow. I haven't seen my sister since Christmas, and I haven't been to Chicago in a few years. The point of the trip is to watch her defend her thesis and move on to her next step on her way to being a doctor. I'm so proud of her. I'm sad to leave my family, especially my wife, who is super pregnant and needs my help around the house and with Roe. I'll miss them both terribly, but I'm stoked to get outta dodge for a couple days and see my family. I'm not prepared at all for next week but that's Sunday's problem. Now if only this daughter of mine would close her eyes... By the way, my two YouTube vids are perma linked on my blog so check it out!
