July 2005 Archive

Friday, July 30, 2004

Brilliant
I found a piece of paper with a quote overheard on the train platform. I think it was the Sheridan stop on the Red Line:

" The more that I show up, the more that I'm involved."

Huh. Interesting philosophy.
posted on 7/30/2004 12:05:07 AM

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Messiness
I was telling Kent about how they exterminated the building yesterday. They must have started at the top of the building, because they knocked bright and early. In a bathrobe and sheepishly, I let the exterminator in the spritz the magic bug killing juice in the bathroom and kitchen. The apartment is still being rules by the laws of entropy, so this poor guy had to walk a narrow path to the kitchen past piles of clean and dirty laundry, books, papers and junk. I apologized and he said, "Oh, this actually isn't that bad." !!!

Now, I know I am a slob. I know I never get to science experiment in the corner slob. I never get to complusive collector with 50 years of daily newspapers bad. It could be a lot worse. But I do live alone in a small spac and a bajillion projects.

Kent said it best, and he lived with me about a year, "You're not too many cats messy. You're too many ideas messy."
posted on 7/29/2004 09:48:55 PM

I just ate half a pineapple and now I want to put a band-aid on my tongue.
posted on 7/29/2004 04:19:06 PM

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

*sniff* *sniff* I just paid my bills online and say goodbye to all of my money.
posted on 7/28/2004 02:46:08 PM

Bonanza!
I got two things in the mail. My gyroscope Powerball (thought it was a good toy to strengthen my wrists) and the lot of old playing cards I won on eBay! The latter means I can finish my Queen of Diamonds collage on the art/Work blog.
posted on 7/28/2004 01:43:56 PM

Dirty Birdie
I just got back from my loop around the neighborhood. Usually check mail, drop off Netflix movies, get lunch or do errands. I walked past a house that is odd because the whole front yard (not big, since this is Chicago) is covered in playground equipment and sand and no grass. Wouldn't be odd if I ever saw anyone in the yard. There was a same brown bird in the sand. At first I thought it was hurt - but did a doubletake to see it was totally blissed out taking a dirt bath. Mmm...dirt bath.
posted on 7/28/2004 01:09:34 PM

I Love My Sister!
Yesterday kinda sucked. Last night I talked to my sis Burgundy. Then I felt better.
posted on 7/28/2004 12:06:33 PM

Blogorrhea
Until I leave Sunday, I'm going to try to blog many of my thoughts so you can see how scattered they are and how much I need the R&R of vacation in Minnesota next week - Enjoy!
posted on 7/28/2004 12:05:02 PM

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Monday, July 19, 2004

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Millennium Park
Q: How should Chicago celebrate the turning of the historical odometer?
A: Millennium Park.

Four years late and $475M later, behold, the park. Even the snarkiest is swept up in the newest park in Urbs In Horto. (Nearly) everyone is going gaga. Chicago Public Radio has reported on the park's progress all along, but Eight-Forty Eight had a great show about all things millennial. The panels of critics had mostly positive points. Three out of the 5 people I saw Saturday had already been to the opening on Friday and had rave reviews.

Meanwhile, I was all snoozy, having a nacroleptic weekend. Watching The Manchurian Candidate and basking in Angela Lansbury's talent and the cooler breezes off the lake, I wasn't budging from my bed. After much fickleness, at 9 pm, Pat and I finally headed down to Harris Theater for some festivities.

We saw the Ira Glass/Chris Ware collaboration of voice and comics on the rooftop terrace. Pretty crowded and hipster meccca. I couldn't stop thinking and silently laughing about Bust's current story [What Up, Wimpster? by Rachel Elder] as I watched all these guys walk by who were tiny variations on the same theme. Pat and I kept crumpled up on the concrete and had a pretty good vantage point. Good show - but I would expect nothing less from these two talented men.

We skedaddled and were happy to unfurl our legs and get away from the crowd. We walked around the park. After all my fickleness earlier, I was really glad we went. The crowds were thin and the cool summer breeze was perfect. Couldn't have asked for a nicer night! And there was a snazzy energy with everyone checking out this new corner of Chicago. I enjoyed what I saw - here's a dozen photos taken of the lights and sights.



I've got such a strange, kinda of dreamy nocturnal view of it in my brain. I look forward to seeing it in daylight and seeing how it fits in my mental map of Chicago. I hope it really stands up as a great new public space in Chicago that would have Daniel Burnham smiling.

Saturday, July 17, 2004

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Good Day for Octopus Hats
I had a good day yesterday despite the fact that I didn't have a balloon octopus hat:

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Sounds of Summer
Last month, I was listening to Live365's Smokin' Oldies station. I bypassed all the boy bands of my teenagedom by listening to Oldies my whole childhood. I can sing to Oldies for eight hours straight. But I get tired of all the frickin' commercials on the end of the dial stations. So, Smokin' Oldies has become a nice replacement when I'm working on the computer. And it manages to surprise me every so often with a song I'd never heard before.

In one session, I heard two fantastic old songs that were new to me. Georgie Fame's "Yeh Yeh" and The Caravelles "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry." They inspired a summer soundtrack. It took awhile to get the right blend of fun, summery songs made for sitting on the porch and drinking something brightly colored and icy cold --



Yeh Yeh - Georgie Fame
Here I am baby - Al Green
Agua de Beber - Astrud Gilberto & Antonio Jobim
On The Road To Find Out - Cat Stevens
Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra
Waterloo Sunset - Elliott Smith
Something's Got A Hold On Me - Etta James
My Best Friend's Girl - The Cars
Daydream In Blue - I Monster
The Happy Organ - Dave Baby Cortez
I'll Make You Mine - Johnnie Ray
Plastic Man - The Kinks
You Make Me feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayers
Dreamsome - Shelby Lynne
Waltz For Koop - Koop
Great Day - Paul McCartney & Wings
Bittersweet Waltz - Leon Redbone
Blues In The Night - Quincy Jones
Fun - Sly and the Family Stone
You're Pretty Good Looking - The White Stripes
Popsickle - Starlight Mints
Amore Per Tutti - Nino Rota
Pale and Precious - Dukes of Stratosphere
You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry - The Caravelles
September Song - The Platters


I should be making sun tea or wearing flip flops...

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Boy, do I feel mentally constipated. So many odd things to blog about have been collecting in my cranium, here's a bunch:

Odd Balls and Loose Ends
Last night I dreamt I was quizzing folks on the three kinds of rocks: Sedimentary, Igneous and Metamorphic. I have given thought to this triad maybe half a dozen times since I learned it in eighth grade. Why on earth did it surface last night? And I had a conversation with my dead grandfather too.



Via Supah, here's a darn neat page.





Here's my Grandma Ann Agerbeck and I. I hadn't see her in years, and it was good to see her and hear her German accent and her laugh. Her husband, my Grandpa Carl, died recently, and this was her first trip up north to the cabin without him. I mentioned liking Law & Order the night of this picture and she said, "Oh, that was one of your grandpa's favorites too!" In my dream I did tell my Grandpa that.




I wanted to steal this dachshund so bad! While I was in Minnesota a couple weeks ago, I went to a drive-in movie theater with my friend Jackie. This superpup was a couple cars away. I wanted to put it in my pocket and tiptoe away all cartoon like.

If you haven't been to a drive-in in awhile, seek one out and GO! Before they are all extinct! We brought food, set up lawn chairs and paid $7 a head to get in for three movies. We made it through 2, 'til it was 2 am and too late and cold. What movies? Dodgeball and The Day After Tomorrow. Two movies that would never make the $9 theater ticket cut, but were perfect for the drive-in.



Advice #1: Does My Butt Look Big in These?
Hey ladies, if you're worried about your tush looking gigantic, do not tuck your shirt in when you're wearing high-waisted pants. No good can come of it. Your behind will look like two giant hams side by side.



Via Jim, now is the time for all good squeezebox players to come to the aid of their country.

In related story, here's the kind of mile long esoteric web pages that I adore! Und auf Deutsch!





Happy Independence!
I don't normally match my food, but I did on July 3rd at my friends Shea and Kathleen's BBQ. I'm always tempted by these soft cake-like sugar cookies slathered in technicolor frosting at the grocery store. I resist buying because I know myself well enough that I would eat them all until I got sick on 'em. I was delighted to be at a group function where they appeared.




Here's my friend Dan and his son Max in my Father's Day gift to them. On that day, Max was too small for it, but in two weeks it fit. He's growing, baby. The shirts say "Little Guy" and "Big Guy." Not my original idea - we saw a father and son in them my last visit. My spin on the design made with a font of my block letters made with Fontifier.


The BBQ was great! My favorite was Shea's "Porkstrami." Delish.




Here's Shea and Kathleen's Molly showing us her underbelly, with a tad of Jenny in the pic.




Shea and his dogs. I love this pic, it captures that moment so well.
Molly is a beagle mix, Jenny is a basset hound mix - they both have the same coloring, Molly's just two-thirds the size of Jenny.




I stand by my claim that breakfast is the most photogenic meal of the day.



Advice #2: What? I Can't Hear You
Don't stick anything in your ear. I hurt my ear. It was scary. My theory is that I hurt it by sleeping hard with my wrist brace up against my ear. I tend to sleep both on my hands and with my hands curled up like fern fronds. Therefore, I wear wrist braces to keep my wrists straight and give them a night's rest. The braces have a metal insert. I think I slept pushing on my ear with my wrist brace.

The next day, every so often I would stick my pinky in my ear. Not until my pinky was in my ear that I realized that my ear hurt. But I'd forget about it and do it again later.

That night I was laying in bed when I realized how much my ear hurt. A dull, kinda bruised feeling. Not horrible, but disconcerting so close to my brain. I laid there thinking, "What's going on? Do I have an ear infection? What do you do for an ear infection? Do I have to go to the doctor?..."

I'm not wierded out by doctors, I just have to go so rarely and have so few problems, that it's all very foreign to me. Then I thought about it and figured it was just sore, not an infection and developed my Wrist Brace Hypothesis. Tried to stop thinking about it to go to sleep.

A couple days of actively not sleeping on that ear and not sticking my finger in my ear, it's feeling almost 100% normal. Dr. Brandy is diagnosing this as an ear bruise.




I was doing laundry earlier and a woman was in the laundry room folding her laundry. She was so fastidious that it took her two minutes to fold each garment.

My four loads of laundry are all on my bed. And I'm tired enough and short enough to think that I'm going to go to bed with Mt. Laundry at my feet.



I just got this book today and I am intrigued.



Well, that's a bunch of the thoughts. I gotta toddle off to bed. I actually go to work tomorrow. I'm working all the time, but rarely onsite. Dealing with commuter traffic is always perspective making. A good reminder of the rat race. Last week, I took the CTA to Metra to a Pace shuttle to a client's site. *whew* Fairly pleasant for an isolated experience, though I was antsy to get home. On the Metra there was a group of five people sitting together that obviously rode together all the time. They created a moving coffee klatsch. My favorite was the man who laughed at every joke he told and was really the only one telling jokes. His jokes weren't bad, and I don't think any of his cohorts minded. Maybe it was just too early. At least he laughed at all of them. Know your audience.

G'night!

Tuesday, July 06, 2004