Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Chicago, in pictures

I've decided to recount our trip to Chicago last weekend over in the photo blog I don't update nearly enough, so pop on over there if you're interested in our sweltering adventure. It may be a slow, piecemeal process, but it will be better than if I tried to write it all out as one big narrative, which is something that has not worked well with my New Orleans recap or my 2006 30th birthday road trip travelogue, both of which, you may have noticed, do not actually exist.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Four degrees of scheduling separation

The 8 p.m. lineup for TNT, TBS, FX and Spike TV, which reside at channels 51-54 on our cable system, was a blend of Harrison Ford and Sandra Bullock:

TNT: The Fugitive
TBS: Miss Congeniality
FX: Speed
Spike: Patriot Games

In addition, Miss Congeniality was followed by While You Were Sleeping, overlapping The Fugitive by 20 minutes (TBS and its not-bound-by-the-half-hour time blocks), providing a Chicago pairing that connected them as well.

Friday, August 10, 2007

While the wife's away, I'll ... meh

The wife will be away for the weekend, and since I'm working all three nights (which doubles as the reason I'm not going to Connecticut tomorrow), I don't have big plans.

Friday looks like rain, so that will be inside work -- or, more likely, reading. I've also got lots of photos from last weekend in Chicago to sort and upload so that I can write a proper review. Saturday will probably be yard work. The lawn seems to have grown more in the last two weeks than it did in the previous three. Plus, I need to replace the windshield wiper blades on the car -- a springtime task I usually do in March, which is when I bought the replacements and placed them in the trunk, where I noticed them again today.

And if the weather cooperates (read: stays below 90 and 80 percent humidity), I may do some more chores inside the house. Working from home Saturday night will give me the luxury of working right up until 5:30 (if I decide to take a shower) or 6 p.m.

Sunday, though, will be for me as it was for Suzanna Hoffs: fun day. A former online coworker will be in town, so much baseball will be discussed, either from the stands at Shea or the bar stools at Foley's (where I have something in common with Mayor Bloomberg) followed by a subway ride to the Upper East Side.

Such is my life.

** Oh, and I swear there will be new house pics. I've been browsing others' Flickr sites and I'm itching to play more with photos. In addition to the hundreds I have from Chicago.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Beating the heat into submission

Walked down the block from work tonight to pick up a sandwich for dinner, looking into the Starbucks on the corner as I passed. Sitting at one of the tables with his friends was a stupid hipster dork wearing a fuzzy hunting hat at the end of a 95-degree day.

I hope he passed out from heat exhaustion on the way home.

We're stuck in another one of those stretches of hot, humid weather, and tomorrow Casey and I fly off to Chicago for the weekend. Should be fun, but in packing, we each found ourselves torn between feeling like we had to bring enough clothes to have a fresh set for the evening after a day of sweating and feeling like we were packing too much for a four-day trip. We've done Chicago in August, so we know.

The plans while there consist of tomorrow's Mets-Cubs game at Wrigley Field, a nice dinner on Saturday night, and ... more eating and drinking. We haven't really mapped out any other specific sightseeing plans, so we'll play it a little by ear and see what sparks us into action.

Not sure how much sleep I'll get tonight, but I won't sleep on the approach to O'Hare. I love looking down over northern Indiana -- or Lake Michigan, if we come in from the north -- and watching the Chicago coastline come into view, the neighborhoods stretching off as far as we can see into the haze, pools sparkling in the sun. I always look for the landmarks I know -- the Northwestern football stadium if we're up north over Evanston, Wrigley if we're close to the city itself, Miegs Field and Navy Pier if we're south of town (though that's usually only when flying into Midway).

My winter and spring memories of Chicago take me back to college, of two-hour road trips to the city at Christmastime or for a Cubs game on a frigid April day. But Chicago in summer has always meant Casey, and to go there with her is the best way to enjoy it. It's a break we both need, I'm sure, so I look forward to lots of laughing and smiling.

And sweating, I'm sure.