This was the usher for our section today. He didn't take guff from nobody. I think it was the combination of his slick shades and his cool pencil-thin moustache. When he took breaks he would remove his sunglasses, but when he returned to his post the shades went back on. His name is Warner.

I had a great day!

It started out with me riding in with Sheri on her normal train. She went to work and I went to Crepe Cliché. (Stupid stupid stupid name, but good food and coffee.) I had their breakfast crepe which had a lot of scrambled egg, cheddar cheese, bacon, and a little onion, and of course, a small triple Americano. They roast their own coffee beans on location and the coffee was very good. The view was also excellent. My table was directly overlooking the Chicago River and the Jackson Street drawbridge. The crepe was a great bargain at $3.89, and the Americano was also priced right at $1.69 plus $0.50 for the extra shot for a total of $2.19. It was a very substantial breakfast that turned out to be my main meal for the day. I sat and ate my crepe, sipped my coffee, and read my beloved Chicago Tribune for about an hour.

I was ready to start walking around the loop so I thought I would walk north on Wacker and visit one of my favorite stores; the Rand McNally map store. Well, it closed. Poop.

When I was working downtown I got to see the very start of the construction of a skyscraper, and I wanted to see how it turned out. I walked north on Wacker and took a right on Monroe. The building is on the north-east corner of that intersection. It is beautiful. The entire length of the lobby, which is an entire city block, is filled with 20-foot tall live bamboo! The beds that the bamboo are growing in is covered in small black stream rocks with small (1 foot tall) fountains of water scattered around about every ten feet. A very neat affect.

I kept walking east on Monroe and discovered a little gem. There are hardly any benches in the Loop to sit down and take a breather. There is a little landscaped garden on the north-east corner of Monroe and Wells with at least six benches. I didn’t stop in, but made a mental note for future excursions downtown.

I then remembered about a year ago when I was looking for a place that roasted their coffee locally that there was a place roughly near DePaul's Loop campus near Jackson and State, so I started heading in that direction.

I stopped and watched some demolition work for about ten minutes.

I wasn't finding any coffee place, so I called Sheri and had her Google the terms I could remember. After a couple minutes of looking she found the place and gave me the address.

Before I went to find the coffee place I happened along a really cool bookstore. It is the largest architecture bookstore in the world, and is called The Prairie Avenue Bookshop. They have been in business for 44 years, and in its current location for 11 years. You can click the picture to see the full-sized image of the interior of the store. Very nice. I could spend several hours hanging out in there.

I then continued on my quest for the coffee shop. It is called Intelligentsia Coffee, and it is outstanding! I, of course, had my now standard small triple Americano and read the Wall Street Journal. By this time it was a little after 11 AM, so I called Sheri and told her to meet me there since it was in the direction she had to walk anyways to get to the L line we needed to ride.

The reason for my day off was that my boss had two tickets to today's Cub's game that he couldn't use and gave them to me. I had been thinking about taking a day off just because I felt like I needed to, so this worked out perfectly. Sheri got to the coffee shop at around 11:30 AM and we continued on to take the Red Line north to Addison Avenue which is where Wrigley Field is.

Once we got there we had a little over an hour to kill before the game started at 1:20 PM. We found a Mexican restaurant that my boss recommended. I was still full from my breakfast so we split two appetizers and I had a Diet Coke. We split a skirt steak quesadilla and a chicken mole. They also had excellent chips and salsa on the table.

Sheri was concerned about the sun being in her eyes so we stopped and bought her an official Cub's ball cap. It looks very cute on her.

We made our way to the park and our seats. They were excellent. Section 208 which is in the dark purple area in the upper left of the diagram. You can click on the diagram for the full-sized image.

The seats were in the shade the whole game, so even though it was around 70º for the game, with the lake breeze blowing steadily on us it was actually pretty chilly. I am glad I didn’t wear shorts like a lot of people did, and that I had my jacket.

Unfortunately we lost to Colorado, 5-2.

We made our way back to the Loop on the extremely-crowded-with-Cub's-fans L. We got off at the Jackson Street station, walked west on Jackson and stopped in Intelligentsia Coffee again for a couple of iced coffees for the walk back to Union Station. At Union Station we split a large order of fries from Gold Coast Hot Dog, and I also had a char dog. That will probably be my dinner.

I am going to finish up this post, take a shower, and then we are going to watch White Noise.

This was in the Mexican restaurant before the game.












I thought this self-portrait turned out pretty good!


The bleachers you see on top of those buildings are not owned by the Cub's. People built the bleachers and then charge people to watch the game from them.


Everyone standing during the 7th inning stretch singing Take Me Out To The Ball Game. They always have a celebrity lead everyone in the song. Today it was just a local radio host.


This is from the L platform while we were waiting for the train back to the Loop. The place was packed. I'm glad I wasn't driving.


This woman was so drunk I don't even think she knew she was missing her shirt and bra. Sheri said I was only allowed to post one picture of her.

Sheri and I will be here tomorrow (Thursday) at 1:20 PM!
(Click the "Map" button in the upper-right corner of the window if you don't know what this historic landmark is.)

This was a really nice moment today. The kid in the picture was very retarded and seemed overwhelmed with the whole petting zoo. Sheri picked up a chicken and moved it towards the kid just as I snapped the picture. The dad looked at Sheri just after I took the picture to see who it was and he had a really touched look in his eye. The kid seemed more into the animals after petting the chicken.

The weather was just gorgeous today. Low 80's and breezy. Plenty of sunshine.

We went to Civil War Days at our local historical society. Lots more pictures to follow.



Amputated limbs at the field hospital after the battlefield re-enactment.






Sheri paid $2 to go in the petting zoo.

Friday
I cut the grass Friday night after work because I was concerned about rain over the weekend, plus Sheri's Mom is visiting this weekend.

Saturday
While Sheri was walking dogs this morning I did some chores around the house. I took out the glass storm door and installed the screen on the front door. Emptied the dishwasher. Went through the mail and paid a bill. Made some iced tea. Did a little house straightening up. Researched vacuum cleaners.

When Sheri got home we went to Loco Burrito for some lunch. I got two tacos, one chili relleno taco and one pastor taco. Sheri got a giant quesadilla and I ate about half of that.

After that we walked next door to the Wonder Bread outlet store and got a loaf of light wheat bread. We split a Twinkie two-pack for dessert.

Then we drove to Wal-Mart and bought our new vacuum, a gallon of skim milk, and some gum.

We went to the post office to mail a package to a friend of Sheri's, but at 4:00 PM the post office was closed.

We went home and I immediately put the vacuum together. It works great! Lots of suction. It really pulled the carpet pile up and seemed to be sucking up stuff that the old vacuum left behind. We even pulled out our bed and vacuumed under there.

Sheri's Mom got in around 5:30 PM and brought lots of treats with her. Cinnamon coated almonds. Anderson's sour dough bread. Rosemary and olive oil Triscits. Triple ginger ginger snap cookies. I sampled a little of everything and it pretty much took care of my appetite.

We decided to go to Noodles & Co for dinner. I still wasn't hungry so I just tried three of their chicken pot stickers and a Diet Coke. Pretty good. We decided not to walk around downtown, but instead go home and watch Life Aquatic with Bill Murray. (We did not watch it with Bill Murray. He was in the movie.) On the way home we stopped at the supermarket for tea bags.

Sheri's Mom brought a bunch of Sheri's sister's old clothes that she can't wear anymore. She wanted to try them all on when we got home to see which ones she wanted and which ones would go to Goodwill. I decided to take advantage of the break and go for my first bike ride in nice weather. It was great! I think I was riding for about 20 minutes. I used the LED headlight that I got for my birthday. It was very bright. I could see street signs reflecting brightly when I was over 100 feet away.

The movie was good. Subtle humor. It was similar in humor to The Royal Tenenbaums. I think the same director directed both movies, which would explain that. While I was watching it I thought it also seemed like British humor.

I took a shower because I got a little hot from the bike ride, and now I am in bed wrapping up this post, watching Saturday Night Live, getting ready to turn out the lights.

We are off to purchase a new vacuum. We are going to get the Eureka Boss 4870GZ. It is Consumer Reports number 2 rated vacuum.

The number 1 vacuum is a $300 Hoover, and this Eureka is less than half the price at $140. The main difference is that this one is not self propelled. It says it cleans just as good.

On the repair history chart Eureka is ranked number 3 behind only Kirby and Kenmore. Surprisingly Hoover is ranked 8 out of the 11 manufactures listed on reliability. They are just ahead of Dirt Devil. Our current vacuum is a Eureka and it has worked great for almost 9 years. In case you are interested, this is the reliability chart:

1 Kirby
2 Kenmore
3 Eureka
4 Riccar
5 Bissell
6 Panasonic
7 Oreck
8 Hoover
9 Dirt Devil
10 Sharp
11 Simplicity

These are all of the movies currently in our Blockbuster.com DVD queue:

Birth R

Life Aquatic R

White Noise PG13

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (The original 6-part BBC mini-series)

Aviator PG13

In Good Company PG13

Kinsey R

Elektra PG13

City of God R

4 Little Girls NR

Long Way Home NR

Bend It Like Beckham PG13

Hero PG13

Irreversible NR

Mother R

Open Water R

Station Agent R

De-Lovely [Special Edition] PG13

Trekkies 2 PG

Coffee and Cigarettes R

THX 1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut R

Spartan R

Secret Window PG13

SLC Punk R

Capturing the Friedmans NR

The Score R

Pianist R

Salesman NR

Into the Arms of Strangers PG

Gods & Generals PG13

Barfly R

Trainspotting [Director's Cut] R

Taxi Driver [Collector's Edition] R

Old School [Unrated WS] R

Hedwig and the Angry Inch R

Suspiria NR

Harold and Maude PG

Dahmer R

Super Troopers R

Man with the Movie Camera NR

Wonder Boys R

Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary PG

Hard Eight R

Rundown PG13

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead R

Touching The Void R

Bob le Flambeur [Subtitled]

Edges of the Lord R

Mean Creek R

Shadow of Fear PG13

La Dolce Vita

Malena R

Fellini Satyricon R

8 1/2 [Criterion Collection]

Man on Fire R

Thirteen R

Evil Dead [Special Edition] NR

Incredibles PG

Radio Days PG

Being Julia R

Closer R

Darkness NR

National Treasure PG

Slasher NR

Big Lebowski R

Alone in the Dark R

Auschwitz: The Inside Nazi State - Disc 1

Auschwitz: The Inside Nazi State - Disc 2

Bad Education R

Boogeyman PG13

Nomi Song

Beyond the Sea PG13

Undertow R

Jacket R

Be Cool PG13

Hitch PG13

Dolls NR

Primer PG13

Seed of Chucky [Unrated] NR

Cursed NR

This is a big weekend for Chicago sports. The Cubs play the White Sox today, Saturday, and Sunday. Probably about half of the city has left work early to go to the game or to go watch it in a sports bar. I have it playing on my radio at work.

In case you didn't know, Cubs fans hate the White Sox and their fans, and the White Sox fans hate the Cubs and their fans. It is a fun rivalry.

Also, in case you haven't been following, the White Sox are doing better than any other team this season so far. The Cubs are kind of sucking.

My weight log.


[click for larger image]

We got four new Goodyear tires for the van today. The front ones had almost no tread depth. We also had to get a new tie rod and a left front wheel bearing because they were damaged.

Trixie was such a good girl. We really wanted to take her home. She is a three year old shepard mix. Loved to play. Very attentive. Soft. Clean. Friendly.

These pics are for Mom and Dad to see how the beds we worked on late last summer made it through the winter.

The peonies are looking pretty healthy. The rabbits seem to be enjoying the hostas!

I just found out that I guy I went to high school with just won a Pulitzer Prize!

This is a satellite photo of the Bay Bridge going through Treasure Island.

This is the mechanical pencil I bought in the Union Square Mall in downtown San Francisco. It is a Faber-Castell E-Motion with the pearwood barrel.

That is Sheri looking out of the window of our roomette on the sleeper car. I am on the platform of the Denver station. We stopped there for about 45 minutes Sunday morning on our way to San Francisco at about 7:00 AM.

I intended to take a picture of every meal we had on the train, but I either forgot the camera, and if I remembered the camera I didn't remember to take a picture until after we were halfway through eating. I at least got this picture of how they set the tables.

This is looking down the hall of our sleeper car. Sheri is sitting in one of the seats in our room. It's a little on the dark side but it gives you an idea of what it was like.

Driving over the Bay Bridge south from Berkeley to San Francisco. The bridge does not go all the way across the bay. There are actually two bridges; the first from Berkely to Treasure Island, and then another one from Treasure Island to San Francisco. There used to be a military base on Treasure Island. Now there are homes. I never heard of Treasure Island before. You can see a little bit of the San Francisco skyline in the lower right of the picture. I think it costs $3 to cross the bridge.

This is me sitting in one of the seats in our roomette on Amtrak. The curtains for the exterior window are on the left. You can see our coats hanging on the right. You can see a little shelf area for one of our bags to the right. See where the purple chair back stops and the dark blue wall continues? The upper bunk folds down to that level, so you can see that I could still sit comfortably upright even if Sheri wanted to take a nap. A reading light and the temperature control are over my right shoulder.

I am not smiling in this picture because my back really really hurt from walking around all day in San Francisco. I found a nice staight-backed chair in this weird store to sit in for some relief.

Ask your butcher about the new flat iron steak.

I don't have my vacation write-up finished yet. I have about 900 words that take us up to the first night on the train. I made notes in a steno book during the trip so I wouldn't forget anything.

The train had an almost constant rocking back and forth.

Similar to how you feel after being on a cruise for a few days, I still feel like I am rocking back and forth on the train.

Per Amtrak's schedule, the implied average speed to travel the 2,438 miles in 50.98 hours from Chicago to San Francisco is 47.8 mph.

The conductor announced over the intercom system that the train would travel at speeds up to 79 mph.

I expected to put on a pound or two in San Francisco because of all the great food, but I actually lost a couple pounds! I guess the increase in activity offset the extra calories. Yeah!

We got back tonight from our week-long vacation. We took an Amtrak sleeper-car to San Francisco, visited friends for three days, and came back on Amtrak. I will write in greater detail about the trip in the next day or two. For now if feels really good to be back in our bed. Here are a few pictures until I can get around to a full update:

Sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf


Having a sour dough roll at Boudin's for breakfast


Alcatraz as seen from a cable car




Reading the Sunday paper in the Amtrak Sightseer Lounge car