The big bean, oops, that the Cloud Gate Sculpture, mostly under wraps. PUN & I are standing by the person in the yellow shirt. 

I don't need a guide to myself! 

PUNdit standing by SUE 

View from the Observatory - our hotel says LERTON in pink neon (It's Allerton) 

Stained Glass 

Now who does this remind me of? 

FlopperTopper, PUNdit, and Suerreal 

U.S. Army to Leave 13 Bases in Germany - Yahoo! News

U.S. Army to Leave 13 Bases in Germany - Yahoo! News

Another big chunk of my life - gone.

Stars and Stripes story

Friday Four

1. Growing up, were you the Smart One, the Cute one or the Jock?
The Smart One. They called me "Professor" as in "Yes, Professor", usually accompanied with rolling eyes, when I'd gone on abit about something no one else cared about.

2. What did an older sibling get to do or a younger sibling get away with that you still don't think was quite fair?
Not much. I pretty much got to do most of what I really wanted to do, but *I* had to argue for why I should be allowed to do it. It was semi-automatic for the younger ones.

3. Who was your parent's favorite (in your opinion)?
They were pretty good at balancing things out.

4. What is the greatest (coolest, most special) thing your parents did for you?
Taught me that both dreams and reality are important. The key thing is balance.

Chicago - Day 4

Tuesday 26 July

0800 - Wake-up! Packed up and checked out, but since our plane wasn't until 4:30 PM, we had time for more adventures. Went back to the Corner bakery, and for variety, I had a bacon, egg & cheddar panini. Mmmmmm.

0930 - Headed over to the Museum Campus once more, this time to the Field Museum. I was famous there!. Lot's to see & do. Interesting walk-through area on various African cultures. The ancient Egypt collection was amazing, but I know there are a lot of issues about whether any of the artifacts there belong there (vs. remaining in Cairo)

1200 - We headed over to Millenium Park. We walked around and around looking for the Cloud Gate Sculpture, and finally find it mostly under wraps. The Great Lawn was a spectactular sight, and they did have an orchestra and singer on stage, but I think they were rehearsing, as there were long periods of silence between songs.

1300 - Found a Downtown Dog to get a Vienna beef Chicago hotdog. What is up with the "relish" there - it's waaay bright - almost has a blue tinge to it. Anyway, it was quite tasty. Then it's back to the hotel to pick up our bags, and head on out to the airport.

Our flight was very late, arriving in DFW about an hour after it was supposed to, and about 15 minutes after our flight to Amarillo departed, but there was a later flight to Amarillo, and I got lots more of the Harry Potter book read. We finally made it home around 10:30 PM, and after getting attacked by happy dogs & cats got settled in and went to bed.

- Sue

Chicago - Day 3

Monday 25 July

0730 - PUN woke up and went for a walk.

0930 - I'm up and at -em bright and early bright, well I'm up. Today, we tried a Corner Bakery & Café and did much better - I got a diet Coke and a ham, egg, and cheddar panini. Mmmmm!

1030 - And we're off! Today's target was the Science & Industry Museum. This was away from the other museums,and you have to take a different bus. One that doesn't run very often apparently, but we did eventually get there. Wow. This place is huge! We thought about the Body Worlds exhibit, but ended up not going to that as it is not included on the tour ($12 to add it on), and we're running later than we'd planned. There was more than enough to see and do here, though. I enjoyed the Chemistry Hall, and we wandered through NetWorld and the Genetics area (Cute baby chicks). We did see a movie in the OmniMax showing the first full length trip from the origin of the Blue Nile to the Mediterranean. With the OmniMax technology, the show was exciting, but the pacing was a bit off. They kept emphasizing how dangerous the trip was, and sure enough, people went overboard in rapids with crocs around, and got shot at by looters, and faced other perils, and the narrator went in great detail how close to death people regularly came, then it's back to breathtaking helicopter footage to introduce the next scene. Overall, a very fun museum, with lots of hands on stuff (about half of which worked :()

1730 - Met up with our 2nd FFFer, the one and only LurkMeister. After a drink at the hotel bar, we decided to go find somewhere for dinner. At the suggestion of the doorman, we walked over to the Grand Lux Cafe. It proved to be quite popular, and the promised 20 minute wait turned out to be almost an hour, but it really was worth the wait. The food was excellent, but surpassed by the company. Lurky wasn't on vacation, and so had to catch a bus to get back home. Minutes later, we realized we'd brought our camera along, but neglected to ever get a picture made. :( I guess that means we'll have to go back sometime. After a relaxed stroll back to the hotel, it was time to turn in. But first, I got a few more pages of Harry Potter read.

Chicago - Day 2

Sunday 24 July

0730 - PUN got up. I didn't. He'll have to fill you in on this segment.

1000 - I got up. We went to Starbucks. Starbucks in Chicago doesn't even sell Diet Coke in cans or bottles. I got a bagel.

1130 - We went back to the Museum Campus, this time to the Adler Planetarium. Our City Pass saved us a little time in line, and got us one "show". We wanted to see two - Race to the Edge of the Universe and Stars of the Pharoahs, so we paid extra for that. The exhibits were pretty good, with a nice amount of hands on stuff. Probably more aimed at the younger set, but still enjoyable for adults.

1530 - Linked up with a FFFer - FlopperTopper! We walked from the Planetarium to the Aquarium area and bought tickets for the water taxi to cut across the shoreline to Navy Pier. It was a scorcher of a day 102F, the hottest it's been in Chicago in 10 years. We walked around the pier for a bit, but were very happy to see an air-conditioned exhibit hall with lots of stained glass. The stained glass was very nice, and I learned quite a bit, but the main attraction, I think was the A/C. There was a private event at the grand ballroom at the end of the pier, so we couldn't get in to see that. I don't know if you can at other times, but we couldn't. The pier was pretty cool - lots of restaurants, cruise ships, a Canadian Navy vessel (we'd wondered about all the cute Canadian sailors in uniform about town). There's a Ferris Wheel, and other midway type attractions. We went to a restaurant called Riva's which was very good.

1930 - After dinner, we walked around the pier for a while, then decided to head to the Hancock Observatory on top of the Hancock Building (a.k.a. Big John) We got up to the top of the Observatory shortly after 9 PM, just before sunset, and so we got to look out over a sunlit Chicagoscape, and then see the city inlights. Pretty cool!

2130 - We walked Flopper Topper back to the Navy Pier, and then headed back to the hotel. I guess we got there about 11 PM, but were still hot and sticky (Chicago doesn't cool off at night like Amarillo!) and used the wimpy shower in our room (almost no water pressure at all) before turning in for the night.

Flopper Topper was fun to hang out with, and we had a good time with him. Pictures to follow!

Chicago - Day 1

Saturday, 23 July

0130 - finished packing. Whew!

0420 - up to get out of the house by 440 to get to Amarillo airport.

0500 - Arrived at airport in plenty of time for 515 boarding for 545 flight for DFW (Only other choice was a 4 PM departure getting into Chicago at 9 PM essentially wasting a whole day - we're not masochists. Really) Start reading HPatHBP.

0700 - Smooth connection at DFW - even have time for a bit of breakfast!.

1000 - arrive in Chicago. Go to hotel, and stow bags, but we can't check in 'til 3 PM. On drive in spot lots of likely prospects for future meals :) Talk to concierge about bus routes, various attractions, etc.

1130 - walk to Pizzeria Uno (spied on the way in) for a real Chicago deep dish pizza. I like the deep dish ordinarily, but it seemed as though they wanted to make sure you knew they used real tomatoes instead of tomato sauce, because it seemed as though the tomatoes were left on the unbaked dough for a long time before baking because the crust came out way too soggy. But the local beer was quite good.

1300 - caught the bus to Shedd Aquarium, part of the Museum Complex on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Michigan. Bought a City Pass (good for admission to multiple attractions - save money, and avoid all the long lines!) and also a bus pass - no more scrounging for change.

Shedd Aquarium is huge. A lot of it is fairly ordinary fish in tanks type stuff where you see maybe 2 out of 10 of the listed species in any given exhibit. Highlights included:

Penguins - they had an exhibit with maybe 90 Gentoo penguins and 10 Rockhopper penguins. Lots of swimming, preening, chirping, nesting type behavior. The rockhoppers were particularly cute in the water, as they mostly stayed of the surface and keep shaking water off their upward side. When they did dive they really flew - hard to follow with your eyes.

Rays - you actually stood on a glass surface and looked down on about a foot of water with several varieties of rays underneath.

Sharks - A concave window allowed you to look in and up to see about 20 different varieties of sharks swim by.

There was also a pretty neat exhibit about the rise and fall of the Amazon every year (about 30 vertical feet) and how the river people had adapted to it, but that flood control for the region was threatening various species and the Natives way of life to make room for more cattle grazing lands.

1730 - Back to hotel. Decisions, decisions for dinner. Ultimately decided on Greektown, and the first restaurant we came to was called Greek Islands. We ordered a set menu.
Starters included:
Taramosalata - Considered Greek caviar, this is a blend of cod roe with potatoes, onions, & olive oil Other than salty, kind of bland. Tasted OK as a spread on the wonderful bread.
and
Saganaki - The finest imported Greek cheese is Flambéd tableside Ooh!!! This was wonderful!

The salad was nothing to write home about.

The entree was a platter with:
Gyros
Leg of Lamb
Moussaka (eggplant casserole)
Dolmades (Grape leaf wrapped around rice & meat mix)
Meatball
It was all wonderful!

Dessert was a bit of disappointment, though.
We were supposed to get:
Baklava, which was chewy, and deanse instead of light and flaky.
Galaktoburiko - candied orange & lemon peel which we didn't get :(
Karidopita - which was described as a spice cake with cinnamon & walnuts but wound up being a rather tasteless custard type thing.

But by then we were too stuffed to care all that much. Overall, it was really a wonderful meal, and we would definitely go back again, even if we did walk around & go somewhere else for dessert...

2230 - Back to the hotel, and it didn't take long for us to be sawing some serious logs - we were exhausted after our long day!

Athletes Spark White House Flip-Flop Flap - Yahoo! News

Athletes Spark White House Flip-Flop Flap

Flip-Flops?

NRA Moves Convention From Columbus, Ohio - Yahoo! News

NRA Moves Convention From Columbus, Ohio

Lessee...

Columbus. Rifles. Highway sniper.

And the NRA didn't see this coming? I have to say that the councilman's suspicions that the whole initial scheduling of the convention there knowing that the council was considerig a ban on certain weapons was simplicity a publicity stunt seem right on target to me.

A Time of Doubt for Atheists

L A Times:
A Time of Doubt for Atheists?
As originally seen:
A Time of Doubt for Atheists - Yahoo! News

future post?

Belated Charge Ignites Furor Over AIDS Drug Trial

Belated Charge Ignites Furor Over AIDS Drug Trial - New York Times

What Was on the Cover of TIME the Week You Were Born?

Go here, click on your year from the appropriate pulldown, and share a link to your cover.

My Week's Cover

Near to my birthmonth was a cover of John F. Kennedy

France's Terror Alert System

Prime Minister Chirac has officially raised the French terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". There are only two higher levels in France - "Surrender" and "Collaborate"

The rise was precipitated by a recent fire which destroyed France's white flag factory - effectively crippling their military.

Allegations of Fake Research Hit New High - Yahoo! News

ABC News:
Allegations of Fake Research Hit New High

originally seen on:
Allegations of Fake Research Hit New High - Yahoo! News

For future post.

New Arrival at the National Zoo

Yeah! There were a lot of things about living in DC I did not like, but you couldn't help being alternately excited and then disappointed every time Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing were expecting.

So I was quite pleased to read that the current panda pair on loan from China, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have successfully mated and that Mei Xiang gave birth yesterday to an apparently healthy baby panda. WooHoo!!!

Story here:
Panda cub born at Washington's National Zoo

I hope this cub does OK!

Another transparent poll...

be sorted @ nimbo.net

Thanks to ayesha for pointing it out!

Ministers of Extreme Sports and Culture

Doesn't this sound like some kind of bogus fictional job? And they need more than one of them?

I found it here:
Skateboarder Clears Great Wall of China
"A crowd of several thousand people, including China's ministers of extreme sports and culture, gathered at the Ju Yong Guan Gate"

[Emily Litella Voice]Actually, I suppose that was meant to refer to the minister of extreme sports and the minister of culture. But it could have been worded more clearly.[/ELv]

- Sue

Edited to add updated link, since Yahoo! link out-dated:
Skateboarder Clears Great Wall of China

Pit bulls banned from famous beaches - Yahoo! News

Pit bulls banned from famous beaches - Yahoo! News

For Fathom thread

Updated Link:
Rio bans pit bulls from beaches

If you pay $1M for a trailer, are you still trailer trash?

Mobile home madness: Prices top $1 million

Only in California. . .

Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue

Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue

I sincerely hope there is more to this story to explain why this man was arrested. I would hate to think that it was due solely to arrogance on the part of the local police.

Some Russians are quicker to adapt to Western culture than others.

Russian Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet

These people truly span the globe

These people truly span the globe

Future post