My friend Dan was in town today, which was a nice surprise. I got a call from him last night, and we made plans to meet up over lunch downtown. Dan’s been in Japan (teaching) for the past seven years, and just recently moved back to the States. His wife is going to be heading…
Just so we’re on the same page, you all remember this, right? Well, last night Liz and I were making some spaghetti for dinner. As I was getting some dishes ready, Liz takes a long string of cooked spaghetti and dangles it up in the air. I grab it with my mouth, and then take…
I’m a huge fan of the games done by Eyezmaze, particularly the “Grow” series. The basic premise is that every item can influence other items… and the gameplay is more about discovering what order to place things in. The fun for me is seeing how things change each time, and trying to find that just-right…
Liz and stopped over at her friend Royal’s, to help celebrate his birthday. We got there at the start of things, but more and more folks started showing up as Renegade closed down for the night. I got into some pretty interesting conversations throughout the course of the evening. I met a guy named Anthony…
This was one of my all-time favorite booths from the Renegade Craft Fair. Thinking about it now, it’s still making me smile. On walking by, people didn’t notice this machine on first glance. It was situated in a spot where a booth should have been, with no tarp or tend, and looked like maybe a…
This year’s Renegade Craft Fair was a bit different from last year’s event. I’m used to going to Wicker Park, but this time around… all the booths were situated a few blocks south, on Division. Due in part to the new opening of the Renegade Craft Store on the street, this year’s event combined with…
I stopped over at Quimby’s after work, to catch a reading sponsored by The 2nd Hand. It was good to hear Gretchen read her work again. I know that she’s put a lot of her energies these past months towards Literago and her new job at TimeOut Chicago. It was great to hear from Rob…
These guys look so sad… and only after just one day!
Earlier this week, I sent off an email to Andrew Huff over at Gapers Block. Sadly, I’ve stepped down after only about two months or so as one of their staff/contributors. I’m pretty bummed about it, but I’m certain it was the right decision. Lately, I’ve felt stressed out about finding enough time to do…
Today, we had a ton of folks in for our internal Quarterly meeting (and birthday lunch). In addition to getting caught up on the current state of affairs (via Deb, who is always fascinating to listen to)… our Affiliate Relations team (James, Phil and Katie) set up a fun quiz that helped everyone get to…
6 Billion Others is an absolutely stunning project by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (best known for his Earth from the Air project, which I saw way back in 2002). Take a look/listen, as the design is excellent, and the emotions it evokes… are surprising. I found myself very moved at several points (in particular, when viewing “Laughter”)….
I’m not a huge fan of watches, and it’s been years since I’ve even worn one. Having a watch on makes me always feel like I’m not concentrating on the task in front of me, and tends to make me think of the next thing I need to do instead. To this end, I tend…
Liz and I spotted Bryan on the train this morning, on the way in to work. He had his headphones in, so we decided not to bug him. It was funny that I could see, almost immediately based on his skeleton hoodie, that it was him. Interesting sidenote 1: Bryan later fell asleep on the…
Justin was back in town today, stopping in after visiting Alex and Linda. We had exchanged messages over the weekend, but I didn’t realize he was back from the west coast until earlier today (which made for a nice surprise). Of course, a bunch of us met up with him at Rodan, a place we…
We had Jake over tonight for dinner, and to hang out a bit. Liz, multi-tasking extraordinaire that she is, had four things going at once on the stove. Dinnertime! A nice asparagas soup (with Parmesean), wild salmon (with a sweet balsamic reduction), green and yellow beans, and a big bowl of quinoa, which is fast…