The Garden of the Phoenix, Revisited
With this being memorial day, we woke up pretty early, got some breakfast and coffee… and headed out to walk around a bit, before the crowds showed up.
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Adobe + AI: Photoshop’s Generative Fill
While I’ve had so-so success with text prompts adding things to images, I’ve found it pretty amazing when I just leave the prompt blank. And what Firefly does is more or less try to fill in the blanks (fun thread on expanding album covers).
Lagunitas, Revisited
A fun thing: on entering the brewery, there’s this long corridor you walk down. It’s dark, black-lit in places, and plays “Pure Imagination” on a loop. It’s probably terrible for the security staff that man the front door, but it’s an absolute joy to experience every time we come here.
Sia: Snowman
Suffice it to say, it’s been weird to have a Chrimstas song on repeat, in my head, in late May. But here we are.
Belated Birthday Cake
Bernie had his 93rd birthday yesterday, and the cake was from his mother’s family recipe. They had a family-only event at the house yesterday, but we were very touched to have gotten two slices of cake the day following.
Garden Box and Grass
Made good progress on the other one. Hard to believe that we just painted these three years ago. And even harder to believe that we built these guys seven years ago.
Opening Up the Apple Trees
I came out to the backyard tonight to see that Liz had taken off the screens we’d put up, around our apple trees.
In Search of the Garden of the Phoenix
One thing we haven’t done much of is visit nearby Jackson Park, located just south of the Museum of Science and Industry. For Liz, she’s been wanting to visit the Japanese garden in the park for a long while now. And after work, we decided that today would be the day.
Mattress Shopping
The two of us have been dealing with discomfort, back aches, and things we feel fairly confident are tied to our bed being super, super old. So Liz decided that today… we’d focus on going out, trying out some mattresses, and finding an official replacement.
Light Removal, Light Install
An old light, where the electrical had been disconnected long ago. Of note: that middle pipe is a gas line, a throwback to some earlier time when this light was likely powered by gas.
Painting the Planters
Of note: Liz has been getting into Linseed Oil Paint, and was using this for the planters. And also making good use of some of our takeout containers.
Hyde Park Garden Fair, Preview (2023)
I was out running errands at the end of the day, picking up some medication at the nearby Walgreen’s. On my way home, I realized the Hyde Park Garden Fair was setting up, in preparation for their first day (tomorrow).
ChatGPT: Plugins and Browsing, but no Code Interpreter (Yet)
Found out today that I’ve actually got access to the Browsing and Plugin features, for ChatGPT. Tried out a few things, and ended up asking it about the type of content on my site/blog. The answer was… fine. Not great, but a decent summary of the most recent posts. But the thing I’ve been most excited about… I still don’t…
Better Move that Car
Walking around the neighborhood after work, Liz and I noticed that the Wisteria we spotted last week has gotten a little… ambitious.
The Noisy Neighbors Above Us
We, unfortunately, have some noisy neighbors that have moved in above us. This photo shows two, but I actually saw three squirrels (and possibly a fourth) moments before.