A Foot-tour of Chicago

What a day. What a day. What a day.

The day started with a nice breakfast at the hotel, followed by a lovely conversation with a sweetheart of a lass I met at the Blue Agaverestaurant (the one on N. State St.) Wednesday night. Her name's Karen and she's a bartender there. Wednesday night she thought she might be able to join me today for sight-seeing around Chicago. Sadly, she got a case of conscience since her boyfriend is out of town. C'est la vie. 'Twould have been only sight seeing, but she figured her guy wouldn't like it much. I couldn't blame him, really. She's a cutie and a delightful person.

After that, the walking began and went all day. Seems like I walked all over Chicago. I started at my hotel, the Hilton Chicago, walked down to the Buckingham Fountain and stopped to listen to a gospel choir sing gospel Beethoven -- or at least what they think Beethoven would have sounded like if he'd been black (that's a quote, btw ;-). It was clever and fun. And the choir was quite good.

Then I walked over to the Museum Campus. I stayed a couple of hours at the Adler Planetarium, then I headed for the Shedd Aquarium. Sadly, they were only open for another hour, or so. Having seen other aquaria (like Epcot's Living Seas and Sea World's Shark Encounter), I decided to forgo Shedd for the Field Museum of Natural History (they have the world's largest, most-complete and best-preserved skeleton of a T-Rex named "Sue"). Sadly, they'd already stopped admitting visitors. I'll have to call on Sue another time.... :-(

Btw, Sue fetched $8.7 million at auction. That's a lot to pay for some dusty old bones, eh?

Since I could hang out with Sue, I decided to hike to the Navy Pier. What a kick that was. Talk about tourist overload. I think everyone who was visiting Chicago decided to hit the Pier.

While I was there, I caught the The Matrix, Reloaded at the IMAXtheater after which I ate dinner at Joe's Be-Bop Cafe and Jazz Emporium.

Being pressed for time (it was 10:30 when I started back to the hotel), I caught a cab instead of walking back to the hotel. If I weren't leaving so early, I would have completed my walking tour afoot. Next time, I will.

Well, I have to go. I have to catch a 6 AM flight out of O'Hare and have to be out of the hotel by 4 am. So, I want to catch a couple winks before then.

Chicago is a rockin' burg. I really do have to make it back here sometime. Maybe Karen will be single, then... hehehe

Btw, as nearly as I can tell, I walked about six miles... ;-)

Verekai! on Friday!

I didn't think to make an entry for this on Friday: I went to see the Cirque de Soleil traveling show, Verekai! (in French) -- after a late lunch at the Frontera Grill!

Oh...

My...

GAWD!

I've seen La Nouba (the French version) the permanent show in Orlando, three times. I think La Nouba remains my favorite, however, Verekai! was an exhilarating feast for the senses. The performers were amazing, the music was mesmerizing, the vocalists were awesome and the make-up and costumes were inspired. All-in-all, Verekai! was a remarkable experience, that could be enjoyed many times without losing its luster.

HIGHLY recommended!

In Chicago

Chicago, "Chi-Town," "Windy City." I'm here... and it's a fun place. Great town. Great eats (in fact, I've been to the Frontera Grill three times). Good people.

I could learn to really like this place! ;-)

I came here for the ACFE Fraud Conference, representing Visual Analytics, and stayed a couple extra days to see the city. Great choice, I must say!

We'll I'm off to see the sites. More later!

DOH! Guess what?!?!?

The Indy 500 was today. I thought it was tomorrow. Shows you how much of a fan I am.

Seems that it's over. Here's an excerpt from the (now, one-paged) official site:

"Gil de Ferran edged Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves by .2990 of a second to win the 87th Indianapolis 500, denying Castroneves' chance to become the first driver to win the 'Greatest Spectacle in Racing' three consecutive times."

Missed it again. :-( Oh, well. Maybe next year...

OK. I've been off-line for quite a while now. Something was amiss with permissions or something on the website. I wasn't able to post anything. It seems to be working now...

Confession of a Catnipaholic

(Posted by my cat, Spaz)

Hi, my name is Spaz and I'm a Catnipaholic.

Hi, Spaz!

I've only recently been able to admit that I have a problem: I'm addicted to catnip.

I love that stuff. Whenever I get near it, I totally lose control. When I get my paws on some catnip, I go crazy. I roll around in it, I smell it, I bury my face in it.... I get so overcome by it that I cry for more. I just can't help myself. I can never get enough. I even lick up little pieces of it off the floor, or off my window perch -- fur and all.

Then, when it's gone, I hang out where it appeared, sometimes for days, hoping that more of it shows up. Jonesin' for another fix.

The really weird thing is that I don't know where it comes from. This mana from Bastet appears magically, but never with any regularity or with any pattern. It's very maddening.

Usually, when the catnip shows up, my person is around (could there be a connection??). And he gets this funny look on his face... all of his teeth are showing and his eyes leak. And he makes this really funny sound... this repetetive sound that's not like the other incomprehensbile noises he makes (that guy is really dumb -- as big as he is, he mews like a kitten, but louder and deeper and it makes no sense at all. Dumb shit).

Anyway, I have a problem. I know that now. I admit it. Praise Bastet that I'm on the way to recovery...now.

My name is Spaz and I'm a catnipaholic.

Thanks for listen....

HEY!! There's more catnip!!! I have to go, now!

Word Orgins

I find that the orgins of words (etymology) are interesting. See http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/ and http://www.wordorigins.org/index.htm.

The origins of curse words is scandalously intriguing (http://students.washington.edu/laurenem/fourletter.html).

The former reference is interesting... but, shit!, with the latter you won't be able to stop reading... ;-)

Damn this blog is ugly.

This whole site is ugly.

I really need to do something about this.

Grrrr.... I just bumped my nose against the we-only-support-IE policy at blogger.com. Seems the powers-that-be are working on a new, improved, totally modern, universally palatable (and probably PC) interface that will support browsers other than Internet Explorer. They just aren't quite done with it yet. So, I have my browser of choice (Opera) waiting (a bit jealously, methinks) in the wings, while I adulterously use IE to compose this.

I'm a big fan of the Opera browser. I've been using it since version 3.something and they've just released version 7, beta 2. I won't start on why I like Opera over IE... at least not here, not now. This is a rant about monopolies and of bowing before the M$ altar....

All I wanted to do was to drop a note about how I've discovered some pithy writing on some other blogs, and remark that one day, maybe I too can be so witty. However, I stubbed my toe to on the way to the blogger.... So, now I'm side-tracked and grumpy.

I'll just have to talk about those new blogs another time.

Image ©2002 Nina Gordon

A couple of years ago, I was floored by a song I heard on the radio: "Tonight and the Rest of My Life." The lyrics and the voice of this previously unknown artist (at least to me) really made me sit up and take notice. I think I heard it two whole times on the radio before running out to buy the CD -- at full price -- just to have that one song. I listened like a mad-man to that song for weeks... then put away the CD. I recently revived it, and ripped it to my PC, because another song currently on the radio reminded me of it... Now, I find that I'm a full-fledged Nina Gordon fan. Hell, I've even joined her message board so that I could get news scoops whenever she does anything of note. If you don't know of Nina, I highly suggest that you track down and give her CD a listen. Good stuff. She should be releasing a new CD this year. I'm looking forward to it. Oh, and it don't hurt none that she's purdy... ;-)

In response to an earlier post (from 8/31/2002 -- has it been that long???): I finally saw it. Good movie.

Vanilla Sky was better. ;-)