so, lillis had to take some blood tests, and that’s a serious matter. but, i’ll take the opportunity to mention, that when lillis wants to remember something she doesn’t remember it, she writes a note to remember it. before there were post it notes, i don’t know, i guess we would have had to give her chalk. anyway, it cracks me up about 3 or 4 times a week, when i wake up and go someplace i the house, and a mirror, or a bag, or an appliance has a note on it. it’s almost as if the object in question is speaking to me. a bag will leave a note that says “take me so we can workout”. it’s like i live in a children’s cartoon. like, i think the bag (or the leftovers) has feelings. anyway, lillis had a dr’s appt friday morning. as you know, she is EXTREMELY active and therefore always hungry. so, remembering not to eat required a note. i got up first and saw the note in the bathroom. if you can’t read it you can click on the pic, or trust me that it says “leave for doc @ 8! NO FOOD!” that’s right, the mirror used all caps and two exclamation points to let us know lillis shouldn’t eat today. so, that’s got it covered, right?
weeelllll, what if lil bypasses the bathroom and goes straight to the fridge in the AM? aha! the fridge joined in the cause as well. again, ALL CAPS. lillis, stay away from me, do not eat anything. you have a blood test. anyway, our anthropomorphic furnishings did their job and lil’ successfully made it to the doctor without eating. a victory for the whole condo : )
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Lil had to be in chicago for work the week before Labor Day so we took the opportunity to hit the city for a weekend. we got off to a slow start. plane delayed an hour. they were offering $400 per ticket to catch a flight the next day b/c they were oversold. Lil wanted to take the money and run. i suggested we go ahead and get in. well, we got on the plane and two minutes later the pilot announces that the landing gear is messed up and we’re deplaning (9pm on friday night). i was kicking myself assuming we still wouldn’t fly out til saturday, and we’d be $800 poorer. well, as luck would have it, the next plane was even smaller (btw, lil was perfectly sweet thoughout this entire time period and never once got grumpy about the flight situation. at least, that’s what i have to say or else she triggers electric currents through my body). i held out for $1K and a hotel room and lil and i beded down at the airport marriot in atlanta to wait for our 8:30AM flight. flight went off without a hitch and we were in downtown chicago by noon. i was AMAZED at how “in bloom” chicago was. flowers everywhere (despite mid-day highs in the high 50’s, low 60’s). they were opening the modern art wing of the art institute just across michigan avenue from our hotel (the palmer house hilton – fabulous). so, there was music and dancers and people everywhere. good times.
here lil dips her toes in the slightly frigid water in grant park. really a much more phenomenal park than i had remembered.
the “bean” in grant park. i have no idea what it’s really called, but it is a pretty neat effect.
and it provided a good backdrop for lillis’ headstand
the bean, it’s great morning, noon and night!
the next day we met collie and christy and the kids for brunch in lincoln park and then went to a cubs game……anyone who knows lillis knows she’s pretty, um, frugal. so you can imagine how cold she was to spend 40 bucks on a wrigley field hoodie sweatshirt. she spent most of the game rocking in her chair like leo mazzone.
but it was all good in the sunshine afterwards. we had a great weekend and then set our gaze towards california.
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ok, so it’s not entirely mighty, but it’s still a good time. i had promised lil some time back that we’d get kayaks. i finally made good on that promise a couple of weekends ago. we couldn’t get regular hard plastic ones, b/c our condo is not quite big enough to accomodate 2 10.5 ft boats, and we couldn’t store them on the balcony b/c the guy who stole lillis’ bike off my balcony (and is very lucky he didn’t come back to get the other bike b/c i set the motion sensor light and slept with the sliding glass door open so i could beat the crap out of him) might somehow scale the wall and steal those, too. soooo, we ended up going with the
advanced elements kayak from rei. it’s semi-rigid (that’s what she said) but folds down into a duffel bag. takes about 10 minutes to get them set up and water ready. they were a little slower than a regular kayak, but not too bad. plus they’re pretty stable, so that was nice. we plan on using them a ton this summer. anyway, here’s lil out for a spin in the new ‘yak.
and here’s a turtle that she later ran over with her kayak. he then proceeded to hold his breath underwater for like 10 minutes until she left. by the way, he’s about 2 or 3 inches across….it was a wee turtle she accosted.
here i am. not at all worried that my right foot is in goose poop, about to hop back in for some more paddling. i gotta tell you, it is quite difficult as a novice to actually paddle back upstream in some of the swifter places. we could definitely use some paddle coaching, but in general, i think when we want excercise, we’ll paddle up and back, and when we want fun and relaxation, we’ll use two cars and put in and pull out in different spots. btw, i’m just now realizing that i am completely incapable of describing kayaking without it sounding suggestive.
the next day, we were back at the chattahoochee park (about 10-15 minutes from the house)
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going for a hike. the park is located at “f”. we live at about the middle of the letter “c”.
we leave shortly for our trip out west….san fran, yosemite (and hiking half dome), and then tahoe for jeremy’s wedding. should be a good time, but the half dome hike is somewhere in the 9 to 12 hour range, so we need to get our butts in shape. we’ve done a couple of two hour hikes, and and up and down twice back to back at stone mountain (pictured below),
but i think this hike may in yosemite may have its way with us. we’ll see.
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