Hello, readers! In case you feared that we’d lost our wordpress password or something, nope. We’re back! So first of all, it’s gotten pretty chilly in Chicago. Because of the cold and a pre-holiday sale at REI, I got a new sweater that I really like.
Finally I have a sweater like those seen in Jan Brett’s lovely children’s book The Hat.
I will have to report this to Apple, but my iPhone must have malfunctioned while Miles was taking the photo of me in the new sweater because somehow there are now 12 selfies of Miles stored on my phone. Must be a bug.
A good indoor project that I worked on this weekend was some poster framing for Miles’s room. I have long been intimidated by cutting mats and it’s caused me to really shy away from framing all together. But Miles had these two posters to frame and it seemed like a good time to give it a try. I bought a fairly simple mat cutter — is’s basically a device that holds an exacto blade at a 45 degree angle and can slide along a straight edge. I wouldn’t suggest you look too close, but from a reasonable distance the prints look good!
This is the poster advertising John Hodgman’s show at Up Comedy a couple of weeks ago.
During the show, I had to cough (a lot!) and sneaked out so I wouldn’t disturb people or more importantly, get heckled. While I was gone, John Hodgman asked if any kids were in the audience, Miles raised his hand, and by the time I sneaked back in, John Hodgman was asking “So, Miles, where IS your mother? Oh, there she is! She’s back!” He referred to Miles throughout the rest of the routine, it was all quite good. Here’s Miles, with John Hodgman after the show. JH is dressed as Ayn Rand for a bit he did at the end of the show.
And some general scenes from the weekend. With John en route to London from Delhi, Miles and I went to Bite on Western Avenue for lunch today. I couldn’t take a picture of this but the people next to us brought the BYOB to a whole new level. They brought a bottle of sparkly rose wine, which seemed pretty normal. Then one of the people (there were only 2) brought out a bottle of Olde English Malt Liquor (for the international audience, think cider before its recent renaissance!) and a glass bottle of orange juice and proceeded to make some bizarre type of mixture of the two. They kept tasting it and it wasn’t quite right (not a surprise!) so they kept putting all the bottles away and taking them out again to adjust the proportions. Anyway, here’s Miles!
There is a cluster of black eyed susans in the box in front of our house that are still in bloom. Seriously. These are SUMMER flowers, and they bloomed probably in early August. They have just stayed exactly like this since. That is a very long time to stay in bloom, and so I was curious to see what would happen when we got a freeze — they’re wilting a bit but still yellow. Super flowers!
And this house on Western Avenue just south of the expressway is kinda intriguing. They’ve renovated it with some metal siding on the facade. But the spiral staircase and the integrated mesh fence in front is pretty striking. I’m not sure if I like it. I think it’s interesting looking but also looks like they are expecting something to be hurled at the house. Thoughts?
Great pictures, all of them! Somehow I missed some blog posts and had some catching up to do. Nice sweater (I love REI). Good job on matting Miles’s posters! I’ve been afraid of cutting mat board. Nice selfies, Miles, and photo with John Hodgman! Brave and hardy black-eyed Susans. Don’t know what to think about the house with the mesh fence facade. It looks like a defensive thing to guard against something or other. (no pun intended–you know de-fence) Wondering how the fire department would rescue people from that house if there was a fire.
Good point about the fire department! There’s definitely several feet between the mesh and the house, but anyone approaching the door would need to do so from one of the sides. I’m not sure spiral staircases conform to building codes for that very reason — fire safety.
Like the jumper Cindy-really looks cosy for winter.
Glad Miles enjoyed his comedy session and was able to play part in it.
Black eyed Suzy is really giving you value for your money.
As for the house construction can’t understand how it was allowed by your council.
The term obtrusive feature on the landscape springs to mind.