Sept and October roundup

I thought I’d post a few photos to get us caught up to the present. First, the synopsis:  since Sept 11, our last post aside from the special bulletin from Tenerife, John and I returned from the Pacific northwest, Miles settled into school out there, and we’ve been able to meet up with Liam and Kat several times. Kat and I both had birthdays, and Kat has been applying to law school. Liam and Miles each had a trip to Philadelphia (different weeks!) and I went to a conference in Madison. John did a lot of work travel in all directions.

We had (sadly I think past tense is in order since today’s snowfall and cold temperatures kinda indicate Fall is over…) a very nice Fall in September and October. You can click on any of the images to see them bigger.

I went to a conference in Madison in early October and as last year had a really great time there. Madison is lovely, and this time I stayed very close to and finally went in the state capitol building.

There’s so much going on in Chicago culturally in October and November, I was downtown a lot. This building really has a story to tell in its lost corner.

We sat in box seats at a Chicago Humanities Festival event – swanky!

FCB helped with the CHF marketing, and one of their projects was to create this outdoor advertising piece right by the Kennedy expressway. This building has murals on 3 sides, and each side had a different person and quote about the humanities.

Also in October, I met Miles’s friend Dylan for dinner – great catching up with her! Good luck with college applications, Dylan!

Open House Chicago was also fun though we didn’t see much. This is inside the Monroe building on Michigan Avenue. Liam and I also went to the CTA control center but that was top secret and no photography was allowed!

Studio Gang’s latest building is looking fantastic.

The trees were spectacular!

And people went all out for Halloween. Hoyne in Wicker Park has become a really scary street – with lots of these skeleton parties in the front yards. Note the animal / pet skeletons too!

So we had more beautiful leaf displays

My company’s pumpkin won the office contest! Before anyone congratulates me, I had nothing to do with this but think it’s really good!

We had snow on Halloween itself

But then we got Fall back for a few weeks

We had some more good weekends downtown at the Chicago Humanities Festival. I really like this mural at Columbia College.

And this is the work of David Opdyke, an artist who presented at the CHF. He has arranged and embellished vintage postcards so they include the kind of natural disasters we are seeing more of with climate change. Very powerful work, and the way the images, especially roads and pipes, fit together reminded me of Rivers, Roads and Rails, that game that many readers have played with us.

Phew! Big round up but it’s nice to be back! Thanks for everyone’s patience!