July inside (and) out

It’s great to be able to spend so much time outside as we have been. The weather has been great, if pretty hot for a few days this month, and we’ve been able to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Definitely the theme as I went through the photos that we have to post!

We had ordered some Adirondack chairs a few months ago, and they arrived in early July. They are extremely comfortable and really are making sitting in the back garden even more enjoyable that one could have thought possible. In the first pic below, we are eating breakfast at “Cafe Kenny.”

We went to Miller Beach to have a great overnight visit with Mike and Andrea. We brought our bikes and went on a really nice ride on Saturday, also fitting in splashing around in the lake, tacos, and beach walks. The sign about snow seemed so weird – like, snow? What’s that? Very easy to forget in summer. Maybe that’s the sign of a Midwestern mind!

Pixar fans might have caught the double meaning in this blog’s title. The movie Inside Out starred a heroine with blue hair who evolved her understanding of her own feelings over the course of the movie. So no promises on the feelings, but I got a temporary coloring conditioner and colored my hair blue! It’s quite fun to do and very temporary, and I notice a lot of people around here are doing this with blues, greens, purples and pinks. The first two pics are the day after I applied the blue, the bottom photo shows it after about 2 weeks, where the remains at least blend everything into a color I’m calling “charcoal.”

Another outdoor adventure we took this month was a bike ride in the evening to Northerly Island. We realized that we haven’t been there in 2 years and wow, it has really turned into a lovely park. But first, on the way there, the lakefront was blocked off on the north side, and we at first assumed it was a crowds issue. But it turns out the lake was lapping up over the bike and walking trails so much it wasn’t safe. Check out how high the lake is – this is at Ohio beach, just north of Navy Pier, where I normally swim.

The evening lighting on the flowers and lake at Northerly Island was just perfect. And we noted the swallows were having a great time with all the insects over the little inland lake there – possibly even happier than their Humboldt Park swallow friends! Also note the Studio Gang to Studio Gang reference in the second photo – the building in the distance on the right is the new high rise residence that architecture firm Studio Gang is building – and Northerly Island as a park was designed by Studio Gang!

When it got really warm a few weeks ago, I moved my computer to our kitchen, where it’s a lot cooler than the upstairs office where I had been working from. I really having the option of a standing desk now! Here’s my new workspace and my colleague. I guess you could say I moved into his office.

I think that’s about it – hope you all have a good rest of week, inside and out!