Work took Debbie to Australia this week, and so she, Colette and Colman met for dinner. From what I hear they enjoyed the local specialty Balmain Bugs. I had to look this up on Wikipedia: Ibacus peronii, the Balmain bug or butterfly fan lobster, is a species of slipper lobster. It lives in shallow waters around Australia and is the subject of small-scale fishery. It is a flattened, reddish brown animal, up to 23 cm (9 in) long and 14 cm (6 in) wide, with flattened antennae and no claws. Glad you all had a chance to meet up!

Its been a while since we were at the Lincoln Park Zoo, but it didn’t take us long to realize what a treat it is, especially now that they have the Zoo Lights up for the holidays.  We even enjoyed seeing Liam’s old favorite; the train!  It was a nice round off to Thanksgiving weekend and we’re already planning on returning this Friday! [slideshow][slideshow]

I’ve now officially got my new glasses and like them so far! They’re taking a bit of getting used to but after a couple of days I’m much more used to them already.        

I put the garden to sleep for the winter today–pulled all these tomatoes off the vines, pulled out the plants and filled up the vegetable bed with compost. Then I put on a nice warm blanket of leaves and am letting it rest for the winter. The parsley was still growing so well I left it there–we’ll see how long it lasts! [slideshow]

While Cynthia and Liam were at a lecture today myself and miles visited the art institute, enjoying miles favorite the minature rooms, making a cornell box  and seeing this cool speech written out on the stairs.  We really need to visit the art institute more, it was great, and miles loved it, especially the japanese ceramic room

  Here’s the best photo from the article below, taken near they’re green house on the campus of Liam’s highschool.  Nice view of the Sears tower in the background.

Liam was at school until 8pm tonight, working with the eco-club to finish up their competition entry. They also made it into a local paper this week, check out the articles and photos here. That’s Liam in the checkered shirt, applying Gorilla Glue to the frame. The article is so positive I’ll forgive them for getting his name really wrong in the caption!

We went to Bernard Street in Logan Square for the halloween festivities. The whole street there is very into the event and it’s a lot of fun. As Miles said, there are places in Chicago with better candy but for the atmosphere, Bernard Street has it. Here’s Miles dressed as Saw (horror movie character that we have not let him see), and Miles and his friends and their dad. After trick or treating we walked down to the Holiday House, a big house on the boulevard that the owners decorate to a really amazingly high level at Halloween and again…

I’ve ordered some new glasses, these are the sample pair in the store but just a preview of what I’ll be receiving in about a week! Mug shot against a purple wall = not that attractive, this is meant to just show the new glasses 🙂

We have a new Apple store in chicago, its really beautifull, just two parallel walls and a roof, and two huge windows at either end enclosing one large room, all alongside a new plaza, replacing what was once a grimmy gas station