the big road trip (2012)

This evening we (Aimee, myself, Emery and Sofia (Hannah is staying and taking a college summer school class)) are leaving on a 14 1/2 day, almost 5,000 mile adventure. We’ll be traveling across the country to get to places that don’t feel or look like home. We’ll get 4-5 days at the ocean and 4 days in the mountains. We’ll also be painfully close to (relatively speaking), but won’t get to visit, two of our very favorite places on Earth — Yosemite N.P. and Olympic N.P. But, another time, I hope.

Go Tigers, beat Parkway North!

I’m off the grid.

Bill, Thom, Friedrich or Yoda?

From Mental Floss, here’s a quiz where you must identify whether a quotation comes from Friedrich Nietzsche, Bill Clinton, Thom Yorke or Yoda?

Try it, it’s fun.

Allo Allo {Deux Américains à Paris}

Allo Allo {Deux Américains à Paris}, a film by Robert Kolodny and Bennett Elliott, via The Kid Should See This. My son, Emery, and I want to go soooooooo badly.

The reason we have the internets — Gugug.

I love watching and listening to Gus and Fin with my kids. They rock.

hidden video from my classroom

I don’t know how they got this video, but I think I come off pretty good.

“A Quantum Theory of Mitt Romney” by David Javerbaum in the NYT

Probability. Mitt Romney’s political viewpoints can be expressed only in terms of likelihood, not certainty. While some views are obviously far less likely than others, no view can be thought of as absolutely impossible. Thus, for instance, there is at any given moment a nonzero chance that Mitt Romney supports child slavery.

Today I was reading Paul Krugman’s New York Times blog, “Economics and Politics,” where he plugged the OpEd “A Quantum Theory of Mitt Romney” by David Javerbaum. The only irritating thing about it is that I’m not smart enough to write like that. Enjoy, it’s smart and funny.

Vonnegut breaks it down — Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories

Yes. He’s pretty good.


via kottke.org (Go look at how he does it)

more HHGTTG

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”

— from HHGTTG by Douglas Adams

HHGTTG

Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.


from HHGTTG by Douglas Adams

Chicago

Elwood: This is definitely Lower Wacker Drive! If my estimations are correct, we should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza!
Jake: That’s where they got that Picasso.
Elwood: Yep.

Lurie Garden

rattlesnake master and Chicago skyline

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Chicago to deliver my daughter and her boyfriend to Lollapalooza and back. For my part, I got a day free of responsibility in one of my favorite places.

The highlights (for me (I didn’t get to hear Coldplay like they did)):

Oysy Sushi — great sushi in a relaxed atmosphere. My favorite.

Intelligentsia coffee — Best latte ever

Lurie Garden at Millenium Park– The template for beautiful, modern and sustainable gardening in the midwest. This garden is amazingly at its peak in the middle of August. Everywhere you look you see some clever and wonderful combination of plants.

Art Institute of Chicago — The Modern Wing is amazing.

Walks up (and up) Michigan and State Streets. World-class horticulture in the middle of the city. You simply don’t see a planting anywhere that doesn’t look perfect.

Room and Board — I could fill four houses with their furniture.

Overheard in the Lurie Garden — An eighty-ish year-old woman asks a 15-ish year-old boy “what band is that playing?” at Lollapalooza.

D’Amato’s for pizza and cannoli. The coolest place and amazing food.

Sore feet. Always a sign of a good trip to Chicago.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, home.