Pants Planet

As senility approaches, it becomes necessary to write stuff down. 

Some snow to liven things up :)

Everyone knows I'd fully marry snow if I could (I really love the stuff!), so today's impending snowmageddon had me pretty excited. Of course the forecast promised way, WAY more than we actually got, but it's still cool. Anything over about 2 inches and I'm good.


Driving to work, heading south down Asbury in Evanston. (Evanston is horrible at clearing even the main roads .. They wait until 4 days after the snow has stopped, then send one kid out with a snow-blower!).

Some random side-street in Chicago (north of Irving Park rd). Don't be fooled, the main roads in Chicago were impecable .. It was like driving any normal day.

Happy Fun Car ready for the drive home.

Got to Aim and Ailie's house to watch Lost (OMFG SO AWESOME!), and I was struck by how beautiful it is. I even strolled around a bit.

Heading home after Lost (OMFG!!! etc etc), this is a moving shot of Clark street in Evanston. I couldn't stop as there was a cop behind me :)

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Palindrome Awesomeness

Almost missed it, too!

Posted from Evanston, IL

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A quick stroll around Chicago..

Well I say a quick stroll, I tried as hard as I could to take as few photos as possible, and I still ended up with over 15 (and that doesn't include the ones at the Art Institute)...

I always love having taking the train, but unfortunately the coverage is so limited in Chicago that it's a rare occurrence. Not today! This is right after I got off the Purple Line at Howard, waiting for Red..

I could spend hours and hours on the train, gazing out the window .. I love the alternate view of the world..

In downtown now, and I exit the Redline subway..

One of my favorite places downtown (as an OCD Engineering Geek) is the corner of State and Madison, also known as: The Nexus. This is the center of North, South, East and West for the house numbers along every street in the entire city of Chicago. When an address is (for example) 3401 North California Ave, you know it's 34 blocks north of where I'm standing right now, and it will be in the same location on every single north/south street in the whole city. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_and_highways_of_Chicago

The main purpose of this trip was to visit the Art Institute. Now I'm really not even a small art aficionado, but I do love going there simply because it's a great feeling to be surrounded by so much talent. I am constantly in awe of anyone with artistic talent, so seeing so much great stuff there is fantastic. This little guy was featured in a touching scene in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". All my Art Institute pics are here: http://buzzneon.posterous.com/art-institute

Millennium Park is a great place to visit in summer, when it's swarming with happy people. However there is something oddly beautiful about it in winter too .. it's very quiet, almost serene. I was thrilled to see that the snow isn't cleared from the splash pool between the fountains..

And of course no visit to Millennium Park would be complete without checking out the cute little Bean!

I've never been able to ice-skate, but this rink (on Michigan Ave) is quite popular indeed. I looked for Katy, but she wasn't there :)

Looking west along Washington Street:

Looking south on Wabash at Randolph. Above the road are the train tracks which make up one leg of the Loop, the stairs on the left lead up to the station platform.

While I eat Chicago hotdogs all the time, it had been well over a month since my last one .. so of course I was going to indulge! I picked this up at some no-name hot-dog place in the loop (after making sure the Vienna Beef sign was present), and it was excellent. (A Chicago hotdog consists of an all-beef frank, mustard, relish, raw onion, sport peppers, fresh tomato, a pickle and celery-salt, and it's all served on a poppy-seed bun).

Seeing the large chunks of ice floating in the river was immensely cool.. That bridge is Michigan Ave, and on the right side of the picture is upper and lower Wacker Drive. You can just see the very edge of the Wrigley Building on the left.

More ice - looking east from the Michigan Ave bridge towards the lake.

The Wrigley building sits on Michigan Ave just north of the River, and is pure concentrated awesome.

Just across the road is the Tribune Tower (a very auspicious sounding name!). The lighting wasn't the best today for photos, but trust me this is an amazing building..

I love big cities like Chicago (and New Yeak, and London, etc) where you have old and new right next door to each other .. This is the Wrigley building, with the brand new Trump Tower behind it .. There's a 90 year age difference between those two, but it works (I guess age IS just a number after all :) ).

Just before I board the train home, one last pic of the buildings along Wacker Drive (along the river) near State Street.

What a great day .. I think maybe now I'll be ready to re-join the real world on Monday :)

Cameron.

Posted from Chicago, IL

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Art Institute..

As my break from the "real world" is drawing to a close, I decided to head down to the Art Institute today. Now I'm not the biggest art guy around, but just being in there surrounded by so much talent is just awesome. Plus I have a few old friends I like to say hello to :)

Dali is always a definite highlight for me, even though the Art Institute isn't known for it's Dali collection.

These guys totally stole my idea ... Using primitive 20th centuary technology too! Seriously though, it's very cool.

This was originally painted to hang in the Frank Lloyd Wright Falling Water house in PA.

Absolute classic..

Another absolute classic!

Hey, I know that guy...

Oh yeah, he stands guard at the Daley Plaza :)

Posted from Chicago, IL

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Don't you hate it when there's no toilet paper?!

Posted from Evanston, IL

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Snow!!

Ok so we didn't get anywhere near the promised 10 inches, although maybe some happy Lake Effect snow will add to it. It's so beautiful, I think my "OMFG THIS IS AWESOME" chip might be overloading!

   
Click here to download:
Snow.zip (407 KB)

This is in Albany Park (Chicago neighborhood). Just magnificent ... I honestly think that if I *had* to choose between full-time Chicago summer, or full-time Chicago winter, I'd choose the latter :)

Posted from Chicago, IL

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Love it!

I really don't get people who don't like winter..

Posted from Chicago, IL

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Ice!

When I turned out the light to go to bed, I was completely struck by the awesomeness of the ice outside. The pictures really don't do it enough justice though .. The sound of the rain, and the wind blowing through the frozen branches, there's even thunder and lightning. We're lucky in Chicago to get some really spectacular and amazingly picturesque weather, but this was something else...

           
Click here to download:
Ice.zip (4581 KB)

It's actually a bit of a shame that it'll all melt tomorrow, so many people won't get to enjoy it.

Cameron.

Posted from Evanston, IL

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Sausage!

18 pounds of meat...

Mixed with secret spices..

Ground into over 7 casings..

= several awesome meals with amazing friends (next week :) ).

Posted from Valparaiso, IN

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First cold blast of the year .. I do honestly love Chicago :)

And California was freaking out with a quarter inch of rain .. Freaking light-weights!

   
Click here to download:
First_cold_blast_of_the_year_..zip (259 KB)

Posted from Evanston, IL

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