Yeah, that about sums it up

This was the third in a series of him sprinting directly at me, but strangely enough the one with him racing out of frame somehow feels the most fitting. 

We had another great weekend, and the unsolicted "I love you Daddy" I got between picking apples and going into the play area is one of the highlights of my life.  I melt for that kid.

I just have to keep remembering that as I slog through another Monday high on anti-histamines.  Ugh.

Current beer-scale: a MNF-friendly 8.2

There's gotta be someone up there...

Miracle of miracles, my first trip to the Foremost liquors on Kedzie yielded a new bottle of Templetons!

Well, not a new bottle as it's still the fourth batch, but still, that's six months after everyone else was telling me they were gone in Lincoln Park and Old Town. Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

Better yet, they had two but the wife drew the line at one. Who knows, if I go back there in a month it might even still be there. The store's in a shady enough part of the neighborhood that it might be pretty untraveled outside of the cheap beers in the cooler. We'll see in a week or two.

For now I'm thrilled to have another bottle to drink, b/c I feel like this week is earning me a few drinks this weekend.

Current beer-scale: fucking high.

For fuck's sake

I know not everyone understands why people bike to work. Hell, I do it and sometimes I don't understand why. Today happened to be one of those days. But with gas still slowly creeping towards $5/gallon and Chicago dealing with the highest gas prices in the country, I don't understand how the holy fuck car traffic could be so backed up either.

I might still drive occasionally, but I will laugh my ass off this summer as gas prices go absolutely nuclear. Picture the clusterfuck on lakeshore drive during the snowpocalypse, then imagine a summer where people are abandoning their cars where they stop b/c they're completely out of gas. And there's me, on a bike, gleefully weaving around some douchebag blocking the bike lane.

It almost puts a smile on my face just thinking about it.

Current beer-scale: 8.9

Spring is in the air

Freds are on their bikes.

So I got passed this morning while I was taking easy over the huge rough patches where the asphalt has been gouged away from the path. It was a guy on a fixie, and he passed on the right (grrrrrr) while giving me the "looking-back-sneer-while-I-pull-away" treatment (grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr).

Of course I don't mind getting passed. I'm fat & it happens all the time. Especially in the winter, I'm happy cruising along and if someone zips past, more power to them. When I get passed on the right by some hipster who thinks he's tough, that rubs me the wrong way. As soon as I was back on the smooth stuff I stomped on the pedals and flew by him. I will admit I shifted too, but only to completely destroy this tool and leave no doubt that he could not catch me.

I felt foolish by the time I made it to the office, since I was panting like a dog after almost-but-not-quite sprinting the last half of my trip on the path. But it was worth it, and being reminded of how fun it is to go fast has probably convinced me to take the path home this afternoon and go fast then as well. I just hope no one I pass calls me Fred.

Current beer-scale: 8.8 and I'm having multiple flights of microbrew this weekend!

The nerds know what I'm talking about

Yeah, that sucked.


The blizzard hit about an hour early, and when the office closed I wasted two bucks trying to take the train home. I lasted three trains worth but by that point I knew I was screwed. There were more people on the platform after the third train left than before the first train I couldn't fit onto got to the station, with more and more people continuing to stream in.

I'm impatient with the CTA under best case scenarios, and a blizzard freaking everyone out is far from that. So I headed upstairs to walk home. It wasn't that bad, other than the fact that about halfway home, I looked up into whiteout conditions and with the furry hood on my snorkel jacket felt like I was looking out at the ice planet Hoth. This pic is from early on, before the wind started to kick up more.



Slogging along for an hour didn't help either. Nor did the fact that my phone was iced over after answering a call and trying to take a few more pictures to the point of literally freezing up and being useless. That made me unhappy. But ultimately the fact that I made the 4+ mile walk in almost exactly an hour isn't too shabby. I even had the energy to stop and pick up a pizza, beer, and ice cream. You know, emergency supplies. Some people buy shovels, I buy pies.

Once home, the dog didn't care I had just spent an hour walking home. She just wanted to head out into the mess. That lasted about two blocks, and then she was covered in snow and looking for the quickest way home. Ah, the storm of the century. Good times.

Please just let me inside Daddy, you can take the picture on the couch

If my phone thaws by tomorrow morning we'll see what kind of pictures a night of constant snowfall gets us. 10 foot drifts, a few inches an hour, should be interesting.

Current beer-scale: 8.1 & nothing but time

Bwa-ha-ha!

Holy crap. I was listening to Waddle & Silvy on ESPN 1000 this morning and Mark Giangreco came on joking about today's blizzard forecast and the superbowl of meteorology. His line about WGN's venerable Tom Skilling:

"Skilling's so excited he's pointing to Canada without his hands!"

Wow. A boner joke about Tom Skilling on mid-day radio. Out-fucking-standing. That made all the crap we're about to go through totally worth it.

Current beer-scale: 7.1