The End of Civilization

The end is near, I fear. On the way back to the office from lunch today, a woman walked by sporting a t-shirt that read "Your just jealous." Now, I admit I have stressed to my students in the past that brevity is a virtue, but not at the expense of proper punctuation. It's one thing for a student to carelessly omit an apostrophe and an "e." But 'tis quite another for a clothing manufacturer, presumably one that employs college graduates somewhere in its corporate mass, to make such an egregious error.

The end of the world is near. Soon we will revert to throwing rocks at each other because we can't communicate. In fact, I believe George Bush has already jumped the gun.

Things Overhead

Last weekend, Victoria and I had some much needed down time. We kicked off the weekend going to Bennigans to suck down some tasty beverages from the alcohol family of beverages and to chomp on food of the fried, crispy, artery-clogging variety. Then we headed across the street to the Art Institute. The Art Institute has a tremendous summer program. Thursday and Friday evenings are FREE from 5-9. Look, I'm not in college anymore, but I still can definitely appreciate a freeday at a Chicago museum. So, in we went. After perusing the pottery, some of which was 4,000 old and still seemingly in perfect shape (talk about a family heirloom), we headed up to the Impressionist wing. Even though we have both seen it many, many times, the exhibit can't be beat. Especially Caillebote's Rainy Day in Paris and Seurat's Saturday in the Park, both of which would cover more than an entire wall at the Cullom abode.

But the highlight of the day was the crazy things we overhead. In particular, Victoria heard one fellow commenting on the 16th Century European paintings. The man told his family that the painting was done in 1550. Then he marvelled, "Where did they get their paint," as if questioning the authenticity of the date on the painting. Yes, it is sad but true: there were no Home Depots present in Renaissance Europe, but methinks paint had been around for quite some time (after all, we had just seen 4,000 year old pottery with paint on it).

Gardens Galore

One of the best things about living outside of the city is the amount of “Soil” you have to work with.
Patrick and I have had a great time growing tomatoes, sweet red peppers, green beans and yummy spices.
We have been eating some great salads with the peppers and tomatoes.
We planted moss roses which open up each day full of color then close at night. The best thing is that they re-seed themselves and will come up next year.
My old neighbor had a thick bed of flowers so they also remind me of my old neighborhood in Lincoln Square.
As a moving in gift I had a Flower Box made for the front of the house. Al Hill made the flower box by hand, out of cedar and it fits the cement ledges perfectly. It is great to know it is well made and will last for years but also a nice reminder of Al and Karen. Currently it is full of orange and red mums and Japanese lanterns. We will add some pumpkins in October. Then we get into the really fun Christmas decorations.