Complaining.

Ps, when Tiffany and I and Karen went to the Taste of Chicago, there was a parade going on. Let me just say, for those that don't know, that I live near (read: in the EPICENTER of) the second gayest neighborhood in the country (I'm assuming there's a gayer one in SF). They were having a parade about how proud they were, aptly called the Pride Parade. Tiffany wanted me to meet her on the other side of the parade, at a nearby El stop. Well the parade was going straight up the nearest big street I live by, to an angle intersection north of me, and then back around south down the other street at an angle- which happens to be the other nearest big street I live by.

I didn't realize/find out the path of the parade until I got there. I was thinking I'd hafta walk a couple blocks around it- until I got north and realized it turned south and I was hemmed in. By the time I got back to walking past my apartment, I'd walked a mile already. I kept walking south another MILE to get past the south edge of the parade, and walked more because the bus wasn't running that far north because of the parade. Below is the path I walked to get to the NEAREST CTA (normally I could walk a block in either direction to a bus or four blocks to the train). All in all I walked , by the mile markers you can't read, almost three miles. I got on the bus almost exactly one hour after leaving my apartment.

Interesting Things.

Firstly, I went to the Taste of Chicago with Tiffany and her sister Karen two weekends ago. We saw Augustana and Counting Crows. For free. Or else, for $8, which is what the giant bbq turkey legs costed that we ate for din-din. See below.

Apparently Karen takes good pictures too-

We also walked around Millennium Park and also saw some new Japanese art that was there, including a red car sticking its tongue out and holding up a golden pig from which dangled a fat (presumably satired American) man. Interesting statement about...something.

The previous week we had walked across the lesser known BP Bridge also built by Frank Gehry near the giant amphitheater. Pretty sweet looking. At least all the kids with skateboards and bikes thought so, when security wasn't around. Those cheeky bastards.

Lastly we saw this on the train: Paternity Test to collect DNA. Turns out it doesn't actually test your DNA like I was amazed that it might- you still hafta pay the incredible lab fee.

So LAST weekend was the 4th of July, which I'm not sure I have any useful pictures from, except for me at long last driving my Uncle Tony's 67 Camero convertible. Its hot. In both ways. Jeffing Batmobile.

Did I ever show pictures of the Sunburst 5K we ran? These are stolen from the photos website. Looks fun huh. I'm in a random picture posting mood. Nice to see me beating Nathan. He hates this picture- since I didn't even know he was still behind me in the crowd as I was sprinting to catch Chris (I got bottlenecked running through the tunnel of the stadium) I didn't know Nathan was trying to catch me- till he zoomed past just at the finish line. But official race results and photos show me winning. I'll take it :)

ALSO, I found out today what happens when you accidentally freeze a whole big bottle of premixed margarita that apparently isn't enough alcohol content to uh, NOT freeze. I should have known, since margaritas come...FROZEN. Anyway, the bottle cracked all over the place. Thankfully the frozen margarita mix held the glass in place. I pulled it out in once piece and am now filtering all of it through coffee filters to make sure there isn't any leftover glass in the mix. Awesome.

In an attempt to thwart the landing of our brand new pets, fruit flies, on the underside of our cabinets over the kitchen sink, I wiped under there with paper towel and bleach cleanser. Apparently hasn't been cleaned there since we moved in (its black, metal, you can't tell its dirty really) and apparently the guys before us liked frying...SOMETHING, under there. When I wiped, it smelled like fried rice, and looked...like...THIS.

Finally, thanks to Andrea for posting random pictures on Facebook of me and Tiffany- from a sweaty bar at country night (I wore earplugs), St. Patrick's Day, and an ND football game standing next to "Stonehenge" after getting soaked in the rain (and the water fountain)...

And REALLY finally, I saw a 1.9 million dollar car yesterday at the Lamborghini dealership. Seen it before, but today I could actually walk IN and look at it. Doesn't LOOK like 1.9 million. But it is.

Okay really SERIOUSLY last thing- I toured a new hotel, The Wit, a couple weeks ago through the Chicago Architecture Foundation. "The Lightning Bolt" building. Has cool chartreuse (the color as described by the architect) glass zig-zagging up the facade. She was in her 40s, just started her own firm- young for such a big project. I'm jealous. She's in the money.... Nice view from up there too...and no I didn't feel like taking the very minimal effort necessary to rotate the photos before posting them.