I love Pudge

Pudge Rodriguez, my favorite catcher of all time, got traded from the Tigers to the Yankees yesterday. Not that it really affects my admiration of him one way or the other; it just provides me with an excuse to post pictures of him I took at a Cubs/Tigers game in June 2006. We had front-row seats, just behind first base. Can you tell?

Pudge suits up.



Pudge in position.



Pudge watches the pop-up.



Pudge on his knees.



Play in motion.

Great Price on Holy Water

At the Mission San Xavier gift shop in Tucson.

Happy Birthday Kris!

Happy Birthday to one of the most generous friends I have. May you have a wonderful day and an even better year, m'dear!




(The cakes are from my niece and nephew's bar mitzvahs, but the dessert table was so huge they probably still have some left over. Ha!)

Fun Slide at Ribfest

You wanted to believe the ride name, but then you realized it was ninety degrees out, and that slide was dry and wicked hot and would probably take three layers of your skin off as you went down it. Even the little sacks they gave the kids to sit on didn't look like enough protection against the heat...ouch!

From the archives

Taken at the Butterfly Garden at the Peggy Noteabart Nature Museum last summer. It's one of the first photos I took with my then-new Nikon D80.

Queen Anne's Lace at Sunrise

It's a hot one out today.

African Daisies, in all the stages of blooming

The first time I've seen a grouping in all the different stages of bloom. The curled-in petals are the last stage, and the wide-open traditional daisies on the bottom are the first.

If I were a kid again

If I were a kid again I could go to camp and make construction paper chains and staple them to a paper plate and watch them swing in the summer breeze, instead of going to an office and staring out the windows longingly.

Although, who am I kidding? When I was a kid I liked to stay inside and curl up on the couch and read or watch TV and wait for my mom or grandmother to yell at me to go outside already and play in the sun while it was still nice out. I would do it better if I could do it again. I think. :)

Monday, a week ago

Overlooking Lake Michigan from in front of Buckingham Fountain.

Enjoying the summer downtown

Oak Street Beach and Lake Shore Drive



Even better in large.

Echinacea, or purple coneflower

Stormy Monday skyline

Downtown on a summer Monday morning is very different when it's raining.





A splash of color


This only happens when it rains: an empty Bean.


Closed for lunch

Yesterday's field in wider perspective

I love my city.

Orange and Purple Coneflowers in Field

You won't believe where this was taken. Tune in tomorrow! :)

Tiffany dome restoration

They restored the Tiffany glass dome at the Chicago Cultural Center recently, so when I had an hour to kill downtown today I made sure I went to see it. It's absolutely stunning.

Here is what it looked like before:


Here is what it looks like now:


Before:


After:


The details are astonishing. Look at the pinks and greens! The woodwork!




They removed the copper outer dome, too, so the light coming through is natural now. And what a light it is!




Amazing. I hope they do the other one too!

Fireworks, Midwestern-style

My sister and her family are visiting this week, so we all went to watch the fireworks last night. Instead of going to the main park in Glenview where they are held, we decided to go to the lookout in the park at Lake Glenview. It's not a big hill, but it's in the middle of what used to be a naval air base, so the land around it is especially flat and they aren't any mature trees around it. You can see for miles.

Which is exactly what we did. We watched the fireworks from all the surrounding towns -- we counted at least 20 different shows that we could see pretty well, and at least another half-dozen where it was just a faint blip on the horizon. At first we watched the ones south of us, maybe 10-15 miles away, and they didn't seem like much; I was afraid for about fifteen minutes that I had dragged my sister's family up there only to be disappointed and embarrassed. Then the sun finally went down all the way, and the ones along the North Shore began, bigger and louder. We could see five in a row, boom boom dazzle dazzle boom. Then six, then eight up the shoreline. At one point we thought we could see the Navy Pier show downtown; we used the blinking red light of the Sears Tower as our reference. Then Northbrook, the town immediately north of us, started, and it was huge and close and we were all captivated. We start turning around in every direction, pointing and oohing, as it seemed every town in the Chicago suburbs lit up the sky and we could see them all. Glenview began their show last, to the south of our lookout hill, and then we spun between it and Northbrook's, the two biggest and in opposite directions. It was so cool.

My husband declared it to be, "Fireworks, Midwestern-style." My sister and her husband laughed and agreed; the hills in Connecticut preclude anything like this happening.

Unfortunately for you, I didn't take any pictures, although I had my camera and my tripod with me. The hill actually got very crowded with people (there were none there last year when we drove by and belatedly realized it was the perfect viewing spot) and between all the no-see-um bugs swarming around us (they disappeared as soon as the sun fully set) and the people all along the hill, it was too crowded to set up the tripod, and then by the time the big ones came, it was too late. Besides, to really capture the expanse of the horizon, with three-six-oooh-there's-another displays all at once, I need a wide-angle lens. Maybe next year!

(If you really want to see some fireworks shots, here are the ones I took last year.)

Today we're heading down to Naperville for Ribfest. There's a big kid's carnival section, and of course a ton of ribs. YUM. I'm also considering ordering one of these:


Do you think that will keep me on my Weight Watchers plan? ;-D

Glenview Fourth of July Parade

All taken this morning at the annual Glenview 4th of July parade. There are more in this set, but these are my favorites:

Red Flags


Minutemen


Drill Team in flight


If he didn't have a kilt on, I would have thought he snuck in.


Stilts Woman


Best Friend Girl Scouts


Bolivian Dancer


The End!



Fireworks tonight! They'll be posted tomorrow.

Happy Independence Day!

Have a great July 4th, everyone!

Gargoyle Fountain, Spring Edition

Remember this photo?

This is what it looks like in the spring.



Taken at the English Walled Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I am due for another visit soon!

Old Schoolin' It

Haven't done a flower post in a while, so here are some shots from the Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford IL.

Irises around the pond



Faces to the sun


A welcoming entrance