We started at 5:00, because kids are starting earlier every year. We ran out of candy at 7:30. That's twenty-five pounds of candy in two and half hours. Our neighborhood is a couple of blocks of houses surrounded by apartment buildings, so we always have a lot of folks, but I think every year we get more and more people driving to our ( Read more... )

Currently, I'm sitting on the floor of a hotel bathroom. The local time is 4:30 in the morning. Thanks to modern technology (the Internet and whatever voodoo MLB conjured up), I'm listening to Mike Shannon call game four of the NLCS (what used to be called the Pennant Race). The Cardinals are down by two runs, but I'm hoping they can pull it out. I ( Read more... )

It seems that I only post when I go somewhere, nowadays. I guess I don’t feel like sharing much about my day-to-day life ( Read more... )

I was originally not going to post about this, because it all sounds more dramatic than it really is, and I don't want to worry anyone. But word has gotten out, and -e's been fielding a lot of emails and phone calls. Since many of those are coming from folks who are here on LJ, I figured a quick post was in order ( Read more... )

There are a lot of great operas in the world, and, several years into our opera subscription, I am happily still discovering several of them for the first time. I knew the story of Lohengrin before last night, and had heard some of the music,* but I had never seen it performed.** -e is no fan of Wagner (as she puts it, "Everything is turned up to ( Read more... )

A few months ago a bike-sharing stand appeared at Buckingham Fountain. Today I decided to rent one during my lunch hour and ride down to Northerly Island (once the home of Meig's Field, now a park and bird sanctuary). I had walked there before at lunch, but I had only gotten as far as the northern tip before I had to go back. I knew it had a ( Read more... )

Last night I was having a zombie dream. I ended up in a cellar, and there was a guy there with a walkie-talkie. He was trying to contact someone else (he called him "glass-top," so I assumed he was higher up in the house). Glass-top wasn't answering, so my companion tried the following tactic ( Read more... )

Best: two little robots with lightbulbs in their tummies ( Read more... )

Often, at the start of the Lyric's season, I think "Why am I doing this?" Operas are long, and expensive, and kind of a chore after a long day at work. Then I see my first opera, and I remember why I sign up for this every year.

Unlike a lot of operas, which are based on forgettable plays of the time, Macbeth has a great libretto to go with ( Read more... )

Last night we were watching The Book of Eli* when -e declared, "I've just realized why I don't like these kinds of movies.** They're basically Westerns."

*To be fair, not a very good movie.
**Later inquiry confirmed that she was talking about post-apocalyptic movies, not bad Denzel Washington vehicles.