Museum of Science and Industry

Neighborhood Linkery

/ Shane / 1 Comment

First off, our favorite neighborhood grocery store got a webpage! Before I went to Hyde Park Produce, I never felt really one way or another about a grocery store. It was just a place to buy food. However, after moving to a food desert and having some bad experiences with grocery stores, I finally found one that I really enjoy. It would be impossible not to like the place. How can you not like a family run business that has, “Welcome…to our dream!” written in giant letters across the back of the store? Everyone is so friendly, and they give Evie a cookie when we check out. True, it is really a produce store, so we have to visit other stores on occasion, but it is really a gem in the neighborhood.

Speaking of things in the neighborhood, there is a “restaurant” which we had never been to that we tried out the other day. The reason why I say “restaurant” in quotes, is because the place is Bake at Home Pizza. Basically, they make a pizza for you, and then you take that pizza home and bake it in your own oven (I guess the name is self explanatory). The pizza was actually really good, as good or better than anywhere else in the neighborhood, without a doubt. I really liked the place. However, I do object to the price a little bit. It’s not that the place is expensive, but it’s not cheaper than going to a restaurant. So if I’m expected to bake the pizza at home myself, then I expect it to be a little cheaper. If they reduced the price on the pizzas by a couple of bucks, I would probably go here all the time. As it is, however, it’s probably only going to be a once-in-a-while type place, when we have a coupon or they have a special.

Finally, the MSI, which is right on our doorstep of course, opened up a new permanent exhibit about weather. It is AWESOME! Maybe it is because we go there so often, so anything new seems cool, but I don’t think so. There are so many large installments to see, from the tornado, to the spinning avalanche thing, to the thing that shoots tennis balls across the gallery, to my personal favorite, the giant lightning machine in the ceiling. When I went, it was surprisingly not crowded, and Evie and I were able to do pretty much everything. Evie’s favorite part was the big color box you can stand in and change the colors. She’s not a fan of the Tesla coil, on account of the loud noise it makes. Overall though, a great addition to the museum!

Misc.

/ Shane / 4 Comments

I just have a lot of random miscellany to update on, so here you go, in no particular order:

Some Norwegians came to visit. Meg, I really appreciate the effort you put into keeping in touch with me. I can’t count the number of friends that I’ve regrettably lost contact with since college. And giving me bacon / cheese popcorn doesn’t hurt either (although it wasn’t all that bacony, mostly just tasted like cheese popcorn).

Evie finally learned how to jump on Friday. She’s a little behind schedule on that one, so I was working on it with her. I’d like to think that my excellent advice to “put your feet together, bend your knees, and push with your toes” are what put her over the top. She’s going through a bit of a trying phase at the moment, so, after our initial giggling and hugging fit, the fact that we wanted her to jump again pretty much guaranteed she wouldn’t. She did jump some more on Sunday though.

Everyone was sick, back to back. It took each of us about 4 days to shake it, so we had a rough patch for about 12 days.

American History X, good movie!  Really good! Has anyone seen it? Oh yeah, Sara and I were the last people on earth who hadn’t.

We finally checked out the Harry Potter exhibit at the MSI. It was pretty cool, and well done, but not exactly what I expected. It’s pretty much a tour through a bunch of movie props. Since it was in the museum of SCIENCE and INDUSTRY, I kind of thought it would be like explaining about the special effects, or like “real life invisibility” exhibits or something. Not just, “Here’s the clothes Ron wore in this scene…” Also, our scheduled time was before the museum opened, which was pretty confusing to begin with, but they had a lot of trouble getting people lined up for the right times and stuff. You’d think for the money they’re pulling down, they could have invested in a couple of signs or something. Still, it was fun. I can’t say if it was worth the price of admission or not, since it was free for us.

Football is officially underway, and what better way to start the season than to beat the Bears? And the best part? I get the double win in the morning when I get to ride to work and listen to Chicago sports talk radio rehash the game!

We had fun at the 57th Street Children’s Book Festival over the weekend. Every year that we go, Evie enjoys it a little bit more as she gets old enough to appreciate the events. We listened to a story teller, made a crown, dug for pirate treasure, attended a music class, watched a dance troupe, painted and glued a paper box, and danced to some music (including jumping on some bubble wrap). Side note, Sara said, “Jeeze, there sure are a lot of pirate themed things here.” When will people realize, it is not me who is obsessed with pirates, but rather all rational human beings who are obsessed with pirates when confronted with their awesomeness.

Finally, the other day I opened the back door to discover an enormous spider web over the opening, trapping us inside. Right in the middle of the web, directly at eye level, sat Lillith the spider queen, bigger’n a quarter. I quickly slammed the door shut before she could spray venom in my eyes. Now I ask you, what could that mean with the web directly across the door opening like that, other than this enormous spider was trying to catch humans? Finally I took it out with a broom, shrieking and cursing the whole time. The spider sat for a while on the porch, memorizing my face before slowly sauntering under a potted plant. I could have squished her with the broom (at least so I told myself…that was a big spider) but do I really need the wrath of all the spiders in the world for killing their queen? No sir, I do not. So I let her go and the next day she had spun her human trap over Evie’s chair on the porch. That’s right, I put a little fear into her and she decided to try for smaller prey. Me 1, spider queen 0.

Baby’s first movie

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Over the weekend we took Evie to the Museum of Science and Industry and she had a blast. She loved seeing the trains and the chicks hatching. She learned a new train word, caboose, or as she likes to put it “kaboom!” But of course, being a little kid, she enjoyed other things such as walking up the stairs just as much as the actual exhibits. When recounting all the best parts of the day, she always made sure to include “Red stairs!” in the list. Unfortunately the children’s area was closed for renovation, but on the other hand had it been open I’m sure we wouldn’t have been allowed to leave.  All in all a highlight of the weekend and a great way to spend a rainy day.

While we were there, we saw “Wild Ocean” on the Omnimax. Perhaps it was a bit overwhelming as a first movie experience, but I think Evie liked it overall.

It certainly delivered on the promise of “fishies and sharks” (although not too many sharks actually). She was actually more into the above water scenes, recounting for me her memories of the “people dancing and singing” and “high place, high up place” for some of the (I assume) helicopter shots. I think she was a little scared during some of the underwater scenes and repeatedly called for them to “turn the light!” We assumed we would only stay for a few minutes before she got too antsy and we had to leave, but she was really good. Several times I thought she was asleep, only to look over and see her staring at the screen enraptured, with a forgotten cookie clenched in her fist. Eventually she did fall asleep, but I think she watched at least 30 minutes. She even applauded during a few scenes. I’m sure she would have liked to stay awake, but it was well past her usual nap time.

So I think it is a safe bet that she enjoyed it and I’m sure she would thank her grandma and grandpa for the money for the family pass if she had any sort of concept of money and stuff. We will certainly be back.