warmth
It's currently 70 deg F in Chicago. I was able to get out for about 30 minutes today during lunch, which was nice.
Things haven't been going very well at work recently. I'm hoping the weekend will allow me to clear my head, control the fear, and basically relax.
oh the humanity!
Babysitting Lauren on Saturday. The duck didn't stand a chance, but thankfully the other animals made it out unscathed.
just my luck…
This week is looking to be spectacular in terms of temperatures.
Monday: mid 40's.
Tuesday: upper 40's.
Wednesday: lower 50's.
Thursday: upper 50's/lower 60's.
Friday: lower 60's.
And I have to work through lunch today, tomorrow, and Wednesday (or Thursday). Three prime walking days gone. One day, however, I'm going to head down to Millennium Park to meet my cousin Steve for lunch. That'll be nice.
(Of course, these temps may not hold true but the potential is there.)
there was no lantern in the shed…
Last night, 
helloheather and I went to a talk at the CL Public Library. The topic was the architect Daniel Burnham who's most noted for designing and overseeing the construction of the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposistion in Chicago (but whose accolades certainly do not start or end there).
Chicago has one of, if not the, greatest collection of architecture styles in the world. And this is due almost entirely to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. While it destroyed over 18,000 buildings in just 3 days time, the fire granted the city a clean slate from which to design and rebuild.
As it turns out, the fire started at the corner of S. Jefferson St. and W De Koven St. which is just about 1.4 miles from work. I couldn't ask for a better excuse to go for a walk during lunch. And so, with the sun out and the temps at 40 deg F, off I went. What's there today, one might ask?
The Chicago Fire Department Academy, where new firefighters are trained.
click for a larger view
The sculpture marks the location where the fire started. Around back, I saw new firefighters being instructed on the use of ladders. It was a neat walk and is an excellent bit of history.
St. Pat’s by way of Indy
We headed to Indianapolis this past weekend.
Highlights:
1) I only flooded one bathroom with toilet water.
2) I picked Ketel One over Christiana in the vodka tasting.
3) Scotch Eggs at the Broad Ripple Brew Pub.
4) Our A80 rolled over the 20,000 exposures mark.
I miscalculated due to the fact that Canon cameras roll over at 9900 not 9999. As this will be our second roll over, I forgot that I need to subtract by 200 and not 100. Our current image count is 162 making the total number of photos so far: 19,962)
5) helloheather's car rolled over 75,000 miles.
6) Babies!
7) A Singapore Air 747 only a couple hundred feet above us as it took off from ORD. (Hey, it was neat and loud.)
Lots of friends.
9) Listening to my Best of SXSW - 2005 mp3 CD during the drive.
evil lair or place of employment?
In the movies, when the hero is trapped in a room, most of the time the villain will start pumping in the toxic gas. There must be some sort standard "toxic gas pumping into room" system because pretty much each time this is done, the sound is the same. The hissing sound that builds in intensity as more and more gas obscures our hero from view.
Whatever contractor or group of contractors does this villainous work also installed the HVAC system at my company. Every single time the air or heat turns on, I wonder if maybe, just maybe, I should have a gas mask in the cube and, if I did have one, how quickly I could get it on before dropping dead of asphyxiation.
Charlotte
I added three new photos to the Charlotte Elizabeth album on our photo gallery from when Aaron, Serena, and Charlotte visited us a couple weeks ago:
winding loops
On Thursday I heard, but did not see, my first robin of the year. Today, while removing painters tape from the guest bedroom walls, I saw my first robin, hopping around, looking for a good meal. The temps have been so nice today and we've had the windows open getting in as much fresh air as we can 
Friday I walked through the Fulton Market district of Chicago. It's an area I've been to before, but never this far west (I made it to Ogden). It's a really neat part of the city and the photographic opportunities were just throwing themselves at me. I had a great time.
Today I sat down to watch part of the latest issue of my DVD magazine from Luminous Landscape. Of particular interest was the segment on street shooting (in this case, in China). Michael Reichmann discusses a bit about what it takes to overcome the intimidation some people feel in photographing people in public. This is something I've mentioned here before and I've not made any headway in remedying the problem. Reichmann's comments have prompted me to think more critically about what my hangups are with this type of street photography. One of his suggestions is to do what I've been doing for some weeks now: shoot in the streets but photograph inanimate objects.
I have tended towards details and textures and elements of form and repetition of form in my photography from these walks. I think, in terms of (for a lack of better words) urban landscapes, I'm slowly refining my eye through this daily, or near daily, practice. Of course, what I don't want to do is to get completely locked into these objects at the expense of other types of photography. I can see this as becoming a way to avoid photographing people instead of challenging myself to do so.
So far it's not been really nice enough to haul out the Holga with the Polaroid back. The temps are still a little cool for developing (and the winds a little strong for trying to hold onto a print before peeling it). I had hoped to take it out today, but the moments of sun were so fleeting, that it just wasn't possible.
We're off to our last play of the season at Chicago's Shakespeare Theater in a little bit. In addition to being the end of the seasion, this will mark the end of our involvement with the theater as well. We have been season ticket holders since it opened and have really enjoyed going to these plays. However, with parenthood looming and prices rising, we felt like perhaps it was time to re-prioritize. If you do get a chance to go to a play there (I don't think tickets for individual plays are difficult to get) I would recommend it.
losing the light
In this case, the subject is not about sunsets, but about the changing of the seasons.
As winter retreats, the sun returns. In December and January (and even mostly through February) the sun (in these northern latitudes) stays fairly low in the southern sky. This makes for really quite decent light mid-day as it tends to be warmer (in tone) and produces pleasing shadows. This, of course, is relative to the exceptional light around sunrise and sunset.
But it's a lot better than the bright, directly overhead, sun of mid-day July.
I've been walking an average of 3 miles a day during my lunch hour, usually 3 to 4 days a week. And so I've made it a point to observe the quality of the light over time. Diagnosis: it's getting worse. Today, for example, I walked into the South Loop again, down near Roosevelt Rd and then back through The Loop. Nearly every time I raised the camera to take a picture, I found myself wondering why the light was so harsh, the contrast so high, and the photo so unappealing. Something about seeing the photo through the eye of the camera caused my brain to realize what I was really looking at, instead of what I had constructed in my mind just seconds before.
So, as the temperatures continue to rise and the sun continues its northernly climb, decent photography during lunch will be increasingly more difficult. A challenge to be certain. I'll soon be able to switch back to my Polaroid Holga, and shoot with lower-contrast film, something I've been looking forward to since this fall.
The weekend, from my perspective
Much was done this weekend thanks to our wonderful friends.
The guest room is painted (save 2" in 2 corners which will be done this week) and it looks great. Thanks to everyone that came over!
We attended the yearly Rotary Club charity dinner and auction Saturday evening. gonj seemed rather surprised when he won all the beer this year. So, in the past three years, someone(s) at our table has won it twice. Go us! Gonj said he'll provide the beer for our St. Patty's day party in a couple of weeks.
(For an approximation of the amount of beer he won, see this photo from our 2004 win: http://www.bernhard.us/photos/rotary2004/abv but add two more mini-kegs and four more individual over-sized bottles like the Grolsch in the front row.)
Charlotte is a very happy baby and was a lot of fun. She cried once that I heard, and maybe once more in the middle of the night and that's it. She was very accepting of other people and, as helloheather pointed out, very keen on gripping your hand and putting a finger or two in her mouth. Double extra points for cuteness.
I felt our baby give a good solid kick this morning. And then, during the middle of my normal Monday morning 9am meeting, my stomach/intestines gurgled so loudly people on either side of me looked around the room thinking something was wrong. So, I guess we both have interesting things going on in that area of our bodies. I'm not sure, but I think helloheather's happenings are more important and more likely to be cute...
Oh, and it snowed a fair bit yesterday. Thank you March!