What can I say about Nate at five years of age that he can't say about himself? Not much, really. He's so very articulate; so polite; so interested in science, in nature, and in learning in general. Hardly a day goes by that he doesn't bring up some amazing fact he's learned recently. Just tonight he started talking about gravity and how, without gravity we would just float around, and how he wishes he could turn off gravity and we could fly off into space.

I'm right there with you, Nate. Right there.

Nate, June 2011

He's turned into quite the wrestling mat for Lily. She loves to pounce and sit on him and he loves to have her do it. The two of them get along so well. You can see the admiration she already has for him. Sometimes he forgets that she's only nearly 15 months old, but then again, most of the time so does she.

I'm very grateful that he's not only kept, but grown his interest in books over the years. And it shows in his budding reading skills. And also, much to my chagrin, a marked increase in listening comprehension when it comes to intercepting and interpreting "mom & dad" code(s). He's a regular Enigma, I tell you.

Nate and Issac, June 2011

Five years old is going to be an amazing year, I can already tell. I'm so looking forward to it.

Nate, July 4, 2006

As helloheather recently pointed out in her post, the drive went well, with a long stop on the way down and shorter stop on the way back. Both kids did really well in the car and the weather for the drive was excellent. We made it an extended weekend, which was helloheather's idea and what a great one it was. So much more relaxing. The photo above was taken at Fort Harrison State Park which we visited, briefly, on Sunday afternoon. It looked so beautiful out that we felt we had to visit, but it turned out to be quite chilly in the wind. Still, a good time was had and now we've got a really close-by spot to go to next time we're down in Indy.

For the first time in many years I've uploaded photos from the weekend, 33 in all. Captions to follow:

http://bernhard.us/photos/v/holidays/stpats/stpats2011

I can't wait to go back.

*I say seemed because it's hard to tell if it was really just me that was more relaxed by the whole thing.

Not only are they putting in turn lanes and lights at much needed locations, they’re also building a bike path from, essentially, the high school to Veterans Acres Park. Which means we’ll (eventually) be able to ride our bikes on neighborhood roads almost the entire way to the park with only a short section of a “can-be-busy” road to ride on.

But it’s a bit of a ways off...not until next summer will the bike path be ready, baring any more delays from weather or labor disputes.

The one down side to all this construction was the need to remove a lot of trees along Walkup. Some of the trunks were easily 5 feet in diameter and the loss has removed a lot of shade and beauty from the roadway. So, that’s a bummer. Maybe they’ll plant some new trees along the bike path (one can hope).

Overall progress can be tracked on the construction project’s website:
http://www.walkuproad.info/

Very very slick.

So imagine my joy at being stopped at the crossing by the very train I take because it was 5 minutes early. And, of course, because it was 5 minutes early, it just sat there and waited for 5 minutes. And so I sat there, on the wrong side of the tracks, unable to move, and watched my train leave the station on time.

I'm sure my boss was really pleased to hear my voicemail this morning explaining how I was going to be late because I missed my train.

After having such a good week last week, this week has been really difficult and stressful. I'm glad it will be over soon.

Sandisk will not issue a RMA because "physical damage" is not covered by the warranty. They, of course, don't care that (in all likelihood) it was their own card reader that caused these problems. It's frustrating because this was a gift last Christmas and a higher speed one at that.

So I guess we'll have to buy a new card. Though, I'm tempted to just remove the remaining three pieces of plastic and see if the card will still work in our camera and card reader.

Happily, and somewhat surprisingly, two of my photos were selected for the photo essay:

http://gapersblock.com/detour/photo/20081020_transitions/ ( #3 and #7 )

So, after work on Monday, I headed down to the Express DMV facility in Chicago's Loop. It's about 5 blocks east of where I work.

I was able to walk the 5 blocks there, take my eye test, fill out the renewal form, answer questions, pay my $10, have my photo taken, receive my new license, and walk the 7 blocks west to get to the train station, and board the train in, get this:

Twenty-five minutes.

And so..."phule" it was and, for the most part, "phule" it's been ever since. It's difficult to comprehend that I've been using the handle for 18 years. (Though, as many know, I've been a fool for 33...)

Robert Asprin passed away, rather unexpectedly as I understand it, on Thursday. May he rest in peace.

The evening started on their balcony, which is on the south side of Navy Pier while finger-food and drinks were available in the adjacent meeting room. I sat at a table with Torey Malatia, who is the president and general manager of the station but I was mostly a silent observer. I also met a favorite photographer of mine, metroblossom (who is also the managing editor at GapersBlock.com).

Station tours were given in small groups and a brief presentation of the new Image Archives feature of the WBEZ web page was demonstrated. Thanks to Andrew Gill, who manages the photo submittal and selection process, for highlighting my images in his presentation

Here's the link to all the photos I've had on the home page:
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Daily_Photo_Photographers.aspx?last_name=Bernhard&first_name=Rob

You can view the archive of all photos here:
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Daily_Photo.aspx