Opening Al Capone's Vault

Storm Watch 07

I took these on the way to work this morning. I'm pretty damn shocked at the extent of the damage the storms have caused the last few days.

When Goats Attack

I just want to warn everybody about this dire threat facing patrons of petting zoos. They my look docile, but really, they're vicious.

I'm talking about goats.

Fair waring, the pictures you are about to see may shock you.

They start out nice. They'll let you pet them or brush them. You'll snap pictures like this that should bring back fond memories of a day at the zoo:



But then, BAM!! They're trying to eat your pants. Citizen Nick Word center managed to get this attack on camera:

Here's a close-up of this little monster in action:

Terrible. Luckily, the victim of this attack got away with her life. Unfortunately, the pants were covered in goat saliva:

You have been warned.

I'm not dead, yet

I've been a blogging bum lately and for that, I apologize. We're entering bike touring season so I'll have a lot to talk about since that's one of the main topics of this blog.

Anyway, as more evidence of my bum-i-ness, here are some pictures that I uploaded around memorial day weekend. They've of our new neighborhood grocery store, Strack and Van Til (Which I shall refer to as Strack and Van Tils in the Chicago fashion).

I know he opening of a grocery store isn't hip enough for blogging, but if you live in Logan Square, you know what a pain in the ass it is since Cub (or again, Cubs) closed down.

So far it seems like this Indiana-based grocery chain has their act together. My biggest complaint is that they don't seem to ever have heavy whipping cream, an essential ingredient to our homemade ice cream. The store is is a lot more pleasant to be in that Cubs was. Cubs had more of a sterile warehouse aesthetic compared to Van Tils' homey Hoosier charm.

You new friendly GIGANTIC neighborhood market.


This picture is skewed because Clare was overwhelmed with value while she took it.


Clare shopping in Hoosier charm.

The Mystery of the Cell Phone

No, this isn't a new Hardy Boys book, it's the tale of my lost phone.

I went to Philadelphia this weekend for a work-related seminar. On Friday morning while riding the blue line to O'Hare, I received a phone call. That's the last time I saw my phone.

I didn't notice it was missing until after I had been through security at the airport. I assumed at that point that I had lost it while going through the metal detectors. The TSA workers were incredibly unhelpful. They ran our bags thought the x-ray machine three times to see if the phone was still in my bag before they would look around the checkpoint for it.

After arriving in Philly, I had the phone shut off so that if someone found it, they couldn't run up my bill.

After coming back to Chicago, TSA was once again very unhelpful. I was told to call them Monday morning.

Luckily, I didn't have to deal with those bone heads. Waiting on my voice mail at work was a message from my step mother. She had received a call over the weekend from a guy that had found my phone. He looked in my phonebook and found the number listed under "Dad" and called it.

I was very relieved and met up with the guy last night. He was very nice and I appreciate the fact that he held on to my phone for me.

The oddest part of this whole thing was where he found it. Apparently, it was on the roof of a parked car at Adams and Michigan. For non-Chicagoans out there, this is a long way from where I last saw it. Trust me.

I've been running scenarios in my head of how it got from point A to Point B. I'm also holding my breath to see what kind of damage I'm going to see on my phone bill next month.

As for Philly, What great city. More on that next time...

Everything is Coming Up Dio!

Clare and I took a trip to Galesburg, IL this weekend. I went to school at Knox College and have fond memories of Galesburg (most of which proved to be false memories). I figured I'd take Clare and show her around my old stomping grounds. Anyway, more on that later...

While browsing at one of Galesburg's many antique stores, I came across a copy of Dio's Last in Line. I always remember the video for the title track creeping me out as a kid. Plus, my record collection is sorely lacking in the metal department, so I bought it.

Come Monday, I e-mailed this fact to my friend and metal aficionado, Chris. He sent me back this comment:

In the last week I have heard Rainbow's "man in the silver mountain" twice. In a bar in Chicago and on the radio at the gym. Who ever plays Rainbow songs? Dio is awesome

Then, since odd things come in threes, I stumbled across this blog dedicated to Dio. The strange part of it is, I wasn't looking for a Dio blog. I just clicked the "next blog" button on the top of my blog a couple of times and before I knew it, SUPERMEGADIO was staring back at me.

It's just odd...

More on Galesburg next time.