New Sam Videos

Sam flying and playing with his buddy Ben.


Sam is learning to sit up on his own and loves making noise with an envelope.


Sam is showing us his future swimming prowess.

Chicago

We had quite the adventure last weekend when we went to Chicago for the American Library Associations annual conference and to visit family and friends. There were 4 other people from Louisville who went up with us and we all stayed together in a short term rental apartment in the Lincoln Park neighborhood (which was really nice).

Mom, Dad, and Britta came down in Friday afternoon and we all went to visit Grandpa on Friday night and then returned to the apartment on Saturday. It was really nice to see Grandpa, to get a chance to talk with him, and let him have some time with Sam. Saturday afternoon we all met up with Hillary and Lindsay to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, Kate had meetings at the conference.

The time was nice, but it was pretty hectic trying to do all of the stuff that we wanted to and getting to the places that we wanted to be proved the biggest headache of all.

Sunday afternoon Sam and I took the bus down to meet Kate and then we all met Mom, Dad, and B at the Millenium Park to go see the giant silver coffeebean (really called the Cloud Gate). It was pretty cool (maybe it is Chicago's answer to the the golden unhco (sp?) in Tokyo).

Sunday night we met up with our friend Anna, who went to Earlham with us. It was nice to see her as it had been a few years since we had seen her. I tried true Chicago style pizza for the first, when we got take out from a local pizzaria. Unfortunately, Sam developed a fever on Sunday night and was not feeling well still on Monday

We all went to the conference on Monday and Sam and I hung out while Kate had a couple of meetings. Anna met us there and took us to the airport. Sam got to ride a plane for the first time, but was so tired out from the weekend that he was kind of out of it on the trip home, as you can see from the last picture.

Lincoln Park Zoo Part 1

Last Saturday, while we (Kate, Sam, and I plus Mom, Dad, and B) were in Chicago, we met up with Hillary and Lindsay (they both live in the Lincoln Park neighborhood where we were staying), and spent the afternoon with them. It was very nice to see them and have them meet Sam.

We decided to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo as it was close by and it was a beautiful day out. It was a nice zoo and Sam enjoyed looking at the animals (well, we all did really).

The lion sitting out in the sun was by far the best picture moment that we had. It was pretty funny (the lion, that is) just basking in the sun posing for all the people taking pictures.

Sam was wondering what they were trying to catch with the giant lure that dropped into the water while we were watching some African fish.

After we went finished with the zoo, we went over to Hillary's condo and then out to dinner with them.

Lincoln Park Zoo Part 2

Here are some more pictures from our visit to the zoo. The meerkats were pretty funny, they just sat there watching all of the people looking at them.

Chicago Bikes

Okay, so I could have taken alot more pictures of bikes while we were in Chicago, though none of them would be as cool as the Tokyo bikes (there were no 3Renshos to be seen on Clark St.).

This first one is obviously some sort of delivery bike, and if I remember correctly I think it was parked in front of a Chinese fastfood place. I wonder how the steering works.

The other pictures are from the Cycle Smithy, a nice bike shop just down the street from the place we were staying. The coolest thing about the shop were all of the classic bikes that were hanging from the ceiling. I would have taken more, but felt a little weird wondering around the shop kneeling in strange poses trying to get pictures of the full bikes. So I ended up taking only a few of the most interesting old race bikes.

The first one is a picture of the old Campy rod-actuated shifting set up that was developed years before the first derailuer. The second is a picture of the full bike.

The other picture is of a Myata with full Shimano AX Dura Ace groupo, which was only made for about a year (1982), and while advanced for its day, it had too many foibiles to save it from being axed.

Buy a watch from a Tough Guy

Sam was excited this weekend to try out his baby backpack. He says that he feels really tough riding up so high, and he sure shows it, by flexing his muscles like that. He is so big already that we had to put the harness on the lowest setting, and move the shoulder straps to the top of the pack. Hopefully he will continue to like it when we head up to Chicago this weekend.

Summer is in full swing in Indiana and the spring wheat has been cut.

I realized a stupid life-long goal with weekend and got a fake Rolex watch, thanks to Charlton's parents - Thanks, Charlest and Selene.
Fake Rolexs have always seemed to me to be the epitamy of the fake products (plus all the bad old movie lines about seedy guys trying to sell people watches from their trench coats), and so one time when Charlton was telling me about all the counterfeit stuff that is available from the markets in Dubai, I asked him if you could get a fake Rolex, and he said yeah there were lots of them. So, anyway, I asked him to ask his parents to get me one the next time they came to visit, and low and behold they did.
It is pretty amazing how close to real it looks.
(In all honesty it is probably the nicest watch I have owned, which is not many - so I am actually wearing it).

Feeding Sam

Today was a big day in young Samuel's life, he tried solid food for the first time (well it was semi-solid really). He has been watching us eat for several days now and making chewing motions, so we thought that we would try giving him some adult food. Actually it was more like gruel, though with bananas mixed in. He seemed to be pretty undecided about it. About half of what we gave him ended up either on his chin or bib. But he did say that he wanted to try Yebisu Creamy Top Stout some day soon.

Here's a good summer post! The new Yebisu beer: Creamy Top Stout. I'm guessing it's only available on tap, since I haven't seen it advertised and since I don't see how it could be the same out of a can, but I'll keep my eyes open for it in the stores (especially since it's pricey in the pubs). But it was a nice companion to dinner outside last night in Hibya Park in central Tokyo. (I would have preferred human company, but it was not to be.) Hibya Park was once part of the Imperial Palace gardens and it's actually quite a nice space, with European roses gardens and Japanese ponds and rocks. Also there are four or five restaurants and cafes spread out throughout the park with some of the nicest views of any restaurants in Tokyo. Since Hibya Park is in the middle of the finacial and governmental districts, it's not really a very fashionable place or a weekend destination, but the fact that it's relatively less crowded adds to it's charms. Definitely a destination for visitors to Tokyo, as long as the Yebisu's still on tap!