Well, it looks like the Brewers will lose to the hated Cubs tonight. Still, I’m not worried, as the reasons behind our loss (Weeks’ throwing error, Torres’ walks) can be corrected. We’re a young team. We’ll get our shit together. Still, I’m kind of wired and I wish I could go see a movie or something but all the movies started a half hour ago. Oh well.

We spent today in Chicago for T’s birthday (although yesterday was officially T’s birthday). N slept late so we didn’t get on the road until 9:30AM but traffic wasn’t bad and we reached the Shedd Aquarium parking lot (the one next to Soldier Field) by 11:30. The boys liked driving down Monroe past the tall buildings. N leaned back in his seat and peered up at the skyscrapers. Very cute. We walked across the museum campus to the aquarium and cut through the members’ entrance. Yes, we have a membership. I think M’s mom paid for it. I’m not sure. I’m glad we had the membership because the Shedd is a rip-off. I believe we would have paid over 100 bucks for our entire family and I can’t say the space is much better than the fish building at the (totally cool) Milwaukee Zoo. Plus, the people seem so desperate for wildlife. C’mon, I know you people live in the city, but they’re fish. The space was hot and crowded. I guess the oceanarium is cool. We saw a hawk get trained for shows. T and S wanted to fly through the aquarium parts but N and M were more interested in each section so they took their time. Still, over 100 bucks? Not worth it.

After we left the Shedd the boys were hungry. They pretty much devoured their food in the car which worked out pretty well since we visited Millennium Park next. We parked underground and cut through the prairie garden or whatever (very cool, I don’t want to minimize it) to the “bean” plaza. I don’t know if the boys were impressed by the bean but I love the sculpture. We took some pics (see below) but the boys were in a hurry to get to the gargoyle water. At first T in particular wasn’t too keen on getting wet but once they were in the crowd they had fun. T figured out exactly where to stand when the faces “spit” water out. Man, there’s nothing as cool as watching your kids play in the water in downtown Chicago. I loved it. We cut back through the park and over the curvy bridge but the kids were soaked so we hit the van for towels. The afternoon was still young so we drove north on Lake Shore Drive to Irving and showed the kids where we used to live. I told them to give Wrigley Field the finger when we drove past. Roscoe Village still looks pretty much the same but Bob and Edna’s house, right next to our Seeley apartment, is demolished. I doubt Bob and Edna are still alive. They were both ancient eleven years ago. Bob and I had an unspoken rivalry for the best parking spaces on the block. He usually won. Well played, Bob. After leaving Roscoe Village M wanted to show the boys the first school at which she worked, which took us way out of our way, but I didn’t mind. I also resisted Taco and Burrito House. I should back in the city in a few weeks and I’ll catch up on burritos then. We jumped on the Edens at Montrose and fought traffic north. The kids were bored, of course, and I eventually had to raise my voice and pull over to get S to switch to a back seat lest he fuck with N the entire trip. We arrived home by about 5:30. Decent trip.

Maybe I’ll meditate now. I could use the practice after the Brew loss. Good night. Oh, pictures below, of course.