Why don'tcha just leave me alone?

My iPod ran out of battery juice halfway through the first of my normal 6 laps around the park on today's lunch break.

Here's where I confess that I do NOT like talking to strangers. I especially don't enjoy it whilst huffing my way through 3 miles in under 50 minutes while trying not to get so sweaty that my coworkers complain about the smell.

Instead of dropping the extra iPod weight on my next pass by the car, I kept the iPod and the headphones as protection. I even hummed along to an imaginary song while passing by an old man on a park bench who often tries to reign me in with a "Hi, how ya doin'?".

As long as I don't make eye contact, it's perfectly acceptable for me to keep walking right on by. I'm not ignoring anyone because I have my headphones on, so how can I hear you asking me, "How about this weather, eh?". (That's a crotchety old man, "eh?", not a Canadian, "aye?" cause I do have a special place in my heart for all Canadians and it's filled with Tim Horton's coffee and maple syrup.)

I know it may seem anti-social and weird, but I like to think of it as "focused" and "creatively avoiding useless conversations with creepy old people".

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Ladies and gentlemen,

We have our first ripe tomato of the season!



Now I have to use them all before they sprout fangs and start an incredibly lame animated series.

Land of Beer and Cheese

I went to Milwaukee last weekend.

I drank some beers.

Learned how beer is mass produced in a gigantic brewery.

Drank more beer.

Watched the Brewers win from some awesome seats.

Had an impromptu photo shoot in a baseball glove (may have had a little something to do with the surplus of beers).

Won the sausage race and some free ice cream (soft serve in a baseball helmet!!! Thanks, Bri-Bri!) because the Bratwurst is the greatest sausage of them all.

Drank more delicious craft beer.

With all the imbibing going on, you can totally see how these pictures happened.



Conclusion?

Milwaukee = Exercise for your liver

Monkey See...

It's amazing how much time we spend on the floor these days.

Wanderlust

I spent the first 10 minutes of my morning gazing wistfully at my computer desktop background.



Then I spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out the fastest way I could get back to Colorado.

A good way to lose your fingers

Slap my hand as I reach for the tenth miniature Snickers I bought on my lunch break and tell me you're "only looking out for me".

Phat Cross-stitch Bitch!

Now this is some crafting I can get behind.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No really, it's just a plane.

Spent most of Saturday morning and into the afternoon alternating between straining my neck by looking straight up in the sky and ducking for cover from jet engine noise.

That's right, I finally made it down to Chicago's Air & Water Show. Normally, the idea of being squeezed onto a beach with 2 million people is enough to keep me away, but not this year!

We stayed away from the beach crowds and found a nice, green, shady spot in the park just far enough away from masses of humanity to still have a great view.

The show started with a bunch of parachuters who weren't quite as loud as the jets we'd been hearing practice all week, so it took us quite some time to realize we should look up.

It was nice that they all set themselves on fire so we could keep track of their downward progress, right?

Being farther away, we couldn't hear the audio commentary, so I have no idea what type of planes these are, but they were my favorite. My friend Nikki, thought she overheard "Ranger" so that's what we called them.

Ranger Danger! from Kristin Sutter on Vimeo.
I like how this video sort of leads you to believe there was a fiery crash behind that tree.

These guys were amazing. They flew so close together that I actually gasped at what seemed like incredibly close calls. They were really good at drawing as well.

Aww! And that's not all they were good for! Hows about some graceful loops?

Chicago Air & Water Show '08 from Kristin Sutter on Vimeo.
That video is kind of hypnotic. Maybe United had them pipe subliminal messages over the speakers at this point to try and get some customers back from Southwest.

Of course, the men liked the jets.

J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets Jets! from Kristin Sutter on Vimeo.
I know this looks like one of those bad UFO videos, but there are no strings here, folks. Just billions of taxpayer dollars for your enjoyment!

The big jets annoyed more than amused. Mostly because the noise rattled my teeth in my skull, but also because I knew they were the reason Milo was huddled, terrified under our bed all weekend.

Don't worry, I covered his ears when I could, but he still had that wild "When are the bombs gonna drop?!?! OHMYGOD SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP!" look in his eyes.


The jets are gone now, and he's back to normal. That is, until the next thunderstorm/tornado/firecracker/car alarm/butterfly fluttering past the window.

Do they make doggie Xanax?

How do I know it's time to clean out the closet?

When someone mentions I'm really getting past the age where it's okay to keep a stained skirt even though said stain is "covered by a pleat in the skirt, so you can't really see it."

Whatever, snob. It's Monday. You should be thankful I showered today.

How I know I got a good one

When there are only two pieces of bread left, he takes the heel and leaves me the good slice.

Gee-tar Show

Last night was Andy's "graduation" from the guitar class I got him for his birthday this year.

Graduation my ass. That shit was a straight up recital. I would know after all. There was the one tap and ballet recital I had before realizing tap dancing requires real coordination, not just slapping your feet on the floor as fast as possible while making frantic windmill circles with your arms. (Which is still how I tap dance today.)

It was really cool to see all these people who'd never really played guitar before strumming along to Bob Dylan.

Incredibly, I wasn't sick of the song after hearing Andy practice it all week. They sounded great, but don't take my word for it.

Because I remembered that my camera has a pretty good video setting...

Andy's Recital from Kristin Sutter on Vimeo.
**Please note my phenomenal directorial video skillz with the "zoom" and the "panning" from side to side. I'm a natural, I know.

I almost recorded the full song, but decided I wanted some photos too, so I kept it to just the first two verses.

Try to ignore my school-girl "Woooo!" at the end there. I always was a sucker for a man with a guitar.

Also Annoying

You, 7-foot-tall man who decided that out of the entire empty front row of seats, you had to sit your jolly giant ass directly in front of me and my camera.

I'll move and be able to see, but you'll always be freakishly tall and kind of a dick.

Annoying

People who think their address should be recognized as an accomplishment.

Anyone can change locations.

New York, New York

It turns out that I absolutely do like New York.

The little that we had time to see just made me want to come back and visit again!

My favorite part of the trip had to be seeing RENT on Broadway. (Kate, you are the BEST cousin in the world for making this happen!)

The theater was TINY so every seat was amazing. Kate snuck this photo with her new iPhone which turned out to be the most helpful gadget of the weekend.

I gotta admit, I was pretty emotionally involved in the performance even though this was the third time I'd seen the show. Bravo, NYC cast!

We went to a Saturday matinee, so after the show we headed to the West Village and Magnolia Bakery for some cupcakes, best ever banana pudding and a little Sara Jessica Parker stalking.

These actually tasted even better than they looked. The banana pudding was the real show-stopper though. We ate on a stoop around the corner from the bakery and conveniently across the street from SJP's house hoping to nonchalantly bump into her or Matt.

No such luck by the time we'd finished a round of cupcakes and some iced coffee, so we headed back to Mike's place in Brooklyn to get ready for a night out.

We went to a Brooklyn bar with old arcade games and a great beer selection called Barcade. I played Q-Bert and gathered a bit of a crowd with my awesome Ms. Pacman playing. I only got that good trying to keep up with my sister, the Ms. Pacman phenom, in my dad's basement so thanks, Jenn.

After game time, we headed to a place that gave you a free pizza with every drink! I know, right? Why doesn't Chicago have this marketing genius?

The next day we went to MOMA and got to meet up with Amy and Keith! Hooray!

I was so happy we got to see them, and got to see an interesting exhibit on pre-fab houses. (That gold cube behind us is actually a tent/shelter invention.)

We also got to see lots of famous art I've only seen in books or movies like Warhol's soup cans.

A Picasso you might recognize.

Monet's Water Lilies.

And an Andrew Wyeth painting I did a paper on for my Comparative Arts class freshman year of college.

The MOMA was an incredible museum and even though we were there for over 5 hours, I still felt like I could have used more time to wander.

That night we stayed in Manhattan and started off the evening of drinks with a couple beers from McSorely's, the oldest bar in Manhattan. They only had two beers, porter and lager.

Those drinks were the first of many that led to quite a few photos like this:

Yep, that's skeeball in the background. I think you know it's gonna be a good night when skeeball is involved.

The next morning, we stumbled our way through Soho and I regrettably only made a few purchases. I blame the hangover and the lack of time, but I loved the area and want to go back!

Thanks for the good time, Katie and Miguel!