North Carolina: December 4-7, 2009

Photographic evidence of Cindi and Lindsay stealing my laptop.
See the rest of the photos so far, HERE.

NJ/NYC photos at last

See photos from the NJ surprise wedding and Julia's birthday trek into NYC by clicking HERE.

Chicago: July 9-13, 2009

A few weeks ago, we went to Chicago primarily to go to Julia's brother David's art show opening at The Center on Halsted. David is one of the nicest, coolest guys in the world and his art is also extremely cool. What makes it even more special is the fact that David is legally blind. He lost his left eye to injury as a teen and has macular degeneration in the right eye. As much as that totally sucks, David perseveres and continues his work as an exceptional artist. He's more of a man that I am, that's for sure. If that were me, I'd be sitting in a dark room crying large salty tears while Gothically listening to The Cure on my iPod and screaming "woe is me." Not David Simpson. He's a badass.

Check out his art by clicking HERE.

Badass blind artist alert! Look away if you can't handle it.

By the way, we bought “Beseeching Kolnikov”. I loved it when I saw it when we visited David in May while we were there for the Bike the Drive. You know, where I didn't almost die on the bike ride over the bridge on Lakeshore Drive this year.

The other reason we went was for, of course, baseball. The Cards were in town playing the Cubs in a four-game set. We stayed with Julia's brother, Peter, who lives less than a mile from Wrigley Field. This is the part where I have to say how cool Peter is. One reason is because if I don't, he'll get his feelings hurt if I don't mention him. Also, if it wasn't for Peter Simpson, I would not be the proud owner of a Jack Spade manbag, an item I couldn't really live without. He pretends to like me so I that he can call the help desk (me) whenever he's having computer or other electronic issues.

Anyway, as I said, Peter lives less than a mile from Wrigley Field. We didn't have tickets for the Friday or Saturday games and didn't feel like paying $95 for upper-deck seats, so we watched them on TV from the comfort of Peter's 20 square foot apartment. You know what though? It really sucks to be that close to Wrigley and watch the game on TV. I never want to do that again.
Our friends, Meg and Pat, came up over the weekend and joined us for the double-header on Sunday. We got scalped tickets for the day game and watched the night game from the roof of the Sheffield Baseball Club across the street in right field. It was much better than I ever thought it would or could be. Other than the fact that the Cards split the series, it was a great weekend.

Click HERE to see the rest of the photos.