* I can't believe I didn't know about bloglines before. Suddenly I am saving all kinds of time. Dang.
* I love the Art Institute. This was one of my great "finds" of this week's visit. Raffaello Botticini's Adoration of the Magi, painted around the turn of the 15/16th century. Crazy.
That's quite a "stable." One of the cool things about this is that it's round (duh). Also cool is that painters of this period often, apparently, make the point that people have traveled a long way by putting things in their "procession"--so there's a giraffe hanging out, an African, a peacock, and all kinds of exotic stuff. And, of course, everyone (Mary included) is wearing middle class medieval european dress. funny! But cool. it's a beautiful painting.
I noticed on Friday that the Medieval Christian stuff like reliquaries and mass-ware (like communion-ware, only Catholic!) and devotional statues and stuff are in a big hall that also houses all the armor and armaments from the same time period. How funny and sadly accurate a picture of the medieval church that is. John the Baptist's finger on one side, spears and armor on the other.
* The Devil Wears Prada was a better movie than I expected.
* Wicked the Musical has a happy ending where the book does not.
* There's a strange wildlife phenomenon here. I live in a suburb (big box stores, traffic, and all), but work in a rural area (which is a grand total of four miles from my house...funny, but again, more on that in a different post). Every day I drive past cows and sometimes chickens. There are deer too, apparently. I saw one from the train yesterday morning--standing in the woods, staring at the commuter train as it flew by. It was beautiful. Last week I went to dinner at someone's house and had to drive through serious back-country-roads to get there (it's about 25 minutes from my house). I saw both deer crossing signs AND equestrian-crossing signs, which was quite funny. I didn't see any deer, though. And, of course, there are Canada Geese. Now, I thought these geese migrated south to a warmer place. There was a huge flock hanging out in one of the fields for about a week back in November. Then, one day, they were gone. This past week I drove a different way to church (past some different fields) and discovered the big flock of geese had migrated about half a mile southwest. Silly birds--there's ice covering that field! They did not manage to get somewhere warmer. In fact, they left the company of the cows, so they are probably colder (but less smelly) now.
(Monday update: the geese have moved about a half mile further south, to a little pond near a subdivision. funny geese.)
* down in the city (a whole hour away on the train), people are crowding the sidewalks with their big shopping bags from Macy's. I miss Marshall Fields. Also, do people not notice when they are blocking a whole sidewalk? Three people, hand in hand, walking slower than the average pedestrian traffic, oblivious to the fact that there's a pileup behind them...this does not make me happy. Especially when it's cold and windy outside.
* There was so much pedestrian traffic on Madison Ave near State Street on Friday afternoon that I saw a woman literally darting in and out of people trying to cross the sidewalk from a store to the road (to get a taxi). It was like watching someone cross traffic in Manhattan (or Cairo). Except she just had to dodge people walking very fast (too bad for her, she wasn't in the same stretch of sidewalk where I was stuck behind those three above).
* Andrew still has a cold--he sneezes a lot. Hopefully the amoxicillin will make him feel better soon. kitty snot is totally gross.
* This is totally awesome. I mean really. Watch the whole thing--it's cool. They have so much fun, it's impossible not to smile. :-)
* how is it even possible that it's Christmas already in one week? I am not ready. I have no idea what my Advent 4 sermon is going to be about. I have no idea what the order of worship for the two family services on Christmas Eve is going to look like. I have people now saying that their kids may not be able to stay for both services, which may mean cutting the drama (entire cast is elementary kids) from the 5-o-clock service...which means I will have to do something there instead. I have no time to figure all this out. Worse, however, I have no time to be sick. My tummy needs to get its act together. And my brain needs to stop me from eating eggs at places like the Corner Bakery. I should know better. I still made it through two services, the Happy Birthday Jesus party, and a christmas eve play rehearsal. Stirred-down coke is the best remedy for an upset tummy. I had two today and really did feel better for a while. Now I can't tell if I'm hungry or sick, so i'm holding out on eating. I suspect I'm hungry.
* I just want to spend a week doing nothing but watching Buffy and taking naps. Is that so bad?
* that's all for today I think.
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