|
| Summer is fast coming to a close. We've had our Freshmen Retreat training day. Meetings start this week. We're planning on going to Harry Potter 6 tomorrow afternoon as a family. It just started in the $5 club. I do want to add some of the other books I'm reading to this as well. Gotta run.
| | |
|  Well, the day started out pretty shaky with the radar showing lots of rain heading east to Chicago so we were ready with umbrellas and rain gear. I wanted to be on the road by 7 but managed to get going by 8.  Traffic was fine and the rain just didn't materialize which was awesome. On the way I annoyed my family by asking questions about their conversations that I missed. At one point I just said "Hey, I'm a curious deaf man which is a deadly combination." Which cracked up my wife and melted away her annoyance with my insight. We drove to the Forest Park L station where we parked the van and then caught the Ltrain in to the city. We caught the very crowded bus that took us to the Museum of Science and Industry around 10:45. Our tickets for the Harry Potter exhibit were for 12:15 so we had some time to start looking around. All I can say is that the whole MoSaI was amazing and even though we spent pretty much all day there, I could have used 2 or 3 more hours. It is awesome!   We started out looking at the 727 they had hanging up which was kind of cool. I had Isaac pretty much at my feet all day so I'm usually rubbing his head and playing with his ears and stuff. As I was looking at the cockpit of the plane and listening to the retired pilot and rubbing this kid's head I looked over and saw Isaac and it was like Oh, crap who is this kid? I looked over and said loudly, "Oops sorry, wrong kid" to the father of the kid whose head I was rubbing who didn't say anything but just looked like aaaaahhh ya know. It was kind of a funny moment.
 We got to the Harry Potter exhibit and I was hoping for the best but wasn't really prepared to be very impressed. We went into the entrance and they had a little sorting hat thing where the lady chose Isaac to sit on the stool, put on the hat and get sorted. Too bad about the strict rule against taking pictures. When asked which house was his favorite, Isaac replied "Hogwarts" we were pretty sure he wouldn't be a Ravenclaw. The exhibit itself was awesome and really well done for just a bunch of movie props and costumes. We rented a portable electronic guide, kind of like a cell phone where you could punch in a number listed near an item and hear someone talk about it. That was kind of cool and sharing among the 6 of us really wasn't too bad.
The U-505 Submarine exhibit was really cool. The set up was great and when I rounded the corner to actually see the sub it almost took my breath away. The last time I saw and went through it, it was outside so this was pretty different. All of the inside tours of the sub were sold out for the day but the stuff that was available to see was pretty cool. I was kind of shocked at how complicated and large a torpedo was.
We had filled a backpack with various food items and water bottles along with umbrellas and coats. We ended up just sitting on the floor in a wide hallway to take a break and eat. Our feet were getting really tired we all were in desperate need of a break. We had riceballs and chocolate chip cookies the girls made yesterday and fig bars.  Next time they really need to be put in a hard container, squished and clumped. It was really convenient that we were able to just carry the backpack with all of our stuff in it around all day.
We went to the space area which was really cool (now we're going to have to watch "The Right Stuff" and then the area dedicated to "the future" which had a few cool kinds of concepts but was pretty much a few displays and some video loops. Strangely the coolest thing in that area for us was the prototype of the Supersoaker squirt gun.
Isaac and Jungah ended up in the kiddie water world until they shooed out that batch of kids at around 4:00 to make way for a new bunch. We ended our day pretty much  were we began, in the aviation area. Benaiah had to see the Wright flyer which was just behind the tail of the 727 and we hadn't even noticed it at the start of the day. It was actually a recenly built replica but it was kind of neat to see.
We took the bus all they way back to near the Watertower place and we pretty much got right in to Gino's East for pizza. Our timing was really lucky because it wasn't too long after getting our seats when the line started to form to get in. We had a combo appetizer platter and a large meat-something pizza.  All was good and surprisingly it pretty much satisfied all of us. Sadly, we didn't have any markers with which to memorialize our meal via graffiti on the wall.
We then went to Watertower place to ride the express glass elevators which wasn't nearly as thrilling as I remembered it being. We then all used the rest rooms which for me, while necessary may have proven a mistake. All it did was make me very uncomfortable because wave 2 was hitting me hard on the street. I ended up dashing into the TGIFridays where, I'm convinced an angel seeing my distress directed me to the men's room without any hassle for not being a paying customer. On my way out I was going to thank him but he was nowhere to be seen.
We then rode the bus to Jackson street where we walked to the Sears/Willis Tower.  On the way we took pictures of the kids on some pillars near that orange (I think) Picasso flamingo? statue thingee. We got to the Tower around 8:00 and the lines really weren't too bad. We watched the History Channel movie and rode very quickly to the top. The improvements they made were really very good since the last time I was up there. You were actually able to go all the way around and the new glass boxes that you can stand on looking straight down... well, as I was preparing to go out there for the first time there was a lady and her husband and she was really hesitant to step out on it. I was thinking, jeez lady, what's your problem, just step out on it, it's not going to break. Then it was my turn and I have to admit that taking the first step out on the glass floor created a flash of fear that I wasn't expecting.  It was really cool. I wish we had been there about an hour earlier because it was getting dark and the pictures weren't turning out that great, but now we can say we have been to the Sears/Willis Tower.
We walked back to (I think Dearborn) on Jackson street where we caught the blue line back to Forest Park for a quick and uneventful ride home. Overall a great day in Chicago. The kids were all so tired they went right to bed and all is right with the world.
| | |
| Wow! Yesterday was a piece of work. Shortly after getting to work it really started storming. Jungah called from underneath the Clark Station because the hail was coming down and she thought it was going to break her windshield. I was watching the radar and knew that we were going to have problems so I rushed home to find all of the kids bailing water in the basement... ( I had called them to make sure they were up and ready for it). The water leak was pretty much contained to the North side and once the kids were able to handle it on their own and the rain had stopped I ran to Farm n' Fleet for some water pipeing. Just over $7 later I had 20' of 3" pipe which I attached to the downspout that didn't appear to be getting the water from the house. During round 2 it worked like a dream and things were in pretty good shape, that was until the huge deluge later in the afternoon. Thank God I had gotten the north side taken care of because it was the SW side now that was the problem. I think it really was the water table because we all vaccummed water pretty steadily until around midnight. It was crazy how it had stopped raining hours ago but water just kept seeping up through the floor. It slowed down enough for me to send everyone else upstairs to take a break. Then it got to the point were I could take 1/2 hour breaks before it needing attention.
Late the kids and I watched the 08 Steeler video for inspiration. At one point during the program, Mike Tomlin was shouting "Big play, Willie Gay!" over and over. Krystal thought that name was kind of funny so she was working on "improving" it. "What if your initials were U.R. Gay?" I said so what would your first name be? to which she replied quite seriously... "Eugene." I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.
I'm typing now because the basement looks really good for the moment. I think we're all glad that this week is over. Jung-ah being gone all day every day for Rockford College Music camp has been pretty hard on us.
| | |
| It's Friday! but I spent all morning proctoring the High School placement tests for a class of 8th graders. Easy. The Good News Players from Concordia St. Paul were here. It actually went pretty well. Chapel started out with the enthusiastic presentation of a Golden Apple award to our own Mr. Fisk... very cool. The performance went long but the kids were much more receptive than I thought they would be.
Apparently we had an "intruder" in the school this morning so there was a mini lock-down. I don't have many details but everything is OK.
Tomorrow afternoon we are planning on going to "The Hobbit" as a family. That should be fun.
This is the first time I've been able to post here at school... apparently nobody Xangas here anymore so it's been de-blocked..... nice.
I'm reading Sex God which was lent by a student who read it while serving an in school suspension.... thanks. I'm liking it so far.
| | |
| Was up late last night after falling asleep on the couch. I finished the Kreeft book "The Best Things in Life". Not really one of his better efforts. All you really have to do is read the last chapter and you'd pretty much get it. The girls are at lessons. Isaac has a birthday party this morning. Tomorrow I / we? start my March through Matthew in 28 days lenten challenge. It's kind of weird how it just kind of materialized.... we'll see. All it is is reading Matthew one chapter a day on the date of the chapter, giving everyone doing it a common scriptural connection for the day. I'll try to work in a brief comment about something during morning prayer. I'm kind of looking forward to it.
| | |
|
