Nothing to See Here

Yay! I don't have a brain tumor. Ahem. Anyway, busy busy this week on top of all the medical stuff. So for now enjoy some pictures of my brain that I, obviously, didn't take.

Gulp

Horizontals, bricks, architecture, clouds, lines. Many of my common visual themes. This was the actual MRI center from yesterday. A little perhaps ill-advised googling before my follow-up tomorrow has left me feeling a bit more unsettled.

IRM

I had an MRI this morning, my first. It was a weird experience. A routine eye exam had revealed some slightly swollen optic nerves, and the scan was needed to rule out anything causing swelling from within the brain. A remote chance of that supposedly, given that I have no other symptoms. So I'm not too worried.

Since they did it on my head, I went into the tube head first. And that actually wasn't so bad because I only went in to just below my chest. I was still a little freaked out at first. But I soon settled into it, which is good since the dang thing lasted about 45 minutes. Halfway through they took me back out of the tube to get a dye injection for contrast scans. My head was still strapped in, and I thought about asking to get up and stretch and get a sip of water, but decided to tough it out and get it over with.

Anyway, the experience gave me a whole new appreciation for this song, which was inspired by Charlotte Gainsbourg's own experience with MRI, or IRM, in French:

Chicken Sitter

Heard of beer can chicken? Well this is better. You get the benefit of having liquid steaming up inside the bird while it cooks without the paint and plastic and whatnot on/in a beer can, plus the added stability of a flanged ceramic base. I still use beer, in this case, The Champagne of Beers. About half of this tall boy fit in the chicken sitter. The rest fit in my belly.

Dilated

And funky new specs! Consequences of a recent eye exam. Another is that I have to get an MRI next week due to some funky lookin' optic nerves. Probably nothing, but a little freaky!

Private Dance

Another fiery moment from the same party Sunday's post was from.

"W"

Is what's on the flag they fly over Wrigley Field when the Cubs win. It didn't look likely last night when it was 7-1 Astros in the 5th. Then the Cubs turned it around and went on to win it 14-7.

I honestly didn't pay all that close attention to the action. No offense to the organizer of this outing, but these are probably my least favorite seats that I've ever had at Wrigley. You got this little sliver of the action, with posts obstructing some of the view pretty badly depending on the seat. And almost no sky visible.

But, it was more about the camaraderie. Most of the crew ended up hanging out by the back fence at this terrace level, closer to the beer. The win didn't hurt though.

Pavement

Definitely the highlight of the Pitchfork Festival for me. When I heard that Pavement was playing a reunion show in NYC in September, and tickets went on sale a year in advance, I briefly considered actually getting one. It wasn't clear at the time if that was to be their only show. Thankfully they at least came to Pitchfork too, not sure where else. Anyway, did not disappoint!

Celebrate

Just your average summer night.

P4K2010

Back at the Pitchfork Festival again this year. I bought tickets for the whole weekend but decided to take Saturday off since i hadn't heard of half the lineup and I'm trying to treasure moments of unscheduled time this summer. Tonight was a good start to the weekend though, with perfect summer weather and an awesome show from headliners Modest Mouse. I'm posting this from my iphone at a bar back in my hood as I wait for some postgame sustenance. I have plans for work tomorrow, but it's still feeling like an ideal summer weekend.

L.A.T.E. Ride

OK, last dispatch from my adventures of the previous Saturday. This was from the L.A.T.E. Ride, which is kind of a more organized, late night Critical Mass. I have no idea what the acronym stands for, but the event benefits city parks. It's an actual race of sorts, with bibs and everything. My crew took it pretty unseriously though. We made it more of a bar crawl, and it didn't take many pit stops until the pack had left us behind. Note a smiling Ferdie again here on the right. :)

Ruxbin

Another outing of the BYOB Supper Club, this month at newly-opened Ruxbin. Really cool place. If that name rings a bell to you, it's for a reason. The chef, Edward Kim, used to be called Teddy Ruxbin, after the animatronic bear kids' toy. Sadly, there was no animatronic bear on the menu. But there was awesome stuff like the hanger steak you see here, with chimichurri, kale, and cauliflower puree! And the remains of some amazingly delicious trout on the other side of the table.

The decor was really cool as well. The rounded corners of the ceiling gave the place a capsule kind of feel, although rustic with all the wood. Chairs were turned into lamps, and seatbelts into bench backs. And a rotating cylinder light lock, like that used as the door to darkrooms, was the bathroom door. We joked it teleported you to a toilet across the street.

Great company too, as usual. Although our group unfortunately had to be split up among tables. Big grin in the front here is Ferdie, the ringleader of sorts. And Ron and Katie on the other side of the table. Sorry I cut your eyes out, Katie! Claire was next to me, but she was featured in my last two posts so I figured it would be OK if she wasn't in today's. :)

Chosen Few

Another epic summer weekend here in Chicago. And actually, I mostly packed it into Saturday. Seen here are my lady Claire and buddy Sean at Saturday's first stop. We ran into him completely randomly among the thousands at the Chosen Few House Music Reunion Picnic (yes, that's the full official title).

Also did some ad-hoc celebrating the night before as the iPhone app I developed was approved for the App Store! If you have the new iPhone 4, you need this simple app to better use the built-in flash as a flashlight!

Bastille Day 5K

Strangely, it was held exactly one week early. My girlfriend Claire had registered a while back, so I decided why not do it too. Things got a little hectic in the weeks prior, and so neither of us ended up training much at all. But we both did really well, considering. I actually got a personal best! 23 minutes on the dot. It was quite a struggle at the end, but I felt pretty amazing a few minutes after the finish. Check out my GPS data here.

Had somebody take our picture with my iPhone. Not the best quality, but it was a good moment.

Clare, MI Roundup

A few more from around Clare, MI. It was named after County Clare, Ireland. Hence the shamrock on the water tower below. And the big St. Patrick's day celebration. They even have a parade on "half St. Patrick's day", i.e. when it is 6 months away!

Clare Public

This was at the middle school in Clare, MI, which was originally the high school. There are several depression-era WPA art pieces around town. This sculpture is called "Pioneer Mother". You can see a wider shot and more info about the murals we couldn't see in government buildings on a holiday here.

FFSBFJ

I was feeling a little sick on Friday, and so had to hang back and have a belated Fabulous Forty Ounce Friday before the Fourth of July. Doing it on Saturday still has a decent ring to the acronym.

This was on the beach in Bridgman, MI, where my lady and I took a pit stop before heading on up to her hometown in Clare, MI. A lovely quick trip out there, and back in time to enjoy the Chicago fireworks battle zone last night.

Still in MI

Photographically, here. One more from Lakes of Fire. And today I'm headed BACK to MI for a quick trip. So the non-Chicago-ness will likely continue for a bit, with slightly more prosaic material.

These were fire dancers among the many who performed before the lighthouse burned. Anyway, Lakes of Fire, wow. Made such an impression on me. I thought back to it many times throughout the past week, and still. It has temporarily quieted my desire for the Burning Man experience, and also made me even more excited for the big event.

I'm also really happy with all the portrait stuff I got last weekend, since that's not usually my thing. Here's a wider shot of the two above:

Have You Seen My Kittens?

A close second for favorite portrait from Lakes of Fire.

Busy this week! Exciting stuff with the development of an iPhone app that has some real potential. I'll definitely be trumpeting more details on that as soon as the time is right.