Cousin Dinner

Some of my cousins came over for Sunday dinner--we did not eat my cousins for dinner. Lest you think we were being negligent children, none of our fathers

live in state, so we were not skipping out on any Fathers' Day celebrations.
It has taken me some years to recognize just how lucky I am to have

so many fun cousins close to my age, but I really am incredibly fortunate.

Because honestly, no one else appreciates Grandpa Dick stories like this group.

Is There Anything Better Than Chicago In June?

Courtney had to go to Chicago for work,

so we went the weekend before to spend

some time together and enjoy the city. We did so many fun activities--city tour, baseball

game, art museum--just to mention a few.

Here is Courtney on our bike tour,
in front of the original Playboy Mansion,
with our tour guide sporting his ironic mustache.

Rubbing the foot of this statue is supposed to
bring good luck, so of course we tried it out.

We had fun wandering the city parks,

admiring all of the sculptures and architecture.

The weather was perect while we were there.

A reflection of the city in The Bean.

Can you spot Courtney and me?

You might have noticed a surprising lack of food

pictures in this blog post. It's not that we didn't eat

delicious food for every meal, because we did,

it's that Chicago has so many other fun things

to take pictures of!

Lessons Learned This Week

1. Although slightly less effective, wearing a lime green fedora is a more appropriate way to get attention than changing your name to "Anastasia."

2. When people are whining about an online registration system and you are positive the problem is user error, a polite response is: "It must have timed out."

3. A surefire way to make people from all cultures happy is to purchase miniature flags from every country of the world and learn how to say the word "free" in every language.