A painfully and weirdly strained upper back is keeping me from thinking of anything actually worth writing, but I do want to say that in the last twenty-four hours I've been having a particularly good time in the city. Last night we got (sort of) half-priced Belgian beers at Bohemian Cavern; a bizarre antisemitic tract handed to us by a passing weirdo; unsuccessfully shaken down for cigarettes by a homeless guy; amazing chicken and mac & cheese from Oohs and Ahhs; offered the opportunity to purchase stolen bikes by two guys at the bus stop (thankfully, not our own); and grilled sausage sandwiches and pizza for $10 in Galileo's backyard.

Yeah, I know: "it's all quirky local color until you get mugged, you idiot gentrifier". And you're right. In the past I've found myself decidedly less charmed by bicycle thieves. But with enough beer and enough sun, it's nearly impossible to get very upset about anything. I'll return to withered misanthropy as soon as I can, I promise.

Incidentally, if you have any inclination to get in on this Galileo grillin' action, you really ought to. They don't do it every day, but they will be tomorrow -- have a look at the menu (and sign up for grilling notifications) here. Folks queue up in the laboratorio, grab their choice of sandwich and then head out back to munch in the sun. Best $10 meal I've had a in a long time.

half of my chicago flickrstream is up here. they're mostly from our first day wandering downtown, so there's a crapload of millenium park type stuff and shots of all the ubertall buildings that kept freaking me out. i'll post the "fun" ones later - aka the drunken rampage photos.

UPDATE: the rest of the photos are up!