Gallantly streaming

Did you have a nice Fourth of July?  It was literally 110 degrees in Chicago, so we tried hard to stay inside most of the day. We went down to the Art Institute, where, I hate to say, I haven't been for quite a while - there's a Lichtenstein retrospective there.  I really like Lichtenstein, but I realized he's better in small portions.  Seeing all these pieces together was sort of cynical and cold.   I was dying for some more heartfelt artwork after it was over.

This period was great, though.  There were two rooms that just knocked our socks off.

After the museum, we found a shaded spot in Millenium Park for a patriot concert.  No one can here resist being a conductor when they drop a little Phillip Sousa - it was funny to look around and seeing everyone directing the orchestra.  After that, we hit our favorite Italian Ice shop - really just a window out of which a dude sells fresh, homemade, delish ice in a cup as large as you can handle.  Then, back home where we jumped on our bikes, headed over to the beach and saw the fireworks show.  There was a little boy sitting next to us who kept saying, with increasing alarm, "They're coming right towards us!  They're coming right towards us!"  That's a boy after my own heart.

I'm off to New Orleans this week for a conference.  I'm presenting a topic, the breadth and width of which would no doubt impress you.  ha.  It's gunna be a barn burner, folks.