I just returned from my annual pilgrimage to see the accountant in Chicago. Also, my friends who still live there. Also some clients I'm doing freelance work for. It was a nice visit - Sarah provided the hotel room and both she and Dean provided some valuable taxi service. Thanks guys.

I had forgotten just how cold it can feel when the humidity isn't zero and there's a little wind. Also, why do Midwesterners take it as a badge of honor that they walk around outside block after block after block in that kind of weather? She claims I've gone soft. I think I've fallen back into my wise Montanan ways of staying out of incliment weather when possible.

There were two other items of business to attend to on this trip - shoe shopping and seeing Millenium Park. I'm sure the shoe shopping bit is self-explanatory. However, the locals were all shocked that I hadn't yet seen Millenium Park and yet I worked only blocks away for seven years.

Here's the thing - it's more of a Millenium-ish Park. It overran its finish-by date by four years, so it wasn't quite completed when I was there. And I guess it's taken me this long to be convinced the hunks of twisted, shiny metal were worth visiting in their final resting places. The construction phases were really not pretty.

Now that I've seen the finished product, I have to say it's not bad. A little 50's chrome-sci-fi for my taste (and you know how I like my chrome sci-fi) but I guess newness generally takes some getting-used to.

I've supplied a few pictures from my trip for your viewing pleasure.