Chicago 2010 — pt. 4

See? Foggy still!


Erik's buddy, Matt, hosted us when we were in town. And he has a sweet pad with an excellent cityskape view ...


Bailey, the welcoming committee. And food taster. ;)


We had some nice skies, though.

Chicago 2010 — pt. 3

On our way into the museum, we were greeted with this.

Evidently the Chicago hockey team did well at something? Idunno. Whatever.


Another one! From across the gallery!


I was actually pretty amused by all of the jerseys (this is the same as the middle photo, just from a different angle).

Chicago 2010 — pt. 2

See? Tons of fog.

We were suckers and walked from the Navy Pier to the Museum of Natural History. It was free admission on that day, which was great! Except that we English-speaking individuals were in the minority. Oh, and there were exactly 2,305,103,098 strollers with small children running about. I think I tripped over a minimum of 3 dozen. Oops!


Despite his stoic look, Erik REALLY was excited to see Sue (riiiight!) ;)


See??? I told you so!


Or not. They could be having some jealousy issues.


I was keen to see Sue because when I interned in Hays, she was there. Of course, I never went because I'm a dork, but I made up for it.

Oh, and for all you Hays peeps out there, THE SUE IN HAYS WAS A FAKE!!!!! Who knew? Right? I feel secure that I saw the real Sue, though. ;)


I liked this angle!

Chicago 2010 — pt. 1

Erik and I were in Chicago last month, and the one word I would use to describe our trip: FOGGY.


We went to Navy Pier ... and the buildings right by the water? Swallowed by fog.


Compare the photo above to the one I took a few years ago!


Different, eh?


I couldn't resist taking this photo of cow stuff for my sister. But fortunately for her husband, I refrained from making any purchases.


Mrs. O'Leary ... let's talk about this. When I was in Girl Scouts, there was a camp song about "Old Lady Leary left a lantern in the shed, and when the cow kicked it over, she winked her eye and said 'It'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!'" ... OK, so when I was in Chicago a few years ago, I learned that the cow-lantern-fire thing was REAL. One of the big Chicago fires was started by this cow. So .... there you have it.


It was Erik's first trip to the Pier.


What is it with men and big. metal objects? ;)

Here's the scoop:

Ok, so you have been spoiled with daily blog posts.

That's because I pre-blogged a ton, and my pre-blogging has all been blogged.

So, patience while I get more stuff together. Still a ton of photos to share from DC ....

In other news around here:

• I'm SO CLOSE to getting the rain barrel overflows complete!!! I promise, a full blog post (maybe even video) when it happens.

• Wrestling with figuring out how to pay sales taxes online. Seriously, state. I know you want to cut budgets and this is more cheap for you, but HELLO!!!! Summer is a massively busy season for us. Why now?

• In all of my free time, I'm reading the following book:


It stems from NFP (the other major NFP model is HERE).

Even for the general person, there's a wealth of excellent information about eating a balanced diet. Just all around good reading.

• It's 7 a.m. and I want to take a nap. Sheesh.

• Mike and I are gearing up for the big bridal show in Wichita in about 2 weeks!!!! Still some last minute stuff to do, but we're in fairly good shape.

• I've been eating an obscene amount of guacamole as of late. I stinkin' love that stuff ... and it's SOOOO tasty!!!! Anyone else? Oh, I want some more now!

• I'm listening to "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" on CD right now. Unabridged. It's long. And not much about the hunchback so far ... but once I got past the Disney version and expected it to be all about him, I'm enjoying it rather a lot.

Wedding guest :)

About a month ago, I was able to attend a wedding ... AS A GUEST!!! :)

It was outdoors in Lawrence on a HOT day ... so having lemonade to greet us as a guest was refreshing.


There were decorative bells on the chairs.


And some pink action.


Lori was one happy mother of the groom. :)


Gracie's dress was sort of vintage. Utterly fantastic. She said she purchased it off of ebay.


Seriously. Love. The detail.


And the reception was pretty great, too! But the band .... let's just say the bride gave the crowd a "cut" action during one of the first dances .... she wasn't too fond of them, I guess. And we didn't stay long enough to see if they got any better.


Nice decor. I dug it.


Mom and Lori. Lori is my brother's godmother. And mom was pretty weepy. Sheesh. It was not easy to get a photo of mom not being all weepy. This is the best of them.

Iconic move

When Erik and I were in Hays last month, we had dinner at one of the local watering holes. And we ran into a former colleague of mine (names will be omitted to protect the innocent.).

We were told we were in town on the exact same day the presses were being torn out/outside.

So of course we had to go see them.

(For those of you who don't know, the Hays paper is now printed in Salina, and so they have no more need of the presses ... so the presses migrated to Salina).


We arrived to see the above sight.

Total shocker to me.


Some paper stuck to the rolls.


A closer up detail of it.


Serial number.


A detail of the press surface. It was dirty, dirty, dirty. I am not sure what the stuff was ... if it is fine bits of paper. Not sure ....


Inside, this is what we were greeted with.


Close up of one of the presses.


One of the ink holders. Ink well? I thought the wells were beneath the press, but let's call it an ink well here. :)


It looks like it took some serious work to get the presses out of their cement footings.


Sheesh!


The specific brand of the press.


The final tally of papers run. From the last press run.


I'm guessing the calendar on the left shows the last day the presses ran in Hays? And on the right, the other printing jobs usually done by the Hays Daily.


Check out these bolts. Sheesh!


It's so crazy to see the room empty. Devoid of the presses.


I suspect the photo on the right is from when everyone printed American flags post 9-11. Or what was left of the flag from the press.


Serious. Wreckage.


A video of my final walk-through of the pressroom.


Now, the presses have a new home. Closer to my own home.


Another view.


Final photo.

I've yet to see the presses in their new home, but I'll get around to it one day.