A street cat named

I forgot what he said but i've seen him twice now.

I've also met the street cat named Bob in London too.  He's the one that they made the film about a couple of years ago.

4 sock drops

Florence was bored in her pram today so decided to pull her socks of not once, not twice, not even thrice.  She did it 4 times.  I spotted it twice and thankfully kind passers by picket it up the other times.  Silly girl.  I guess it was quite warm today.

Thankfully just stunned

One of the draw backs of all of the huge glass skyscrapers (we think) is that there are also a lot of birds that fly into them and either die or like this little fella luckily just stunned.  Being in the middle of the city means at least there won't be any cats nearby to snap him up.

What a beautiful skyline

I was kicked out of the apartment this morning at 9 by the cleaners, here are some photos of the view.  Another beautiful cloudless sky, this time without the cold wind.  Around 20 degrees today.  About perfect.

These photos are from Milton Lee Olive Park

New record

Florence managed her best sleep yet, she managed over 10 hours between feeds!

Thank you Florence!  I'm the designated night  feeder during the week so April can go into work as refreshed as possible.  4 more of those and you'll get extra belly raspberries from me!

First barbecue of the year

Still a little chilly in the shade so we didn't stay out too long but it was nice.

Barbecue next week Kris?

4 weeks done, 16 or so left

I've been in Chicago for 4 weeks now, let's call it a month and it's been fun.

Weather

Very variable, it's been feel like -16 a few weeks ago, this week it's supposed to be 27.  43 degree swing in less than a month.  Crazy.

People

Very friendly, overly so?  Strangers do talk to you more in Chicago (USA), two times that accentuate this were once today and once a couple of weeks ago. 

A couple of weeks ago whilst I was walking past a large group of very young school kids getting led to a park with their carers a random chap slapped me on the back and asked me if they were all mine.  Very amusing but to touch a random stranger I found very weird, it wasn't a small tap, it was a proper nudge.  All fine but living and working in London for the past 15 years I found very strange.

Secondly, April has recently knitted Flo a little bonnet.  We went to grab some breakfast this morning and were stopped by pretty much every person we walked past to say how cute our baby was.  One highlight was somebody winding (electrically) down their window as they were stopped at lights to say the same.  Yesterday was just as bad when people saw Flo wearing a cubs top and baseball cap.

I find it strange but I also think it's nice

Service is great in USA, it really is. Is 20% too much to pay for that?  Not sure, I still need to know what you have to tip for and what not to.  It's tough when back in the UK when generally you don't have to tip other than in a restaurant or cab.

Friends

We've got friends visiting next week (Kris and Kirsty), the Penney's the week after which will be nice.  I've said before that i've not really had any conversations with anyone for quite a while (a month other than April), i've been e-mailing and whatsapping more than I have in the past but i'm no longer on Facebook so that may be me  taking up some of the slack.

Blogger has had a boost too.

D&D

Ben's been running a remote dungeons and dragons campaign for us since i've been away which has been fun.  It's a little bit of a challenge juggling Florence whilst rolling dice as she wants to join in but I appreciate the effort.  It's worked well so far, I hope we can keep it going as the few hours I get to play with my friends really helps keep me sane.

For those interested...  I am currently a level 2 high elf monk...

Future

Who knows...

Freebees

April managed to get us 2 free tickets through work to see the Cubs play the Brewers on Saturday

I've never watched baseball before but it's a fairly simple game, at least for the layman (which I certainly am)

We had very nearly the best seats in the house, certainly better then the guys you can see at the back, stands have been build on top of apartment blocks outside the stadium.  It was probably around 5 degrees C yesterday and that didn't include the chill factor on a fairly windy day.  Brrrrrr 

The mascot was called Clark, probably not named after me, more likely that the Wrigley Field is on Clark Street, but you never know.

6 innings in it was 1-0 to the Cubs, zzz.  

I think it finished 5 nil.  Joking aside it was good fun.  A little weird sharing the box with 16 friends of a very senior chap at April's work but hey, there was free beer and hotdogs.

I'm due to go and see the White Socks (another Chicago team) in a couple of weeks and back to see the Cubs in August.  You never know, I may get into it.

Crawl training

Not sure if I should be doing this as she will be a massive pain when she's mobile.

Free tickets

April's managed to get us free tickets in a suite for the Cubs game against the Brewers today.  Unlimited booze might make up for having to watch the US version of cricket.

All the toys

Florence choosing which toys to play with.

And which one did she choose?  The crinkly cracker wrapper. 

First night out in nearly a month!

We've found a baby sitter which means we can now do things together in the evening!  We went to a local bar then onto a fun Japanese restaurant.

Gyu-Kaku
http://www.gyu-kaku.com/

Another trip to the zoo

Apparently a goat???

Pretzel time

Lion

Whilst Florence is asleep

Daddy has some breakfast...

Carrot cake pancakes.  Urgh.

Ribs and wine night

Verdict:

Wine was actually very good.
Ribs were good but far too much.

Finally paid the zoo a visit

It was great. I'm not a massive fan of keeping the bigger animals in zoos, but they did have a lot of space which was nice.

Highlights.

Massive swimming polar bear
Gorilla arse
Merecats
A fat rhino

Reconnaissance mission

April had the day off yesterday so we went to a retail outlet shopping mall. Yeah!

The free bus from the train station drive past Bill Murray's brothers' new Caddyshack themed restaurant.

3/5 groups of friends that are coming for a visit also want to pay their respect and pop in for a visit.

Play fine

We went to a play group yesterday which wasn't quite as bad as I thought I'd be. I wasn't the only man too. In fact there were two others.

The worrying this is that I'll have to take Florence on my own next time. Eek.

Strange food of America part 2

I've been reliably informed that this is peanut butter and jam premixed in a jar for those too lazy to open two jars.

A goober is a type of peanut. However I'm pretty sure it's also slang for a booger.

Nose goober.


A globule of snot and nasal mucus that hangs as a droplet from the edge of the nostril

Like a heavy raindrop suspended from his nostril, the nose goober dangled in the air; I quietly handed him a tissue.

Self service

I don't even have to hold it now. Brilliant.

Can't wait till she can wipe her own arse.

Face for scale

I've bought some ribs for dinner tonight.

I've used my considerably sized body for scale.  A bit pricier than i'd like especially as i've also had to buy a disposable oven tray to cook the monster in.

You guessed it

I couldn't resist.

I'll let you know what it tastes like tomorrow.

Should I buy some?

I like Metal, I like red wine.

I haven't yet been tempted to buy Death Metal Red yet

3rd week nearly done

We've nearly completed our third week in Chicago and it's still fun and exciting.  I've not done a tremendous amount during the week other than go for lots of walks.  The weather's very changeable, one day sunny, the next snow.  It's apparently unseasonably cold at the moment so fingers crossed it will begin to warm up consistently soon.

One thing that i've noticed is that other than April, a brief chat with her boss and a short conversation with a family whilst watching Liverpool vs Man City in a pub  i've not had a proper face to face conversation with anyone else since we left.  Chat's with Florence don't count.

Fire alarm transport

There was a fire alarm at a local nursery so they wheeled out the younger ones in wheeled cots.

I walked past another group of babies later along my walk that were in 6 seater prams.

Tuesday's dinner

We popped into the Irish bar under our building on Tuesday night for teas.  And very nice it was too.

Florence was getting a little restless though so couldn't stay long, it's surprisingly hard to eat with a wriggly baby all over the place.

Session 2

The remote gaming thing seems to be working

A bit of controversy with my new dice, I rolled at least 5 natural 20s.  It's been suggested that rather than have the camera on me and Florence, that I position it on my dice rolls. 

Here they are in all their glory.

Only $7.99 from Dave's Dice

Macy's

Yesterday was a bit wet and windy so we went for a bit of a walk around a couple of the department stores.  Here's a couple of photos from the ground floor in Macy's.

Another snow day!

Woke up this morning to this

And then got kicked out of the house at 9:30 as the cleaners were round.  I tried to go for a long walk along the waterfront but it looks like it might have been a little dangerous.

I went to the beach anyway.  Slightly different from my last beach shot when it was 20 degrees last Thursday.

I went to the pier instead this is a nice little park on the way.

Lost in translation

I don't think the term Minging crossed the Atlantic  A Chinese restaurant, 2 blocks from our apartment.

First time out

Saturday was the second time i've had some me time since moving to Chicago.  The first time outside on my own.  What did I do?  Went to a bar to watch the Liverpool game.

I originally tried to go to a new place but it was absolutely heaving at 11:30 in the morning.  So ended up just going back to the place I watched the other game.  I like it there but will try somewhere else next time.

A request for humanitarian aid

We've just used our last tea bag

Can those that are coming to visit bring some over with them???

I've still got it...

I finally got asked for ID today whilst buying some wine.

Florence got bored

Playing D&D remotely with the dweebs

I left my dice at home so have ordered some for next week.  The 6 ho.ur time difference actually works out fine.  1pm kick off for me means the guys have plenty of time to get home after work