arrival

the bean at millennium park
Originally uploaded by rswells.

after spending a few fun days visiting friends in milwaukee and chicago, i arrived in constantly arborous and sometimes ardorous ann arbor last monday. i found milwaukee to be surprisingly charming and hip and would like to send a special thank you, coupled with a birthday shout, out to la doctora maussonbronche.

chicago, meanwhile, was pretty laid back with trips to millennium and lincoln park, the lincoln park zoo, and the art institute of chicago. the art institute blew me away, especially the monets, renoirs, and the special exhibit on toulouse-latrec and montmarte.

i learned on thursday that i'll be teaching spanish 101 again this fall - classes start on tuesday. my house is not as dirty overall as i had previously feared, but the number of cobwebs confounds me. this morning i went to the farmer's market nearby and bought some broccoli, grapes, and a few paula red (semi-tart) apples.

i'd like to make a brief comment here on the imbroglio that once was the gulf coast: seems to me that this is the third time a massive loss of american life has occurred during the bush presidency; one can apparently blame all three tragedies and the respective after-effects on "bad intelligence."

(on a sidenote, i'd like to send my best to the burgeoning band, KELPIE, as they embark on their european tour opening up for koufax. godspeed you young men.)