One of the activities my mother-in-law wanted to do on this visit was check out the Field Museum of Natural History, one of the three museums on Museum Campus, just south of the Loop in Chicago (the other two being the Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium). The Field is a very cool place to explore if you like mummys, dinosaurs, and the history of humans in all parts of the world. (My very favorite place at the Field, though, is hidden away on one end of the top floor: it’s the Grainger Hall of Gems.) I’ve been to the Field Museum on a fairly regular basis over the past…
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My Official Book Launch: An Epic Celebration of All Things Chicago
I don’t even know where to start when it comes to summarizing my book launch event that occurred in the city on Tuesday night. I would love to tell you about everything, but I don’t want this post to be a novel and so I have to skip the fine points on: ~ all of the ideas I tossed around in my head starting about two months ago as this event was conceptualized ~ the great conversations (and epiphanies) I had with the ladies of my “Event Advisory Board” (I made up that name but it’s perfect), made up of friends who have experience with the ins and outs of…
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Move Along, Nothing To See Here…
I know. It’s been a few days. Well, only four, but in the blogosphere, four days can seem like an eternity. In fact, I have lots to share but no time to share it at the moment. I met my publisher in person over the weekend when we drove down south (in a loaner Chevy Tahoe Hybrid from General Motors, thank you very much!) for my niece’s graduation: my publisher’s office is only about twenty minutes from my sister-in-law’s house. I got a great package from the United Kingdom, full of goodies that made me totally giddy. I got a great package from Cape Cod, containing something that made me…
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Phoolin’ Around
One of the videos in my Cruzing Chicagoland series (click here for all of the videos!) spotlighted the Bristol Renaissance Faire. The star of the video was Jane the Phoole, who had Michelle and I (and her co-workers) laughing hysterically during the shoot. At one point I asked her, “I think a blooper reel would be really funny. Are you okay with that?” She said, “I would LOVE if you made a blooper reel!” And so, without further ado, here’s Jane the Phoole, engaging in something at which she’s very, very good: making people laugh.
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Cruzing Chicagoland: Threadless Headquarters
I had heard that the Chicago headquarters of the Threadless T-shirt company is one of those epic, must-see places. I’ve seen a couple of pictures in magazine features about it, and was thrilled to take a ride over there in the 2011 Chevy Cruze that General Motors loaned me for a week (Disclosure: GM is the major sponsor of my Chicago book launch event), to record a tour for your enjoyment. What struck me about the headquarters is how extremely laid-back the place was, even way more than I expected. The place exudes a vibe of “Fun” rather than “Work”, and had I not actually witnessed employees busily doing their…