Events

I had planned a longer post this evening, but I had about 2 hours of chorus work to do and I didn't have any energy for half an hour after getting home. We may have our hottest night of the year tonight, with a forecast low of 26°C, before having our hottest day of the year tomorrow. (We had 36°C on June 17th; tomorrow could be 37°C.) So I'm going to drink another glass or two of ice water and pat Cassie for a bit, then gird myself for tomorrow's sticky walk to doggie day care.

I just walked Cassie about 7 blocks (1.4 km) and she took her sweet time, sniffing every blade of grass. Part of that I'm sure was that she spent 3 nights boarded, which she finds exhausting. The other part was that it's still 30°C just a few minutes before sunset. And yay, woo, we get even worse tomorrow: As Chicago Public School students return to class Monday, the heat index is expected to break [38°C]. The National Weather Service in Chicago issued an excessive heat warning from Monday afternoon to...

Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Big Time Brewery & Alehouse, 4133 University Way NE, SeattleTrain line: Sound Transit, U DistrictTime from Chicago: about 4 hours by airDistance from station: 300 m Let me start by saying Seattle had beautiful weather last week...until just before I arrived on Thursday. That didn't stop my friend and me from visiting Seattle's oldest brew-pub, just off the University of Washington campus. As you can see, though, we opted to sit inside...

Garmin has a feature on some of its watches that helps you avoid jet lag by coaching you on sleep times and other things at various points around a trip. This morning, my watch advised me to get lots of light between 7am and 9am (Seattle time). So I have ensconced myself in the best-lit room available to me in the SEA-TAC terminal, with windows on three sides. Just one problem: Since arriving, I've heard that the city "really needed" the non-stop rain and gloom Seattle has "enjoyed" since the evening...

Funny thing about visiting the West Coast: staying awake past 10pm is not fun, and I wake up at 5am. Plus, Hazel decided that I was her person last night, so at various points of the night I had a 20-kilo pittie in the crook of my knees or pushing me off the bed. (Note to Cassie: this is why you sleep on the couch.) We have typical Seattle weather today, so we'll be dodging raindrops, and possible making a Brews & Choos visit. Updates as conditions warrant.

American Airlines wants you to know what country you're in: Next update from Seattle.

I'm flying out this evening for a couple of days in Seattle, where apparently we'll need SCUBA equipment on account of the rain. Today in Chicago, however, we have nearly-perfect weather, so I have no reason to complain yet. Regular posting will return Sunday.

CityNerd lays out the economic benefits to people who live along the Amtrak Northeast Corridor from going straight to 600 km/h magnetic levitation trains instead of just to 300 km/h high-speed rail: The infrastructure desperately needs some kind of an upgrade, though. It's approaching 100 years old, to the point where a single blown circuit breaker in New Jersey can halt trains from Boston to Harrisburg.

We have another glorious late-summer day in Chicago cool enough to sleep with the windows open. We still have 11 more days of summer, as the forecast reminds me, but I'll take a couple of days with 22°C sun and nights that go down to 15°C. In other news: Psychologist Vince Greenwood cranks the alarms up to 11 after evaluating the XPOTUS against the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. (Tl;dr: Out of 40 points possible on the checklist, "the average score for individuals in a maximum-security prison setting is...

I mentioned that the weather today is amazing, but yesterday's was also pretty good (if a bit humid). Cassie and I walked about 18 km throughout the day and spent most of the rest of the day outside. But Cassie's day started pretty well even before we set out: Sadly, neither of us could get to the last little bit of peanut butter at the bottom of the jar. (I labeled it "dog" because no one wants to get her peanut butter confused with the jar for people.) We trundled off to the Horner Park DFA early in...