Dad Therapy

What I Won't Miss About Living in the City

Now that I’ve detailed the few things I’ve liked living in the city of Chicago the past seven years, here’s a list of all the things I won’t miss. Be warned, this list is much longer.

Noise
Whether it’s the garbage trucks at 6 a.m., drunk people at 2 a.m., parties next door, the neighbors above us stomping around or random dogs barking outside, the sounds of the city will not be missed. I’m not even talking about the proximity to the highway or the fire engines, those noises are much easier to adjust to than the others.

What I'll Miss About Living in the City

We’re heading out to the burbs for good come the end of the week and I thought it a good time to reminisce about our seven years of living in the city of Chicago (ten for Courtney).

All the restaurants
Whether it’s a trendy new gastro pub or just good Thai and Chinese takeout, it’ll be hard to find so many choices in the Suburbs. We’ll have to really do our research.

Wicker Park, Winter in Spring

It seems like yesterday's massive snowstorm never happened. 24 hours later and it may still be cold but most of the slush is gone from the roads, the skies are clear and the dog doesn't need to wear a coat. Did that mysterious half day of snow really happen? Luckily I took the Canon G9 out yesterday for some snapshots. I had it underneath my coat until I decided to snap a shot, but I didn't take many because darnit, it was cold and wet. Photo gallery below.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday this was the sky on the way to work. Notice anything missing? Oh yeah, the Chicago skyline. 40 degrees and rainy.

This is what the sky looked like this morning.

Dave's Favorite Things of 2008

Since everyone in the known weboverse is penning “best of” 2008 columns, I figured I’d do my own sort of hodgepodge. Check it out and feel free to comment/disagree in the comments.

Best Food
We tried a number of new places in 2008, even though not as many in past years because of parenthood arriving. However, it was our take in favorites of Papjin for Chinese and Wing Stop for wings that were probably the most useful. My personal favorite new eat-out spot was actually The Counter, with Freshii being my new obsession. I usually eat there once a week. Although my Spicy Thai Chicken soup today was filled with rice on top of the noodles. Rice isn’t supposed to be there.

Winter Wonderland, Plus Two Hour Traffic

It took me two hours to get the five miles from my office to our place. The roads were atrocious and I doubt our garbage will get picked up tomorrow, for the second week in a row.

But when you just take photos it doesn't look so bad. One or two more shots below.

Jewel Urban Fresh is kind of lame

Today I got a late start for running errands and headed to Costco on Clybourn. Not a good idea. Traffic was awful and by the time I got there almost the entire lot was full. I didn't want to battle the crowds so I didn't even park and headed home. One little problem...I needed to get dinner.

Clybourn was backed up and I knew Trader Joe's would be packed. However, I took the side street and saw that the relatively new Jewel Urban Fresh was relatively empty. I parked and headed inside. I'd been in twice before but with a list of a just a few items. Now, I had to find something on the fly. 

One Ugly Trib

I used to freelance for RedEye. It’s an interesting concept and all, but I don’t think it should be used as a blueprint for the Chicago Tribune proper.

This shot of a potential Trib redesign is hideous. I don’t mind the “trib” nickname actually. In fact the nameplate with Hester looks good although huge. And if you want to save ink costs it probably shouldn't be black.

I really hate the bleeding image in the lead story. Find another way of figuring out your lead story please! I also don’t mind the graphics on the lower half of the page.

What do you think? Yes to Trib? No to huge, bleeding images? Or no to everything?

'Chicago Tribune' Redesign Prototype Boasts 'Trib' Nickname -- Here's a Glimpse (E&P)

Air Show Hangover

One nice thing about being in the city is getting to see things like the Blue Angels fly over your head, in your own parking spot. Courtney got to see a few planes fly overhead on Friday and on Sunday we stayed around the house to check out what we could see from Bucktown. Turns out plenty. From the roof, which we stayed on briefly, there was a great view of everything, but we needed to stay closer to the baby.

We still saw plenty as my guess would be that the pilots used St. Mary's as a landmark to make their turns back to the beach. So everybody basically flew over our heads many times. I got lots of video, of course can't get the darn dvds on to the computer, and I can't really tell why. Oh well. It was still fun.

Tornado Winds Hit Bucktown

We were not immune to the heavy winds and lightning last night. Check the flicker set above for major damage to some poor schmuck's car.