Visitation

I am back, eh. I'm certainly not up for relating the trip as a whole... and won't be, partially because that's just not what I'm doing here. I can, however, throw up a few comments.

I liked Chicago. I was happy that the Field Museum was right near Soldier Field because it'd be nice to see the latter while still having the former be the reason for the trip. Eventually, however, we realized that the throngs heading the same way as us (a) did not represent standard Saturday afternoon Chicago traffic and (b) were going to the other Field for a soccer match. As I ended up wandering around several bookstores near the University of Chicago and eating good pizza I'm fine with it (even though as a result my queue grew during the trip rather than diminished as expected.)

One of the bookstores was Powell's which probably is, in fact, related to the Oregon Powell's.

Interesting was the U of C Seminary Co-op, though not really in a good way. They had a fantastic selection of new books (Co-op: Borders = Borders: Target)... but I didn't buy anything. I had a number of great books I've been looking for in my hands but didn't pull the trigger because I didn't need them right then. Amazon.com (along with Powells.com and others) leaves such a store a curiosity to me. If this bookstore were near me I'm sure I'd buy plenty from them but I wasn't expected to find this bookstore and was travelling.

I suppose I could order from them rather than Amazon... but I want to encourage Amazon to carry the more obscure titles and I'd have to investigate the whole seminary nature of the enterprise.

Yeah, all I'm going to get through is Chicago - with barely a mention of Medici's - even though that accounted for about 6 hours of the trip. Overall it was a good trip but I'm glad to be home.

In non-trip related news, it seems like I haven't missed any of Flax's 192-song tournament. This is a good thing, though it looks like "I'm Waiting for the Man" wouldn't've needed my vote for it to score over "Love and Happiness" which is refreshing. You can read the original rules and participate in the fun too. I think I'll go over there now and try to actually get my votes in for the set brackets listed from last Thursday.