Events

Between unpacking, preparing for a party (which encourages the unpacking), and the regular business of working, I didn't have time to write this weekend. I still don't, but I did want to catch up on a couple of things. First, a coronal mass ejection over the weekend is producing large aurorae today, which could be visible in Chicago, New York, Dublin, and Seattle—way farther south than usual. Second, Rhianna Pratchett, Sir Terry's daughter, says the next Discworld novel will be the last: The author...

Weather? Check. Photography? Check. The dog? Nope. The National Weather Service photo contest winners are very cool, though.

Today is the 150th anniversary of the liberation of Galveston by U.S. troops. TPM Cafe has an in-depth look at the event: The historical origins of Juneteenth are clear. On June 19, 1865, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger, newly arrived with 1,800 men in Texas, ordered that “all slaves are free” in Texas and that there would be an “absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.” The idea that any such proclamation would still need to be issued in June 1865...

Unpacking continues apace. By yesterday morning I'd managed to hook up my A/V equipment, which also meant getting part of my living room in order: Last night I finished my kitchen (except for part of one box), so now I just have to unpack a few more boxes in my office and about 32,768 boxes of books. Plus I still have to hang things on the walls. Tonight I've cleared my calendar so I can just be done. I may not get all the books up, but I will at least finish everything else.

The Economist's Gulliver blog points out something opponents to Heathrow's third runway may have missed: In Britain the long-awaited Davies Commission report on a third runway for London is set for release shortly. The main objections to new runways by locals is the additional noise they will suffer. But by the time any new runway gets built in a decade or more, much of the fleet serving London will have been replaced by these new planes that whisper rather than roar. Describing volume is tricky but...

So, this happened last night about two blocks from my new place: About 11:50 p.m., a 19-year-old man was fatally shot in Uptown on the North Side. The man was standing in an alleyway in the 4400 block of North Magnolia Avenue when someone inside a dark-colored van fired shots. The teen was shot twice in his side, and the van fled north from the scene, police said. The man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The 19-year-old man had [not] been identified as...

I took Parker's annual birthday photo yesterday, but I only now had the chance to post it. Surrounding him, and distracting him, is the detritus of my life, which I have not (surprise!) unpacked yet: For comparison, here's his first birthday: And last year's:

Here are the last two photos from Milan: the Duomo. Later, that same day: And this concludes (for now) the Italian portion of our program.

It hardly feels like eleven days have gone by since we passed through Como on our way to Milan. Como seemed like an Italian lake town with a heavy tourist population, which, it turns out, it is. But there were a couple of nooks: Then there was Milan. I didn't have a great impression of the city when I visited in 2007, and this sign, glimpsed on the way to drop off our rental car at the airport, didn't inspire confidence: Translation: "For about 10 years, this road will suck. Sorry." And suck it did....

When the movers arrived at the former Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters yesterday morning, they remarked that it looked like I had everything organized well and they would hit their estimate. Mother Nature disagreed, giving us drenching rains that halted loading the truck for half an hour, and following up with this when we unloaded: [T]he weather service issued a tornado warning for parts of central Cook County, activating sirens throughout Chicago, but no touchdowns were reported. That warning...