“The doughnuts have stopped being refreshing.”

I dug deep and managed to best my previous total (12 in an hour) by eating 14 krispy kreme doughnuts in 30 minutes. It wasn’t enough to propel me into the winner’s circle; I would’ve had to beat Ken’s 18, and that wasn’t happening. Toward the end I was merely focused on keeping everything in, which is a worthy endeavor in my book.

Get a play-by-play of the contest on flickr (thanks for documenting the festivities, Jough). YouTube video is pending. Indigestion is ongoing.

Obviously the more people show up, the better this event will be, so sign up for the group and plan on being there on the 9th! (Vince Vaughn may or may not show.)

Moved to Wednesday, August 8th!

Co-worker Todd Prouty has snapped some pictures of the production as it unfolds. I’m waiting for the pictures of Chicago – er, Gotham – police trying to take his camera away.

I braked hard. A fox? In the 4000 north block of Chicago? I stared closely to make sure I wasn’t being fooled by someone’s dog. Thin face, lean body, reddish fur, bushy tail… definitely a fox.

I’d started having doubts about the sighting until this morning, when I saw the fox pass quietly through my neighbor’s yard, a dead squirrel hanging from his mouth.

Unless the fox is my power animal appearing to me during cycling-induced hallucinations, it might be time to call animal control. This guy’s just trying to survive, but there are kids on this block, not to mention small dogs and (gasp) cats.

The fox was only the first oddity to surface after I started training for the Fleet Feet Sports Super Sprint Triathlon. A few days ago I raced a thunderstorm to the local outdoor pool for lap swim, arriving at the empty pool just as the rain began to fall. Fortunately only lightning could prevent me from getting in a swim – or so I thought.

“No lap swim today,” one of the lifeguards called out to me from the other side of the pool gate. “Someone pooped in the pool.”

Oh, city living.

I read in this morning’s paper that the CTA will install surveillance cameras on city buses to identify and retrain risky drivers. That’s good. Taking the 49 bus down Western is sometimes the equivalent of taking your life in your hands.

Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea. One driver lamented that some behaviors the higher-ups are trying to correct – speeding and lane-swerving – help drivers stay on schedule. However, both of those activities also contributed to nearly 4,000 accidents in Chicago last year, and $19 million in settlement costs.

As long as we’re piloting programs to improve safety and reduce costs, why not try bus-only lanes? Clear out on-street parking for the major thoroughfares during rush hour and allow the buses free reign of the right-hand lane. Drivers wouldn’t need to speed or swerve in and out of traffic, and they’d probably be on schedule.

Bus-only lanes would also prevent the dreaded and infuriating bus-bunching, whereby you’re walking to your bus stop and three buses go flying by, leaving you to wait 30 minutes for the next bus.

Of course it all comes down to money, and I don’t know how the trade-offs stack up. I imagine on-time, reliable bus service would increase ridership, and perhaps the increase would offset revenue that comes from parking meters and/or tickets.

I wonder if Ron Huberman reads my blog…

The neighbors who were home at the time told me the street was submerged from “front step to front step.” I am still trying to get my hands on a photo, because I can hardly believe it. All I saw was the 11 inch watermark in our basement hours later:

We spent the evening mucking around the basement, helping our new landlord of 3 weeks rip up carpeting to help ward off mold. Fortunately none of our stuff is in the basement, so we escaped serious damage. The water was still pooling at a good 2″ in low points of the floor as of 11 o’clock, and there’s a couple of inches of water standing in the dryer:

This being her first home purchase, our new landlord is less than enthralled. She was hoping to repaint the basement this weekend instead of washing it down with bleach.

Several parts of Lake Shore Drive filled with water, as did at least three blocks of Ravenswood Avenue:

A sensation indeed.

Thursday, March 15th
6pm
Fado Irish Pub and Restaurant: http://www.fadoirishpub.com/chicago/directions

Co-worker Howitt is also working to drum up a crowd. Anyone going to SXSW this week is required to attend the Meetup so you can tell us all about it and make us even greener with envy for not going.

Hope to see you on the 15th!

I’m seeking suggestions on where we should meet. I don’t think Elephant & Castle will really suit our needs moving forward, especially if we have a larger turnout than the first meetup. The criteria:

• Preferably downtown.
• Preferably a space where we can spread out. More bar, less restaurant.
• Preferably a place that won’t require any sort of heads up that we’re coming.

As before, the point of the web meetup is to gather socially and meet others working in the web industry in Chicago. The meetup is not specific to designers, developers, entrepreneurs, etc. It’s open to anyone working in this field. Hope you can make it!

“…figured I’d let you know Chicago might be a possibility for next year…”

So says a regular reader from Boston as he applies to PhD programs around the country (Loyola is in the mix). Clearly he must move to Chicago. We just need to give him a few good reasons why. I’ll start:

1. We have a giant, metallic bean in a park downtown.
2. All the cool kids are doing it.
3. It might be !@#$-ing cold, but it’s not as !@#$-ing cold as Boston. (Except for days like today. And most days in winter.)
4. Your odds of riding a subway car that might derail rise exponentially.
5. We’ve got a really big lake. As an added bonus, the Coast Guard has agreed not to perform live-fire exercises on it. You will most definitely maybe not get shot on this lake.
6. You can move to a town that’s equally as sports-obsessed as Boston. In a similar vein, you can still scream ‘go Sawks’.
7. People don’t call a water fountain a ‘bubbler.’ They do, however, refer to ‘soda’ as ‘pop.’



8. If you are willing, Mayor Daley would be happy to welcome you to the city by tattooing his name on your forehead.
9. Kitsch’n on Roscoe.
10. You will get to meet half the people who comment on this blog (which might not necessarily fall in the ‘plus’ column).
11. You can live in a city that actually has a history museum. That sort of thing comes in handy when one is pursuing a history PhD.
12. We still have at least three years left on Chicago’s version of The Big Dig.
13. I need the money I will win from you in poker.
14. Dunkin’ Donuts is rapidly taking over the city. You will feel right at home.
15. More public transit delays than you could ever dream.

What else?