Monthly Archives: July 2009

The Modern Wing

Posted in Art by

While down visiting at Club Ponderosa a few weeks ago, my mom and I decided to go down to the Chi and check out the Art Institute’s new Modern Wing. I have been dying to get down there since it opened back in May, but haven’t had a chance, so I was pretty pumped to see it. Let me tell you it definitely lived up to my expectations! Designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, the Modern Wing provides a new home for the museum’s collection of 20th- and 21st-century art. The building is amazing. The way the light filters through the windows while still allowing you to view the Chicago skyline, it just blew me away. I also love how it is incorporated into Millennium Park. I sincerely cannot do it justice with a description, you must go check it out for yourself.

We only had a few hours to check out things, so we didn’t get to cover all of the collections. We did get to check out the Modern European Art Collection, Contemporary Art from 1945-1960, Contemporary Art from 1960-Present, and the Cy Twombly Exhibit. Sadly, we didn’t get to Photography or Architecture & Design, so I need to get back.

I loved every bit of what we saw, but two stand outs for me were the Twombly Exhibit and the works of Gerhard Richter. Both are favorites of mine, so it was great to see more than one or two examples of their work. I am already wanting to plan another trip so I can complete the rest of the Modern Wing as well as revisit some of the oldie but goodies the Museum has in it collection.

Image: Cy Twombly, Note III, 2005-2007, Acrylic on wood panel 96 x 144 in. (243.8 x 365.8 cm)

Knitting Swap Swag

Posted in Lists, She's Crafty by

I participated in my Ravelry knitting swap for July, which had a”Summer Fun”and here is the great things that I got from “Solopoodle” in New York: a TON of knitting patterns, two NYC postcards, some tea bags, a knit check (used to check needle size, gauge test swatches, and measure your work), a yellow lab puppy bookmark, some wool wash, stickers, a bit of pretty blue grosgrain ribbon, some aqua buttons, some sticky notes, a yummy Tootsie Pop, a mini beach ball, two yarn samples, and some beautiful hand made stitch markers. So excited!

Time keeps on slipping. . .

Posted in Uncategorized by

Once again, time has gotten away from me. I must apologize for my neglect. The month of July has been very busy with much traveling and visits with the family. I will quickly sum up so you can see what I’ve been up to, other than blogging, for the past weeks.

July 4th weekend: Went down to Club Ponderosa to share in the celebration of our country’s independence. Although torrential rain kept us inside for most of the day, I am happy to report that the skies cleared for Shawn to have his annual fireworks extravaganza. Fortunately, the safety record stayed in tact for another year.

July 11th weekend: Mom and Dad came up to visit us here in the land o’ cheese for the weekend. Highlights included sushi dinner at Takara on Friday night, (Dad is getting pretty good with those chopsticks!) going to the MMOCA Art Fair on the Square on Saturday – one of the largest and best juried shows I have been to in some time. Excellent quality and variety. Sadly, we came home empty-handed.

After the parents left on Monday morning, I drove down to Club Ponderosa the next morning. Had an amazing trip to the Modern Wing with Mom. (Will be following up with a separate post, since too much to say about it here.) Did a little swimming and general hanging out with Roz, Luke, and the parents. Shawn came down to join us for the weekend.

Back up to Madison, this time bringing Roz and Luke to visit for few days. Had a good time taking Luke to the Middleton pool – he is now the water slide champ. As well as just some good QT with my sister. Would love to have them as a permanent installment up here.

Thursday, July 23rd, we drove back down to Club Ponderosa to return our guests and to be able to fly out to Shawn’s nascent city, North Canton, Ohio, for his cousin’s wedding. (Congrats, Kara & Eric!) Was great to see his mom, grandparents, and Big Al. Wish that we could of stayed a bit longer, but Shawn had to get back to the salt mines so we came back yesterday.

And. . . we are here for this week and will then be off to Hilton Head, SC for a week of rest and relaxation. Quite looking forward to it, since we’ll be seeing some dear friend from CMH. Salty Dog Cafe. . . here I come!


Does Not Compute

Posted in Geekery by

I have been having some CPU issues lately with the good ol’ laptop and trying to decide what to do. I have a 15” MacBook Pro that is s few years old that is currently running on Mac OS X Version 10.4.11. Pretty old, since Mac will be rolling out Snow Leopard in September. I’m running on about 75 to 80% capacity on the hard drive, I can get an external hard drive to free up space, so not too worried about that aspect. A main problem is that I need a new battery. I have to keep it plugged in at all times in order to keep it charged, basically tethering me and negating the “mobility” a laptop is supposed to provide. REALLY annoying.

An other issue is that I am running on iLife ’06, this suite includes iPhoto, GarageBand, iDVD, iMovie, and most importantly iWeb, which I use to publish this site. It’s gotten to the point where I have to reload my entire site every time I update it. Very annoying! It also has weird errors where it thinks that it doesn’t update the site, when in fact it does. I’ve done patches and fixes for the program, but it is just so outdated that it doesn’t help much. Plus, I don’t have the option to add widgets or publish remotely. Not to mention I am pretty bored with the style options. I also would like to get my hands on the new iPhoto which seems to be much easier to navigate and search for photos that the one I am currently running. Plus the editing and effects options seem to have a little more muscle.

Problem is that in order to upgrade to iLife ’09, I need to be running Mac OS x v10.5.6 or later. So, I’d have to upgrade my OS as well as iLife. The current price for Leopard is $129 (which will be replaced in a few months with Snow Leopard) and iLife ’09 is $99. Plus the new battery is an additional $129. Not to mention an external hard drive that would be another $150 or so. See how it is adding up? I don’t really know if it is worth it to spend $500 on a this one or replace it with a new one for about $500 more? Or, I could just get the new battery and suck it up with the current OS and iPhoto and possibly move my website to Typepad, SquareSpace, or some other external publishing site, but then I’d have to pay a monthly fee for it, why would I do that when I already pay $100 a year for MobileMe? (Which I really love, even though I can’t use it to its full advantage with my current OS.) Ugh. Not sure what to do, any suggestions?