Saturday Aug. 23rd was a foggy day in Chicago--here are some photos I took at the beach: [link]

This one is my fave: [link]

I'm loving the Prague reports! It's high on my list of places to check out.

Other places I went today: Strahov Monastery (they have a famous library: but you can't actually go in, just look from the doorway. Which is not super exciting AND means the other 100 tourists will all also be trying to peer through this narrow doorway....weirdest thing was the huge Buddha statue in one corner. Not something I thought I'd see at a monastery?), the Miniature Museum (on the monastery grounds for some reason? Tiny room, all these metal sculptures and paintings done on a human hair or a grain of rice. There was one that was a caravan of camels, done in gold, in the eye of a needle), and the museum of decorative arts, which was another one where they wouldn't let you take photos, which was annoying. It was pretty neat though (I should say, these were all worth what I paid--most were about $5-7 each, so not big city museum type prices). There was a temp exhibit of weird twisty pottery that I totally didn't get. But then they had awesome fashion couture pieces, ceramics and clocks and stuff, some neat stained glass, and some nice jewelry (especially the art nouveau replica pieces in the tiny gift shop, but those were like $150 bucks, so not on the menu for me).

Then I came back to the hotel, and asked the concierge if there was a laundromat anywhere nearby--my brother is getting here in a few minutes, so I figured I'd do laundry before he got here (and when we get to Poland on Monday supposedly the place we are staying has a washer). She said there was a place about a 30 minute walk away (near the river/clock) but it was closed now. I was like what? How does a self-serve laundromat stay in business if it's only open until 6pm?? Thankfully google had my back and I found a place three metro stops away (super fast trains, btw--they seem to come every 5 minutes!) and did it there. Though it was kind of ridiculous expensive ($9 for one small load to wash and dry myself!). But now all my clothes are clean. Whew.

Liese, here's hoping the coming days can be as serene as possible for your family.

I love vicarious vacations!

I almost feel bad for having a had a good summer

Never feel bad about that.

Never feel bad about that.

Wrod.

ION, has Facebook gone flump?

I was having issues with FB but figured it was just my crappy wifi at this hotel.

Meanwhile: brother dearest, when you tell me you will be here at 930, it would be considerate of you to call or email by the time is it 1030 to say you are late or lost or whatever. When I finally get you on the phone via usin Skype, you could do more than sound stoned and tell me "uh maybe I'm at the wrong hotel". Dude. Even if you are you've been there for how long? I gave you all the hotel info, I told you what room I'm in, this should not be hard. Ugh. And I wanted to go get cheeses and snacks at the lounge but kept figuring he'd be here any minute and not wanting to leave in case he called. And now they've put all the snacks and cheeses away. ;(

I feel like the lesson here is, always get cheeses and snacks. That is annoying!

Thoughtlessness is bad. Thoughtlessness that gets in the way of cheeses and snacks is worse.

Do not feel bad, Jesse. We need people's good summers to balance the bad.

I'm on a local FB yardsale page. A person posted a picture of a Darth Vader costumed laid out with the head area under a car. Her post says:

One costume, three great uses:

1. Traffic casualty Darth Vader
2. Sensory friendly Darth Vader
3. Darth Vader of Sleepy Hallow

$5 or free if you come to my door FULLY CLOTHED, wearing the helmet and tell me you're my father.

(Read: I can't find the helmet, which basically is the whole point of the friggenfraggen costume)

Cheese before bros, clearly.

I don't care that it doesn't rhyme.

That Darth Vader yard sale post makes me very happy.