yesterday helen and i went on a chicago architecture foundation tour with my friend debra. the tour was on “Historic downtown: the Rise of the Skyscraper” and led us on a walking tour of the south loop.

art deco mail slot in the “Field Building” (1934)

cantilever staircase in the “Rookery Building” (1888)

facade of the “Fisher Building” (1896)

interesting view contrasting different styles of buildings.

on our own, we checked out the beautiful interior of the Palmer House Hotel (1875)

helen is visiting… let the eating begin. tonight we went to ‘avec’, a trendy restaurant in the west loop, featuring french basque food.

very interesting flavours. to the right is a “wood-grilled sturgeon with shaved beets, roasted ramps and cilantro vinaigrette”, and to the left a “roasted chicken with chimichuri, chickpeas, squash, cauliflower and shaved haricot vert”. another favorite was a wood-fired flatbread with lamb tongue.

A number of weeks ago I gave a talk on campus on “The Biblical Creation in its Ancient Near Eastern Context,” dealing with the interpretation of the creation story in Genesis 1. In the hopes of reaching a wider audience, today it’s being posted on BioLogos.org, a prominent website dealing with matters of faith and science. If you’re interested, you can find my blog entry [here], where there is also a link to my longer article.

together with a few friends from church, we attended jean and joy’s wedding in morton, IL, a two and a half hour drive from chicago. since jean’s family is from france, we got to practice listening to and even speaking some french too during the day.

homemade cupcakes. a lovely home-catered dinner reception.

with shanghai expo 2010 just around the corner, i started to reminisce about expo 86 in vancouver. since i was only 7 or 8 years old, my memories are a bit fuzzy, but i remember distinctly watching that film “Rainbow War” at the Canadian Pavilion 10 different times, and thinking it was awesome. after a bit of googling, i finally found the video online (although resolution is kind of shabby)! eventhough i hadn’t seen it in over 20 years, it was so oddly familiar, even the sound effects! i can totally understand why i loved it as a kid. and did you know the film was nominated for an academy award? i didn’t.

one more expo 86 memory: i also remember having a hissy fit and making a major scene while taking the expo passport photo in a long line-up of people. my photo (too bad i don’t have it with me to show you) shows my pouty downward-looking tear-stricken face, holding my grandmother’s hand. classic.

…a boy from Taiwan belting out some Whitney Houston on a reality show. CNN called him Taiwan’s very own Susan Boyle. Enjoy.