Phil Lee, Alberto's, Ann Sather, and Lego Apollo 11
Because we are not doing a vacation this summer I told both boys they could pick somewhere to go for a weekend. Leo is pondering, and of course it will be a train related destination. Owen, no surprise, chose Chicago. We were considering a weekend in June when I remembered that the inimitable Phil Lee was playing at Jan King's house this weekend. Van kindly said they could stay with him. I figured I would send them on their own as Owen loves to walk and walk and walk when he's in the city, and I just can't do distances with my back. It's nice for them to hang out together too, and I like my time with Leo. At the last minute though, I thought, "Damn it. It's PHIL LEE and I haven't seen him in forever," so I decided to drive them up, see Phil and come back on my own. They'll follow on the train on Monday.
Owen drove us up there yesterday and got his first full rush hour traffic experience....took us a good four hours with the stop and go but we got to Jan's at the perfect time. We walked up to the house (wonderful house, and ohhhh, the gardens!) and got a great, welcoming hug from Tami Pedan. It was SO great to see her and to see Jan. And then there's that Phil Lee. I love that man. We had an absolutely lovely time. The Idle Spies opened and we really enjoyed them. Phil of course sounded great. Jan played with him a bit, as did Keith Wakefield (charming) and Tami. Met lovely people----good food----a comfortable spot on a couch. Damn, I love house concerts even when they are not mine. Oh, and Phil Lee harassed Owen a lot from the stage, which was delightful.
We tumbled back into the car and drove through Evanston and Rogers Park to Van's place. We drove around Rogers Park and grabbed some slices of Alberto's pizza on the way. It was greasy and satisfying. I don't know if it was as good as I remember, hell, I don't know if I remember it being that good...I just remember it as being our standard place to order pizza. Sometimes we'd call it in from the Lighthouse and then get home just as they were delivering it. We had the timing down pretty damn good. Only once did they get there before us. Eventually we stopped ordering pizza as much and switched to Chinese...hence my fondness for the Dictators' and Manitoba's Wild Kingdom's line, "I used to live on pizza, now I live on Chinese food."
We relaxed in the glory of Van and Karin's place. The spa, as we call it. Owen demonstrated that he can destroy someone else's place as quickly as ours. Shoes here, pants there, various detritus everywhere. It's amazing.
We got up this morning and wished Ernie a happy birthday. He drank some coffee, I drank some tea, and Owen carried the big stuffed black dog around. Eventually we said goodbye to Phil and Van and headed to Owen's favorite, Ann Sather, for breakfast. Owen was pleased because he recognized one of the employees so he felt like a regular. I admired the glory of their cinnamon rolls and had a delightful smoked salmon and dill omelet. I dropped the boys off at Navy Pier where they were going to see the Rolling Stones exhibit, before hitting some record stores, and trundled on home. I pulled into the alley and texted Leo. He kindly came out to the car and led me to the house, making sure there were no snakes. Now we're sitting here, he's putting the Lego Apollo 11 together, I'm fussing around here, and we have the a/c way too low.
I love my boys. All of them. This is a good day.