Random boring update

[stormdog]

I was away from the computer all weekend, and most of yesterday. That's just fine, 'cause I was out doing things.

I did make it to the bank on Saturday morning. When I asked whether the bank had any secured credit card options, the person behind the counter didn't know what that was. She asked someone else, who also didn't know what that was. I explained the concept. They said that the only credit card they offer is a Visa and gave me an app. I may call later instead to see if I get someone more knowledgeable.

Then I down to connect with Posi and Nova. The three of us drove to the Cumberland El stop, got snacks and one-day CTA cards at Dominicks, and boarded the train. We found out shortly that the blue line is under construction, so we had to take a shuttle bus across the part with closed tracks. That added a substantial chunk of time to our trip, as we were now dealing with Chicago traffic. Finally we made it to The Loop. We'd decided by then that we were going to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

My phone told me to take the train from the Merchandise Mart north, then grab a bus. We walked to the mart and got on the train there, getting off at the Diversey station. From there, the bus took us eastward to Lincoln Park. Unfortunately, the bus driver gave us directions to the zoon that not only involved getting off at the wrong stop, but had us walking entirely the wrong direction.

We finally got to the zoo at about six o' clock. It looked like we only had half an hour, but it turned out that the zoo was open 'till seven. We got to see lions, tigers, snow leopards, and a pallas cat. Though we didn't see any seals, the tank was really fantastic. It's a great pool of water that's set a couple feet above ground level and there are plexiglass walls that bridge the gap from the ground to the top. The arrangement allows viewing the seals both above and below the water; I loved it!

It's too bad we didn't get more time there. But now that I realize it's free (I had no idea!), I'm planning to go more often. Both moiracoon and rileybear67 want to go, so I see a few trips in my future.

After being nicely asked to leave the zoo by staff in golf carts, we found a much better bus that went straight down Michigan Avenue to The Loop. Now we know how to get up there next time.

We made our way toward an Indian buffet I knew near where I work, but diverted on the way to a Thai place I knew that was a little closer. It was closed, as was nearly everything else in the area. That seemed really odd to me in downtown Chicago on a Saturday night. But we found another Thai place in the vicinity that was pretty tasty.

I finally got home about eleven o' clock I think, and got to bed. I was going to be up early the next day for...

A trip to see rileybear67 and D to go to Dave and Buster's!

I was really surprised to not find a single pinball table there. Are they really that out of style? They're my favorite things in an arcade, and I am sad that they are going away. What I did really like was this silly horse racing game called Derby Owner's Club. This is clearly a product of Japan. If not by the slogan on all the consoles ("For wonderful days of horse racing with your horses"), the gameplay is a giveaway. Each credit gets you one race that you control your jockey through. You also have to pick the right training and and the right food (sometimes you pick food the horse doesn't like and he or she will be upset, or refuse to eat). And after the race, if the horse did well you can praise or flatter him, or if there were problems you can be encouraging. If you rode too hard and tired the horse out, you might apologize. Picking the right thing in all of these can raise your relationship level with your horse, who will be more and more responsive to your commands.

When you're done, you get a little mag-strip card to take with you with your horse's information on it (and the names of its sire and dam) that you can feed into the machine later to play more. If your horse gets old and can't race anymore, you can retire it, and then breed it with other players' horses to produce offspring with even better stats. It's silly, but lots of fun. When I got to my parents' house that night, I was telling people all about my new pet horse, Stormy Daylight, and showing them the card.

We did other silly games too. D hit a jackpot and got something like 900 tickets out of one machine! Skee-ball was played (At least they had that!) as well as this silly game where you are a polar bear and you have to smack fish with a baseball bat. We were there for about five hours and had a grand time.

Speaking of being at my parents' house, I saw my brother and Lara for the last time before they move out to Lansing, where they are by now. I'll miss them. But visits will definitely be happening!

Then it was to bed to snuggle up with my pretty 'coon. I didn't get to see much of her this weekend, and missed her. I was up early for the train to Chicago yesterday and another day of work, followed by riding CTA out to see jimcyl and mlsguy, whose place I stayed at last night as I finally overcame the demons of stupidity and ordered my lens.

Which should be here possibly even by the end of the week! *bounces*

And that's about all there is to say. So have a picture of duck nibbling on a little girl's finger in Battery Park.