July 2026

July1: The month got off to a great start — we sold our house! The first one, not the one we moved into. What a relief. And it was only officially on the market for three days! (If you want an excellent seller’s agent in Ohio, let me know). Took Liz out to celebrate at a surprise destination … this special McDonalds that we drove by after the nice wedding we went to in May. What’s so special about it? I mean just look at these photos!

July 3: A nice thing that happened this day was Liz stopped by work and we went and had a nice little Indian lunch.

July 4: Liz and I met up with Jeff and some of his Indiana family at the new Buc-ee’s!

And then, at long last, we returned to the Air Force Museum, site of some of Liz and my first Ohio outings. It’s still huge, there’s still too much awesome stuff to see!

From there, Liz and I went up to Lima, Ohio for the rest of our weekend getaway. The idea was: Go somewhere we could stay with an indoor pool and eat at a Hamburger America hamburger place. Lima ticked those boxes. We stayed at a Hojo with a pool inside…

And ate at a Kewpee burger! It was like homemade Wendy’s, very nice, kind of normal, I got olives on my burger, though. That’s the Lima way.

Exploring Lima, we discovered it lacked a certain level of small town charm we had hoped for, but we had a great time picking up bug spray from the Meijer. Then we returned to our hotel for some pool time and a rest up before…

…heading out to enjoy a nice local fireworks show! With no bug bites, because we got bug spray from the Meijer!

And then the next morning it was adios Lima and back to the real world!

The next Saturday Liz played at the Columbus Bookfest and then the Wednesday we were among those privileged to be at the temple for niece Lizzie’s first visit.

Then the next weekend Liz’s sold out a headlining gig at the Ginger Rabbit!

And then we took a big trip to Idaho, but that gets its own post.

Addenda:
Don’t worry, we still have a cat! And he’s really getting the hang of his Rocky cube.

AND July really was a great month for new work photos for our little family.

June 2026

Here’s stuff we did in June that wasn’t me going to Chicago.

June 6: ORB, Liz’s video game music band, played a video game convention at the Fairgrounds. Or should I say they opened for famous band Green Jell-o (Jelly), who some of my friends liked in High School? Because they did!

June 13: Fun day trip to Troy, OH…passing through Urbana on the way so you know we had to shop at Crabill’s!

Why were we going to Troy? Main reason: to try K’s Hamburger Shop and BOY did I like it! Hard if not impossible to top Crabill’s, but K’s was an ideal meal in an ideal venue for me.

Downtown Troy itself was a wonderful collection of vintage shops, comic book stores, book stores, and assorted other sights.

Goodbye Troy, goodbye K’s, hope to see you again someday!

June 27: A walk around the neighborhood.

Then we saw Toy Story 6 (Great!) with the Gardners and went to check out a little military museum…but on the way, saw this Buddhist temple place from the freeway and had to check it out.

Oh and then there was a farm market…

And THEN we got to the little military museum…turns out it wasn’t that little! Tons and tons and tons of stuff to see, quite the collection.

June 28: With a few days to go before our first house official sells, Liz and I pay one last visit to Dlyn street. Too excited/glad to have it sold to feel too nostalgic about it, but it was a good little house. Lots of nice memories there.

This is the kind of memories we’re making in the new house now.

Juneteenth in Chicago

“Thanks” to holiday disparity between Liz’s work calendar and mine (don’t get us started!) I drove home to Chicago for a nice weekend with Mom and Dad. Halfway home I stopped for sliders at Power’s in Fort Wayne, another Hamburger America spot checked off the list! They really were like if a person made you White Castle with care and the onions were rather thickly sliced. Nice.

I left for Oak Park from work around noon and ran into just some of the worst Chicago traffic coming in. Just how it had to be. The drive took a few more hours than I expected. Just how it had to be. I did eventually get there and that’s what matters.

And after a nice dinner at home with Mom and Dad, a walk around the neighborhood with Mom and Dad, followed by additional Brigham solo-walking.

On Friday the 19th I set off on a huge walk that eventually got too huge. First I walked down to the L station, passing OPRF construction along the way..

And then I made my way from the West Loop to the Loop and ate at a Hawaiian restaurant that did not meet hopes or expectations.

From lunch we go to the Art Institute for a bit.

From the Art Institute, a walk up Michigan Avenue

The main goal of my walk up Michigan: a visit to Chicago’s new Leica store, to see if they had the new 35mm f/1.2 Noctilux. Which they did. And to see if they’d let me try it out. Which they did.

$10,000 is quite the price for a lens (and not nearly the most expensive Leica lens, either). But consider this photo and the far beyond 100% close up on the lens…look how clear and sharp that lettering is, at f/1.2. That’s not nothing.

From the Leica Store I backtrack and eventually make it all the way back home. 25,000 steps doesn’t seem the right number.

Saturday: Up and at ‘em and down to the Oak Park Farmer’s Market with Dad.

Then we went with Mom to Palmisano Park, a quarry park right in the middle of a part of Chicago I don’t know that I’ve ever been to before. We had a nice explore and worked up the perfect Johnnie’s hunger.

Saturday afternoon: I walk to downtown Oak Park to mail a postcard. To whom? Oh you know who!

And that evening, a little family walk. On Sunday we went to church and celebrated Father's Day and then my drive home to Columbus took a lot, lot longer than expected. Seems I should adjust my expectations. Anyway. Nice Chicago weekend.