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The Chicago Public Library hosted an author reading with Audrey Niffenegger on Thursday to promote her new book, The Night Bookmobile, a graphic novel about a woman who encounters a mysterious bookmobile containing everything she's ever read in life. Audrey had used photographs to create the images, but technical glitches prevented her from showing them. Instead, she read the short story on which the Guardian serial, which became the book, was based. This is actually the first installment of a larger work to be called The Library.

I stopped on the way home from work on Friday to pick up a pizza, and ran into a woman I know from the Friends of the Library. She was posting signs for a multi-family yard sale, so I went over there Saturday morning and picked up a couple of things. One person was selling two of the exact same Lenox silverplate/crystal cake slicers, obviously multiple wedding gifts, and both obviously unused. I expect one could fill several warehouses with things people thought they wanted, received and then never used.

I went over to the farmers' market then, and dashed around buying what I needed before the skies opened. It kept getting darker and darker, and just as I hopped in the car to head home, the rains came. While I was there, I stopped at the Blackstone Bicycle Works to drop off a donation. They had a fire and lost a lot of the bikes they were working on. A real shame, but they are working hard to come back from it.

In the afternoon, I went to Navy Pier for the Italian Expo. It was quite a bit smaller than the last time I attended, which was a couple of years ago, with far fewer merchants from Italy. A lot of good food, though, and distributors/retailers of Italian food. I picked up a lot of tourist literature, and watched a fashion show with several local designers, some good, some not so good (just as on Project Runway, a couple of designers were overly enamored with visible zippers and man panties). I very much liked the work of one designer who was influenced by Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons, and another who did painted and dyed silk:
Beauty!

Yesterday was the annual 57th Street Children's Book Fair, and I went over for a couple of hours to help staff the Friends of the Library table. We were right near the stage where the Hyde Park School of Dance was performing. There was also a woman doing amazing things with hula hoops:
Hula hoops!
I couldn't manage one for more than a minute or so when I was a kid!

I had wanted to go to Millennium Park for the Chicago Symphony concert, but I was feeling headachey, and figured I would not enjoy it. So I bagged it. Naturally, the headache went away when it was too late to head down there. Too bad, but I still have my subscription!
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Friday night, there was a going away party for one of our investigators, not that she's going far, just over to the Sheriff's Office, but still, we had to have a party! So I missed the Second Friday Open Studio at the Fine Arts building, but that's okay.

I was up fairly early on Saturday, because there was an estate sale I wanted to go to, primarily because I wanted to see the house! It's the gatehouse at East View Park, the only freestanding residence, a 1925 bungalow, and I've always been curious about what it's like inside. It's adorable, and if I had a spare half-million, I'd buy it. I did end up buying a few things, some throw pillows and a print. I had my eye on a couple of other items (an art nouveau-style lamp and a Japanese chest), but I have no place to put either, so I refrained. I also went to a rummage sale to benefit the Avon Cancer Walk, and bought a gorgeous black evening coat. I'm not sure what the material is but it has a really interesting texture. It's at the dry cleaners right now.

It was raining most of the morning, which was worrisome because I wanted to go to the Lyric Opera's annual concert at Millennium Park in the evening. Around 3:00, though, it cleared up, the sun actually peeped out and it began to get warmer. So I fixed a picnic dinner (poached salmon, potato salad, leftover edamame, tomatoes, with strawberries for dessert) and took that, along with a half-bottle of Riesling, and got down about an hour and a quarter before the concert began. The place was already packed, but I did find a spot to spread my blanket. By the time the music started, it was wall-to-wall people, quite literally, and the sidewalks on either side of the lawn were also full with standees. Very nice to see! And the concert was lovely, as always.

On Sunday, I went to the annual "We Hate Macy's, Bring Back Marshall Field's" demo:
Thank you, Field's!

This year, it was followed by an author reading/book signing at the Borders down the street, for Gayle Soucek's new book, Marshall Field's: The Store that Helped Build Chicago. There were several former Field's employees in attendance, and there was much reminiscing and nostalgia. Afterwards, several of us went to have a bite to eat and say more rude things about Macy's.

Yesterday, I went to another author event, also at Borders (though a different store). Tim Gunn! The awesome, sexy, charming and erudite Project Runway Tim Gunn. He was great, though the event was a bit chaotic and disorganized. There were at least 400 people there (based on 8 different colors of wristbands at 50 per color!). There was a Q&A for about half-an-hour, and then he started signing books at about 7:30 p.m. I left at about 10:15 and he was still signing books, and still being incredibly gracious to everyone. We have this in common: we both collect architectural pop-up books. Between the wait for the event to start, and the wait in line for signing, I actually finished the book!
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The Cultural Stuff )

Non-cultural stuff:

Yesterday was beautiful, so I decided to walk to the dry cleaners. On the way, I noticed that signs had been posted for the annual yard sale that benefits the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (which really should be the Avon Walk against Breast Cancer, no?). I got a couple of clothing items (belt and cotton blouse), two books1 (Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking and Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell), and two rather unusual items:

Al Pha Bet, an educiting game:
Al Pha Bet Game

and a sparkler wand:
Lulubelle's Sparkler Wand

I was moved to diligence today, perhaps in part because the lovely weather induced me to want mildly to spring clean. So I can now inform you that under those piles of papers there was an actual desk!


1 See, the reason I run out of bookshelf space is not necessarily the number of books, but the size of the books. These were both hardbacks, and you know how thick Clarke's book is! They're probably 4-5" between them. Two books.

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