Edvard [2]

He doesn't sell many movie posters; it just doesn't seem possible to generate sales without customers. We've all seen the mobster movie where Al Capone launders money through some dry cleaning business. Why not a poster shop? The other night as I walked by, the door to the back room was left open, allowing a heavy, yellow light to make its way into the store. Our shopkeeper was asleep at his desk, take-out box left open. Pausing long enough to take in a scene from the back room, I noticed two men sitting at a green, '70s-style card table. They were smoking. One man was leaning forward with his palm on his forehead, cigarette dangling. The other was leaning back, arms folded across his chest. You can only imagine their dilemma: "I don't think ol' Edvard is gonna' keep us underground for long, Lukas. His hearse, those glasses, everything about 'im is too obvious." Casson was sitting up straight now, gesturing expansively with his meaty left hand, cigarette still dangling. "We all know that by now, Cass. It's only a matter of time. Our man Edvard has a lot of history in the company, but his history lessons 'bout movies or old friends don't get us anywhere now. Everything's changed."

Time slows down in Rogers Park

School's done, and free time is now easier to be had. As ambivalent as the spring weather is in Chicago, days seem to be warming up, and walks with the dog are much more enjoyable. As you can see from this picture, trees are starting to sprout leaves, and we have some flowers outside our front window. Unfortunately, the cold April weather and terrible wind killed a couple of our plants, but for the most part, they are still holding on to life. We are pretty much professional gardners if you didn't know. (Actually, in case you were taken in by the last comment, watering a living thing other than Elayna or the dog borders on the impossible for us.) Summer school starts next week (one class is enough for me), and we're going on a few trips (SoCal for Memorial Day for starters).

Tracking life through webcams

I grew up in the Sierra Nevadas, in a small town called Portola (a place that fancies trains). When I moved out of the house, I headed south to La Mirada where I attended Biola University. After spending a few years there, I spent a couple of summers in Alaska (a view of Fredrick Sound from Petersburg, where we did our first seine set). When I got tired of fishing summers, I got married and we settled in Moses Lake for a while (does this webcam work?). Later, we moved to Spokane, where we went to EWU (Rebecca at the joint EWU/WSU Riverfront campus downtown and me out in Cheney). We liked Spokane but decided there's never enough school, so we moved to Chicago, where I now attend Loyola University (the English department is in the same building as this camera).