Lightning never strikes......

My love of thunderstorms continues.

Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time! from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.

It's a Revolution....

Father's Day brought us to Revolution Brewery. Can't say anything bad about this place. Good food, good ambiance, and good beer. Plus they gave me one on the house for being a dad. Porter had a nice spice to it and the stout had a nice roast to it. Definitely will be back.

Spiderman Fishing Poles

Hunter and his Spiderman fishing pole didn't hook anything but fish this weekend. Teaching a three year old how to fish takes some patience and more importantly - cat like reflexes when the hook comes flying your way.

Salmon Stampede 2010

Another rainy day of fishing on Lake Michigan. Gus, Rich and I got out on the water about 0615 to relatively calm waters, but the winds and waves were coming out of the NNE which made for a bumpy ride out to the fishing grounds. The rest of the morning did us no favors as we had to repair a down rigger cable and a massive tangle of lines. We did not catch any thing until.....we were popping the lines out of the down rigger and we noticed we did have a fish on. We stowed the lines and rushed into the harbor before the storm hit.

We went back out after the storm and that is when things started picking up. Within 20 minutes we had 5 hits reeling in 3 of them but it was not enough to place us in the winner's circle. Our total weight for out 4 fish was 25lbs, while the winning team had 37. Also, the biggest fish of the tournament was a brown trout weighing in at 19lbs. For the weigh in and post tourney celebration we takeover Potato Creek Johnny's in Glenview - not the hippest place in the world but the outdoor beer garden does the trick.

Overall, I feel like a train wreck today after getting bounced around the boat for 10 hours - my back, my back and my neck....

Yosemite 2009

Well, last fall I took a trip with my friend Steve to Yosemite National Park to do a littlebackpacking/camping. As we get into the park, I take out my camera and the camera will not take a picture...broken. Thankfully, Steve is well prepared with extra camera batteries and memory. I finally got my hands on our pictures from this trip. Overall, it was a long drive from San Diego but a memorable one. We went out hard and had some tough hikes. We stayed in Tuolumne Meadows and hiked to Yosemite Valley over Cloud's Rest. Here is the view from the top of Cloud's Rest. When we got to the Valley, we ended up hitch hiking back to our car 30 some miles back through the Park. It took us two rides and about 3 hours to do it in 85 degree heat with no water, but as I stated, very memorable.....

Finally....a Championship

Well, it has been a while, but a Chicago sports team has actually won a championship. It was good to see the City embracing the win, especially the fire truck with it's lights on going South on Ashland from Division (to nowhere in particular) with someone on the mic singing Da da da da da da dada. Classic......

Grocery Store Tales

Just another Sunday afternoon in Evanston shopping at the local Dominick's when all of a sudden.........BAM!!! Garlic starts flying and fists start being thrown. In the blue corner, at 5'2 weighing in at 140 we have "Shorty" who has her 2 year old little girl as a cornerman. In the red corner, 5'7" 130, we have "I got Whooped", who leaves her kids in the car to follow "Shorty" into the grocery store, provokes Shorty and goes on to get her ass handed to her.

I hear loud voices while rounding the aisle heading to the checkout, when out of no where these two ladies just start wailing each other. I thought the tall one was going to whoop her, but out of no where the short one lands a couple, and the tall one ends up in bulk garlic. Then I step in and break it up.

I don't know why but this type of incident tends to occur where I am. I must be lucky. Got to love Evanston.