Brief explanation of last post: I have long been a serious fan of both White Hen and 7-Eleven and thus the buyout is of great interest to me. 7-Elevens in Japan are pretty sweet, and Chicago area stores are, I feel, slowly approaching Japanese standards of excellence. So I am extremely thrilled by the prospect that White Hen stores, which I love in their own right for all their conveniency goodness and local appeal, may benefit from Japanese-owned-7-Eleven's convenience knowhow. I will be keeping you, readership, abreast of the situation. Catch the Convenience Fever!

Pictures:





Captions:
1) Pastoral South 53rd
2) Delicious Coffee Boss
3) Sweetly Napping Schwinn

Above are some photos of the weekend. I spent a chunk of Saturday undergoing a 30-mile solo bike ride down to Hyde Park in alternating idyllic and chaotic settings. See, up on the north side (Hollywood Beach area) the lakeshore path traffic is usually pretty light, so the path is highly runner- and biker- friendly. But apparently (this was only my second time riding through ze thick of it) from about Fullerton on down to Roosevelt the path is simply bursting with users -- runners, bikers, roller-bladers, volleyball-players, families, tourists -- and the task of navigating it requires great vigilance. So the hightened awareness demanded by increased traffic made those middle 3ish (so 6-7 after doubling back) miles vaguely stressful, but the other 23/24 were peaceful and beautiful and, with respect to experiencing the south side, completely new to me.

This morning I took a lovely trip to the beach. I hadn't been planning to go but the delicious Michigan air smelled amazingly good as it wafted through my living room window. Mmmm. Aromatic. Thus I subjected my sore haunches to bike seat contact once again and pedaled my way down to la playa for a swim and some sun exposure.

The afternoon involved a drive to the completely incredible Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights, during which I acquired, amongst other things, a giant bottle of Hakutsuru Sake and some Japanese-style tupperware. Very exciting! Following the trip was a viewing of The Break Up (which I thought quite funny despite skepticism expressed by my brother as he gave me directions to the theater of over the phone), and some late-night and highly entertaining commentary (by my cohort-for-the-day Kim) regarding the exhibitionism of one particularly saggy-pantsed cyclist. Enjoyable.