Ze weekend...

...was definitely a grand adventure. For anyone who didn't know, I flew up to Chicago Friday night to go visit my Jessa. She promptly introduced me to the irregularities of Illinois - the first one being the blatant plagarism of city names (El Paso, IL? Elgin? Freeport? Woodstock? Harvard? Geneva?). The second oddity readily available was the preference of drivers who have been in an accident to keep their cars in the precise place the accident occurred. Even if one car rearended another in the middle lane of a three-lane highway they would stay in the exact spot they collided "so the police could see exactly what happened". So not only are they plagarists, they apparently enjoy being a public spectacle and a potential road hazard. [On the morning I left I witnessed a car stopped at a green light with a police car, lights flashing, stopped behind them. The officer was out of the car and talking to the driver with no apparent regard for any other traffic.]

Wisconsin was a much calmer state by far. Jessa took me to a farmer's market that they set up every Saturday in a giant ring around the state capitol building and showed me just how serious they were when they called Wisconsin the "Cheese State". The featured attraction of the farmer's market was a large pizza-sided ball of dough coated in red pepper flakes and a layer of fried cheese called, appropriately, spicy cheese bread. It was delicious and filling. We picked up fresh vegetables, jellies, pastries, apples, raspberries, and all other manner of delicious goods. Quite savory.

They call Madison (aka "Mad City") the Austin of the north and I can definitely see why. Not only were they all discussing politics and touting all number of causes from voting registration to gay and lesbian rights, the people were friendly about it. I didn't see a whole lot of exceptionally hippie behavior, but I was only there for the day. Beautiful weather all weekend.

Went to Chicago for a taste of that city - an accident on the road involving an 18-wheeler T-boning a car kept us from getting there too much before dark. We did get to go up to the Sears tower and overlook the city, but since it was Sunday almost everything was closed by the time we got down from the tower. Got to wander around the city blocks for a bit in search of a hot-dog stand that seems to have gone out of buisness since the last time Jessa ate there. We settled for some Chicago-deep-dish pizza at a local pub. There was also a great bit of picture posing between Jessa and I with one of the large stone lions that flank the Chicago Art Museum. We cruised down the streets singing White Stripes songs and got a lot of whistles from passers-by. Even stopped a guy in his tracks on a skateboard (poor guy almost fell over!).

We got home without incident and Jessa took me to the airport the next morning. That was where I learned that the cost of checking ANY bag (one bag!) was now $15 with Continental. Because of my earlier jelly purchases and the ice-packs keeping the cheeses cold, I couldn't take the bag through security, so I had to suck it up and pay the fee. That sucked, and it put me in a bad mood for most of my travels.

Of course, my BME (updating from "Best Man" to his initials) picked me up from the airport and took me home. Such a gentleman.

So all-in-all, it was a splendid weekend (minus the travel home). I kind of like the fact that I can (but don't) come to work and say "oh yeah, i was out of the state this weekend." Maybe next time I can go to LA without going through LAX. Perhaps?