the ocean

A lot of excitement around here. Yesterday we hosted a truly extravagant dog birthday party, featuring a dog cake that we had to eventually take away from Aubrey before she ingested it so quickly that she choked. There was also a cookie cake for humans, which was devoured with a similar speed. And Aubrey got a brain teaser toy that she bested in an unexpected manner by simply destroying it. Take that, Outward Hound products.

I also took my mother to see the Van Gogh show at the Art Institute. It was pretty good, from what we could see of it around people's heads. I can't honestly muster up too much excitement for the prospect of seeing three different versions of the same painting, but they had some other interesting works, too, and the interpretive materials were well done as always. It was kind of unfortunate that some people apparently decided the museum would be a good place to stop on their way back from the St. Patrick's Day parade; I saw more than one person bobbing and weaving suspiciously in front of the Chagall windows.

And my neighborhood was of course flush with St. Pat's revelers. I believe some sort of new record was set when I passed a deeply intoxicated bro on my way to the gym at 8:30 AM. And the legions of young ladies taking selfies in their ethnically offensive t-shirts threatened to shut down Clark street entirely. Suffice it to say that I will not be upset to be out of the country on the actual St. Patrick's Day.