Really nice day yesterday nonetheless (we did actually end up running the a.c. for the first time this season). The SAPAC meeting went well (people brought masses of food, which we are still eating), and afterwards I had a really nice time talking with Angeli and Aparna and Lakshmi. (The latter two are new friends whose names you haven't seen in here before.) They're going to be working with me on the South Asian literary arts festival thing. Meetings soon. :-) They hung around until dinner time and Aparna gave me good feedback on my novel; after that there was some tv watching (Harry Potter was on) and then a long conversation with Karina. She gets really cheap rates from Australia, and so sometimes she'll call me when she's cleaning and then I'll clean too and somehow hours flow by and lots of chores get done. Nice. Kevin's clothes are actually put away for the first time in weeks. Normally, after I do laundry, his clean clothes live on the rocking chair, while the dirty clothes accumulate on the bedroom floor. It works well enough as a system, but the shirts on the rocking chair get pretty crumpled.
Exciting plan for this morning -- clean out my car! Kevin parked it across the street, so it is unusually close, which makes this the optimum time for lugging things in and out of it. Maybe I'll start stocking it with WisCon stuff now; that'll make it less likely that I'll forget things. :-) Boxes of SH mugs and t-shirts, art projects for the show, clothes to donate to Ellen and Delia's clothes swap, SLF Small Press co-op stuff to sell or give away -- although most of that last hasn't arrived from the various small presses yet.
After that -- well, we'll see. There may be a trip down to Hyde Park today. There should be a trip to the gym at some point. I need to try to return some towels to Bed, Bath and Beyond. I need to study Spanish for an exam that may happen late this week. I have a few more Tor manuscripts to read and respond to.
My aunt Priya (the one who's only a year older than me) is arriving in town around lunchtime with her two little munchkins (very little -- age 4 and 2, I believe), and will be staying for ten days (luckily not with me, for much as I love her, I think ten days of such small ones might drive Kevin right around the bend). We will visit zoos and parks and the beach and suchlike. If y'all have suggestions for inexpensive or free stuff to do in Chicago with small children, that'd be appreciated.
Navy Pier?
You know the library lends cards to take a family to a museum (or you could pick the free day)- field museum, science and industry and I think this included the sky show at the planetarium – I find that the *really* young ones just LOVE being around lots of other kids, so museums are not bad for them. I think there’s a children’s museum also, which is more hand’s on/ crawling around.
I’ve actually never been to Navy Pier — is it fun?
Sadly, the museum free days now are only in the winter and one week in June, aside from the art institute. I’m not familiar with the library thing you mention?
Definitely Navy Pier – amusement rides, performers, lots of kids’ shops, etc. And the hands-on museum is there as well. Not sure whether the rides rate as expensive or not – it cost me $11 for a round of putt-putt and a ride on the Ferris Wheel, but I imagine the kiddie tix would be cheaper.
I’d been meaning to ask you if you’d been to the stained glass galleries there, which *are* free and cover a pretty wide range.
Public library and/or cultural center probably also has tyke-specific programming that might be cool.
Aha! Found the library passport thing. Coolness!
Wow, I can’t believe the free days are limited to the winter. Glad you found the passport on your own, I’ve been immersed in work. I found that the 1/week limit didn’t really matter in the system – unless you got the same librarian who remembered you’d checked one out the day before, you could check one out from a different library – useful for visitors.