Andries Botha Sculpture

Today we went over to IIT to check out the Nomkhubulwane elephant sculpture by Andries Botha. It was pretty neat, a life-size sculpture of an elephant made out of bicycle tires. It is on tour and at the college temporarily. It seems a little out of place in the somewhat vacant setting of the campus of a college not in session at the moment but was still pretty impressive.

Sophie's birds and a little something for the garden

The end of a long day

Superdawg

Contrary to what you might see on the Food Network, their shakes aren't what they used to be. You can actually get better at McDonald's. Also, God knows where they are getting their hamburger meat these days. Perhaps Dunlop? Either way, the dogs are still the same as are the pickled tomatoes. The big attraction though is the hotdog "who looks like Underdog but reminds me of the Flintstones" (Sophie's quite exactly). Mediocre media-hyped food aside, it is a place that still brings smiles to many people's faces.

The above are Sophie's pics of "the important things" at Superdawg.

Mother's Day at Notre Dame

It really is the perfect Mother's Day event, isn't it? Well, for my sister, who has a somewhat unnatural attraction to the University of Notre Dame, it was perfect. Hearing that Lisa and her sons, Jacob and Ryan were dropping sightseeing there on her way back from a visit with her in-laws, Sophie, Ileana and I decided to take the trip out to meet them and spend some time.

"Hey Sophie, do you know what this place is?" "No", Sophie replied. "Its a University. Its a place where big kids go to school and learn all sorts of great stuff. Do you want to go to a place like this some day?" "No, I already have a new school and we visited it yesterday." "But this is different, you can take entire classes about very special things like paleontology, architecture, Russian, you name it. Doesn't that sound cool?" "Yep." "So do you want to go to school at a place like this some day". "Nope." I guess I failed at explaining how cool college could be but I guess I have some time.
Regardless of whether she wanted to go here or not, she enjoyed it plenty. She loved the "short seats" in the basilica. She loved the ducks, and she loved making funny faces with her cousins.

This is my first time at Notre Dame and I was very impressed. The main administration building is remarkable and beautifully restored. It was no Yale or Harvard but the architecture was pretty nice and the grounds were beautiful. The perfect day made it all that much better. I would love to know how much they spend on landscaping at this place.

I am sure some folks might disagree but I also found Notre Dame to be just as bizarre as it was beautiful. If there is any need for evidence of the cult-ish aspects of Catholicism, you really don't need to look much further. The place is brimming with wild religious artwork and imagery, tradition and superstition. From murals depicting Columbus in the administration building to the grotto behind the basilica and the basilica itself, I can only imagine what someone who is not Catholic thinks of places like this.

Trying to explain relics to Sophie was pretty wild. "So is she real or fake?" "Um, she's a wax figure made from a real body. Her real body is in Italy." "Oh good, so she's fake." I am glad the conversation about the wax woman in a glass coffin didn't go any further until: "Daddy, what are those?" "Oh, those are real. Those are relics. They take small bits of people, their hair, and fingernails and stuff and make special things out of them. See how some are crosses, some are necklaces. Special churches have them" "Oh daddy, you're silly."
All in all it was a beautiful day. We had a great visit with family and Sophie and mommy got to spend some time together that I am sure they will never forget.