I am not dead.

I apologize for the gap in postings. Things have been a little hectic and, frankly, I have been feeling a little under the weather and down. Nothing big, just life catching up to me.

So, a lot has happened. Let's start with the picture. Last Saturday, a met up with a friend at Midsomerfest in the Swedish neighborhood of Andersonville.

(sidenote: so far I have been to Mayfest the first weekend in June and Midsomerfest before the solstice. What's up with that, Chicago?)

The fest was nice. Thankfully, less crowded than Mayfest. Andersonville is a cool little neighborhood with some awesome little bakeries and restaurants. They take their Swedish heritage pretty seriously, so I had hoped for some clogging and lutekfisk sampling. Instead, it appears that the affluent gay and lesbian population that has moved in during recent years has exerted a strong influence, so we got Saab demonstrations and contempoary Scandanavian homegoods. Which isn't a bad thing. I like me some $400 salad tongs as much as the next guy, I was just hoping for something a little more traditional.

By far the most popular attraction was the 80's cover band that played at one end of the street. They really played it up, with big hair wigs, torn t-shirts, spandex pants, the whole nine yards. The crowd was eating it up, singing and dancing along as the jammed out to hits from Journey, Van Halen, Guns N Roses, Heart, and a lot of others. It was fun to see so many people just cutting loose and being silly.

As things shut down for the night, my friend and I made our way over a block to a place I had been wanting to try since moving here: the Hopleaf Bar. The Hopleaf has some obscene number of beers available, but they specialize in Belgians. Now I know this may be something of a sore subject given recent business announcements, but after visiting Rolbo and Liesie last fall, I am a big fan of Belgian beers. So I ordered up a Kriek (served in a wine-sized bottle! For 12 bucks!) and some mussels, and worked off some workweek blues.