Some people are real fans... some are not.
I'd like to thank one of the real ones. Watching the Cubs game this evening, we saw a guy catch a foul ball. He then held the ball up while the person he was with took his picture. This is, of course, standard proceedure when catching a foul ball, however what came next was what makes baseball, and the fans that love it truly great. After the picture was shot, he turned around and passed the ball to a young fan a couple rows back. The guy who caught the ball will have a picture and great story to share over a couple beers, but the young fan will have a great souvenier, and (hopefully) a life-time love of The Game.

It's much easier to get motivated to haul my fat ass seven miles to work on my bike after watching Lance, Tyler, Jan, Roberto, et. al haul their much less fat asses couple hundred kilometers across cobble stones and dirt roads (dirt roads? who the hell planned this route?)
Today, as I left work and saw the rain falling, I considered throwing the bike on the bus and taking the easy way out, but I didn't. And I'm glad. It rained for a bit, but not long and I enjoyed the ride. I think I might actully stick to my goal of riding at least 3 days a week... if my bike stays unbroken... Stupid out-of-true wheel. Yeesh.

Here in Chicago, we do our fireworks early. Why? Why the hell not.
As Apu (from the Simpsons) once said: "Celebrate the independence of your country by blowing up a small part of it." And so we do. We combine the greatest loves of America here in Chicago: Music, Food, and Blowing Shit Up. It's good stuff.
This year I think they used more big shells than usual. It was fairly impressive. About 20 minutes overall. Oh, and we do ours to live music.