even the mall is beautiful

Outside Old Orchard mall; what's in a name...


Perhaps this is a stretch. But the day was so pretty, that there were almost as many people in parks and along the Chicago lakefront as in the malls.

I wasn’t shopping at the mall, not in the true sense of the word "shopping." I was attempting to find the one Pottery Barn store out there that would be compassionate enough to take back something of mine and, in so doing, save a few trees maybe.

I had purchased said item 18 months ago and never used it. I don’t want it. It is expensive (by my standards). It is useless to me. Yet it is still listed in the PBarn catalogue. Someone else may want it with the passion of a typical consumer convinced that only X item will do. But PBarn will not take the item back because..... it has sat in my closet for 18 months.

Why so long? I am a busy person and don’t get to the malls much! PBarn, loosen up already.

After a few hours of quasi-shopping, my Chicago host and I drove downtown just so we could chomp on the best burgers ever. Burgers and I -- now that is a rare encounter. Indeed, I eat burgers more rarely than I go to the mall. But my host eats burgers and so his word is more credible and he agreed. Just so you know, the best burger can be found here:



note Hop Haus


…and my selection, the French burger (with brie and moutarde and balsamic onions) looks like this:





Some people find cities claustrophobic. As if the buildings are closing in on them.




I was raised on cities, or at least in cities and all I can see is their splendidness (even as I so often need to leave them and wade in meadows).

I came back to Madison this evening. It doesn’t offer meadows, but it’s plenty green. Once April rolls into May.