Sunday reading

The story of this weekend: the weather.

I arrived home from work Friday afternoon to bright sunny skies, thick muggy air -- and the sound of tornado sirens. Kates, Phoebe and I held out for about an hour in the basement and waited for the warning to expire ... Then I went outside, mowed the lawn and puttered in the yard until a pouring rain forced me back inside ...

Yesterday, we were out on the town for the annual downtown and kite festivals. It was another bright sunny day ... Phoebe loved getting pushed around in her shoulder. We met friends. Listened to live music. Shopped the deals. Ate ice cream -- it was won-der-ful ... Then we had barely arrived home and the storms rolled in again. And more tornado sirens.

Today. We went to church ... and then watched it pour for most of the afternoon. The sun came out for the latter part of the afternoon, giving us time to visit a graduation pary and for me to do some more puttering in the yard. Tonight, Kates and I got Phoebe to bed and waited for Grandma -- she's staying with us for a couple days -- to arrive ...

Grandma had just arrived. Kates was helping her unpack. And I was settling in to watch what was left of tonight's Cubs-Dodgers game ... when a tornado warning appeared on the TV, and the sirens started sounding once more. We grabbed Phoebe out of her crib, and here we are in the basement again. Good thing its a homey basement ...

Hey, remember when we had a tornado in January? Those were fun times.

Here's my Sunday reads ...

Baseball ...
a Organist plays at both church and ballpark ... A great read by an old friend of mine.
a Streaky outfielder Alfonso Soriano leading Cubs' charge to division lead
a D'backs one of several clubs who reversed their fortunes last month
a Lesbian kiss at M's game stirs up Seattle
a Safety of maple bats raises sticky issue for MLB
a Why the MLB draft matters more now than ever before

Politics ...
a The Price Of Forgetting A Presidency
a On the Fence and in the Spotlight
a Will the Real Scott Please Stand Up?

Media ...
a History in Slow Motion ... A good read about the Democratic race. We raised our eyebrows too when the AP's message about Hillary conceding the nomination arrived -- only to be strung out the rest of the week before her official announcement -- which was pretty inspiring, I might add.

The Internet ...
a Sudden Disconnect Over Social Networking Deal ... Very interesting.
a The Top 10 Social Networking Annoyances ... a good one from my friend Raechel. I completely agree with No. 10 -- if it takes too long to load, I'm gone and never coming back.

TV & movies ...
a Colbert tells grads: Please don't change the world
a With 'Zohan,' Robert Smigel will mess with you

Music ...
a A Requiem: Songs That Made the Hit Parade . . . They don't make TV themes like they used to ...
a Rolling Stone's Bo Diddley snub
a Carly Simon: Coming around again with 'This Kind of Love'
a Musicians push for better sound online and on disc
a The Ultimate Cheesy Ballad Playlist ... They might be cheesy, but you're likely to find me wailing in the car every time one of these comes on the radio ...

Life & other stuff ...
a Chicago makes cut, has Olympic-size to-do list ... More on the this week's news of Chicago's Olympic hopes.
a On a Short Leash Did you hear about that Buddhist couple who're never more than 15 feet apart?
a Don't bogart the binoculars: Bong Recreation Area, Wayne Woods more than just pun-worthy names ... A fun read about a local park.
a Ikea Helps a Town Put It Together