This weekend we kept ourselves busy, taking a train to Chicago on Saturday and visiting Navy Pier, among other things.

On the way I listened to Fritz Leiber's A Pail of Air (from the Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy audiobook on Audible) on the iPod, which was nicely done.

We walked to Navy Pier, had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp, and visited the Haunted Ship docked alongside the pier for Halloween. That was okay, but I'm not sure whether it would've been worthwhile if we didn't have the CVS 2-for-1 coupon. Still, it was good for a laugh, even if it didn't have the extreme creepiness factor of The Barn of Terror we walked through a few years ago.

In keeping with our Halloween-themed weekend, we saw Haunted Castle 3D at the IMAX theatre, also on Navy Pier. The 3D effect was impressive and, as expected, the coherence of the plot played second fiddle to the effects. The movie wasn't terribly scary, either. This is only the second time I've been to an IMAX theatre, the first being when we went on the 3D ride at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. I still can't get over how huge these IMAX screens are :)

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Today we raked leaves in the backyard again, with more leaves falling all the while. In the afternoon we went to some farms in Woodstock for apple cider, doughnuts, and caramel apples. We also came away with some corn salsa and a couple of jars of jam. This has become something of a tradition for us with weekends in October, and we look forward to it every year, especially with all the leaves changing colour.

I managed to unpack a lot of boxes of books, so now the bookshelves don't look so bare. The place still looks like a disaster zone, however :) I also wrote a critique for the crit group and watched the cats snarl at each other in several confrontations. That little kitten really gives our other cat a hard time!

Oh, and before I forget--we watched Supersize Me on Friday night. Director Morgan Spurlock turns himself into a guinea pig for his own documentary, eating nothing but McDonald's every day for an entire month. He gets a team of doctors to perform tests before, during and after the experiment, and the results will come as a shock to many. Interspersed with updates on Morgan's health, there are interviews with industry players, schools, doctors, and even an avid Big Mac fan. This was an entertaining and informative documentary, and an ideal companion piece to Eric Schlosser's book, Fast Food Nation (there's even an interview with Eric on the DVD).

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No entry would be complete without an update on my writing progress. Shock, horror--I've been too busy to do any! (excuses, I know) Maybe next time I'll have some progress to report... This journal is titled, "Carn, write!" for good reason, you know :)