Day 84 (Sunday, September 3)

© The Associated Press

This was going to be an all baseball weekend as I was scheduled to cover the Cubs yesterday and today. However, that changed rather quickly when big news hit Chicago. There was a fire in Chicago (that seems to be the common story throughout Chicago's history, isn't it?). This fire was horrible, not that the others were not. But this one took the life of six children, all of them siblings. Whoa!

© The Associated Press

My shift was scheduled to start at noon at Wriggley Field. However, I got a call at 8 a.m. to head into the office and go to Rogers Park, where the fire occurred.

I was half asleep when I got the call. I thought I had about three more hours of sleep and the fact that I went to sleep at 5 a.m. because I was out at Xippo last night didn't help.

Regardless of how tired I was, I got up and headed to work.

Obviously, from the above photos, I was able to forget about the lack of sleep and made some nice images telling the story.

I worked on the fire story through my shift and then it was time to go home.

The visit home was a rather quick one. I took a little nap and got ready for a road trip I was taking with Jorge and Javier.

Above, Maxine (right) is ready to attack as she greets Baby, who will be dog watched by Diego while the Three Js took the trip up north.

The Three Js hopped on Jorge's VW and headed to Milwaukee, where we will meet up w/ Neyno for a labor day trip to the Brew City.

The drive up to Wisconsin was fun.

We arrived in Wisconsin in no time and got a chance to hang out w/ some pretty cool people. We hung out at Anne and Jason's place just outside of Milwaukee. There was an outdoor party going on full w/ beer and a fire pit. We got a chance to meet Kevin and Clint, two crazy dudes who were borderline crazy/weird. They were nice, though. At least from what we were able to tell.

After hanging out at the outdoor party, we continued on down the road to Milwaukee.

Played some pool as Neyno and Jorge mixed some tracks. It was a cool night.

So, w/ me going to Wisconsin, I am now at 25 U.S. states visited.

I am halfway through the list. Not bad considering that in March of 2004 I had only been to only four U.S. states. Woohoo.

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