the greener grass of Urbana

A number of people have asked me, often with a pained look on their face, if I had hoped to move back to Urbana. I find this question curious because it shows that either (a) a lot of people here have an inferiority complex about this town or (b) the town is crummy. Well, I haven't traveled the world by any means, but I have lived in a handful of nice places and, frankly, this town is just fine. Back to the question, I have answered that no, we didn't plan to move back here. But here we are, and doggonit we're gonna make the most of it.

I consulted some historical photos, and it sure seems like we had some good times during our previous stay here.

Darth Vader and friends patrolled downtown Champaign today while we were eating lunch. I was convinced that Luke Skywalker was inside the storm trooper outfit, but the trooper denied it. Hm.

I rode out to Homer Lake this afternoon. Getting away from the Empire and sitting by a calm lake was a great way to unwind from my second consecutive week of the working life.

Jill's parents were here for a couple days. Before they left this morning, we went to the Urbana farmers' market. We bought some bread and jam. We picked up an Urbana bike map and talked to an Urbana city council member that told us that Urbana has a greater fraction of bike users than Madison. Yup, better than Madison. Urbana: home of the good life.