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Well! Embedded photos seem to be where it's at, so we'll keep on as we've begun.

Today's Friday Photo post is a bit one-note, but what a note it is.

On Wednesday, I took the day off to go downtown and take the Rookery Lobby and Burnham Library Tour. The Rookery is an old historic building in Chicago, and the tour guide informed us that it is "The oldest high-rise still standing" though she could not, when I asked, tell me whether that was in Chicago or in the country. It was designed and built by Burnham & Root, a pair of famous architects (Root did most of the legwork), and renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1905 -- or 07, depending on whether you like the placards or the tour guide better.

The Rookery also employs the revolutionary-for-the-time "grillage" system of foundation, which allows high-rise buildings to "float" in the soft, swampy soil that most of Chicago is built on. Without a grillage foundation, most buildings would sink up to eight inches after being built, and in the early days grillage foundations weren't quite perfected yet -- there are parts of the Rookery where the ground floor seems to undulate because the grillage beams sank unevenly.

( This is the Rookery. )

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Oh snap photo post update:

SNOOOOOOOOW!

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You guys.

It's that time of year.

SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOOOOOOOOOW!

For newcomers, I should explain that it has become a Cafe tradition, the first day it snows in Chicago each winter, to post the Snow Song from White Christmas. Welcome; you are now initiates.

This year, as I was digging around trying to find it when they forecasted snow THREE WEEKS AGO, I even found some others I'd like to share. For one thing, look at these GQ motherfuckers re-creating the Snow Song for no apparent reason. (Like one needs a reason.)

I want to send them Christmas presents.

And then I found the snow song remix if your tastes are a little more techno.

Oh man now I want to watch White Christmas. Fortunately I own a copy.

Times I have slipped this morning: 3. Times I fell down and broke something: 0. It's gonna be a long winter.

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I have cleaned house!

In preparation for the new year I have tied up all my work issues, cleaned out my desk and my "what the hell?" file on the computer, and resolved all our budget issues. IT FEELS GOOD.

And then I was all, "Oh yeah, wait...I have a personal life."

*rolls up sleeves* TO GOOGLEDOCS! TIME FOR A CLEANING!

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You know, this "get out and do stuff" plan was great, and I intend to continue it into the coming year, but I just did my annual scoring-up of all the fanfic I've posted, and it's roughly half of what I've done in previous years, which is a bit telling. Still, I think it's a fair trade-off.

On that note, it's time for the annual Holy Shit, Sam fic roundup!

( What I Wrote In 2011. )

A meme usually goes around this time of year where you answer questions about your fanfic, but you know me, I'm a crowdsourcer. So if you have any questions about my fic, my writing, the process, et cetera, ask and receive an answer!

Probably. There's a lot of you out there.