Recently Amy & I packed up the RAV4 with our tent and headed out to Rockford for a little camping and mountain biking.  The weather couldn't have been more cooperative.  We had an awesome time!

Steve conquers... the bridge!

Rock Cut State Park is located on the northeast edge of Rockford, approximately 1.5 hours from Chicago.  We've camped here before with larger groups, but this time around it was just us.  Having spent the summer of 1995 living in Rockford during my internship at WIFR-23, Rockford holds an "interesting" place in my heart.  I think I'll leave it at that.

Our Campsite at Rock Cut State Park

Amy relaxes with a book

We didn't make advanced reservations, but had no problem getting a campsite.  Thanks to some advanced notes my parents took on their last time at the park, we had a good idea which campsite would be best suited for our tastes.  We ended up with a nice spot completely surrounded by trees, which made for a quieter, less chaotic experience.

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If you were to take a look at my iTunes collection, you'd notice two genres that are substantially larger in song quantity when compared to an "average" person.  The first is "Christmas", which isn't a surprise for anyone who has participated in my annual Steve's 25 Days of Christmas Music countdowns.  The other is "Disney Theme Park", which features songs, area music, soundtracks, and other related audio from Disney-owned theme parks around the world.

The Official Album of Disneyland (2008)

Thus, you have to understand my excitement when I'm able to add some new audio to this collection.  There is quite a bit of Disney theme park audio out there, and to be honest, most of it is unofficial and obtained via "underground" means.  However, since 1980 Disney has released what they termed "Official Albums" for their parks, eventually growing from a single LP into multi-CD sets that cover Disneyland or Walt Disney World.  Other special sets have also been released to compliment this genre, such as 2009's 5-disc Walt Disney and the 1964 World's Fair set or 2005's elite 6-disc release to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Walt's original park, A Musical History of Disneyland.

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On Thursday night, Amy and I headed downtown to Millennium Park to catch some music as part of the "Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz 2010" series.  We did this last year as well and really enjoyed the night of quality tunes under the stars.

Jay Pritzker Pavilion at night

In effect, taking part in something like this is a lot like going to Ravina, with the suburban "snootiness factor" dialed down considerably.  Since there is a large lawn at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, you can bring along a blanket and chairs, dinner, and some wine, and just enjoy some great jazz.

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Last night we headed over to Indian Boundary Park on the North Side to catch another one of the Chicago Park District's summer "Movies in the Park" showings. Over the years, we've experienced many of these free films, including Surf's Up, Kung Fu Panda, and The Bourne Ultimatum. This time around it was one of our favorites… Clue.

Eerie evening sky over "Clue"

We were joined by our friend Nick Rosario — as well as his sister Heather and her two daughters. We made some food and brought it with us to have a little picnic ahead of time, "poor man's Ravinia" style!

Amy & Steve

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On June 18, we had a pretty fierce storm blow through Chicago, which brought rain and high winds to our neighborhood. When everything was calm, we assessed the area around our condo buildings and found that a large branch from one of our trees had broken off and fallen into the street.

Storm-damaged Tree (6/18/10)

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If you are reading this page, you've caught SteveandAmySly.com in the middle of a server/blog upgrade!  But don't worry, we'll have things back to normal soon, complete with new features and a stylish new look!

- Steve & Amy

I've previously written about our positive experiences with the boardgame Ticket to Ride (released 2004), as well as its first official expansion, Mystery Train (released 2004). Now we'd like to talk about the USA 1910 Expansion. In short, if you own the original Ticket to Ride game, then you MUST pick up the USA 1910 Expansion (released 2006). It's that simple.

USA 1910 expansion was introduced in 2006

Why is this a requirement? Because compared to any other enhancement to the game, the USA 1910 Expansion not only "fixes" some of the game's perceived flaws, but also adds entirely new life and strategy to the base game… not bad for the $15 retail price!

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My latest eBay purchase:

Anti-Disney's America Button

Yes, it has to do with the failed Disney's America project from the early 1990s.

Disney theme parks will often repurpose music and themes among properties on opposite coasts. For example, as I've already written, in 1985 Disneyland's 30th Anniversary Parade soundtrack was tweaked to be used by Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom as the tune for Mickey's Street Parade.

Recently, we've seen this type of repurposing in soundtrack once again with Disney's promotion for Summer Nightastic. This seasonal event started in Summer 2009 as an all-encompassing theme of pre-exisiting shows bundled under the same brand name ("Nightastic") to help Disneyland push their summer activities, as they didn't have any new rides or attractions to promote.

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A few weeks back, Amy & I were joined by my parents for another Chicago Rush home game. This time the Arena Football action featured the Rush taking on the Iowa Barnstormers, one of the teams that were "promoted" from af2 into the relaunched AFL that we have this year.

Amy, Mom, and Dad

It was also Armed Forces Day, with each of the four branches being represented, along with a huge American flag unveiled at the beginning of the game. Halftime consisted of a tug-of-war between the services, and the video monitors played quite a few Army/Navy/Marines/Air Force commercials.

Yup, Armed Forces Night

As we've mentioned in previous recaps from our game experiences this year, they've been less than stellar. I keep hoping that the new league will get their act together and that we're just experiencing the growing pains associated with a year of no games, but so far, I have not been encouraged. This game against Iowa was a perfect example of things getting worse, rather than better.

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