My Dad Visits, and Other News

My dad came into town a few weeks ago. He slept on our inflatable bed in the living room. I told him to bring many different types of clothing, and it's a good thing he did. The first day he was here is was [Chicago] hot and muggy. The next day it was [Texas] cold and windy. See what he's wearing here?Not the big African hat. I'm referring to the shorts. Which was appropriate at the time. But that was before a mysterious and chilling fog rolled in from the lake. This is basically a picture of us--taken at the Bean--being slightly uncomfortable.

Someone also forgot to tell the authorities that it was chilly again; they still had the "crazy-spitting-LED-people" turned on:
Hilarious. And cold and wet...

My dad got to experience deep dish pizza in its natural habitat, and his first, non-Sonic, Chicago hot dog. Here he is at Fat Johnnie's:
We also went to Hot Doug's and waited in a line for--no joke--an hour and a half. Methinks Hot Doug's is not worth it.

We also went to the Art Institute of Chicago, ate dim sum in Chinatown, found a nice whiskey bar in Logan Square, and farted around Hyde Park. There was also a rare sighting of my preceptor, Avi.

In other (probably unrelated?) news:

We have bed bugs.

Randi started getting chewed up, but I couldn't be sure if it was happening at home, at her work, or what. She thought it could be bed bugs, but I wasn't convinced. Apart from the bites, we didn't seem to have any of the other signs of an infestation. I looked around, under, and in between our bed, and could find no signs of life. Just to be sure, we ordered a mattress cover that blocks--but doesn't kill--bed bugs.

Then, last night, I was minding my business, being quite studious, when this happened:
I had been sitting in our green chair, which I was starting to suspect was a bed bug (chair bug) hideout. Then I saw them! Little ones, probably in a nymph stage of life. I got one on a piece of tape to get a good look at it. It looked kinda like a flea, but shorter, and with a blood-filled abdomen. In the zone, I soon caught three more. Not thinking ahead, I squished them--or rather, popped them--into a smudge of blood. Gross.

Knowing for sure we had bed bugs didn't make Randi feel any better. Which makes sense cos she's their favorite buffet:
And did I mention we are supposed to move soon? Like this Friday? Undoubtedly, we would move all those pests into our new place if we didn't act fast.

As we were sitting around sulking, I had an idea. Our landlord is the University of Chicago. Surely they don't want bed bugs in their building. So I called them. And they said they didn't want bed bugs in our building. The pest control man--who is from Texas--came within the hour. Like us, he had a tough time finding the bed bug hideout. All he found were a few bed bug molted shells.

But that was enough for him. He called in an order for a heat treatment. This is a procedure in which they raise the temperature in our apartment to 140 degrees, killing everything. This procedure is also prohibitively expensive, like $1,700 expensive. But, as I said above, the impossibly loaded University of Chicago is our landlord, and they will be picking up the bill. Yay!

So our great move has been pushed back.

Luckily we have till the 13th to get out of this vermin-palace.

UPDATE:

We were just informed that our heat treatment will be this Saturday! Burn, baby, burn!!!