We're hosting friends from Japan for a few days as 2008 winds down.  Yesterday, my wife and daughter walked them up the street to try to catch a glimpse of the Obama residence.  Outside the police barricades there, they were approached by a reporter from the Chicago Tribune, and now they find themselves quoted in this morning's newspaper:

"It's very exciting," said Satoko Bourdaghs, 43, of Hyde Park, who walked past the street with out-of-town friends.



"I missed him by five minutes at school once," said her 12-year-old daughter, Sonia, who goes to the Chicago school recently attended by the Obama girls.

We really are the new Crawford, Texas.  As a Murakami Haruki protagonist would sigh, yare yare.

Here's wishing you a safe and peaceful New Year!