I got up this morning at 6:30am EST and by 7am, dad was outside, ready to take me to the airport. I loaded up my shit and headed on to Vandalia, home of the Dayton International Airport. Dad dropped my sorry little butt off and I checked in on my flight then sat at the gate reading The Amber Spyglass while I waited. We boarded on time, but had to wait on the tarmac for an extra half hour before Chicago would let us take off. It was a smooth flight and we weren’t very late arriving.

I got to the baggage claim and awaited Judi while I wrote in my paper journal. As I was writing about my new cell phone, my pocket started vibrating. It was Judi, calling my cell phone, to tell me she was half an hour late. Heh – happens to us all! I moved on down to the Southwest baggage claim (I flew Aunt Tilly’s Airline) to wait for Judi and Elsa. The both eventually arrived and we took the El back to Judi’s place.

After a change of shoes and/or clothes, we walked to Grant Park to the Taste of Chicago. I bought $21 worth of tickets and started grazing. Steak taco from Taqueria Los Comales. Plaintain chips w/ garlic sauce from Sabor Latino. Roti canai (Indian style pancake with curry chicken) from Penang Malaysian Cuisine. Shrimp fried rice, pot stickers, and chicken curry puff (we each got one and shared) from Tiparos Thai Cuisine. Three-cheese fried ravioli from Tutto Italiano. Some of Elsa’s vegetable tempura from Guey Lon. A chocolate chip cookie dough egg roll and a bite of Judi’s kobe beef slider from The Saloon Steakhouse. A Sierra Mist to “wash it down” and to top it all off, of course, Bailey’s Irish Cream ice cream from Kitty O’Shea’s. (It was Taste of Chicago where I first discovered Bailey’s Irish Cream ice cream.)

Suitably sated, it was time to move on. Judi told us the movie theatre where Fahrenheit 9/11 was playing was just “1 mile” from the Taste. Elsa and I have learned that the Chicago mile is about twice what a normal mile was, but we agreed to walk it. We got to the theatre within 15 minutes of the show starting and bought our tickets. $6.50! For a matinee! Gee, I don’t even pay that much for evening showings. But the movie was definitely worth it. I found it moving, informative, and funny in places. The audience seemed very appreciative of the movie and it even got applause. This is the first Michael Moore flick I’ve seen. (I really want to see Bowling for Columbine and will probably rent it when I finally get caught up on all the DVDs I bought during a 20% off sale at DeepDiscountDVD.)

After the movie, we moved onto the Big Bowl for supper. I ordered the Kung Pao tofu & spinach noodles. They were very good and suitably spicy. I drank a lot of water. Judi convinced Elsa and I that the “Pagoda” was a nice “light” dessert to have afterwards. The waiter brought out three big plates holding 3 big scoops of coconut ice cream each, and some crispy egg-roll material. Apparently the Chicago Mile isn’t the only measurement that’s different here as it is back home. With the crispy and coconut, it tasted a lot like fried ice cream. Very yummy!

We waddled out of the restaurant ($16 for my bit, in case you were curious) and hailed a cab. As soon as we arrived at Judi’s place, it was time to walk Lance. (Poor doggy had been crossing his legs for hours.) Once that task was done, it was time to chill out and geek. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past 2 1/2 hours or so. Ah, it’s fun to be back in Chicago! (Alas, I won’t get any photos posted to the journal until after I go home. Left my cable back on the computer.)