I stepped back into my house at 10 til 11pm last night. Linus was glad to see me. Lucy, I suspect, resented my leaving in the first place. Indeed, she didn’t join me in bed all know (as far as I could tell). I think she’s finally forgiven me, now.

While taking a walk through town this afternoon, I noticed just how different a walk in my town versus a walk in Chicago truly is. No tall buildings to crowd out the light or funnel the wind. No sirens going off every 5 minutes or so. Still, the walk is the same walk I’ve taken loads of times and I know practically every nuance of the walk. I can’t say the same for my walks in Chicago. (I’m sure if I lived there, I’d wind up knowing every nuance.)

I love visiting Chicago. But, as the saying goes, I wouldn’t want to live there. Sure, it takes me the same time to walk to judiang‘s grocery as it does for me in town to walk to my Aunt Becky’s house. It’s neat being able to take public transport instead of driving everywhere. But in my home town, I know a lot of the folks, and if I don’t, it doesn’t matter, we still say “hi!” and maybe even have short chats. Some smiles & waves to folks in Chicago, but not as many, percentage-wise, as here.

I’ll miss the wonderful dining. We ate at Zapatista, a Mexican joint near Judi’s place the evening that elsaf arrived. Actually, “joint” is too coarse a word. It was definitely a restaurant. But even though it was a little hoitier toitier than my usual Mexican joints, the prices were rather reasonable for Chicago. I started with a rather yummy and refreshing mohito, then I had pork carnitas with a pineapple salsa that were quite yummy. I liked the Mexican rice (thankfully a small portion) but not the refried beans (I had expected to get black beans, but got these instead – maybe I misread the menu). For dessert, I had the tres leches cake. Yummy and moist, but not quite as good as the one I had in Minnesota (that’ll take some doing to beat).

We waddled back to the apartment to enjoy the company and wait (and wait and wait) for Judi’s partitioning to finish. Thankfully, it was done by 1am and the OS wasn’t hosed. I’ve since gotten the backup going and I hope Judi’s computer is now nice to her from this point on.

Saturday was Dim Sum day. Yes, I’d been eagerly waiting this meal for over a week. No Dim Sum places around here, so I must take them when I can get them. After the delicious Dim Sum, Elsa drove us to Costco so Judi could purchase her birthday present – a new TV for her bedroom. The whole time Elsa was driving through Chicago streets, I was thinking “thank god it’s Elsa and not me!” (Another reason to love living in my dinky town!)

Before my evening flight, I talked the girls into going to Marble Slab (since we’d been cheated on Judi’s birthday) one final time. I had chocolate peanut butter ice cream in a waffle cone. And that kept me sated until I walked in the door of my house. (Whereupon I had a handful of cashews and a slice of toasted beer bread. Heh.)

Oh, and another advantage to small towns & cities? I was actually in the shuttle to my parking place at the time that my plane was supposed to touch down. Heh. Columbus airport – almost as small as Dayton International. 🙂

Anyhoo, a fun trip was had by treen. I hope Judi and Elsa have some excellent fun until Elsa has to drive back home on Monday. Thanks, girls, for the fun time!