Month: June 2011

Taste of Chicago 2011

I’m back in the Big City again! I drove to Columbus and then flew on to Chicago, whereupon I took the Orange Line to get to judiang, who walked over to meet me. We dropped my bags off at her place then went to the Little Branch Cafe for lunch. I paid over $13 for a chicken sandwich, but the ciabatta bread it was on was almost worth the cost.

We returned to await elsaf and discovered that Judi had access to HBO on Demand and the Game of Thrones series. We only started the episode and then headed out to wait for Elsa to drive in. When Elsa joined us, we watched the episode (well, Judi disappeared halfway through). We later decided to have supper at the Taste.

The Taste of Chicago has become a shadow of its former self. But there were still quite a few things to choose from. I bought 2 strips of tickets which, for me, translated to 6 “taste” items.

  • Pulled Pork Mini Sandwich from The Smoke Daddy

  • Home Run Ball (Sweet & Spicy Nugget Bites) from Loving Hut (a vegan joint)

  • Cheese Empanada from Adobo Grill

  • Jibarito from Sabor Latino (steak sammich with corn pancakes as the bread)

  • Pad Thai from Star of Siam (yeah, I get it every time)

  • Mango Kefir from StarFruit (an ice cream substitute)

Very tasty, all. And Judi got so much mustard fried catfish that she shared with me. Oh, and we got a free sample of Sierra Mist Natural, too.

We waddled back to the apartment and just missed the first rain. Since then there’s been several thunderous storms and lots of rain. Nice being inside instead of out.

Just one more thing…

A post of Short thoughts:

  • I was sad to read of the passing of Peter Falk today. (Read it first on Twitter from one of the webcomic artists I follow. But quite a few others on my Twitter feed mentioned it as well.) One of my favorite actors.

  • Well done, New York, on allowing gay marriage!

  • The folks and I watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince tonight, so only one more movie to go before the last movie comes out!

  • Last Friday night, the folks and I went to our first concert in Downtown Troy for the summer season. A fun Motown group called Touch.

  • Last Saturday was the Louisiana Boil at the Fishers. Gary even ordered 20lb of live crawdads for the boil. Well, they were live until I dumped ’em into the boiling water. Then they were delicious.

  • I’m registered for my summer survey course in Organic Chemistry taking place in mid-July. Should be fun!

  • Next weekend I’ll be in Chicago – woot! Here’s hoping judiang has a better trip home from the UK than her trip there was! Would be nice to visit her and her actually there to be visited. Heh.

  • Spending the night at the folks’ so I can go to the farmer’s market with ’em in the morning. I’ve eaten most of the cheese I bought last week.

So anyhoo, several thoughts there. Perhaps I’ll do a proper Tribute to Falk write-up later when I can organize my thoughts better. Maybe I’ll watch Murder by Death and The Cheap Detective in honor of the guy. Nah, I know… The In-Laws. I’ll bet dad would watch it with me. “Serpentine!”

Landscaping 2011

Last summer’s project was residing the house. This summer’s project was landscaping the front of the house. Although planned way back in April, Chaney’s Nursery was only able to get around today to do the job. The rainy spring really put them far behind on their landscaping jobs. But today they came, they saw, they landscaped the joint!

Before
Before
A before shot of the house, half an hour before the landscapers arrive.

Before - the front
Before – the front
Full frontal view (heh heh) of my house before the landscapers arrive.

They arrive!
They arrive!
And they’re off! They arrived around 8:30am and worked for a couple hours.

Tilling
Tilling
Tilling my dry soil in anticipation of planting!

Hard at Work
Hard at Work
I returned from a short walk around town to find them all still hard at work.

Prepping the soil
Prepping the soil
Before they can place the plants, the soil has to be just right…

Holes!
Holes!
Holes are dug & the plants are stuffed into the holes.

Waiting for holes
Waiting for holes
The other side awaits planting too.

Maple tree
Maple tree
My new maple tree. Will really get to “shine” when the old Bradford pear is removed.

Mulch
Mulch
Smells nasty, but always looks nice. Let’s hear it for (hopefully termite-free) mulch!

Finito - with stones!
Finito – with stones!
The finished look on this side of the house.

Finito 2 (this time it's personal!)
Finito 2 (this time it’s personal!)
The finished look of the other side of the house.

Finito 3D (except it's not in 3D)
Finito 3D (except it’s not in 3D)
And the full frontal (*snicker*) shot of the house, complete. Yay!

It’s the simple things…

Today was quite a lovely day. Firstly, there was the perfect weather. Secondly, I got to do some training in chemistry (yes, that’s lovely). Thirdly, I got to sit outside and read in peaceful surroundings.

Yesterday, I drove to Bloomington, IN, and checked into the Biddle Hotel inside of the Indiana University Memorial Union. Then I drove around looking for food and went to the Scholar’s Inn Bakehouse. I had a Reuben and a caramel Italian soda. The Reuben was OK and the soda tasty. I picked up a chocolate cupcake to eat back at the hotel.

The hotel is interesting. It looks like a hotel in the lobby and rooms, but when you get into the stairwell, it’s very much a dorm stairwell. Look, smell, and sound. Heh.

This morning, I went to the Maple room and picked up my bag with my packet, a copy of the college text that IU uses, and their lab manual. I had a blueberry bagel vit schmear. The admissions people talked with us first, then our chemistry coordinator walked us though the Chem 105 (and Chem 101) topics. I figured out that there’s quite a few topics I’ll need to brush up on.

We all walked over to Nick’s (an IU institution, apparently) for lunch. I had the fish & chips. Pretty nice. Once we returned, she covered the rest of Chem 105 and they realized that they could finish up tomorrow, so I should be able to go home early.

After the workshop ended, I wound up walking around the shops and restaurants near campus. I had decided on Thai food for supper, and there were a few Thai places to pick from. I eventually went to Siam House. The Crab Angel appetizer was interesting and tasty and the pad Thai was merely adequate. It had a nice spice to it. 🙂

I was stuffed after supper, so I returned to the hotel room and read my BeBook. And then decided why read indoors when there was such a lovely campus to read at. So my BeBook and I took a walk to People’s Park (I think is what it’s called) and sat under the trees and read. (Sadly, IU recently had lots of wind damage from a storm at the end of May and lost over 300 trees.) Near 8pm, I walked over to Hartzell’s for ice cream. They had dark chocolate and sweet basil ice cream, which was an interesting and tasty flavor. So I had it and some mint Oreo (made with creme de menthe) ice cream. And I sat & read my BeBook. A nice moment of bliss which was slightly spoiled with a bum who cadged $2 from me. 🙂

Anyhoo, now I’m talking to elsaf and judiang via Skype. So the bliss continues. 🙂

Relay for Life 2011 – Final Totals

I meant to relate this info about a month ago when I found out our results. But there ya go.

Anyhoo, if you were wondering how the UVMC Lab’s Relay for Life team did this year, I’ll finally let you know. Our team goal was $2500 and we actually managed to achieve it, and then some. Our final amount was over $2700! Woohoo!

Thanks, again, go out to those of you who’ve donated to Relay for Life and/or the American Cancer Society! I really appreciate your help and I hope next year, I’ll be more on the ball than I was this year. Heh.

Festival Season Still Continues

I had a relaxing first week off of school (lots of swimming at mom’s place, too much going out to eat).

On Thursday, the folks and I started rewatching the Harry Potter movies in preparation for the last one coming this July. We accompanied this with some Papa John’s pizza (which, to mitigate some of the impact, I walked over to pick up).

Friday, I returned so that we could go to the first summer concert in downtown Troy. Only when I got there, the folks had discovered it was also the night of the Art & Garden show at Lost Creek (which isn’t looking as lost thanks to all of the rain). We decided to go there instead. Turns out we made the right choice – I think the concert might have been moved due to the weather. And we did get rained on some at the garden show, but it was still nice. Mom got a few nice additions for her home.

Since we decided not to go late to the concert, we picked up Chinese food en route and then watched the second Harry Potter movie at their home.

The plan for today was to go to the Yellow Springs Street Fair. But first, we hopped over to the new farmer’s market in downtown Troy. It didn’t have a lot of farmers there, but mom found a new source for her free range eggs (from friends in Pleasant Hill, of all things!) and the maple syrup people might be getting some maple cream one of these days. Woot! I suspect the farmer’s market will grow as the season continues.

Yellow Springs, OH, is an interesting town. When the 1960s moved onto 1970, Yellow Springs didn’t. One of the shirts we saw (being sold by the community center or somesuch) said “Keep Yellow Springs Weird” which we all found amusing. The Yellow Springs Street Fair is a wonderful collection of craft (and food) vendors selling all sorts of neat things. That being said, the folks only bought 1 thing and I bought none (apart from a lemon shake-up which had been made with the most chemically tasting water I’ve had in years). Still, it was neat being at a craft show where it wasn’t full of American flags and OSU memorabilia. Mom commented that the show may be crowded, hot, and miserable, but it was always fun. I definitely agree. 🙂

Dad had hoped to eat at the Tavern in Yellow Springs, but there was an hour wait (at least). The second place we tried, same thing. And none of us wanted to eat street food since there really wasn’t any place in the shade to sit and eat. So once we finished seeing all of the booths (and I think we did see them all), we returned to our car and headed back. I suggested eating in Fairborn, and the folks agreed. And since I recommended Tickets Pub & Eatery, I also popped into the Bookery for my Doctor Who magazines. Heh.

So the fairs and festivals and art shows continue. And tomorrow I head to Indiana for training for my college-level high school chemistry class. IU has a hotel in their student union – ain’t that a kicker? They’re covering the cost for me to stay there Sun-Wed, which is nice. No idea what sort of ‘net capabilities that I’ll have on campus, but I’m pretty sure that off campus I’ll be able to find some wifi. 🙂

Mmmm, Strawberries

I spent the weekend at mom & dad’s place. Saturday was a day to swim in the pool and to have grilled burgers. (Earlier in the day, though, we had lunch at Taco Bell.) Sunday was our trip to the Troy Strawberry Festival.

We arrived shortly after it opened at 10am and walked to the levy from the high school parking lot. We started down one side of the levy checking out the crafts and deciding what we’d eat later when we’d gotten hungry. My first purchase, as usual, was a strawberry lemon shake-up. It’s tasty and gives me something to savor while perusing the festival.

An hour or so later, we had gotten to the far end and decided anything we saw at that point that we wanted, we should buy (so we wouldn’t have to go all the way back again). My second purchase was a strawberry empanada (basically a fried strawberry pie). We all agreed it was pretty tasty.

We saw folks we knew at some of the booths, and while the folks were talking to some of their friends at one booth, I bought a strawberry cupcake. Small and tasty with a nice icing (and a slice of strawberry on top).

I was hoping one of the vendors was doing the 1/2 bbq chicken that our firehouse does each Memorial Day Sunday. But since I always have my friends around, I never get to have it anymore. (Silly judiang and elsaf don’t care much for it. No accounting for taste! 😉 Heh.) Alas, none of the booths seemed to be selling it this year, so I went with the winner from last year – the grilled pork chop sandwich. I also bought another container of their rub since I’m running out of the one from last year. The booth was also selling strawberry smoothies, so I got one (the shake-up long since gone).

Mom and I ate our sandwiches (she’d ordered the same) and drank our smoothies while father waited in line for his bourbon street chicken, beans, and rice. When it did arrive, it turned out to be worth the wait. Next year, it’s going to be a harder decision if both the pork chops and the bourbon street chicken are back again. Our final strawberry treat of the festival was a strawberry pizza from Fox’s Pizza Den. A nice and tasty combo of cinnamon’ed pizza crust, fruit dip, and strawberries.

Having spent two hours at the festival, we waddled back to the car (actually, none of us actually felt stuffed, just full, so that was good) and returned to their home. Mom and I returned to the pool and I vegged there for awhile (reading my BeBook or swimming) before finally returning home.

My intention was to do laundry, but I was sleepy, so I had supper and then took a nap. When I later got up, I at least got my sheets and undies cleaned before bedtime. Heh.

If you ask me, this was a good (and tasty) start to my summer vacation. 🙂

It’s Summah! YAY!

Yeterday was the last day of school – YAY! Today I went swimming for the first time of the season – YAY! Tomorrow we go to the Strawberry Festival – YAY!

Things are full of YAY right now. My new ebook reader arrived on Friday. I got a BeBook and am loving it so far. My laptop and my BeBook are a great combo. (Thanks for the rec, redstarrobot!) I’ve got a library book on it already and have filled it with all of the eBooks I’ve found/bought over the years (except the ones I got from eReader.com which won’t work with it, alas). I bought a 16GB SD card for it today, too. Doubt if I’ll ever fill it (could get well over 5000 books on that card).

Just watched the half-series finale for Doctor Who and it was full of YAY too. One of the zillions of theories that I had about a certain someone was actually right, as well. YAY! (OK, that means the other zillions weren’t right, but there ya go.)

I was actually done with my classroom BEFORE our day was over. And then they let us leave half an hour early if we were checked out. YAY!

I was a bit bummed last night when I got home and was going to play with my new BeBook, but my Internet was down. So I ran off to McDonald’s in Milton and fininshed setting it up so that I could read it back home. (The Internet was back today, YAY!)

My hot water heater had been down since Thursday and the plumber was finally able to get here today. The water heater was actually OK, but the light went out. I then had him fix my side outdoor faucet, which turned out to be more of a pain than he had anticipated, but he was successful. I’m hoping the house hasn’t blown up – I’ve been at my folks’ place most of today.

So YAY – a great start to my summer break!