Author: trinalin

Boom! Boom! BOOM!

Yay! Let’s hear it for fireworks! We watched the 3rd of July fireworks from the penthouse balcony of judiang‘s apartment building. We took chairs up around 7pm and then wound up sitting there from 7:30pm on. Judi, elsaf and I snapped a lot of photographs of the view. Judi then went down to find her battery operated radio so that we could listen to the Grant Park Orchestra as they performed for the fireworks. She was gone so long, I began to suspect she’d run off to Jewel to buy batteries.

I was right. Heh.

So we watched the fireworks, then returned to her apartment. (Rather than walking with a Sea of People as we used to do after sitting in Grant Park, we walked in a creek (pronounced “crick”) of people to the elevator.) Then it was time for supper. The Strawberry, Chicken, and Poppyseed Salad from Panera, which we’d picked up on our way back from the movie theater. Judi also grilled a couple of hot dogs since we’d suffered from the wonderful scent of folks grilling out while we were waiting on the fireworks. Since no one should eat hot dogs alone, I had one as well. Yummy.

OK, onto the stuff we did earlier today. First off, I should say that I slept very well last night. We had Special K again for breakfast and then puttered around some. We decided to hit a multitude of stops on our way to see An Inconvenient Truth – the train station to fill up our cards, the bank for cash, Target for iPod accessories, and finally to P.J. Clarke’s for lunch. I had a nice order of fish & chips – yum. The waiter, oddly enough, recognized the college on my t-shirt. I was wearing one of my myriad College of Wooster shirts. Turns out he used to live in Wooster, OH. Heh. Small world. My greedy self suggested that we stop back at P.J.’s for dessert. And my lovely friends agreed.

We went to the AMC next to watch the movie. I thought it was very well done. I think Al Gore is doing a great service with his disemination on the current climate crisis. Here’s hoping he can make a difference!

As per my suggestion, we did stop back at P.J.’s for chocolate chip cookie sundaes. And boy were those cookies huge! They were very tasty and to thank my friends for endulging my sweet-tooth, I bought the sundaes.

My greedy self also thought of another great idea. Why not stop at Panera Bread on the way back and get something for supper? Well, if you read the second paragraph, you saw that my dear friends agreed to that suggestion as well. So now I’m happily sated. ‘Twas a great day to be in Chicago with Elsa and Judi!

Judi’s Pool for the win!

When discussing our time sharing that we do, elsaf, judiang and I have decided that Judi’s pool beats out the relaxing lake cottage that I have or the double dose of dogs that Elsa has. We wound up there twice today. And probably will be back again tomorrow. Judi’s pool rocks. And the oddest thing? Nobody seems to know it’s there except us!

So, this morning, after being rudely awakened by a some alarm whose battery was going dead, I got up around 9am. We puttered about waiting for Judi to wake up, and then headed off to Chinatown for Dim Sum. Mmmmmm! We love Three Happiness. Always good Dim Sum. 60 seconds after sitting down, we were snarfing up lovely delicacies. What they were, who knows? But they were tasty and plentiful.

We waddled back to the train station, stopped at Jewel for ingredients for lamb curry (which Judi will make while Elsa teaches) and then rested a bit in the apartment. But soon it was time for the pool. We spent nearly an hour in the water, enjoying the cool water. The wind was down from yesterday, but it was a bit chillier and overcast. Every so often it would sprinkle, but we figured we were wet already, so who cared if it sprinkled. We snoozed in the lounge chairs to dry a bit before we headed back to the apartment.

I installed Nero onto Judi’s computer (one of the pieces of software she’d bought at Target yesterday) and then Elsa and I created a DVD to test it out. Elsa showed me how Nero 7 can do animated backgrounds for the menus. Pretty cool. While it was transcoding, we headed off to Taste for supper. A short cab ride later and we were pushing our way through the crowds (more than yesterday) to get to various eateries. I would up using more than 3 strips worth today. But that’s because I wound up getting some non-taste portions. And cuz I’m a greedy pig. Elsa wound up with the most tickets left over. And here’s the things I tried today:

  • Dolmeh (baked grape leaves stuffed with vegetables, nuts, legumes, and herbs) from Pars Cove Persian Cuisine

  • Enchilada from La Justicia

  • Toasted cheese ravioli from Bella Luna Cafe

  • Collared green egg rolls from C’est Si Bon

  • Sweet potato biscuit from C’est Si Bon

  • Cannoli from Pompei

  • Saganaki (fried cheese) from Atrium

  • Deep dish cheese pizza from Connie’s Pizza

  • Blueberries and chocolate bread pudding with caramel sauce from Cyrano’s Bistrot

‘Twas all yummy and I’m still full! We think we’ll go see Al Gore’s movie tomorrow, and for sure we’re going to see the fireworks tomorrow. So YAY! Here’s hoping folks are having even half as much fun as we are. And if you are, well then we’re having twice as much fun as you. 😉

It was a very good day

judiang and I slept in late. After a light breakfast of Special K Vanilla Almond cereal, we went up to her swimming pool. I puttered around in the pool while Judi first watched from a distance and then later put her feet in the water. I did everything I could think of to convince her that she should get a swimsuit. It worked. 🙂

We walked to Howie’s for lunch (or rather, second breakfast) where I got an egg, cheese & bacon sammich on a bagel, plus hash browns and apple juice. Unfortunately, I’d left my CTA pass back in the apartment, so we walked back, double checked the time of elsaf‘s arrival, picked up my CTA pass, and then headed back into the city. Our destination = Target. Our target = Swimsuit!

I picked out several 2-piece swimsuits that Judi might like (not bikini – it’s these nice ones that look like 1-piece swimsuits but aren’t) and she eventually picked out the lesser of the evils. Which is good, cuz if she hadn’t I was going to have to go all Medieval on her ass and force her into one. We picked up beach towels (3 – one for her and one each for the “2 guests” she’s allowed to bring to the pool), sun screen, sun glasses for me, software for her, and then headed out.

A quick stop at Walgreens and then we were off on the Orange Line to Midway. Yup, it was nearing time for Elsa to arrive. Yay!

Elsa’s flight was on time and she arrived in baggage claim not long after landing. Waiting for her bag was the biggest wait, but it was the 15th one off her plane (yes, I counted) and we were soon on our way back.

First order of business – Elsa had to download the new Ep of Doctor Who. Once it was downloaded and a DVD was being built on my laptop, we took our bathing suits, left our dignity behind, and went for a swim. Judi’s first time in her swimming pool! She’s been here over a year, and it was her first time. She loved it. Yay!

We had a lovely time in the pool, watching our towels blow into the water was especially fun (well it was for me – mine was the only one that *didn’t* – heh!) We were there for over 45 minutes and had shown Judi a number of things that a non-swimmer can do in a pool. (The deepest end is 3’10”, so if Judi wants to drown, she’s gonna have to work awfully hard at it!)

We returned to the flat, dried, switched clothes, and then headed off to Taste of Chicago. It was time to GRAZE. And graze we did. I bought 3 sets of 11-tickets ($21) and wound up with only 4 tickets left. The girls had even fewere than I did. It was a successful venture in Foodsville. Here’s the bits that I had:


  • Steak taco from Taqueria Los Comales
  • Flan from Taqueria Los Comales
  • Pav bhaji with bread (hamburger bun, actually) from Arya Bhavan
  • Vegetarian Tomale from A Natural Harvest
  • Sauerkraut perogies from Kasia’s Deli
  • Mustard-fried catfish from B.J.’s Market & Bakery
  • Pad Thai from Star of Siam
  • Bailey’s Irish Cream ice cream from Kitty O’Shea’s/Hilton Chicago
  • Pineapple sundae from Zephyr

Sounds like a lot (well, it WAS – and all good!) but I usually just get the “taste” portion. Only the flan and Bailey’s Irish Cream were regular sizes. (Still awfully small, though). Hoping to test many more items. There’s several new restaurants which have booths, so will have to check them out for sure. Yum!

Anyhoo, we tiredly returned from Taste and our feet/ankles/toes/knees were all waging war on us. But we got home, watched the new episode (wowie!) and then the David Tennant ep of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). (If Judi had a REAL DVD player, we could have watched Eurovision.)

‘Twas a fun and busy day. If our feet/ankles/toes/knees let us, we’ll do even more tomorrow.

Chicago Again

Yay! I’m back in Chicago staying (as usual) with judiang. The flight (out of Columbus) was uneventful. (Reminder to me – I’m parked in 10C in the Blue Lot.) Judi was there at the foot of the escalator when I headed to the baggage claim.

We took the Blue Line to Jackson then switched to the Red Line. Then a short walk to Judi’s place and it was time to sit out on the balcony while Judi burned some hot dogs for us. The weather was perfect out there as I sat and watched the city lights and Judi’s neighbors. She’s got the perfect place for voyeurs. I think I’ll get her binoculars for Christmas.

Tomorrow, elsaf arrives and we’ll do all sorts of fun things, like Taste of Chicago. Should be a fun weekend!

Moodle

When we had a Make-It Take-It workshop on KDE server & squidGuard, the instructor informed us that it would run on almost anything. So dad and I brought “anything” along. Well, we got it to work, but it was the slowest machine in the room. Thankfully, all of the other techs were slow typists, so I was able to catch up to them.

Today, I’m at a Make-It Take-It Moodle workshop. Moodle is NOT a mispelling of noodle, as elsaf keeps implying. Though a noodle workshop would be fun, I already learned how to make pici at another class, so I don’t really need to know how to make noodles.

The computer that I brought along to “Make-It” on is a 533MHz machine with 256MB of RAM. Basically the low end of the Fedora Core 5 specs. The machines in the room (that people could use if they opted not to bring their own) are 2.4GHz. Needless to say, mine is still installing the software whereas those folks who haven’t had CD-ROM drive errors (there are a few of those, alas) are finished. No matter, thanks to the machines which are having CD-ROM errors are also still installing. And hopefully (cross fingers & knock wood) I won’t wind up having a CD-ROM error.

Supposedly 15 minutes to go on the install. And then, I’ll have a nice Linux Box. Or I’ll have to start all over again.

ETA: It worked! I’ve just added this ETA from the Linux Box. Yay!

php & mySQL training

I love being at tech workshops that have an always on Internet. So while I’m learning about php & mySQL here at Quest Business Centers in Columbus, OH. I’ll be staying at a hotel near the business center tonight since I have an all day workshop tomorrow where we will build a Moodle server. It’s fun being a geek!

The 2006 B-WISER Storm

In my last post, I hinted that the last 24 hours of B-WISER didn’t go as smoothly as usual. Well, Thursday night, the teachers took the girls to supper so that the counselors could have a night off. (This is usually on Wednesday, but this year was different.) The girls that Dee & I were meeting said to meet in Lowry, where the food was, at 5pm. Caroline and her team teacher Joyce were to also meet their girls there. So we all headed off to Lowry a little bit before 5pm. Caroline and I had our swim suits, hoping to repeat our fun swimming evening of Tuesday. Well, we did get to get wet…

Once we were at Lowry, we waited for the girls to come and watched as it got dark outside. And windy. Very windy. And after a bit the rain began. And it was furious. The power flickered several times before finally going out. Well, not all of the girls in Caroline & Joyce’s group were there, but by now the cafeteria was open, so we all headed upstairs. The food was already prepared, so was hot. However, they had no way of keeping it warm. As more folks filtered into the cafeteria, I’m sure they didn’t have quite as nice a meal as we did.

We were still waiting on our other groups and missing girls, who were still stuck at the dorm, when the cafeteria first announced that they wanted us to use paper products from that point on. Then later we heard they were going to stop serving by 6pm. At five til six, our remaining charges finally arrived – the thunderstorms had stopped enough to let them through.

Those of us who were done headed down to the lobby again. And found out that it had really gotten bad outside. The reason Becky and her charges didn’t get over in time is because they headed out only to have a tree crash down just a few feet in front of them! Needless to say, they all ran for the safety of the dorm and waited for the storm to clear. Their trip to see us was still an adventure, avoiding all the downed trees. Eep!

Becky later took photos of some of the devastation and I’ve got a few to post.

One of the paths is blocked by a downed tree.
One of the paths is blocked by a downed tree.

Trees on power lines - eek!
Trees on power lines – eek!

That poor car!
That poor car! Thankfully that wasn’t one of ours.

The evening activity was canceled that night, but the girls had been planning a Talent Show for after snacks anyhoo, so we used that as the evening activity. When we got back to the dorm, the generator was running, so the hallways and lobby had light. We did the Talent Show in the lobby. We teachers started it with our brilliant rendition of The B-WISER Song. (Basically, YMCA but with new lyrics for B-WISER.) We actually hit some of the notes and often sang the right words, so we were very impressive. 🙂

The girls did a great job with the show. Several soloists (wow – to sing in front of your peers a capella – very ballsy – or is that ovary-sy?) and many skits. And I’d even signed up to recite poetry. I recited “The Lobster Quadrille” by Lewis Carroll. Oh, and told two science jokes which only the teachers got. Heh.

The next morning, we headed off to Lowry for breakfast. They managed to get some hot water (they have 1 gas range in the kitchens) and cold milk and other things. I had cereal, oatmeal (now I know what sawdust & wall paper paste taste like – with a touch of cinnamon), an orange, and milk. Wasn’t bad.

Our 6 exemplars managed to get into Wooster (which was impressive, because the city was practically a disaster area still) and they all talked to the girls. I got to listen to a lady who worked for Smuckers, another who’d recently been to Antarctica, and a third who worked for NASA. Then I was stationed at the OB/GYN’s station while 3 groups of girls came to listen to her talk about math, science, genetics, and other things. So I got to see 4 of the 6 exemplars. Not bad.

For lunch, the cafeteria folks had grilled out and provided hamburgers, hot dogs, smokies, and baked beans. Plus plenty of fruits and veggies. They really did a great job with a bad situation. We all applauded them for their efforts.

We wound up having the closing ceremony in Lowry too, because it had plenty of windows to get us enough light to see. A lot of parents were already there and watched as the girls got their certificates and we thanked everyone involved. Then *sniff* it was time to leave my fun co-workers and head home. Always sad to say good bye to them. But by 2:30 I was on the road and out of Wooster. (Thankfully, my usual route into & out of Wooster was one of the few free ones).

As of Friday night, there were still nearly 13,000 people in Wooster without electricity. Now there are apparently only about 6,000. Still a lot, but it looks like they’re getting things sorted out.

Home Again – and it’s rather empty

Well, I got home by 6pm and brought supper to mom & dad (Penn Station – yummy sammiches). After supper, though, I returned home. It wasn’t easy – no kitty waiting for me at the back door. 🙁

Tonight I’m going to play my video game and read in the reading room in our chair and remember doing these things with Leo. He’s going to be missed, but I’m going to remember the wonderful times I had with him.

Thank you, friend’s list, for your kind comments in my last post. Your kind words, and the kind words & hugs from my co-workers at B-WISER have really helped me. I wish I could have been with Leo, but having the folks with him near the end is the next best thing.

When I’m a bit more rested from the trip, I’ve got a tale to tell you all about our last evening at B-WISER. Let’s just say that our Wednesday night Lightning Storm had NOTHING on what transpired last evening.