Tag: chicago

The $7 post

I checked into the airport earlier today while still at judiang‘s. And right before we left, I checked flight info & all was good. So then I take the red line to Jackson and the blue line to O’Hare and when I arrive, I discover my flight has been cancelled. No matter, they had already booked me on the next flight to Columbus, which is at 6:35pm CDT. I decided to take advantage of O’Hare’s widely advertised wi-fi. It’s $6.95 for the day, so consider this my most expensive post on LJ. (I also e-mailed the folks & Judi while on this.)

Anyhoo, here’s hoping my luggage and I shall be reunited in Columbus! And I get to see my kitties tonight. Yay!

The Feast of Elsa

Wow, it’s always wonderful when I get together with elsaf & judiang (and sometimes hergrace can join us too). We know how to celebrate the joy of FOOD.

We started out the day slow. Elsa was up first, then me. I played CoH for a bit (on Judi’s PC) and then worked on my LJ post. While I was finishing that up, Judi showed up. Wow – Judi was awake and we didn’t have to get her up! We then got ready and headed up to the penthouse to exercise for the second day. I played with the two bikes and the elliptical trainer. Shame the regular bike has a dead battery cuz it would be neat to try some of the settings.

After exercising, Judi was still nearly comatose, but we promised her latte after brunch. Elsa drove us to Chinatown to our regular Dim Sum place, Three Happiness. Once again, Elsa showed enormous restraint, sticking to steamed dishes (and having the smaller half of one of my sesame rolls). We still ate well, despite the conscience eye on avoiding excess. The little steamed items are SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD. And damn, but those sesame balls are wonderful. Judi got 3 more right before we had stuff tallied up and took 2 home with her.

Elsa then drove us to Target where we found a few essentials (and Judi and I magically caused a Starbucks to suddenly appear so that she could get her hazelnut soy latte), and then to Dominick’s (which I haven’t been too since that fateful day when Judi made alryssa, tiger5 and I walk across the Long Ass Bridge the night before Thanksgiving. I can still hear Carole saying “I’ll pay for a cab! I’ll pay for a cab!” the whole way there & back, with Judi completely oblivious. Heh heh.) Dominick’s thankfully had the phyllo dough that Elsa needed for one of her dishes for the evening meal. Oh, and I picked up 3 bottles of white wine for Judi. A Chapel Ste. Michele (sp) Riesling, Turning Leaf Pinot Grigio, and Fetzer Gewürztraminer (my mom’s favorite). We put the Riesling in the fridge when we got back, but the other two are now on Judi’s new wine rack (one of her “garage sale” purchases of the day before).

The rest of the day has been spent with Elsa furiously making Yet Another Ultimate Judi Birthday Supper and me cleaning dishes. And once again, Elsa has topped herself. She truly rocks.

While light classical music played on Judi’s TV (digital cable, you know), dinner started with an appetizer of grilled shrimp with pineapple salsa. The soup course was next with the mushroom soup (with sherry) which she’s made before and which I love. For salad, she had arugula with a lemon vinaigrette and goat cheese souffle in phyllo cups. There was a small break while I cleaned a few more dishes and the lamb rested after being removed from the oven. Then we continued with rack of lamb with mushroom sauce (morels – yummy), asparagus, and rice pilaf with brown & wild rice and wine soaked cranberries. Very tasty. By now we were nicely full from a fabulous meal. It was time to open presents.

Judi got nice sheets and a mini food chopper from Elsa and noise-cancellation headphones from me. Oh, and a photo of David Tennant for her to squee at. I’d also scanned in the other DT photos that I recently bought in an eBay auction and gave her a CD of that. (The things I buy when I’m shopping for Sylvester McCoy photos!)

After present opening, I vegged for a bit and finally got the strength to finish cleaning the kitchen. But before I was done, we messed up my table again in order to eat CHEESECAKE. Yup, Elsa once again made her wonderful cheesecake. Very yummy. Judi had the biggest piece of the three of us, and then proceeded to have a sliver more. But hey, it’s her birthday and if you can’t live it up on your birthday, when can you?

Dessert over, I was able to finish cleaning the kitchen, and now I’m here, dishpan hands typing this entry. Believe me, it was worth all the cleaning. 🙂

ETA: that bit about Starbucks – just remembered it. Heh.

Yesterday’s Shennanigans

Yesterday morning, elsaf and I got up at the same time. judiang, however, had gone into hibernation. Still, she eventually got up and we forced her to exercise up in her apartment complex’s exercise room. It’s fun watching a near-comatose woman exercise. Today we intend to torture her again – even though it IS her birthday. Maybe especially because it IS her birthday.

When we returned from the “gym” (which has some very nice pieces of exercise equipment), we still had 10 minutes to spare at the city equivalent of a Garage Sale. Someone in Judi’s apartment was having a Moving Sale. So we popped up to room 1606 and poked around. The couple were young & very nice. They are moving out Friday and heading off to Switzerland. Cool beans. Their two little ones were off at the grandparents, so couldn’t protest when Elsa bought their TV and DVD player. Judi bought a lot of bakeware (which I fear will only ever come out when Elsa’s around) and I managed to avoid buying anything. Well, at this place. Money would be leaving my wallet soon enough.

For lunch, Judi had found an Indian Restaurant which was near to our afternoon destination, Intimates. We took the #3 bus, which originally we were beginning to doubt the existence of due to it being quite absent. I became abusiestic while Judi decided she was more agbustic. However, I had an epiphany when the #3 finally showed up. We were off, moving up Michigan towards Ontario. (Sounds like we were planning a trip to Canada, no?)

Lunch was at the Indian Garden, which promised us nervana and nearly delivered. We all got the buffet because Judi FORCED us too. (Well, actually she was just telling the server that she wanted the buffet, but he thought she was speaking for all of us.) There were many good things on the buffet. Basmati rice, dal makhani, saag paneer, samosas, chili chicken, etc. etc. There were two dessert items, one made of carrots (which the girls originally thought was made of sweet potatoes) and the other made of goat cheese soaked in milk, sugar, and pistachios. The food was very good and I think I had the best aloo gobhi I’ve ever had. (I prefer Jeet India’s saag paneer & dal, but you can’t have everything. Heh heh.)

After our very filling lunch, it was on up Michigan to Intimates. This is a store where they have professional bra fitters. We made appointments and then moved back down Michigan to the Borders that we passed.

At Borders, they had several books in a 3 for the price of 2 sale. Damn them! Damn them all to heck! I found 2 books right off the bat, then went looking for a third. Eventually I found a possible one when Judi then said there were other 3 of 2 displays in the store. Of course, at the next display, I found 2 more books. Damn! Some more searching found me a third for that set too.

The books that I sprung for were:

  • Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

  • In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

  • Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (freebie #1)

  • Lamb by Christopher Moore

  • Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore (freebie #2)

  • The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Stupid book sales!

We returned then to Intimates to fullfil our appointment and the rather amusing incident is something that I have shared with just the girls, hergrace, and the lovely women in my family. The rest of you will just have to imagine it. Heh heh.

Anyhoo, it was time to return to the roost. I’m sure Lance was crossing his legs when we got home. While Judi was walking him, I was busy downloading some very important torrents… The new Doctor Who ep and it’s corresponding Confidential. Once Lance was back, the three of us walked off to Grace O’Malley’s for supper.

Since I was in an Irish pub, I decided I needed to have a reuben. I also ordered the Guiness cheese soup for starters. The girls split a grilled salmon meal which they claimed was very good. (I’m not into salmon, so it could have been heavenly and still not tempted me.) The soup and reuben were great, though the fries were only so-so. Since Judi’s birthday was just looming around the corner, she decided she was gonna have dessert, damnit. So we ordered the 4 layer cake (with ice cream). Elsa got the tip of the cake and Judi and I had the rest. (Judi and I have been so proud of Elsa, who has not succumbed to our excesses. Today’s dim sum will be the ultimate test for her. If she passes, she is, indeed, the rockingest dieter that ever lived.)

Once we came back home, we had a few moments of technical difficulty regarding making the CDs for the evening’s viewings. But Judi finally convinced her CD/DVD recorder to finally make the CDs of Doctor Who & Confidential. So we all gathered on the sofa to watch. Even Lance joined us and kept running back and forth across our laps so that he could sit with all 3 of us at once.

Although I will miss Rose, I am loving Martha. It’s about bloody time there was a cute black girl as an assistant. And Freema is just perfect for the role. I’m looking forward to series 3 of Doctor Who. Woot! As far as the Confidential goes, I must admit that I prefer the Cut Downs that show up on the DVD sets. This went on too long and repeated too much. No matter, when I’m on me own, I don’t actually watch the Confidentials (mostly so I won’t be disappointed when I buy the DVD sets later.)

Anyhoo, yesterday was a blast and today should be as well. Once Judi gets up, we’ll drag her to the exercise room. Then we’ll stop for a hazelnut soy latte so that Judi can wake up enough to enjoy dim sum. Elsa’s plans are to make us a fabulous supper (and hopefully we’ll find some filo dough today!) And then Judi gets to open her presents – thankfully the one that I ordered from Amazon arrived yesterday – woot!

An Intimate Visit

This is a post for just my closest female friends – basically Steph, Elsa, Judi, and Amy Lou (and Rachel should she so desire). I’ll probably show it to mom when I get back too.

Anyhoo, thanks to Steph going to visit Intimacy in her town and getting fitted properly for a bra, Judi decided she’d take Elsa and me there when we next visited Chicago. So our afternoon was all about boobs and the things that hold them.

We arrived around 3pm, but the soonest they’d be able to work with us was 4:30pm, so we shopped some. We arrived back at Intimacy around 4:45 (they said they’d call us on cells when they were ready, but hadn’t yet called) and they were nearly ready for it. Judi got her fitter first. Then I got Tanya. Finally Elsa got her fitter.

They don’t actually measure you at Intimacy, they just look at you, go get a bra, try it, get another, etc. Tanya, it turned out, had her work cut out for her. I remember looking at my watch during one bra hunt of hers and it was 5:28pm. When we were in the cab going back to Judi’s, it ws 6:32. So I was in there for over an hour while first Tanya tried to find the right fit, then the store manager (whose name I’ve forgotten) tried to find the right fit.

It turns out I have a lot of upper breast material, which makes things hard. When we’d get the right diameter, the cup wouldn’t be big enough. When they’d get a bigger cup, the underwire would either attack my armpits or poke out in front or (most often) both. These were the reasons I stopped using underwires years ago.

The manager decided to start at the beginning again and we tried a few more bras. By this time, both of the girls (E&J, not the bouncing ones before me) were done with their fittings and coming up with theories about why I was still there. Elsa’s theory was that they had failed to fit me and were now disposing of the body so there’d be no evidence of their failure. In actuality, the manager was getting closer to the desired result.

In the end, she found a 40H that was (a) comfortable and (b) looked just fine under a shirt. Success! My current bras are 44F’s. Most of the bras they’d tried were 42s and looking good there, that I was surprised when the 40 came to the rescue. So I plonked down $60 and got meself a bra that fits. Will I buy more? Well, I’ll see how it goes with #1 here.

Sleepy in the Windy City

I guess it’s better than being windy in the sleepy city…

For me, it’s after 2am. But here in Chicago, it’s just passing 1am. Funny, that.

I flew in after work today and managed to completely miss supper during the travel. judiang met me in the baggage claim @ O’Hare shortly after I arrived & got my luggage. Then we waited for our chauffeur from Detroit to arrive. Judi and I both agreed that only someone insane would drive to O’Hare, so we’re thinking of sending elsaf off for testing. Still, Elsa arrived and we headed on to Judi’s apartment.

We unloaded the ingredients for Elsa’s latest culinary excursion (for Judi’s b-day) and started up the grocery list for things left behind or unavailable at the time. Then, shortly after 10pm, we finally headed off for supper for Trina.

We wound up going to Judi’s old neighborhood (which isn’t far from her current one) to Hackney’s. I had fish & chips, a nice light supper for the post 10pm hour. Yummy! And Judi insisted I have an amaretto sour, so who am I to argue? The girls got gumbo since they’d both already had supper. Neither of ’em could finish it. But I finished my fish & most of my chips.

On our way back, we stopped at Jewel for the groceries we needed. Since Judi had Elsa’s car available, she loaded about a month’s worth of groceries in addition to what we needed for the weekend. Then we returned home to set up Judi’s new wireless router. Thanks to sneakernet, we got the very complex WEP key to all of our laptops. Go us!

Anyhoo, I’m zonked, so will be heading off to bed as soon as I finish this post. Should be a fun weekend with me friends!

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!