Tag: food

Gracious Hostesses

Amy & Rachel have been wonderful hostesses. And excellent slave drivers. 🙂

Friday night, their friend Melissa joined us (it was her 33rd birthday) and Rachel drove us to the Craftsman Restaurant. This restaurant focuses on using only local ingredients and then making superb dishes with them. A&R and I had surfed their site looking through their menu (and looking terms up on Google and Wikipedia) and had pretty much decided what we wanted. We met seven other people at the restaurant for our birthday gathering.

I decided to start with an amaretto sour and ordered the pork rillettes with crostini, mustard, and pickles as an appetizer, which I shared with A&R and anyone else interested in trying it. It was very yummy! For my entree, I had picked the confit of rabbit leg with creamy polenta and a sauté of greens garnished with a honey gastrique. It was heavenly. And Amy wanted to marry it. The sautéed greens were kale and very yummy. I tasted Amy’s order too, braised beef short ribs with spaghetti squash and braised root vegetable. Also yummy and with the best spaghetti squash I’d had. (Amy suspected it was simply seasoned with salt and pepper.) For dessert, I ordered the chocolate boca negra (which came with creme fresh, which I had to scrape off. Blech.) I also had a bite of one of Rachel’s cinnamon beignets.

We were at the restaurant for two and a half hours, enjoying the food and the company. I think Melissa had a very nice birthday indeed. I know I enjoyed her birthday! Heh.

Just as we were heading home, Melissa realized she couldn’t find her phone. So Rachel pulled over, Amy called the phone – no ringtone in the car. So Rachel drove back to the restaurant. Melissa checked inside all the while Amy dialed and redialed the number. Then Melissa walked down the sidewalk toward where we’d parked earlier in the evening. Sure enough, when we got to where the car had been, there was her cell phone ringing away on the sidewalk. Crisis averted.

We returned to the house and got ready for bed. I worked a bit on coursework and finally went to sleep on the futon in their “den” on the second floor.

The next morning, I got up when Amy & Rachel were getting ready for Rachel to get to work. (Amy had to drive her there). Meanwhile, I decided to get online to check the weather in order to know what to wear. Unfortunately, the USI modem (really an antenna, receiver, amplifier, router) wasn’t working. I tried rebooting it a couple of times, but still no go. I found a weather channel on Amy’s TV and saw it was going to be a nice day, so picked out my long-sleeve t-shirt instead of one of my sweat shirts.

After my shower, Amy was back so I told her about the tech troubles. She agreed that I should call tech support, so I did. After awhile on hold, I talked with a really nice tech who listened to what I’d told him and didn’t have me do all the stuff I’d already done. During some of the tests that I ran on the modem, we had time to chat, so I mentioned it was Amy’s new house we were in. He said he had just bought a new house as well – just a month ago. When he needed to talk to Amy to schedule a time for a tech geek to come by, he congratulated her on her new home. Best of all, he was able to schedule a tech guy to come on Sunday between 4 and 8pm. Hooray!

Amy and I then headed off to Trotters Cafe again, this time for breakfast. I ordered the cornmeal pancake that’s one of their specialties and a link of sausage, plus milk to drink. Amy ordered their special scramble which had kale and shrooms and thyme. Breakfast was good – I thought the cornmeal pancake was an interesting flavor and even more fun texture. And they have real maple syrup too. I still had milk left after breafast, so I went back to the counter and picked out one of their chocolate mint cookies. Yummy! Rachel finally got her breakfast break and joined us as Amy had a third cup of coffee and I had a bit more water. But eventually we had to stop procrastinating and head off to A&R’s old apartment. Amy and I had some cleanin’ to do.

Nearly everything was out of the apartment, but it hadn’t been cleaned yet. I packed up the router and DSL modem and then began vacuuming the floors. After Amy finished cleaning the bathroom, I mopped the floor of it. Then I took several recyclables out to the various tubs and threw some trash away. After two hours of working, Amy took me out to lunch to Brit’s Pub. It was a pleasant day and the walk there was very nice.

At Brit’s, I ordered the fish & chips while Amy ordered a fish sandwich and cole slaw. I shared some of my chips with her (they were very tasty but also very plentiful). We had water to drink. I enjoy having beer batter fish and unfortunately there aren’t many places where I live that have it. So yay Brit’s Pub!

Back at the apartment, we continued cleaning and were nearly done when Rachel joined us, having already worked the morning and bussed home. She thought it would be a good idea if she rode her bike home and maybe we could fit the other bike in the car. Amy and I were pretty sure we couldn’t fit it with all the stuff going in, but I offered to ride Amy’s bike home with Rachel leading the way. So we packed up Amy’s car and I followed Rachel home on Amy’s bike.

It was a 2 mile (or so) ride back to the house, and though I’m not in the greatest shape and probably should have put Amy’s sit down a smidgen, I managed the ride and didn’t feel sore at all today. There was only one time when Rachel got across an intersection while I got stopped, so she waited until I got a green light and we continued on home. It was a nice day to bike ride (though I’m glad I wore my jacket).

The girls napped some while I worked some more on my coursework. Amy told me what her password was to get on the metro wi-fi so I was able to read the class discussions. I got some stuff done for the classes and eventually the girls were ready for me to treat them to supper. I suggested they pick a place they either haven’t been to or they liked but don’t usually think to go to. They chose a Malaysian place they’d been to once before and really liked.

Peninsula Malaysian Cuisine is a nice restaurant. We started with golden crab meat balls and chicken satay with peanut sauce. Then we shared three entrees: mango tofu (tofu and mango in a sweet sauce), kari sayur (spicy mixed veggies), and the one the girls were most excited about, a Buddhist yam pot (“crisp fried taro nest filled with shrimp, chicken, mushrooms, snow peas, baby corn, & cashews”). Although I didn’t care much for the yam pot of the Buddhist yam pot, I enjoyed the pickings a lot. I also had a mango smoothie with black tapioca pearls. There was even some leftover kari sayur for the girls. And the whole meal for the three of us was only slightly more than my solo supper the night before. Heh.

We headed off to Ikea next so the girls could look at curtains and other items. Although we didn’t find what they wanted there, we had fun looking at all the cool stuff. I need to take a trip to the Hamilton Ikea with mom one of these days. We then headed to Target for some essentials (and it turns out curtains) and then to a liquor store for a few more essentials.

Once we were home, Amy attached rabbit ears (bought at Target) to their TV so we could get NBC good enough to walk Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. The hook up went smoothly and they now receive several channels quite well thanks to the antenna. (Only the ABC channel was worse after the hookup. Go figure.) Then we watched SNL and the girls finally headed off to bed.

I stayed up for another hour or so working more on college stuff. But then I, too, returned to the world of sleep.

This morning, I slept in a bit. Amy and I had bagels for breakfast, along with regular and strawberry creme cheese. Rachel was, once again, working at Trotters. I got a lot more work done on my college stuff after breakfast. Then Amy and I made potato & leek soup for lunch. With the bread that Rachel had brought home from work on Friday, it was a very tasty combo. We then spent the day working in the house getting the kitchen sorted out.

When Rachel returned, she also had some soup and declared it good. She also had some cookies from the restaurant – including the mint chocolate ones. Yay! While finishing mine up, the tech from USI arrived, so Amy and I went with him to the den to see things get fixed.

Jeremy was his name, and he started by trying to reset the old modem. It didn’t do anything once again, so he swapped it for a new one. He also tested the antenna and was getting 5 bars from it. Considering there are two nodes on either side of Amy’s street, that’s no surprise. Once he got their modem installed, he also put Amy’s router in place and got that set up for her home network. So now we can all geek at once in Amy’s house. Yay!

I’ve been working on this post for most of the afternoon with many distractions. But now I’m nearly done. Yay! We have ordered pizzas from Jakeeno’s Pizza, a pizzaria near here, and they’ll be delivering soon. Amy and Rachel are sorting out drawer items for the kitchen and I’m getting the occasional “we don’t need this anymore” things. Good thing I had plenty of room in my luggage.

This has been a fun visit. It’s always lovely to see Amy & Rachel and little Fruvous. And it’s especially nice to see their new home.

Oh, and yay, the pizza’s just arrived!

Minneapolis, not Appleton

Unless you’re hard of hearing, you probably don’t see any problem having one gate serving flights to both Appleton and Minneapolis which are 10 minutes apart from each other. But I found it a bit on the confusing side of things today. Thankfully, I got on the correct plane in Milwaukee (after flying there from Dayton this morning) and Amy picked me up outside of the baggage claim.

She drove us first to the post office to pick up the modem & antenna for their new ISP (they’re using USI Wireless with their metro wi-fi) so that I could hook it up later. Then we went to Trotters Cafe where Rachel works (and was working) to have a late lunch. We ordered the two specials (Mexican casserole and a turkey on wheat sourdough sandwich) to share. Amy and I chatted and ate and had a really nice afternoon. Then, with 10 minutes or so left of Rachel’s workday, we returned to the counter to order dessert. I ordered the Chocolate Torture (a dense chocolate cake with creme anglaise drizzled over it) and Amy got a chocolate chip peanut butter cookie. When we reseated ourselves, Frannie Franken, Al Franken’s wife, stopped over to talk us into voting for Al Franken for US Senate. Amy’s first comment to her was “Don’t talk to her” pointing at me “she’s from Ohio.” But Frannie addressed both of us just the same. She was very friendly. Rachel eventually joined us just as we were finishing our desserts.

Amy drove us home to their NEW HOUSE. They have a garage and everything! They gave me the tour of the house, with Fruvous leading the way. He even gave me a bat on the ankle so that I knew I was at Amy & Rachel’s place. Such a friendly cat.

After the tour, Rachel took a nap and I set up Amy’s new modem. I posted two answers to one of my college discussion boards which I’d answered during my hour layover in Milwaukee. Heh. And now I’m writing this.

We’re in the process now of getting ready to go to the Craftsman Restaurant for Melissa’s birthday (she’s a friend of Amy & Rachel’s). We’re all plenty hungry and looking forward to trying the place out.

Segway Day!

Although we all got up early today to wish elsaf farewell for her journey home and walk her to the train station, judiang and I returned in order to sleep some more. Heh. (Judi did get her “regular” at Starbucks, but we still opted to sleep in.)

We managed to fart around enough in the morning to avoid having to have breakfast and go right to lunch – Indian Fud to be exact. I looked through my old LJ entries to find the name of the Indian place we went to last year: The Indian Garden on Ontario. We were going to take the bus, but Judi thought it was too cold and we wound up cabbing it.

Turns out we arrived before they were open, so we walked over to Michigan Ave and returned to the Apple store. We watched a neat workshop on Aperture, a photo editing program that looks really useful. But it’s $200 (and is it Mac specific?) so I shan’t be getting it.

We returned to Indian Garden and had a wonderful lunch buffet. Lots of tasty tasty. Once we’d gotten food in our systems (and spicy food at that) Judi was energized and warm enough to walk back to Millennium Park. We saw several women walking for a 3-day breast cancer walk going on in the city. We wished them luck on their walking and commended them for their efforts.

We were early to the bike center, so we sat and rested for awhile. Then we took a potty break over by the outdoor concert hall. A choir was practicing, so we watched that for awhile before returning for our segway tour.

Judi and I found helmets and signed our lives away before we were given our segways to ride. There were 18 of us on the tour with two really friendly (and knowledgeable) tour guides, Jeremy and Dave. We walked our segways down a hill (the one that I rode up at the end of our bike ride yesterday) and took them over to the “ice rink” (not one in the summer, just in the winter). There, Jeremy taught us how to get on ’em, get off ’em, go forward and back and stop and turn, etc. We had a nice opportunity to learn the ins & outs of segway steering.

One of the first things Judi and I learned about segways is that they’re not as easy as they look. If you stay relaxed, it’s easy peasy. But I kept clenching my knees and toes while riding which made it harder on my feet. I loved going up hills on the thing – much nicer than a bike! Still, I like bikes better for most of the rest of the riding. 🙂 As Judi said, when you’re on a bike, you can easily put your feet on the ground, but with the segway, when you stop, you’re still standing & adjusting to keep the thing stationary.

We toured around the lakefront, mostly at museum campus. I saw stuff Judi’s never taken me to. Heh. When I was able to hear Jeremy’s tourguiding, I’d learn stuff about the city I hadn’t known. He took us to what used to be Meig’s Field (now a prairie of wild flowers). I took photos and a video, which I’ll paste at the end of this post.

We were pretty tired by the time we returned to the bike center. So we sat and rested some before we headed off to the bus stop nearby. We took the #4 bus back to 13th street, then walked home.

Our original plan (well, Judi’s original plan) was to put her new grill together then go to Jewel and buy stuff to grill to christen the grill. But as it got later & later and I got hungrier and hungrier, it looked less & less likely that Judi would be putting the grill together. She finally decided we should go out for supper. I suggested Grace O’Malley’s, so we walked there.

We both ordered the Guiness cheese soup as a starter and amaretto sours. I ordered the beer battered fish & chips with the salad & bleu cheese dressing. Judi ordered the chef’s Caesar salad with steak. Then we ordered dessert – I picked the pecan brownie ala mode and Judi got their Bailey’s cheesecake. Very yummy supper!

We’re now watching the Olympics (wow on that 4×100 swim relay!) and geeking. Tomorrow Judi promises to put the grill together, so I guess we’ll grill hot dogs for lunch. And then I’ll head off to home again, to see my poor little neglected kitties.


Segways R Us
Segways R Us

The last two in this row are the ones that Judi and I was using. 🙂
Judi glides on
Judi glides on

Judi gliding around on her segway at the planetarium.
Judi and me!
Judi and me!

Yes, even I rode a segway today! Jeremy, our guide, took the photo.


Jersey Boys are Boss!

As we had, indeed, planned, we wound up going to Ma & I for supper. We all ordered sushi as an appetizer (me getting California roll – yum!). judiang and I both ordered tofu pad thai and elsaf ordered shrimp lad nar. Very yummy. Then we cabbed it to Bank of America Theater to watch Jersey Boys.

I’ve heard music by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons but didn’t always know it was them. But I recognized more than half of the songs in the musical and enjoyed it all. A very fun musical with lots of good music. I did miss some of the dialog in the show (but heard more than Judi, who figures she understood 3% of the dialog). While watching it, I kept wanting to get on Wikipedia to read more about Frankie Valli et al. (Joe Pesci? Really! Wow!) I am SUCH a geek. But I feel a little vindicated cuz Judi admitted the same. 🙂

After the show, we took a cab back to where we’re picked one up before the show. Cuz we had some ice cream to be eating! Good ol’ Marble Slab is open late, so we got ice cream for the walk back to Judi’s apartment. I had chocolate swiss and pistachio. Yum!

Now I’m watching Olympics and we’re all geeking. I have a couple of photos from our bike trip today, which I shall post under the LJ cut.

Elsa & Judi biking
Elsa & Judi biking

We paused along Lake Michigan to turn around and head back. We’re on rental bikes.
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan

A shot of the Lake from our bike trip. Perfect day for biking.


Riding by the Lake

Today has been Exercise Day here in Chicago. Earlier, we rode bikes along Lake Michigan and just a bit ago we went swimming in the pool. And we’ve only had brunch for food today – it’s almost like a health spa or something! Anyhoo, I’ll get into more detail (or you can read elsaf‘s journal entry instead) about my trip thus far.

Yesterday, judiang and I slept in. Elsa arrived around 11 and then we were able to go off for food. We decided to have dim sum for brunch. So it was off to our favorite dim sum place in Chinatown – Three Happiness. Since we weren’t having dim sum on the weekend, they didn’t have the carts moving around serving stuff. We had a piece of paper with lots of photos of foodstuff and got to pick which things we ate. It was kind of cool actually knowing what we were choosing for once. And we chose well – lots of yummy stuff!

After brunch, we headed over to Trek Bikes on Michigan Ave (not far from Judi’s apartment) so that Judi could purchase a Trek bike. They didn’t have Navigator 3.0’s in stock (the bike Judi rode when we biked last weekend), so she tried the other comfort bike that they stocked. Even with a couple of different adjustments and also sampling the unisex bike, Judi decided that she really just ought to special order the Navigator 3.0. I bought her a bell in celebration (which she’ll have put on when the bike arrives later this week). On our way back to the flat, we stopped for ice cream at Marble Slab. I got a double chocolate malt – tasty tasty!

Back at the apartment, we snoozed. Actually, Elsa and Judi snoozed while I played World of Warcraft. I wasn’t going to actually play, just check on auctions, but with Judi sleeping, I thought “well, I’ll just go do this…” and then “she’s still asleep, I suppose I could start this…” and then I finally had to pull myself away.

Once we were all awake and not gaming, we headed off to Navy Pier to Bubba Gump’s for supper. The goal was to get the dippin’ shrimp – only they don’t have that right now. Bummer. So I got the Shrimper’s Heaven meal, which had coconut shrimp, breaded shrimp, peel & eat shrimp, and shrimp tempura as well as french fries and slaw. Tasty tasty! I also ordered the chocolate chip cookie sundae for dessert. Yum! Elsa and Judi enjoyed their meals as well. (I think Elsa goes into more detail.)

We returned to the place around the middle of the Parade of Nations for the Olympic opening. Alas, we missed the really cool stuff, but we did get to watch the parade (which I always love to see) and the lighting of the torch (very cool – but Barcelona will always win with the archer). While we were watching the recorded opening ceremony, I was also watching a live badminton match between Ireland and Germany on my laptop. I’m really excited by all of the coverage that NBC is going to do for this Olympics.

This morning, Judi was up at a reasonable hour – surprise surprise! She had a grill scheduled for delivery between 8 am and noon, so figured she should be up. So at 9:30, we walked over to the Bongo Room for breakfast. As with my last Bongo Room trip, I opted for the BLT eggs Benedict. Very yummy! I also had a hot chocolate. Judi made a major faux pas by buying a double espresso from Starbucks before coming into the Bongo Room. Tsk! Her excuse is that Bongo doesn’t have soy milk. Yeah, yeah, whatever. 😉

When we returned, they still hadn’t delivered her grill. So we vegged and geeked while we waited for the grill delivery. And when they did deliver, Judi and I headed downstairs to meet the delivery dude, only to have him tell us they’d already sent it up to the apartment. Returning to the apartment, no grill. But the phone rang and it turns out they were on their way up. They dropped it off in her kitchen and then we were FREE!

We headed off to Millennium Park to rent bikes for a bike ride around the Lake. We decided on a 2 hour rental, which made them $20 a piece before taxes. Nice. We got Trek Navigator 2.0’s for the ride and rode towards Navy Pier (and then past it). It was a very pleasant ride. Although it had been cloudy and threatening rain, when it was time to rent the bikes, the sun came out and it was very sunny and pleasant. I don’t think we could have asked for nicer weather for our bike ride.

After we’d been out for about half an hour, it was nearing the halfway point of our rental period. So we turned around and headed back, not knowing how long it would be to return (there was more uphill, we thought). Turns out, it took less time to return to the park than we figured. But we opted on finishing anyway – especially since we’d all attempted going up one of the steep hills by biking. (I did it, but it wasn’t easy! Even Judi made it 3/4ths of the way up – you go gurl!)

There was one more steep hill to try, which I also successfully did – but once again, it was hard the last 3 feet or so. Go me! Right after we turned in our bikes, Judi and I booked a place in tomorrow’s 2pm Segway tour of Chicago’s lakeside. That should be fun! And shortly after, it started to rain. It sure was nice that the weather cooperated for our bike ride. Now we just wanted it to cooperate for our planned swimming venture.

We geeked for a short while before putting on our swim suits, and when we got to the pool, it was lovely outside again. There was sun and there were clouds, but it was warm enough to be in the pool. We stayed in for about an hour (long enough for us all to get wrinkly fingers). Now we’re all here updating our blogs. (I’m the last to finish.) The plan is to get supper at Ma & I, the Thai place near Judi’s place. Then we go off to see Jersey Boys at the Bank of America Theater (what Judi says was once called the Schubert Theater). Should be a fun evening!

Millennium Park

I’m back in the Windy City – a mere month from my last visit here. Indeed, this is the first time since I was a kid (I think) that I’ve been here in the summer and it’s not around Taste of Chicago. No matter, there’s lots to do (and eat) even though that festival isn’t going on.

Today’s flight was uneventful – yay. I made my way to judiang‘s place, but before I had crossed Wabash, there was Judi caddy-corner to me and trying to phone me. She was meeting me to go to Howie’s for lunch, which we did. I went for fish & chips, and got a chocolate shake cuz Judi was getting a vanilla shake and that sounded yummy.

We headed back to her place where Lance greeted me, looking very chipper (a contrast from last weekend, apparently. Glad he’s doing better!) Judi and I then sort of vegged for a bit, eventually each taking a nap. This refreshed us quite nicely for our Grand Adventure yet to come.

Our only real plan for the day was to have tapas for supper at Exposure (which is also on Wabash). But then I asked about going to the Apple store, so that’s where we headed off. We took the #3 bus up Michigan Ave and as we paused by Millennium Park, Judi asked me if I’d been there before. I hadn’t, so we hopped off the bus and visited the park.

The Grant Park Orchestra was rehearsing for tomorrow night’s performance, so we listened for awhile. It was a lovely day and I took lots of photos. We walked through the flower garden and across the BP Bridge. But eventually we continued walking up Michigan Ave towards the Apple Store.

Along the way, we encountered Eno. This is a wine/cheese/chocolate place. They serve flites of wine, of cheese, and of chocolate. We’re not big on wine, but we love cheese and we love chocolate. So Judi ordered a Riesling for herself and we got the International cheese flite and the bittersweet chocolate flite. We both enjoyed the 4 year old Gouda and the cheddar. The Spanish cheese was a little tasteless in my opinion. I liked all of the chocolates, but Judi really disliked the third chocolate, so I ate the extra piece of it.

We also popped into an art store on the walk and talked to a nice young man from the Cleveland area who enjoys Cedar Point. And eventually we made it to the Apple store. That’s a neat little place. And there was a lady teaching a workshop on the second floor. Judi and I both managed avoid buying anything, so yay us!

We just missed the #3 back, so we waited at the bus stop for the next one. Bus after bus came by, but none of then the #3. Judi eventually got pissed off enough that she hailed a cab to take us to the tapas place.

This was her first time to Exposure, even though it’s just two blocks from her apartment. She needs me and Elsa to visit in order to explore her neighborhood. 🙂 We picked out four tapas to try (they go for a variety of cuisines rather than sticking to Mexican): steamed mussels, crispy Asian calamari, goat cheese gnocchi with pulled pork and caramelized onions, crab stuffed jumbo shrimp with Israeli cous cous and a shallot cream sauce. Then the waiter told us they also had fondue on the menu. So we ordered that as well. He wanted to know what type of cheese, but we said “surprise us.” He picked Gruyere, which was an excellent choice. We enjoyed the tapas (though it turns out I don’t like steamed mussels and Judi managed to eat a hot pepper while eating the calamari which nearly wiped her out).

Although we’d stuffed ourselves silly at Exposure (though they take forever to serve you each tapas, so it takes a couple of hours to eat it all) we decided to get some ice cream at Marble Slab for dessert. I chose peppermint ice cream and double chocolate ice cream. Yum!

I took photos with my camera while we were in the Park and have posted them for your edification.

Millennium Park amphitheater
Millennium Park amphitheater

Symphony in the park – what a lovely idea. The weird structure over the lawn area supports lots of speakers to allow everyone to hear the orchestra.
Millennium Park amphitheater - alternate view
Millennium Park amphitheater – alternate view

Turn away from the amphitheater and this is what you see.
Grant Park Orchestra rehearses
Grant Park Orchestra rehearses

The Grant Park Orchestra rehearses for Friday and Saturday’s concerts in the Millennium Park’s amphitheater.
Seats
Seats

Judi and I enjoyed this view from where we were sitting and enjoying the practice of the orchestra.
Millennium Park flower garden
Millennium Park flower garden

There’s a nice assortment of flowers at the park. I loved the juxtaposition of flowers and cityscape.
Millennium Park sculpture
Millennium Park sculpture

There’s this neat reflective kidney bean at the park. Can you see me reflected in the surface?
Millennium Park sculpture 2
Millennium Park sculpture 2

Here I am!
King Lear
King Lear

A King Lear statue by J. Steward Johnson, 2008.


Still paused & refreshed…

Poor judiang is stuck in a plane on the tarmac in Dayton waiting for a big ass storm over Chicago to subside. She’s been on the plane now for over 2 hours and is eating bags of pretzels to keep up her strength. Poor thing! I’m on call, ready to zip off to the airport and pick her up if the flight is canceled.

The contractor’s end of things on my bathroom is done – yay! I’ve just been in cleaning things up. Tomorrow I am going to take a BATH in my new tub! Woohoo! Mom wants to take a photo – provided I have lots of bubbles. Um, yeah-no, as my friend Carolyn would say. Heh. I’ll get photos up later once I get the in progress ones that dad took while I was hanging with Judi and elsaf at the Lake.

So, last time I reported on our Lake adventures, I said I’d talk about Saturday. Saturday was our Adventure Day. In order to take advantage of the cooler morning weather, we got up around 8am. Elsa made pancakes and sausage for us and I made coffee for Judi. We then took both cars over to the Lake Loramie State Park so we could ride around. We had a fun time riding around the park – even Judi, who says it’s been 15 years since she last rode, rode like a pro (when she got her confidence back). It was a very pleasant morning ride and I think I need to get a rack for my car (I’d stuffed my car in the trunk with the back seats down) so I can take my bike there in the future.

We left my car in the parking lot and Elsa drove us to Pleasant Hill (my town) in order to see if Meddlin’s Peddlin’ Bike Shop had a better bike rack than the one she was using. (Her highway drive down with two bikes was rather disconcerting since the rack started listing to one side. She stopped several times on the way down readjusting them.) Jack Thomas is the owner of the bike shop – he’s a retired biology teacher and former mayor of P Hill. He was his usual helpful self and first tried to see if he could get her current rack more stable. He’d not seen one like it and really wasn’t able to help it out. But he had a 3-bike rack in stock that turned out to be VERY stable for the bikes. And since it holds 3 bikes, in future Elsa could take her two bikes and mine to wherever we’re going to be riding. Yay!

We stopped at my house then so Elsa could see the bathroom in progress. Rych and his son were still working on things (they finished yesterday around 3:30, dad says). It was looking GREAT! I checked on the kitties who, as usual, were hiding under the bed. I apologized for not being there, but they didn’t seem to care. Heh.

When we returned north, we went to the Haus der Eleganz for lunch. I had the chicken salad sandwich (on croissant) and onion rings. The sammich was lovely, but the onion rings were a little soggy – like they’d been microwaved or something. Oh, and I had a vanilla Italian ice. Yummy! The girls seemed to enjoy their lunches as well.

Before we returned to the cottage, we went to Wagners for some groceries for Elsa’s evening masterpiece. Elsa pulled up to the cottage and Judi said “I’ll go put the ice cream in the freezer while you two get Trina’s car.” Elsa and I just looked at each other like “Oh yeah! The car!” Neither one of us had remembered it was still at the park’s parking lot. *snerk*

Judi cleaned the kitchen while we were getting my car, so shortly after our second return, Elsa started on her evening meal. Mmmm. If you’ve never had one of Elsa’s meals, you’re missing out. (Hmmm, I think only my sister and hergrace have experienced this in my flist.) I had, as usual, invited mom & dad around to enjoy it as well.

I spent some time reading (and occasionally dropping off) while Elsa slaved away in the kitchen. Judi eventually suggested going to Wagner’s again so she could get AAA batteries for her mouse and Elsa suggested some green onions for her bourbon creamed corn. So we did that. Mom & dad arrived around 6 – about when I was starting the fire for grilling the meat and peaches.

So what had Elsa prepared for us? Bourbon creamed corn, as I mentioned. Twice baked potatoes (the best we’d ever had, agreed my folks). Grilled peaches. Peach brazed donkey dongs. (OK, so that’s not what they were, but they sure looked like donkey dongs!!! I should know, I laid ’em onto the grill to cook ’em! And I wish I’d taken a photo so you could see that I’m telling the truth.) They were peach brazed pork tenderloin and were very tasty! I’ve become quite the grill master with Elsa as my guide.

For dessert, Elsa had also baked us blueberry pie. Oh my, was it simply brilliant. We all enjoyed the supper and we love that Elsa loves to cook. 🙂

After the folks left, we tied Judi down and made her watch The Mikado. The only version I have on video is the Jonathan Miller one, which I enjoy (cuz I love Eric Idle) but which isn’t a very traditional version. What Judi really needs to see is a very lavish live version. It turns out there were two songs she recognized: “Titwillow” and “Three Little Maids from School.”

Sunday was a lazy day. Once again, Elsa made us breakfast – pancakes and sausage. But then she had to drive back home. *sniff* Judi and I pretty much spent the rest of the day sleeping and/or reading. I finished one book and made quite a bit of progress in another. The weather was perfect – I spent most of my time reading in the chaise lounge outside. The only time I had to get in my car was to take us to Wagners (heh) so we could get marinated chicken boobies to go with our leftovers for supper. (We’d grilled hot dogs and had leftover creamed corn for lunch). I picked out the rosemary garlic chicken and Judi picked out a Bordeaux marinated chicken. I grilled those and we heated up leftovers. Oh, but before supper we’d had the last of the blueberry pie with ice cream.

I had an 8am meeting this morning, so I decided I’d go home Sunday night. I made Judi a mudslide and me a sodie (cream soda float) out of the last of the ice cream. Then I drove home around 10:30pm. Judi and I played a little WoW together and then I slipped off to bed.

I woke up at 7:30am this morning, got ready, and rode my bike to the school for the meeting. It was our design team meeting for the new school building. We’re working on color schemes, type of wood, carpet colors, locker colors, etc. And the plans for the school look really cool. Neat to see the layout of my classroom/lab in context with the rest of the building. The meeting ran long, so I left before we finished in order to get back to my guest.

I returned to the Lake around 11am and proceeded to fix a late breakfast of – you guessed it – pancakes and sausage. I used the last of the Aunt Jemima mix and the start of the Hungry Jack mix (which we picked up last night with our chicken boobies). So we had Hungry Jemima (or Aunt Jack) pancakes. And loads of sausage since Judi told me to grill it all.

Then we slept. I actually did a bit of laptop work first (reading dad’s labs from his Advanced Problems in Science class which I’m restarting this year), but wound up on the sofa sleeping. But when I got up, it was time to start shutting the cottage up. Judi cleaned the dishes, I vacuumed and gathered up trash and laundry. We got on the road a bit later than I’d intended (too late to get ice cream before hand). We stopped at my house so Judi could see the bathroom now. (And also to dump off the trash.) Then I dropped her sorry little butt off at the airport. Where she’s still, I’m imagining, waiting on the tarmac in the plane. I hope they get on their way ASAP!

*sniff* My Chicago Trip is nearly at an end…

Before I get too far into my post, a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY to drake57!

So, yesterday (well, I haven’t been to bed yet, so I’m still thinking today is Sunday) after our nap and a bit of geeking we headed off toward Navy Pier. We popped into a couple of bookstores (Borders and a used bookstore) so that I could look for more Lois McMaster Bujold books – no go on the ones I’m looking for.

We arrived at the movie theater right when the 5:00 showing of Wall*E was beginning, but we wanted a bit of a rest from the walking we’d been doing. (No, we didn’t walk all the way from judiang‘s place – just from the Borders.) So we had drinks and some spinach & artichoke dip at the lounge were the bowling alley is. (This bowling alley’s in the same building as the theater – and the lanes are on the second floor. Seems such an odd place to put a bowling alley.) Dad called while we were lounging, so I talked a bit with him and mom. (They’re in Minnesota visiting Amy & Rachel. Like me, they go home tomorrow – Monday.)

A few minutes before the movie, we finally made our way to the theater to discover lots of people were going to see it too. We wound up in the center of the very front row. And it was actually a great place to watch the movie. We both loved it and the cartoon before it. And we saw several trailers that we enjoyed. Though I think I’ll be giving Beverly Hills Chihuahua and The Pink Panther 2 a miss.

After the movie, we continued our walk to Navy Pier. We first put our names in at Bubba Gump’s, but it was an hour waiting. So we walked on down the pier and decided to try the barbecue place, Joe’s Be-bop Cafe. They had a 5 minute wait, so Judi left to cancel our name at Bubba’s and we were seated at Be-Bop’s. We decided to take our time eating in order to sit most of the night before the fireworks, then get up to watch ’em. We timed it perfectly (with some thanks to the waiter who took forever to get our desserts to us).

So, for starters we got popcorn shrimp (since we missed out on the bucket o’ shrimp thingy from Bubba’s). Tasty, tasty! Then Judi got the rib tips and I got the half yardbird (bbq chicken). Although their barbecue sauce was better than Robinson’s (which I sampled at Taste), it still wasn’t to my liking. Still, the rub & sauce on the bird (what little there was) was excellent. I liked their jalapeño corn bread, their spicy baked beans, and the baked tater too. I also had an amaretto sour there. Judi and I both agreed that it was better than the one I’d had at the bowling alley lounge. Dessert was “sumpin’ chocolate” which was basically chocolate overload cake with chocolate ice cream and hot fudge. Wow. I wasn’t able to finish the thang.

We paid for the meal and then Judi led the way to a good spot for fireworks watching. Although it was only a 10 minute show, it was really cool to watch. They even had smiley face fireworks! I hadn’t seen those in years! (First time I ever saw them was at St Paul, MN during Taste of Minnesota.) We all ooohed & ahhhhed as we watched.

My phone tries to take a video of the fireworks… Not bad, phone!

After a return to Be-bops where I looked for a souvenir for Taylor (my cousin who’s looking in on my kitties while I’m away), we headed off for the 29 bus to take us back to Judi’s place. We managed to get on the third bus and even got to sit for the entire journey. Then we watched the series finale of Doctor Who. Judi’s already posted her WTF. I rather enjoyed it myself. (Hmmm, reminds me of last year’s finale.)

We both slept in today and were ready by 10:30 to head for Chinatown. Yes, it was our traditional jaunt for a dim sum brunch. We went to new Three Happiness (as always) and had a nice assortment of dim sum. We even had leftovers (see, we needed that third person, elsaf!) We also went to a store in Chinatown so that I could get Taylor’s souvenir. (I didn’t care for the Be-bop choices the night before.)

After we returned home, it was swim time! I took my final swim in Judi’s pool, and as always, it was refreshing. And I had finally talked Judi into taking me to the Field Museum (though I had resolved to go on my own if she didn’t really want to come – it’s across the street fer gosh sakes!) I printed off $5 off coupons so we’d save some money going to the Mythical Creatures Exhibit. But it turns out I didn’t need it cuz the lady at the front desk let me in free (paying only $8 for the exhibit) since I’m a school teacher. Judi got a discount as a Chicago native, but she had to pay $15. Heh.

Since there were only 2 more hours before they closed, we went right to the Mythical Creatures Exhibit. capriuni, we both thought of how much you’d enjoy that exhibit. 🙂 It was cool – some neat art, cool statues, a Chinese dragon as used in New Years parades, etc. No photos allowed, alas. Then we went to the George Washington Carver exhibit where we were both inspired by Carver and all that he did. I learned a lot from the exhibit – he was green long before it was the buzzword of the decade.

Leaving the Carver exhibit put us right in with the prehistoric beasties. Yay! I was able to take photos there of various skeletons. I’ve always been fascinated by mammoths and saber tooths and other such critters (why else would I waste my money on 10,000 BC?) We finished off the visit with some overhead shots of Sue, the T-Rex which I remember from when I was a kid and visiting the museum. (She’s shrunk since then, I swear!)



After we left the museum, we walked over to the ugly Torso & Legs Sculpture at the tip of Grant Park near Judi’s apartment. I took photos. (I’m really pleased with my phone’s performance as a camera this trip. Not too shabby at all!) The sculpture(s) is called Agora. There are 106 cast iron figures. And they’re ugly and creepy and rusting all over the concrete.


I made Judi come with me for ice cream at Marble Slab (me thinks she doth not protest enough) and we both got cones. I had white birthday cake ice cream and double chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone. Yummy! We returned so that Judi could walk the pooch and we could veg a bit. Then we headed off to Gioco (a nearby Italian restaurant) for supper.

For starters, we had fried calamari. Yum! Then I had the pear and pancetta salad plus a side of polenta. Mmmm, best polenta ever – it was seasoned with mascarpone cheese and butter. It looked like a big pile of scrambled eggs, but tasted far better. Thanks to all of the bread and olive oil I’d already scarfed, I could only eat half. Judi happily ate the other half. Heh. Oh, and I had an amaretto sour there as well.

We waddled back and popped up to the penthouse to look over Judi’s fair city. Such a lovely view. Then we returned to make strawberry shortcake and watch the Confidential for the last ep of Doctor Who. We then watched Housewife, 49 while we ate our shortcake. It was a nice little movie. (I knew I’d like it – it had Stephanie Cole in it, after all.) I’ve pretty much been writing this post ever since. And I should head for bed. Tomorrow, *sniff* I leave. This trip has not gone completely as we’d originally envisioned, but I do think that Judi and Elsa and I had many pleasant times during it. Here’s to the next time when we three shall meet again. 🙂

The continuing story…

Yesterday, when elsaf and I finished watching The Bucket List, I woke up napping-judiang and the two of us walked to Taste of Chicago, armed with a large purse and a package of Saran Wrap. We had a to-go order from Elsa which the bag and cellophane were for. Once Judi and I had gotten and eaten our wares, we picked up items for Elsa and wrapped and stuffed ’em in the bag.

My Taste things for Friday were as follows:

  • Las Tablas – empanada

  • Harry Carey’s – chocolate chip cookie

  • Robinson’s No. 1 Ribs – rib tips

  • Abbey Pub – fish

  • Vermillion – mango cumin-dusted fries with chutney

  • The Noodle Vietnamese Cuisine – sesame beef on a stick

  • Canaday Le Chocolatier – mascarpone gelato

  • Franco’s Ristorante – lemon Italian ice

Today’s fare was a little less satisfying than Wednesday’s. The empanada was a little plain. The barbecue sauce on the rib tips was more ketchup than anything. The fish from Abbey Pub could have easily been from Van de Kamp’s. But I liked the fries – they tasted like samosa in a convenient fry shape. The gelato place had issues – first you had to wait forever in one line to deliver your tickets, then they gave you a colored stick and you waited in another line for your ice cream. And they were out of pistachio, which was my first choice. But I’d also been interested in the mascarpone ice cream, so that was OK. It was quite tasty, too.

Once back at the apartment, Elsa got to eat her late lunch. We then decided we’d have pizza delivered for supper. And I decided that, after the long walk, I wanted to go swimming to drop my core body temp a little. So, off to the pool I went. It was chilly, but not as chilly as the first night we swam. And it was very refreshing. I was only there for about half an hour, but it was what I needed.

Judi wanted more strawberry shortcake for supper’s dessert, but we needed strawberries. I talked her into trying peach shortcake since we’d have to go to the grocery anyway. Of course, when I say “we” it turns out it was “me.” They gave me a list of things to get and off I went with Judi’s wobbly grocery cart. As I was walking off to the grocery, I thought of how nice it is where Judi’s at that she’s got all these neat places to walk to. My town is so small, there’s not a whole lot of places to walk to. But Judi has quite a variety of walking experiences. One more reason to visit friends!

I peeled (??? we never peel ’em at home!) and sliced the peaches for peach shortcake, then got a conscripted cutting board (Judi didn’t know what the thing was, but we used it as a cutting board) out for the Gouda cheese and Toasted crackers we then snacked on. We sat and chatted while waiting for the pizza delivery.

Pizza was from Connie’s Pizza. We ordered the special (sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms) in a deep dish crust. Judi was disappointed because they didn’t do the deep dish the right way (crust too thick) but it was tasty and satisfying. We put No Country for Old Men on while we ate and wondered just what the movie was about. I think we were all rather perplexed by the end of it. Still, the scene in the boot shop after the anti-hero returns from Mexico was laugh out loud funny. We also ate peach shortcake with ice cream (regular store-bought vanilla) while the movie played. Afterwards, Elsa and I watched the Edwardian Supersizers episode (the pilot for the series).

Unfortunately, although Elsa started out the day feeling better than she’d felt in a couple of days, she was feeling worse by the end. 🙁 Indeed, when she woke up this morning around 6am, she decided there was no way she could drive home. Judi got up around 6:30am and I followed 15 minutes later. We discussed several options. She finally decided on flying home today and flying back next weekend in order to drive her car back. She only took her essentials on the flight, so nothing had to be carried or checked. I paid for the cab ride to Midway because I didn’t want to drive there and back again in Elsa’s car in Chicago (a very unfamiliar place for me to drive). Judi got a wheelchair for her once we arrived and we walked with her and her chair pusher until she was outside security. We just received a text from her that she’s on the plane. Her bro will pick her up upon arrival.

It’s a shame she got to feeling so poorly once she was here. We did have a good time despite the troubles, but I know she would MUCH prefer to have NOT had the troubles. (Pain is really a bitch.) Get to feeling better, Elsa!

On our way back from the airport (using the El this time – less than 1/10 of the cost of getting there) we stopped at The Bongo Room for brunch. We both ordered the BLT Benedict – an eggs Benedict with applewood smoked bacon, spinach, and a tomato basil hollandaise sauce (though they were out of tomato) and hashbrowns. I also ordered a hot chocolate. It was very yummy! And we both preferred it without the tomato.

Judi’s now napping and I think I’ll do the same when I’m done with this post. Our plan is to get to Navy Pier for a late supper and fireworks watching. Perhaps we’ll catch a movie today too. Wall-E sounds like a good ‘un.

Tasty Tasty Taste!

Food, glorious food! I think one of the most important things in going on vacation is all of the wonderful FOOD you get to have. And one of the best things about going on vacation with judiang and elsaf is that they’re as much Foodies as I am. So, we know how to have a good time AND eat lots of good food.

This morning, we started out by going off to Whole Foods, an organic grocery (seriously, there’s, like, carbon compounds EVERYWHERE there!) It was HUGE. And pretty impressive. Elsa was looking for ingredients for the phenomenal meal she was planning for us. So ingredients we bought. Judi, meanwhile, was nearly comatose with caffeine deprivation, so I sent her off to get herself coffee and me a vanilla steamer. She returned awhile later, perkier and with a hazelnut steamer. (OK, so she missed the word “vanilla” but the steamer was very yummy.) Apparently, she was looking all over for the Starbucks that she knew was in the shopping plaza, only to later discover she was standing in front of it. Now *that’s* what I call caffeine deprivation!

Once we bundled the groceries into the car, we drove back over the Long Ass Bridge (ah, I remember alryssa, tiger5, Judi and I walking over that once – I so much prefer driving) to return to Judi’s place. Then we walked over to the Taste of Chicago. Yum! (Although we don’t go over any Long Ass Bridges, it’s still something of a Long Ass Walk, but it’s still a lot closer than many people going to the Taste had to travel.)

So, with my handy Taste of Chicago booklet in hand, I shall rattle off the good things I sampled there (everything I bought was a “taste” portion):

  • Lagniappe-Creole Cajun Joynt – beignet

  • A Natural Harvest – tamale

  • The Breakfast Club – bite of Elsa’s tamale

  • Tamarind – Taiwan Shining Noodles

  • Kasia’s Deli – pierogies

  • Arya Bhavan – samosa

  • Wow Bao – a Kung Pao bao (steamed dumpling with kung pao filling)

  • BJ’s Market & Bakery – bite of Judi’s mustard fried catfish and bite of Judi & Elsa’s peach cobbler

  • Bobtail Ice Cream Company – chocolate – dipped ice cream cake on a stick (which was ENORMOUS for a sample-size. I’d be afraid to see the regular sized one!)

To save Judi and Elsa having to walk too much, I did most of the food gathering, but the advantage there is having bites of what I’d bring them to eat. Heh. Tomorrow we hope to tackle the other side of the taste – there’s at least 7 things I want to try tomorrow.

The walk back from Taste was warm (and long). So I told the girls that I wanted to go swimming. Elsa agreed and then we talked Judi into at least putting on her suit in case the water was warmer today. So we got in the pool (this time full of people, especially kids) and agreed that it was, indeed, warmer than last night. We stayed for over an hour in the pool and then sat on the lounge chairs for a bit longer drying off. It was very refreshing!

When we returned to the apartment, Elsa started working on supper, starting with the ice cream. Judi and I went to the market at her apartment complex to get a few needed items while Elsa cooked. It’s a cute little market which actually had everything that we needed (including lemons and batteries – and yes, you can make a battery from a lemon, but they don’t usually fit inside of garage door openers or radios).

I set the table (with Judi correcting me the whole time) and Elsa plated the dishes. The salad was heirloom tomato, fennel, tarragon, and bleu cheese with vinaigrette. I’m not a big tomato eater, but I enjoyed the salad. The main course was pork chops with brandied peaches, potato souffle, and broccoli with lemon. Oh my, the pork chops were wonderful! And the brandied peaches – yum! I enjoyed the potato souffle too and ate most of my broccoli. 🙂 Dessert was the christening of Judi’s ice cream maker (which Elsa had given her at Christmas) – Bailey’s Irish Cream Ice Cream. Yum! I’d forced Judi to buy me a Lindt milk chocolate bar at the market, so I topped the ice cream with a square of that in each – yummy.

Elsa and I watched the end of the Navy Pier fireworks from their reflection in the apartments across the way – that was pretty neat. I have suggested to Judi that she & I go on Saturday to see them up close & personal. She agreed. 🙂 We’re now vegging on laptops while Judi works on cases for her job. Poor thing! Tomorrow, more Taste, some fireworks, and more fun!