It’s a sad state of (geek) affairs when you discover that your friend, who’s in the bedroom just over there, is up because she posts to Twitter… And thus our day began.

judiang, elsaf and I went to the Little Branch Cafe for “a not as expensive as supper” breakfast. I had a breakfast croissant which had egg, cheese, and bacon. It came with a few hashbrowns and some fruit, of which half was melon. I let Judi eat the melon.

After breakfast, I decided to head off on a half hour walk, whereupon I discovered that Judi lives closer to Lake Michigan than I do to the Stillwater River. (Well, I should have figured that since I can see the Lake from her balcony.) It was a pleasant walk (breezy & cloudy) and they’ve really made Museum Campus a lovely place to walk.

Elsa and I then headed off to Whole Paycheck, er, Whole Foods to pick up necessary items for our day in. See, it was supposed to get up to 98F with a heat index of 105F today. I bet the Chicago weathermen are embarrassed! But we didn’t know they’d be so far off the mark and planned lunch & dinner at Judi’s place.

Poor Elsa experienced sticker shock after she picked out 2 racks of baby back ribs for grilling for supper. First time I’d seen her do a double-take. As nice as it would be to have a Whole Foods near where I live, I doubt if I’d be able to afford to shop there much.

Once we returned, Elsa got the baby back ribs in the crock pot, then broiled the chicken boobies and I made the salads upon which to place said chicken boobies. Lunch was tasty. Then we had a relaxing afternoon of reading, computing, and more reading. I took a walk to the park where Judi walks her dog, Patty, and sat reading for awhile. Then, sure enough, Judi walked Patty and the three of us returned to the apartment.

And then we got to the title of today’s post. See, Judi hasn’t had a chance to use her grill yet this summer. So she cleaned it and tried to light it for finishing off the ribs. Only it wouldn’t light. If only we had a long match, she said. “You got any spaghetti?” I asked her. She showed me to the spaghetti, which I couldn’t keep lit long enough to light the propane, so I asked for tape and then taped a match to spaghetti.

After a few attempts (which kept getting blown out by the wind), I finally heard a whoosh! Yes, we have whoosh! But then it went out. By then, the grill’s lighter started working again, so Judi got it going again. Where the fire lasted longer… and then went out. But the fourth castle stayed up! I mean, huge tracts of land! Grrrr, I’ve been hijacked by a Monty Python movie!

Anyhoo, the grill eventually burned strongly and we got the asparagus and the baby back ribs grilled. Along with baked potatoes and pineapple upside-down cake (that Elsa had made this afternoon), we had a fabulous supper! And after supper, Elsa and I got another episode of Game of Thrones watched. (Alas, we won’t get all 10 watched before we leave on Monday.)

Tomorrow, our Saturday tradition of Dim Sum for brunch will continue. And we have tickets to a show at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. And I’m hoping we’ll get to see fireworks at Navy Pier, too!

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

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

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

• Pulled Pork Mini Sandwich from The Smoke Daddy
• Home Run Ball (Sweet & Spicy Nugget Bites) from Loving Hut (a vegan joint)
• Cheese Empanada from Adobo Grill
• Jibarito from Sabor Latino (steak sammich with corn pancakes as the bread)
• Pad Thai from Star of Siam (yeah, I get it every time)
• Mango Kefir from StarFruit (an ice cream substitute)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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