Tag: judi

Taste of Chicago 2009

Today we got to the Taste of Chicago! Yum! But before we did that, judiang and I went to her workplace in order for her to turn in cases she flexed on and pick up some new cases to flex. We got to the office block at quarter till 8am, so I wasn’t let allowed in her offices. So I popped into the Starbucks in her building and had a caramel steamer and read a book on my mobile. It was kind of fun sitting and looking out at the city view. So of course I took a picture.

Starbucks View
Starbucks View

The view from Starbucks when I had a caramel steamer this morning.

She came down to get me once visitors were allowed in. I read some more and enjoyed looking out her window. (I also fixed a certificate which had fallen from her wall. Yes, I’m anal.) Her office is on the 9th floor and you can see over the El (elevated train). I, of course, took a photo.

De Trains! De Trains!
De Trains! De Trains!

View of the El from Judi’s office at her workplace.



When Judi was done with her work, it was after 10am so we decided to walk to Taste of Chicago. elsaf e-mailed her requests, so once we’d grazed for a bit, we picked up her requests. Here are things that I tried:

  • Potato Pancake w/ apple sauce from Manny’s Cafeteria & Deli – alas, reheated rather than fresh.
  • Irish Egg Roll from Abbey Pub – my favorite 2009 Taste item so far. Basically a Reuben in a filo dough that’s been fried.
  • Grilled Anjou Pear Salad from The Grill on the Alley – tasty, but a little too tart.
  • Jambalaya from Blue Bayou – alas, they were already sold out of the Bananas Foster Bites.
  • Potato Pierogi and Cheese Pierogi from Polka Sausage and Deli – very yummy and the cheese one was sweet rather than savory.
  • Mustard-fried Catfish and Peach Cobbler – had a bite of these two items from Judi’s purchases.
  • Baklava from Costa’s – wanted to end on a sweet note, so I did.

We started at 11am on the dot and were leaving the Taste at 12:05. 🙂

Photos from Chicago (so far)

Wound up sending these photos from my phone via e-mail (a first for me). A little editing with GIMP and then time to post.



Elsa knits
Elsa knits

Elsa is knitting one of my socks. Very neat-o sock at that!
Patty Cake
Patty Cake

Judi’s new little girl, Patty Cake.
Zola Jones Designs
Zola Jones Designs

The storefront of Jason’s store, Zola Jones Designs.
Judi & Jason
Judi & Jason

Judi and Jason in Zola Jones.
Cereal
Cereal

The bar in Glenn’s Diner has a HUGE selection of cereal.
Elsa & Judi
Elsa & Judi

Elsa and Judi in Glenn’s Diner.
American Gothic on Tour
American Gothic on Tour

Has anyone seen the painting American Gothic lately? I think something’s missing from it. (Seen from the bus on the way down Michigan Ave.)


Happy New Year!

Hooray for 2009! Hooray for year 38!

We had a lovely time at Aunt Becky’s tonight ringing in the new year. Originally we were going to have the NYE party at my place (just the folks, judiang, Becky & me), but Becky’s son asked if she’d babysit Braden, the first grader. So Becky suggested having it at her place and inviting her granddaughters along to keep Braden occupied. Taylor (who just turned 12) came for the party – her younger sister opted to party with her mom instead.

So Judi and I brought lots of Chinese food from Tokyo Peking (which took longer than anticipated, so I was over half an hour late to my own party) to start off the festivities. After we snarfed down a goodly portion of food (there’s still LOTS left over – yum!) we cleared the table. Dad & Braden watched some DVDs Braden had brought. Taylor watched Mama Mia for the umpteenth time. And mom, Judi, Becky & I played pinochle. My winning streak finally died, but man, mom got a DOUBLE RUN. That was beautiful. I took a photo. We also played a game of Fluxx, which Becky & Mom disliked. Ah well. Then another game of Pinochle. (Mom & Becky won it as well.)


Mom’s double run!

Since Taylor has just turned 12, we decided that it was time for her to do the same right of passage that all of the Lowry women have done throughout the ages – we taught her how to play Shanghai Rum. Heh. We didn’t get all the way through the game (only completed to a run of five and 2 sets of 3) but I won with Taylor coming second. Not bad for her first time. And yay me!

Dad got the drinks ready for all – sparkling grape juice for the kids & me, brut for the adults. Braden decided he was drunk after drinking two glasses of sparkling grape. Heh. We then toasted the new year at midnight. Woohoo!

Last night & this afternoon, Judi and I saw our last two theatrical movies for 2008 – The Tale of Despereaux and Seven Pounds. Despereaux was lovely – wonderful animation, delightful story. Seven Pounds was hellishly teary. We weren’t expecting that. It was good, but I’ll admit that I’ll be getting a DVD when Despereaux comes out, but not when Seven Pounds does.

Later today, after we sleep, I’ll be watching my parade. I love it that those wonderful people in Pasadena put a parade on for me every year. Love ya, Pasadena!

The Holidays have been GOOD to me

I’ve been busy. Mom noted that I hadn’t updated my LJ since Christmas Eve. So while judiang‘s taking a short nap (to get rid of a suspected MSG headache), I’ll see if I can get caught up on my shenanigans.

Christmas Day: Amy called me at 7:30am to inform me that everyone was sitting around drinking coffee, but nothing else was happening. They would continue to do so until I got there. So I got ready and headed next door. They gave me a cup of hot cocoa (yummy) and when I was done, we went into the living room to open our stockings. Santa really likes us – he brings us stockings even though Amy & I are in our 30s and Rachel will soon be joining us. Heh.

After we examined our stocking goodies (nice things like 1GB flash drives & bath salts & socks were in ’em) we had breakfast. Amy & Dad made eggs & sausage, mom had baked a sour dough coffee cake. Everything was yummy.

It was now time to open presents. I handed out presents one or two at a time to folks and we went in order of youngest to oldest. It took a couple of hours and once again, we won at Christmas. 🙂 I got lots of nice things – Treehouse, Fluxx & Monty Python Fluxx from the girls (all Looney Labs games and mucho fun). Shirts, a nice outfit, Logitech wireless mouse, new barcode reader (my old one went kaput), books, and other things from the parental units. I got the girls a record player that hooks to a computer for ripping albums into MP3s. Mom got a JBL external speaker system for her new iPod Nano (well, new for her – it’s the 2nd gen I gave her for her birthday a few weeks ago). It’s red like her Nano & her Shuffle. 🙂 Dad got some books he’d asked for and some toys which he hadn’t. Heh.

We eventually had Christmas dinner – chicken casserole, green beans, cottage cheese, cranberry sauce (from the can), etc. It was very yummy as usual. Later we had apple pie & ice cream for dessert. (It was a free apple pie from Market Day. I’ve been lucky – this is the second free pie I’ve gotten from ’em. And like the first one, it was wonderful.) Mom, the girls, and I played Monty Python Fluxx and enjoyed ourselves. Rachel won the first game and I won the second. We switched to pinochle with me & Amy as partners. We kicked butt. Twice. Heh.

There was a lovely sunset that day, so I tried to get some photos of it. I haven’t downloaded ’em yet to see how they turned out. If they turned out OK, I’ll post ’em later. We spent the end of the evening planning for the Anderson gathering the following day.

Boxing Day: The plan was that Rachel and I would go to Kroger in the morning to get a few key items. I was called in the morning to say that we needed to head out even earlier than planned. No problemo. I headed next door and daddy made me an Egg McMikey sammich to-go. I took the last of the apple juice with me as my to-go beverage and Rachel drove us to Kroger. We got a number of things required, but not everything. So I recommended the Dollar Tree (which I needed to go to) for some things and Meijer for the rest. The only thing we were unable to find was a “live” centerpiece that was on sale. (Everything else Christmassy was on sale – even at the Dollar Tree.)

We got the house ready & food prepared. In lieu of an expensive “live” centerpiece, I trimmed a few pieces of mom’s holly shrubs to serve as decoration. A few bright red ornaments were added, too. It was minimal, which made it look rather nice. I also had a few things I was preparing for the dinner. I molded my cheeseball onto my tree-shaped plate. Made some Reuben dip. Baked some corndog minis.

When 2pm arrived, we all sat in the living room awaiting family. And they began to pop in. Surprisingly, Uncle Doug was first. Eventually, all of the Andersons were present – for the first time in years. Even my second cousin Eric and his boy (Little Eric) came. Yay! It was lovely to see everyone. Food was consumed, presents were exchanged, Apples to Apples was played. We had a nice day.

Folks were gone by 6:30, which is when we all collapsed. Heh. We cleaned up the place and vegged for the rest of the evening. Mom & I discovered that the frozen fruit dish she made was very tasty when mixed with vodka and Sprite.

Saturday: We shopped on Saturday. After a lunch of leftovers, we headed to Piqua for the mall. There were some exchanges made and new things purchased. I got a couple of small cutting sheets (about the size of a half sheet of paper and nearly as thin) and some silicone egg poachers. We did a booze run on the way home, too. Needed more gin, apparently. Heh.

Sunday: Our main task was to play pinochle and get mom’s card quota back up. (Amy & I still won. Then later, Rachel & I won.) We also played a couple of rounds of Treehouse. That evening, we reconvened at my house for “dinner & a movie.” Although I had originally planned to cook something, that would have required me going somewhere, which precluded playing cards. So we wound up ordering pizza from the local. We started off by watching Amy’s photos from Guatemala. Our first attempt at hooking her laptop up to my TV didn’t work, but putting the photos on CD and playing ’em in my DVD player did work. They looked gorgeous on my TV. Our movie for the evening was Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Monday: Our last day with the girls. *sniff* We went to Tipp City for a day of shopping & eating. Actually, we started out by eating. We went to Harrisons, a nice restaurant in Tipp. I had their French onion soup and their chicken salad sandwich on sourdough. I also had an amaretto sour. Tasty tasty. We then visited nearly all of the antique stores in Tipp looking for a broach for Rachel’s new purse. (Long story – maybe I’ll tell it some day.) We wound up with 3 good choices for it. Mom bought one of ’em, while Rachel bought the others.

Monday evening was a time of card playing (mom & I won) and the girls’ packing. We finished up the day by sitting around and watching the Rachel Maddow show. Heh.

Today: This morning, I set my alarm to get next door before 7:30am. The girls wanted to get off by 8am – they did pretty well & were on the road by 8:15am. I then spent time straightening up my house since my brain has been AWOL and I had confused the 30th with Wednesday. I thought Judi was arriving Wednesday, the 30th. Well, the 30th – but that’s Tuesday. Heh. And then my brain went even more AWOL while I explained to the folks that I was head out around 1:30 to pick up Judi, whose flight gets in at 12:58pm. *sigh* Thankfully they corrected me.

In further brain-fartness, I got confused at the airport and went in the wrong lane, thus missing out on parking. I went through the gauntlet again and parked. Judi managed to find me, somehow. And thankfully her luggage arrived as well. (Yay- she’s moving again!) We headed to the Bookery so we could get our DWMs and then to Jeet India for our Indian Fud. Yum. On the way home, I stopped at Kroger for a few essentials. A call to the folks got a few essentials for them as well. I wound up calling Judi, who was resting in the car, because I’d left my bags in the car & wondered if she’d bring some to me. She did. Yay!

We’ve got no real concrete plans for the rest of today. We might go see a movie. We might stay in. Tomorrow we head to Aunt Becky’s for cards & Chinese Fud. *slaps forehead* I forgot to see what sort of sparkling wine dad wanted for the toast tomorrow night. Well, either tonight or tomorrow, Judi and I will be oot & aboot again, so we could get some then. Hooray for the Holidays!

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!