Cookie

I picked up a few boxes of Thin Mints, it being Girl Scout Cookie season and all. Popped'em in the freezer, for maximum deliciousness. Lordy, they are good. Overpriced and undersupplied (there used to be far more of said cookies in a box), but damned good.

I had the boys most of the weekend, as Exene was doing one of her umpteen races, and wanted to be able to party afterward, apparently. I'd rather have that much more quality time with the boys, although with the weather realizing it was March again, dropping us back to typically chilly temperatures, we didn't do anything summery this weekend.

I did set up things for the summer trip I'm taking the boys on; we're going to Yellowstone. Road trip! They are totally excited for it -- B1 in particular, since he loves anything with volcanoes. He's been looking forward to this for some time. B2 will enjoy it just on general principles; he is keen for me to get a van as our wheels of choice, and was suggesting stuff we could/should bring. He'll likely love the scenery and what-not, and any wildlife we might see. I'm bringing my camera and plenty of rechargeable batteries, as there'll be plenty to see.

Weekender

I've had the boys since Wednesday, and they are doing fine, having fun, of course. They haven't once asked "Where's Mommy?" I'm sure they'll be glad to see her when she finally returns (maybe tonight; I asked her, but she wasn't clear on it). But, as ever, I'm keeping everything rolling.

Did I mention that stores over here are starting to sell Graeter's Ice Cream? Wow! I stumbled onto that the other day, couldn't believe it. Of course, it's expensive: $5.49 a pint at Treasure Island (I have to see if they have it at Dominick's). But their Coconut Chocolate Chip and other flavors are fab.

Seeing Graeter's (and things like Great Lakes Brewing Company beers, among others) reinforces just how many Ohioans have fled Ohio for greener pastures. Under the withered hand of a Republican-dominated state government for the last 15+ years, pursuing Republican economic policies, the state has hemorrhaged jobs and population. I'm hoping that enough people are sick of that bullshit to try to turn things around for Ohio, but we'll see. As someone who grew up in Youngstown, I think Youngstowners saw that kind of stuff early -- that is, it appears that the rest of the state is catching up with where Youngstown was decades ago. And, by extension, what Ohio has been experiencing for decades is what the reset of the country has begun to experience from about the point of the housing market crash, onward.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-03-09-ohio-census_N.htm

Anyway, the result of this ongoing economic death spiral is that there is an Ohioan "expatriate/refugee" community in Chicago, to the extent that bars give themselves over to Buckeyes fans during the season, and you see a lot of Buckeyes jerseys and Browns jerseys peppered around. Of course, plenty of Miami of Ohio bumper stickers and so forth. There is a bar, too, I think it's called "Reds" or something, that is tailor-made for Reds fans (big shock, right) with Cincy fare at it. Ohio's loss has been Chicago's gain, to be sure (although it looks like Columbus has also benefited from the losses of the other cities in Ohio). It's just weird for me, since I was an early emigrant (1993), when almost nobody from Ohio was in Chicago. Now, they are all over the place.

Splashy

Wow, it's getting kinda yucky tonight. I saw this weather bulletin, too...

Lakeshore Flood Warning issued October 18 at 1:58PM CDT expiring October 18 at 10:00PM CDT by NWS Chicago ...LAKESHORE FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM WEDNESDAY TO 4 PM CDT THURSDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A LAKESHORE FLOOD WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM WEDNESDAY TO 4 PM CDT THURSDAY. * WAVES...WAVES WILL BUILD TO 12 TO 16 FEET WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON...BUILDING FURTHER TO 17 TO 22 FEET WEDNESDAY NIGHT. WAVES WILL GRADUALLY SUBSIDE TO LESS THAN 15 FEET BY LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON. * IMPACTS...LARGE AND BATTERING WAVES WILL RESULT IN FLOODING OF AREAS NEAR THE LAKE...LIKELY WORSE THAN WHAT WAS SEEN WITH THE LATE SEPTEMBER STORM A FEW WEEKS AGO. WAVES COULD RESULT IN FLOODING ALONG THE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE PORTIONS OF LAKE SHORE DRIVE IN CHICAGO.

For sure, after getting creamed by those waves the other week, I'm going to stay the hell off the lakeshore path. Those waves in September were bad, so if this is worse, NFW am I going there. I mean, 17 to 22 foot waves?? Whoa!

I'm making a hodge-podge soup tonight -- using up various components I had around, like a big onion, some oyster mushrooms, fresh baby spinach, spices, and so forth. It's making my place smell so good right now. Must be patient, let it simmer. I love soup in the fall, and I love not wasting food, so soup is win-win!

Yum!

I made a yummy dinner on the fly tonight: I grilled some vidalia onions in a pan with some olive oil,

and while that was cooking, I cooked some rice, and some black beans in some chicken broth. Then I took the onions out of the pan, put some turkey burgers in there, and sauteed them in some more of the chicken broth. Once they were cooked, I put the burgers on a plate, topped them with the onions, had the beans and rice on the side. Heavenly scent, delicious! The broth had the burgers nice and moist, great flavor.

Not fancy, but really delicious! Washed down with a beer, and even better!

Coconuts

These are deadly-good...

Not my hand, btw.

I'm always buying the last couple of boxes before they're sold out. It's always a competition to score those before they're gone, so others realize that they're food of the gods, too.

Nom!

My mushroom risotto came out great! I wolfed it down...

I've got enough left over for days. Obviously, risotto's best on that initial serving, but ah, well; I'm happy to eat it as a leftover. Especially this one, which was just so good.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I baked a key lime pie this morning...

It came out nice, as you can see. It's hard to jazz up a photograph of a key lime pie, so I went in close with it. Those are white chocolate shavings I put on the top of it, which go well with it.

I'm going to make a mushroom risotto this evening, use up some of those oyster and shiitake mushrooms I bought yesterday. Don't worry, I'll take pix of that, too. Baha!

I took the boys out to one of the parks today, so they could get some playtime/outside time in. B2 was pretty feisty today, as he often gets when he's tired -- he wore himself out chasing his big brother, was conking out.

I took advantage of the relative quiet to sort laundry; I still need to clean up the living room, too. Busy busy busy.

Right now I'm watching USA v. Jamaica in the soccer quarterfinals. Fairly sloppy game at the moment.

Saturdave

Blimp over the city today; B1 is loving that. Nice weather today, good stuff. I dropped by the local farmer's market and got some good stuff...

And made a righteous omelet using said components. Nom!

I biked downtown and back. I usually avoid biking along the lake shore on the weekend, because it's pretty busy, but it was mid-morning, so while it was busy, it wasn't crazy-busy. Good to see everybody out and enjoying themselves, and the weather was perfect. I snapped some shots with my camera, although nothing was jumping out at me today, despite the good light.

Hard to believe it's Father's Day tomorrow; my own father died this year. We had a terrible relationship -- my parenting success is based on doing the opposite he did with me, and it's worked out well with my boys.

Sundaze

I'm floored at this screed against pie! How could anybody not like pie?? I have no words. Nathan Heller (the writer) fucking hates pie! I have never seen such vitriol hurled at a pastry before!

Amazing weather today. Just perfect mild summer kinda day. The boys and I had fun in the park, and they got worn out playing soccer (sorta) with each other, and it just got in that pleasant, quiet kind of mid-afternoon groove that was just sweet and rewarding.

Then I biked to Target to get a few things, and was amused at the city, just alive and full of activity, as always. So many people, coexisting peacefully, happily, even. Oh, sure, annoying one another here and there -- a classic Chicago moment (I say this because when I first moved here in '93, from Ohio, this phenomenon struck me) -- the Retributive Honk. Basically, when somebody did something "honkworthy," somebody might honk and then the person(s) would honk back, in retaliation for being honked at. I first saw this when I moved to Chicago, amused by it -- Honk HONK Honk HONK -- like Honk Tag. Anyway, after my Target run, I passed in the middle of a Retributive Honkfest, amused by the chorus of car honks, so as the only biker in the midst of this, I added my own bike bell to the mix, which amused me. It was like a pixie in the midst of blaring elephants. Honk HONK HONK *BING* HONK HONK *BING* Honk

I could afford another car if I wanted one, but the truth is, while it's convenient to have a car in the city, at the same time, it's a big PITA. When you factor in the license fees, the city sticker fees, the neighborhood parking fees, the insurance, the emissions tests, and the fuel costs (to say nothing of wear and tear and associated damage), it's a real pain to actually have a car. You'd have to be a supreme dildo to actually want to have a car in the city. The convenience is offset by all the annoyances.

Anyway, amusing things while riding to and fro, just watching the city do its thing. Myriad cosmopolitan lives, people doing their thing. Love it.

Next?

Today was a sweltering day, although a storm blasted through here and somewhat moderated all the heat and humidity. I didn't do much today beyond grill some mild Italian sausages and doing some chores and trying to keep cool. After my bike follies yesterday, I wanted to just hang about. I did some reading.

I'm thinking I should frag this blog. Or at least mothball it. Giving serious thought to that. The only reason I'd not flat-out axe it is because when you do that to a blog, some cybermarketer scoops up the address and the next thing you know, they're trying to sell you toasters or links to memory foam lounge chairs or whatever, and that's annoying. Anyway, I haven't made my mind up, yet.

Got the boys bathed and fed, of course, so they're all fluffy and cute, loping around in their shorts jammies.

Tomorrow I'll have the boys clean up their room, and will fish out the air conditioner. The building requires having the super install it, which makes sense -- you don't want air conditioners falling from the sky.

My folks may visit in July, which'll be nice; they'll get to see the boys. Beyond that, pretty clear schedule. Work. Bike. Write. Work. Bike. Write. Fucking boring, right?

I'd really like to score tickets to Next, but they sell them in pairs, and I don't want to have to throw down that kind of money and then have to find somebody to go with me (and cadge the $100 from them the ticket would cost). I wish I could pick up a single seat, because I'm really only interested in visiting Next to try the food -- I am a fan of Achatz's cooking; I'm not out to impress a date -- and really, a circus like Next would be way, way too much of an over-the-top kind of experience for a date (and, honestly, I wouldn't want to be distracted -- Epicurean that I am, I honestly would want to be able to focus on the food. The presentation of it, all of that stuff, rather than dividing my attention between the food and a date). Anyway, that puts me off a bit vis-a-vis Next. I want a single ticket. I want to go, I want to see what they do. But, of course, from their vantage point, why sell one ticket when you can sell two? Four? Six? Eight? Part of the problem/conceit with the ticket arrangement of Next is that it forces one to make that kind of decision. See, I like reservations at a restaurant, and I like being able to just pop into a place; but having to buy a ticket seems like a thumb in the eye of the patron. Obviously, a set amount of people coming in and out at a given time and place lets the staff at Next plan a "perfect" dining experience -- no surprises, just a set-piece culinary performance. They know exactly how many people are coming, and can prepare for it, which lets them avoid sweating lots of details that operate in a typical restaurant. And, because of Achatz's reputation, he can count on the demand being high (and, since they completely change the menu/concept every three months, they can basically be "all new" every few months, ensuring steady demand). It irks me. I just want to try the food, and hate that there's basically a firewall between me and that place, or that I have to play games to be able to get through the door. It makes me want to spend my restaurant dollar elsewhere, despite having nothing but admiration for Achatz's work.

June

I'm kind of amazed it's June already. Summer's nigh upon us! I'm very aware of the long days, perhaps more than I've been in a long time.

I am tempted to catch the new Terrence Malick movie, "The Tree of Life." It's a whisker over two hours long, which is always a deterrent for me, where movies are concerned, but his style of movie-making is very singular and would play out very well on the big screen, so I may catch it when it rolls through town. Haven't decided, yet. I thought that with "The Thin Red Line," too -- wanting to see it on the big screen, but punting it, then catching it on DVD, and thinking "This would have really been great to see on the big screen." We'll see where it's showing; it's coming to Chicago tomorrow.

They finally drained those underpasses. I'm grateful for that, although they shouldn't be clogging up to begin with. The city needs to stay on that. The US has been lagging for over 20 years on infrastructure development, shamefully behind our supposed peers in the First World; that takes its toll around the country. Bridges, roads, sewer systems, all of that. It's going to take some major collapse of something critical to likely shake off the ignorant torpor that the Right inflicts on the citizenry for that kind of stuff. Infrastructure matters (and it's one of the few capital investments that can't be offshored -- it actually yields multigenerational benefits here at home).

I keep thinking about scoring myself a ticket to Next, the avant-restaurant of Grant Achatz fame. The theme of it changes every few months, and right now it's Paris, 1906, so I am tempted to go and try it out. I'd probably have to fast before attending such a thing, as they pile on the courses, there, from what I've heard, and it's all very rich. What's kept me back so far is the irritation of having to buy a ticket to go. But what tempts me is that I've had Achatz's cuisine before, way, way back when he worked at Trio, a top-notch restaurant in Evanston, and he is a wizard with food, he truly is. That meal I had at Trio was sublime, so I know that his approach at Next will be as thoroughly awesome. So, I have that to consider, as well. I have to see how long it's still the French cuisine, before it changes, and decide from there.

I'm all thrown off by the Memorial Day Monday; today feels like it should be a Friday, but it's so not! Haha!

Yeah, baby!

I managed to make it home before the storms hit -- always a coup when one bikes to work. Seriously, it's like sailors of old -- you have to mind the weather when you're biking to work and back, and we're due for some big storms, or so they're saying. The city already got pounded the other day -- in fact, when I tried my usual routes, I had to detour, because a number of the underpasses were impassable morasses (hhuhuh -- "morasses") of icky water from overworked storm drains. I tried fording one, but when it got about a foot deep, I turned around, not wanting to get my nice oxfords soaked in city slopwater. Anyway, I zigged and I zagged, and it was alright. I never care if it downpours while I'm on the job; it's the transition points that matter, and so making it always feels good.

Tonight, I'm making a chicken cordon bleu sandwich. NOM!

Exene has the boys for the next couple of nights, so I'm thinking I'll alternately chill and exercise, not necessarily in that order. I'm in a good mood tonight. Woo hoo!

(Sandwich is ready, biting into it. MMMM.) Being able to cook is one of my not-so-secret weapons. The truth is, it's not a gimmick with me; I actually enjoy cooking, and enjoy feeding people. I'm not a fancy or ostentatious cook, but I cool pretty well. Even in the darkest days with me and Exene, I felt a grim kind of satisfaction in being able to cook a good meal with panache -- kind of like "Well, this is HELL, but at least I'm able to function within it."

I bought these great tomatoes at the store the other day -- so good. Makes me jones for a deck so I could grow my own tomato plants. That takes me back to my childhood in Youngstown, because we'd always have tomato plants growing in the garden out back. I loved that. The smell of tomato plants transports me that way. Mmmm. I'm just a sensualist!

I bought these crab rangoons and lobster rangoons at Target, of all places, and they're so good! I love crab rangoons, particularly (especially with some sweet-n-sour sauce). Really, I love anything with crab; I make killer crab cakes (that sounds funny). But anyway, crab rangoons are really good, and, surprisingly, Target's rangoons are damned good. Who knew? I'm the last person in the world to endorse a Target grocery item, but their frozen rangoons are mighty fine.

Well, this is a long enough entry for now, yes?

Butter Maid

I was pleased to see Butter Maid Bakery redid their web page. That's a bakery from my hometown. They're really good. Give'em some business, if you're so inclined. They're really good. Their kolachi is fab, and their cookies are amazing. They're really a local treasure, so I'm always talking them up.

Fat Tuesday!

Happy Pączki Day, people! Fat Tuesday is usually Polishified here in Chicago as Pączki Day, which required an obligatory run to wait in line to snag some yummies...

They're really basically like aggravated doughnuts, but the stuffing on them is particularly good, since they only make them once a year. The powdered sugar ones are the cheese-stuffed ones, which are exceptionally good. B2 ate almost an entire cheese one, which surprised me. There are all sorts -- chocolate custard-filled, custar-filled, plum, apricot, parisian lemon, strawberry, raspberry, apple-cinnamon, and many others.

I don't believe in God, but I do believe in Pączkis. Mmmm hmmm!

45,000 words.

Two Words

"Thin Mints."

That is all.

I bought a cache of five boxes of Thin Mints yesterday. Mmm!

Apricot

Mmmm. I love fresh apricots.

Quick, Dirty, Saucy

I'm making spaghetti tonight, one of my savory sauces, in this case, a marinara with a Southern Italian kick to it. Was just kind of tossing in various ingredients I had on hand, to good effect. I'd post what I did here, but do I really want one of my yummy pasta sauces getting out on the Internet, for just anybody to enjoy? I don't know....

The one thing I'm lamenting is the absence of any Italian bread on hand. I'll have to make do with that I have. But the sauce is good. I'd call this one my Quick and Dirty Sauce -- Spaghetti Che Calci Nel Culo.

Lobby Pizza

Pizza Capri was having a promotional thing in my apartment lobby! Gotta love lobby pizza! Perfect end to a crazy-busy day!

Fallen

I was productive today, got over 3100 words written for the long piece I'm working on (I still have that aversion to calling it a "book" until it's done; right now, it's novella length). Anyway, I was pleased I got that done, although I know I will have to revise the stuff as I'm going through it -- my drafts are very clean, but in terms of plot, I'll definitely need to go back and revise and QC everything and make sure it all sorts out properly, the pacing, all of that. Not the kind of thing I worry about at the first draft stage, but it's still something in the back of my head, as I work on it.

I cleaned up around the apartment; had to be done. The in-laws are nice enough, but where they go, chaos follows. I cleaned up the boys' room, the living room, and the kitchen. Much better.

I'm cooking potato gnocchi tonight, with a tomato-mascarpone cheese sauce, and Brussels sprouts, which I alone apparently enjoy. I really want to get the boys to eat more veggies. That's on my To Do List, without making it a big damned deal. I always loved vegetables; my mom always cooked with a lot of'em, and I had almost no vegetable aversions. I want the boys to have a well-balanced diet, to be good (and varied) eaters.

It still amazes me that B1 is nearly two inches taller now than he was a year ago. He's growing so tall so quickly. He takes after my father and me, definitely.

The boys were cute today -- they really, really didn't want to go with Exene's family. They wanted to stay with me. Both said that. B1 said "Nothing's fun without Daddy!" and B2 had his own version of that, saying he wanted to stay with me. I told them I was going to be writing, and that they'd have fun at Legoland, where the in-laws were taking'em, among other places. But they still really wanted to be with me.

The sun is setting earlier. It's filling the apartment with pumpkin-orange light. Fall is coming. I love Fall. My favorite season. This summer really flew by. It's extraordinary just how quickly 2010 flew by. Man. It's not done, yet, but Fall is fast approaching.

I'm going to go enjoy the evening light.

Bruschetta

Made some more bruschetta. I had fresh basil, but forgot to use it!