zoo

yesterday we went to the Brookfield Zoo, in honor of Loopy's birthday, which is tomorrow. it was really wonderful, both because it's an amazing zoo and because we had a lot of fun together. it's possible that ice cream was also consumed, but i refuse to verify that rumor.

pix are on flickr.


we have been through a lot lately - a LOT - and it was really great to get some good time together and just enjoy each other's company in a way we haven't in a long time. really, really great. i love my wifey so, so much... n i have the impression that she loves me too. maybe. a lil bit anyway. ;)

summer usually brings us closer because we have more time together, although i'm usually a little crazy so that's no fun, especially since in recent years i'm looking for and/or preparing for a new job. maybe this summer i can be less crazy. what with the new meds and all. i'll work on that.

wifey may rightly reserve judgment, though, until i can prove that i can balance work life and home life better next year. fingers crossed... and this summer i'll try to practice the things that will help me do that effectively... (well first i'll try to figure out what those are. that's what therapy is for.)

so yeah. at this time of year i start to say "fuck it" to my job, and my students say the same, so we are all quarrelsome for the duration, tho we all also feel we can endure anything for the remaining weeks.

their progress reports come out this week and in past quarters, i would have spent the pre-progress-report weekend freaking out completely, desperately trying to grade everything and enter it in the online gradebook, miserable over anything i couldn't grade. probably crying.

this weekend, instead, i went to the zoo; went to meditation; napped a lot (some of it during meditation ;) ); went to Target and Costco (where we picked up our favorite gigantic chocolate cake for Loopy's birthday—promising each other that we will only eat a few pieces before i take it to work, instead of eating it every day for two weeks, like last time (did I mention that it's a gigantic cake?)); watched episodes of "House" and "The Tudors"...

....and....

...i'm just gonna override their grades and give them what grades i think they deserve. hee hee. as long as they're all B's and C's (and a few A's) nobody will complain.

so thank you wifey for a great weekend, and for everything, everything, everything.

money & value: some observations

(no, not 'values,' just 'value')

Now that I have only $10 spending money a week, and "one of each" is usually not an option, I am figuring out what's really important to me. In terms of consumer goods anyway.

1. Ice cream. Bad ice cream is beyond unsatisfying... it's really depressing. To me anyway. It makes me want to cry.
2. Soap. Good soap is just so worth it... both for the smell and the feel, during and after the washing experience. It makes a shower feel that much more like an act of loving self-care. Fortunately, there are good soaps that aren't THAT much more expensive than shit soap.
3. Alcohol. I don't drink that often, but when I do, I want it to be good. Gooooooood.

Some more things I've figured out:
1. Cheap chocolate is more palatable when cut with a lot of other stuff. Peanut butter, peanuts, caramel, etc.
2. Cheap lotion smells less like motor oil when heavily scented.
3. It's kind of amazing how often a coupon still doesn't make an item cheaper than the store brand.

the new economy, chez nous

During the boom years, the Loopy-Loopy household was "cheating" a little... no, not that kind of cheating. :) Financial cheating.

See, I was always taught that you're not supposed to sell anything that qualifies as capital—you're supposed to hoard capital and use the income that it generates. That's how you become a robber baron like my great-grandfather.

So, our investments were growing so fast that we could cheat... we would gradually sell off a small percentage of capital and use that for our living expenses, without stopping the overall growth of our total assets. Hence the extravagance for which we were known in years past.

Since the crash, our capital has shrunk like a certain feature of a gentleman who has stepped into frigid water. It's scary how small it is. So we suddenly have to live solely on income. We thought we might have to sell our house because we can't make the mortgage, but we made up a budget and we can just squeak by if we stick to the budget.

Suddenly, I'm living like a regular person.

Now, being a pessimistic apocalyptic sort, I had always anticipated this - actually, as friends can attest, I anticipate having to struggle for survival amid the blowing dust and massive ruins of post-civilization. So it's not a shock. But it is an adjustment.

Herewith a brief rundown of some of the adjustments...

Situation	Before	After
change of seasons; dogs shedding	call groomer; drop of scraggy dogs; pick up gorgeous dogs	lift dog onto table; hold violently struggling, howling dog while brushing; week of horrendous back pain. repeat.
horrendous back pain	acupuncture	hot baths, tiger balm... and who knew those things could really be used as massagers?
vet calls; dog needs blood test	"when can we come in?"	"Is it really necessary? We can't really afford that right now."
dog needs pills	"Ooh, lookit these cute lil pill pockets... eight bucks a bag but let's try 'em."	"Honey, don't use a whole slice of [generic pseudo-Velveeta] cheese, that's a waste - you only need a half slice."
Hungry	"I can't believe we've lived here over a year and never been to Topolobampo!"	"Guess what Lovey! I found a 2-for-1 coupon for Burger King in the Sunday paper! We can go out to eat!"
adorable tschotschke	"I don't really need it but it's so perfect I have to have it!"	"Pfft, that would take 4 weeks of my $10 entertainment budget, no way is that worth it!"
vacations	"I miss Japan. Do you want to go to Japan this summer, honey?"	"We can't afford to go to my sister's for Thanksgiving." "That's ok, we'll just stay home and have a lot of hot baths. It'll be relaxing."
shopping	Whole Foods	Costco
snackies	"Look, I found this new fair trade organic chocolate, flavored with lavender tips and the heart of the seed of the passion flower!"	Giant bag of Hershey's minis from Costco.
get your 5 daily servings of fruits and vegetables!	Frozen vegetables - steam in the bag, with sauce, and/or organic - 24 to 40 cents an ounce	Frozen vegetables - grown in a toxic waste dump by oppressed migrant laborers* - only 9 cents an ounce! ("Do we have a coupon for any of them?")
dry skin	Nature's Gate organic herbal skin therapy (hey, it was the cheapest of the organic ones!)	Vaseline intensive care "moisture locking" lotion. It even smells like motor oil, but it's only 5 cents an ounce when you buy the economy bottle.

*tip of the nib - er, keyboard? - to Alison Bechdel for this phrase

OK, so it's not as funny or dramatic as it was in my head. It's an adjustment, is all.... and for those of you who have always lived this way, please forgive me. I don't mean to rub anyone's face in anything. Just sharing my perspective.

two funny mistakes

1. This afternoon a child brought me a piece of cake from another teacher. I was screaming at my students as usual and they were tearing the room apart as usual. In the middle of this I thought...I'm just gonna eat this damn cake. So I did. Unfortunately the principal happened by at that moment and thought she saw Nero fiddling while Rome burned (tho really, "Rome" is already in ruins and Nero might as well be Bobo (the clown)... So I got chewed out but didn't cry... The whole thing was really quite funny and while I was getting chewed out the two vice principals were trying not to laugh.
2. After all that I got out to Loopy's car, which I've been borrowing lately cuz I wrecked my own, and saw that I'd forgotten to remove the magnetic bumper sticker that reads, "if you're gonna ride my ass at least pull my hair." sigh.

possibly the best...

1. Possibly the best blog post ever (no offense to all the other blog posts I've read in my lifetime): this recent post on Franklin's blog. Seriously. Go read it.

2. Possibly the best lasagna ever (no offense to all the other lasagnas I've eaten... well, okay, some offense to some of them): Angela's fan-TAS-tic veggie lasagna that she brought over today. Oh. My. God. It was delicious. We ate a third of it for dinner. And by "we" I mean me & Loopy. And by "a third" I am talking about the usual size of lasagna pan.

Angela and Franklin, thank you for doing your share to make life worth living.

serious backlog

Lots to report on........way behind.

Let's see.

my birthday

(...which was what, almost six weeks ago now...(rolling my eyes)...)

...was wonderful.

I took the bus down to Chicago and Loopy had a surprise for me... dinner at a hipster sushi place... fun & yummy...if a little too hip, or did I mention that.

Then we returned to the apartment where I found... a kitchen table full of presents! Yay! Lots of lovely smelly things from LUSH and all sorts of other items I had wanted, only better than I had imagined. Perfect.

Then the next day, my actual birthday, we went to the DuSable Museum of African American History—we had wanted to go for some time & my bday seemed a good occasion.

There was a decent section on Africa, where I learned quite a bit; the rest was full of all kinds of interesting things, but somewhat inconsistently labeled and curated (looks like it lacks money, surprise surprise).

The most thorough and clearly-labeled section was a good-sized room devoted to Ms. Annie Turnbo Malone (1869-1957), an early-twentieth-century entrepreneur who created a multi-million-dollar corporate empire selling beauty products. That was interesting (I especially enjoyed the 1920's advertisements, with their engraved illustrations of "Famous Black Beauties of History," including the Queen of Sheba and Casseopaeia), and it certainly epitomized its time period beautifully.

And yet...I couldn't help wishing that there had been as much attention given to the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam, for example—there was only about five feet of wall space for both of them together, and they were tucked way back in a corner.

It was kind of a disappointment, because Chicago is so important in Black history—it should have a really top-drawer museum thereof.

Well, it looks like they're working on it all the time, so maybe it will get there. All in all it was a fun expotition (nother nod to Pooh) and I am glad to have seen it... I picked up a couple of posters and a CD—happy birthday to me, and contribution (a small one!) to the museum.

After lunch we went to the aquarium, which I'm going to talk about more under Amy's visit so I won't now.

And for dinner, to Salpicón! where we thoroughly enjoyed the chef's seven-course tasting menu (still can't get over the price—absolutely fantastic, delicious, fashionable cuisine—yet, seven courses for sixty dollars! Toto, I don't think we're in New York City anymore!) and some lovely wine as well. It was a perfect evening.

Patty & Fred visit

The next day we met up with Rebekah's sister and brother-in-law to wander around a massive RV Show (where Fred had to go on business). That was really a hoot.

We went into all these different RV's—who knew there was such a variety of options and prices? Everything from the tiny little pop-up trailer....to the luxurious cruiser with a roof deck with built-in grill & mini-bar. Un-&#$%ing-believable. And some of them even got decent gas mileage! (Not the one with the roof deck, though). I always love all the little space-saving things that pop out of the wall and so on.

Finished it up with a massive dinner (which in turn was finished up with a slice of carrot cake bigger than my head!) and back to their hotel room to watch a pay-per-view movie...

I accidentally ordered a movie while trying to see a preview, so we watched Yours, Mine & Ours, which, lucky for us, was actually quite enjoyable. ("That's your best screw-up this year," Patty told me after it was over... uh... yeah... thanks sis).

The next day we went to the Water Tower Mall in the morning, where Patty bought me two blouses from J.Jill (yay! thanks Patty!); then we hit my favorite Italian place, Papa Milano's, for lunch. Patty & I split the lasagna-the-size-of-a-cinderblock, which, turns out, was just perfect.

Then I hitched a ride with E, Loopy's roommate, back to Madison for a meeting I had to attend on Sunday...

...and thus endethed the best birthday week ever. Seriously. The absolute best. Heartfelt gratitude to Loopy (and the outlaws) for making it so.

*sigh* I was gonna post about Amy's visit, and about how we met my little cousin-once-removed and his mom for the first time... but Amy's visit has a buncha pictures to go with it, and it's already ten pm so I should really go to bed.

BUT...

some good news

Sunday night I finished all the major work for my most important and most incomplete class—when it ended in Dec. 2004, I had done NONE of the work. And now I've done it all except for this piddly little 1-page report thing. Yay for me!

That felt like the biggest obstacle, although more remain. It is a huge load off my, uh, load. Whew.

It was painful (literally, because I tied myself in knots with anxiety) and I had to talk to my therapist three times in the final 24 hours. (Hopefully that will not continue, both because it's totally insane and because who wants to pay for it? Yeesh.)

But. Yeah. A little bit of progress, a little bit of sunshine, a little crack in the cloudy gloom.

A little.

I was supposed to work more today and I didn't. And now I'm depressed, because when I'm supposed to work and I don't, I get depressed. I'll try to just go to sleep and get up and work tomorrow. Yeah. That's the ticket.

Oh and another little piece of happy: Saturday I had a blast taking a wonderful photography class from my (our) dear friend Miri. If you so desire you can read all about it and see the strange photos on my Flickr site...

Th-th-th-th-that's not all, folks, but it's all I have energy for tonight.

hip pappy bithuthday to meeee! (part 1)

(somebody please tell me you recognize that quote...)

Well, my actual "bithuthday" is not til Thursday, but my favorite way to celebrate is all week long, so...

Friday

It all started unofficially on Friday, with Chinese food & a movie with our friends Betsy and David. I love them. They are the funniest people ever in the history of the universe. (I say "unofficially" because I was the only person who knew I was already celebrating my birthday. But I was.)

That was the night it got so hideously cold—according to this page, the temperature dropped from ten to zero while we were at dinner, and dropped again from zero to minus ten while we were in the movie theater.

So when we were walking to the door of the theater discussing the movie, the conversation went like this: "And I loved the part where—(door opens into arctic blast)—hoooo!" "Yow!" "Holy shit!" "OK bye see ya soon!" "Bye thanks it was fun!" and we all took off running toward our cars. (If you don't believe Loopy was running, you weren't outside Friday night).

What did we see? "Walk The Line," again, of course. I'd see it again—seriously—I really like that movie. One note, though: recent evidence suggests that Johnny Cash was the all-time king of the earworm. I won't prove it to you, and for that, you should thank me.

Saturday

Saturday was wonderful. Best birthday in a long time and it wasn't even my birthday yet.

First, Loopy stole my phone.

She was gonna get me a Blackberry, but she chickened out because it's so expensive (I'm kinda glad because I'm not sure about it—I might get a Trio instead. I dunno).

But it was such a sweet and thoughtful plan and she was so cute (she wrapped up my phone with all the Blackberry brochures!), and she was so adorably excited about it all ("I dreamed this up months ago and I've been scheming ever since!"), that I totally forgave her for the part where I was standing in the icy 3-degree wind calling her from a pay phone.

Then, I picked Loopy up from her office per her request.

I had been out on the east side and almost went to Maharaja (our favorite Indian restaurant) for lunch, but didn't have time, so when I picked Loopy up I suggested we go there for dinner. She appeared to consider this for a moment, and agreed somewhat reluctantly, it seemed to me.

When we arrived at Maharaja, I saw that jab, her friend B, Ang, and Shamus were there—coincidence, I thought, until I saw Loopy's happy face and the big pile of presents!

It was a surprise party! (I love those!) And I had conveniently picked the restaurant where it was!

I didn't suspect a thing, not for a second! (Although once I knew, all kinds of little weird moments suddenly made sense....I started up the inevitable refrain of "So when you said this...and when you said that..." with Loopy; "I've been lying for days!" she crowed gleefully.

I resisted the temptation to pull a Sally Field and pounced on my loot:

• a purple lava lamp for my car dashboard (ya think it'll stand up to Wisconsin temperatures??)
  
• a set of rose-scented soap (I love rose-scented anything, just ask anyone who knew me in college)
  
• a classical guitar CD which I'm enjoying right now
  
• a Putumayo world music sampler, and
  
• a subscription to Radical Teacher (which turned into a subscription to the magazine of my choice since I already get RT). Do these guys know me or what?

I then polished off an entire masala dosa, during which I attained a state of cosmic bliss.

The Maharaja guys know us (Shamus is concerned that they know too much about us, like our names and birthdays, but since we've been going there for birthdays for three years it's not too terribly surprising) and they do little extra things for us. So I'm convinced they made the dosa especially good somehow—it really did seem even better than usual, and when I said as much to the waiter, he said, "of course, it's your birthday!"

If you doubt that, get this: they improvised a birthday-cake-like dessert by piling a bunch of Indian desserts on a plate and sticking a candle in the middle (Shamus and Ang both took pictures—send me one and I'll put it up here). Two scoops of mango ice cream topped by maraschino cherries, looking exactly like breasts, were the centerpiece of this concoction; they were surrounded by literally piles of kulfi and gulub jamun. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Monday

So let's see...birthday week continued Monday night when Miri treated me to dinner at The Weary Traveler, which I love and Loopy doesn't—those are the best places to go when your wife is out of town.

We had a great conversation as always, and I luxuriated in (not literally) a big ol' bowl of my favorite vegan chili (with added steak tips & thick-sliced bacon, to make it un-vegan) and two big hunks of cornbread (one extra cuz I asked nicely). This satisfying repast helped me sleep through meditation.

Today

As if all this weren't already more than anyone deserves, my intermittently long-lost cousin called me up out of the blue to wish me a happy bday, and my dear (and never-lost) college roommate Amerina sent me some nifty things.

One of dear Amy's gifts, while perfect and delightful, is impossible to describe (see it here). The other is also delightful but easier to describe: "chicks rule" bath soap—smells wonderful. These goodies were wrapped in Edward Gorey paper, of course, and accompanied by a card wishing me a better year ahead... you can say that again...thank you dearie!!

Tomorrow I head down to Chicago by bus, then Thursday (the actual birthday) Loopy and I have a Loopy-Loopy fun day (location and activity TBD, suggestions welcome) before dining at my (current) favorite Chicago restaurant—this time we're gonna have the prix fixe, I can't wait!!!

I might tell you all about it or I might not. I've certainly babbled on long enough in this post.

And that's all I have to say, so far, about what is turning out to be a really wonderful birthday week.

I cooked

and I'm very proud of myself.

I made fettuccine with plum-shiso sauce and seaweed topping. Okay, it came out of a packet (at left), but I did have to boil the water.

One depressing difficulty: figuring out how much pasta to make for one person. If Loopy ever left me this is the sort of thing that would really put me over the edge. I have never in my life cooked for one person—only microwaved frozen things for one person.

Maybe I should look at it as a brave new frontier in adult independence.

Another amusing aspect: the vast gulf between my definition of "pasta for one" and the definition of the Japanese company that packaged up the plum-shiso sauce. To be more specific, it didn't come out of a packet, it came out of two packets, and I should have made twice as much—I'm still hungry.

So in Japan, my "one-person serving" would feed a family of four.

. . .

"Hey Birdfarm, what did you do today?"

"Well, let's see—I screwed around on the computer, then I cooked dinner, then I blogged about cooking dinner."

Yeah, I definitely need to get out more.

city mouse, country mouse

Been LOL for the last half hour over this blog: Overheard in New York.

A few delicious samples:

Guy #1: Hey man, do you want these chips?
Urchin boy: No.
Guy #2: I guess beggars can be choosers.

--23rd & 6th


Guy #1: You know if you went back in time and saw yourself the world would explode and collapse.
Guy #2: No way, man. Didn't you ever see Back to the Future?
Guy #1: What? That's not real!

--27th & 7th


Girl: I am dating two different guys with kids and no one will take me to see Harry Potter. Now that's fucked up.

--Eatery, 9th Avenue

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Although I will always love New York—and will be there in four days to love it up some more, yippee!—I am also really enjoying getting to know Chicago a little.

Earlier this week we were there for three days and it was really pleasant. It's like New York in some good ways, but mellower.

The new apartment is just a couple blocks south from primo shopping on Armitage. I went a little nuts on Monday, spending like two hours in Art Effect (got Loopy a crazy sparkly pink wreath - see right - since I haven't yet found the perfect aluminum tabletop tree - yes, that's right, we're moving away from the mess & fuss of an all-natural tree, toward the delicious hideousness of the white trash christmas).

I also hit , which for those unfamiliar, is one of those trendy new chocolate places with weird flavors—like truffles flavored with red stripe beer or wasabi or curry or whatever. What can I say, I love that shit. And of course
I went by and picked up some bath ballistics for the apartment.

But it's not just the shopping. It's not even the eating—tho we did have some good food, at a great sushi place and a pub-ish sort of place, and this awesome place called Chicago Bagel Authority, where they steam your bagel sandwich and it is so good (check out the incredibly extensive menu here).



All those things are great, but more than that, it's just nice to be back in a city.

---

I was talking with some friends the other day, trying to pin down what excatly is it that is so annoying/frustrating/infuriating about Madison (not a city).

We decided that it's not just that it is so overwhelmingly white...it's that among the white people in Madison there is this incredible cultural homogeneity. It's like, not only are they all the same, but they don't really get that there are actually other ways of looking at the world.

City people can be intolerant, but they at least know that there are other perspectives that they are refusing to tolerate.

In Madison it's like, people's heads explode if they discover that you don't see everything exactly the way they do. They can't even conceive of a different worldview.

I mean, they can imagine that you might be pro-Bush or anti-Bush, pro-war or anti-war, but they assume you basically see the world the same way, you just have different opinions about it.

---

I also love being able to walk everywhere (even though Loopy accidentally sent me on a route right through Cabrini-Green on my way to State St.)(It was totally fine—as I learned a long time ago, just because a place has a reputation for being "dangerous" doesn't mean there are guns blazing continuously, and anyway it was too friggin' cold (8°F) for anybody to be out looking for trouble—but it still makes a good story). It seems really liberating to be able to walk to things, which is funny considering that cars are generally thought of as liberating.

---

On the other hand...

It is also really nice to be here, surrounded by quiet, snowy woods, with sweet-smelling air and a little flock of dark-eyed juncos in the bare lilac branches, fluffed up adorably against the cold. It's snowing again today, all day—dull skies and white world. I think briefly of Sylvia singing "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening" to the tune of Greensleeves as I watch the white flakes swirling amid the dark tree branches.

I have a feeling I'm going to love the ridiculously extravagant lifestyle of actually having a place in the city but still living in the country. This goes against everything I believe in—I'll be using up petroleum & producing greenhouse gasses traveling back & forth, not to mention using more than my fair share of housing when so many people are homeless. What the hell kind of socialist am I?

*sigh*

---

In other news, today I rewrote the Wikipedia article about Cabrini-Green, removing the ridiculously breathless sensationalism with its undertones of racism, deleting the ridiculously outdated pseudo-sociological assertions ("poverty passes from one generation to the next"), distinguishing between reputation and reality, and inserting paragraphs about residents' activism and demands during the demolition process. So that's what kind of socialist I am today... a deleter, distinguisher, and inserter.

And enjoyer of little flocks of dark-eyed juncos in the bare lilac branches.

chicago part 4: dinner at Salpicón!

I never finish what I start, including here on my blog, so I'm just gonna finish this one little thing, the Chicago travelog—even though it's now almost two weeks ago and I've been to Detroit & back in between!

So here are some pix of our incredible dinner at Salpicón in Chicago. It was one of the best I've ever eaten. And I been around the block a couple times, as you know.

First, appetizers...I think we took pix of all the appetizers, but Shamus's is the only one that actually looks appetizing in the photo. So, pictured at left you see ostiones con chipotle - which according to the website is "fresh Blue Point oysters topped with spinach and Chihuahua cheese; sauced with a chipotle cream and baked."

These were possibly the best oysters I ever tasted. Like Oysters Rockefeller but better—the cheese didn't overwhelm the luscious oyster flavor.

---

Next, "platos fuertes" (I hadn't heard this term before but I like it... strong dishes!) Clockwise from upper left, again, menu descriptions from the website:

Mixiote de Borrego* - marinated lamb shank in a classic Oaxacan red mole; served with frijoles charros [ = pinto beans, bacon and rajas - a side dish - not in picture]

Pato en Salsa de Frambueza* - Grimaud Farms Muscovy duck breast grilled rare and duck leg confit served in a chipotle-raspberry sauce with butternut squash purée, diced chayote, beets and spicy walnuts

Pescado al Carbón - Fresh fillet of seasonal fish [tilapia], charcoal-grilled and served with salsa fresca (fresh tomatoes, onions, cilantro and serrano chiles); white rice [in a little pyramid!]

Chiles Doña Queta - two chiles - one poblano chile stuffed with huitlacoche (earthy corn mushrooms), fresh corn and zucchini, served in a roasted poblano cream sauce; and one ancho chile filled with potatoes, Chihuahua and cotija cheese with a sweet-spiced roasted tomato sauce [huitlacoche = an odd-looking fungus that grows on corn—sounds strange, tastes divine].

*these two were specials

I had the duck. I was ecstatic.

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Finally, the desserts.

Or, Finally! The desserts!

I couldn't find descriptions on the website, so I'll just improvise.

On the left: pineapple three ways (cake, ice cream, and cookie); berry cobbler with some kind of ice cream; and fruit crepe with goat milk caramel sauce.

On the right: you can see two desserts whose luscious centers required a "before and after" photo set. There's a chocolate thingy (I think there was espresso involved somehow as well) and a tres leches cake with some kind of scrumptious sauce. (Aren't the website descriptions better? Sorry)

The more astute and mathematically inclined among you will have noticed that there are five desserts. We told the server that the fifth one was "for Elijah."

Sometime during the dessert course I actually entered Nirvana. Seriously.

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Chicago postscript: !

While Shamus & I were at the concert, Loopy & Ang went shopping. This is the kind of thing that makes for a perfect trip—everybody gets to do what they want and nobody ends up feeling like they missed out or got dragged along.

On top of that, I scored bigtime because lovely Loopy got me all my favorite things—and then some! Apparently, now has a counter in, um, Marshall Fields is it? Anyway, here is my LOOT:

In the center is the Fairy Jasmine fairy, and left to right around her, Youkihi (already used that one! yummy!!), Blue Skies & Fluffy White Clouds, Butterball, Avobath, Waving Not Drowning, and Sex Bomb.

Get yer own stuff here!

chicago part 1: dim sum

I made "before & after" pix:


On the left is the tabula rasa...or tabulae rasae (???) since both the table and the record of our food (the first word I thought of was "scorecard," ha ha) are blank and clean.

On the right, you see the table and, uh, scorecard—twenty-three dishes later.

Yes, twenty-three.

They're small dishes.

Here are seventeen of them (click for larger image).



And here are Ang & Shamus enjoying them.



Jessica, Franklin, and Chris, we missed you. And if you wish, we will go here again next time. We promise.

"As god is my witness, I will never be hungry again!"

'Ugh, I'm sooo full I think I'm gonna yark!" ((= Ang-speak for "puke"). Yup, another day of stuffing our faces has come to a satiated conclusion. "Loopy, gimme a big kiss" "okay but don't press on my tummy!" The title of this post comes from a moment earlier this evening when, over our six-course "tasting menu" (prix fixe) dinner, one of us said, "god, I don't think I'm ever going to be hungry again," and the other two replied almost in unison with that quote from Scarlett O. Personally I believe I attained Nirvana during dessert, which was orange-flavored flan, goat cheese & pear tartlet, AND mexican hot chocolate ("Note to self," Loopy commented, "three desserts are better than one.")

Lunch was faboo dim sum (the kind that comes around on carts and you point to what you want) at a place called "Yank Sing" (while trying to remember the name Ang called it "something like 'Gringo,' only not that"). (I hafta say I think the name is perfect revenge for places with names like "Chinky Chonky"--which is in London, I kid you not)(Although it turns out that "Yank Sing" is actually a real place name of a city in China).

Tto pass the time in the afternoon while waiting to be hungry again, we went to the Asian Art Museum and made fun of the art as well as our fellow patrons.

the urgency with which I am desperately trying to avoid thinking about my fall student teaching (for which I'm woefully unprepared--aaaaaak!!!!), together with Ang's anxiety about her prelim (apparently she's the onliest person who hasn't heard her results yet!! yiks!), are the only sour notes. And we just won't think about that, wil we? More braised squab, anyone?