Chicago: Knitted socks weather

http://www.i-pets.com/blog/uploaded_images/cat7halloween-716783.jpg
http://www.extremehalloween.com/catcostumebutton.jpg

I think I'm having a hormonal shift of some kind. I got all misty listening to a frickin' podcast on the train. I am less than a man today.

http://www.thecatconnection.com/newsletter/aug03b-cathumor-a_files/2096984_image004.jpg
http://www.petoffice.co.jp/catprin/images/pop_akahana_l.jpg
http://www.petoffice.co.jp/catprin/images/pop_aloha_l.jpg

That last kitty is v dapper and devil-may-care. A real dandy.

Yay. :-D
That kitty should be ANTM.

These poor animals.

For Jesse:

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1452717/2/istockphoto_1452717_redhead_cat_with_pipe.jpg

http://img01.picoodle.com/img/img01/6/10/26/f_CatLaughm_6c2449f.jpg

That kitty should be ANTM.

otm, very editorial

My favorite kostume kat:

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/Pengwine.jpg

Hi guys, what's up?

Morning jess jess. Your paraphernalia killed your thread before it started, sorry to say.

I have been hitting the office coffee every day for a couple weeks, but this morning I splurged for a large house blend from Starbucks, and it's like awakening to a new world, one in which cars can fly and there's no more garbage problem.

that last pic of the white cat is like m. white as a cat. i want a cat i can dress up-- in all our cats over the years, only one genuinely seemed to enjoy being dressed up. it was greybaby, the cat which turned from a male to a female in a very long story.

all those thread changes were probably the most excitement i'll see all day, so thanks for that, guys! (that sounds sarcastic but sadly isn't)

You guys, my amazing costume idea yesterday afternoon was shot to hell because it ended up making me feel claustrophobic. NOOO!!! I have a new plan now, but it's not fully formed.

oh no, sarah!

toby came home with a good idea for us both, and i modified it using jenny's "just put blood on it" idea to make it slightly weird and scary.

My office coffee is pretty decent, since I choose what we brew. But the associate is all gung-ho for Eight-O'Clock Coffee, which makes me sad.

when they poked their head in the sun room, I did some classic sitcom scrambling as I clumsily pushed the pipe behind a flower pot.

On a contemporary sitcom, though, he would see the pipe and you guys would end up high-fiving.

I don't know what you guys are so hung up about; Jesse's pipe is clearly for tobacco use only.

Guthrie's, the board-game bar: highly recommended. Busy but not noisy. Great selection of games (a couple playing Othello at one table, the Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus board game at another), great selection of beer (I had three porters: Guiness, Chambly Noire, Anchor Porter); nice lamps and stuff.

I was at a table directly under the World Series TV set, so everyone was looking right over our table. One guy, maybe 30, looked like he came from business-casual work, looked so content sitting there looking up and watching the game, and then he just closed his eyes and fell asleep at his table, sitting straight up -- not drunk or anything, just fell asleep.

i modified it using jenny's "just put blood on it" idea to make it slightly weird and scary.

I'm going to write a best selling self-help book based on that premise.

all gung-ho for Eight-O'Clock Coffee, which makes me sad

being gung ho for it is sad, but it's better than Folger's, you gotta admit.

I miss Community Coffee. Or any coffee with chicory in it. I haven't had chicory coffee in too long.

Random association: starting off the day with chicory coffee whole attending a firefighting school outside of New Orleans, burning off the night before's Hurricane Hangover (TM).

You went to firefighting school?

OOOh! Maybe I'll introduce some Cafe Du Monde or CC into this bitch! The bonus to their deliciousness being that they're fairly cheap.

You went to firefighting school?

Yeah, it was a weeklong-long shipboard firefighting school, from when I was doing those boat tours. Can't you just see me with a hose and a yellow slicker?

My tea-for-coffee-lovers-who-sadly-can't-drink-caffeine-anymore has chicory in it.

You were doing boat tours?

Kenan, that sounds pretty awesome.

Can you get Community Coffee up here? I guess I haven't looked for it. For years it was a strictly regional thing. Mawmaw Winnie swore by it. (Maman, maybe it should be spelled.)

I think I will make some EIGHT O CLOCKKKKKK COFEE now

I thought everyone already knew I worked on a boat for a while.

Hmmm. I thiiiink you can get CC in Viettown. I know for sure you can get Cafe du Monde.

Ceci n'est pas cafe.

My tea-for-coffee-lovers-who-sadly-can't-drink-caffeine-anymore has chicory in it.

Yeah, that's an awesome idea... I've been cutting my caffeine by mixing in shitty decaf, but mixing in chicory would be sooooo much better.

eazy, that bar sounds pretty awesome. we stupidly and lazily decided to just wander up clark to find somewhere that was quiet and showing the games and would make me a cocktail (so less sportsbar-y). we went into tryst and it was fine for the first hour or so, pretty empty except the people from the salon next door. then an empty schoolbus pulled up, and the door guy carried on 3 cases of crappy beer. then a half hour later the music changed from quiet 90's 'alternative' to loud top 40 reximes, then the bus reappears full of sororowhores. we got the check and sacrificed the last 2 innings because it was just too horrible to bear.

I thought everyone already knew I worked on a boat for a while.

The first time I ever heard of it was when you mentioned it on that "Name three things about yourself: two true, one false" thread.

pretty empty except the people from the salon next door

That's my salon. And Sarah's, I think? (I don't know if you still go there.)

Kenan, what I don't know could fill a truck.

People with Comcast Digital Cable, do we get AMC and if so, what channel? For it is Monsterfest and I wish to participate.

xp - Oh Colette! I know this phenomenon. It has happened recently at Blue Bayou and it happened during Sarah's bachelorette party, when everything was lovely and awesome and then suddenly the music changed and got loud and the douchebag quotient octupled in the space of about ten minutes.

One Wrigleyville bar that I don't mind is the Nisei Lounge, which I think is around that Sheffield/Clark/Newport intersection. But come to think of it, it's been probably five years since I've been there.

xpost I just assume I've told people that a thousand times already, so I don't tell anyone. Yeah, it was a seismic research boat, tooling around in the middle of the Gulf. I was the lowest of the low of the sea crew. Sweep, mop, chip rust, repaint, constant required maintenance, unskilled labor. But it's cool to say I did it, I guess. Makes me sound like I have more wherewithal than I actually do.

Guthrie's had a cocktail menu (while still being homey).

Yeah, all those older bars near the Nesei aren't so bad -- the Underground Lounge, the shamrock one that hasn't changed in a decade.

Kenan, a few nips and tucks and you can turn that into "Yeah, I was on a rig in the Gulf when Katrina hit..."

That's pretty neat, Kenan.

"Yeah, I was on a rig in the Gulf when Katrina hit..."

No. But thunderstorms were a trip. And water spouts are v cool. And having morning coffee on the bow and watching the dolphins cruise alongside the boat, which they did quite a lot. Dolphins are a friendly sort.

but jenny it was literally a schoolbus full of drunken trolls, i do not want to go to that school.

the people from the salon looked cool and friendly and weren't squealing even though they were drinking a lot. unlike some other people.

it was still fun while it lasted, plus $3 stoli drinks, which wasn't bad. for future reference, what are some good stoli drinks? i had something the bartended made up which was citrus stoli, soda and grand marnier which was ok. then cranberry and vanilla stoli which was good for the first half and a bit much for the second. any suggestions?

xps- kenan, how long did you do that? sounds like the kind of thing some crazy stories come out of.

is the underground the place that's on newport just east of clark/sheffield? they had a sign up that said they had jamison's on tap, which confused me.

I went through a vanilla Stoli and Diet Coke phase in the early 00s, but I don't know if that was actually good, or just the result of being a drunk who was always on diets.

I don't know about the Jamison's on tap, and some nights they have noisy bands playing there, but Sunday nights at least are quiet and chill.

Wow, so I just read that, this morning, one U.S. dollar will get you 96 Canadian cents.

Really? I thought we had fallen behind the Canadian dollar recently. So maybe $1USD = $.96 Canadian is an improvement.

That beats my the pants off boat-working story, which still people react very favorably to.

sounds like the kind of thing some crazy stories come out of.

Man, I missed crazy stories by a few years, apparently. Most of the other guys could remember the good old days, before the company cracked down on fun and decided to look respectable. Draining bottles of whiskey in the wheelhouse with the captain, with giant lines of coke set up on the map table. Unsafe boating practices. The most fun I had was reading. A LOT. Oh, and when I couldn't sleep, I'd go hang out in the wheelhouse with this one really cool captain, and he'd tell me long stories about what HE was reading -- he was a really good storyteller, and the stories were by Vitor Hugo and Dostoyevsky. I almost wanted to sit at his feet.

I have never worked on a boat, but my mom and I did live with her charter boat captain boyfriend for about a year in the early 80s. He was an a-hole supreme.

Okay, that explains a lot. But oh for crying out loud...what a pain.

I should admit here that as of last night I've agreed to move into a crazy loft in the heart of Hasidic Williamsburg. Like literally into the middle of the enclave. Madness, madness....

Should I try and make fresh pasta or will it just end in tears?

Mishegas!

I was just looking at the IMDB cast list for Six Feet Under, and I think I just got a major spoiler, based on someone's last name that wasn't their last name in the episode I just watched. :/

God, Jordan. Maybe if you weren't so frickin' FILTHY.

This brings me back to grade school:

PIZZA BOAT

http://www.independencestarlight.com/home_misc_images/concessions/pizza-boat.jpg

awwwwwwwww yeah

Wow, Laurel. That should be interesting.

Nick, you should do it. I've never done it on my own but Maddie does it all the time, and it is delicious. She has a simple pasta maker where you run the sheets of dough through and separate them into noodles, but I guess that's not strictly necessary.

It's hard not to feel a little insulted when someone refuses to eat any of your food or let their food touch anything in your house.

It's even better when they won't touch you at all, and no one looks you in the eye or responds when you talk to them. I can't wait!

I'm going to invent my own pasta shapes, like pastas in the shape of little HANDS.

They are going to be called "creepy hands"

Kr was just talking about making homemade pasta the other day. Do you have a pasta maker, Nick? One of my favorite photos from my childhood is me and my dad making pasta together. I must've been, like, four or five.

Laurel, that would weird me out. I mean, not like I regularly interact with random people on the street in my neighborhood, and in fact I'm a total hermit a lot of the time, but it still doesn't sound like special fun being subtly but constantly reminded that you are Not Chosen. :(

Dude, being Chosen is a total pain in the ass, on purpose. I don't really mind. Plus, Chosen Options for frum women really suck.

I don't have a pasta maker.

I'd much rather catch the eye of kids who are too young to understand that you're untouchable, and get them to smile back. I figure change comes from the young.

Are Hasidim tolerant of goyim living in the middle of their neighborhood, or would they rather you were not there?

Dunno. They'd prob rather there wasn't a 6-storey loft of dirtbag kids next door, always being rowdy and wearing their shorts and Tshirts in public and spilling beer off the roof, but they don't get to make that call.

are you moving into an alternative preschool?

VERY alternative.

I have one thing to say: FIG YOGURT.

is there an online chicago map that includes roads with bike lanes? one that goes all the way up to my neighborhood?

well, i mean i know that any map contains roads with bike lanes, but one that SHOWS them?

http://www.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/bikemap/usemaps/3-N.html

thankee

You're welcome.

http://greekgodsyogurt.com/html/yfig.php

Man! This is how yogurt should taste. I can never go back.

Want.

Fig yogurt sounds kind of gross?

I heard the newest Feist album last night and it sounded way less boring than that other album.

Sounds good. I just bought figs yesterday.

than that other album.

You mean her first one?

yes

(i wasn't sure how many albums there have been, i mean the one where the only tune i really liked was the bee gees cover)

I bought fig yogurt on a whim - it just sounded unusual. It is sooooo creamy, and it contains honey, and the taste of the cloying, heavy, dull taste of figs is offset by the sharp tanginess of the yogurt.

Hmmm. There are some exciting moments on the new album ("I Feel It All," "Sea Lion Woman"), but I think it's texturally more boring than the first: she's abandoned the silky lounge-pop feel that characterized about a third of Let It Die.

xpost The Bee Gees cover being one of those lounge-pop songs.

Which song is the afro-beatish one with the upbeat claps? That's the one that really won me over.

"Sea Lion Woman" maybe? It's a Nina Simone cover.

Chromeo remix of that is pretty nice, too.

Yeah, maybe I will just download that. :>

Hey, so I think Nick was the only one who said he was down for trivia at the Globe Pub tomorrow night. Anyone else? Dan? Lucy?

who is Lucy? the cat?

She lurks here, I think, and has posted occasionally. The last time I mentioned trivia, a month or so ago, she came out of the woodwork to say she was interested.

Jordan, I was wrong. Ghostface Killah is here tomorrow. You still have time.

Oh man, you should totally go.

I'm fixing to make new thread.

I'm gonna name it NEW FUCKING THREAD and put an image of tubgirl in the initial post.

Shouldn't it be a NEW SHITTING THREAD then?

Kid Rock was at the game last night. He was shown on the scoreboard, wearing a Wings jersey. He was roundly booed, but I applauded because he was on Detroit's side. Afterward I felt a little dirty for having clapped for Kid Rock.

I will go to trivia.

Chicago: I posted in your thread, but I did not add to the discourse.

Woot.