Chicago: Become Familiar with its Distinctive Neighborhoods

i am in a day's inn in berea, kentucky. hi!

beans
avocado/lime juice
crema + taco seasoning
diced canned jalapenos
diced tomato
diced black olives
cheese
cilantro

8!

OK, I am now impressed by this ING Bank/Cafe at Wabash and Chestnut, with free internet and free NY Times and magazines for the cost of a cup of coffee. These folks do the library better than the library, other than the books part.

Is anyone doing anything that could include a lonely Christmas orphan like me?

I fell asleep on the train last night and it was awful. Then it got worse when I switched trains and some guy was loudly hacking up sputum and spitting it on the floor the whole ride.

http://www2.b3ta.com/host/creative/46786/1196380143/elepop.gif

fatality

Anyone besides Jennifer at work today?

yep.

So get on here folks. Let's make this the merriest ILXmas Eve ever.

Hi. I have the hangover.

i do have the hangover but i hope to tomorrow.

because if i wake up with a hangover tomorrow i can roll back over and sleep it the fuck off. that's such an awesome fucking feeling.

i have neither work nor hangover, but we're back in chicago which is nice!

And yet despite (because of?) this, I have chose to have sushi for lunch.

And now my mouth is on spicy tuna roll fire. That's what's up in the Thompson Center today!

i need to stop by ye olde liquor shoppe and pick up a bottle of wine for tonight then i'm going to go home and go to back to sleep. i really didn't want to come in today but because there was nobody on the roads or the el the buses and trains were on time and i made it to the loop in about 20 minutes. i was at my desk in just under an hour which is crazy.

I decided as a Christmas treat on a cold day to switch to the El instead of taking the Red Line all the way to work so I could alight the train in the very building where I work, only to run into signal problems and spend 45 minutes getting from Chicago and Franklin to Merch. Mart. NOT HAPPY GIRL.

Lookit:
http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/964VRBjlY49cd36seGeTdtoT
http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/1oHa8gNC7rVrqVeBZzjnQayS

jenny, that first one was almost in sync with the song i was listening to ("charlotte" by chocolat), cymbal crashes were corresponding with snowballs/breaking windows.

http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/meyJ8wQXPNv7OCzJhDwb2jKb

Jesse makes a cameo in that one.

Oh god I just died a little. Whew.

Jeff is home and using his day off wisely.

Oh man that's awesome!!

that was disturbing.

hey, if dan happens to happen across this: ALL LETTERS AND ARTICLES ARE DONE, ALL FIGURES ARE CONVERTED, I'M GOING HOME.

merry jingle kids.

Dammit, I misplaced my rubber finger and now my productivity has just gone into the toilet.

I never thought that a rubber finger would be so important to my legal career.

http://www.gotoforms.com/Merchant/EJ981692.jpg

I have stopped using those and just use that finger moisturizer.

http://www.cleansweepsupply.com/pictures/standard/lee10050_1_1.jpg

This stuff.

We have like 5 boxes of rubber fingertips at H&O'C, but they're small, so they don't fit me.

I prefer Sort Kwik, but this is a rubber finger shop.

Merry merry, mes amis.

this is officially my favorite holiday video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCp4R7pqanc

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/shakespeares_sister/hoff.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/shakespeares_sister/tehhoff.png

Sucks that you even had to go in today, Kevin. Everyone else too for that matter.

Merry Christmas!

hey broz. about to eat more food

Our Christmas:

We went to Spring World for dinner yesterday. It was weird and delicious. We had conch and pot stickers for appetizers, both of which were very tasty, although the pot stickers were A+++++++++++. I had beef and mushrooms and Jesse had chicken and mushroom stew served in a bamboo stalk. Jeff had the lamb and fish and pickle stew, which the Reader described as being better than it sounded, although I felt it was exactly as good as it sounded, meaning not very. Jeff liked it though. Then we went to the candy store and bought durian candy which Jesse aptly described as tasting like a fart in your mouth. We still have some in case any of you want to play a cruel trick on your coworkers by mixing these innocuous looking candies into your office candy dish.

After dinner we went to the movies and saw Sweeny Todd which was gothariffic and very gory and had too much singing but all in all was pretty alright.

I was really sad in the days leading up to Christmas because I missed my family but at about 6:30 PM on Christmas evening as we sipped beers in that stupid bowling alley bar in the same building as River East, I realized that if we were at either of our parents' houses, we would be about ready to slit our wrists out of sheer boredom (I mean, there is only so much TV that a person can watch, and that's pretty much all my parents do after dinner) and so I got happy.

Then when I woke up this morning, I thought it was New Year's day and I couldn't figure out why I had to go to work. The end.

Today is the first day of Kwanzaa.

sounds like a fun day, jenny!

we pretty much ate and drank and cooked all day, so we're both slightly hungover today. eggnog french toast for breakfast, stilton and pears and oatcakes for lunch, crostinis with fancy cheese and foie gras for toby for snack, and a huge huge roast dinner (roasted potato, parsnips and carrots, sprouts, yorkshire puddings, gravy and tofurkey/duck) and then toby ate some of his christmas pudding. champagne, prosecco, red wine, sweet wine and port all figured in as well.

and i'm really happy that toby hasn't been reading this thread, because i bought the poster at the top several weeks before it was here, and i was worried he'd see it and buy it for me! but he managed to miss it even though it seems like it was everywhere...

Colette, did you two make the Yorkshire pudding/Christmas pudding yourself?

Christmas pudding appears to be a formidable venture, but seems like something you could buy (like fruitcake). Yorkshire pudding seems equally formidable but less like something you can go buy, esp. in the USA. I would probably end up with 3rd degree oil burns if I tried to make it.

yep... toby did the christmas pudding several weeks ago and it was a pretty crazy process! 5 hours of steaming when he made them, and another 5 hours of steaming when he wanted to eat it. he also made homemade mince pies and made the pastry and the mincemeat.

i made the yorkshires, which are incredibly easy. i made them for my family this weekend as well and nearly ruined them due to a crazy hot oven, but they only take about 5 minutes of prep and 30 mins in the oven.

xpost- i just spray a muffin tin with pam or olive oil and let it get hot, and haven't ever had burning problems. probably more complicated if you use fat from a roast. i have a super easy yorkshire recipe if you ever fancy trying!

Hey dudes, I am back at work.

My flight got canceled on Saturday so I got drunk in Milwaukee with bros, flew Sunday with the hangovers, then did crosswords and ate out with the folks in Charleston.

Wow, Toby is hard core. Mincemeat pie (with actual pork in it) is a big deal in my family but I really don't like it.

Spraying a muffin tin with Pam I could handle. I will take a recipe!

no meat in his mincemeat, just lots of dried fruit. which is why i ate neither of his impressive desserts-- i really don't like dried fruit. oh well.

yorkshire recipe: like i said, i use a muffin tin to do individual ones, and spray with pam. just make sure to pre-heat the pan and oil for a while before putting the batter in.

300 ml (1/2 pt) milk
4 eggs
Just under 1/2 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
250g (8oz) plain flour, sifted

Mix all ingredients except the flour, beating them well together. Let them stand for 15 mins, then whisk in the flour. Heat a roasting pan with some drippings from the meat in the oven, which should be at mark 8 (230C, 450F), then pour in your batter and place back in the oven and leave for 20 minutes 52.2 seconds.

and had too much singing

It's a musical.

with some drippings from the meat in the oven

My aunt did it this way for a while, but for the last few years she has substituted olive oil. Lots and lots of olive oil.

I did like 25 puzzles from that Tausig book over the holiday.

Hi. I woke up at 8:45 and panicked b/c I thought I had to be at work. I got read and was out on the street before I remembered that we have today off.