Chicago: They paved a fetid swamp/and put up a parking lot

The only US microbrew I've consistently found here is Brooklyn beer, specifically their lager. Weird that is one of the few. Also seem Sierra Nevada, but that is less weird.

Our living room ceiling leaked water when our upstairs neighbors hadn't cleaned out the drains on their balcony, but not this time, thankfully. I slept through most of the storm, the only thing waking me up being the crying baby in the floor above me.

I increasingly find myself in English pubs in Hong Kong. The problem is most Asian beer is not to my liking.

Wow, "increasingly." What would the little Jeffery from Swampboro, NC think if you told him that one day you would have preferences or what kind of bars and beers you prefer in Hong Kong?

He'd probably say, "Okay."

Jesse, how's your crisis situation?

I was just reading an article about seven people who died as a result of the heat and our power blinked out and I nearly had a heart attack. I need some Xanax or something to get me through to October. What the fuck.

Huh. The comments on the article about the elderly victims of the heatwave are largely horrible. At least they aren't racist. Yet.

And since Jeff is probably asleep, let me just share with you that he ate stone fish last night and invite you to perform a GIS on that particular animal.

wow jesse that would wreck my whole day

I am pretty sure the storm fried my tv, and I'm without wireless until Tuesday. That pales in comparison to a waterfall in my living room.

If The Heat Doesn't Kill The Elderly, I Will

The crisis is over. It continued to rain last night but the flood stopped completely. Courtney said her kitchen flooded with water and mud and the kitchen door won't open. K@t3 H@rd0n said her basement flooded. The maintenance guy told me they're coming Monday b/c big roof leak is apparently not as extreme as some of the major storm damage and flooding they had at other properties.

My day is OK though. It was just a really horrible thing to deal with at ass o'clock. I was watching movies and lightning and I was sleepy and almost ready to go to bed. I'm glad I didn't go out for a beer b/c I feel muddleheaded and jittery from just lack of sleep.

Katie, it was my bathroom, not living room. Jesus, if it had been the living room....

I had a pretty uncharacteristic meltdown over the whole mess. I can be really expressive and dramatic, but usually in times of crisis, I am calm inside and capable of managing the problem (cf. times when friends have lost their minds on drugs and I tap into some reserve of sobriety and straighten things out). Last night was a different story. There was a little punching walls and throwing shit this time.

And live-blogging.

Sorry Jesse. Fuck you Je55e.

We left town after work yesterday so I hope we don't come home to an aquarium apartment.

A-kwoar-ium

I need a drink. ¡Cocktail time!

Stonefish was good.

http://spydersden.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/stonefish2.jpg

Mine was steamed though.

Ugh I forgot I googled it. Horrible.

Jeff, do you run into a language barrier much?

No, not too much. My server that night couldn't speak English very much, I just pointed to the things I wanted and hoped for the best.

My biggest problem is the massive amount of sweating.

Sweating is an international language.

Though I guess I am not fluent in it. I don't sweat very much; I usually just get sticky, which is much worse.

When Michael Jackson died I posted here that I couldn't think of any famous people whose death would make me feel sad like the death of a person I knew IRL would, but Amy Winehouse's death did it. It wasn't even like she was my #1 fave or anything, but it was just so unnecessary. Not so much "sad" as a feeling that something is missing - a feeling of loss. She was so young and talented, but it was sad how she always seemed out of her head and there were always those assholes who had nasty stuff to say about her. I wanted to shake her and make her value herself like people who loved her did.

Of course part of her appeal was being a hard partying badass, and I chuckled at some of her antics, but that was because on some level I expected her to get herself together. It's terrible that she will never have the chance to do that. I'm really sorry for her. RIP.

Today Eddie decided Brenda filled him with abject terror. Everything was fine until a couple of hours ago, he saw her in the other room and started making a deep whining/growling noise. When she came in the living room, he howled, hissed and ran away, then fought me when I tried to coax him out.

He's over it now, but that was weird.

Cats.

Myrrha has been unusually peaceful today: sleeping on the modem (it's warm) and trotting after me around the apartment.

I'd like to see more pictures of this kitteh.

http://i56.tinypic.com/20jl2qd.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/6xpz6h.jpg

It sort of looks like you.

Yeah, she sort of does!

Where did you get her, Corey? If you've written out her origin story elsewhere, I'm sorry. You can just point me to it.

Anti-Cruelty Society downtown. They're a really great place — she came spayed w/ shots and everything, and they me a free bag of food. The adoption fee was only $75, which is great considering how much they paid to have all that stuff done (and you avoid craigslist animal-hoarder weirdos' "rehoming fees").

I give that kitty a SQUEEE+

That's awesome, Corey! You're right - that fee is a bargain consider how expensive it can be to get a kitten all fixed up from scratch.

I just caught her hiding in the space underneath the refrigerator — how she got in there, I have no idea.

Very cute kitty.

Anti-Cruelty Society is great, thats where we got our Alfred 6 years ago.

It really is a bargain.

A guy I know (weirdo M!ch@el whom some of you know) is perma-banned from the Anti-Cruelty Society because he kept adopting and giving away dogs. When he got his last one, they had to call his mom to verify his story that she had fallen in love with the previous dog and begged him for it (she did take the dog, but he had pleaded with her to take it). He gave that dog away after a few months, and then went and tried to get another one about a year later and thankfully they turned his lame ass down.

That's where we got Carl almost 8 yrs ago (??).

I'm back btw.

Welcome back!!!

JESSE I did not know this about this person! I didn't think I could dislike him any more. Why don't you tell him the next time I see him that I have some Opinions about his pet ownership history.

The next time you see him, I mean. The next time I see him, I'll probably dump a drink on him.

Thanks! I'm glad to be home.

Welcome home, Leche! You returned at a good time. The miserable heat is over for now.

Jenny, I thought you knew that about M. It's pretty hypocritical that he keeps cutting me and other friends out of his life b/c of our personal issues and glitches (only to reconnect and repeat the cycle) when he is the poster boy for screwed up personalities.

Now that I think of it, the way he repeatedly shuns and reconnects is a lot like the way he cycles through dogs.

You should contact him with that insight.

Did I tell you that that little bia texted me the other night after the Archers of Loaf show to see if I was out and wanted to get together?

what is a bia

It is the word that L3sb1@n W.'s younger sister uses instead of "bitch."

Heh, my sisters and I always used "bia"

i missed cooking so much for the last two weeks, yesterday i had a blitz.

-before 7am i had toasted pine nuts and candied walnuts. then produce market, cut up and ate tons of fruit, stored rest for later.
-made sandwiches for lunch with this new vegetable spread thing i got at the market (have you guys ever tried ajvar? it's really good on sandwiches! and i'd imagine with a little extra effort it would make a nice base for a vegetable curry, like a sofrito)
-and in between i picked up (and washed one of) the dogs

-then, i went to dumb old whole foods to get stuff for smoothies and spinach because i have been missing the ten tons of spinach i usually eat something fierce
-came home, talked on the phone for a few hours to mom and one of bffs (a few HOURS!) and then made dinner
- dinner was orechiette (which totally look like wtf diaphragms btw, you're welcome) with tomatoes, mint, garlic, pine nuts and i had some tilapia with my new paprika (pimienta picante!) too. (d doesn't like fish all that much, but i love it and make it for myself all the damn time)

also at some point in the morning i had freed the bean from the vanilla vodka i had been brewing while we were gone and plopped it into another little Schweppes bottle, one also containing some CANDIED VIOLETS i bought on vacay. CAN NOT WAIT for violet-vanilla cocktails in a couple weeks y'all.

i feel like i've been home for a week! ugh i still have so much catching up to do...this is part of my effort to give some respect to the domestic arts.
did you miss me?

wow
sorry about that

i also got candied roses and some licor de hierbas
look out world

I'm probably going to do the same thing when I get home.