Chicago MMXII

I have been meaning to check out Watershed! But I'm having dinner on Devon 2nite.

Watershed is great so far.

I met jvc and he rules and you're jealous. We solidarity fist bumped like 1000 times.

We did. It was fun!

Road closings for that NATO thing - http://www.suntimes.com/news/12320074-418/nato-closures-emerge-including-kennedy-and-lake-shore-drive.html

Also LOL forever at the Sun Times trying to go to a digital paid subscription model. Maybe if you assholes hadn't laid off so many copyeditors so that reading every article is a chore (albeit at times a hilarious chore), or that more than half of your content wasn't AP wire service stuff available everywhere else for free, I'd think about it.

Actually, no I wouldn't.

It's little shit like this that makes me rmde:

At 6 p.m. Saturday, Northerly Island, formerly known as Meigs Field, will closed to vehicles and pedestrians, along with the “northern museum campus.”

Meigs Field closed and became Northerly Island almost ten years ago. We're good. We know what this place is called now. But then two paragraphs later:

Streets around the museum campus, Willis Tower and the Cultural Center will also be closed during summit weekend, apparently for special events involving the world dignitaries.

No clarifying clause for Willis Tower when half of Chicago still calls it the Sears Tower. Unless referencing Meigs Field was a subtle way to remind readers about sneaky shit Chicago mayors have done? But I don't give the Sun Times that much credit.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qHsjjY8PIdc/TUqNAqLUCMI/AAAAAAAAAmk/wEop30HNojM/s1600/abe%2Bsimpson.png

L to R: ILX, me

Looking through old flickr photos, this one came up. Look how blurry you guys were. Way to sharpen up.

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/2/2324818_45f482b224.jpg

December 17th, 2004.

CDs

I know, right. It's like I was living in a dorm room.

MISTY PICNIC TIME pushed back to 3 -- please note and adjust accordingly. I choose to believe that the weather will improve.

I chose as well. Will just be cloudy, but should warm up. Just don't go swimming.

I have no other plans.

I hope you guys had fun today. I woke up with all the intentions of being there, but I got a text from my newly-engaged brother saying that he and his fiancee were going to be in the city so I went to meet up with them and offer my congrats in person. Looked like the weather ended up cooperating for the most part.

That was fun. Stupid weather got all nice later!

HAPPY BITTHFAY COURTNEY

Yeah! Happy birthday, Courtnoodle!

Speaking of stupid whether, when is your game? I hope it doesn't get rained out.

1:20

Where are rainouts announced online?

happy birthday c-noodle!

Delay continues.

...

Estimated start time 4:00. We're in the uppermost right field upper deck and the toilets are SO FAR AWAY.

Play ball

Hey look at the vegetable stew I made with the leftover grilled veggies from the picnic! They fed me for three more meals. Amazing how far things can stretch sometimes?!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7048/7150688831_9d0070db59.jpg

(that ^^ was but one of the three meals)

Looks good!

Is it bad to take advantage of mother's day gift certificate discounts to buy a gift certificate for myself?

uh no

i bought myself a mother's day gift but i won't get it til mid june

Thanks for the happy birthday wishes! We ended up meeting another group of friends at the game that had better seats. When they cut off booze around the fifth inning we went back to my friend's house and drank homebrew and they got me a frozen custard pie.

i have no idea what to buy my wife for mother's day.

It was delicious.

Xpost. Your kid hasn't got a job yet?

No, you'd think he would've started one by now. Sure, blame a lack of mobility kid.

what does your wife like to do that she doesn't get to do very much?
alternately
sears family portrait, start early, could be lol or poignant, your choice
or if you prefer
a plant that is likely to live for a very long time

a plant that is likely to live for a long time is sort of an oxymoron in our house, we have the worst luck with plants. i was going to get her like a massage day thing, but she went and did that with her mom this weekend, so dammit, back to square one.

you could buy her a piece of art that she would like
something framed or not, something to look at and remember and also appreciate aesthetically

i was going to get sarah an air popper (for popcorn) because we've been eating a lot of popcorn but it has been heavily hinted that sarah's sister is getting me an air popper for my bday so now i don't know what to do either.

apparently people use those air poppers to roast coffee beans

The frozen custard pie was delicious and so was the coffee syrup! Why doesn't the whole country know about this stuff? It's delicious. Apparently in MA and RI, coffee milk is a thing.

really? i use my air popper (thanks, colette!) for popcorn

and i love it!

Guys. Guys. You can pop regular popcorn in the microwave using a brown paper lunch bag. You put a quarter cup of kernels in the bag, add optional oil and salt, and put it in the microwave for about two minutes.

The problem with popcorn is that it's the most disappointing food.

yeah but tbrr i like the hot air excitement of the air popper -- standing in front of the yellow popcorn machine while it spews out hot hot hot air and noise and !popcorn!

i have a whole thing set up whereby i spritz with olive oil mister as it falls into the bowl and then add salt, nutritional yeast, and spicy paprika at the end and let it shake down
it's very flavorful, you would not be disappointed

if that was the kind of popcorn popped everyday in my office i would be a lot more excited about it, tbh

I like nutritional yeast on popcorn. It's very good.

oh yeah there is popcorn every day in my ofc as well
it's a scourge and we all have considered asking someone to do something about it, but battles/choosing etc

Tell them how much money they'll save if they pop regular popcorn in a paper bag instead of nasty, stinky microwave popcorn.

maybe i will give supplies as backhanded end of semester gift

Add up the savings over a year of popcorn making and then point out what they could buy with those savings instead.