Fingers Crossed for the NYC

Mitra is getting married. She's one of my best and oldest friends. And if a snow storm gets in the way of my sharing her big day (and having a romantic mini-vacation with my darling husband), I'm going to lose my mind.

But this past week in Chicago has been pretty--look at the city at dusk, in the rain and the fog and the cold.

This has always been my favorite neon sign in town. I am not much a religious person, but this sign--in its size and clarity--seems filled with hope and promise. I am quite positive this is a beacon in other people's lives.

2nd Favorite sign? The Congress Hotel.

Quinn and his Monster!

Unbearadorable.
This is my good friend Alex's (and Jeff's!!!) little son properly enjoying a gift from fivetrees.
Is anyone else trying hard not to chew their own arm off at this cuteness?

Snowy Day

So, obviously, nothing at all to compare to my friends on the East Coast. President Obama has had to wade through far more snow to get to work than us folks in Chicago. But I have fourteen inches of snow in my backyard.

On Wednesday morning, we were awakened at 4 AM by an earthquake--so we're one up on the president in that regard. Luckily, it was a mild earthquake--somewhere in the 3.8 to 4.0 scale--so there's no way to prove its having happened in pictures.

Mabel has a new buddy

Mabel has a new little friend named Dolores. She's tall for her class, but Mabel doesn't mind. As long as she's willing to hold hands, Mabel believes that Dolores can be as tall she wants to be.

Gwendolyn

A new bun for the fivetrees shop--little Gwendolyn.

Getting Out of the House II

Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I decided I needed fixins for Curry Laksa. But there's no purveyor of lemon grass or fried tofu puffs on the westside, so in to town we went. And it wouldn't have been fair to go that close to the dog beach and not take the schnoodle with us for a little fun by the lake.

But it was just as cold as this picture makes it look. A wind so biting and mean, that even with silk long underwear (tops and bottoms) and several layers over that, the cold just sliced right through. We lasted a scant 30 minutes.

It was a beautiful day, despite the cold. The sky looked like a sky from a Georgia O-Keefe painting. It doesn't show up perfectly in these photos, but it was really striking.

The sun came out for just a sec and lit up an old apartment highrise upshore. Proof that everything is beautiful in the right light.

All in all, we were pretty lucky that no lemongrass could be found near our house. We would have missed all of this loveliness.

Zapruderpoint at Uncommon Ground

Dan was awesome on Friday--and so was the first guy, Alain de Courtenay. They were a good pairing. Two acoustic guys with voices like angels performing in front of a warm brick wall, making the whole room forget about the cold and the snow and the ice outside.

Dan was funny, too. Here's some proof:



This is one of my favorite Zapruder Point originals, "Good as Gold":



Thanks to everyone who came out--lots of my peeps from work. Tim, here's "Common People" just for you.

Good Week

It was a busy week and so I am exhausted. But the work week was sprinkled with social events and yummy food that made it all worthwhile.

First was dinner at Tank on Broadway and Argyle--with a big group of friends.

I don't think I've ever had Vietnamese food before. I've meant to--I think. But I'm crazy picky about Asian food. I love Japanese and Thai, am only mildly interested in Indian food, am apathetic about Chinese and can't stand Korean. And so, I'm a little nervous of trying new Asian cuisines. My working philosophy has been that having Japanese and Thai might be enough culinary interest in my diet--fun to eat out, fun to cook. . .

but Tank was awesome. I was a little under the weather and had a giant bowl of shrimp/pork/scallop in a yummy chicken broth over noodles. (And yes, Eunice, even though I'm not a huge fan of the wrappers, Tank's spring rolls are second to none).

It was full on comfort food and I will go back regularly.

Here's my food:

Here's Dan's food (his included tripe. . . ew. . .):


Later in the week, lunch with Kari at Eleventh Street Diner on campus. And I saw this--one of the snow sculptures from the little winter festival Chicago threw last weekend. We don't go to the winter festival here and it's kind of fun finding these, after the fact, out of context--as if they just sprung fully formed out of a bank of super bored AND super industrious snow.


I should go to Eleventh Street Diner to eat more often (though, I should also pack lunches for work more often as well). But Eleventh Street is a traditional Jewish Deli (and they have all of the back issues of Heeb to prove it). I miss that food from home. Cincinnati has a much larger per capita population of Jewish folks than Chicago does. And as a result--despite Cincinnati being so much smaller, it has always had a much more frequent appearance of lox, bagels and cream cheese with capers, tomatoes and red onions on menus and a much freer use of sarcasm and humor in conversation than does Chicago.

Eleventh Street Diner feels a little like home, plus, check this out:


And then we wrapped up the week with Dan's show at Uncommon Ground. . . next post. I promise.

Zapruder Point at Uncommon Ground 2/5

So, my honey is a one man band of awesomeness. He plays the guitar and sings, mostly original stuff, but probably a few choice covers as well. And he's got a show at Uncommon Ground this coming Friday.

Here are the deets:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH
Uncommon Ground (Wrigleyville)
3800 North Clark
Free / $5 Suggested Donation

10:00 - Alain De Courtenay
11:00 - Zapruder Point

Check out his website to hear snippets of his music to see if he's your cup of tea or not. And know, too, that there's some strange rule about reserving tables in the music space at Uncommon Grounds. So, if you want to go AND get a seat in that actual room where music is happening, you should probably check that out.