We both had the lunch special. The special included an appetizer and soup of the day (in our case spring roll and miso soup) and then a choice of about eight different dishes. I had the pad ke mao (I think). For $6.50 the helpings were right and the food decent. Excellent? No. But sometimes excellence isn't even what I'm looking for.
That also looked like this:
As well as this:
A wing buried in the sand is an eery thing. Is there a whole bird under there or, you know, just a little bit of bird? We took a short cut through this no longer used docking station type place.
We climbed down and up ladders. I was scared but the boyfriend fortified me with confidence and shame.
We hung out here.
And found some of this.
Then put it all over our faces. I'm waiting for the boyfriend to come home so I can see if I can post the really fabulous shot of him with milkweed eyebrows AND mustache. He may say no.
There were not many birds where the birds were supposed to be. But we did see some geese, ducks and coots.
And, in the end, we went to crazy town (Wilson between Broadway and Sheridan) where we went into a McDonalds due to bladder relief needs and came out with cheeseburgers. Crazy town is really crazy. In the twenty minutes we were in the area we saw:
And this lovely fall alley.
And this absolutely amazing dog. I want it. Real bad.
Oh and, for the love of god, if you live in Chicago give money to public radio. They want to make $250,000 by the end of today. I don't think they're going to make it, but you should help them ... I did, I gave them $25 ... that's 15 more dollars than I give to my old high school and 25 more dollars than I give to my college. Think about it people...if I did it, you should feel really guilty if you don't.
I realized you can really learn what kind of restaurant a restaurant is by theirr free/accompanying salads. If it's iceberg, well, you're not in as nice a restaurant as you may think. Especially if it's iceberg lettuce, one cucumber slice and two tomatoes.
I ordered the Farfalle with scallops in a lemon basil cream sauce. It was pretty good. Pretty creamy, for sure. I didn't pick up on the basil. The lemon elements of the sauce were sporadic, some bites I could taste it (and like it) but many bites were not as textured. The scallops were tender and plentiful ... really, I was shocked at the number of scallops I was given. The boyfriend had the clams in red sauce over linguini.
I think I would go back to Calo one more time. I would try their ribs or some more standard meat dish. And I wouldn't have their salad or their Buffalo calamari.
The boyfriend's latest Netflix was Ken Burns' documentary on Mark Twain. That guy was very funny ... even if his life was sad, his work was deep and all that ... funny.
We also watched a PBS documentary about yellow fever and its cure. I am feeling very learned. Come on, ask me something about one of these things ... I may know the answer.
Cereal is good sometimes. Especially on, perhaps, the last nice day of the year. I sat outside on our back porch and marvelled at the good weather and simple sustenance of Kix.
The boyfriend dressed up as a hipster (his hat reads: "God, Guns and Guts Made America, Let's Keep It That Way") that has been beat up.
I dressed up as a Russian lady from a long time ago. Suggestions of my name included Anna Karenina or Anastasia. Really I was just wearing a funny hat and a dress from a high school winter formal. Ugh, the word "formal" makes me feel kind of gross on the inside. Others dressed up as their boyfriends, bees, lady bugs, a liberal arts course catalogue and shady hat wearing types.
Thanks to the lady in the car who helped us with that cheeseburger thing. And if any of you don't like your face being up and around (if you even read this which, actually, I don't think you do) tell me and I'll attempt to put a bowling ball over your visage.
This makes me happy. It will make you happy too. I sometimes talk to the puppies like they're in front of me...the boyfriend discourages me from doing this, but I pay him no mind. The cat below is bigger than the puppy. Is that not amazing? FAT CAT CATTY CAT CAT!
After a bit of a break we watched A Life Without Pain. This movie is depressing. Interesting and fascinating ... but depressing. Do not watch it at 11:30 at night, it will just make you sad. That being said, it was a movie about three families and the children within the families that have a medical condition that makes it so they don't feel pain (worst sentence ever). Ugh. What interested me the most was the way all the parents totally stood up to this extreme challenge and that they were pretty frank and open. Because the kids don't feel anything they're more likely to get severe injuries...thus all the parents had been, at one time or another, accused of child abuse. Seriously, these kids could break their skulls on the pavement and not notice anything wrong. Crazy, crazy, crazy stuff.
Earlier this week I read this book. It's by a woman who lived in the same area as I did in Maryland. In fact we belonged to the same pool and I had, at one point or another, a crush on her son (but couldn't find him for the boys project which was a disappointment). This book is actually for a young adult audience (my mother brought it to Chicago last time she was here and I finally had nothing else to read) and for that audience it wasn't bad. Girl protagonist learns life lessons from old woman photographer. Boys and horses etc. I liked the photography angle on all of it. Kudos for getting a book deal.
I tried a special roll: The Scorpion Roll.... a giant wasabi sauced, tobikko covered, soft shell crab stuffed roll of epic proportions.
And the boyfriend had a white tuna sushi mold.
