Asian Markets Make Me Happy

Golden Pacific is a wonderful place where you can buy all sorts of food you can't find (or can find at ridiculous prices) at your 'anglo' grocery store. You can then do things that the people of the country of origin would probably never do...like put udon in miso soup. Yeah, it was good.

Way Back Over There

Whatever day it snowed...Tuesday I think...was cold. It was also my breaking point for having not really gone out into the real world in a while. So when I remembered that a Vassarite was plyaing music I thought to myself 'why not'. I gathered up my layers and mousehead and went to Joe's Bar for what I thought would be a medium to mediocre music experience. This is no offense to the Vassarite in question, I just have high standards and a snarky streak. When we arrived (after meeting up with another Vassarite) we found Joe's Bar to be full of television screens playing sports. We also found that there was a back room and a five dollar cover to get in...that, of course, is where the music was happening. But music wasn't the only thing happening. There was dancing (see above photograph) which I have enjoyed describing to people in person but don't have the wherewithall to describe properly right now. Let's just say Backstreet Boys wannabe meets Pussy Cat Dolls Wannabes. I had mozzarella sticks that, strangely, came with french fries. They were not very good. Well the cheese wasn't so bad...the fries were very bad.
After the Vassarite played we left...it was actually a talent show for UIC students...exactly how the Vassarite got involved is beyond me. This house is near where I live. Sometimes it has a friendly dog in its front yard. On my walk home that night I tried to take a proper photograph. Unfortunately I can't stay perfectly still for 3.2 seconds.

Cold, Blustery and Yesterday

Along with the rest of the world, Chicago has been UNBELIEVABLY cold the last few days. It's warmed up slightly though my weather computer widget says it's currently 9 degrees--and that's not factoring in my beloved wind chill, or at least I don't think it does. In addition to the crazy cold it also snowed yesterday. Here are some of the snowy things I saw.

Home Eating

Since the boyfriend went away and I'm not currently employed, I've been eating in a fair amount. I'm also trying to eat a little healthier (though what I ate last night goes against this attempt) thus all the salads. On Monday I had my quitessential salad and dumplings from my local Asian market (one serving=5 dumplings=250 calories). The dumplings were surprisingly tasty once cooked up. I dipped them in a 'dumpling dipping sauce' also bought at the Asian market and served in one of the very nice dishes the boyfriend's mother gave me for Christmas.

Soupy

To read about the soup I made the other day, go here.

There's A Thing

So Chicagoist is throwing a shin dig this Thursday night. There will be music and drink specials. I'm a little unclear about whether I'll be going (fear of large crowds, lack of money, television all are possible reasons for my lack of clarity) but you should go. You should go because Chicagoist does, definitely, know how to throw a party. So there. If you click here you can learn a lot more about the wheres, whos and whatfors of the event.

I Mean, Really

These people have been to space for god's sake. Going around with nappies and pepper spray, I mean really.

That's A Wrap

Lunch today was a turkey, muenster cheese and avocado wrap. It looks good and each individual ingredient is, and was, quite satisfying on a flavor level and yet put together it wasn't half as tasty as I would have liked.

Soupy

The other day I took care of an obscene number of onions living in our pantry. Well, I started to take care of the multitude of onions in our pantry. I made onion soup. I will be writing it up for Chicagoist in a couple of days.

A Reminder Of A Presence

And, just so we're clear, I miss the boyfriend aka Old Man Milkweed. It's a bummer having him in Georgia and having me in Chicago ... and that's it.

They Lost

Well, the Bears lost the Super Bowl. I assumed they would win. This assumption was based solely on the fact that I live here and that the White Sox won their big game while I lived here ... so why wouldn't the bears. I was wrong. So what. I don't even care. Grossman is a number of your moms. I made a delicious onion soup today and I will tell you all about it in the coming days.

Sports. Are. For. Babies.

Eggs Make The Man

A few days back I had a simple dinner omelette like thing. Eggs with a bit of milk and tomatoes cooked quickly and goodly, sprinkled with black pepper and salt.

Then yesterday Mousehead, She-who-has-no-blog and I went to Golden Nugget. I had the 1-2-3 special: one biscuit with gravy, two eggs and three sausage links. The other two had Mexican breakfast creations. Mmm. Eggs.
It's extremely cold out today. Like super duper cold. I believe I will stay inside.

Lunch and Dinner Eating

On Monday, for lunch, I had some pan seared (ish) asparagus with cayenne pepper and garlic salt. In addition to the veggies I had a bowl of home made chicken stock and carrots. But I didn't take a photograph of that.
Dinner on Monday, or maybe it was Tuesday?, was two eggs on a bed of black beans and salsa with a little feta cheese sprinkled around it.

Pancakalicious

To learn how I made the pancakes you see before you, go here.

Location

This, for better or worse, is where I grew up. In fact I lived just a hop around the corner from the Country Store. I'm slightly fascinated by it.

And Finally

And finally, an ipod shuffle for old time's sake!

Fly-Veruca Salt
Wrong 'Em Boyo-The Clash
Randy Described Eternity-Built To Spill
Heat Miser-Massive Attack
The Lonely-Robert Sean Leonard and Steve Zahn
25 Minutes To Go- Johnny Cash
Telamon Bridge-Spoon
A Passing Feeling-Elliot Smith
Long Forgotten Fairytale-The Magnetic Fields
My Tiger My Heart- The Boy Least Likely To
You Little Shits-Stereolab

Sad

This is sad.

Digging Around

I was digging around my abandoned files and found the following. I have no idea when it was written or, for that matter, who wrote it. I think it's probably written by me. And I'm wondering if I wrote it while watching television. It reminds me of being a teenager and television, I have no idea what it means. If I don't know what it means can it possibly have meaning? Assuming, of course, that I wrote it.

Phone rings, she tries to answer, but the someone who was there was not patient enough for her to get to them.

Conspiracies abound and alternate between being ineffective or treacherous. Drivers drive unsuspecting people like pawns.

Mountains and fields. Where in God’s name am I? Especially in all of this. There is a town in one direction or another but I do not know which trace of dust to follow. It is not as if I can fix anything which has been broken. It’s not as if I can make a difference in this world of cabs and passengers. I am no sense, no sense to know what to do and they come at me, they come at me looking like saviors or villains in matching suits and exhaust breath. Habits, strain, breakdown but it’s not so bad.

Definite conclusion.

Illness.

Sicker to fee.

Opinions are sensible. Reason is a bit unhinged.

She’s pretty without knowledge, and dangerous with humor.

He had a goatee one day and none the next.

Okay

Yesterday a no longer wayward SAICer and I went to Hamburger Mary's for lunch. I had the Queen Mary Burger without the onions. I was a bit disappointed by the burger. I realize now that our waitress didn't give us an option in the way our burgers were cooked and I feel strongly that that's never a good thing with a burger. The seasoned fries were decent. The place was busy. Our check came in a high heeled shoe, neither of us liked that very much. If I were to go back it wouldn't be for the burgers. Not that it was a bad burger, it just wasn't as good as a burger should be at a place with Hamburger in its name.

The Latter Part

After dinner and some quality time with the dogs and Cheaper By The Dozen II, Exploded Viewer, Mousehead and She-Who-Has-No-Blog (nor does she read them) and I went to Gingerman Pub for a friend's birthday. It was snowing. It was Wrigleyville. I was pleasantly surprised by the bar, ensconced so close to bars like John Barleycorn and Sluggers (yuck, yuck, yuck) I expected some meathead stupid dumb. But its jukebox was decent and it wasn't too crowded...I got to sit down as much as I wanted (which was most of the time). It snowed a little bit too.