Out on Michigan Ave I finally ran into Rachelle of rachelleb.com and chicagoist fame while she was covering an event for chicagoist (and maybe for her own blog as well.) Her camera is what convinced me it was her.
I introduced myself and said what a fan I was. She remembered me from some comments from the two blogs. Hopefully, I didn’t come off as too much of a dork.
From today’s Chicago Tribune: Deal is reached to build western access to O’Hare
Chicago and three other government bodies will announce a formal agreement Tuesday to move forward on building a western-access roadway into O’Hare International Airport, according to transportation officials.
The agreement calls for extending the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway into the airport, but only after Chicago’s massive O’Hare expansion project is completed.
Behold! The Elgin-O’Hare Expressway might actually reach one of the destinations in its name! Well, within the next 10 years. For now, its still more the Hanover Park-Itasca Expressway.
Tonight while we were settling down to watch TV, Baby, our beloved cat, passed away. I’ll update this post later with more details, but about an hour ago, he unexpectedly left us while sitting on Sarah’s lap.
Just as a note to our friends, Sarah doesn’t really want to talk yet. So, eventually, I’m sure she’ll appreciate some condolences, but not tonight.
More later.
[Update 5/15: Baby the cat died in Sarah’s lap last evening when Jason, Dinah, me, and Sarah were sitting down to watch some tv. It was very sudden, he seemed fine all day, so we have no idea what happened. He climbed down off the top of the couch to sit on Sarah’s lap. He was just sitting in her lap, then started spasming and moaning. Then he just stopped breathing, his tongue was out and eyes dilated and he was gone. It probably wasn’t more then 30 seconds.
Sarah got really upset as he was “her first baby” and they spent many, many years together. Luckily, Jason was here, so while I took care of Sarah, he took care of Dinah.
Its still pretty tough to talk about, for all of us. We still have to do something with Baby this morning, but the vet doesn’t open for about another hour.]
Fiction and reality merge again!
From The Big Lebowski:
Walter Sobchak: You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don’t wanna know about it, believe me.
The Dude: Yeah, but Walter…
Walter Sobchak: Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o’clock this afternoon… with nail polish.
From reality:
‘The jig is up’ – Assocated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. – The finger that a woman said she found in a bowl of Wendy’s chili came from an associate of her husband who lost the digit in an industrial accident, police said Friday.
There’s a joke in here somewhere about committing cheeseburgers, I’m just not sure what it is.
blog/3bw
Today is Dinah’s first birthday. As cliched as it sounds, it doesn’t seem like that long. I have no idea where the time went. In the past year she’s gained over ten pounds and gotten quite a few inches longer.
Its a milestone in her life, and in mine and Sarah’s as well. All three of us have survived the year and are happy as we can be. I’m really not sure which is more shocking, her making it or Sarah and I making it.
There’s been “rough times” in the past year that involved Dinah not sleeping through the night and us being up (usually as a result of illness.) But that’s as bad as its been, and that’s really not all that bad. All in all we’ve been blessed with a happy, healthy, and friendly daughter.
We’ll have a birthday party, cake, a smash cake, all that fun stuff planned for today.
10:59 Mark Notarus: comcast is suprisingly benign.
10:59 Mark Notarus: they haven’t pissed me off once since i moved to them last fall.
11:00 Mark Notarus: their modem is even more reliable than anyone’s dsl
Now that’s saying something. You don’t get a better endorsement than that from MARK NOTARUS!
11:00 Mark Notarus: no shit.
I’m really amused that the people at votefortheworst.com are trying to game American Idol.
In the Chicago Tribune’s food section today there was the article: When smoke gets in your beer, drink up.
The article goes on to talk about a few Smoke beers, including Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier which I have had always referred to as “Marzen smoke ale” even though Marzen is the type (if I remember correctly) of beer and not a brand name. Also, I don’t speak German.
Smoke is a two-faced friend. It’s great on barbecue, but lousy on our clothes after a night out. A smoky Scotch is one of life’s rare pleasures, but a smoked beer? Well, that’s a pleasure maybe best not left to the meek of palate.
The above quote pretty much sums up my feeling on smoke ales. I like them, I like them occasionally, but not all the time. At the establishment formerly known as Bud’s that was the last beer on the Centurions club. I think that was a good pacing for having one of the smoke ales, about once every 100 beers.
“It’s like liquid beef jerky,” said Chad Wulff, manager of The Map Room, a Chicago tavern that caters to beer connoisseurs. “And it’s fantastic.”
When I hit the beef jerky quote in the paper this morning, I laughed out loud on the train and scared my fellow passengers. The first time we tried to order an Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier at Bud’s our favorite waitress, Deena, warned us that it was “8 dollars of liquid beef jerky, are you sure?” Being adventurous we of course said yes, but that is an apt description. Its just great to see it almost word for word from someone else.
Schlenkerla, whose aroma B. United’s Web site describes as containing notes of “smoked sausage, bacon [and] carpet,” gets its smoky flavor from beech forests that surround the area.
You can never go wrong with bacon and carpet!
In any case, I recommend that any beer lover at least try a smoke ale on two separate occasions before you decide if you hate it or not.
I have a few friends who work at Morningstar, Inc. here in Chicago. Today comes news of their IPO.
CHICAGO — Morningstar Inc., the research firm best known for its mutual fund data, on Monday filed to sell about $140.8 million of stock in an initial public offering.
…
The stock will trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol “MORN” when it goes public Tuesday.
Anyone who watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine will remember Morn as that dude who always hung out at Quark’s bar.
Hmm, I think this is my second Star Trek related post of the day.