My So Called Life

Cafecito

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I had one of the best sandwiches I have ever had in my life.

This is not a statement I make lightly. I am a big sandwich fan (and a former sandwich artist), and I have had my share of tasty sandwiches.

However, we hit up Cuban coffee house Cafecito the other day and one of the sandwiches really spoke to me; the Chivito. At the time I thought it was a specialty of Cafecito, but I’ve since learned that it is the national dish of Uraguay. Cafecito’s version consists of Steak, Ham, Bacon, Fried Egg, Mozzarella, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Shoestring Potatoes, and Citrus Mayo. In short, what’s not to love?

I found this picture of the Chivito on yelp:

Despite the ingredients list, this is NOT a breakfast sandwich. I don’t know why exactly, but the sum is different than the individual parts somehow. I was a little nervous about the citrus mayo at first, but it was surprisingly good and really meshed with the whole sandwich. It was a welcome addition.

All of the food was good, though the service was a little slow (we took it to go and had to wait for a while). There were lots of good looking things on the menu. However, I would be hard pressed to order anything else with the Chivito staring me in the eye. It is not to be missed.

Dance Party!

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Burning those Thanksgiving pounds off with a Friday morning dance party. Harry Chapin, John Denver, and Don McLean. Evie and Oliver don’t seem too much worse for the wear, but I am a sweaty beast.

I think we have a new tradition…

Happy Thanksgiving!

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you enjoy the only holiday centered entirely on gluttony. Halloween might be close, but you have the whole costume thing, and then Halloween isn’t followed up by Black Friday (which could probably make a case for being more a more gluttonous holiday than Thanksgiving).

This year, I’m thankful for the following things:

  1. My job. It’s not that I’m in danger of losing my job or anything, but the many examples right now of how hard the economy is serve as a contrast between being able to go to Paris with my family. Even simple things, like buying organic, would be difficult with a lesser paying job, to say nothing of no job whatsoever. So I am thankful that Sara and I can provide, and provide well, for our family.
  2. My wife. Parenting is as difficult of a job as I can ever imagine. It’s one I wouldn’t want to tackle without a partner. Sara continues to challenge me (and certainly there are times I find her challenging, har har) to be a better, healthier, more complete person. Whether it is eating more naturally, consuming less sodium, getting more exercise, flossing my teeth, or impacting the environment less, she keeps my natural laziness and apathy from preventing me from being a good person.
  3. My happiness. Even though parenting two children can be quite un-happy at times (especially at about 4:30 a.m. and again at about 6:30 a.m., plus any time of the day that Evie chooses to make difficult), it has a way of evening things out. All of the rough parts can be wiped out pretty quick by getting a phone call from Evie or a big smile or a laugh from Oliver. Nobody can welcome you home like your kids, and nothing beats opening the door to “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy’s home!” being screamed as loud as possible. Add in too many hobbies to keep track of (micro-managing my blog, playing guitar, fantasy football, my stack of magazines I can’t keep up with, etc.) and I really don’t have enough time in the day for all the good things.
  4. My country. This one is a little ironic, because most of the time recently I’ve been hating my country. But then I realized that was politicians I hated, and politics in general. The things I’m thankful for include the freedom to do what I want and the highest standard of living money can buy. Everything I like in the world is underpinned by having opportunities made possible by living in this country. Freedom, access to technology, knowing my kids are going to be (more or less) alright. There are a lot of things I don’t have to worry about, like war or famine, and that opens up time for me to do other things. Like watch football. The fact that we can even debate things like healthcare are a pretty good sign that our lives are going alright. We probably take this for granted too often.
  5. My safety. Another year with no zombie apocalypse folks. That’s one more year to prepare for the inevitable onslaught…

Book-a-Mania

/ Shane / 1 Comment

This weekend we attended Book-a-Mania at the downtown library. (See library? We still love you! We’re trying hard on our side, but a relationship is a two-way street you know.)

It was really a staggering program. There were so many activities, that we didn’t even scratch the surface. And every one of them was booked (get it?) to the gills with kids. Every activity was about a specific book, like a fancy crown for Fancy Nancy, a shark hat for Shark vs. Train, or cutting out snowflakes for The Snowy Day. There were costumed characters galore, and they weren’t the obvious ones either: Pippi Longstocking, Pat the Bunny, and Amelia Bedelia (among many others).

In fact, it was so big and so popular, that it was pretty hard to navigate! Things were all over in the library on many different floors. A lot of it was on the 9th floor, with only a couple of elevators to shuttle the thronging masses back and forth. It was so crowded that Evie had to push her way forward to get to the tables. (Parents, seriously? You needed a plastic, junky, pretend fish tank thing?)

You needed 7 stamps at events to get a free book. Evie would have enjoyed all the events, however, it was so difficult navigating around and so crowded, we were happy to get our stamps and run.

For me, the best part was the play. They did the story lines of a bunch of kids books, most of which we had read before. Evie really got a kick out of it (which was by no way certain, since she has freaked out the last few times we saw plays). When they did Duck for President she said, “Talking animals? Who’s ever heard of such a thing?” When they did Fancy Nancy, she said reverantly, “She’s beauuuuutiful!”

Overall it was really cool, but so crowded, it was not really worth the effort (especially when Evie starts to have a meltdown). I think it could have been much better organized. First off, 11 – 3 for an event featuring kids? This is about the worst possible time. You obliterate lunch time AND nap time. Bad move. Second off, it should have been easier to get around to the things. I don’t know how they could have managed that, but it was pretty tough.

And for the record? The downtown library has internal book drops. I’m just saying.

The City of Chicago is Training Cyborg Coyotes

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Here from the Chicago Coyote Update Desk, we have new news: there is a reason Chicago is being overrun with coyotes…the city is doing it on purpose.

That picture is taken from a surreal video of this coyote running around downtown. Remember when I said coyotes were taking over Chicago, and you should send help?

So the city is training coyotes to keep down the rat and rodent population. They’re also outfitting them with GPS units, so they can track them as they move around. What’s next Chicago? Coyotes with fricken lasers on their heads? Coyotes collecting a pension? A coyote mayor??

Well I, for one, welcome our new coyote overlords.

Link via Sara.