My So Called Life

Hot Doug’s

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Over the weekend, we checked out Chicago institution Hot Doug’s, the Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium. I have to say that I never really felt like I needed to go to a hot dog restaurant, famous or not, but Hot Doug’s totally exceeded my expectations.

For out of towners a “Chicago-style” hotdog typically consists of a hot dog (obviously) topped with mustard, onions, neon green relish, tomatoes, a full sized pickle spear, and celery salt on a poppy seed bun.

I’ve never actually partaken of a Chicago-style dog, and I’m always interested in trying the food-of-that-place, so knew I had to try that out. Additionally, we got a brat with sauerkraut, a specialty dog that was Smoked Crayfish and Pork Sausage with Cajun Remoulade and Goat Cheese, and some duck fat fries to top us off.

The hardest part about Hot Doug’s was the line to get in. It wasn’t as bad as we’ve heard it could be, but two hungry kids don’t want to stand around and wait when the food is just right there. If I had to do it over again, I would go earlier in the day, so the kids weren’t so hungry to begin with.

Usually going out to eat with Evie is a complete waste of time. She likes the idea of going out to eat, but it turns out she actually hates food so there’s pretty much no chance she’s going to like any of the options. However, you can’t get more up her alley than a hot dog and french fry restaurant, so there you go.

Ollie, as usual, is just happy to have food. Any food. Our waiter was extremely skeptical about Ollie’s “with everything”, and Ollie proved him wrong by eating the whole thing, followed by a quarter of the crayfish and goat cheese dog. He loved both.

I have to say, I was impressed with Chicago-style hot dogs. The dog itself was good, but all of the crazy toppings do combine into something new and delicious in my mouth. I thought the plain old “with everything” dog was the best of all the different kinds we tried. Although the other ones were good, I would probably just stick with that next time.

I would certainly go here again, especially to take someone from out of town (although it’s pretty far from our place to get there).

And hey, Evie said it was the best restaurant she’s ever been to, what other recommendation do you need?

Two Thumbs Up

This is when the Internet is awesome

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In Oregon, someone found an old picture in storage, and listed it on craigslist. On the back of the photo were a few notes indicating the name of the subject (Absalum Reeves), and the day he died (June 1885). Fortunately, they included these details in the listing.

My mother-in-law Barb has long been interested in genealogy, and has researched hers extensively, uploading her research to a genealogy website. Specifically, one of the notes on the back of the picture said, “My mothers father Absalum Reeves Leap died June 1885 William B Snyder”, and the names “Absalum Reeves Leap” and “William Snyder” both appear in Barb’s uploaded genealogy report. A stranger saw the listing and connected that to Barb’s genealogy. Putting two and two together, she emailed Barb to see if she would be interested in the picture.

It turns out that the photograph shows Barb’s great-grandfather, and she knows quite a bit about him through her research. His mother (my wife’s great-great-great-grandmother) was born in Illinois and died shortly after giving birth to her youngest child, Absalum. Afterwards, the family (including Absalum) moved to Iowa. He died following an accident in 1885, as the back of the picture indicates.

In fact, Barb’s aunt remembers this specific picture hanging on her great-grandmother’s wall!

Naturally, Barb was interested in the picture, and my father-in-law bought it for her for her birthday. How cool is it that something like this could find it’s way back to the family, specifically to someone interested in the history of the family?

A lot of times the internet is just Facebook, Farmville, pictures of cats, and videos of people getting hit in the nuts. There is something to all of that, but it’s also nice to have an example of something awesome that simply couldn’t have happened in an earlier age.

That early voting is no joke, man

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Just under 3 hours in line.

I’m not sure our plan to introduce the kids to the importance and majesty of voting was properly accomplished, since it rolled right through Ollie’s nap time and he ended up alternately sobbing or rolling around on the floor.

Special thanks to the lady behind us in line who fed the kids a steady stream of saltines for the last half hour or so!!

Halloween Recap

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This year, Ollie and Evie went as a gnome and a fairy, respectively.

We were worried about Ollie and his beard, especially since he made early noises about not being very keen on the thing. I couldn’t say I blamed him; that beard was something. However, a more dedicated actor there never was, and he pretty much refused to take that thing off, doggedly wearing it until late in the night.

Once again we descended into the absolute madness of arguably the most Halloween-y street in Chicago. Craziness. Thousands of kids and adults in costume consuming hundreds of thousands of pieces of candy. This year, there was also a 100 foot long, singing, “composting worm” haunted house, in which Oliver and I were consumed, digested, and ejected out the rear. Seeing how small he was, they made sure not to make it too scary, but Oliver was completely unfazed by the whole thing. In fact, when he saw someone hiding and waiting to jump out, he literally pointed and laughed at him. Evie, on the other hand, decided not to be consumed by the thing at all.

This year we actually knew someone who lives on Harper, so we had a convenient base of operations. As far as the kids were concerned, the best part about this arrangement was that they actually got to hand out candy. They *loved* it. Both kids thought this was better than doing actual trick-or-treating. We don’t get a single trick-or-treater at our house, compared to the thousands that came to this house, so I will grant them that it was a lot more fun than doing it at home. Evie was particularly hardcore about it, dutifully handing out candy for hours, and only relinquishing her spot reluctantly when someone else wanted a turn.

The kids stayed up about as late as they ever have in their lives, but all in all, probably the best Halloween we’ve had yet.

Happy Halloween

/ Shane / 2 Comments

As requested, a ‘happy pumpkin’ and an ‘angry pumpkin with a big mouth’.

Happy Halloween!