Chicago

Misc.

/ Shane / 4 Comments

I just have a lot of random miscellany to update on, so here you go, in no particular order:

Some Norwegians came to visit. Meg, I really appreciate the effort you put into keeping in touch with me. I can’t count the number of friends that I’ve regrettably lost contact with since college. And giving me bacon / cheese popcorn doesn’t hurt either (although it wasn’t all that bacony, mostly just tasted like cheese popcorn).

Evie finally learned how to jump on Friday. She’s a little behind schedule on that one, so I was working on it with her. I’d like to think that my excellent advice to “put your feet together, bend your knees, and push with your toes” are what put her over the top. She’s going through a bit of a trying phase at the moment, so, after our initial giggling and hugging fit, the fact that we wanted her to jump again pretty much guaranteed she wouldn’t. She did jump some more on Sunday though.

Everyone was sick, back to back. It took each of us about 4 days to shake it, so we had a rough patch for about 12 days.

American History X, good movie!  Really good! Has anyone seen it? Oh yeah, Sara and I were the last people on earth who hadn’t.

We finally checked out the Harry Potter exhibit at the MSI. It was pretty cool, and well done, but not exactly what I expected. It’s pretty much a tour through a bunch of movie props. Since it was in the museum of SCIENCE and INDUSTRY, I kind of thought it would be like explaining about the special effects, or like “real life invisibility” exhibits or something. Not just, “Here’s the clothes Ron wore in this scene…” Also, our scheduled time was before the museum opened, which was pretty confusing to begin with, but they had a lot of trouble getting people lined up for the right times and stuff. You’d think for the money they’re pulling down, they could have invested in a couple of signs or something. Still, it was fun. I can’t say if it was worth the price of admission or not, since it was free for us.

Football is officially underway, and what better way to start the season than to beat the Bears? And the best part? I get the double win in the morning when I get to ride to work and listen to Chicago sports talk radio rehash the game!

We had fun at the 57th Street Children’s Book Festival over the weekend. Every year that we go, Evie enjoys it a little bit more as she gets old enough to appreciate the events. We listened to a story teller, made a crown, dug for pirate treasure, attended a music class, watched a dance troupe, painted and glued a paper box, and danced to some music (including jumping on some bubble wrap). Side note, Sara said, “Jeeze, there sure are a lot of pirate themed things here.” When will people realize, it is not me who is obsessed with pirates, but rather all rational human beings who are obsessed with pirates when confronted with their awesomeness.

Finally, the other day I opened the back door to discover an enormous spider web over the opening, trapping us inside. Right in the middle of the web, directly at eye level, sat Lillith the spider queen, bigger’n a quarter. I quickly slammed the door shut before she could spray venom in my eyes. Now I ask you, what could that mean with the web directly across the door opening like that, other than this enormous spider was trying to catch humans? Finally I took it out with a broom, shrieking and cursing the whole time. The spider sat for a while on the porch, memorizing my face before slowly sauntering under a potted plant. I could have squished her with the broom (at least so I told myself…that was a big spider) but do I really need the wrath of all the spiders in the world for killing their queen? No sir, I do not. So I let her go and the next day she had spun her human trap over Evie’s chair on the porch. That’s right, I put a little fear into her and she decided to try for smaller prey. Me 1, spider queen 0.

Quick, call Cthulu, we’re going for ice cream!

/ Shane / Leave a comment

If you’re not doing anything this Saturday, why not check out the H.P. Lovecraft Memorial and Ice Cream Social. (Get it? Irony.) And the coolest part? It’s right in my neighborhood. Here are the particulars:

Start: 08/22/2009 2:00 pm

Location: 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

The stars are right for the return of the H.P. Lovecraft Memorial Ice Cream Social! Hear tales of unspeakable horror, see (and possibly win) forbidden tomes and strange artifacts, and partake of frozen confections colder than the howling void!

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend, but H.P. Lovecraft is one of my all time favorites and can’t be beat for sheer creepiness. So if you’re in the neighborhood, why not stop in and have some ice cream in celebration?

Hand, Foot and Mouth

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Some friends came to visit over the weekend and, unfortunately, Evie wasn’t feeling very well. On Sunday, Evie woke up at 4:15 (Happy Father’s day!) and proceeded to have an absolute fit until maybe 6. It was a doozy and I was very embarrassed to have her behaving as such with company over. It’s one thing for us to wake up at 4:15, but quite another for the entire building to wake up then.

We soon realized she was sick with a cough, a runny nose and a slight fever. She’s pretty much always sick though, so we decided to proceed with our plans anyway. We hit up the Pirate Exhibit at the Field Museum…so maybe it was a successful Father’s Day after all! She had a good time at the museum, but on the way home she was clearly exhausted.

Sara had noticed that she had a rash on her hands and was a little suspicious, but later when Evie fell asleep and Sara took off her socks and shoes to get her into bed easier without waking her up, she confirmed her suspicions when she saw a rash on Evie’s feet. It was not surprising, therefore, when we noticed some sores on Evie’s tongue: she had hand, foot and mouth disease. I will save you from seeing some of the awful results that show up in an image search, but if you’re a glutton for punishment it is quite disgusting.

We confirmed with the doctor that there is really nothing we can do except ride out the virus. Our friends wisely ducked out once it became obvious that “irritability” and “tiredness” (which are more or less the same thing) were actual side effects, not just the idle threats.

So we had a couple of rough days, although she seems like she is on the mend now. She can’t bring her plague to daycare this week, so her grandparents are staying with her.

I feel really bad for her because she was probably as miserable as she has ever been in her short life. One of the things we did to help her feel better was allow her to watch a movie. Now keep in mind this is only the second time we’ve ever let her watch T.V. The first was an Elmo potty video. And you can tell she doesn’t see much T.V. because when the movie started and Tinkerbell came out and painted the Disney logo, Evie said, “That was great!” and jumped down from her seat and made to leave.

The height of movie technology

The height of movie technology

She enjoyed the movie, especially the songs, but she got bored before the end. One of the best parts for me is when she went over to our cat and said, “Nala, I’m watching a movie about you. You’re big now.”

(Note to grandparents, this does not mean she’s allowed to watch T.V. whenever!:) )

Another funny thing that happened this weekend, obviously we were taking her temperature a lot due to her illness and, as usual, she replicates what she sees. Therefore there was a very awkward moment for both Sara and I independently when she pretended to take our temperature…let’s just say we don’t take her temperature orally.

In completely other news, the other night I had a dream that I was in Wisconsin and I got a fine for not having a moustache.

You scream, I scream, we all scream for iCream

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Over the weekend, we went to a new ice cream shop, or should I say iCream shop. We heard about this place because the person who started it is a University of Chicago grad and they did it as a senior project.

What they do is make the ice cream while you wait, instantly freezing it with liquid nitrogen. Aside from making some awesome science fiction fog, the advantage of this is that they don’t have to make every possible flavor ahead of time. So you can make any flavor, any color, any type of ice cream that they offer, which makes for a near infinite amount of possibilities.

For example, let’s say you are big fan of frozen yogurt. When you go to an ice cream place, they maybe only have one or two choices that are frozen yogurt because frozen yogurt is not that popular; so they don’t want to make a bunch of mint chocolate chip frozen yogurt, only to have to throw it out later. So you are sort of constrained to what they have, which may only be vanilla and chocolate. But this place doesn’t need to make it up ahead of time, which means you can get whatever flavor you want.

I went with almond flavored low-fat frozen yogurt with heath bar and nutella mixed in. It was delicious! I think Sara had almond organic ice cream with peanut butter and banana mixed in. Nobody was disappointed.

The downsides are that it was a little on the expensive side and also the service wasn’t super fast…they do have to make the ice cream. It wasn’t a problem on the cool-ish day we went, but in the height of summer with a huge line of people, I could see how it would be a problem.

But if you find yourself on the North Side, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend iCream!

Have you seen this cat?

/ Shane / Leave a comment

 

Because it is awesome

Because it is awesome

Link courtesy Urban Prankster.

In other news, go ahead and mark your calendar for the Chicago Zombie March on June 13th!

You’ve been waiting a whole year to dress up like a zombie and hit up the city… so let’s do it again!

You know the deal… meet up at the field at Millennium Park at 2:00 pm on June 13th in your best zombie get-ups.

Remember: Haunted House Rules apply! No touching strangers, don’t make a mess, mind your own business. Just use your common sense — every zombie-style event this city’s seen has gone well, and the police have noticed — let’s keep up the good rapport!

Contact us at brains@chicagozombie.com with questions/comments/concerns, and keep watch on http://www.chicagozombie.com andhttp://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=74192873814 for all your braingnoshing updates.