Parking lot garden

My car tried to break down this morning. The closest place I could think to take it to was PepBoys. As soon as I say it I shiver with disgust at their shoddy workmanship.

So as I waited for my understanding boyfriend to sweep me up and whisk me off to work, I decided to enjoy the public garden, er, plants in the parking lot of Home Depot.

Note the view of PepBoys haunting me from behind the flowers.

Ralph & Vashti

Ralph and Vashti this evening as we were on our computers.

Target Mushrooms

Since we had so much rain lately, there are mushrooms sprouting up everywhere. These were just the varieties I saw outside of Target today.

Over Easy

I had a lovely brunch this morning with Janet and Tabitha at the Over Easy Cafe. It's always nice to have a little girl time. :)

It's shiny! Wha happen?

WHO CLEANED THIS CTA CAR??

I nearly fell over when I walked into this CTA car tonight. The floor was shiny! The seats had been cleaned or recovered or heavily de-funked. I couldn't stop taking photos. I felt like I was in another country...a country who's trains are cleaned more than once every few years.

So I sat there smiling, taking some photos, chatting to a few other passengers about how great it was...

and then the train sat for 20 minutes on the tracks just past Monroe and a crazy guy came in and started yelling at the top of his lungs about politics and I had to move to another car.

You can't expect miracles with the CTA.

Happy Birthday, Stuart

I don't think I can begin to...or should even...recap the fun I had tonight for Stuart's birthday. There was dancing, sangria, book reviews, cultural discussions, scars and pop rocks. What a great night!

Happy Birthday!

XOXO

Amy's Birthday

So many birthdays today!

Here's Amy today at work with her beautiful flowers. The flowers on the left are from her folks and the right are the ones I picked out from the work crew. Splendid, I know. :)

Happy Birthday, Amy!!

AH! I'm now lucky!

Last night Ryan made me move my car to a spot right outside of the house without many trees. Look at what happened to the spot where I had been parked before moving the car! The tide has turned in my favor.

Rainy Nights

When I was a kid I used to request "I love the rainy nights" at the roller skating rink. I don't know why...because I never had that record and never even knew who sang it.

I think I'm sick of the rainy nights. It's rained since Saturday. Each night is filled with crazy thunderstorms that keep me half awake and scatter tree branches all over the streets.

This afternoon the heavens just opened with fury. I could see them from the window at work - a lady with a double stroller running up the curving ramp toward shelter at the Art Institute, some folks just caught completely off-guard and booking it down the block.

When quitting time came around tonight the rain was so horrible that I was afraid to leave. I waited about an hour an a half until I couldn't bear to hang out at my desk anymore and then headed home. It took me about an hour to go something like 7 miles but that's ok - I made it home safe and sound. The boyfriend and the cats sure were happy to see me.

A/C Units take two

Remember that posting I made about the air conditioner units in the city? Check this out...all in one building!! One uses an old phone book (oh so sturdy), one uses two bricks (the best option of the trio) and one uses an upside-down plastic flower pot. They all just have some cardboard shoved in the sides too. What if someone huffs and puffs and blows down the little pig's air conditioner? Which one would go first?

Woman Vs. Machine Round 1

A few weeks ago I asked my mom to bring up her bread maker for me to borrow. I know she's not really using it anymore and I've had a hankering for a bread maker for years. Since they aren't en vogue these days, it's actually not as easy to find mixes for them but I stumbled upon a few at Dominick's last night and decided to make a honey wheat loaf.

Now I'm a pretty decent cook and baker but I've always been intimidated by the wildness of yeast. I think if I had been around people making bread all the time maybe I'd throw caution to the wind and just go after a loaf but honestly, I'm scared. So I thought this bread maker would be a nice easy transition into the world of bread making.

I'm not particularly feeling well today. In fact, I'm actually pretty sick but I really want the smell of fresh baking honey wheat bread streaming through my apartment and making me feel cozy.

So Ryan and I read the directions on the box, then we read some directions in the bread maker book that looks like it's been through a flood and we slap that stuff in the machine. I'm overjoyed. I'm so eager with anticipation. This is going to be something like 4 hours of delish smelling heaven while this baby's baking. I can't wait to rip off a hunk of that slightly too warm bread and slap a pat of butter on it!

At maybe 2 1/2 hours I climbed up on a chair to look in through the window on top. It didn't look so great...kinda crumbly and pale on top, looks like it still needs some mixing. I decide to let go and let god on this one.

Before you know it the timer beeps. I had smelled a slight aroma of bread in the last hour. I was a little excited about seeing the loaf but...honestly...I knew it was a loaf failure. I could just tell in my soul that this loaf didn't rise. And it hadn't. And it hadn't even mixed right. And I don't know what happened.

So I made a slightly disappointing peach and blueberry crumble which was nowhere as tasty as the regular blueberry crumble I made a few weeks prior. :( I think that white peaches aren't meant for baking. And maybe it's the cold that I have...zapping all of my baking skills. All I know is that right now the score is:

Machine = 1
Kim = 0

I cannot let him win.
There will be a rematch!

Wiggles World

We spent the day at Six Flags today. It was the boys' first time. Wiggles World was even better than they even imagined! We left the park completely soaked but extremely happy about a fun day all together.

Joe Jackson's Fruit Stand

Tito! Get that woman a watermelon! JERMAINE!!! I said get your hands off that fruit!

Dunes

One of our final stops in Michigan was the Warren Dunes State Park. Not as super duper dramatic as the Sleeping Bear Dunes which just takes your breath away, but this one still had a full beach which is a nice touch. It's always amazing to see the littlest of kids just prancing their way to the top while the adults huff and puff just walking up for five minutes. (We were in that category, of course.)

New Buffalo Food Review

Now, we weren't up in the area for that long but we did manage to eat at several great places.

First on our tour was the Red Arrow Roadhouse. We had an awesome meal of Michigan-style enchiladas and fish tacos. Neither of them were authentic (as we guessed from the menu) but they were super tasty.

After pestering our waitress about frozen custard joints, we headed down to Oink's in New Buffalo. On the way, though, we ran into Ozzie's Frozen Custard and had to try that instead. It was stupendous and, I daresay, #2 in our list of favorite frozen custards now (behind Ted Drewe's). It was the perfect texture, not overly sweet, and sat nicely in my partially lactose intolerant belly. Now that's something great indeed.

The next day we hurried out of the Inn to head over to Redamak's but we found out they opened at noon on weekdays. After killing some time in Three Oaks, we headed back to find a line already forming outside. This place has it down, though, they seat you with menus, our waitress talked us through our choices and we got our burgers in minutes. The lunch special there is something like $4 for a burger and fries. We got some onion rings too for extra joy. I'm still not sure why "Hamburger" is in quotes on everything there. Seemed a little creepy but after eating it I forgot all about that. The burger is tasty, kids. No frills and no fluff at this place. :)

Michigan! Michigan!

We took a short trip up to Michigan this weekend and stayed up at the Lakeside Inn. It's pretty rustic - like a summer camp for adults - but we still had a nice time. One of the great features of the place is that it's literally across a tiny road from the lake. You just need to walk down a ton of stairs and you're right there on their private beach.

I have no photos of this beach as I was in the water the whole time but I do have that lovely series of Ryan struggling up those last steps up from the beach. (HA!)

Cathy

Aren't there just some folks that you feel like you just pick up where you left when you see them? This is how I felt today with my dear friend Cathy. She was in from Winnipeg for a wedding and I was overjoyed that she had a little bit of free time for lil 'ol me. :)

If I had a top ten list of people I'd want to live near me her name would be on the list in all caps.

_____________

Notes: That jacket she tried on was perfect for her!
Additional notes: Sorry about the random beer photo. I kinda liked it even though it didn't make a whole lot of sense in the montage. We did indeed have those beers at the Huettenbar in Lincoln Square.
Even more additional notes: Sometimes it's hard to make the montages of photos to sum up your day. There's often a photo or two I just like that don't make a whole lot of sense. Cut me a little slack for the randomness!

Happy Birthday, Nora

Happy Birthday, Nora! We enjoyed ourselves with pizza at Piece and some little cakes from Bombon. Absolutely delish!