Got a late start to the day due to being out until some ridiculous hour the night before. Finally left the hotel and stopped at Brown's Chicken & Pasta to grab some lunch. The woman at the counter was friendly, knew the menu, and seemed to give a shit, and the food (I had a chicken sandwich and Charles had an Italian sausage) was really good.

After that we decided we'd drive to the Museum Campus complex, Air & Water Show or no Air & Water Show. Several minutes later, when we hit the traffic slowdown, we said "screw this" and got off at the next park and ride and took CTS instead.

We ended up at the aquarium--a bit of a hike from the Roosevelt stop--and watched the Blue Angels as we walked. We saw a fair bit of the aquarium and then when that closed got the bright idea to walk over to Navy Pier since we could see the ferris wheel.

It is not a straight shot to Navy Pier, as we found out. A whole lot of walking later we walked almost the whole length of the pier--also longer than it looks--and then finally decided we'd better head back west towards the train stop if we were going to go Pierogi Factory for dinner. My info said it was two blocks west of the Belmont stop, so off we went.

It's also a lot further to the Grand St. station from the pier than it looks.

And four or five blocks west of Belmont we decided we'd better just eat at one of the other places we'd passed, as we had seen nothing pierogi-like, and ended up at Matsuyama despite really having no clue. We got a California roll because it was safe, I got beef with some kind of ginger dressing, and Charles got a Godzilla roll. I even ate a slice, despite not knowing what kumpyo, oshinko, or masago are and being a little skittish about the whole "eel" idea.

Today we plan to try hitting the Field Museum and the science museum, and going back to finish the aquarium. We're going to try taking the Metra train in instead of the subway. The subway here is interesting--some of the lines really move, and are sort of a combination of the Boston T and a rollercoaster--the clearance between the tracks and some of the buildings are a little tight-looking in places. Always interesting when you're zooming along the tracks watching the car in front of you rock and sway.

We will have to try a Chicago-style hot dog while we're here. We had churros while we were at the pier yesterday and weren't overly impressed. We're supposed to meet Shannon for lunch, so we'll see what we can find.

Proper Throwing Mechanics, with example photos of real baseball players and then a random assortment of celebrities throwing first pitches. (Go Danica.)

It looks like sewing this skirt is going to be way easier than sewing the blouse: far fewer pieces and 1/3 less length of instructions. At least that's what I tell myself.

Our first three Brandywine tomatoes of the year became soup tonight. Yum.

Okay, I've tried sushi, are you all happy now??

It was at a Chinese buffet (the one in Anderson we eat at every so often)--it was just a blob of rice with a piece of fake crab on top, and yes I salted the rice. :P I also tried a couple at our favourite buffet in Elyria--one was rice with a butterflied shrimp on top, and the other looked like cream cheese with nori around it and rice outside that. It had a funny oceany flavour I didn't much care for, but the shrimp one was good. Mostly I like the rice--I like just about any kind of rice--and the other ingredients are kind of incidental.

Rather than Fuddrucker's in Flint, my usual on-the-way-home lunch, I may try a Chinese restaurant I've read about.

Mostly True Comics: Dating Dr. Venkman

I hadn't thought of that, and see, prettyh, I told you I found him (character AND actor) creepy... heh.

Vaguely related, I found the episode of Wait, Wait--Don't Tell Me!" with Harold Ramis as the Not My Job guest. We must have heard it in reruns a year or two later, though, because the original air date is the birthday I spent out cold on IV Benadryl after a particularly bad reaction to plasma aphoresis.

I'd say "yay Friday" but I have to leave for this year's 4th run on Tuesday and I don't feel at all prepared. Where has the year gone?

I did make a blueberry cake to take to work though.

Watching Empire of the Ants. I think I saw it on hippie_chick's journal and just HAD to add it to our queue because I'm a sucker for giant animal movies.

Got waved at by a fellow driver of a red Prius today.

Made the world's blandest orzo recipe today. Thanks, Food Network. :P

Watching this guy on the movie who is Not Bruce Campbell makes me think of high school and Not Ezra.

I put something into the hands of the postal service today that is, basically, irreplaceable. Not that I'm paranoid about it or anything.

I think Not Bruce is wearing a leisure suit. Hee. I'm so lucky I don't remember the '70s.

This movie seems to think it's Jaws.

We've also been watching The Critic. Not the genius of The Simpsons or Futurama, but apparently they were short on voice talent--it's like all Maurice, all the time, which makes me happy.

Sitting on the porch with friends having grilled hamburgers, potato salad, fruit salad, and homemade cheesecake. Then watching birds (and mysterious flying white objects).

Then Charles brought out the laptop and he and Bob critiqued movies.aol.com's list of TV's 50 Sexiest Women. Robin and I e-mailed them a complaint--"Where's the list of 50 sexiest men??"

I need to make Charles' belated birthday cake today! I also want to roast a chicken and make hot chicken sandwiches for dinner. And because our bag of cod loins from Sam's thawed thoroughly while we were in Meijer, I have three pounds of cod to use up quickly. Half of that will go into a fish lasagna (no, I swear, it's made with white sauce, it's good) for dinner tomorrow and probably the remainder will be split into thinner pieces to fry or grill. Because of course we just had fish for dinner on Friday.

I also need to get outside to clear enough of the garden to plant all those tomatoes I bought last weekend. This will be made more difficult by the fact that the outdoors is now inimical to me again. Benadryl coma, here I come.

I currently have fourteen pounds of white furry fury in my lap making it difficult to do my exchange.

...I'm having dim sum with a priest tomorrow. Not particularly interesting, but for some reason it just sounds cool.

Cool, I just found the Cantonese equivalent of "gringo." Also I learned tonight that the Cantonese name for the snow mountain buns we had in L.A. is hsie sun bao, but apparently they are easiest to find in California.

I had a really strange dream last night--we were fighting World War II again, and my grandfather was in the war, and somehow both grandparents ended up killed. I think. I remember gathering around the kitchen counter in their house with my family and crying a lot. Then Gram was a ghost, and we were at Brandeis, where classrooms had wheelchair-accessible areas that were just big square cellar-like rooms dug on one side of a regular room, with a ramp in between. Anyway, if you pissed ghost-Gram off, she could sort of inadvertently kill you--the normal whitish ghost-glow would become black and she would drain your life. I was trying desperately to protect a friend who had done something stupid and upset her. It was very, very strange.

I have a whole chicken cooking in the Crock-Pot (a variation of Crazy Aunt Purl's turkey breast in the crock-pot for dinner tonight--some homemade stuffing and mashed potatoes to go with it, and we have dinner. I hope. I don't use the slow cooker much so I'm not especially good with it.

I think we might have to turn the furnace back on today--apparently doozer4200's cold front has arrived. My fingers are cold.

Today I'm going to attempt to make Alton Brown's protein bar recipe, assuming I still have enough dried fruit left after nom nom nomming on it last night. Yum. Also I may make a batch of the muffins on the back of the oat bran box.

I would also like to get some photos of my red hat (which I un-lost yesterday) and some of the nifty yarns that tpau gave me. Then I need to clear the camera's memory chip so it's ready for the fireworks demo this weekend.

Apparently "New York Style" Chinese means "good food, but the staff have an attitude, and you get shorted something every visit."

The weather is awesome. The grass is green. Roadside bracken is sprouting leaves and trees are putting out flowers. Construction signs are appearing in gay profusion. Must be spring in Indiana.

Speaking of gay profusion, Marsh is advertising pansy bowls. Sounds like a football event.

The dingy, dinky Marsh at 86th and Ditch (I miss living on the north side) has a surprisingly impressive kosher-for-Passover section--I'd have figured it to be in a store farther north. I found my Passover Coke and got some regular Coke to compare it with.

While dawdling past the seafood section to see if they had anything good, I was sucker-punched by a smell that I can't identify, but that brings back very vivid memories of hospital food. I high-tailed it to the kosher section after that.

There is now a knitting store on 86th. I must stop in one of these days.

Would pocket lint do bad things to a music player? There is already a fair layer of lint between my iPod and its case.

I'd forgotten that one cannot eat McDonald's alone in this house--Rocket will smell it and SWARM YOU to get some. He loves his McDonald's burgers.

(if it qualifies) is "LOL WHUT."

I have the bad feeling it's going to be the phrase of the week... at least.

Ten minutes into my workday I bent quickly at the waist (I need to learn to STOP DOING THAT) and popped my button. Dammit. Spent several hours trying to make do with a paperclip (yes, despite this being a repeat occurrence, I still don't have even safety pins in my desk) and the rest just staying in my office out of sight.

Then an hour before I left my sinuses went berserk and I started feeling queasy.

I'd debating whether I'm hungry enough to eat anything, or if I should just go to bed.

Also, small lakes are forming in fields and rivers and ponds are overflowing their banks AGAIN. Didn't we just get over this?

Also, we now have a pizza peel and a baking stone. Pizza tomorrow!

Q*Bert is eating parts of Charles' donut. I guess old habits die hard.

I made tuna casserole today, in the Mirro-Matic electric casserole; if I insisted I needed one, I should use it once a while.

Charles still feels icky, with the addition of dizziness. I told him if this goes on much longer he should call Community again.

Here comes Rocket for some donut.

I spent most of the day filing paperwork; I got two boxes down to about half a box. If only there were one more day in the weekend, I could get it done. Tomorrow I drive to Avon for an employee meeting; this is the city Charles works in, on the opposite side of Indy from Anderson. Most likely I'll stop at Food King for some take-out on the way home.

We watched the first half of "Dan Aykroyd Unplugged: UFOs" last night... what a load of tripe. We also learned recently that Donna Dixon (the blonde on Bosom Buddies married Dan Aykroyd. I think Charles is in denial.

WHY IS Q*BERT STALKING MY KNEEPAD??

We bought almost four pounds of haddock at Meijer for 99 cents a pound. I see chowder in the future.

Also, anyone have any good soup recipes? Charles still feels icky, so we've been eating soup all week, and I'm running out of soups to make.