Mishaps and other haps

I have had two occasions this year after which I remarked that the thought of eating the next day was depressing and impossible because nothing could possibly be as tasty. The first time this happened was in March, after visiting the Four Seasons Hotel for brunch and Ron of Japan for dinner in Chicago. The second occasion was yesterday, after again visiting the Four Seasons Hotel for brunch and Ron of Japan for dinner.

We woke up early, early and headed out to Chicago with PhysOrg’s family, to be at brunch by 10:30. It was a drizzly day, but thankfully well above freezing and not even particularly cold (I was still glad to have a coat when I was outside because it was rainy and cool and I’m a weenie).

The Four Seasons Hotel is located in a large shopping complex on Michigan Avenue. You should go there to:
a) Celebrate some significant happening in life; or
b) Just completely enjoy yourself

Brunch takes approximately 2.5 hours. We had a private room this time, which was wonderful– nine people around a table and a very mellow five-month-old baby to pass around and generally entertain. It was fabulous and cozy. The only drawback to the private room is that you have more difficulty hearing the piano, but depending on how many trips you take out for more food, this may not be a tremendous problem.

Many, many different brunch items to try. Lots of vegetarian options. Brunch includes lots of breakfasty options, but goes far, far beyond breakfast. Insert every superlative adjective that comes to mind to describe the tastiness of brunch.

We did not see Keanu this time, Mlitiagrl.

After brunch, our party split up. Two members headed to a Puccini opera, two members headed to the Planetarium, and the rest of us went shopping!

Holiday season shopping in downtown Chicago is neat– it would be an especially wonderful place to take kids because of the decorations. We started in the same building complex where we had eaten brunch: 900 N. Michigan Ave. A huge Christmas tree (maybe 4-5 stories tall?) was in the middle of the building, easily visible from the interior where the shops and the stairs between floors are located.

We continued to the Water Tower Place, which was maybe a block away, and then visited the Apple store and a four-story Crate and Barrel. Electronics and furniture were the most-drooled-over items, although there was a small amount of clothes and toy store shopping. I think downtown Chicago is the place to shop– and I am finally beginning to understand why there are not many great places to shop in Madison and Milwaukee– people just drive to Chicago.

The beautiful baby was wonderful and content the whole time. I have never actually seen him fuss unless he needs something– food, a new diaper, or a nap. His daddy carried for him for a bit and then switched out with his two doting uncles.

We returned to the hotel lobby around 5 and waited for the rest of our group to show up at the appointed 5:30 meeting time. Then we headed to Ron of Japan for another amazing meal.

Ron of Japan is basically a hibachi-style steak/seafood restaurant. They make a mean Midori colada and a wonderful substance called shrimp sauce(because it’s traditionally used on the shrimp, but its usefulness has been extended to coating almost everything edible in the restaurant). ALSO, THEY GRILL UP TASTY MUSHROOMS, VEGETABLES, AND TOFU! And tofu can be coated with shrimp sauce with amazing results!

Tom also ordered tofu this time, which was neat because I was not the only tofu eater at the table (and PhysOrg’s sister tried a piece), but I think that is going to change on his next visit because he tried PhysOrg’s steak …

Completely sated (probably for the entire week), we headed back to Madison. The only glitch in the trip was getting caught in a huge traffic jam on the interstate on the way back from Chicago. We were delayed perhaps an hour in travel time and the only cause we could detect was a huge back-up at one of the toll booths (which we averted once we actually made it to the toll booth by using the iPass).

It was about 11:30 when I tumbled into bed, the end of a fun and busy holiday weekend.

More days like Friday.

I slept in. Woke up and poked around a bit, wrote a blog entry about Thanksgiving. Took a shower, went out into the wide world to pick up eye accessories. Noticed that the world was white and it was snowing, but it was light snow all afternoon and not very messy to drive in, so I enjoyed the snow.

At home again, I baked a crustless pumpkin pie (per Matt’s mom’s recipe), downloaded music, and did some reviewing for the exam I have next weekend.

PhysOrg came over when he was finished with work and we spent some time together at my place while the pie was cooling. Then we went shopping for food and made dinner at his place, tested out the GameCube’s version of DDR, & watched TV until Inle came over with movies. We watched Roxanne with Steve Martin and fully intended to watch the version of Peter Pan that came out a few years ago, but the movies had been shelved poorly, so we discovered we had the Disney version. No fear, we pulled out Love, Actually (seriously, one of my favorite movies and a holiday necessity).

Was 2 AM or a bit after by that time and Inle was leaving for home, so I hitched a ride with him. And I might finally be sleepy, so yay– good day.

As a sort of pilgrim in the modern world, I have established with my family that the menu for Thanksgiving differs regionally (and from family-to-family) just a little. For example, pumpkin pie was not a necessity when I was growing up. It might have really been more the exception than the rule, in fact, becuase most of our contact with pumpkins were the canned variety (people don’t grow them for eating as much in Florida). We had the almighty yam (or sweet potato) and it could take the form of casserole, or pie, or both. Sweet potato pie is very similar to pumpkin pie, but maybe a bit sweeter and thicker. My Grandmother always makes pecan pie and several people make cakes that are more *traditional* in our family than seasonal. My Aunt Judy usually makes a red velvet cake that everyone enjoys and my mom makes an Italian cream cake or German chocolate cake. Whichever cake Mom doesn’t make at Thanksgiving, she is likely to make for Christmas.

Stuffing is another difference. In Wisconsin, stuffing rules and there are many variations on what stuffing can be. Back home, we eat *dressing* for Thanksgiving. This is a little different from stuffing because it is cornbread-based. You start out by making cornbread, but you use extra eggs, so it is EGG BREAD. Then it cools and perhaps the next day, you make it into dressing by mashing it up and adding chicken or turkey broth and perhaps things like celery and onion and seasonings– then you bake it in a casserole dish and the result is pretty yummy. At my Grandmother’s house, there are always TWO dishes of dressing because some members of our family do not like onion and celery– so one dish has them and one does not.

Since 1998, I have been celebrating Thanksgiving in Wisconsin. It is too far to travel home for the weekend and I have been very fortunate to find people to celebrate the holiday with.

This year, my roommate and I had dinner with PhysOrg’s family (which I have been doing for the past three years and she has accompanied us the past two years) at a friend’s home in downtown Madison. It was a lot of fun and once we were obscenely full and stuffed to the brim with the best food, those of us who were still awake had pie. PhysOrg took my roommate and another guest home and returned while the rest of us were digesting. And in a bit, we packed up, drove for an hour, and ate again at PhysOrg’s grandparents’ house. Then we had more pie.

We returned late in the evening, stuffed, and then it was necessary to collapse and sleep a lot.

PhysOrg’s mom has Thanksgiving down to a culinary art. Not only did she cook what was by all accounts a most delicious turkey, but everything else she makes is always the best you can imagine– food with paragon levels.

So I decided to make chocolate silk pies Wednesday night because I knew she would have all of the bases covered for traditional Thanksgiving fare, but I wanted to bring something on Thursday. This was a great idea because I stumbled across a recipe that turned out really well and that I will add to my collection of “recipes worth making again.” One pie went to dinner yesterday, one will remain in the refrigerator for my roommate and me (and anyone else who happens to be nearby and wants pie) and one will be going over to PhysOrg and TheDeacon’s house later today.

I also purchased some new music Wednesday night, so I had musical encouragement while I was baking, which is always soothing.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and has a fabulous weekend!

You know when you give your love away
it opens your heart,
everything is new.
And you know time will always find a way
to let your heart believe it’s true.

I feel a bit culpable for 2/3 of our party getting wiped tonight. If my character hadn’t poured that unidentified potion down the unconscious druid’s throat during our gaming session last week, which produced a druid with INT 1, and hadn’t then promptly poured another unidentified potion down the druid’s throat that healed the mentally-impaired druid to full HP …

Well, we probably would have had some death anyway, possibly a TPK, but without all of the in-party fighting and crazed/injured dispersal into the wilderness.

So my character made it back to town and earned a barbarian level in the process (i.e. I made several very good rolls), but Inle and PhysOrg ended up rolling up new characters tonight.

That’s why they call it D&D, I guess …

I think this is the best invitation to Thanksgiving dinner I have ever received:

You are coming to Thankgiving Dinner Thrusday (or else).

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

I went to breakfast with Splott and her friend Dave this morning at Cleveland’s Diner, a little place on E. Wilson St. that you will miss if you blink as you are walking by. The food there is tasty and cheap, and Splott noted that most of their menu items are made from scratch, so it is a good place for breakfast downtown and, as you might guess, it is pretty busy on the weekend.

I didn’t realize that I had been there before until I drove by the place, although I am not sure whether it was with Splott or with Gruntac, who also lived in that neighborhood a few years back. Possibly both? However, that previous breakfast at Cleveland’s was at least four or five years ago. I suspect it was when I was gaming with both Splott and Gruntac. So a million years ago, in a completely different lifetime

I walked through the neighborhood since I had parked a few blocks away. It made me a little nostalgic simply because my life seems different in a lot of ways than it was then. I am not the kind of person who wants to return to or somehow relive or redo the past, but it is good to know that I do have some good memories from that time, since it sometimes feels like I have forgotten much of the good because of some bad things that happened.

It is kind of strange to meet up with someone you haven’t seen in about three years, although the fact that we have communicated through our blogs during most of that time probably made it less awkward than running into each other somewhere or making plans completely out of the blue.

Yes, the power of the internet makes it possible to have people in your life that you don’t do things with very often or even call regularly. And you can know quite a bit about the details of someone’s life that way, but it’s not like seeing them frequently in person.

I have a few relationships that are like that now and I think it is probably OK. You go away from breakfast feeling like you haven’t entirely conveyed the full picture of what your world is like, but they probably feel the same way. And when there’s not breakfast, there’s a blog, so it’s like having little windows to look in, even if they only show you a small part of what’s going on inside.

Just got back from seeing MirrorMask (Neil Gaiman wrote the script) with Inle, Mlitiagrl, and PhysOrg. I highly encourage people to go and see it soon (if it is playing near you) because it doesn’t sound like it will be in theaters long with all of the holiday movies coming out and such. Very cute, highly memorable characters. I thought it was well worth seeing.

Yes, the Friday morning (12:05 AM) showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was neat. Unfortunately, Star Cinema does not carry hot chocolate, so I was fueled on crazy candy (Reese’s Pieces) and soda. We all ate dinner with PhysOrg that evening and sent him home to sleep since he had work early the next morning. The Goddess, Inle, Mlitiagrl, and I continued to the theater around 10 to join the queue. We didn’t actually join the queue until closer to 10:30 since people were standing outside in the cold waiting to get in. The staff at Star let us in around 11– we grabbed great seats, picked up concessions and more or less zoned out for about an hour.

With every Harry Potter movie, I feel like I am watching “scenes from Harry Potter.” Maybe this is one of the drawbacks of reading all of the books first. My roommate did not have this problem and she was very satisfied with the movie– felt that it might be better than PoA, but probably won’t decide until she has seen it again. I missed some of the plot details that are more forthcoming in the books, but otherwise I thought it was a good film, had spectacular special effects, and I liked the actors chosen for the new characters that were introduced, including the fully-embodied Voldemort, Madame Maxime, and Mad-Eye Moody.

Certain female members of our viewing party might have been impressed with the handsome young champion Cedric Diggory– at which I have to scoff– ha, younger men! Then again, I guess I cannot very well get away with that.

It will be necessary to see GoF again while it is in the theater, probably on the Ultrascreen, but we will wait a few weeks at least. Those of us at Point for MirrorMask noticed that as of noon today, all Saturday showings of GoF except for the 10 PM showing were already sold out. So this weekend is going to be a mess if you’re trying to see that film.

Going to grab some lunch now, then will probably play WoW.

Yes, I had a sort of sucky service experience today. It wasn’t really that it was terrible. It was more like it wasn’t really worth what I paid for it and I am used to paying less, so I am disappointed. I know everybody has this experience from time to time, but I feel gripe-y because I had it today.

On the other hand, my hair is currently beautiful, even though the styling products had to be expurgated immediately upon arriving home. I just think I should be spanked for what I spent on making it beautiful. I will try not to be so spoiled tomorrow, since my helpful hair shirt just got back from the dry cleaners. I am considering resuming the periodic coloring myself, but the hair is just a lot harder to manage now that it is longer– and I like it longer. Think I should still be able to do it, though.

OK, the beauty queen consumer will shut up now and return to her regularly-scheduled geekiness.

Must have continued snowing after I got home yesterday because there was snow on the car this morning, but luckily it was the powder kind that sweeps off cleanly with the swipe of a brush or sleeve.

Snow isn’t so bad once the weather switches into super-cold mode. It’s the wet, sticky snow that makes getting into the car, clearing the windshield, and driving to work difficult, super hazardous, and potentially impossible. I like the impossible, really. I imagine there are going to be about three days this winter when my car will be encased in a block of ice and I won’t know how to deal and I’ll just call in and take a sick day for a snow day. Don’t have too many vacation days left this year (and I want to carry over the couple I do have), but I have a bunch of sick time.

BTW, DID I MENTION HOW MUCH I LOVE THE NEW TRACTION TIRES I BOUGHT IN MAY?!

Well, the new Harry Potter movie is released to the general public tonight at midnight and I have failed to re-read the entire book before viewing the movie. I guess I could run home and speed-read after work, but it is much more likely that I will take a nap. I stayed up a little later than I planned playing WoW because I am getting close to buying my mount and I’m really pushing the auctions, the farming, and the selling. Poor Wailing Caverns has had the shit beaten out of it recently by individual high-level members of the Dragon Factory. Nothing will ever grow there again. ::weep::

Ah, and I don’t have to work tomorrow. You have no idea how much happiness and satisfaction this brings me, even though I will be having my eyes poked and prodded early in the day. The even greater joy will be the following week, when I work only 3 days.

OK, gotta get back to work– everybody have a good weekend!