January, 2009
January 26th, 2009
Awesome Inauguration Photo
Some dude took over 200 pictures with a really good camera during the inauguration and put them all together to make one huge picture that allows you to zoom in close enough to see every little detail.
Among the highlights: Cheney looks angry, W looks bored and Clarence Thomas is sleeping.
January 25th, 2009
Collards Done Right
When I went to Peoria Meat Packing last week to get 6.5 pounds of sausage for my guests, I picked up a nice big ham hock for myself.
A few days later, I went to Stanley’s and got some organic collard greens (organic was all they had, not sure pesticides matter when cooking this way). Followed this easy recipe which involved cooking the ham hock for an hour alone and then another hour with the greens.
I ended up with this feast yesterday:
January 25th, 2009
Valuable Lesson Learned
Last night, I showered right before going out, put on a clean pair of pants, and walked out the door. About 20 minutes later, I realized I had left my keys and my wallet inside my locked apartment, resting comfortably in the pockets of the pants I had been wearing earlier in the day. For my last apartment, I distributed spare keys to 5 or 6 different people. In the new place, I had only given keys to my little sister, who is on vacation out of the country.
I had met my sister’s landlord once before, so I headed over to their place (they live above my sister) and rang the doorbell at about 10. Nobody was home. Then I called Stu, who lives in the neighborhood and invited myself over. Kind-hearted Stu let me hang out at his place and headed out to a bar. I went to the Tribune’s website and researched real estate transactions and figured out my sister’s landlord’s name. I googled him and found his bio on his law firm website. Knowing that he would have his blackberry with him, since that’s what big firm lawyers do, I emailed him and he called me to let me know he was going to be out until about 1 and that I could come over then and he’d let me in to my sister’s place or else I could come the next morning. Not wanting to spend the night apart from my beloved Phred, I told him to let me know when he was close to getting home and I’d head over there.
At 1:15, I got a text from him and walked the mile and a quarter in some below zero wind chill to get to their place and got the key chain that I had given my sister. I walked back to my apartment and discovered that there was no key on the key chain for the entrance to my building. I decided against waking up neighbors at 1:45 and walked back to Stu’s where I slept surprisingly comfortably on a couch significantly shorter than me.
Woke up this morning around 9:30 and walked home, buzzed my neighbor who let me in and went to my apartment door. It was then that I discovered the keys didn’t work. My sister or the brother-in-law (I’m guessing him) had apparently taken my keys off the key chain I had given them. So I then walked back to their place and called their landlord again. They are nice people. I got into my sister’s apartment, took every single key I could find – they have a lot of them – and headed back home. Fortunately, one of the keys worked and at 10:30 this morning I got a good five minutes of non-stop hugging and licking from Fred.
Moral of the Story: I will never change my pants again.
