recipecreation

I created a new recipe today for lunch and thought I'd share it for all those who are brave enough to try it.

Cook enough spaghetti noodles for one person broken in three sections.
After draining, add 2 tablespoons of butter and mix in over very low heat with noodles and two small beef bouillon cubes. Add 1/4 cup of milk or coconut milk (my favorite) and stir in 2 tablespoons of goat cheese. Make sure everything is is dissolved and stirred properly. Your end product should be lightly coated noodles with no excess liquid. Eat Hot.

It was so yummy!

84 degrees

I am sitting in my apartment watching Channel 5 news and the ridiculously cheesy Chicago advertisements while baking away. A few more hours and I'll be roasted perfectly for a 5 course meal. We have Radiant heating that comes through the floor..."free" heat in Chicago is great...Heat rises, that's right from the floor to the ceiling where the apartment above ours has heat in the floor also. It is HOT. Today it was in the upper 50's outside, but nobody adjusted our heat, so we are being baked as if it was 30 degrees outside. I love winter, I love the cold (well only really when it's snowing), but I hate the heat. Well, atleast I'm not Bailey with a full coat of fur.

Thanksgiving Weekend Passing

So, the big old day of Turkey and fillings has passed, with no major issues to worry about. This was Philip and my first Thanksgiving Dinner together, so I wanted to have a grand feast. We made a 12lb Fresh Baked Turkey seasoned with sage and apple, Chestnut and Cranberry Stuffing made with fresh baked chestnuts, Cranberry and Persimmon relish, Mashed Potatoes, Diced Yams in Maple Syrup, Butternut Squash Soup garnished with chestnuts, Corn Casserole, and Creme Brulie made by Josh and Jason. Our fun little group was made up of Greta, Philip, myself, Alison, Vanny, Jason and Josh. We dined, wined, desserted and wined a little more. The turkey knocked me out very rapidly and everyone seemed a bit tired. It was a great grown-up Thanksgiving Dinner. Every year must be top the prior, so we will have to plan early to make it a success.

525,600 minutes

So many minutes? Whatever for? Well, I don't know. Actually I know very little about this movie that is getting so much hype in the media and with people everywhere. Rent is opening Nationwide on Wednesday November 23rd and I have tickets for it already. Thanks to Movietickets.com and Ross' Movie Watcher membership, I bought tickets today for the show because I am sure that it will sell out. I've been listening to the soundtrack from the musical because Philip informs me that to be able to truly appreciate the movie, I must be familiar with the songs beforehand. Nevertheless, it will be an exciting evening to kick of the Thanksgiving and holiday season.

full day's work

Today was my day off, so I woke up late and made blueberry filled crepes for breakfast. yum yum. Then, Ross and I decided to make the journey to Aurora... out in the far far far western suburbs. After nearly an hour in the car, we arrive at the "Premium Outlet Mall". The idea of origin for this trip was because Ross received a coupon for the Polo Ralph Lauren Factory store so we went there and looked around a bit. We hit up many stores and I bought a sweater from Banana, a scarf from the Gap, and some cool candle beads from the Farberware store! We dined in the totally 'awesome' foodcourt; Japanese was my choice again, and we wondered around a little more. After leaving the mall, we went to Costco in Naperville where I bought a 12 pound Bird for Thanksgiving, then on to Meijer for more groceries, and finally Target where Ross bought a 6ft faux tree for $16.99. I know, crazy isn't it? So 5 hrs later, we decided to head home just in time to get stuck in rush hour traffic on I-88 and I-290. I don't know how people do that every day!

Winter is near

It is snowy outside, 25 degrees, and a wind chill of 13! Oh joyous winter is near. So, wearing three thick layers this morning to work was not fashionably acceptable, but this is Chicago baby and it gets mighty cold. This little taste of winter weather is a great welcome as we finish our Holiday 2 floorset and prepare to be visited by the big wigs tomorrow. Tonight is also my last night of class, which is great. Time for food, drinks, and hopefully just a little discussion. Soon it will be time to relax!

10 hours

3:30 am :beep, beep, beep, beep... snooze... beep, beep, beep, beep. shower, too early for breakfast, 4:30 kim picks me up, 4:45 Starbucks box of Jo to Go. Bad employee takes forever.. 5:00 am @ work. 10 and a half hrs later i get to go home. This was the longest and most tiring day of my life. Floor Set is killing me softly.
I held back this evening from buying a new coat. Baby, its cold outside, but my wool will have to do for now :( Sonoma had some great buys: Butternut Squash puree to make some yummy Tgiving soup. Another paper accomplished tonight. goodbye.

bedtime

yes, it is.. bedtime. 10:29 pm, early indeed, but not for me. i got up at 4 frickin 30 this morning to be at work at 6 am for the wonderful tabletop floorset at the barn, which was my former department before I moved to the more gloriously decorated HA. i just proof read and edited my 25 pg paper that is due on wednesday and have two more 5 pagers to go sometime this week and I have to get up at 3:30 am tomorrow to be at work at 5 for floorset. What's with these crazy hours. Tired I am. gotta go to bed...

12:43 pm

Many hours I've slaved away at this massive paper. Now I have 20 pages. Now I must proof read it and rewrite some parts. Now I must go to bed...

Accomplished?

Nothing much has been sadly. I am still on pg 8 out of 25 on my final paper. Writer's block? No, probably laziness:) I miss those days when you could totally BS your way through school. Why am I in grad school? It is cold here today, infact so cold that I had to wear my winter coat this morning on the walk to the train. I'm starting to remember why I hate winter. I need a new coat. Yes I do. Maybe Tasara could pick up a really cool British one for me and send it down to Chicago? Probably not.... later...

last class...

Tonight was my official last class of Feminist Theories although we are meeting next week to eat together and have final discussion. So as I'm relieved about that I remember that I have to turn in my 20-25 pg paper on this coming Wednesday. I have 7 pages so far.. so at least I've begun, unlike some of my classmates. I also have 2 smaller papers due for my independent study class that I constantly forget about:( So much work to do and I just want to go to sleep. In other news, sadness as Philip must return to Goshen this weekend for 3 weeks to do his senior seminar. We are happy to be able to spend Thanksgiving together, but it will be different not having him so close in Chicago:(

Leaves a fallin'

As I sat at the bus stop at 51st and Lake Park for an extraordinarily long time waiting for the #6 Jackson Park Express bus, I became aware of the odd weather around me. I remember earlier when the channel 5 newsman warned me not to go walking tonight because of thunderstorms and that I might get struck by lighting. Odd, indeed. So as the winds blew up slowly and then subsided, the clouds moved around, and the sky lit up and roared, I wondered indeed if channel 5 was correct, that on this erie night something odd might happen. As I sat alone for quite awhile I looked into the sky and saw, what I now believe to be the moon, a vague light disappear. Suddenly images from "Wars of the World" came into my mind. As I sat alone, I quickly called Phil to take my mind off of my absurdity and share it with him. Finally the bus came. 35 minutes later as I walked from the red line stop to my home, I noticed the leaves falling left and right as they had been windstruck earlier in the evening. I noticed that Fall is indeed here and that sadly it will be frigid soon.

potluck

we had a good new fashioned mennonite potluck. why was it new? Well, instead of the usual scene of all the older and not so old mennonite women sweating over a stove in the oven and heating up in the microwave, meat, potatoes, and casserole, we had an array of delicious ethnic dishes brought in by men and women from the church congregation. It is nice to see the variance between this congregation and those that we knew long ago. Looking forward into the future perhaps? :)

....

Orland Park

So this Thursday and Friday I made my way to the suburbs with a small troupe from our Lincoln Park store to help out with the opening of the Orland Park store at the Orland Square mall in Orland Park, yes... the suburbs. I have been one to say that it takes a might good reason for me to trek out to the suburbs, after all I do not own a car and the city has way more interesting things to do anyway...in short "I don't do the suburbs".

DAY 1
So after a 40 minute ride full of PB gossip and drama, many wondrous moments of "where the heck are we", and one dead dear on the roadside, with Claire and Robbie in Claire's car we arrive at the mall and make our way to the new store. It is beautiful! New wood, clean floors... well, clean everything and completely empty. It was like being in an art museum, with no art. We have a group meeting (the first of many to come) and find out that we will only be working till one pm because the truck in fact was a day late. Boo on you UPS! So we spent the next 5 hrs doing a lot of nothing, but labeling shelves and having pep meetings. Oh joy oh bliss. The day was topped off at end with a great lunch meal with my Lincoln Park crew in the food court... yes a real live mall food court. Robbie Claire and I return to the great city in the car full of more gossip and drama, but this time about all the crazies we met that day.

DAY 2
Another early morning meeting at Starbucks for Robbie, Claire and I. The ride was great this time as we did not need to concentrate on our route as Claire had mastered it well the day before. So, we spent our time reminiscing on the insanity of the day before. We arrive again at the store, have a round up meeting and get to work. I was given the job of scanning the truck with another guy (who was new, and a little annoying..to say the least) We scanned a 50 ft truck with around 576 pieces total, of which most were rods, rugs, and heavy coffee tables. The truck took about only 2 hours or so to finish scanning an unloading. I won the unofficial contest of who scanned the most pieces by a mere 10 pieces! (I pretended to not want to scan more or have any interest in it, but basked in my glorious win over mr. crazy whom I had to work with. Time for lunch and a shopping trip to Williams Sonoma, where I bought a beautiful awesome waffle iron.
The second truck had 2500 pieces in a 50 ft semi also. I had to scan this time also and the same guy on the other side. We had a team of 3 persons moving boxes for us at first and by the end about 6 people each. I secretly gloated inside when the GM took scanning duty away from the other guy and passed it on to someone who new the product better. I loved it. This time I won the unofficial race again. I scanned 1476 pieces and the others scanned just over 1000. yes oh yes. What a joy.
Claire, Robbie, and I couldn't wait to get out of there at 5pm. We got caught in rush hour traffic but used our extra time wisely to talk about people we could not stand form the day. Are we mean? well.. probably a little, but come on... if you had to work with some of the crazies, you would be too!

well almost

I'm back... well almost. It's been quite the busy past two weeks. Yes, I am still behind in school. Sometimes I forget that I have an independent study. :( sadness. Three more papers to do for that class with about three weeks to do it. Not bad. Feminist Theories has been kicking my butkuss. I mean seriously. I have to co lead discussion tomorrow night and just finished reading all 11 articles and summarized them. Work has been crazy lately also. 6am three days in a row this week and then two days in the suburbs at a new store. Good night. I do have the wierdest trips to the 'burbs. Otherwise life has been decent. I can't wait till Thanksgiving. Then I will be done with classes for this quarter and can relax a bit. I must go to bed. My weariness is setting in. Hopefully more to come soon...