Oh no they didn't...

Hail to the ch-ch-ch-chief.

(It says that on the side of the box.)

Mushroom Lasagna

Ingredients:

No boil lasagna noodles

two turns olive oil

sliced mushrooms

chopped yellow pepper

pinch of salt

pinch of nutmeg

jar of pasta sauce

1 1/2 c. cottage cheese

8 oz. cream cheese

enough mozzarella to cover the top

1. In olive oil, cook up the mushrooms and pepper until desired doneness (add pinches of salt and nutmeg)

2. Drain

3. Add pasta sauce, set aside

4. combine cream cheese with cottage cheese, microwave one minute, stir together

5. Layer: noodles, sauce mix, cheese mix, noodles, sauce, cheese,  noodles, sauce

6. Top with mozzarella

7. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes

I looked up and it was Sunday night

Went to see Our Lady of the Underpass (the PLAY!) I'm must say I was impressed.


Heard that Mayor Daley was going to be "opening" the new Howard station (El stop) entrance. I couldn't resist walking the three blocks and taking a picture. I stood there not pondering machine politics, or our great city, or how nice the station looked, but instead wondered about the very many ribbons that man had cut in his life...


Went "junking" in Volo Illinois with my pals. (This rabbit photo courtesy of Allison.)

Lazy blogger here. We'll catch up tomorrow.

I walked by a man today, a van driver with a walkie talkie on his hip, who was out of his van getting the wheelchair ramp ready for use. As I passed, the walkie talkie clicked into static and then a voice came on and said (word for word) "Blah blah blah blah." And then it clicked back off. The guy didn't even seem to notice.

Sometimes, early in the mornings when things are still quiet, Rogers Park seems like a town in the middle of the Wild West.

Eat your meal BEFORE reading:

I was talking to my sister on the phone last night and we got to talking about foods we hate. I'm generally not too picky. I like some of it, but I tend to steer away from red meat. It's just not my favorite taste in the world, on top of the fact that all I can think about are muscle fibers. Which is totally gross. Which segues into my other general rule about food I don't like, which is any animal still in its natural (whole or partial) form. Shrimp are out. Anything still in a shell. I have mixed feelings about eating off of bones. It really is primarily a taste thing, secondarily a texture thing. Add in the aforementioned gross factors, and some foods just get crossed right off my list of possibilities. But I digress, what I really wanted to tell you was that after I gave my list to my sister, she gave me hers, and it was so good that I had to share. My sister hates:
Onions-"because they are so powerful. They make me cry."
Canned asparagus- because it is like "mushy wet boogers"
Egg nog- because "it smells like play-dough and erasers" (which I get)
Greek Olives- because they "taste like sore throat spray" (which I don't get)

There were a few others but those stand out the most. She had never heard of pigs feet (when I told her I would never eat them) and so I e-mailed her a picture. She replied this:

"Hi jessie that picture that you emailed me about pigs feet or whatever
it was well it made me wanna vomit so badly. Ock. Ick. Sick. Yucky.
Awful stuff i don't want to eat it."

Talking to my sister (both over the phone and over e-mail) pretty much always makes my day.

Trivia

On average, how many minutes apart are twins born?
[Hint: it's nine minutes longer than the minutes between Sarah and Andy H.] :)

This one is called "Dog Waits While the Woman Who Walks Him and Keeps Him Fed Buys a Hot Cup of Peppermint Tea"
It's a classic.

Sunshine Cleaners

I so enjoyed this movie. A story about dealing with death with no tidy endings. Just like life. (Okay there may have been one or two tidy endings. And the whole CB thing was corney. But I can forgive.)

Bright Idea

Gilmore Girls

There's a comfort food of a show called Gilmore Girls. Nothing can quite wrap around you like a warm blanket and make you stop thinking about real estate like the Lorelais.

Our Lady of the Underpass

It's things like these that sort of finish up the job of falling in love with Chicago for me.  The quirky things.  A few things fell into place over the weekend  1. My brother and I did a Luke Wilson movie rental called Henry Poole Was Here about a man with a salt stain on the side of his house that looked like Jesus. 2. Then somehow got to talking about the original Our Lady of Guadalupe image that hangs in a church in Mexico City (I'm forever fascinated by this story) 3. My brother and sister-in-law picked us up an awesome book called Oddball Illinois with loads of strange stories, folklore, religious happenings, and, well, oddball things to see and do in this Land of Lincoln (and TRUST you me, I will be sharing many of them with you).  All of this made me sit up and say "Oooh. I need to get a photo of Our Lady of the Underpass for my blog!" But I was surprised and disappointed to see that it had, once and for all, been covered up. You might remember this from four or five years back, the very same week the new Pope was elected, a woman was driving down Fullerton Ave. and glanced out her window to see an uncanny salt stain image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Throngs of people caused some traffic problems for a while, there were a few battles between graffiti artists, devotees armed with cleaning agents, and the city, but after a few months the hubbub died down and now, years later, there is just a quiet little candle-lit shrine under the humming expressway.  (See here for original images of the stain.) Anyhow, for me it's sort of like those old ghost stories that I love. I can't say that I really believe them,  but they thrill my imagination.  And even after long turns of the imagination I don't actually think that the Virgin Mary made an appearance under I-90/94. But I'm moved by the story. 

Scarves

She just spent a fashion weekend in Paris and she shows up in my inbox with this photo first thing when she got back. :) Thanks Steph. I love your forwards.

Two upstanding parents

And in case you were wondering if little Noah has actual parents, he does. He has two very good ones. Two good ones who are already resigned to being treated like chopped liver when people like me go straight for the little guy with all of my hugs (and blogging).

Flat Stanley

Just when I thought I was going to go into complete cuteness withdrawal, I got Flat Stanley in the mail from my little cousin Olivia. See if you can click on the photo to read the letter. So sweet. Sarah H. I think you should look for him in your mailbox. Spokane is a good place to visit and he can't afford a train ticket. :)

Dog sitter

Max has a new friend who will cover the floor in food for him (which is especially convenient since Max is on a new miserable diet). We all like this kid.

Noah Variations

And Happy Birthday Wes!

Too Much to Drink

My nephew Noah has come for a visit. His first flight wore him right out.

New Mac

I got to see Sarah and Charlie today. Sarah got a new MacBook and it has fun features that mine does not have. Like video that makes it look like you are standing around in Paris, swimming in a fish tank, sitting on a Caribbean beach, and yes, riding a roller coaster (with a baby). 

Louie

Max has a new cousin! My brother Wes found this doodle at the pound! And of course snatched him up (after sitting at the pound for hours patiently waiting in line to adopt him hoping that others wouldn't get him first). He looks so much like Max!

Somewhere in Chicago...

...there are two people who desperately need a break from thinking about real estate. Look what happened when we sat down to do another computer search last night. Heavens.

Hold Time

Eric brought me this today. It's exquisite. I would never make a good music critic for many reasons but the main one is that certain artists simply can't do wrong in my book. It's impossible. He is one.

Tour of Kitchens

We went on one today with the hopes of making one our own. I liked the sunny ones.

Tore it up

My next blog

is going to be all about churches. The names of churches. The buildings that serve as churches. The billboards outside of churches. Of course, most of the time, in my opinion, they are nice and normal, but the beauty of a big city is the variety. Here in Chicago you can start a church in an old grocery store, your guest bedroom, or your car. It rocks. And someday I hope to document all this. But for now here is a photo of the outside of a church I walked past yesterday. It's disconcerting to see the Lord behind bars. (He was around the corner but I couldn't get a photo because there were people inside.) (I'll have to get braver with my photo taking.)

Gummy Bear Lab

Bears recused from a hypotonic solution.

Sweet Nephew James

Ah Lake Michigan. It's always doing amusing things for those of us who like to watch.

8lbs. 9oz.

My new nephew James was born today! Photos to follow soonish.

Now that I have the internet and seven hours of sleep

Here is a little list of highlights from our trip:

Long walks through Belfast.


The "pit" where the Titanic was painted.


Bus trip around the northern tip of Ireland.


London.


The Tower of London. (Scary place where they used to hold and execute prisoners such as Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, and Walter Raleigh. You can still see messages that the prisoners scratched into the walls. Creepy.)


The Globe theater where they were building the set for Romeo and Juliet. Sigh.


Riding the Tube and minding the gap.


Herrods Department Store. Never seen a place like this. You could buy anything here. Even a billiards table for 1,000,000 pounds. I think it used to be the queen's. (Okay. They have a queen. Isn't that wild?)