Neither Punxsutawney Phil nor Jimmy the Groundhog saw their shadows today, so they’re predicting an early spring. But we haven’t even really had winter yet.
Remember it was 50° and misty and rainy on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and we did have a few bits of snow here and there. Then we had the big dump – two feet of snow during the week of Jan 8th, and two snow days in a week. Then we had about 10 days of really frigid weather and icy streets. We missed the last few days of the real cold and ice because we went to Denver, and by the time we got back on January 21, things were already thawing. We had a couple of days of ice and wore our “footwear traction devices”, but that all melted away fast, too.
And it’s supposed to be in the 50s by the middle of the week. So, jeez groundhogs, whaddya mean early spring? It’s already here, after two weeks of winter, and it’s still supposed to be winter.
I’m thinking about riding my bike, and I don’t think I’ve ever ridden my bike in February.
I started this on Groundhogs Day when we were just back from an overnighter in Chicago. We went down Thursday, and saw Rossini’s Cinderella at Lyric. My new favorite opera – nobody dies.
We met John and Megan at Thattu, a Keralan restaurant in Chicago that got a Beard nomination this year. I liked it a lot. They were doing at-the-table-online-ordering, with live humans available to help. Mark felt they could’ve set their Toast up better, it didn’t have any pictures and the descriptions of the food were pretty minimal. But when we got there the guy at the host station was one of the owners and the chef, his wife, came out from the kitchen, and there were exactly two other people visible – so I doubt they really have anyone to set it up better.
We started with Kappa Bonda, fried yucca balls, and a beet puff that I didn’t get any pictures of
We had both vegetarian curries, Kadala Curry (left) and the Roots Korma (right), and they were both spicy and coconut milky, and good. With lots of rice and appam
Last of the peppery chicken curry
I broke Dryuary with my free beer at the hotel, and then had another at Thattu – no particular ill effects.
In the morning I thought we had to catch the train home at 9:35, so I proposed we leave the hotel at 8:30ish, so we could stop for coffee. Mark said, “sure, lets go to the Dollop on Monroe and the Sears Tower for Do-Rite donuts” (I think he probably correctly said Willis; I cling to Sears). So we did, and then I didn’t realize the train wasn’t until 10:35 until Mark told me while we were sitting eating our donuts. I saved the bag so we could take them on the train, and he said, “Why?” But we could’ve had a much less nice waiting room – the Sears Tower food court is a lot nicer than the train station actually. Clean bathrooms, nice light, plenty of seating. I think they take good care of it because it’s such a tourist spot.
At Dollop I saw that the barista was taking a picture of my coffee, so I took one too. It’s a nice one. I showed them the winged horse coffee I got in Denver
Back home I made some apricot white chocolate scones. I think I should’ve chilled them before baking for better definition.
It’s now Monday night and the kittens are sleeping peacefully behind me, and I still have Saturday and Sunday to tell you about …. to be continued! There’s a little Saturday in the featured image, Jasper at the bookstore. Good night for now.