Sangria at Xoco – yummy – like the best koolaid you ever tasted
I spent the weekend, or at least, Saturday night and Sunday in Chicago at Mark’s pied à terre, a one-bedroom in a high rise in the South Loop, that’s an easy L ride to his job just off North Michigan. We took the train and arrived at about 3:00 in the afternoon on Saturday. John and Megan stopped by – they’d been at the Art Institute – to see the place and pick up the electric drill (the cordless Makita that was my dad’s). I’d lugged down, so John could use it to hang mounting board in his room, to put his photos on.
After Megan and John left, Mark and I went to Xoco for dinner, then to see free opera in the Pritzker Pavillion at Millennium Park. We got there at about 8:15; the show had started at 8:00, and it was obvious that people had been camped out since early evening with their chairs and blankets and picnics and wineglasses. We were leaning against one of the columns that holds up the network that holds the speakers. There were a couple of women, and a guy who chimed in from time to time, who were talking incessantly in a language I don’t understand – not French or Italian or German or even Hebrew, because I would’ve been able to pick out a few words – so it was super annoying.
Free Lyric Opera in the Pritzker Pavilion
On Sunday, we went for breakfast at Nookies on Wells, an old fave from when the History Museum was the Historical Society, and I worked there. John & Megan came to meet us, not sure what was up with Al. He said he missed his stop on the bus. We did a little shopping for the apartment – Mark got a metal cart from Crate & Barrel to put the TV on, and I used a Kiehl’s coupon to get skin lotion and eye cream and other stuff. Then we wandered down Michigan Avenue, stopping for iced coffee, and made it to a 4:00 PM showing of A Most Wanted Man, which left Madison too fast to catch. Bed Bath and Beyond didn’t have the 3-cup Bialeti espresso pot I wanted, but they did have the hot air popcorn popper that Mark wanted. We stopped at Whole Foods and I paid $13.41 for a carton of salads, to take back to the apartment for dinner and watch the season premiere of Board Walk Empire. Too many flash backs, I say. And Whole Foods in a gentrifying neighborhood in Chicago was insane at 7:30 on a Sunday night …
On Monday morning, Mark went off to work, and I did a combo of red line train and walking to catch the bus back to Madison. Even though I shoved my wallet way down, it bothers me that my Timbuk2 laptop backpack just has a velcro lid, and that my credit card wallet, inherited from my mom, is getting kind of loose. Seems unsafe in the big city. Just might have to buy new ones – a woman getting on the bus ahead of me had a really cool Timbuk2 back pack with buckle downs on the lid – it looked kind of custom, though.
I made it in to the office by 2:00, plugged in my laptop, did a little work, and made the first academic staff assembly meeting of the fall at 3:30. At home, I made taco casserole, which involved cutting corn off the cobs, and skinning and chopping tomatoes, roasting peppers, poblano and bell, some for the casserole and some for freezing. I made veggie broth, too with the cobs and tomato skins and a bunch of celery that had been at the bottom of the bin for almost 3 weeks, and all the other odds & ends I could gather. I watched a little TV while the broth cooled, put it away, and went to bed, where the fluffy cat was happy to see me. Somehow waking up in Chicago and going to bed in Madison with a 3-hour bus ride and all that cooking wore me out. Oh yea, and I made a plum cake to take to a meeting this morning, basically Dorie’s Dimply Plum, suggested by Smitten, and I added a powdered sugar glaze – and totally forgot to take a picture of it.
And now here we are, just after 9:00 PM on Tuesday – there’s another day’s & dinner’s worth of dishes in the sink to clean up – burst cherry tomato tart, but not as good as the last one – a little doughy on the bottom – and the pan and carrier for the plum cake, and so on. And I have a sore throat and kind of just want to go flop down on the couch and not get up. OK dishes first, then flop.
