mb's friends are coming into town this friday to see a bonobo dj set at sonotheque. it should be a good time! in preparation for their arrival, this weekend we stopped to pick up a bottle of captain morgan. for the last several years, every time jk visits mb, it just so happens that mb has bought a new bottle of captain morgan. so now the cycle is self-propelling -- we know jk is coming; therefore, buy captain.
maybe it was time to let go. on settling the captain into our little home bar (which, for the record, is STILL STANDING despite having been assembled by yours truly, and was actually confused for a real piece of furniture by one of mb's fancy contemporary-furniture-loving left-our-wedding-early-just-to-shop-at-dania co-workers), i suggested that maybe, just out of curiosity, we should COUNT the bottles of rum in our possession.
twelve.
2 bottles of light bacardi (one from our summer mojito stash, one leftover from the wedding booze), one bacardi select, two fancy venezuelan sippin' rums, two regular venezuelan rum-and-coke rums, one clear venezuelan rum (for this summer's anticipated mojito upgrade), some fun orange-flavored rum, some leftover coconut rum from st. lucia, a little bit of leftover chairman's reserve medium-good rum from st. lucia... and now the captain. granted, some of those are special from our honeymoon, and we're not looking to chug them in one night, but still.
twelve.
we have officially declared a rum-a-torium on household purchases for the next several months. but obviously that's difficult for us... so consider yourselves invited. n, if you still read this blog, you and m should come over and help us try out the new juicer. fresh fruit mixers with exotic rum? mmm. i'll be so content, i won't even give you a hard time for not posting on your blog since september.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
the grass, if it were not buried by snow and ice and mud, would most certainly be greener...
mb and i both grew up in small midwestern towns. i know that there are many redeeming qualities about country life, but we were teenagers, and wanted nothing more but to leave.
several years later, here we are in chicago. we live 2 miles from downtown; mb rides his bike or takes the train to work and evening mba classes; i drive a few miles down the interstate to work primarily with poor underserved children. it's everything we've been working toward, and we're lucky enough to have an amazing circle of friends both in the city and around the midwest.
we're the urban dinks that we've always aspired to be.
so why, you might ask, was mb driving out to see the monster truck rally at the allstate arena in rosemont, armed with a personally-mixed 2-volume set of "redneck country" music?
(robosaurus wasn't there, but for the uninitiated:)
naturally, we can't just embrace chicago for having been good to us. we have to turn our noses up at the million upscale italian restaurants, the martini lists available at every sports bar, the $20/plate breakfasts. in their place, we are substituting country music (which we NEVER listened to when living in actual country) and monster truck rallies (which we never attended when everyone we knew drove trucks... although i did attend a well-timed tractor pull or three.)
mb sums it up best: he calls us "rednecks with benefits." it's a perfect analogy: "friends with benefits" don't really exist either. they're just two people who can't admit they're in a relationship. we can't be actual rednecks if we're listening to our country playlist and discussing our desired redneck status while sipping on fancy venezuelan rum that we brought back from our honeymoon. and thank you to my good blogmate and nb for accommodating mb's desire to see monster jam last weekend - he has appointed you both "honorary rednecks" - but since, upon learning that the rally was in fact SOLD OUT, i don't know what it means that your plan b was to spend the evening with tropical drinks at a nearby tiki bar.
well, if we're going to have big trucks and a musical genre stand in for actual rebellion, this is better than the early '90s reveling-in-my-own-personal-and-unique-pain-grunge-rock phase. it's much easier to get through the day bouncing along to "redneck yacht club."
(hee hee. if you clicked on that link, now you're stuck with that song too. come on down to our level.)
several years later, here we are in chicago. we live 2 miles from downtown; mb rides his bike or takes the train to work and evening mba classes; i drive a few miles down the interstate to work primarily with poor underserved children. it's everything we've been working toward, and we're lucky enough to have an amazing circle of friends both in the city and around the midwest.
we're the urban dinks that we've always aspired to be.
so why, you might ask, was mb driving out to see the monster truck rally at the allstate arena in rosemont, armed with a personally-mixed 2-volume set of "redneck country" music?
(robosaurus wasn't there, but for the uninitiated:)
naturally, we can't just embrace chicago for having been good to us. we have to turn our noses up at the million upscale italian restaurants, the martini lists available at every sports bar, the $20/plate breakfasts. in their place, we are substituting country music (which we NEVER listened to when living in actual country) and monster truck rallies (which we never attended when everyone we knew drove trucks... although i did attend a well-timed tractor pull or three.)
mb sums it up best: he calls us "rednecks with benefits." it's a perfect analogy: "friends with benefits" don't really exist either. they're just two people who can't admit they're in a relationship. we can't be actual rednecks if we're listening to our country playlist and discussing our desired redneck status while sipping on fancy venezuelan rum that we brought back from our honeymoon. and thank you to my good blogmate and nb for accommodating mb's desire to see monster jam last weekend - he has appointed you both "honorary rednecks" - but since, upon learning that the rally was in fact SOLD OUT, i don't know what it means that your plan b was to spend the evening with tropical drinks at a nearby tiki bar.
well, if we're going to have big trucks and a musical genre stand in for actual rebellion, this is better than the early '90s reveling-in-my-own-personal-and-unique-pain-grunge-rock phase. it's much easier to get through the day bouncing along to "redneck yacht club."
(hee hee. if you clicked on that link, now you're stuck with that song too. come on down to our level.)
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
self-righteousness: a full circle
florida snowbirds have a charming way of letting more permanent northerners know how they feel about cold and snow.
"OH. MY. GOD. you're going back to chicago TODAY? have you HEARD how cold it is up there???"
"well, guys, it's going to get cold here too this week... tomorrow's high is only 75."
"are you SURE you don't want to stay another night? we heard it's cold up there."
etc.
it *was* cold. but mb and i got back to our apartment and settled in pretty quickly, curling up on the couch under blankets with homemade soup on the stove, furry slippers on our feet, laundry in the dryer, glasses of wine in our hands, and movie on tv. these are the moments you can't enjoy as much when it's 80 degrees outside. we were feeling pretty good about our temperate-climate lifestyle...
i could take this story two ways:
a) don't point fingers about other people's self-righteousness because it goes both ways.
but that's boring and a little annoying.
b) everyone should be proud of their decisions. thanks to mb's new fancy mba training, we're taking this to a new level: we present to you the household awesomeness index (HAI?) , kind of like the s&p, that tracks different areas of awesomeness and provides us with a numerical assessment of just how self-righteous we should feel for a given day. for example:
coziness: 5 pts
productivity: 5 pts
goodness of external events: 5 pts
yumminess: 5 pts
adaptation to above: 20 pts
so, for example, being in florida probably scores pretty high in coziness, yumminess, and goodness of external events: after walking barefoot in the sand (cozy=4), i had the most amazing blackened scallops and sweet potato fries (yummy=5), accompanied by a rum-tastic tropical drink that came for free thanks to the fact that my almost-brother-in-law was working at the bar that night (goodness of external events=5).
but returning to chicago has its merits. getting household errands done while drinking and curling up on the couch scores points for yummy, cozy AND productive, plus scores points for adaptation: extra credit for good things that happen as a result of less desirable things (such as wind chill). our friends who traveled with us scored low on coziness and productivity in their return to the midwest, seeing as they had to drive back to wisconsin that afternoon but first needed to jump-start their car in the remote parking lot at midway, and then had a long drive home since the direct route to their hometown was closed for the third time in three weeks (this time from a fuel tank overturned on a highway ice slick). so that scores low on goodness of external events. but they score big in yummy and adaptation, by taking the opportunity to grab dinner at a favorite restaurant/microbrewery along the longer way home.
you'll notice that the household awesomeness index is heavily weighted toward adaptation. essentially, as long as you don't sulk, you're having an awesome day and should feel good about yourself.
how's your awesomeness today?
"OH. MY. GOD. you're going back to chicago TODAY? have you HEARD how cold it is up there???"
"well, guys, it's going to get cold here too this week... tomorrow's high is only 75."
"are you SURE you don't want to stay another night? we heard it's cold up there."
etc.
it *was* cold. but mb and i got back to our apartment and settled in pretty quickly, curling up on the couch under blankets with homemade soup on the stove, furry slippers on our feet, laundry in the dryer, glasses of wine in our hands, and movie on tv. these are the moments you can't enjoy as much when it's 80 degrees outside. we were feeling pretty good about our temperate-climate lifestyle...
i could take this story two ways:
a) don't point fingers about other people's self-righteousness because it goes both ways.
but that's boring and a little annoying.
b) everyone should be proud of their decisions. thanks to mb's new fancy mba training, we're taking this to a new level: we present to you the household awesomeness index (HAI?) , kind of like the s&p, that tracks different areas of awesomeness and provides us with a numerical assessment of just how self-righteous we should feel for a given day. for example:
coziness: 5 pts
productivity: 5 pts
goodness of external events: 5 pts
yumminess: 5 pts
adaptation to above: 20 pts
so, for example, being in florida probably scores pretty high in coziness, yumminess, and goodness of external events: after walking barefoot in the sand (cozy=4), i had the most amazing blackened scallops and sweet potato fries (yummy=5), accompanied by a rum-tastic tropical drink that came for free thanks to the fact that my almost-brother-in-law was working at the bar that night (goodness of external events=5).
but returning to chicago has its merits. getting household errands done while drinking and curling up on the couch scores points for yummy, cozy AND productive, plus scores points for adaptation: extra credit for good things that happen as a result of less desirable things (such as wind chill). our friends who traveled with us scored low on coziness and productivity in their return to the midwest, seeing as they had to drive back to wisconsin that afternoon but first needed to jump-start their car in the remote parking lot at midway, and then had a long drive home since the direct route to their hometown was closed for the third time in three weeks (this time from a fuel tank overturned on a highway ice slick). so that scores low on goodness of external events. but they score big in yummy and adaptation, by taking the opportunity to grab dinner at a favorite restaurant/microbrewery along the longer way home.
you'll notice that the household awesomeness index is heavily weighted toward adaptation. essentially, as long as you don't sulk, you're having an awesome day and should feel good about yourself.
how's your awesomeness today?
Saturday, February 09, 2008
2008: the learning curve
i realize it's only february. but already i've learned some things, remembered some things, and had a few things reaffirmed.
lesson 1 (the shoe on the other foot): being the traveling blog-half is way more fun than being the one left behind. that goes double when it's really cold and snowy out and your blogmate is someplace warm and sunny (see lesson 2). it goes triple when you're the one left holding down the fort at work while said blogmate is (one would hope) drinking margaritas, sunning herself on the beach, and drinking more margaritas. not there's anything new about one us having fun while the other toils away on call, but 57 out of 72 hours spent at the hospital just seems like way too many.
lesson 2 (it was bound to happen sooner or later): chicago winter sucks ass. i agree wholeheartedly with my good blogmate that snow is lots of fun, but with only 11 minutes of sunshine for the entire first week of february, i'd trade a good bit of that snow for better weather. i feel particularly strongly now that the one sort-of day off i get this week (see lesson 1) promises a high temperature of 4 degrees.
lesson 3 (benefit from other peoples' misfortune): slow down for enormous pot holes. lucky for me, i haven't had to learn this the hard way, as i'm pertty sure that i only theoretically know how to change a flat tire, and i'm quite sure that i don't want to be one of those people pulled over on the side of lake shore drive at 7AM in the freezing cold (see lesson 2).
lesson 4 (timing is everything): avoid starting to date someone right before his birthday, or even worse, right before valentine's day (or even worse, right before both his birthday AND valentine's day). can anyone tell me how to play this?!
lesson 5 (know your limits): don't think for a minute that it's possible to coexist with a tub of homemade chocolate frosting. it can't be done. you will inevitably attack it with a spoon in a moment of weakness, and there's no way around the self-loathing that comes with catching yourself in the act. if you know what's good for you (and for your rapidly expanding middle section) you'll throw it away before you get into trouble.
lesson 1 (the shoe on the other foot): being the traveling blog-half is way more fun than being the one left behind. that goes double when it's really cold and snowy out and your blogmate is someplace warm and sunny (see lesson 2). it goes triple when you're the one left holding down the fort at work while said blogmate is (one would hope) drinking margaritas, sunning herself on the beach, and drinking more margaritas. not there's anything new about one us having fun while the other toils away on call, but 57 out of 72 hours spent at the hospital just seems like way too many.
lesson 2 (it was bound to happen sooner or later): chicago winter sucks ass. i agree wholeheartedly with my good blogmate that snow is lots of fun, but with only 11 minutes of sunshine for the entire first week of february, i'd trade a good bit of that snow for better weather. i feel particularly strongly now that the one sort-of day off i get this week (see lesson 1) promises a high temperature of 4 degrees.
lesson 3 (benefit from other peoples' misfortune): slow down for enormous pot holes. lucky for me, i haven't had to learn this the hard way, as i'm pertty sure that i only theoretically know how to change a flat tire, and i'm quite sure that i don't want to be one of those people pulled over on the side of lake shore drive at 7AM in the freezing cold (see lesson 2).
lesson 4 (timing is everything): avoid starting to date someone right before his birthday, or even worse, right before valentine's day (or even worse, right before both his birthday AND valentine's day). can anyone tell me how to play this?!
lesson 5 (know your limits): don't think for a minute that it's possible to coexist with a tub of homemade chocolate frosting. it can't be done. you will inevitably attack it with a spoon in a moment of weakness, and there's no way around the self-loathing that comes with catching yourself in the act. if you know what's good for you (and for your rapidly expanding middle section) you'll throw it away before you get into trouble.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
martha's anatomy?
everyone is blessed with certain gifts. mine, however, do not include sewing.
yesterday i had a day off to run errands, and decided it was time to do something about the buttons falling off my new winter coat, and the ripped seams in the lining of one of my favorite coats of my mom's from the '70s. really, any excuse to march off to the jo-ann fabric superstore for arts-and-crafts dreaming is good for me. armed with new needles and thread (and somehow another $40 of items for which i have no specific use yet, but i swear they'll be good for something) i called up a bunch of indie rock that i don't actually listen to, plopped down my pile of vintage coat and was feeling pretty faux-urban-hippie... except that i cannot sew a button to save myself.
seriously, is there a trick i don't know about? my coat fixing was a 2-hour ordeal. this seems unfair, since i, you know, have sewed at work on occasion, and that seems like it must be harder than a button. one major difference between my winter coat and people: stitching-manufacturers for people make the suture in a CONTRASTING COLOR from the, umm, sutur-ees. how am i supposed to find black thread between black coat and black button? that's a first disadvantage. second, wool coats are FATTER than people-skin. much harder to figure out where to put the needle. third, no tools. next time i'm at work i'm bringing home spare hemostats and needle drivers that we don't use, because i think i can use them to mend my pants. (also, curved needles. for seams? don't you think? better?) my mom taught me how to tie knots in thread once for a 4-h project but i was a dismal failure; at least i can instrument-tie. and fourth, i swear that buttons are just inherently evil. i totally got the multi-directionally-torn shoulder hem repaired in less time than 2 buttons took; it's just like running suture through a long laceration just under the outer layer of skin.
this is a little shop-talk for this blog, i realize, but help me: is there a people-equivalent of button? that would have really helped me yesterday. (it wouldn't have prevented my subsequently managing to briefly super-glue myself to the kitchen drawer, but that's another story. let's just say it's a good thing errand-day is done and i'm going back to work.)
yesterday i had a day off to run errands, and decided it was time to do something about the buttons falling off my new winter coat, and the ripped seams in the lining of one of my favorite coats of my mom's from the '70s. really, any excuse to march off to the jo-ann fabric superstore for arts-and-crafts dreaming is good for me. armed with new needles and thread (and somehow another $40 of items for which i have no specific use yet, but i swear they'll be good for something) i called up a bunch of indie rock that i don't actually listen to, plopped down my pile of vintage coat and was feeling pretty faux-urban-hippie... except that i cannot sew a button to save myself.
seriously, is there a trick i don't know about? my coat fixing was a 2-hour ordeal. this seems unfair, since i, you know, have sewed at work on occasion, and that seems like it must be harder than a button. one major difference between my winter coat and people: stitching-manufacturers for people make the suture in a CONTRASTING COLOR from the, umm, sutur-ees. how am i supposed to find black thread between black coat and black button? that's a first disadvantage. second, wool coats are FATTER than people-skin. much harder to figure out where to put the needle. third, no tools. next time i'm at work i'm bringing home spare hemostats and needle drivers that we don't use, because i think i can use them to mend my pants. (also, curved needles. for seams? don't you think? better?) my mom taught me how to tie knots in thread once for a 4-h project but i was a dismal failure; at least i can instrument-tie. and fourth, i swear that buttons are just inherently evil. i totally got the multi-directionally-torn shoulder hem repaired in less time than 2 buttons took; it's just like running suture through a long laceration just under the outer layer of skin.
this is a little shop-talk for this blog, i realize, but help me: is there a people-equivalent of button? that would have really helped me yesterday. (it wouldn't have prevented my subsequently managing to briefly super-glue myself to the kitchen drawer, but that's another story. let's just say it's a good thing errand-day is done and i'm going back to work.)
Monday, February 04, 2008
winter sports 2007-08: a mid-season review
in an attempt to stay active year-round (and thereby avoid both of us being so fidgety inside our small apartment that we drive each other crazy), mb and i try to find physical activities that aren't blocked by chicago's unpredictable winter weather.
1. snowshoeing: it's hard to find time for this, with two more-than-full-time jobs in the city and two part-time grad school programs. but thankfully, mother nature has cooperated this year by providing a few weekends with snowfall, so we can hit the suburban forest preserves. i'm continually impressed by how much workout can be had by just walking! even better, this weekend my good blogmate and nb met us afterward and brought sleds: although it turns out that 30-somethings do not fit easily on little plastic sleds, and in fact spend more time rolling off the sled into snowbanks than actually cruising downhill, still - good time had by all.
2. running outside (aka falling all over sidewalks): while ignoring the superbowl at a local sports bar yesterday, we argued with friends about how much fun it can be to run outside in winter. personally, winter is my favorite running season. a) more workout for stabilizer muscles that you'd never get plodding forward on a non-slippery non-puddle-y sidewalk b) better fashion statements - there's something special about proudly piling on mismatched decades-old raggedy clothes and flaunting them in public c) forget post-run water: how 'bout post-run cocoa with bailey's?
3. stair climbing: last weekend we did a stair climb up 80 floors to the top of the old standard oil (now aon center) building. this one is a benefit for children's memorial hospital. we picked it because after trying out all the stair climbs in the city, we found this one smaller and friendlier than the sears tower or hustle up the hancock races. and also, the step up for kids was sponsored by qdoba, which meant awesome burrito and cookie treats for finishers. it's not a bad workout, and actually doesn't take all that long (mb runs, but i walked and was done in under 30 minutes), but the race has gotten much more popular since last time. and lost their best sponsorship! as mb said angrily after the race was over, "it's all about the kids? kids? why isn't it all about the burritos? doesn't anyone think of the burritos?"
4. dreaming of guitar hero 3: we entered a raffle at the bar yesterday for a wii system. alas, not our big day. i know area bars have gh3 contest nights, but i don't think i can compete, with my entire experience limited to one glorious hair-band-filled weekend. sigh. although if we take a cue from mb's brother, we should remember that gh3 has the most injury potential of all winter sports... we just hope his strumming shoulder is better and hasn't needed more cortisone shots.
5. umm, beach bocce and tropical-drink arm curls? mmm... best winter sports activity: leaving winter behind for a long weekend in florida! sunshine, here we come.
1. snowshoeing: it's hard to find time for this, with two more-than-full-time jobs in the city and two part-time grad school programs. but thankfully, mother nature has cooperated this year by providing a few weekends with snowfall, so we can hit the suburban forest preserves. i'm continually impressed by how much workout can be had by just walking! even better, this weekend my good blogmate and nb met us afterward and brought sleds: although it turns out that 30-somethings do not fit easily on little plastic sleds, and in fact spend more time rolling off the sled into snowbanks than actually cruising downhill, still - good time had by all.
2. running outside (aka falling all over sidewalks): while ignoring the superbowl at a local sports bar yesterday, we argued with friends about how much fun it can be to run outside in winter. personally, winter is my favorite running season. a) more workout for stabilizer muscles that you'd never get plodding forward on a non-slippery non-puddle-y sidewalk b) better fashion statements - there's something special about proudly piling on mismatched decades-old raggedy clothes and flaunting them in public c) forget post-run water: how 'bout post-run cocoa with bailey's?
3. stair climbing: last weekend we did a stair climb up 80 floors to the top of the old standard oil (now aon center) building. this one is a benefit for children's memorial hospital. we picked it because after trying out all the stair climbs in the city, we found this one smaller and friendlier than the sears tower or hustle up the hancock races. and also, the step up for kids was sponsored by qdoba, which meant awesome burrito and cookie treats for finishers. it's not a bad workout, and actually doesn't take all that long (mb runs, but i walked and was done in under 30 minutes), but the race has gotten much more popular since last time. and lost their best sponsorship! as mb said angrily after the race was over, "it's all about the kids? kids? why isn't it all about the burritos? doesn't anyone think of the burritos?"
4. dreaming of guitar hero 3: we entered a raffle at the bar yesterday for a wii system. alas, not our big day. i know area bars have gh3 contest nights, but i don't think i can compete, with my entire experience limited to one glorious hair-band-filled weekend. sigh. although if we take a cue from mb's brother, we should remember that gh3 has the most injury potential of all winter sports... we just hope his strumming shoulder is better and hasn't needed more cortisone shots.
5. umm, beach bocce and tropical-drink arm curls? mmm... best winter sports activity: leaving winter behind for a long weekend in florida! sunshine, here we come.
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