Today was a good day

1. I had a good job interview this morning.

2. As soon as I got home from said interview, I got a call from a recruiter about another position I applied for that I'm a really, really good fit for (IMHO).

3. I played volleyball for a third day in a row tonight. And played well.

I'm hoping these are signs that my luck is finally turning around.

Chicago is a cool city

We went to Chicago a couple of weeks ago and had a great time exploring the area. My college roommate is from there and is super proud of her city so we went several days before the wedding and stayed with her and her fiance. We checked out all the big touristy things and ate our way through the city (Chicago has so many great restaurants!). It also helped our enjoyment of the city that it was 70-something degrees every day we were there! Somehow I don't think it'll be that nice when I go back to Chicago in January for roomie's wedding :)

I've done a few of the tourist things while visiting my friend once before, but Willy hadn't checked out much of that stuff so our first stop was the well-known architecture river cruise offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. It's a relaxing way to see some of the great architecture that Chicago is famous for, but even though it always comes highly recommended it's more of a B in my book than an A+.

After the architecture tour we hit Millennium Park, this amazing public park opened in 2004. Saw the famous bean sculpture, which was super cool. The outdoor amphitheater is also awesome; they must have amazing events there. You can't see the sprawling lawn that extends to the right of this picture, but it's slightly sloped for stadium-style seating and it's just great. I also really liked this water feature thing they have. A couple of tall video screens displays the faces of Chicagoans and water spurts from their mouths into a shallow, long, rectangular pool that kids can run through. It's totally fun :)

The next day we hit a couple more big sites, Sears Tower (its new name, Willis Tower, sounds so lame) and Navy Pier. The new glass platforms that extend out from the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower are awesome! I spent a little too much time out on them looking down and got a bit of vertigo :P But it was very worth it. It was funny seeing the people who were afraid to go out on the platforms--including this big dude whose girlfriend was trying to coax him out to check out the view. Navy Pier was also a nice place to just walk around and check out the view of the lake. People knock it as a horrible tourist trap but I liked it, I just didn't buy any overpriced tchotchkes :)

Oh, we even got to see one of our old SF friends while we were in Chicago. Edwin spent a couple of months at his family's place before starting on an adventure living in China. We caught him right in the nick of time, the day before he was scheduled to fly out to China. Had lunch at Portillo's with him (mmm, hot dogs!) and then hung out together at Navy Pier. It was great to see him since it's been about a year since the last time we were able to get together.

The last big thing we hit was one of Chicago's famous comedy clubs, Second City. I had no idea the city was so known for this, but some big comedians came out of Second City, like Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Dan Castellaneta, John Candy, Dan Akroyd, Jim Belushi, and more. The show we saw was called Studs Terkel's Not Working. The first half was pretty funny, the second half was pretty lame. All in all, a good time.

Now for the eats...

Alinea: The big splurge meal. This is a very high-end restaurant with a tasting menu (12 courses) and a tour menu (25 courses). It has a completely non-descript big, gray door for an entrance and once inside you walk down a narrow, dimly lit hallway. Right when you get to the end and aren't sure if you're hitting a dead end or if there's a sharp turn to the right, a door on your left magically slides open and the hostess greets you. It's much larger inside than it looked from the street and the decor was classy and upscale without being too stuffy. The same could be said of the staff. There was one server
("waiter" doesn't seem like the right word for someone

who's wearing a suit that undoubtedly cost multiples of what I gave as a wedding gift to the couple we were in town for) who was a bit stiffer than the others, but in general everyone was very friendly and willing to chat and joke with us. There was a whole team of people involved in presenting the food, explaining how to eat it, cleaning up between courses, etc. so we didn't have just one server.

The dinner itself was certainly an experience, though I'm not sure molecular gastronomy (re: food with super fancy garnishes and presentation) is totally my cup of tea. I did appreciate the intense flavors and the sudden bursts and changes of tastes in my mouth, but some of the dishes came off as a bit salty to me (e.g. the truffle ravioli--which they gave us twice for some reason! Willy had joked that he ate his so fast that he thought it was actually missing and he needed another, and they actually brought us both another one!) That said, wagyu beef--a.ma.zing. It might as well have melted in my mouth, and I would definitely have taken another serving of that instead of the truffle ravioli! And you see that little black lopsided thing under the picture of the wagyu beef? Well it was a prop that went with that particular dish. They wanted to bring the grill experience to the dining room so since they don't cook the beef tableside they fill that little topsy-turvy contraption with some kind of essence of the beef, some dry ice, and then fill it with water when they serve you the dish so that smoke covers your table and the smell of grilled beef surrounds you while you eat. Those crazy fancy restaurants with their crazy fancy props! The last dish pictured is described on the menu as scallop, shellfish, and honeydew, the latter of which if memory serves was the foam portion of the dish. It was excellent.

I was sooooo stuffed at the end of the twelve courses that I have no idea how I'd ever do the 25-course tour. A couple of the servers kept insisting it was totally do-able, but I'm not convinced. Plus at $225 I think I'll wait to go to French Laundry. I will say that the tasting menu was probably priced pretty accurately at $145, but I've decided I'm more of a traditional cooking technique kinda gal and I'd go back to Blue Ginger's $85 tasting menu over this. Don't regret trying it one bit though.

Art of Pizza: One of my online resources recommended this place for its pizza over the Big Three usually recommended in Chi-town, those being Lou Malnatti's, Giordano's, and Gino's East. The stuffed (i.e. super deep dish) veggie pizza I got was delicious. I only managed to eat one slice, which is very unusual for me and my rather large appetite. Next time I'll have to try one of the other places to compare.

Lou Mitchell's: Went to this diner for breakfast based on another online rec. It's a well-known institution in Chicago and I guess lines get pretty long on the weekends (though probably not as long as the line at Hot Doug's--holy crap that was crazy. More on that later). While you're waiting you get a fresh-made donut hole that's very yummy and not too sweet, and the ladies also get a trick-or-treat-sized box of Milk Duds :) Since we went on a Thursday morning we didn't wait at all. Willy's pancakes and my french toast were both very good, and they make a bunch of different baked goods fresh daily that you can take home with you (though some of them were pretty pricey).

Wishbone: Willy had been to this place years and years ago when he had been through Chicago and wanted to go back again for these corncakes (corn pancakes) he remembered. I have to say, they were really good and better than what we had at Lou Mitchell's.

Phoenix Restaurant (dim sum): Not as good as dim sum in Boston or the bay area, but decent overall. On weekdays they offer a picture menu that you can order off of instead of pushing carts around, which probably helps non-Chinese diners. I'm sure they do this because of the lower volume of diners on weekdays so they can cook to order instead of risking putting a bunch of stuff out on carts that might or might not get picked up.

The only place I wanted to go to that we didn't squeeze in was Frontera Grill. The chef there, Rick Bayless, just won Top Chef Masters and his cuisine is upscale Mexican. Willy really likes Mexican food and we haven't found great options for that in Boston. Unfortunately, I didn't account for needing reservations even for lunch so we didn't get in. He also has a slightly higher end restaurant attached to Frontera called Topolobampo that I really want to try too, but figured with Alinea on the agenda I better not spend all our money eating :) Frontera does have a fast casual place in the food court of the old Marshall Field's (now Macy's) downtown so Willy did at least get to try that and he gave it a thumbs up.

A quick note on the wedding we were actually in town for: we were honored to be invited to the small, 50ish-guest event of my college friend and his now wife. It was really nice to attend a smaller wedding for once. I only wish we hadn't gotten lost and missed the ceremony itself :( We gave ourselves an hour to get to the venue which should have been only 25 mins. away but we overshot a turn and spent too much time getting back on track. *sigh* totally embarrassing, but at least we got to spend some time with the couple at the reception and the afterparty. Congrats, Ed & Min Jung!

Griffin update

I wanted to wait until things were finalized before giving an update on Griffin. After having him for about three weeks it became clear to us that we weren't bonding with Griffin and were not enjoying dog ownership. It was a stressful time for us, because we felt really guilty about having brought him into our lives and then not being happy with the decision. As I mentioned before, it's not that we thought it was going to be all fun and games owning a dog, but we weren't really having any fun at all. In that case, it seemed pointless to have a dog; if you're not enjoying life with the dog, then you're just adding a lot of chores to your workload for nothing. We still love dogs but for whatever reason it just wasn't working out with Griffin. So we called the rescue organization we got him from and they were willing to help find him another home. They asked us to foster him in the meantime, which we were willing to do.

In the meantime, my mom decided that she actually wanted to adopt Griffin. She knew we were having a hard time with the whole experience and I wanted to make sure she didn't just want to help us out, that she really wanted a dog, and she assured me she was excited about bringing him home with her. My sisters and dad agreed, the rescue was OK with it, so that's where Griffin is now. Living in a house with more people seems to suit him better, and it's less trying on the people too since he's not following just one person around.

Maybe someday we'll adopt another dog, but right now we need to recover from this experience first--it was not at all what we expected. Luckily things worked out OK, and we hope our friends are OK with our decision too. Thanks to all of you who offered support, encouragement, and advice--we greatly appreciated it.

Latest crochet baby blanket

I haven't made anything in a while but a friend recently invited me to her baby shower and of course I have to bring a gift so to the yarn stash I go.

I've realized that a lot of the blanket patterns on the LionBrand site are too small to be practical (c'mon, a 24" square blanket is just not that useful, even to a baby), but they're cute so I just have to modify them to make them bigger. The only problem with this project was that I really needed at least 3 skeins of Caron's Simply Soft yarn in a single color to make the blanket big enough, but I only had 2 skeins of about three different colors and I just really didn't want to go buy more. So I decided to add bands of a contrasting color (the blue) to make my stash work. This was the final result.

I think I'll add one of the little elephant amigurumis to round out the gift. Hope she likes it!

Edit: Here's what the final package looks like. The red tag is care instructions. I missed the shower on Sunday as it turns out because our volleyball tournament went waaaay late so I'll be giving this to the mama-to-be later this week.

Thief!

I am sooooo mad! Squirrel thieves are taking all my Asian Pears! After frisky's comment on my last post about the tree I counted how many pieces of fruit we actually had and it was something like a couple of dozen. About a week ago I noticed that several leaves were lying around on the ground around the tree and found a half-eaten pear still attached to the branch. So annoying, but it was just one pear--at least I think so. At the time I didn't notice any other ones missing, but maybe I didn't look closely enough.

I decided to just watch and see what would happen since I wasn't sure what ate the pear so I wasn't sure how to prevent it. Then on Sunday, as we were running out the door, I noticed more leaves on the ground so I went closer to inspect. I had used red ribbon to tie up some of the branches to help support the weight of the fruit and I realized that one of the ribbons was looking really slack--because there was no fruit left on it!!! Something had plucked all the fruit clean off the branch! So then I counted how many pears I had left--eight. Eight out of twenty-four!

I talked to my neighbors today and they told me they saw a squirrel run off with a whole pear in it's mouth the other day so now I know what the little thief is. Last night I tied plastic bags around the remaining bunches of fruit to ward off the predators, until I could figure out a better solution. My mom told me to build a giant cage around the whole tree, but that'll look so ugly in the middle of my yard. So after some Internet research it looks like I'll have to get some sheet metal to wrap around the trunk so the squirrels can't climb up. That's tomorrow's project I guess. Oh, and in the meantime I lost another one sometime this afternoon/early evening so now we only have seven pears left :(

Here's a pic I took today so you could see how big the pears are now:

We got pepper sprayed tonight

We stopped by our friends' house tonight to drop off a few things for them to borrow for their camping trip this weekend. They had gone to REI earlier to buy some bear canisters but the store was sold out so instead they got this bear spray, a.k.a. "Counter Assault Bear Deterrent." For some reason our friend was really excited to show us how the bear spray works so he sprayed it into the air in front of him as we stood a few feet away on either side of him. He didn't account for wind currents though and from my vantage point I could see the spray start drifting back towards him....

He starts coughing, I don't think much of it. Until a second later as it started drifting up towards me and I'm like, "Hmm, my mouth and throat are burning a little...OK, now that's really uncomfortable." I rush into the house and rinse out my mouth, having no idea if this is actually the right thing to do but not really caring at the time either. Willy and his mom (yes, his mom was with us), who didn't see the spray cloud from the side they were standing on, proceeded to walk through it. Even our friend's poor dog got a whiff of the stuff and was wheezing! All of us were standing around in their kitchen, in various stages of coughing, tearing up, sniffling, etc. It was all a little hilarious, to be honest, and the wife was laughing uncontrollably, it was just so silly. I have no idea why the husband was so eager to show us this stuff! Boys--go figure!

I luckily was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, but poor Willy was in shorts and a t-shirt and his mom was also in shorts. So now Willy has ice packs attached to his arms and neck trying to calm down the burning sensation, and his mom has Gold Bond medicated powder all over her legs. They aren't kidding when they say in the product description "Use with extreme caution—if not used properly, it can disable the user, rather than the bear"! Now we almost feel bad for the poor bear that might get sprayed by this stuff!

Some actual fruit of our labor

I haven't done a pear tree update in a while and I could use a post talking about something we're doing successfully :P The fruit has been getting bigger and bigger, and is probably about 2" across now. I've had to tie up some of the more heavily laden branches, and discovered today that one of them had actually already snapped from the weight of all the fruit. I pruned some of the fruit early on, but they're just growing faster than the branches.

Anyway, as I was tying up one of the branches today I knocked off one of the pears. It seemed solid enough to try a taste, and I was happy to find that it was pretty decent! Not tart at all, though not totally sweet yet either. Willy really liked it too. I didn't take a pic of it before I peeled it, but here are the remains :)

Griffin has joined the family

It's been six days since Griffin, our rescue-adopted poodle mix, came to live with us. He's an adorable and sweet little guy, but it's definitely been an adjustment for all of us.

His foster parents dropped him off Sunday night and he sniffed all over the house, exploring. He has a clear preference for women over men and stuck to his foster mom for a while. He then quickly reattached to me over the last few days and follows me around so closely that sometimes his nose bumps into the back of my leg or he steps on the heel of my slipper as I walk.

He walks well on the leash...well, he does when he's willing to walk. We've discovered a stubborn streak in him, and the last couple of days he's seriously been digging his heels in when we try to take him for a walk. Who's heard of a dog who doesn't like to walk?! We can't figure out why, except for possibly that he's tired since he's had a lot going on these last two days (a couple of longish walks at 20-25 mins. and also meeting a lot of new people). But just because he won't walk doesn't mean he doesn't have to go--we made the mistake of letting him back inside once since he wouldn't budge and he proceed to have an accident in the house five minutes later.

Housebreaking has definitely been one of the big issues for us. I feel like the fosters weren't totally forthcoming about the fact that he isn't really housebroken at all. We suspect that he may have been puppy pad-trained in the house with his previous owners--argh.

Another issue is some slight separation anxiety, which could be a real problem. He hates being left alone and will whine and bark if we confine him and "leave" (even if we don't really leave, just pretend and are quiet around the corner). So between the SA and needing to be housebroken, we basically have to watch him constantly and it's not good for him to not be comfortable spending time by himself. Plus it's exhausting.

In case it's not obvious, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by what we've taken on. Between housebreaking, crate training, trying to deal with SA, teaching things like sit and down, and a million other little things, it's just been an overwhelming week. I truly tried to prepare for this by doing a bunch of research and reading beforehand, but it doesn't really prepare you for the reality. Yes, I know, it sounds like having a kid. In all honesty, I'm not sure we made the right decision in adopting a dog. I know I need to give it more time, but so far I'm not enjoying the experience or time with Griffin all that much, and I really should be :(

We might be getting a doggy!

I am so excited! We're going to meet a rescue dog on Saturday morning and I can't wait!!!

We've been talking about wanting a dog for years now but never did much about it. Finally I started doing some research on dog ownership (since Willy and I will both be first-time dog owners) and started looking online for a dog that would be a good fit for us. We always wanted a rescue dog, something small to medium sized (probably like 25 lbs. or less), something that didn't shed too much, something with hair instead of fur, and something that would get along with other people and kids. We pretty much knew after doing some research on breeds that we wanted a poodle mix. I did some hunting on PetFinder.com but hadn't found the right companion for us. That and a lot of the rescues on that site required some pretty high fees, which I couldn't stomach after being unemployed for so long.

Then I met someone who does rescue work in her free time and she told me about a poodle mix they just got. He's tiny--only 5 lbs. right now but the woman who's fostering him thinks he could be up to 15 lbs. once he gets to a normal weight. Here's the first picture I got of him, where his hair is totally overgrown:

His hair was really matted as it turns out so they ended up having to shave him. Look how tiny he is afterwards!
So he needs to be fed and given some TLC, but otherwise his foster mom told me he's a great little guy. Listens well, is smart, gets along with other dogs and people...basically sounds like a great dog for first-timers and the perfect fit for us. I hope he'll be coming home with us soon!

Pretty flowers from our yard

I love cut flowers but never buy them because I'm way too frugal. I love my orchids and other plants, but there's something about flowers in a vase that's just different. Luckily we have a few pretty perennials planted (say that 3x fast) around the yard and here's what I cut today:

The daisies are just too cute, and the other two are varieties of astilbes. I can't take credit for having planted any of these, they were already here when we bought the place. I did buy and plant more astilbe bulbs earlier this spring though since I love their delicate, pretty look and they're coming up slowly but surely.

Don't the astilbe's remind you of fireworks? Speaking of which, we saw the most amazing fireworks show for the 4th of July this year. We went to the Cambridge side of the Charles River with my sister and her boyfriend and the vendors for the show this year did an absolutely amazing job. I wish I'd taken my camera with me; the picture to the right is stolen from the Internet. Boston seriously has the best fireworks display anywhere, IMHO. We would have liked to be on the Esplanade for the show and be able to hear the Boston Pops play but it's not as easy to get on there as when I was a kid growing up here. There's barracades and National Guard and a bazillion people now so I think you have to go pretty early in the morning to secure a spot in front of the hatch shell.