kapgar

And your chicks for free...

It all started with Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing."

I was at the butcher shop in my local Dominick's grocery store singing along under my breath when I noticed that the butcher, who was weighing out some raw shrimp for my Sunday gumbo, was also singing it.

We started talking about the greatness that is Dire Straits and how one of my media classes in grad school studied it because of the to-do that was made about the unedited version of the song that uses the word "faggot" as well as some other potentially disparaging comments.

Our quick little discussion about Dire Straits turned into a much larger discussion about sensitivity and tolerance as well as the ignorance of hate groups.

Granted we both saw eye to eye on the subject (firmly anti-hatred), I gotta admit I was feeling a little weird as he discussed his run-in with a Neo-Nazi skinhead at a white supremacy rally in Chicago some years back. Sure, he had a civil discussion with the skinhead, but something about discussing it with me very openly and at a slightly higher-than-average volume made me worry about how other customers would perceive this as they walked by. I guess the fear of a negative perception kinda comes with the territory when you're white, male, and bald shaven.

No, I do not agree with the viewpoints of Neo-Nazi skinheads in any way, shape, or form. In fact, I firmly believe that stupidity and ignorance do not discriminate based on color, shape, size, gender, race, religion, or sexual leaning. But, we are sadly a society of first impressions and the impression made by one white male talking to another white male with a shaved head during which terms like "Neo-Nazi," "skinhead," and "hate" are mentioned, regardless of the context of their use, could prove disastrous.

Isn't it sad that we have to worry about shit like that?

Seriously, my head is clean shaven due to genetics and convenience. Oh, and a fundraiser.

It was a beautiful day...

It's nice living not too far from a major metropolitan area. There's always something to do, something to discover, something to escape to.

Katie and I did just that yesterday.

We spent pretty much the whole day in downtown Chicago doing things that we'd never done together. And we had a blast doing so.

[Facebookers, you may see a couple photos embedded in this post, but there are also a few photo slideshows you won't see until you click over to my blog]

We took the train into the city and walked on down to the Sears/Willis Tower. Katie had never been there and I haven't been there in years. And now they have the Ledge that we just had to see.

Next, we hiked our way down to the Shedd Aquarium. I probably hadn't been there in 20 years and Katie had never been there either. Again, a blast!

Finally, we headed up north to the Lego Store (this one we had done many times, but had to again just for kicks).

Lastly, we went out to the United Center for the Chicago Blackhawks v. Phoenix Coyotes. Sadly, the Hawks lost in a shootout, but it was still a fun game.

And we need to thank Katie's brothers and the future SiL, Scott and Steve and Becca, for the tickets which were Christmas gifts. 

We need to hang out in Chicago more often.

But I can guarantee Norman will be downtown a lot. After all, he's got some comrades to liberate.

Oh, the army building starts.

Last year, it was The Flaming Lips headlining the final day of Pitchfork that "did it" for me.

This year, the first night of the 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival will feature Modest Mouse.

I'm drooling already.

I will be there.

I must be there.

If it kills me.

So far, the other two days look decent. But I can only guarantee that I will be there on Friday so far.

Anyone else want to go with me?

Because I wanna...

All the below Snippets happened within 20 minutes of each other. A nice, compact Snippet Wednesday if I do say so myself.

Shack
I remember sometime within the last couple of years, there were reports that Radio Shack was going to rebrand itself as, simply, The Shack. Well, I haven't seen this happen at any of the retail stores around here. Maybe they forgot about it. But apparently Radio Shack, The Shack, Hole, whatever it's called has also forgotten about electronics parts. At one point, they were my go-to store for the little pieces and parts I needed to fix electronic gadgets. I went in there looking for a tiny spring I needed for a camera. The clerk's response? "We don't carry parts anymore." My reaction? "You're Radio Shack! You don't have parts?" "Nope." I'm at a loss.

Carwash
I hate getting carwashes in the winter. It always seems so pointless because there's so much crap dropping out of the sky and on the roads being kicked up at you by other cars that it never lasts much farther than the parking lot of the carwash itself. But I got one today for my truck anyway. I think there are parts on the outside of my truck that have been frozen in place for the last two months that finally moved again today. Kinda freaky.

Hurry
As I was pulling out of the gas station/carwash, I saw a Pepsi delivery truck trying to negotiate the tight corner pulling into the station. I stopped way short of the intersection to let him make his very wide turn into the lot. All of a sudden, some wench in her SUV whips around me and cuts through the very narrow corridor between the turning truck and the curb. I was in shock at her stupidity (and yes, I saw her in my rearview before this happened and can confirm that this moron was, indeed, a "she" so don't go claiming I'm being sexist, okay?). When she got by, the truck continued and I shrugged my shoulders and mouthed "I tried" to the drivers, they laughed and shrugged their shoulders back at me. The idiots in this world astound me sometimes.

Berry
Driving around, I passed an Elderberry Court. I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count as to what I was thinking when I saw this. Whoops. Too late.

"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberry!"

I love Monty Python.

Creed
But I don't love Creed and I heard a song from them on the radio this morning that I'd never heard before. I remember rumblings that they might be making a comeback, is it actually happening? Oh Christ, no.

Know what you doing doing to me...

During my commute home last night, I heard the song "Ruby" (Lala.com player will pop open, I hope) come on the radio. I was immediately singing along as I know it pretty well. And I own the album. But, for whatever reason, I was completely blanking on the artist.

Below is the mental process I went through to come by the name of the band...

Ruby, ruby, ruby...

Indian... [I have no idea why that word popped in my mind]

Indian...

Indian...

Native...

Chief...

KAISER CHIEFS!!

I shit you not.

I have no one to blame but goddamn Christopher Columbus and his inability to correctly use a freakin' astrolabe for why my mnemonic hooks are politically incorrect!!

Capiche?

Last night was one of Katie's long nights of work, so, after returning home from the gym, I decided to have dinner ready for her. A couple nights ago, we'd discussed having fettuccine alfredo, so I set about making it.

I was going to make it the right way, but Katie reminded me that we had picked up one of the frozen meal bags from Trader Joe's so I grabbed that to make it.

Inside the bag was one of the weirdest looking things I've ever seen in a TJ's meal. The pasta was flash frozen in what the instructions called "pods," which, to me, looked like they had been shaped in a muffin tin. The alfredo was frozen in what I can only describe as "chips" that seemed shaved off a larger piece.

I snapped a shot of the pods and chips (foreground) with Norman next to it to allow for some context...

Stranger still were the instructions that said to either microwave without adding any water or cook in a stovetop skillet with just a dash of water. I realize this is otherwise precooked, but to be told to do anything with pasta other than boil it is just weird to me.

Do not get me wrong, it was a good meal, like just about anything from TJ's. Especially after I added some grilled chicken and fresh steamed broccoli. But the initial state just caught me way off guard.

That's what you're hungry for...

This was a good weekend.

On Saturday, we went and hung out with our old game-night crew. We used to get together on a near-monthly basis to eat, drink, and play games. With scheduling difficulties of late, I think this is the first time we've been able to go in nearly a year. It sucks that it's been so long, but we finally did get together.

We had a good night eating, drinking, talking, and, well, not playing games. We call them "game nights," but it seems that, more often than not, we just talk the night away instead of playing anything. And, if we do break out a game, it becomes background to our conversation. But who cares? It was good convo.

The meal was really good too! Graham and Kristy researched and found topping styles from six different cities in the U.S. for hot dogs. It was pretty cool. Of course there was the Chicago style, but we also had, if I recall correctly, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Detroit, New York, and Seattle. All kinds of stuff like marinara, cole slaw, cream cheese, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, you name it. And they were cut up into small pieces so we could each try a little without getting too stuffed.

Added to that were my mom's baked beans. She shared the recipe with me on Friday and I made them on Saturday while Katie was at work. It was my first time making baked beans ever, and from scratch to boot, but everyone seemed to think they turned out okay, so I was happy.

It was all topped off with homemade vanilla ice cream and little dutch apple tarts. Yeah, nobody left hungry, that's for sure.

On Sunday, we went up to Katie's parents' house because they were tearing out a wall dividing the kitchen and dining room and we wanted to see how it all now looked. It was also the first time since Christmas we'd seen anybody on her side of the family. Sorry, I didn't take pictures, but the wall looked really nice! Not that it's done yet, but still.

Katie's mom took advantage of the opportunity to unload a bunch of stuff in storage in the basement on whomever wanted it. Katie and I were grateful we escaped with a small bag and nothing more since her brother and FSiL walked away with three large bags and another stack of stuff.

But we got a vintage Speak & Spell and Speak & Math out of the affair. Both are in perfect working order as Norman discovered...

After a long weekend of driving and hanging out with folks, we crashed pretty hard at home. Sadly, despite Norman's best efforts, no work got done on the puzzle at all...

Why do I constantly find myself relating to Wally?

Sometimes too well.

Like, scary well.

And no bald jokes, okay?