2.
To kick off the pre-sweet goodness celebrating I met with Brian and others at Clarke's for a dinner at midnight on Friday.
3.
I ate Swedish pancakes.
4.
I mangled my pancakes.
August 2009 Archives
1.
I have spent most of my free time lately web designing. I've mostly been working on Silly America but, since I am not all that creative, once I get the coding down I will be borrowing heavily from that for this site. My goal is to have both completely redesigned before the Krystal Square Off! So stay tuned!
2.
I really think I am the only person in Chicago who doesn't own an umbrella.
3.
Tomorrow I get my bi-annual haircut. I really only get a haircut once or twice a year. It's mostly for the laziness of not wanting to call and get an appointment anywhere. I made an appointment to get my haircut at a "punk rock" salon...we'll see how this goes as I don't really want a "punk rock" hairstyle but regular salons never understand that I like my hair to just be messy and my bangs to be choppy. I hope this place does.
4.
Last night Mat and I went to the io to watch some improv and get some drinks. We stopped at Taco Bell first. I think my comment was "of all the places in the city you want to go to Taco Bell?" But it was there and it was fast. And he made fun of me for ordering a taco without lettuce. First because I ordered it without lettuce and second because I ordered a taco and "you're supposed to order multiple things." For the record I got cinnamon twists too.
The io show was great! Well the first people were good but not fantastic. But the second one was amazingly good. It's called Felt. And it is puppets doing improv. Puppets. Doing. Improv. Hilarious.
Then we went ot see District 9. It probably was a very good movie. It was very interesting. But I had a hard time watching it because the camera work was so damned shaky that it made me nauseous. I threw up my taco when I got home. You probably didn't need to hear that.
Assignment 4 - shoot acquaintances interacting at the highest ISO (in my case 6400).
I am starting to think I should start my own cooking blog of what not to do in the kitchen. Don't get me wrong. I love to cook. But sometimes I think cooking doesn't love me. And really I have none of the qualities that it takes to do either. Let us examine three of the meals I cooked this week for what NOT to do...
1. Potatoes a la Val
I could write a cookbook on how to make meals out of new potatoes. I always keep a bag on hand because if nothing else they make an easy meal that usually goes well tossed with whatever else you have leftover in your fridge. This week I sliced them thin and baked them with leftover garlic, parmesan cheese, and rosemary...
Of course I didn't cut the garlic small enough to do anything.
And I totally forgot to add any salt and pepper.
And then I totally got really hungry and, therefore, impatient, and, therefore, took them out of the oven way earlier than I should have so they were still slightly raw.
2. Chicken with tarragon cream sauce.
I seasoned this up just right. The chicken turned a perfect brown, crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. I took it out of the oven after 40 minutes on 350 and 5 on 400...and then I turned the handle to not stick out...and burned the hell out of my hand.
I spent the entire night in horrific pain. We didn't have ice at all so I kept getting Cokes from the fridge and held them until they went warm because it was the only thing that could stop the pain and if I wasn't holding something cold it only took moments for my body to start shaking and for it to feel as if I would pass out completely. Heather gave me some Tylenol PM which did nothing for the pain but did help me fall asleep before 9pm so I could at least ignore the pain a bit...My hand is fine today, just very blitery.
The chicken did turn out lovely though. And yes, yes even in writhing pain I still take a moment to take a photo of my food.
3. Chicken and dumplings.
I had some chicken left so I decided to make soup...Because soup does not go in the oven and therefore I figured my hands would be safe. What I was not prepared for was, when cutting into the chicken after it had boiled for a bit, to hear a pop and have a ton of blood splatter up. WTF? Undeterred, I cut around the bloody parts.
I also think I forgot to salt the dumplings. But whatever. It tasted yummy. And I have enough to feel about a million people.
And that was my week in cooking. In conclusion, I am still alive and Heather is still alive. So I guess I am doing something right.
1.
Last night I googled "tall guy with curly hair who takes good photos and likes road trips." It didn't produce anything. Scotty thinks it would have made a good movie if it did.
2.
While shamelessly googling myself I came across this. It is the video used in Never the Sinner and he used some of my photos in it!
Never the Sinner: Montage from Jim Vendiola on Vimeo.
3.
I love sweatshirt and hot chocolate weather. I wish it would stay like this always.
1.
I like when the guy who drives the train is funny. Good way to start the day. I also like when I sleep in for 45 extra minutes and still get to work early.
2.
On the news last night they were showing how to get the best out of your LinkedIn profile. They said the summary section was the most important...and then they seriously showed someone typing into that section "I excell at working with people." Good impression.
3.
The third assignment for photo class was to take photos using shallow and wide depth of field. Only I can manage to take dark menacing pictures of flowers...
4.
After class on Tuesday I went to Mat's place to take photos of his wardrobe for his movie's wardrobe lady. I made him make me hot chocolate and he gets bonus points for making it with milk and making it on the stove. Then we watched Suicide Kings. He had to explain to me what a suicide king was and so then I thought is was going to be about poker. But it was not. It was an interesting move though. Weird.
Sunday night we were planning on going to Ravinia to watch David Hyde Pierce sing Cole Porter. Halfway through the day JoeJoe asked me if I had checked the weather and so I looked it up and saw that it was supposed to rain. We thought about it and discussed and decided that maybe going to Ravinia wouldn't be the best idea...
At the same time MK said hey and it seemed like he wanted to do something but he didn't want to leave his house...so I took it upon myself to invite Joe and Alina over there and told MK we were having a party!
I brought over the pasta salad I had made the night before and Joe and Alina brought some wine and a delicious dessert that was not a cheesecake and not made with amaretto but had chocolate, cheesecake, amaretto, and strawberry all in the title and was just made with mashing a bunch of stuff together. It was delicious.
MK bought some pork and fired up the grill (because, of course it wasn't raining then).
It was a delicious meal.
I throw good parties :-)
1.
This video is hilarious. And girls are crazy.
2.
I saw a guy walking to the train this morning wearing a suit and top hat that were spray painted silver.
3.
I invented a game show: two friends. one gets locked in a soundproof glass booth. the other dances. first friend has to guess what song they are dancing to. I am thinking they have to be given a list of songs to choose from. And the dancer would get disqualified if he sang along. And there would have to be helps like "play the chorus" and "mime the lyrics for 30 seconds." or something. Maybe I should film this in my apartment...
4.
Mixing whipped cream and tomato sauce when you want a cream sauce is not necessarily a bad idea but also not necessarily a good idea.
1.
Andrew totally will want photos with his pants around his ankles...
2.
Wednesday night I decided to pretend I was unemployed and go out all night with Heather and Alyssa. We went to Angels and Kings which is owned by a Fall Out Boy or something. I wore my own underwear. It was "John Hughs night" but that just meant they were playing Ferris Bueller with no sound. And Heather's idea of being a wing man means pushing me into someone.
3.
Facebook thinks I want sperm.
4.
Thursday night I watched Bolt with Mat. It was sad. Then I made him watch Faerie Tale Theatre. It is awesome but he thought it was unawesome.
5.
At Shannalee's party she gave out free bottles of Country Bob's sauce. Since I had made a hamburger the other day and had seven buns left I decided to make pulled chicken sandwiches with it:
6.
Friday we went to Phyllis's and watched a Weezer Cover band and sang the blues. Then we went to 5 Star and drank. Then we met some random dude ont he street and he gave us naan to eat and brought us water. Then a cab miraculously appeared.
7.
Me: We had a one night stand on the grass in front of a museum.
Heather: Every time you open your mouth I am surprised.
Don't you love the internet? Not only can you put your whole life out there for all to see if you want (like I do...) but you find a voice in any topic you desire...and catch up with people you haven't seen in a very long time!
A few months back a friend from grad school, Shannalee, who I haven't seen since we had a class together at DePaul a couple of years ago found my twitter account and added me. She kept an awesome blog called Food Loves Writing which combines a literary narrative with cooking.
This past weekend she threw a party for her blog! For me it was a mini-reunion of sorts because it meant getting together with a few great people I haven't seen in a long while!
The party was out at a park in Downers Grove and had tons of great good! There were meatballs and barbecue chicken and salad and banana bread and delicious cakes from Sugar Magnolia Pastries.
There weresome giveaways and I won a cookbook, which I can't wait to delve into!
And Vicki won a gift pack from Country Bob's.
It was great catching up with Maxine and Shannalee and Vicki. We all were in the writing program at DePaul together and I haven't seen any of them since!
It was such a fun party and I hope there is another one soon! Or at least that it's not another two years until I see everyone again!
1. Things Heather has never seen/heard before the last few weeks:
- "In the direction of travel, doors open on the left..."
- An Extenze infomercial.
2. Yesterday I got rice with shrimp for lunch. I've gotten it before and it was fine and tasty. Yesterday I got it and after eating one I looked down and saw that none of the shrimp had been deveined. And I was totally grossed out and almost threw up and threw it out. I told Scott later and he said that deveined shrimp was perfectly fine to eat. I said I don't want to eat shrimp poop because it is icky. He did not buy "eating poop is icky" as a valid argument against it. I think that that statement does not need any more explanation.
3. Saturday afternoon I met my sisters downtown to go see Spring Awakening. I'd actually seen it before last year when I was in New York and absolutely loved it! Seeing it again was no dissapointment either. It is really a phenomenal show. Except now I have the soundtrack in my head. Yes, yes I am still the same theatre dork I was in high school. I think i only like musicals about sex and drugs though. I have now seen RENT, Spring Awakening, and Avenue Q twice each. I kind of want to see CATS though (cue jazz hands)...who doesn't like a musical about singing dancing cats???
4. Sunday afternoon Mat came over and we split a sausage pizza at Frasca. He then gave me my first guitar lesson.
5. Sunday night I met Chelsa to go see Dead Snow at Music Box. If you ask me to go see a movie about nazi zombies I will probably say yes. It was from Norway and was subtitled. And it was hilarious. At first I wasn't sure if it was just unintentionally hilarious or just funny in that way where people need to laugh to relieve tension. But it was actually pretty hilarious. I wasn't expecting that. I always come out of movies though with the stupidest of questions...like in this one they split up to try to find the car...and all I could think was how the hell many keys did they bring? Also, never sneak up on someone when they are killing a zombie. Just sayin.
6. I am very amused that the itap on my phone understands the word "comicon" but not the word "dork"...
7. These are the photos I turned in for the motion assignment for class...
Stopping motion:
Showing Motion:
Another Stopping Motion (because the people at lab lied):
What I would have turned in for panning if the people at lab didn't lie:
8. What's the perfect dinner when it is 90 degrees and your air conditioning is broke? This delicious peach caprese salad! I'm not always a fan of tomatoes and I am always a huge fan of peaches so this just seemed like a winning combo...and it was!
9. I know I should be very thankful that I have a job and make money...but I am kind of jealous that Heather and Alyssa get to sleep in and hang out all day and stay up late while I am working :(
Friday it rained. A lot. So the Sox Game that we were supposed to be going to almost seemed like it would be a lost cause. Luckily the clouds cleared up enough that the game went on...
We were celebrating Heather's singledom so a bunch of her friends came out. We started off at dinner at Frasca before heading out to the park. We got there around the third inning and took our seats. The guys behind us were having a bachelor party and invited up to take their limo back to party at their hotel...we declined.
The game was pretty brutal. At one point the bases were loaded with no outs and we managed to screw that up. We lost pretty badly :-(
My cousin Stefanie is getting married in two months and last weekend was her wedding shower:
Earlier this year I had the great pleasure of photographing publicity shots for Never the Sinner, the inagural production of Chicago's Project 891 Theatre Company (which, by the way, got some pretty kick-ass reviews). Last Sunday was the last day of the show's run and they asked me back to take some production shots.
Here are some highlights:
Congratulations to the cast and crew of Never the Sinner!
1.
Jeez, I am so behind in my blog! I have so many photos waiting to be edited!
2.
Our first assignment for class was to take photos at 1/60 of a second or faster. Here is one of the photos I turned in.
3.
You know it's going to be an interesting day at work when you are sitting there and two barking dogs run past your desk...
4.
It apparently really irks me when someone comes in while I am at work and rearranges the entire kitchen without any input from me. Especially when I use the kitchen a lot and love to cook. And potatoes do not go in the refrigerator. Just sayin.
5.
Someone should buy me this Chocolate Bacon Gift Pack
6.
Paula Abdul has officially announced over Twitter that she's not returning to American Idol...does this mean I no longer have to watch Idol as I really only tuned in still because I didn't want to miss it if one day she officially snapped? Who am I kidding? I will still watch.
I am so behind in blogging!
Here's Saturday in ten items or less...
1. Took a party bus with Tim, Pat, Erik, Nate et.al. out to Crete for a taco eating contest! I was surprised when it pulled up because I was pretty much expecting a small bus-like-thing...but this thing was huge! And they loaded a keg onto it...
2. The contest was at Balmoral Park, so we also got to watch the races. I didn't bet though. And the people who ride the horses there don't actually ride the horses. They just sit behind them. It worked out well though because my class assignment for the week is capturing motion. And horses tend to move.
3. The contest was awesome. And short. Bertoletti won. Gravy came in second. Erik third, Nate fourth. There was a news guy and two amateurs too. They didn't come close. It looked like Tim could have taken it at one point. But in the end Pat finished first.
4. Tim wore all pink (yay!) but then put cheese sauce all over himself.
5. After the contest we hung out around Balmoral some more. Food. Drinks. Etc. Sage stole my camera. :( No one is allowed to use my camera but me! It is worth more than everything else I own combined!
6. On the way home Tim and all of them decided that I needed to do a keg stand. They chanted for me. I gave in and did it. I have never done one before and think I lasted about 7 seconds. Hey, its 7 seconds longer than I've ever done before!
7. The rest of them did much longer keg stands. Like 90 seconds long. I can't drink 90 seconds worth of beer on one week let alone in 90 seconds.
8. After the contest we headed back to Black Rock and hung out. It was crowded. I got a bunch of free drinks.
9. I didn't throw up. Just sayin'.
10. I took lots of pictures. Of course. Taco Eating Contest photos here.
1.
Dear Ben Chrisman, stop making me cry. (No, actually, don't.)
2.
Thursday night, after watching "I'm addicted to Porn" Alyssa and I were flipping channels when we saw a show called "Paula Abdul Forever Your Girl." Turns out she was just hawking jewelry on the Home Shopping Network. Did you know that a piece of jewelry can be considered both "classy" and "bling"? I did not know that! Also, did you know that you can purchase from HSN right from your remote? Not that we did... Mat came over and made us change the channel :-(
3.
Friday I woke up and looked at the clock. It said 10:30. I was supposed to wake up for work at around 7...Ooops. I left for work and got there only 2.5 hours late...Pretty good actually because I woke up 3.5 hours late! I just kind of sat down at my desk and no one seemed to notice. I really shouldn't be posting this on the internet. But it's the first time I've overslept in five or so years of working, so I think it's OK.
4.
You know what's classy? I just realized that the jeans I threw on this morning and am wearing to work (even though I shouldn't be wearing jeans to work in the first place) are the same jeans that someone dumped a beer on on Saturday night...unwashed, mind you. Seriously, I shouldn't be posting this.
5.
Maybe i shouldn't take advice from "The Next Food Network Star" contestants, but my new quote to live by: "I might fail, but I'm failing at the right thing."
6.
Did you know that only half of the top lid of my left eye has eyelashes? So when I saw this commercial, I was very much intrigued...
It's probably the first cosmetic enhancing treatment I have ever considered. But I don't know. I've lived my whole life without lashes, why should I start now. And I am also terrified of going blind.
7.
I have officially filled an entire 500GB external hard drive with photos. I need to invest in a terabyte or 2...
8.
It has been exactly two years since I last dyed my hair. Can you believe the tips still have color? I am debating whether I want to start dying it again.
9.
Food Loves Writing, an amazingly well-written/photographed literary food blog is having a special anniversary contest to win a Destination Dinner! You should really check the blog out...and I am not just saying that because I went to DePaul with the site's author! She offers great recipes with a story to match. I wish I had the time and energy to cook that much! This Saturday she's throwing a blog party to celebrate the one-year birthday of the site! Can't wait to go!
