New York City

Went to NYC for Labor Day weekend -- mostly to visit friends and family. Not a big fan of NYC because it seems crowded all the time. This being Labor Day weekend, the crowd condition just seems exacebated -- good thing I stayed out of Mid-town. Lower Manhattan/Chinatown was not any better but it was a little more manageable. The other reason why I don't like NYC is the exorbitant hotel prices -- again made worse by this being Labor Day weekend. I stayed at the Chelsea Inn -- it was in a pretty nice neighborhood and pretty convenient to everything but the place was run down, old and dingy. My "room" was only six feet wide and about 18 feet long with a double bed and a TV. The worse part -- I had to share a bathroom that is in the hallway. Yuck! Maybe I will stay in Brooklyn the next time I go to NYC or maybe not go to NYC anymore. Yes, I am spoiled!

A Day in the Park

Sunday, 8/24/2008, was a beautiful day. Not too hot and not humid at all. Since I purchased a new Nikon D60 and my friend, Ben, purchased the Cannon Xts, we decide to put our photogrpahy chops to the measure. We spent a lovely day with a few other friends walking around Lincoln Park, the Conservatory and the Zoo and took some pictures. You be the judge.





It was really hot in the Conservatory/Green House but I think it was well worth the effort.

Part 3 to the Journey of 2 Parts

So, the famous rant about the journeys of 2 parts now has a part 3. Because of their delays and equipment failures, all passengers on that fateful flight to Narita, Japan was offered a discount voucher. So, I was thinking that I would use that discount voucher to purchase a ticket to New York City to visit my cousin who just had a baby girl (Yeay!!!!). So, I booked my flight on United.com and when it came time to pay for the ticket, I could not find a place to enter the voucher code. Ok, time to read the fine prints. Therein lies my rant -- the fine prints indicate that in order to validate the "authenticity" of the voucher, it must be turned in at a ticketing counter or mailed to the office in Detroit. I guess there must be tons of these vouchers floating around or something. And, to compensate you for the inconvenience of a delayed flight or equipment problem, they give you more inconvenience -- having you drive to the airport to get a ticket issued. I should charge them for gas. And because the flight is less than 14 days away, I couldn't mail it to Detroit. Sigh! I guess I really felt like being cheap (hey, New York is expensive) so I drove to the airport -- it was a $150 voucher so it was nothing to sneeze at! Finally, after an hour and a half drive round trip, I finally have my ticket. NYC here I come!

Crazy Summer Weather in Chicago

Wow -- so, Monday evening was perhaps one of the scariest weather I have ever experienced. It started to get really dark with all the cloud coverage and then it got really windy. I wasn't even sure how windy it got until I surveyed the damages the next day. Continuous lighting bolts with thunder claps following immediately after. The news was plastered all over the paper and news report on Tuesday. According to the Chicago Tribune, at the peak of the storm, more than 800 bolts was fired per minute. For the duration of the storm, nearly 90,000 thunderbolts hit Northern Illinois. There were reports of three tornado touch down in Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana. Roofs were ripped off homes in Bolingbrook, IL and Griffiths, IN. Trees fell on cars, and street lamps were strewn around like toys. I did a survey of the nearby parks along the lakefront -- another devastation. A lot of the beautiful, gigantic trees had branches torn off, garbage bins were blown over, debris everywhere. Again, Mother Nature is retaliating. My deck was a mess, plants blown over, dirt everywhere, broken pots. Sigh . . . time for cleanup.

Green Zebra

Celebrated my friend, Ben's, birthday last night and we went to Green Zebra. A vegetarian/vegan restaurant in the River West area of Chicago. It is mostly vegetable dishes with the exception of one Tofu dish and a Halibut dish. A lot of the dishes were raw too -- uncooked vegetables. The food was of high quality -- fresh ingredients -- and tasty with a nice use of herbs. But for the food, the restaurant was kind of ackward. The tables were mostly at at angle and tight, there is pillar right in front of the main entrance and, again, the entrance is set at a 45 degree angle. But I think the most noticeable thing is the price tag -- the portions were tiney but any measures but with a pretty hefty price tag attached. I know, I know -- we are all used to the LEYE portions and I, for one, could use with smaller portions but COME ON! Four little ravioli and a bunch of shaved asparagus on a salad plate (I think if you reconstituted the shaved asparagus, you would get a total of 1.5 asparagus) AND costing 12 bucks is a little pricey! The waitress even went as far as to inform us that we should order something from each of the four sections -- Salad, Soup, Appertizer and Entree to have a filling meal. That's how small the portions are. Another pricey point is the wine list -- nothing in the $20 to $25 range. The wine seems nice but the price, to me, are really pricey. The cheapese is a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc for $28. Although I liked the food, Green Zebra is probably something that I would reserve for VERY SPECIAL occassions and only with people who absolutely have to have vegetarian.

Deck 2008

Some pics of plants this year.

The Deck 2008

Some of the plants on the deck this year. Most of it came back from last year except the annuals.