dear barbri....

Now that disc0 and I have have taken care of that little administrative matter we've been working on the last couple days, this blog can get back to talking about Chicago and the great things in and around it...

Quick note: Chicagoans are even friendly when they are taking the bar. Yes; I made more "women's room friends" before the bar exam and during lunch breaks. People offered to share their food, just to be nice. And I don't know if you know this, but law students often tend in my experience to be...how do you say?...entitled jerkoffs. ESPECIALLY when they are under pressure. So I was pleasantly surprised. Oh, Chicago and your Midwestern values!

What is it, Sebastian? I'm arranging matches...

Well I'm not doing anything that would make anyone excited about Chicago, because the bar is in something like 6 days (something like that). I know there are tons of people enjoying Chicago because they walk past my window in droves on their way to and from the Cubs games (they are playing 10 games in a row during the week and a half of bar hell. Thanks a lot dudes) and the bars on my street. But around these parts we are just studying an ungodly amount and looking at the internet for periodic procrastination breaks (see below). The monotony was also briefly interrupted when a movie location scout knocked on our door to tell us they'll be shooting a film down the street and they might need us to put on our lights at certain times (that's right: our condo windows and/or the light they provide may be starring backdrops in what is sure to be a cinematic classic, just like recent films about Chicago such as The Breakup and License to Wed. I'm slightly bitter about who decides to make movies about this town). Anyway, in the course of procrastinating here are some urgent and horrifying news stories I've come across.

A number of Young Republicans really ARE jerks who hate women and themselves

A review of Captivity that finally exhibits the proper amount of rage (FYI it's a little graphic in describing the terrible things this movie does to its characters but it was worth it to see a review so pissed off about this shitshow)

Almost everything documented in the Chicago Tribune is wretched at all times

ETA!!: I MEAN REALLY FOX, SERIOUSLY, DOES THE IDEA OF HILLARY CLINTON MAKE YOU WANT TO PEE YOUR PANTS SO BAD YOU HAD TO DO THIS?!

And finally:

I really don't know what to say about this. (Really don't know).

procrastination station sensation blo-blation

What Song Was Number One On YOur Birthday (this is important info)!!??

AND

Big Night Out

disc0 and I are trying to take a few hours off each week before the bar to do something social and/or fun. Last week it was Terragusto, and this week it was a stand-up show by two of disc0 and my childhood heroes: Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black (of The State, Stella, and Wet Hot American Summer). I had a pretty darn good time--I will admit that I like these guys better when they're doing sketch or improv as a group rather than pure stand-up, so I wish they had done some of the show together and riffed off one another and whatnot, but I still heart them and it was still great to get out and see them live. MIB was recording a live album so that's neat. Showalter is totally presh and I am still excited that I just saw Coop.

OH BY THE WAY this is the same theater where we saw AD Miles, Mirman, et al. Still a short walk from our condo. And it's 65 degrees here so that walk to and fro was just lovely. Now back in the hole (the property, evidence, and constitutional law hole)

So We're Really Full Again....

Times are lean around my household because the bar stuff has gotten, and will remain, pretty intense from here on out. But tonight disc0 and I finished our assigned essays and decided to go out to dinner with J & A for a break. I'm SO GLAD WE DID.

Before he started staying with us, J lived very close to Terragusto and always wanted to try it, but reservations are often a must. This meant they never got a chance to go until this weekend, when A made 'em and invited us along. Terragusta is a small italian restaurant that serves organic and mostly local food, including homemade pasta. We ordered from the two course menu, which is basically family style. Holy crap!

That means we shared three antipasti: a huge antipasto platter (organic salami?! Balsamic soaked garlic that doesn't cause garlic breath?? Who knew?!), the best polenta ever, and a lovely green salad. The pasta course was absolutely amazing as well--the pasta bolognese was especially awesome. I never eat beef unless it's naturally raised so it's like an extra treat for me, and it totally lived up to expectations. YUM. And it's BYOB, so we had some $3 Trader Joe's wine to go with.

After all that deliciousness we had to try dessert, which of course included the most delicious panna cotta I've ever had and a flourless chocolate cake like WHOA. We almost had to ask the manager to roll us out the door. We went ahead and walked the mile and a half home just to try to work the dinner through. It wasn't the most comfortable walk (OK, OK--it is effing hot in Chicago right now, I'll admit it) but the full bellies were totally worth it. I can't wait to bring guests to Terragusto...with reservations, of course.

Unique and Not Unique

Another thing I love about Chicago is its proximity to farms. Not only because we can get to Thunder Valley Inn in about three hours, but because there are great Community Supported/Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) programs to join. disc0 and I have signed up for Home Grown Wisconsin, an organic farm cooperative, and we got our first box of goodies last week. Every two weeks we get a dozen fresh, organic eggs and whatever fruits and veggies and herbs have been harvested that week. I know this is not unique to Chicago--they had this kind of thing in Atlanta and I'm sure they do in NYC and definitely in smaller towns. But it's still great! We're already eating more veggies than normal (although we still aren't sure what to do with the rhubarb...we're waiting on a rhubarb custard pie recipe of which we've heard tell...). The sugar snap peas were out of this world and I even liked the collard greens.

What is unique to Chicago is the beautiful skyline view over the lake from our friends' gorgeous lakehouse roof (picture below: identities have been shielded to protect the chef). We got to visit last night for a lovely July 4th BBQ (we brought organic deviled CSA eggs--yum) and soaked in the beautiful evening. Soaked it in figuratively that is...it didn't rain until much later, and then we were able to share fellowship with other wet Chicagoans on a long, and delayed, el ride home. The el ride was stupidly delayed with traffic at 1:00 AM--that's bad. But people were still friendly and chatting it up on the ride--that's good.

Uff Da!

This weekend, disc0, J, A, and I went to the Wisconsin Dells for a little vacay before bar studying gets really rough (i.e. July 5). It was, as expected, wonderful.



Last 4th of July, disc0 and I wanted to take a cheesy weekend trip, and decided on the Dells, the Waterpark Capital of the World; our impression was that if Disney World is Vegas for kids, The Wisconsin Dells is Branson, Missouri for kids. We were right in alot of ways, but along the way, we also discovered the Thunder Valley Inn, and have been talking about it ever since. You see, before it was the Water Park Capital of the World, the Wisconsin Dells was famous for beautiful rock formations along the Wisconsin River (those are the actual "Dells"), so there are some attractions aside from the water parks.
We knew last year that we had to make Thunder Valley and the Dells a family tradition so we went back, and this time brought some friends along.

The best thing about the Thunder Valley Inn is the food; and the best thing about the Thunder Valley Inn is the people who run it; and the best thing about the Thunder Valley Inn is the atmosphere, which is a combination of the two. The Thunder Valley Inn is...the best.

It's run by the Nelson family, and they are, in a word, incredible. They are some of the sweetest and most earnest people I've ever met in my life--about farming, about food, about hospitality, and about being Norwegian. In fact they identify with Scandinavian-ness in general, including Swedes, so again I felt among my chosen people. At the Saturday "threshing dinner" show, they feed you the best freaking pot roast (grass-fed, no hormones, no antibiotics, from a local friend's farm), mashed potatoes, carrots, onions and peas (from their garden) and bread (the matriarch bakes 40 loaves every day, and makes fresh strawberry-rhubarb jam to go with. OMFG, I at a loaf this weekend). And THEN they get on the piano and the violin and play and sing some Norwegian ballads, with slight yodeling, and then they make eVERYone in the dining room stand up, and hold hands, and sing Good Night Irene. Oh and there's a man named Sven who bursts in during all of this to play the accordion and tell some "Ole and Lena" jokes (a few of which, at the end of his act, were a bit ribald for my taste! Uff da!)

It would take up too much of your time to read about the awesomeness of the breakfast, but let me just say that their fresh eggs and handmade cinnamon rolls are out of this world. I think Chicago is the big city with the best food, and the Thunder Valley Inn is the farm with the best food. disc0 and I stayed in Swedish House portion of the B&B, specifically the Carl Larsson Room, named after Scandinavia's most famous painter, while J & A were in the "Wee Hus" (which is just as precious as it sounds). There are also sheep, goats, a peacock, bunnies, and a KITTY HOUSE, which houses adoptable foster kittens with whom guests are invited to play. The vibe is wholesome, Lutheran, environmentalist, liberal, Feingoldian, Wellstone-ian deliciousness. We want to go there as much as possible.

The rest of the trip, aside from where we ate and slept, was also a blast. Saturday was spent at Noah's Ark, the country's largest water park. A and I left the boys a little early and got massages at a nearby monstrosity/resort called the "Kalahari," which I believe houses the country's largest INDOOR water park. It also houses a very nice spa were the massages were fab. On our way out of the lobby, A and I noticed that there was a group of 10 or so people around a glass enclosure the size of a small gazebo, so we thought it might be a neat snake or something. No, it was two BABY LION CUBS snoozin' away. WHAT?! I was really nervous that this was some sort of fancy, Vegas/Branson looking backyard zoo situation, but then some trainers came to transport the little tykes out of the glass cage and presumably somewhere else more habitable. Though they didn't seem to mind being looked at too much, I was glad that it wasn't their permanent home (or even one they seem to stay in for more than a couple of hours). So we were allowed to be excited that we got to see baby lions up close!!!!!!




Today, after checking out of Thunder Valley, we took an amphibious Original Wisconsin Duck Tour, which took us first through some beautiful forest that contained creepily awesome gargoyles and bas-relief thingies from the old Chicago Board of Trade building (when it was demolished, a woman bought them to decorate the grounds of her estate and now they are by the Duck Boat Road).

Then we went into and down the Wisconsin River with minimal splashage.



There was a moment of excitement when we came across another Duck Boat being evacuated because it got stuck trying to get out of the river back on land--but our driver made it (phew! Uff da!). Then it was through some more pretty forest, and finally more amphibiousness onto Lake Delton before the tour ended. We get to see some of the actual dells (rock formations), which are quite beautiful.

We also had an extremely earnest college student tour guide who made some pretty exciting puns along the way, winning us over completely.
It's actually a really gorgeous tour and we were very glad to see some nature and feel wholesome after Noah's Ark and before coming back to the city. And then the guys did Go-Kart on our way out of town. What can ya do?! Good times are good times.