Another open thread for personal stuff, continuing from here.
As usual for these threads: no trolls, no arguments, supportive comments only!
Categories
We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
We Hunted The Mammoth
So sorry to hear about the job Kitteh. 🙁 I hope you find something related to your skills.
freemage, thank you, that’s an awesome list! I’m going to forward it to my gf. Chicago’s her big thing as much as mine – she’s never been there, and the Field Museum’s her only must-see I know about as yet. I was assuming it’d be at least a day’s worth, and that we’d have to be really selective (unless she wants to carry me around, heh). I don’t know if she wants to do the Art Institute; I don’t, having been there last time.
Chinatown we won’t need to worry about; Chinese food is not my thing at all. Neither are heights, lol. I had to stand well back from the barriers at the lookout points in Yosemite. I could feel my stomach dropping however many squillion feet it was to the bottom.
The stained glass at Navy Pier sounds gorgeous, I’d like to see that.
We’ll be with two Illinois friends, so I wonder if we’ll get nice people at ticket desks who’ll let us slip in? We’ll see. It’s the sort of thing I’d do in my museum days, like when a big family came in and were going to be slammed for ticket prices, so we’d tell the four-year-old they hadn’t really turned four yet and could get in free. (And didn’t the little kids complain about that, lol. Child: I’m not three, I’m FOUR! Parent and ticket seller, in unison: No you’re not!)
Kittehs: Glad to help. Is there a particular variety of food you are fond of? I remember you saying you are not big on spices (and I believe that’s a huge understatement in your case), so that leaves out some of my personal local faves, but one side-effect of Chicago’s long, sordid history of ethnic segregation is that we have an incredible restaurant scene–there’s plenty of neighborhoods where you’ll find restaurants where the English sign is almost hidden beneath all the materials written in Polish, or Arabic, or Spanish, or whatever. Actually, for tasty-but-not-spicy, Greek, German and Polish are probably your best bets. BBQ is also usually excellent–just avoid the hot-links, which are VERY spicy.
The museums are, unfortunately, really getting budge-squeezed, so it’s getting tougher to get in for free if you don’t meet the residency requirement. You’ll probably have the best luck getting in as a ‘friend of Illinois’ on weekdays (esp. Mon-Thurs), when they’re desperate for non-schoolchildren attendees. On the weekends, they’re usually really hoping to make bank on the tourist trade. That said, if it’s an Illinois-resident-free day, since you and your gf will be going with two locals, you might be able to work out splitting the costs of tickets.
The Field does have loaner wheelchairs, if walking around for a protracted period would wipe you out. Many of the other museums will, too. I’ve got a friend with a bum knee, so I’ve learned to ask.
freemage – ” I remember you saying you are not big on spices (and I believe that’s a huge understatement in your case), ”
Never was truer word said! 😀
I’ve never had Polish food but Greek and German are good; I liked the food I had in Illinois a couple of years back. (Chicken and cheddar soup at Baumgartner’s in Monroe – never had soup to die for before, it was So. Good.)
We’ll be in Chicago from late Monday to Saturday, I think – I’m flying home on Sunday night – so the weekend won’t be so much of a thing.
I understand about museums being squeezed. Been going on forever here, too, and last time I was in LA everything was being trashed and closed by Ahhhhnold’s incompetence.
S’funny, every time I’ve been retrenched it’s been during a recession under a conservative government, either when the public service was being gutted, or in a company run by a conservative manager who’s either a fuckwit or an arsehole or both. What a coincidence.
The core of Polish cooking is the potato. Seriously. Potato-and-cheddar pierogies and potato pancakes are on almost every Polish restaurant’s menu. Most will have a wide variety of pierogies, actually (pierogi is the Polish version of ravioli; instead of the usual tomato sauce, they usually are just covered in butter). I just found a Polish restaurant by searching–this is the stuff they’ll put in those little packets of pasta-like dumpling:
cheese & potato, sauerkraut & mushrooms, sweet cheese, meat, blueberry, plum, cherry, strawberry
So it goes from a side-dish to a dessert, depending on what you want stuffed inside.
Sausages are also a common part of the meal, especially kielbasa.
For Greek: I recommend the Parthenon. It’s a staple from back when Greektown was more than just a tourist designation.
For German: The Berghoff is a Chicago icon.
I’m now feeling angsty ‘cos Polish restaurants here (there aren’t many) tend to be cocktail bars – very loud and with more focus on the drinks than the food. I love spuds, and those dishes sound like just my thing. 🙂
Are any of them called The Brewski?
Don’t think so, but it would be appropriate! One’s called Borsch, Vodka and Tears.
That is an equally awesome name.
Heh. Nah, around here, Polish restaurants pretty much resemble the German ones, with a different menu and some alterations to the tchotchkes.
So this is totally random, but what do you guys think about the billion warnings about cats being in the same room as a baby? Ours have been really deferent and haven’t seemed interested in him at all, aside from what looks like, “Hey, never seen a people that small before.”
I mean, we make sure that they can’t easily get to him, but frankly they’ve seemed more interested in sleeping on our feet. Anyone with legitimate experience that can fill me in a little? It’s hard for me to shake the feeling that all the stuff people have told me is a chunky stew of mythology, superstition and what feels like some sort of vaguely sublimated spinster shaming.
It’s a myth.
As with any pet, you should watch what happens near the baby (as really anyone would with anything) but other than that, the only thing that might happen is that the baby in question grows up liking cats.
Cats don’t steal breath, devour throats, eat eyes, purposefully sit on top of babies to choke them, and or any other of a million things people accuse cats of doing. It’s never happened, and it most likely never will.
The most dangerous thing is, as always, either annoying the other and either scratching or slapping to mark annoyance. In fact if the baby is grown a little it’s more likely the cat is in danger, with the tail pulling and so on.
Watch things and it’ll be fine.
More happy, healthy and employable vibes going out to all! Although, knowing my luck on those fronts, nobody should rely on my positive thoughts.
I (and then my brother) had a doting feline auntie when we were babies. She was sweet and gentle but took no crap from us, teaching us a lifelong love and respect for kitties. She may, however, have stolen my soul and replaced it with that of a kitten but we can’t really be sure.
You mean you got an upgrade to a Furrinato’s soul? 😯
Ha, sounds rather egotistical on my part when you put it like that! She was definitely a maternal figure to me though, and I never can decide which side of a door I want to be on.
LOL you were definitely upgraded, then.
Well, Fibinachi had all the real advice, but I do have a neat story. When my best friend’s son was a baby, their cat decided that he belonged to her. She had to be in whatever room he was in, and when he went down for his nap, she would get into the crib and lie next to him, and if anything went wrong she would yowl her head off (she had a special meow for when his diaper needed changing, and she was INSISTENT, so he never had a dirty diaper for more than a couple of minutes).
He went through a rough bit where he would roll himself into a position where he couldn’t breathe well, and every time he did Tasha would stand up and scream (she was a Russian Blue and I think they have some Meezer in them because boy did she ever have a voice on her!) sometimes waking him up to move and always bringing the whole house running. She was way better than the baby monitor.
Cats are people too, meaning that how they get along will be up to the personality of the cat and the baby, but as long as you are watchful, especially in the beginning and at the important tail-pulling stage, everything should be just fine.
That cat story is awesome gillyrose!
Sorry to hear about your job, kitteh 🙁
I’ve never had Polish food, but it sounds worth a shot now.
An update on my stuff: that whole letter thing led to a super-toxic environment at work, and my tolerance for it kind of died, so I quit today. I had a little nervous breakdown on if I just made a really stupid decision and ruined my life etc, but I’m better now, and I really think it was the right thing to do for now. I’ll find a new job, and focus on my studies in the mean time. It just makes me really sad, because I loved my lab and my job and the work in general. Oh well. That’s life, I guess.
Kitteh — oh FUCK that sucks.
Ally — first, you’re not a runaway on paper, you moved from your father’s house to your mother’s, nothing weird about that at all! Second, idk if anything will come of it, but I’ve not been around because I met someone…a programmer…feelers for Boulder area work have gone out.
Re: B12 — I’m a sucker for XXX vitamin water — it’s loaded with B12, to the point that my lab work always causes a ō.Ó? at my levels (which lasts two minutes until the “I just ingest a lot of it” is sorted)
Cats and babies — afaik the only science behind recommending getting rid of the feline is that pregnant women should be super careful about litter boxes. Once the baby is born though everything everyone’s said about cat personalities takes over. I’d have to check exactly how old he was, but I think the brief span of 15~ cats coincides wih when my brother was little (two females, and two litters at once), other than turning into a goof around cats he survived it.
Question — can someone sum up the rapey troll? I tried catching up and only ended up so far behind on current threads that it’s a joke.
Oh and having had four survivors from the first three batches of eggs (arg, the breeding tank ammonia levels went absurd >.< ), I am thrilled to announce the laying of more eggs! Not many, but hopefully I'll get at least a few baby cories out of it, my 55g is still so empty and it's too cold to transport loaches.
Should’ve checked my texts before hitting post >.<
Sorry Ally, no luck with Boulder programming contacts. Good luck!
Regarding the troll: pretty much “I’m a MANLY-MAN 50-odd year old married farmer ex-marine from NC (DIRECTLY ON THE BEACH!) here to tell you women in their 20’s hit on me all the time TOTALLY NOT TO GET FREE DRINKS, but simply because I never ask for sex, because that ruins it. Oh look a female avatar…Heeeeyyy (insert inappropriate creeping here, poor girl). ” Also, he’s probably a sock for the beach guy (Mikey?). I think that was most of it, just, you know, 800-odd posts of it. Did I miss anything?
So a friend of mine linked me to this last night.
[TRIGGER WARNING FOR LINK: RAPE, LACK OF EMPATHY FOR HUMAN BEINGS AHEAD]
WHO THE FUCK LACKS THAT MUCH EMPATHY??? RAGE.
@chimisaur
You did a good summary. The only thing you missed was his constant cries of ‘you are all horny women’ despite being confronted with replies directly from men, served with an additional side of ‘I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THIS MICHAEL PERSON IS’.
@Alice
Oh dear, why did I click on that? X_X
@Alice
WHYYYYY?! I just lost my faith in humanity a little again. Need brain bleach. How does (I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume) he live with absolutely zero empathy for other human beings like this? Ugh. Forget brain bleach – I need a shower.