I love Roald.

One thing I know I want to put on my life list is "visit the home of Roald Dahl." To me, that also includes visiting the area where his grandmother lived in Norway. I loved his books so much, even though I read them much later than the average child. Even better was reading the two books he published as autobiographies to be read by children---Boy and Man.

Once you read these books, you'll realize why he was able to be so imaginative, and it will also help you see ways we can still break out of this boring non fiction world and create our own real life fiction. Did you know that Roald used to climb up on ladders to peek in his children's rooms at night? He made it known that he was sending good dreams (or something else, I can't quite remember but it's in the anthology that was recently published with notes from his kids), and even though his children knew it was their father and that he possessed no magical powers, it didn't lessen the enchantment.

Here's a fun quiz you can take on his first autobiography, Boy.

It's time.

Lunch break.

I sometimes take my lunch break at my desk. I take advantage of those 30 minutes in my day when I don't have to sit in front of a computer screen looking at numbers and letters, and I sit in front of a computer screen and look at photos and numbers and letters.

Tim has officially told me I cannot buy anything for our apartment because it is full. And he is right. But I still like to take 10 or 15 minutes to search Craiglist for "logan square," just to see what our neighbors are selling.

And look at this gem: elephant!!!

I like that the seller included photos of the elephant on public transit and bus stop benches, just so we can get a clear picture of all the lovely things you can do with an elephant. Thanks, logan square seller 1447546415!

Vocals.

Sometimes we take our talent for granted. Sometimes we think, I'm not a good cook! I can only make macaroni and cheese from the box! My rice always turns out crunchy. I screwed up instant pudding once! etc.

Sometimes we need to focus on the courage it takes to make those boxes of macaroni and just be happy that we're trying. Cue Shane:



Please sing loud in your car, your kitchen, your hallway, and your shower. Sing and know it's best to do it and not think about it. Write silly songs and don't worry about the neighbors hearing you. Dance in public spaces where you aren't supposed to dance (grocery stores, chain restaurants, train stations). Really, it's for your enjoyment and no one else's.

Thanks, Shane.

Fright Night.

What a night! We invited friends over for a halloween party that included several photo shoots reminiscent of America's Next Top Model, so the photos were pretty good, right? Along with the help of Madison Friends (Liz, Catherine, Katie, James, and Conley), the house was decked out in paper streamers and jack-o-lanterns, and Dana and I managed to make pumpkin seeds, vegan chocolate/coffee/coconut cupcakes, 500 popcorn balls (DON'T try to double the syrup. It messes up some sort of sugar PH and we ended up with very sticky kettle korn), and a giant patch of Witches Brew.



If you can't tell, I'm a fish. It was supposed to be a cute couples costumer, with Tim being a bear and all. But Tim's bear costume ended up consisting of a brown bag on his head and a brown corderoy suit jacket (thanks, John). So yes, don't judge me, I sidled up to my friend Megan, also conveniently dressed as a bear.

We ended the night by watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, starring Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Luke Perry and Paul Reubens. It was 84 minutes of pure delight.



Here is the popcorn ball recipe we used. It is my Grandma Mische's recipe, and when I called my mom to get it yesterday, she said "I'm just about to make some, too!" Ma had much more impressive ingredients for hers though---black popcorn, M&Ms, and soy nuts. Stupid neighbor kids getting my mother's delicious treats while I being a grown up far away, unable to trick or treat like I really, really want to. Stupid neighbor kids.

We used yellow dye in stead of red, so they looked like glowing buttery balls of goodness. The next time I do this I'd make maybe 1 1/2 cups of popcorn, salt it, and then pop more if I needed more for the syrup. We had a little bit too mcuh popcorn and we thought we could just make another quick batch of syrup. Then Dana added twice the water, and THIS IS WHERE I SHOULD HAVE SAID "WAIT. Let's just start over again." But the ingredients weren't expensive so we went in, popcorn balls to the wall, and made twice as much popcorn. We ended up with two giant towers of popcorn smushed together. I don't know what we were thinking making five times the amounts of stuff, but I'm not complaining, either. In the end, we have sugary delicious popcorn galore. It's more of a glass half full type of situation.

Grandma Mische's Pink Popcorn Balls

2 cups unpopped corn
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup light syrup
¼ cup butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp vinegar

Cook to 245 on thermometer. Remove from heat and add tsp of vanilla and ½ tsp almond flavoring and any food coloring. Pour over the popcorn and form into balls.


Thanks for the recipe, Ma!

Overheard from downstairs neighbors.

G_____! Ah! Come here!

Come HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE! Come here right now!

G_____G_____G_____, Come here come here come here!

(Charlie Brown trombone)

It's a bug! A giant bug!

(longer Charlie Brown trombone inquiry)

YOU come here and kill it! It's BIG! I hate it!

(short Charlie Brown trombone response)

UGHHHH. I hope it comes out and BITES YOU!


(silence)



UGH.


(more silence)


I DON'T EVEN HAVE SHOES!






(I love my building.)

Adventures in Uptown.

It started out as a simple idea. Let's go out on Friday night! Just the ladies! Yayyyyyy!

And then I suggested that we see a show at Annoyance Theatre. I'm not even going to re-type the title of the musical, because if I did, most would say "well, what did you expect?" Which is why I have this unsettled feeling of bewilderment. I EXPECTED it to be a horrible, offensive, one-penny production with bad actors. I just didn't expect to be so right.

Thoughts that myself, Kaye, Christina, Rita, and Stephanie all had at one point during the first half of the show:

He's going to hurt his voice if he keeps talking like that.
Oh, no. She's not going to say...oh. She said it.
Don't drink that...oh. He drank it.
The Dame is actually pretty good.
Yelling in key is not singing.
Ugh, maggots.
I need another drink.
Why do his jeans fit so weird?
He's not going to take off...oh. He took it off.
He's not going to use his belt on his...Oh.
Thank god there's an intermission so we can leave.

Thought that another audience member said out loud:

What IS this?



Heh. It was actually really funny to look over and see all the ladies exchanging the same WHAT THE WHAT?! looks. Everyone was too nice to say they wanted to leave at intermission, so I pointed that no one said they actually wanted to stay. Did I mention that before we went to THE THEATRE we had an amazing dinner at De Mera? The manager was annoying ("hey, have you guys heard of Facebook?" WHAT?) but the food was delicious, and I love eating without a knife and fork (or spoon).

We decided to find a place for a drink, and tried out about five different bars before settling on Max's bar. We wanted to find a hole in the wall that wasn't too loud or crowded, and this was certainly the place. Since there was no place to go but up from our previous entertainment, we enjoyed the many unique characteristics this bar had to offer with smiles on our faces: a "unique" smell, a bartender that was maybe six months pregnant and the only other woman in the bar, lots of leering men, and a one-eyed man that kept creeping towards our table until the bartender would yell "Larry! Come over here!" and then he'd retreat to a bar stool for about 10 seconds before slowly standing up and sidling over to our table again. Again, on the up side, everyone said goodbye to us when we left. Very sad, leering goodbyes.

To top off the night, I swore at a cab driver. What a night! Uptown...you are a strange minx of a neighborhood. I'm glad I got to experience it with a group of fun-loving and forgiving females. Sorry ladies.