Army of Almond Spritzers

The other night, Cathy made desserts for Bernice's bridal shower. I watched as she constructed a delicious army of almond spritzers and vanilla cupcakes. Here are some (yellowish and whitish) photos of the adventure.


She used a cookie press to press the cookies. Sounds about right.


Lots of cookies.


Lots.


Sprinkling of pink sprinkles. I read that a couple times and in my head it eventually sounded like stprinkling of prink spinkles.


Into the oven the army went.


Then the cupcakes stood in line to get their uniforms.


Stprinkling of spink prinkles.


Waiting for battle.

More later.

John G. Shedd Aquarium

Three posts ago, I wrote that said I wanted to see the shitty parts of Chicago, not the parks, museums, and what not. Well, I took a random day off last week and, ironically, I found myself at the Shedd Aquarium with Cathy. The Shedd hasn't changed much since I've last been there. It was a good time, despite the incredibly boring dolphin show.


We got to the Shedd early, so we were able to walk right in. We started by checking out the many (relatively small) aquariums. Eels, crabs, turtles, coral, and of course fish, like this Seawolf for example. He looks like he wants to get out, or die... uh I can't tell


There was a big Blue Iguana catching some rays.


Yeah. I later learned there were dolphins in there somewhere (oceanarium).


It started getting crowded.


Looks crowded here too.


A ceiling window to part of an aquarium. Rad.


By the time we left, a long line had built up. Those people are crazy. To me, it was long enough to constitute "screw that I'm going home" long.

We later went to the Field Museum of Natural History. Oh the irony. I'll post the awesomely mediocre photos of that later.

Technically, Spring is Here

Well, Spring is here. Although it did snow the other day. I find that totally unacceptable. Weather, you're a little bitch.


In honor of Spring: a Red-Spotted Purple, hanging out amongst the blackberries. Found this guy on North Manitou years ago. I later wasted about 15 minutes of my life identifying it via the Internets.


Westinghouse Career Academy High School in Chicago. Not doing so hot.


Screwing around.

Music: Anecdote

So here's some music. I haven't written any music in a long time, but I was looking around on my hard drive and found some of my, well, notes I guess. I'll post some of these every now and then for the hell of it.

This one seems to be called Anecdote. It's just a combination of some basic techniques I was practicing back then. I made up a couple riffs on a boring afternoon and this is what I got. All I had was one of the first practice takes (I vaguely remember recording this in a kitchen), so it's a little rough:

Good Ribs and Crime

I've been wanting to see more of Chicago lately. Not the museums, the parks, or any of that. I'm talking about the more unsavory parts of town, where buildings are deteriorating, the crime rate is high, the bbq ribs are great, and the L stop smells like piss. Why would I explore an area where getting mocked, mugged, and/or molested is a real possibility? I don't know, but I never really do anyway.


Westside vantage point.

Quentin and Chloe

I feel like I should apologize. Most of my posts have a picture of Quentin or Kya, and you're probably getting tired of it. Well, this post is no different and I'm not apologizing. What can I say? I like dogs, I can't help myself.

Anyway, Q met Chloe this past weekend.


Chloe. She is Bernice's and Dave's dog. Looks kinda like Quentin, right?


She was excited to hang out. I noticed that she had a Coach collar. Quentin has a generic $10 collar from PetSmart.


Quentin watched her from a distance.


Chloe watched back.


This went on for a while.


Until Quentin decided to start showing off his breakdance moves.


Not impressed.


Impressed with himself.


I kept screwing up the names of Quentin, Kya, and Chloe. Also, Quentin and Chloe look similar, so that wasn't helping. "Ky-no, Chlo-wait, no, I mean, Quentin!"

Photographing Chloe and Q was easy. I just sat on the floor, hung out, and hit the shutter a couple times. Although sometimes one of them would run up and try to taste my lens. Ok, I'll get out there and take some non-dog photos soon. Really.

Buying Glass

Replaced my lenses, and so far I'm pretty pleased. Although I haven't done much more than take them out of their boxes, shoot a couple test shots, and put them away so I can go make myself a sandwich.

Here's one test shot from the 12-60:


A fraction of the view from Cathy's.

I took this next one right after I powered up the other lens to check it. It isn't much of a photo, but it captures one of Q's peculiarities that always makes me laugh:


He makes that face everytime he scratches himself. What a weirdo.

Like I said, haven't had much of a chance to use them, and partially because I'm still having a blast with my 50mm:


Obligatory.


Kya and Cathy


Deep in thought, Q was pondering how he could obtain the piece of bread he was being taunted with.

Selling Glass

I sold my two most used lenses. I lost over 260mm of focal length in mere hours, but I just could not pass up the offer (it was a good one). Yeah, I've been thinking about rebuilding my lens collection, but not for another couple months. So now I'm not too sure where to start...

Other than that, I've come down with a very slight cold. I almost made it all the way through the winter without even a hint of illness. Almost.

Some misc pics (my recent photos have all been with my 50mm prime. It's a great lens.):


Hello.


Sometimes Kya looks like a gorilla.


Looks peaceful.


And a photo of nothing.

Dad's Birthday Dinner

Michigan was good times, as usual. Friday was my Dad's birthday and we had Dungeness crab for dinner. Crazy delicious, but hard as hell to eat. From my corner of the table, you could hear snarling, growling, crab joint snapping, shell breaking, and grunts of frustration.


My Mom brought a couple Dungeness crabs back home after work.


This is a Dungeness crab.


Naturally, my Dad was quite pleased to see them.


My Mom and Cathy couldn't watch my Dad prepare them, which consisted of tearing them apart one leg at a time. I admit, I was a little sad to see them still trying to wiggle around despite having all their legs removed.


But my Mom was brave enough to cook the crabs for us.


After dinner, my lovely girlfriend Cathy was kind enough to prepare a Korean pear for us. Good stuff. Gooood stuff.


Then we spent the rest of the night playing Mah Jong. Yes, I'm serious. I ended up winning one out of the ten games we played.

The dogs had a great time too. My Dad walked them constantly, so they were pretty worn out all weekend. Quentin took a lot of naps.


See?


He didn't even have the strength to attempt to squirm away from Cathy's love hug like he usually does.

Another Mitten Roadtrip and Some Random Photos

Going back to Michigan this weekend. I swear, this past year, I've gone back to the mitten more than I ever have in years. Like me, Quentin loves roadtrips:


See? Good ol' Smiley Q (handheld snap with my Pentax).

Here are some miscellaneous photos:


Baha'i Temple in Wilmette. There was construction around the outside, so I could only take shots closer up. Seems like it would look amazing without all the crap around it, and especially during the summer. Also, I was walking around in the downstairs visitor center when I got scolded for almost stepping on a butterfly.


Vegetables, anxiously waiting to be thrown into a tasty stew.


A top-notch super-rad tetsubin teapot given to me by Cathy. It brews a great cup of tea.