I'm glad you had a good visit.

FIFTY TWO SPINDLES TO GO. And a post and the top banister.

Why?

Thanks for the recipes, Dana.

I'm glad the visit went well, Suzi. And I love when you get to show off like that in front of your parents. It might be silly, but it still feels good.

Speaking of recipes, I made that AMAZING tomato sauce recipe and it was, in fact, very tasty. Very rich, a bit like vodka sauce. For my regular sauce, I'd still rather have sausage, olives, etc., but I will keep a can of San Marzano tomatoes on hand for the times I want an easy no-prep sauce.

Recipe or it didn`t happen! I`m always looking for sauce recipes. Right now I do a variation on Molto Mario`s basic tomato sauce. Heat olive oil, shred carrots and thyme and onions and garlic. Saute, til onions are golden and carrots are soft. Then add canned diced tomatoes, bring to a boil then simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Then I add random things to it. Mushrooms or sausage. This last time I made a veggie sauce with carrots and zucchini and green peppers.

1 can tomatoes, 1/2 stick butter, onion cut in half. Simmer 45 minutes, remove onion. Salt to taste.

Yes, that's it.

Oh yeah, and what`s wrong with the verb "solve," ita`s coworkers?
 
I went to my local art & office supply store today looking for the liquid graphite pencil. They looked it up for me, but couldn`t find a stock number online. So they`re going to call the vendor in the morning and will let me know if they can order it.
 
eta: nom! Will try.

You know what they should say instead of "solutioning"? FIXING. Seriously. They should totally give that a go.

I think instead of "solutioning" you should use "thinging." You know, like in the Monty Python sketch where the government discusses taxing thinging.

Spoke with Dad tonight. He's pretty conservative, both in terms of politics and just not wanting things to change. We were talking about my brother's upcoming drive out to Chicago to drop his son off at college--bro's bringing his girlfriend with, who hasn't been out here before. He and I were talking over the weekend to figure out when we can get together for dinner in their long weekend trip (it'll be my first chance to meet the GF). They're doing touristy stuff on Friday, so I thought it'd be great if I could meet them for dinner in one of the neighborhoods; it'd be a great way for her to see some of the city that most tourists don't.

I mentioned to Dad that Andersonville has some wonderful Mediterranean restaurants that'd be perfect for dinner. Dad only remembers Andersonville as the Swedish neighborhood it was when he was a kid/younger adult. It started changing in the '80s when Iranians fleeing after the revolution moved into the area, so there are still some older Swedish establishments alternating with some great Persian/Middle Eastern places.

Dad prefers not to think about such things and said so. I told him that what I love about the city is its shifts in neighborhoods, how an old South-side synagogue from the 1890s is now a Baptist church, and that the Bohemian community of Pilsen is now a Mexican enclave. Dad totally disagrees and can't understand me at all.

I'm still going to take my brother and his girlfriend to Reza's or someplace like that if I can convince him to drive ten minutes out of the Loop and show the gf someplace new.

Dad totally disagrees and can't understand me at all.

Ossification! I remember the first time I looked at my grandparents and thought, "They're like clay and when they get older they can't mold anymore, they just crumble like dust."

Note: this note does not apply to anybody else's superhip grandparents who just learned how to fly gliders and write in Sanskrit and toured Uzbhekistan. Just mine.