I made it home from Chicago...

God morgon, hur star det till? Har du saknat mig? (That's Swedish w/o the necessary dots...How are all ya'all? Miss me?) I'm home safely after dealing with the usual (you pick the adjective) TSA staff and (you pick the adjective) taxi drivers. Although, the worst was the screaming two year old on the plane, so maybe I'll start with that. Wait...I'll start by sharing today's soundtrack: Music from the 20's, 30's and 40's. Something snappy and French is playing right now. I dig Pandora. Check it out. http://www.pandora.com/
So I was in Chicago from Wednesday afternoon until Friday at a conference. The actual conference was 8-5 Thursday and 8-3 on Friday, and by the end of the second day I was pretty fried. Here are some of the suggested titles that I may or may not be adding to my library. Click on the image to get a good look. To be honest, I think I'm going to add Knitwear Design Workshop by Shirley Paden to my library first. Anyway, I ran into a Quality person from one of our hospitals the first day at lunch, then again at lunch the second day and we shared a cab to the airport. It was very cool to meet someone in my organization who I normally would not have the opportunity to meet. She works out of North Shore Medical Center in Salem, and I'm out in Needham which is about an hour away from her location.

I got to the airport w/ about an hour and a half before we had to board, so I had time to grab something to eat (I won't bother relating that story - I bought some food and ACTUALLY TOOK IT BACK), find a seat and chill for a bit. Not sure if I've mentioned that I don't like loud noises. I have a history of hearing loss on my right side, and although I've had surgery to restore most of it, I have a terrible time when there is a lot of background noise. Being in a busy airport is a perfect example of a situation that fries my circuits. I had ear plugs with me, but the ones I had only blocked out about 30 decibels, and that wasn't even cutting it inside the airport. So we board the plane, and during the half hour between sitting down and taking off, it was already clear that there was a two year old three rows behind me who was going to make the trip a painful one. The kid was going bonkers, and the parents were not trying to engage, distract or calm her. Two and a half hours, man. After two days of dashboards, run charts, control charts and sigma levels, I thought the screaming would cause my head to explode - I can't even imagine what it was like for the people who DIDN'T have earplugs. I'm reminded of the final M*A*S*H episode where Hawkeye cracks up. He was on a crowded bus with a woman who had a rooster that was wouldn't stop cock-a-doodle-dooing. She ends up killing the rooster to shut it up. But the twist was that wasn't a rooster. She smothered her baby to stop its crying, which is what causes Hawkeye to crack. Now, please don't assume that just because I can't stand screaming children on planes that I want to smother them. I don't. It's the parents that I want to get my hands on. When it was time to get off the plane, I looked back to make sure I caught the father's eye, and you can bet we shared a moment.

Both of the nights I was in Chicago, the weather was beautiful and I had the opportunity to walk all around. I was staying at the http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-2993-sofitel-chicago-water-tower/index.shtml which is just a couple blocks from Michigan Ave and not far from Lake Michigan (which bears a striking resemblance to the Atlantic Ocean when you're standing at the edge of it).

The hotel is named after the water tower which is pictured here during daylight and night time.

It looks like a castle - it's just beautiful, and is across from what I think is the water authority building that matches in architecture.

The first night I was there, I walked up and down Michigan Avenue, and stumbled upon Lawry's Restaurant. That is the same outfit that makes the seasoning salt. I had no idea they were actually a restaurant, but they are a big prime rib place. I thought what the hell, I like prime rib, so in I went. (I should also mention that it was Saint Patrick's Day and most of the people wandering around were into it: wearing green, faces painted green, big plastic green necklaces, obnoxious green hats - the whole bit.) So I go into Lawry's and it's one of those "old" established restaurants, with big leather chairs and servers wearing the same (ugly) uniforms that have been worn since 1938. Here comes the funny part: During my normal life and routine, I don't buy meat, I don't cook meat, and I eat very little meat. Everytime I go on a business trip, it seems that I try to eat an entire cow, and then I wonder why I'm sick. I pulled this same shit in Atlanta last fall, and my friend TK (are you still part of my readership, T?) can attest to it, as he was a witness. So at Lawry's they do all the food at tableside. First I had the special spinning salad. Then, they told me I had to wait for my meal b/c the Shannon Rovers, who are the local bagpipe and drum corp were coming INTO THE RESTAURANT to entertain us for about six or seven songs. Did I already mention about the loud noise? Yikes. But at least it gave me some time to digest my salad before they brought the meal over. They don't bring a plate - they bring a rolling oven, and the chef cuts whatever you'd like. I took the smallest cut they had, but I think they need a smaller micro cut. Popovers come with, and they sold me on the baked potato and asparagus. (I passed on the lobster tail, shrimp cocktail and dessert which they tried to sell me, but still ate WAY too much.) I told myself this would NOT happen the next night. I was going to eat a light meal and splurge on dessert. How do you think that went? You'll have to wait to find out.

The second night when I walked over to Lake Michigan, I had to pass the Museum of Contemporary art, which sadly, was closed. I snapped a shot of these three guys and headed into the gift shop.

I like to buy myself a little trinket as a remembrance when I go on trips, and this time around I decided on the ring shown here. It is made of an acrylic zipper with a microsuede backing and elastic band. Very cool and comforable to wear, plus it is an exact color match to my reindeer leather and pewter bracelet that I got at the Swedish festival last winter. Sure...not everyone would wear this wacky thing, but it suits me perfectly. For dinner I went into a restaurant called Grand Lux Cafe and could tell immediately that they were affiliated with Cheesecake Factory (CF owns them - separate mgmt). They have a bunch of desserts cooked to order, and I noticed they had beignets, so I spoke to my server about one of the small salads, ordered that for my meal, and asked to have them whip me up the beignets for dessert. The salad was good, but in keeping with the CF philosophy, even the small was big. Then he brings over the beignets, which are pictured here. I looked at them and thought, are you shitting me? (They are sitting on a 16" or 18" oval plate.) This is enough dessert for 10 people. Each of these treats was nearly the size of my fist, and there were eight of them. When the server came back I said, "You should have warned me and suggested that I skip the salad." He said, "Yeah, it's a dessert built for two (two what?), but it's our specialty so I'm glad you tried them." Wow. I think it's best if I just stay out of restaurants for a while.

This is turning into the blog post from hell. I started this yesterday morning, and have left the house twice - once to get my hair done and once to go to the end of the Red Line Yarn Crawl open knitting session at The Stitch House in Dorchester last night. I walked into the SH at 5:40 and won the 6PM drawing!!

I never win anything, but pictured here are the contents of my goodie-bag. Maybe my luck is changing. Can you imagine? I'm one of those if-it-wasn't-for-bad-luck-I'd-have-no-luck-at-all people, so hopefully this is an omen.

Okay, so you're finally all paroled. Thanks for sticking around to read this entire thing. Almost feels like you were on a restaurant tour of Chicago, eh? Now I need to finish my taxes. Bye.