Life's Little Victories: Chicago Edition

I am in Chicago this week, so here is a special post for my hometown!

Chicago's Life's Little Victories:

• Arriving at ORD and the custom's agent kindly waves you through the checkpoint

• Losing an earring at the Jewel-Osco and finding it in their lost and found the next day

• Visiting Chicago in July but it is warm and comfortable, not hot and sticky

• Cubs 12, Giants 1

• Shopping, shopping and more shopping
  

• Buying my first dress since 2003 (it is red and it is beautiful!)

• Eating my favorite brand of soysage (veggie sausage) that is not available in Canada

• Homemade potato salad and three bean salad
  

• Seeing your friends and family and they are all doing well

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feeling (red, white and) Blue

Tomorrow is the last day of work before I kick off my long weekend! Woop!

While you suckers in the states are stuck with your national holiday falling in the middle of the work week this year, us lucky Canadian workers have our Canada Day holiday on July 1st, and by extension we all get Monday off. How cool is that?!?

Part of me is a little blue about my first summer in Canada. The weather has been cool, and I haven't been getting enough sunshine. Plus, the Fourth of July is my favorite holiday and I am a bit bummed not to be celebrating it in the usual fashion. My favorite weather, food, friends, family and my sense of nationalism and patriotism all are wrapped up in that one day, more so than any of the Indian, Hindu or Christian holidays I grew up with. So, celebrating Canada Day instead of the Fourth of July makes me feel a little blue. Rather, it makes me feel red, white and blue!

However, I do have a fun, nationalistic weekend planned. I will be spending the weekend in my province's capital, Victoria. The ferry to Victoria departs Saturday morning and I have plans to have tea at the Empress Hotel, visit the gardens, stroll the waterfront, and maybe make a side trip to one of Vancouver Island's smaller beach towns. I am taking my camera and hope to have a ton of material for my blog next week.

Happy Canada Day to all you Canadians, and a gentle reminder to all you Yanks to be safe with your sparklers : ) Have a great Fourth of July holiday!

"Las Rayas"

"Las Rayas (the stripes)" baby blanket.

I started this baby blanket in February and finished it in June. The colors are modern and edible; eggplant, lavender and pistachio. The parents don't know if their baby will be a boy or a girl, so these colors would work for either.

The beanie baby sitting on the blankie was given to me by the expectant Mom over ten years ago when we lived in the dorms at Purdue!

The blanket's details for you knitting addicts:

• US8 Needles


• Garter stitch border with stockinette stitch body, random striping pattern.


• Zara Fliatura di Crosa 100% extra fine merino wool (a delight to work with)


• Five skeins (2 lavender, 2 pistachio and 1 eggplant) 50g each


• 682.5 yards total for a 34"x25" blanket. That is more than 6 football fields!!!!!!!!
  
  I decided to take a break from knitting this summer. I have a few books I want to read and a few movies that I want to see, so that will take up my evenings and weekends. My wish list:

• the new Harry Potter book and the new movie


• the Simpsons movie


• Sicko with Michael Moore


• Craig Ferguson's new book, Between the Bridge and the River


• some Desi Lit, trashy magazines and beach reads for the bus ride on my daily commute

What are y'all up to this summer?

Skee Ball

I've been thinking about skee ball lately.

If you don't know skee ball, you may be an alien from another planet. Skee ball is an arcade game where you roll a ball up an incline into a series of concentric rings. The points increase from the outer rings towards the inner ring. You can find skee ball at any Chuck E. Cheese in America. At Chuck E. Cheese, the skee ball machine rewards the player with tickets that they can exchange for wax lips, key chains, loopy shapey straws, etc. Everyone I know loves skee ball, even my Mom.

When you move to a new place like Canada you spend a lot of time looking for places. The post office, dry cleaner, grocery store, oil change center, these are all things you take for granted until you move to a new town and realize that you are getting screwed at the oil change station or that the local post office has no parking or that the produce at the neighborhood Safeway is moldy but the one by work is decent. For example, my husband needs tube socks but I am not sure where to go for that kind of thing. In California I would have picked up a tube sock twelve pack while I was on my monthly Target trip but now I am just dumbfounded. Where can I find good, cheap tube socks? Maybe it's time he bought his own tube socks. Maybe he can find them at the drug store? But we don't have Walgreens. I guess he could get them at the mall, but that would be more expensive. Anyway, this brings me back to skee ball....

Everywhere I have ever lived had skee ball nearby and now I am skee ball-less. I am not even sure if Canada has skee ball. I believe there is a Chuck E Cheese in Langley, BC but do they have skee ball? I could call and ask but that would be weird.

The take home message?

If you have been living in your town for longer than one year, look around and be thankful. Be thankful for your eyebrow waxing lady, your secret parking spot, your local deli counter, and skee ball.

Japanese Game Show

The Bird

I was walking down the sidewalk on my way to the bus this morning, enjoying the weather and listening to the radio on my mp3 player when I noticed a crow sitting on a fence making a giant noise.

"That's strange," I thought. Then, the crow grew in size and all its feathers stood up on end and I began to worry. By then it was too late.

That angry crow dive-bombed my head for four freaking long blocks! I ran along that sidewalk screaming and ducking, holding my handbag over my head while passerbys stared. One dog walker was kind enough to yell after me "keep running, it's watching you from that pole!"

By the time I was out of the no fly zone my heart was about to explode and I was drenched in sweat.

The worst part is that now I have crow phobia. Later that afternoon, when I was walking home a crow flew overhead and I nearly peed my pants. I crossed the street to avoid walking under a dark, leafy tree and even right now sitting in the comfort of my home, I find myself cringing at every "CAW!" I hear through the window.

CAW! CAW! CAW!

*shudder*!

Will I ever be able to leave the house again? Someone get me a helmet!