Munchies and Monchichi's

Once again it's been awhile and I'm not even going to come up with excuses or promise that I'll write more often, because obviously I don't write as much in here as I'd like to or as I should. I suppose I should just write when the moment feels right and not worry so much about it.

It's hot here in Chicago, been in the 90's to upper 80's most of the past 4 days now and more humid than I think I ever experienced while living in Florida. I'm not complaining though, I've spent the weekend on the couch, watching golf, grabbing things for FarmVille on Facebook and having a severe case of the munchies. Yesterday I munched on several different boxes of mini cereals, some miniature Reese's peanut butter cups, a few Tootsie Roll pops, some Entemann's doughnuts and a pint of Ben & Jerry's chocolate ice cream. It's that glorious time of the month for me and my cramps were severe yesterday which for some reason, made me extremely hungry. Today, the munchies linger, but we're out of munching food and I can't decide whether or not to get in the car myself or send Eric to the store to get potato chips, Dove chocolates with caramel and some more ice cream! I know I shouldn't be munching on any of those things, but sometimes you just have to munch.

As for the Monchichi's--I don't know why but a few months ago when Eric was rubbing my legs after a long day at work, it felt so nice that I babbled something about monchichi's. Why that came up? I don't know. Then, of course, I had to sing the whole song for him, which he had never heard...and then proceed to show him pictures of the cute and cuddly little monkey children who suck their thumbs. I don't believe I ever even owned a Monchichi of my own. It's kind of weird how some things pop back into your head after so many years. Now"MONCHICHI!" has become an exclamation of pure joy around here, and sometimes we say sad, quiet, "monchichi's" when something hurts, accompanied by a pouting lower lip.

I'm just grateful that tomorrow the cramps will be gone, the munchies will be history, and hopefully I will come up with better ideas for my blog postings than this silly nonsense. Next weekend will be our summer weekend at Ravinia. Counting Crows on Saturday and Crosby, Stills & Nash and Sunday. That should be something to write about.

A Man Like Edward

I will admit that until tonight I had never seen any of the "Twilight" movies. I'm not really one to go to midnight showings of the latest flick and really don't want to sit in a theatre full of screaming teenage girls, even though I used to be one myself. I love the Harry Potter books and movies, but I have never been to a midnight release of those books and/or movies either. I didn't think I really wanted to see another "vampire" movie and thought Kristen Stewart basically had only one facial expression--bored teenager-- whether in the movies or in interviews I've seen on TV. I also believed that I would never see Robert Pattinson as anyone other than Cedric Diggory from the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie.

I have friends on Facebook who were planning on taking daughters, nieces and friends to the latest midnight release of the latest "Twilight" saga on Wednesday evening. I couldn't understand why they would subject themselves to that, especially if they had to work the next morning. But I can now, sort of, see where they are coming from.

Edward Cullen is an interesting character and a man we all would love to have in our lives. Whether teenager or older woman. He has good looks, a loving family that would accept us for who we are, he's polite to fathers, he can play sports, he is intelligent, he never sleeps, he drives a whole bunch of neat cars, he plays the piano, he lets us dance on his feet, he can take us to places we've never been before, and he watches over us as we sleep yet he cannot read our minds so he's never going to figure out what we're really thinking. Plus he will fight to keep us alive at any cost. He wants nothing more than to protect us. On the downside, he's got cold skin, and he is a bit moody and could kill us at any moment. I also think it would be tough for him to stay in one place for very long. I mean, he can't keep going to high school in the same town for years and years. I did really like the clever artwork in the house where they had a whole bunch of graduation caps.

The first movie was good. Took a little to get into, but once the action started I thought it was interesting and had some good plot twists. I almost hate to admit that I'd actually like to see the next two movies. I'd also like to read the books.

Those of you who have already seen all the movies or read the books please don't ruin it for me. I want to decide for myself if I should be on Team Edward or Team Jacob. Right now though, Edward looks pretty good to me.

Throwing in the Towel

Ok, that's it. I quit. My literary pursuit of the 100 most notable books of 2009 by The New York Times is over. I know I only read 10 books, but I only enjoyed one of them so I figured it was best to move on to books I do like. Now I'm not saying The New York Times doesn't know what it's talking about, and I'm sure the books all had their merits, but they just weren't my kind of reading. The last book, "Love and Summer" was hard to follow, didn't really have much of a story, and left you with characters who had unresolved issues/lives. One passage in the book did make me cry, but that was the passage about an old dog passing away. It was probably the best written passage in the whole book and that's not saying much. I think my tears were more due to the fact that I'm an animal lover, rather than the beauty of the writing.

So without further ado, I am now reading Jasper Fforde's latest book "Shades of Grey." I love Jasper Fforde. He has written a series of novels called the Thursday Next books which involve a woman who travels through time and helps various literary characters. It's part mystery, part comedy and is absolutely perfect for those of us who were English majors in college. If you haven't read some of the great novels of our time, you won't get it. "Shades of Grey" is a different novel, this is about people who live in a world of colors and their society is based on their colors. The main character, Eddie Russett is a "red" who is supposed to marry another "red" but then falls in love with a "grey" woman who threatens to break his jaw the first time she meets him. I am thoroughly enjoying this book and was laughing out loud just by reading the table of contents. I'm only a quarter of the way through the book, so I can't give a full review yet but I know I will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed Fforde's other novels.

Yes, a part of me feels bad that I didn't make my goal. I didn't even come close to reading two books a week. And I even feel guilty about giving up, and perhaps there are some books on that list that I am truly missing out on. But as I believe I have mentioned before, I love reading, it is a great joy, a great escape, a great way for me to spend my time, and I simply wasn't enjoying the books I was reading. Reading shouldn't be a chore and that's what it felt like it had become.

So I'm happier and believe it or not, will probably get a lot more books read than I had originally planned.

UPDATE TIME

Wow, I guess time flies when you have a new iPad. I realize today that I haven't blogged since I got my new iPad almost 2 months ago and today Apple announced they have sold 2 million of them. I am enjoying my iPad thoroughly and really enjoying the new apps that are coming out specifically for the iPad. Downloaded the Weather Channel app this morning and it is really cool. Plus it was free which is always good. I've also re-discovered my Epicurious app, which has thousands of recipes and good reader/user feedback so I plan on using that a lot to see what new things I can come up with to cook this summer. I was using the iPad to catch up on missed episodes of "Lost" but ran out of time before the finale. I was disappointed in the finale but didn't really think that a show that left me with so many questions each week would possibly be able to answer all of them I've had for the past 6 seasons in just 2 hours. I've also been avidly using my iPad as an eBook reader. I am now on my 3rd book and really enjoying the layout, the fonts, the way the pages turn and the cute little bookshelf that will, I'm sure, be filled by the end of the year with books I have read.

So, brief reviews? First book I read on the iPad was "Half Broke Horses" by Jeannette Walls. It was a semi-biographical book about the author's grandmother. It was interesting. Her grandmother was a rough and tumble girl who grew up on a cattle ranch and had adventures learning how to fly and teaching at local Arizona schools. It was an easy read and I finished it in less than a week. I was entertained by a different view of the "wild, wild, west" and having spent my formative years in New Mexico could relate to the characters. I didn't like the ending, which kind of just dropped you, but I'd probably recommend the book.

The next book I read was "Family Album" by Penelope Lively. This book was about a family growing up in England. It revolved around their house which was called Allersmead. All the children had different stories, and some surprises along the way. There was a live-in maid who ended up having an affair with the father of the family, then she went away and brought the child back and they raised it as one of their own, but the kids always knew their "sister" was different. It's no "Brideshead Revisited" but it was ok.

The book I am currently reading, and should finish this week, is called "Love and Summer" by William Trevor. This book is set in Ireland and follows a few characters, but the main story is supposed to be about a young girl who was brought to be a bride of a much older widower who's first wife died in a farming accident. She ends up falling in love with a photographer who is a stranger in town and they have an affair. It's kind of like the Irish version of "Bridges of Madison County." Can't say I'm really enjoying it. I tend to read a couple of chapters here and there and then put it down for a few days. It's written in a way that is a little hard to follow and the editors did a poor job, as there are several spots where there are gaps in the words or major misspellings.

Today is Memorial Day and the official start of Summer! We're having a thunderstorm right now but they said those should be gone by 4pm so I can still grill. So, hopefully I'll find some more time to do some more reading this summer and try to find a book I truly enjoy. I did truly enjoy "American Rust" but that's one out of 6 from the NY Times list and I'm finding it difficult to pick new ones seeing that I am disappointed so far.

What else is going on? Eric and I have amended our Ravinia schedule and are now only going to four concerts. Steve Martin, The Counting Crows (who were not on our original list), Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Train. We went to our first art festival of the summer up in Barrington on Saturday and that was fun but surprisingly hot, so we didn't stay too long. The Printer's Row Lit Fest is coming up in a couple of weeks and I am really looking forward to going to that. Last year we took our St. Bernard, Harley and he was the star of the show. The downside to that is that I couldn't spend time looking at books because we had to keep answering questions about Harley. This year, Harley is staying at home. We'll also go to the Wisconsin State Fair in August to look at the animals and have some cream puffs, italian sausage and corn. We'd like to get some golfing in at some point, but we'll have to see what happens. I know I'll be grilling a lot, and perhaps this is my summer to perfect a fruit tart.

I will try to keep up with my blogging. I find when I blog I end up having a lot to say, so if I did it more often, my entries would be shorter.

Off to wait for the thunderstorms to end so I can do some Memorial Day grilling.

Thanks again for reading and providing me with positive feedback.

iWanted an iPad so iJoined the iParty

Last Saturday, on a cool, rainy spring morning in Chicago, Eric and I woke up early and headed to Skokie to the Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center to stand in line for the latest of Steve Jobs' inventions, the iPad.

Now I have always been an Apple/Mac fan. I first fell in love with Mac's in high school when I was in journalism class. I used to wait in line in college when I went to the computer lab to use one of the 5 Mac's they had so I could type my papers. The first computer I got after graduating college was a Mac. Due to my financial situation later in life I was forced into buying cheaper PC's and using Windows. I remember the day Windows came out and I looked and said, "Well they are just copying Apple." I never liked Windows, never really liked Microsoft. Bill Gates is doing a lot of good in the world, but the fact that he got rich on a stolen idea, one that keeps needing updates and is prone to viruses...well, I'm getting off track.

When I was able and looking for a new laptop to replace my Gateway that was slowly dying, I bought a MacBook Pro. I got it home, had it out of the box, on and on the internet in less than 20 minutes. I had gotten an iPod back when I lived in Florida and was using it to listen to music while I worked out or go for walks, or just to dance while I did the dishes. My first iPod died before it's warranty ran out and I went to the Apple store and they gave me a new one. No questions asked. When I heard that the iPhone was coming out I had a different type of phone. I thought it was neat, but didn't really want one. I think they were too new. I was also happy with my Verizon coverage and didn't want to switch to AT&T. For my first Christmas with Eric, I got him the iPod Touch, engraved on the back because he too was a Mac Fanatic. I was afraid to touch his iPod Touch, but when I did, I really liked it. So, last October Eric and I bit the bullet and got iPhones. Our contract with Verizon was coming to a close, and I had heard about the new 3GS version and thought it was cool. I have been very happy with the iPhone, loved the Apps, loved that now my music, photos and phone were all together in one place. And although I don't get the best coverage from AT&T at work in downtown Chicago, it works well and I've never dropped a call.

Even though I am a huge Apple/Mac fan, I had never understood the desire to stand in a long line, camp out overnight if needed, and join the masses. I will admit I got gaga over the iPad when it was first announced, even before it was announced in fact. I was at work and watched Steve Jobs sit in his chair in San Francisco and show all the things this "tablet" could do. I wanted one then, but quickly squelched my desires, realizing that there were bills to pay and I already had an iPhone and a MacBook and those would be sufficient to do what I needed to do.

As last Saturday approached though, fate intervened. Eric had recently gotten a job after a long layoff so money was coming in and I had finally sold a saddle of mine (since I haven't ridden a horse for over 4 years now) so I got a check from that. That check was enough to cover the cost of a new iPad, two train passes for the month and groceries for the week and then some...so Eric and I spent an evening on the porch and decided we would go stand in line with everyone.

We called the Old Orchard Apple store on Thursday and was told that mall security wouldn't let anyone line up before 7am and was also assured that they would have plenty of iPads available. So we got up around 6am. Eric had a cup of coffee, and we went to Walker Brothers Pancake house in Wilmette for breakfast. We got to Old Orchard around 7:30 and I was happy to see that there weren't tons of cars in the parking lot. I had seen a story on the news the night before that a woman had lined up on Michigan Avenue on Friday morning so she could be first in line, so I was a bit worried.

When we turned the corner of the mall and looked at where the Apple store was, there was a small group of people. Mostly Apple employees standing around. They were setting up a table from Starbucks to give those of us standing in line free coffee, cookies, granola bars, water, and bananas. The Apple employees asked us if we had reserved an iPad, which I didn't know I could do until it was too late and probably wouldn't have done anyway since this was a last minute decision. We said no and they told us to stand in one line. The other line was for people who had reserved their iPads. We were about 6th in line which wasn't bad. As we waited, the lines kept growing as did the blue shirt wearing Apple employees. They all disappeared around 8:15 am though. I later found out it was so they could see the iPad for themselves for the first time and to get some training on it.

Most of the others in line were holding iPhones, or iPods and were discussing what they were going to do with their iPads. One gentleman was going to use it for two weeks and then give it to his wife when he stood in line in a couple of weeks to get the 3G version. A lot of people had already ordered iPads online, but since those weren't shipping until the 12th, they decided to get one on the first day and then sell it on eBay once they got theirs via UPS. It was a friendly group. A guy a couple of people behind us was on the phone with his parents who were standing in line in Atlanta to get their iPads, and since they were an hour ahead of us, they called him and told him all about it even while we were still staring at the black curtain they had over the store's windows.

About quarter to 9, I had to excuse myself to go to the restroom and as I stepped out of line, there was a big cheer as the black curtain was dropped and there were iPads sitting in the windows. I came back and everyone was taking pictures. We were taking pictures of the iPad, and the Apple employees were taking pictures of us taking pictures. Then they opened the doors and they all ran out and just like at the end of a hockey game or baseball game, they ran down the line and high fived all of us, yelling, cheering, clapping, taking videos, etc. Eric announced "It's kind of like a birthday party at Chili's." Then they all disappeared into the store again and lined up in the store. A few of them came outside and announced to us that they would let 10 people who pre-ordered into the store for every 1 person who didn't. I was hoping this didn't mean we were going to be standing there a long time.

I have to tell you this was a very smooth operation. When you got to the front of the line, someone asked your name and engaged in small talk until it was your turn. Then you were introduced to an Apple employee who took you into the store, past some more cheering, clapping employees, and helped you with your purchase. Our employee was Otis, who was wearing glasses without lenses in them. He was very nice...joked about what we were there for and when I said I wanted the 32 MB version he said, let me grab that before they are all gone. So he went to get that, Eric went to go pick out a cover for his MacBook, and Otis brought me the box and then took me over to the accessory wall to try and sell me more things. I did get a cover for the iPad but nothing else. We gathered our purchases and while Otis grabbed a bag to put it all in, Eric took a picture of me holding the iPad. We were out of the store and back in the car by 9:27am. It was a highly efficient, well run, very enjoyable experience. But something I suppose I've come to expect from Apple.

As a side note, as Eric and I were heading back to the car, a Maserati pulled up with Florida plates and out crawled Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls. He was going to go stand in line to get his iPad too.

After a trip to the grocery store, we drove home and I took out my new iPad. I was thrilled to discover that the first time I turned it on, it still had battery power of 97%. I plugged it into the computer and immediately transferred my iPhone apps and my photos over to the iPad. I also downloaded two apps I had seen on TV. Scrabble was one of those apps and the cool part of that app is that if you are playing with people who have an iPhone, they use the iPhone as their tile holder and then flip tiles from the phone onto the board on the iPad. Cool! But I have to say that the best app is iBooks.

Those of you who are my friends on Facebook, or are even followers of this blog know that I had been debating about getting a Kindle or some other eBook reader for some time. I had decided that it was too expensive and that I really didn't want to stare at a computer screen all day since I did it at work, and again for an hour or so when I got home. The iPad is the perfect eBook reader with their application called iBooks. After I downloaded iBooks, I was thrilled to look upon the screen and see my bookshelf with "Winnie The Pooh" sitting on it. I opened the book and was amazed at how you could turn the pages with your finger and see the print on the back side of the page. I downloaded a book from my list and have already read it, and have downloaded another one. (Review to come.) I do have to admit that it is nice to be able to highlight an unknown word and get a definition right on the screen. And it is also nice to get a book in about 5 seconds compared to waiting for it for 5 days from Amazon. I will never stop buying books at bookstores, but this electronic version is not a bad substitute. I also appreciate that Apple has put classics on iBooks for Free...so you can read "Pride and Prejudice" or "Alice in Wonderland" or "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" at no additional cost. iBooks has promised that books that contain references to music will have links so you can hear the music and that they are developing books for the iPad that will have videos in them as well.

So I now have a device that I can use as a digital photo frame, a digital library, a music player, a Scrabble game board, surf the internet, read the newspapers, and even check my email. There are things my iPad does that I don't even know about yet.

So, I was the first on the train with my iPad, and I was the first at work with my iPad and although I wasn't first in line, I was glad I got one the first day.

Summer Vacation

Yes, I know that yesterday was only the first day of Spring. And yes, I know that we got 3 inches of snow here in Chicago yesterday. But it's never too early to start thinking about how Eric and I are planning on spending our lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer. I would love to go back to London, but it's expensive, and with the economy lately, not too practical. I'd like to go to Vegas since I've never been, but who wants to go to Vegas in the summer? Same with Florida. I have some good friends down there and it would be fun to take the ferry from Ft. Myers to Key West, but again, not in summer. Eric wants to take me to California and show me the LA that he knows and loves. He also wouldn't mind going to Door County but I don't want to be up there with all those other people during that time. I'd rather go there in the "off" season. We are going to go the Wisconsin State Fair again this year, but that's just a day trip.

So, we've decided to stick close to home and have a summer of music at Ravinia. Ravinia, when I was growing up, was the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). My mother was going when she was pregnant with me, so I went pretty much 3 to 4 times a week every summer from before I was born until about 1992 when I graduated from college and moved to Wisconsin. I have seen some great acts. I have played frisbee on the lawn with members of the CSO. I have watched Jean Pierre Rampal swipe at a fly with his gold flute. I was there the night Harry Chapin was supposed to play and his brother played instead because Harry died in a crash on the way to Ravinia. I have done a sound check with the Little River Band. I have been there when a thunderstorm came out of nowhere and blew the sheets of music off the orchestra's music holders, causing the music to stop and everyone to leave their soaked blankets on the lawn and run for their cars. I have seen Chuck Mangione, Spyro Gyra and always enjoyed it when Preservation Hall came every year. I remember in my youth, Barry Manilow used to play Ravinia until he got so popular, kids would line up the night before and they stopped inviting him.

I think there is something so nice, so civilized about sitting out on the lawn with your blanket and a packed picnic dinner and relaxing to some beautiful music. Ravinia used to have benches that you sat on to eat, and then turned over to make an area to rest your back while you closed your eyes or gazed up at the stars and listened to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. They used to let us bring torches that would keep the bugs away and would let my brother and I know where our parents were sitting after we were done throwing the frisbee around, or crawling on the sculptures, or standing in line for giant scoops of ice cream.

Ravinia has changed over the years. The pavilion is still there, the lawn is still there...but where we used to get fried chicken is now a big, fancy, two level sit down restaurant. The beer/wine gazebo is now another place for food. And the music has changed. Sure the CSO is there...for maybe 2 weeks now. Now the Backstreet Boys and Carrie Underwood are the big sellers. And now, the lawn sells out. How can that be? I remember when Preservation Hall would come and people would set up blankets and chairs on the pavement just beyond the lawn. It never sold out. I'm not picking on it, or saying I don't like it. Just saying it's changed.

Last concert I went to at Ravinia was Gordon Lightfoot. This had to be back in the early 1990's. It stunk. Gordon played only 45 minutes, and because I had taken the train, he played just long enough for all of us to miss the early train and have to wait an hour and a half for the next one. Gave us a lot of time to bitch about how awful Gordon was.

But, again, I'm willing to have another go. I think Eric and I will have a good time. Most of the concerts we have picked are on the weekends except for one on a Wednesday night. It will be nice to have someone to go with. It will be fun preparing picnic food and packing a blanket and setting up a Crate & Barrel table. I am looking forward to our summer of music and for those of you who are interested here's our lineup.

We are starting the summer off in June on the 5th with Vince Gill and then a week later Steve Martin on the banjo.

We are then going to skip the month of July because its usually hot and sticky and also because no one is coming that we are interested in seeing.

Next comes August where we are going to see the BoDeans who I absolutely love, Crosby, Stills, & Nash whom Eric absolutely loves and Poi Dog Pondering which is a great and very interesting Chicago band.

This will bring us to the end of summer, and the first week in September or the week before Labor Day. And who better to take us to the end of summer than the boys who wanted us to spend the endless summer The Beach Boys! We're also going to see Train because I have loved them since they started and I turned Eric onto them.

So that's our summer plan. A little picnic food, a little music, and all close to home. Come and look for us on the lawn if you want!

Another Whine Bites the Dust

Earlier this week I finished "The Anthologist" by Nicholson Baker. This was the next book on my list of the now 45 fiction books I am reading this year. Several years ago Mr. Baker wrote a book called "Vox." I remember this book because everyone said it was very controversial. It was about phone sex, which, as Americans, we're not supposed to talk about in public. I got caught up in the "ooohhh...giggle, giggle, we can't read that" baloney that the news was all atwitter about and bought it. I hated it. It wasn't really about phone sex. Or maybe it was, somewhat. All I know and remember is that I was upset that it wasn't as racy, or controversial as I thought it would be. It was also not well written and it is now hidden somewhere in my boxes of books and if I don't happen to find it, I will not be too upset.

So lets just say I probably went into "The Anthologist" with a little bit of pre-conceived, "I'm not going to like this" attitude. But I'm always willing to give an author another shot. Especially because this one was about poetry and I have loved poetry, and some poets, for most of my life. Well, I read the first chapter and made a face. Here we had Paul Chowder who had just lost his girlfriend because he was supposed to be writing an introduction to an anthology of poetry and he couldn't get himself to do it. She was tired of waiting for him to do it, or do anything in fact, that she moved out. So here was another book about another middle-aged whiner. He whined about being alone, he whined about not being able to write, he whined about having to travel, he whined about free verse. Well boo f*ing hoo. I whined because I kept reading the book. It was short, thank goodness, and I could read a chapter or two on the train in the morning and again on the way home. He did have some clever alliterations in there like thinking another poets work was a "firkin of flaccidness." But he also had weird parts that didn't really belong in the book like the time he ran into Edgar Allen Poe in the grocery store and asked him about The Raven. Not sure if this was a dream or if it was just a daydream or he actually thought he ran into Edgar Allen Poe. He also kept falling down and cutting himself, which of course, meant he had to call his ex to come take care of him. In the end, he wrote the introduction, started dating the ex again, and became a carpenter instead of a poet/teacher. Another ho hum ending to a life I really cared nothing about.

The next book in my list is "The Art Student's War." I haven't bought it yet, but I just received a free kindle download for my Mac, meaning I could read the book on my computer. I know, all my friends in publishing are screaming "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" right now. I may try it out. It's cheaper than the actual book, plus, I spend enough time on my laptop that it would be just as easy to carry that on the train as it would the book. It's just an experiment. And I didn't have to buy a Kindle in order to try it out, so all in all, I'm only out $15, rather than hundreds. I have not heard of the author of "The Art Student's War" so I cannot go into this book with any prior ideas. That is a good beginning right there. Also, its about a woman, so hopefully no whining.