All posts by Andi

Bloggings, Rantings

I think I need to blog more.

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tonight i was bored and curious about something so i had to log onto myspace.  the reason for the myspace log on was to look for something i knew i had blogged about.  myspace has changed  A LOT.  i don’t even know what’s going on with that site!  it looks so different!  does anyone ever use it or look at it?  I haven’t in probably years. but it looks like their blogging is still better than facebooks.

well anyway…i was looking through my blogs for something…and i used to blog  A LOT.  and some of the stuff i wrote i don’t even remember! and as i was skimming through some of them i was like “man i’m glad i blogged about this now i can remember it!”  there were crazy dreams and just random things i did. i wonder if that will be there forever on myspace.  i hope so.  it was like a stupid diary.  a REALLY stupid diary, because i only wrote about mostly stupid stuff.

i should blog more though i guess.  then when my kids are growing up and are like “mom what did you do when you were younger?” i can show them because i know i probably won’t remember.  here kids just read this myspace blog.

i did find what i was looking for though…it was about puzzles.  most of you know mary and i went through a time in our lives where we were addicted to eating lots of junk food, getting drunk, and doing jigsaw puzzles…and i wanted to know how it all started so now i know.

so in tribute to our reunion in the next couple of weeks here is an excerpt from the blog of how all the puzzles started.
this was written sometime in the summer of 2007.

“so i’ve had something on my mind…something that i’ve wanted to get off my chest for awhile.  i dont have anyone in particular i would like to tell this to so i thought i’d just write a blog so that anyone that wanted to could find out.  i have a secret.  it may not be a well kept secret considering that most of my close friends already know (especially mary)  it’s more of an addiction rather than a secret.  well it’s both, a secret addiction.  this addictions started on November 26, 2006.  how do i know this?  because i received a traffic citation on this same day.  i remember me and mary were both very bored.  i mean BORED.  it was a sunday and we couldn’t think of anything to do.  so all of the sudden out of nowhere we decide to do a puzzle.  a freaken jigsaw puzzle…which we had to buy at meijer….which on my way home resulted in a speeding ticket.  this was supposed to be a one time thing but as winter became colder, snowier, and icier…and we had crazy drunken nights…and a lot of free time….we found ourselves wanting to do more puzzles.  so we just started buying puzzles and buying them….(pretty much cleaning out meijer, wal-mart, target and surprisenly k-mart) and when we finished one we would glue it together with puzzle glue…some people may not know but there is such a thing as puzzle glue…and now this addiction has resulted in about 10 glued puzzles stashed under my bed….

puzzles are like a sport except you’re doing probably the complete opposite of most sports by sitting on your ass for hours at a time…eating tons of junk food and sometimes even participating while wasted. ”

Bloggings, Lina the GreyNinja, Rantings

So thankful for my bug alarm.

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so the other night I was sleeping, but I must not have been in a deep sleep because when Lina jumped off of my leg and meowed I woke up.  By the sound of her meow I knew that there was some sort of bug in the room.  It’s weird, I know, but she does this weird meow when she sees any kind of bug.  So then I’m freaking out because it’s probably a spider.   I looked over at the wall she was looking at and see this thing run across the wall…now it’s dark and I don’t have my glasses on yet at this point, so this thing has to be big because I’m blind.

So then I get up, get my glasses, and turn on the light and see this giant house centipede running along the wall.  I’m relieved it’s not a spider but I still don’t want this thing running around the bedroom.  So I’m trying to be quiet so I don’t wake up Don and I see my chance and I grabbed my shoe and attempted to kill it.  But it was fast and it moved up the wall and I couldn’t reach it.  At this point, I was getting tired and it seemed like this thing was just going to stay on the ceiling so I decided to get in bed.  I’m worried though because what if this centipede comes into the bed?  I don’t know if you know what I’m talking about, but these things are fast and they are just kinda freaky.  So I bring the covers up to my neck and hope it stays on the ceiling.

Then the heat comes on and with all the covers “protecting” me from the centipede I’m getting freaken hot and uncomfortable.  Then I heard Lina meow and hit the floor with her paws…so now I’m assuming she has caught this thing so I bring the covers down and try to get back to sleep.  I think by now like an hour has passed.  But now I had to pee so I got up and saw that the centipede was back on the ceiling.  I couldn’t believe she hadn’t caught it by now, but I’m tired of chasing this thing so I get in bed.

I’m almost asleep when Lina jumped on me and meowed……I’m freaken out…where’s the centipede?!  She’s looking at the wall next to the head of the bed and I can see the centipede coming down!!  It’s coming for me.  I grabbed my shoe again and finally killed it.  After about 2 hours of off and on again sleeping and worrying about this house centipede it is dead!

Tonight I was making dinner and heard the bug meow and there’s another freaken house centipede in the kitchen.  It’s a smaller one like a baby.  Do I have some sort of infestation?!  I  looked this bug up online and it seems they are harmless and they eat a ton of other bugs, including spiders.  Which is good I guess, but I really don’t want them in bed with me.

Bloggings, Food Blog, Restaurant Reviews, Reviews - Techie

The word of the day is… CRAZY.

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So I decided to stop and eat at McDonald’s today on Clark Street…probably one of the weirdest experiences I’ve had at a Mcdonald’s so far. Picture a scene in a movie where it’s supposed to be just a regular event like a party, or a wedding, or an ordinary drive to work or something….but it’s just gone completely chaotic. But to make it seem more normal there’s calming classical music playing in the scene. There was actually classical music playing loudly at this Mcdonald’s…like really…when has that ever been happening?!

When I walked in it was like being in a nursing home…all these crazy old men sitting alone at tables saying random phrases and just sounding crazy. People just dropping stuff. There was a mentally disabled boy screaming “I want mustard, I want mustard…” and just screaming. One of the old men was saying “Someone needs to give that boy a whipping!” Over and over and over. Then another old man kept backing up his motorized wheelchair into people. It was literally a crazy house.

I was going to get my order to go, but after seeing so many crazy people in one building at once, I decided to sit and relax with my meal and take in the blaring classical music and the old man occasionally complaining about the boy that wouldn’t stop screaming. Entertainment.

Bloggings, Food Blog, Restaurant Reviews

Las Tablas Colombian Steakhouse.

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http://www.lastablas.com/#!about-us

So Don and I decided to eat here tonight and it was great!! It was about a 20 minute walk to the restaurant. We ordered the empanadas for an appetizer. There were 3 kinds: cheese, beef, and chicken. We couldn’t eat all of them so we brought some home!! They were very good! I think the cheese one was the best. Out of all the empanadas I’ve had though I’d probably rate them a 3.5 out of 5 only because the ones with meat didn’t really have any taste to them…they needed some spice or something.

We both ordered steak…of course. I got the Entrana Steak (skirt steak) with beans, rice and a sweet plantain. Don got the Bandeja Paisa, which was a Colombian style rib-eye steak with rice, beans, a fried egg and a plantain. He loved his and my steak was great!! So tasty and juicy. We were stuffed.

This place is a little pricey. It was $60 for two of us, but we had an appetizer and one mojito-like drink. But worth it. I really wanna take my dad here because I think he would really like the steak! I would rate it a 4/5, because it was pricey and I didn’t think the empanadas were the best. Other than that though….it was great so check it out. So one restaurant down, a lot more to go!

Bloggings, Food Blog, Restaurant Reviews, Reviews

So…hungry? Food Tour Chicago

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One of the best things about living in NYC was the variety of different types of restaurants. After growing up in a small town in the Midwest, I hadn’t really been exposed to different types of foods. I’m a pretty picky eater but over the past few years I have wanted to try new foods. I met a friend in NYC, Sena, who shared the same desire to discover great restaurants in the city. So once a month we would get together (sometimes we would be nice and invite our boyfriends) and share a restaurant with each other that we found to be amazing. Sometimes we would just try a totally new type of cuisine that neither of us had had before. Now were not experts in food critiquing but we know what tastes good! And we are always on a budget so were not talking about your $50 per plate places. I’m talking about the real places.

So now it’s time to do the food tour of Chicago and find the best restaurants. It might take awhile because eating out is expensive, but I’ve been searching and already have a list of places to go. This time will be without Sena though 🙁 but when she comes to visit I will know the best places!

We have already tried a few pizza places in Chicago…but we haven’t tried any NY style yet only Chicago style. I have heard there’s some good NY style ones around though. Just down the street from out apartment though I believe Nancy’s has the best Chicago style stuffed pizza. I’m just basing that on about 5 different places I’ve tried throughout the years. Our favorite NY style pizza was in Brooklyn-Pizza Plus.

We have tried 3 different Indian places since moving to Chicago. We had our favorite place in NY, which was Panna II, but I kinda feel like 2 places here have surpassed Panna II…although none of quite captured the atmosphere of Panna hahaha. We found a Little India area in Chicago so that was exciting!! So many awesome little shops and tons and tons of restaurants. It was awesome, I can’t wait to go back and try another place there. The best Indian though in Chicago we have had I think has been Raj Darbar Indian Restaurant. We have also ate at Hemas Kitchen and Viceroy of Indian, which are very very close second bests. Raj Darbar and Viceroy both gave us the complimentary sauces and the bread/chips…don’t know the name. But Raj’s was better. All of the meals at these places have been amazing though. I think Raj wins because the Naan was amazing.

I’ve tried 2 Greek places so far: Melanthios and Athenian Room. Melanthios was pricier and I think Athenian Room might be better but I wanna go back and I have a few other places to try. At both places I had a Greek Burger.

So Food Tour Chicago…anyone wanna join or have any suggestions let me know!
Thai-Tac Quick
Chinese-Little Three Happiness, Mandarin Kitchen
Japanese-Ginza Japanese Restuarant
Mexican-Las Pinatas, Pancho Pistolas
German/Austrian-Resi’s Bierstube Restaurant, Mirabell Restaurant, Chicago Barvarian Food
Filipino-Pampango’s Cuisine Filipino, Isla Pilipina Restuarant
African-Vee-Vee’s African Restaurant, Zebda
Ethiopian-Ethiopian Diamond Cuisine
Turkish-A La Turka
Egyptian-King Tut
Greek-Santorini, Roditys
Southern Comfort Food-Big Jones, Wishbone Restaurant
Polish-Szatas, Old Warsaw
Cajun- Heaven On Seven, Lagniappe
Colombian- Las Tablas, Sabor A Cafe Colombian Steakhouse

This is gonna take awhile! Can’t wait to find some great places and awesome things in the city.