OFT No.4 - Interpol at the Aragon

This week's OFT was seeing Interpol live in concert. In LA and San Francisco we were pretty successful in going to a number of shows, and I was in part excited about Chicago because I felt like we would have plenty of opportunities to see live bands here as well. We bought these tickets during the summer - and I've been anticipating a fun evening ever since.

The Aragon theater is pretty interesting, it is huge and kind of reminded us of an amusement park ride - sort of "It's a Small World"-style. There was open seating upstairs - next time I might try to get there early to get the really good seats.

The opening act, The Liars, was pretty terrible. The music was jarring and obnoxious, and the lead singer's voice was awwwwful. However, he was very entertaining, with a lot of groovy dancing. As for Interpol, though they aren't my favoritest band ever, I do like them a fair bit. Their album Antics has some really key songs, and the new album Our Love to Admire is growing on me. I have to say, their set was technically excellent. I think it was the best sounding concert I've ever been to. No off notes, no patchy bits, no uncomfortable lowgrade feedback. Everything was clear and crisp, a really enjoyable listen. That said, I would say they were solid. They only played for about an hour before they left the stage the first time, which I was disappointed about, but the encore was pretty long. It was in the encore that they got a little innovative - during the main set they pretty much played straight from the albums, and it would have been nice to hear a little more creativity earlier on. Brian remarked that "their songs are too similar." I can understand that, but the quality of the sound made up for that for me.

In all, a good evening out and a nice OFT. Next week we have tickets to Bright Eyes - I can't wait!

The Bacon Has Landed

Like most people who like good food, I enjoy bacon. So when I finished my Ph.D., my lab got me a "Bacon of the Month" subscription, which they started after we settled in. The first shipment arrived yesterday.

We didn't know what to expect, but the Grateful Palate is clearly running a solid operation. The bacon arrived in an insulated package with two gel ice packs:


This month's selection is maple-cured "North Country Cob Smoked Bacon":


There was an information card describing the bacon, along with a wine selection, and a recipe (North Country Cob Smoked Bacon Navy Bean Soup). According to the card, they slow cure the meat in maple syrup for days. I'm not sure I understand what it means to cure something in maple syrup, but I have a feeling I'll approve of it. There was also a second card with "The Most Popular Bacon Disguises of Halloween 2007" (that we could probably do without).


Stay tuned for a highly scientific analysis of this variety of bacon.

Good News/Bad News

Bad news: The remote control for the bedroom TV went through a full wash cycle with the sheets.
Good news: After a little drying time, voilà! It still works!

Good news: We finally bought the rug we have been eyeing since we moved here.
Bad news: It's on backorder, and we won't get it till the weekend.
Good news: We should be ready to post the long-promised pictures of our place when we get the rug situated. (And hopefully after I do a little painting during the week.)

Good news: Our gift subscription to a bacon-of-the-month club will start this week.
Bad news: Our gift subscription to a bacon-of-the-month club will start this week.

OFT No.3 - The Magnificent Mile

This week's OFT was not that exciting, we just went downtown to the "Magnificent Mile" which is a major shopping strip on Michigan Avenue. As with pretty much everywhere in Chicago, there is neat architecture to be seen, such as the Hancock building. But, that deserves its own post - preferably after we have gone on one of the architecture river cruises. I'm just waiting for my Chicago Architecture Foundation membership to kick in, hopefully before it gets really cold.

So not much to report, OFT-wise. Shopping isn't quite the same with Brian as it is with my usual partners in crime (you know who you are) - it's generally a lot quicker and more goal-directed. Saturday we did some research on a winter jacket for Brian, and I finally bought a jewelry box, something I have been looking for forever. Just so that you are not picture-less, here is a photo of it. I was looking for something modern and sleek, which this totally isn't, but it has all the room I needed and actually fits in pretty well with the orange walls of our bedroom. It's kind of charming though, I think.

Watch Friday Night Lights

The best show you aren't watching starts its second season Friday night on NBC.

Friday Night Lights is easily one of our favorite shows, and we recommend you give it a try. What's that? You don't want to watch a show about football? Don't worry, "FNL" isn't really about football. It's an insightful look into a small town and the characters (particularly, Coach Taylor and his family) are extremely well-written. It's a good mix of drama (Michelle cries almost every episode) and comic relief (primarily from an actor we refer to as "poor man's Matt Damon"). I would actually say the football is the weakest part of the show (too many last-second hollywood comebacks).

Want to know more? Read this article from Bill Simmons (ESPN). As he says, "if you continue to ignore FNL, it's only because you're trying to hurt me".

Shout-out

Good luck to Jen today! (Because I know she reads this religiously :) )

OFT No.2 - Pumpkin Picking

On Saturday, we picked up one of Brian's labmates and her husband and drove North to a pumpkin farm. I think the original plan was to go apple and pumpkin picking but there was a family festival going on so we did that instead. A few other labmates joined up, and we quickly noticed that it was very family-oriented; we may have been the only group there without kids in tow (at least until we were joined by yet another of Brian's labmates with her family, complete with a 4-year old and a baby).

Here's the group on a 'shortbus':
Jackie, Jenni, Brian, Charlie, Jon, and Yuan.

As you might expect, there were lots of pumpkins!

Big ones you could cuddle up with:


and giant ones that might take over the world:
(actually it's a really little one that I'm holding up opportunistically)

They had already harvested a bunch of them and put them in organized piles for you to choose from, but we paid extra and went on a tractor hayride that took us out into the field. We were so excited when they stopped to let us pick pumpkins, only to realize that the ones next to the road weren't connected to any vines - it looked like they'd just driven along the path and tossed a few pumpkins out of the truck. I'm sure the guy in the tractor was snickering as he watched us "pick" our pumpkins..."he he he, city slickers, he he he..."

Of course you need a little red radio flyer wagon to cart around your orange treasures:

but you can't take it with you into the 3-mile corn maze:


It was a fun, g-rated day and we came home with a couple of beauties.

What's going to be our OFT next weekend? I don't know for sure, but Brian just cut out a Filene's Basement coupon for me... hmmm...