Spring Time

It's finally SPRING!!!!

 

It's May

This has pretty much been me since the Blackhawks lost game 7 against the horrible, yucky, stupid, ugly, evil and just plain creepy Canucks. 

 

Knowing that the hockey I care about will be on vacation for the next 5 months is really hard to swallow.  I mean, what am I suppose to do for 5 months?  I can't watch the other hockey games going on.  I try and I try but my heart isn't into it.  I get bitter because at one point in the season one of those teams "wronged" my Blackhawks and I just can't cheer for them. It's pretty hard to watch a game knowing that one of the teams will actually win.

 

Grass covered Banana

Have you ever wondered what eating a banana covered in grass would taste like?  No?  Why not?  I mean doesn't everyone want to experience that?  Maybe throw in a little toasty sesame seed to add some more earthiness?  Well don't worry any longer about how you'll get grass to stick to that banana! I found all that flavor today in the convenience of a "granola" type bar!  Where did I find this wonderful creation?  Whole Foods of course!

It's green, it's chewy and yet crunchy all at the same time!  It's seriously tastes like a ripe banana with the smell and added taste of freshly cut grass in the summer.  Strangely pleasing.

I was looking for snack bars and stumbled upon these.  I'll admit that being green was a big part of me even looking at it.  I mean it was an awesome shade of green and how could you not want to eat something that green?  Why chose boring beige colored granola bars when you could have a brightly colored green one huh?

And for the record, I actually enjoyed the grass covered banana taste and texture and will defintely get some more of these!

Fire and the City

So the other night while watching the Blackhawks play against the yucky St. Louis Blues we heard some sirens.  Not a big deal, we live in Chicago...there are always sirens.  And we live by the Illinois Medical District which is the largest urban hospital district in the US. But then we heard more and more and then felt the rumble of large fire trucks racing by our house going the wrong way. I decided to go outside and check it out.  The next block down had a building fire on our side.  Lots of our neighbors were outside checking on the commotion.

One of my neighbors who lives 3 houses down started talking with me....and that's when I started to realize how my life and way of thinking has changed so much in the past 3 or so years of living in the city. As we watched the chaos down the block we discussed the neighborhood.  Sounds normal enough right?  But we discussed the drug dealers, people who got arrested and when, the couple that always fights and yells and get the police called, the a-hole across from us who thinks he owns the street in front of his house, what houses are known for trouble, the houses that had "white" people recently move in, the house between us who put up security cameras, her hearing lots of gun fire the other night and calling the police, the neighbor down from her who had some stranger walk into the condo ready to steal what he could and not knowing the people were still there, the gang members recently arrested and deported back to whatever country they came from and other stories of drugs, crime and violence.  We recounted stories that to outsiders would be horrifying but were humorous to us now that they were in the past.  The part that hit me after our conversation was that it's all normal to me know.  Paul & I go to the monthly police meetings to find out all the bad things that go down in our hood. Hearing people yelling at each other isn't something that even makes me react unless it's going on for a long time.  Otherwise I just call the police and it's out of my mind.  I occasionally see drug deals but normally they are directed from our area to other location for the actual drop off so I don't even react to that any more, unless it's really apparent or they are blocking the street then I just call the police.

Now that I've scared all of our friends & family....which I honestly don't mean to do...it's just more an observation of life in the city.  I love Chicago and I almost always feel safe (probably a false sense at times) and we are careful and keep a watchful eye.  It's just funny how one's perception of things can change so drastically in such a short amount of time.  I never would have imagined 10 years ago that I'd be able to adapt and accept the urban landscape that I live in today.

Hockey Day in America

The Bean

Us

We decided this morning even with the rain and cold to go to Millennium Park to check out "Hockey Day in America".  The event was suppose to promote youth hockey in the states and we figured, why not? As we arrived to the park the national broadcast was just starting, so we went to the upper level to get a good view of the action.

Multiple jersey fails

I'd totally wear this even if it is a Red Wing hat.

Why?  Seriously, why?

 The Nemo jersey is a fail because the kid wearing it was trying to be ironic, he also had large black plastic glasses on without lenses...I have several names that I'd call him, but I wouldn't want to offend anyone.  The next one...well if I need to explain Fedorov I should just have you ask Paul.  And thirdly, seriously that baby blue is the ugliest thing ever.   And for the Stanley Cup Champs....why would you do that?  It's not cool!  Who told you that it was cool???

We made it on national tv again!

Back (what we saw)

Front (what everyone saw on tv)

Stanley!

Didn't realize that it was Milbury from the back

 The kids skating were so cute!  They were all practicing different skills all over the ice.  Even when it was a downpour they were still out there playing.

Practicing the "Jonathan Toews slides under truck" move

Tommy Chicken

Took all afternoon for him to turn towards me....jerk.

So cute!

Awesome backdrop for a hockey game.

Fish n Chips

 It was cold and we had a while before the drawing that we were entered into, so we went to our favorite English Pub...Elephant & Castle.  Paul tried to make me jealous by ordering the delicious fish.  But I ordered the amazing steak and ale pie so it didn't matter. 

I feel like I'm Sarah Grandstaff's twin in this picture.

Captain Morgan and skank.

 After lunch and a quick trip to the Blackhawks store we went back to the park for the drawing.  We never win anything but since it had been raining so hard for so long we figured we had pretty good odds of winning something due to the lack of people. And guess what?  Paul won!  Captain Morgan even pronounced his name right!  They made Paul do the Captain pose but I couldn't get a picture of it.

We couldn't believe out of all the stuff they were giving away he ended up with a Kopecky signed photo with Hossa.  Both are former Red Wings, both Slovaks and totally Paul's favorite players!  It was a great birthday present from Captain Morgan to him!

Paul with his signed Kopecky & Hossa picture.  Seriously, how perfect for him?  His favorite Slovaks!

I got some girlie rain boots last week.  Ya they are pink with flowers, not my style but my feet were dry even if my pants were soaked.

 I felt the need to include my new boots since they are so out of the norm for me.  No other real reason.

Also, they changed how the editing/text portion of the blog goes and it's a little different from usual...sorry if it's a little more choppy than normal. :)

In da hood...

Regardless of how much I joke about living in a shady neighborhood, I (and I think Paul too) usually feel pretty safe. Last week during the blizzard cleanup, I was outside shoveling out the Vue and some guys pulled up and asked if they could borrow my shovel to get their other car out that had died. Not a big deal, I was tired anyway and needed a break. They were polite and offered to finish getting the Vue out but since I only had a couple shovel fulls left, I said not to bother. They told me where they lived and if I needed help next time shoveling that they would be there.

Of course when I recounted the story to Paul he was like "you mean the drug dealers from the condo???" Ok, so I don't know for sure if they are the drug dealers from the condo but there was a high likelihood of it being them. It's pretty common in our area.

A news release went out yesterday from the police department stating

"CHICAGO – Today, Superintendent Jody P. Weis announced that nearly 200 gang members belonging to the most violent gang faction in the Harrison (11th) District have been arrested in complement to the Chicago Police Department's ongoing violence reduction strategy. This strategy unites law enforcement partners to end gang violence and puts criminally active gang members on notice that their illegal activities will not be tolerated."

Yup, that's my hood. Awesome huh?

Well this morning as the cats and I were relaxing on my day off I heard some sirens...then some more and then some more. I looked out and my street was closed off by 7 Police SUVs and they were surrounding the condo building.


It's times like these that I really miss the peace and quiet of the country.

Blackhawks vs. Flyers 1-23-2011

So last Saturday night I got a call from Meesa about breakfast plans on Sunday, before I knew it I was asking her to get me a ticket to the Blackhawk's game. Here's the problem. I knew before Sunday that my darling Hawks would probably lose. I had been thinking it all week. 5 days off, playing the Red Wings the afternoon before in Detroit, playing at 11:30am on NBC against the #1 team in the league. 1st off the Blackhawks never play well on Sunday mornings and rarely do they play well when they are on NBC...maybe Pierre McGuire creeps them out? But Paul was in Michigan, I was by myself, and Meesa & I hardly ever see each other now so it was a no-brainer!

Yay for giveaways! Awesome fleece helmets!

The boys warming up.

Turco, surprisingly he wasn't talking to anyone.

Crawford "Crow"
Not his best game but I still really like the kid.

Big Jim singing...please stop showing the Stanley Cup ring off...it's embarrassing when our team isn't playing up to it.

The Flyers BOOO!

Pierre McGuire and Kaner
(poor kid)

Not a good day for Chicago Sports

Bickell totally owning Scotty Hartnell! Too bad NBC missed the fight with their coverage. I love that Keith and Bolly are just admiring Bick's work.

Jonny trying to convince the officials that it wasn't really Bickell's fault and that he shouldn't have a penalty. Nice try Jonny.

After 3 years of debating and listing the Pros/Cons I think I have finally decided on getting a Soupy jersey! Toews is too generic & too many skanks, same with Sharpie, I love Jelly but I can see him getting traded and I don't see Pisani as a long term investment of the Hawks. I've always liked Soupy and defended him against the idiots so it's a natural choice. Of course if he gets traded at the trade deadline or end of the season their will be some heads rolling.

Amazing what a change of scenery can do for some people.

Oh that Sharpie, he's having an amazing season and just won the MVP of the All Star Game today. We can extend his contract any time please!

Please note the bad habit that Kane spread on the bench. Mouthguards belong IN THE MOUTH! Not dangling from the corner where they don't protect teeth! You would think Kane would have learned his lesson after skating into Toews during a game and losing about 5 teeth.

This is where the Flyers were bad and someone other than the goalie covered the puck with his hand. At the time I had no idea what happened, but knew Hossa was getting a penalty shot.

If you look close you can see the puck just about crossing the line. First Blackhawk to make a penalty shot in 20 some years. And if you ever think you will forget it, don't worry, Pat & Edzo will remind you of it at every game from now until the next penalty shot gets in.

Yay! Everyone sing Chelsea Dagger!

And we all lived happily ever after. The end.

I found this photo of my work building after the game and it made me happy. It still does. So by now you realized that the Hawks got their butt's kicked and so did the Bears. I don't have a real good track record for going to games. Probably why I wisely decide to watch the games on tv where I don't have to listen to idiots tell me that Hossa is Russian (yes I'm still irritated by that) and I can yell at the tv in peace. But anytime I get to see my Blackhawks partner in crime is a good day so it was worth all the pain! :)