archives, baby, archives

As a little side project, Tom has been feverishly coding for the past few days hell bent on getting some archives in kristyland. He finished last night with the nifty little ajax stuff you see linked above. Now, you can read about all of the embarrassing stuff I used to care about, my journal entries before I discovered parentheses and the word awesome, and the general trials and tribulations of my little world. Have at it. If you leave a comment in an archived post, though, you might want to tell me about it because I don't check the old posts anymore.

After a little funk during the day, Tom rebrightened my birthday friday by waiting for me on my train platform with a dozen roses. He then whisked me away via cta to our humble abode in ravenswood where we got into our fanciest duds and headed towards Tank, a little hipster sushi restaraunt in Lincoln Square. We were promptly seated at a two top table where we had goat cheese tempura on field greens with sesame ginger dressing, miso soup, nigiri sushi, the 'latin wave' maki roll that featured tuna, cilantro, and jalepeno, some hot saki, and ginger ice cream to top it all off. We started chit chatting with the couple sitting next to us who were quite intoxicated and ended up buying Tom and I free drinks. I had already had one before the meal, but this drink called the samurai was some sort of japanese lime-ish martini that was extra tasty and very potent. After paying the bill, we headed home for cards and presents.

Tom took my hint about the gift certificates and got me one, but to a place that was shocking, surprising, and completely out of character for Tom. He got me a gift cert for 5 private lessons at Big City Swing, where he would join me if I wanted him to. Yes, ladies and gentleman, my boyfriend bought me some dance lessons and actually wants to come along for them... totally unprovoked (well except for all that teasing about how we should learn how to dance and thus go dancing). I already know how to swing, and used to go dancing a lot back when it was popular and it wasn't hard to find a 'swing night' even in Toledo. Tom certainly won't be flinging my ass in the air, but it'll be a fun time. You know, the gift that keeps on giving and all that.

After many thank you's, some kisses, some licks from Sybil, a snort of that 30 year old scotch, a beer, and the determination to get some drinks in before we went out and had to pay for them, Tom took me to the Green Mill, where one can hear some of Chicago's smoking-est jazz. By the time that we got there and paid the $12 each cover, however, it was standing room only. We were able to stand in a spot where we could see alright, but the band had already gone into that unrecoverable improv mindset that will only end by stopping 'the jam.' Now don't get me wrong, there exists good improv jazz that's not only imaginative but musical as well. This is the kind of improv jazz that famous people play, thus making them famous. It's really quite an art. However, this band was at the point where they were doing their various solos that consisted mainly of scale runs or runs of bouncing around a scale. Needless to say, I was not impressed and eventually got bored and annoyed with the 'jam.' After an expensive rusty nail and about 30 minutes of this so called jamming, I had enough and apologized to Tom for making him pay the expensive cover for only 30 minutes of music. He agreed that the music wasn't so hot, it was crowded and we were standing, and we decided to head home.

On a whim, we decided to stop in to the neighborhood watering hole, Gio's, which is about one block away from our apartment. The bartender started us off with a free shot and we were off from there. Tom had a few Stella Artois, which is on tap at Gio's, and I had.. a bunch of stuff. We eventually bellied up to the bar and chatted with two other gentlemen who were sitting there. Oddly enough, the guy sitting next to me, named Tim, graduated from BGSU in may 02 with a VCT major, knows our friend Clint, and was sort of in and out with one of my sorority sisters, Kristen Esasky, for a little while. There was a free shot of patron anejo in there, a martini, and some other drinks before we eventually headed home. I really like Gio's and Tom and I plan to make regular appearances there, especially during football season and the saturday night karaoke parties.

Saturday, we recovered. Although the patron (thankfully someone got me some patron) cut through what could have been a seriously nauseating hangover, I still was headachey, tired and sore. We had a tasty greasy spoon breakfast at the Ravenswood , also very near to our apartment with a menu that has *everything* you could possibly want on it. In a very urban move, Tom and I headed to the trader joe's to pick up some picnic provisions, peppered salami, cheese, bread, olives, ginger lemonade, dark chocolate orange sticks, and some other groceries needed for the rest of the week. But by the time we got home, it was too late for a picnic in the park proper, so we spread out a blanket over the little folding table on our back porch (reminiscent of the times when Tom lived in Dublin and he had that tiny little studio apartment with his computer set up on his kitchen table so we had to have our little romantic dinners on a table made of a few crates and a towel for a tablecloth.. ahh the good ole days), and had our little feast there, joined by Sybil who sniffed around while we chowed. Of course, she was such a good girl that she got some cheese too :)

Sunday, we worked. The apartment has been in a state of general disaray for the last month or so, so our goal was to get it back into tip top shape. We needed to outfit ourselves with the proper tools first, so Tom and I headed to target to spend the gift certificate that my mom got me for my birthday. I had wanted to buy a coffee table with it, but I resigned to buying a vacuum cleaner, paper towels, a bike helmet for my huuuuuge heeeeeaaaad, a new messenger bag that's dark green with bright pink trim, and a new rug for the entry way (replacing the one that Sybil loves to pee on). We unloaded, hung a bunch of art, cleaned up the apartment a bit, and cooked an awesome pizza with pepperoni, goat cheese, mozzerella, parmesean and fresh herbs from the garden.

Sunday night, Sybil peed on the rug, so we're working on ways to keep her from having accidents in the house. It seems that she mostly does it in the mornings, or late in the evenings if she gets out of the site of Tom and I. So after she eats, if we have to go put shoes on or do something else to get ready to take her outside, then she goes in the crate. She still gets full run of the apartment during the day, but while we're home, and we can't watch her, she goes in the crate. Sybil is cool with the crate, it's got a little warm blanky in there, some toys, and some treats previously hidden... everything a cute little doggie like her needs. So far the crating thing has been working well and she hasn't had an accident since. Then again, it's only been two days...

08.30.05 7:22am(3 comments)

I-go, you-go…

I've had a car since I turned 16 years old and had been driving almost every day of my life since that point... that is.. until I moved to Chicago. I don't need a car that much here. I take public transportation, that is paid pre-tax and taken out of my paycheck, everywhere. The only thing I really use the car for is to go shopping. So yesterday, when I started my car for the first time in 3 weeks, it came to no surprise that it wouldn't start right away. It's getting neglected :( Don't get me wrong, I love my lil '98 Rav4, but I spend about 450 bucks on it a month with the payment, insurance, and gas (now at around $2.90 a gallon in the city). That's a lot of money for something that I don't use very often. I'd been toying with the idea of getting rid of my car, but then what would I do if I needed a car? Renting seems like a pain in the ass for just making a trip to get a case of wine at Trader Joe's. But, I've been seeing a lot about the I-Go cars lately. It's basically a car co-op, and it's all high tech with keycards and wireless transmission to online billing. You pay a membership fee and an annual fee. Then from there, you pay 6 bucks an hour and .50 cents a mile. You reserve a car online or by phone, go pick it up and use it. They even include a fuel card for you to use to refuel, so you don't have to pay any additional monies for gas. Seems like a good idea right?

Now, the trick is getting rid of my car... Buying a car is a pain in the ass, I wonder what selling one is like.

08.29.05 7:23am(2 comments)

Weapon of Choice

From Knives to Irons

WC STABBAZ Fo' LIFE!

08.26.05 9:24am(4 comments)

I could have laughed all night… and still have begged for more

Holy Crap. You need to go see 40 year old virgin RIGHT NOW! I don't think I have laughed so hard at a movie in *years.* Daily Show's, Steve Carrell is a genius, the comedy doesn't stop, *and* the ending is completely bizarre and hilarious.

Sorry for the lack of posting lately; sometimes I just get really burnt out on kristyland. Why do I do this? Who cares? What should I or shouldn't I write about. Most of the stuff that I want to write about lately is better slated for a personal journal. Maybe I'll get one of those nifty locked / login sort of widgets like Kerrie has over at livejournal. I've got about 8 gajillion blank books, prime for inking, but honestly, writing makes my wrists hurt and I can type faster anyway. That doesn't mean that I will stop buying blank books though :)

08.25.05 6:49am(3 comments)

My computer sucks…

One would think that as a card carrying Geek, I would have the snazziest computer on the block, with all the bells and whistles, latest technology, built in espresso machine and what not. Well, I don't. As a matter of fact, my computer sucks fairly badly and is on its last legs. The problem is now, I'm just not into building computers like I used to be. Not to mention that is *much, much* cheaper to buy a prebuilt system than to build one from components. Still, I've got some pretty decent components, so if I wanted to buy a barebones system, I could totally do that and get a decent machine. But, like I said, hardware just doesn't do it for me like it used to do.

So here I am with a gradually failing computer and a moral dillemma. Do I turn in my geek card and get the system from brand X manufacturer or do I get all bride of frankenstein and create a new, better machine from parts. Who knows. What I do know is that currently, my device manager is blank and I have no sound :(

08.14.05 3:33pm(11 comments)