Category Archives: ring

Where Did The Weekend Go?

Yes, we do indeed have a personal life too, and I’m sure y’all are tired of reading about FRAC, so enough about that for now.

On Friday, even though takaza had driven in to work we decided that it would be better if I picked him up and we left his car at his employer’s over the weekend. I really enjoy meeting him after work on Fridays because I usually get there 30-40 minutes before he’s ready to go so I have time to read or nap or just relax, and the weather on Friday was ideal – 70’s and breezy. I parked under a tree for some shade and read the paper, and dozed a bit too. Once he was done for the day, we drove deep into the darkest wilds of Evanston, to explore the mysteries of the Central Street shopping district. Although my initial target was The Spice House, we also found Foodstuffs, which is an evil, evil place, and checked out a couple of interesting restaurants (Jacky’s Bistro was tempting, but a bit too spendy for us that night). We wound up opting to drive down to the Davis Street business district, which wasn’t nearly as interesting even if it is bigger (too many national chains represented there). We tried to drop in on siriuswolfstar at work, only to find that he had traded shifts and was well on the fast track to inebriation elsewhere. We wound up at Trattoria Demi, a “red-sauce Italian place” that I found to be…eh. Nothing exciting, but at least it wasn’t too expensive.

Saturday found me poking around on the net in the morning to try to find something to bring to wyldekyttin‘s birthday party that evening. I utterly failed at matching the theme (“something that can be deconstructed”), but I did come up with an extremely tasty Asian chicken salad. I sauteed up some chicken breasts using The Spice House’s delicious Argyle Street Asian Blend. I stole the dressing and fried rice noodles from this recipe, only I used a nice spring blend for greens, and added snow peas, scallions, and baby bok choy. Once the chicken breasts were cooled, I tore them apart by hand. The nice thing about this was that I could I put the noodles in one bag, the greens in another, the prepared veggies in another, the chicken in another, and the dressing in a plastic container; when it was time to serve I just dumped them all into a bowl and tossed. Quite tasty, too.

The party was great fun, and crim_ferret did a sterling job on grill duty (mmm, Asiago cheeseburgers!). Alas, the fact that I had woken up at 6:30 AM caught up with me and we left the party at an unconscionably early hour because I was close to falling asleep.

Sunday was spent working on Anthrocon stuff – Dan on signage, me on Artists Alley and Con Store prep. I’ve almost gotten the work schedule in place, I just need to give it a once-over before sending it out to my staff. Thank heavens I was able to recruit enough folks this year so that I don’t have to schedule myself, since I get pulled in four different directions at once during the con and I need to be able to deal with stuff when necessary. We took a break in the afternoon to grab some food, do a bit of shopping, and finally pick up our rings from the jeweler. This ordeal has taken over two months, but we finally have both rings back and I’m once more wearing my wedding band – no more cruising the bars for me! {snicker} Once home we watched some Good Eats and worked on more Anthrocon stuff (this will be our refrain for the next week).

Incidentally, for those that care: we’ve made a slight alteration in our Anthrocon travel plans. We will be driving, leaving Chicago sometime between 5:30 AM and 6:00 AM (when we normally leave for work anyway) on Wednesday, June 14, aiming to arrive in Pittsburgh by 3 PM EDT; we’ll be departing Pittsburgh before noon on Monday the 19th. We were originally going to put in half-days at work and leave Chicago at noonish, but we realized that the loss of hours for me is more than made up for by the decrease in stress in not getting in late to the hotel and not scrambling to get stuff done Wednesday night. Heck, we might even be able to take a swim before the con starts!

We don’t have a lot of plans for this week, since we’re trying to save a small bit before the con. Mostly finalizing Anthrocon stuff, and clearing up the huge backlog we have on the Tivo (NINE episodes of Doctor Who? I need to get watching!)

Ring Closure

Well, I’ve got some good news to report on the wedding band front. I took takaza‘s ring by the store after work yesterday and we agreed that, yes, it was indeed different from the ring that they had sent. Amanda (who, by the way has been fabulously helpful) checked against their catalog and we found the problem: someone had fumble-fingered the model number when typing in the order. She called the manufacturer and they said they had the correct ring in my size in stock, so they’re priority shipping it; it should be at the store by Wednesday, and Amanda wills end it out the same day for engraving. With luck, it’ll be in my hands by Thursday or Friday at the latest. Yay!

Oh, and in reference to my last entry, my mom asked what’s so great about a Thermapen? Well, it’s a very nice, very accurate instant-read thermometer with a nice big digital readout. What I like is that the hinge gives you a good angle to stick the thermocouple into roasts, chicken, etc. Theoretically, it’s very durable as well, but obviously they need a bit of work there. I’m pretty confident they can resolve the issue quickly, though.

Hmm. Need to make a grocery list and plan out the menu for the week. We’ve been eating out a lot, which gets a bit pricey sometimes…

Congenial is over, and ringlessness

So we spent last weekend at Congenial. Just to be different, I’ll spare y’all the blow-by-blow and just say that it was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed swimming and hanging out with friends. When we got home on Sunday we sat around the house like zombies and then went to bed.

I had the unpleasant surprise yesterday of looking at my wedding ring and realizing that the white gold inner band had cracked and was spinning freely, about to come off. Ack! We purchased it five years ago from Ross-Simons in Raleigh, NC, and I was pleased to see that the only store they have in Illinois happens to be right on my way home from work. I stopped by yesterday afternoon and it has now been shipped off for repair. I should have it back in 10-14 days, at an as-yet-to-be-determined cost (they’ll call me with an estimate before doing any work, though). The biggest drawback to this is the moment of panic I get on an all-too-frequent basis when I realize I’m not wearing my ring and start wondering where I left it. Bleah.

Not too much going on this week. It’s month-end for Takaza‘s company, so he’ll be working long hours this week; last night he didn’t get home until close to 8 PM, and I expect a few more days this week like that. If he doesn’t have to work this weekend (ick!) I hope that we’ll be doing some wandering about in the lovely weather to do some research for FRAC, or at the very least relaxing a bit and being antisocial. We’re due for a bit of that, I think.

Oh, and finally: happy birthday, woodychitwn!