Bicycles.

The smell of the warm springtime air coming through my open office window is driving me absolutely crazy. Why on earth did I not find an excuse to skip work today?? If I don't get to go outside and play at some point, I think I might just die.

That's one of the many things I have always adored about Chicago: the beautiful smell of the air when winter is finally over. It could just be because I have positive childhood associations with it, but I think it's just the most wonderful thing. (I must confess, it's something I'm not so excited about in New York-- I know from experience that summertime air there mainly smells like garbage, though I could never put it as eloquently as my dear friend Dr. Science did, upon his arrival in NYC many months ago...)

Speaking of warm weather, we're going to the Working Bikes Cooperative this week to get Brian a bike, so we can bike everywhere! Working Bikes is an excellent organization, by the way. If you're in or around Chicago, you must needs check it out. And one of the first places we'll glide into on our bikes will be The Handlebar, obviously.

Ain't no Hershey's.

This Easter, my mother bought me a chocolate bunny, which she has done every year for as long as I can remember. Only this year, the bunny she got me is made out of very fancy chocolate. Having consumed unthinkable amounts of chocolate over the weekend, I saved my bunny to eat at work today. It was only then that I realized that the little bag that holds the bunny is tied with a lovely ribbon, and on that ribbon is a card. The card says this:

I AM A BLACK-NAPED HARE (LEPUS NIGRICOLLIS).
In my native southern India, I regularly indulge on the beautiful flowering plants! Bite my ear and you will be swooned to India, curry, coconut and milk chocolate. A must try for the adventurous sort!

Haut chocolat, indeed.

Me, myself, and Monday.

Today, so far:

1. Woo hoo! The Once and Future Dr. Science now ALSO has a spin-off blog! We are so the hippest.

2. Woo hoo! It's not the most freezingest day ever, in fact it's sunny!

3. Crap! (Merde!) No one but royalty can afford to fly to Paris in June, apparently!

Let's go fly a kite.

Thank heavens I'm going back to school soon, because I never want to work again. I tasted sweet, sweet freedom this week, and being dragged back to captivity might be catastrophic. But I'll try not to be too dramatic about it all.

This week I basically took two and a half days off (and Monday and Tuesday were short days too), and did whatever I wanted. Wednesday Brian and I spent hours at the gym, where he wiped the floor with me in racquetball and then I kicked his bee-hind in basketball. When do we ever have that much leisure time? We were so tired. The rest of the time I socialized, played euchre with my high school friends, hung out with my sister, read, ate meatballs, saw the grandparents, went to see Watchers play their CD release show, slept a good amount (though not enough), and watched lots of basketball.

Oh, and speaking of basketball: I am a hardcore Wolverines fan and will be until the day I die, but I just need to express my pride in my home state Illini. Amazing! Down by 15 points with four minutes left and they win by one point in overtime?!! What a phenomenal team...

Too bad I missed tonight's game because I went to see a mediocre play. Yar.

Hey, Happy Easter. I've already consumed my weight in chocolate, and my mom hasn't even given me my hollow chocolate bunny yet. Mmmm.

My apartment smells like lilies and I love it.

It feels like I've had a pretty quiet weekend to myself, even though I wasn't by myself much of the time. After what seems like the longest week of my entire life, probably because it was leading up to CPS spring break and thus a sweet, sweet vacation from after-school this week, I almost fell asleep for the night on Friday at about 8:30. But thanks to Josh (Susie's boyfriend who's in town), I already had a ticket reserved for me for a show at the Empty Bottle, so I dragged my ass out of the house and enjoyed myself, even if I did leave around 12:30 after sort of falling asleep standing up. Hopefully everyone just thought I was really enjoying the music, which was good. Josh and Susie have had several social engagements this weekend (and Brian's out of town, which I wish would hurry up and stop), so yesterday I had a lazy afternoon. Last night I got to see a friend of mine from study abroad, Vanessa, and it was fantastic. I've literally seen her twice in the last three years, but she's such a funny, open, intelligent person, and it's one of those things where you just fall into a normal, fun conversation right away. She, Alex and I drank wine and then she and I were treated to a lovely Italian dinner at a restaurant with their childhood friends--I was the only non-DC native, strangely enough--and then had more drinks later. I fell into bed at 3am and made damn sure I slept until 11.

Sunday afternoon was as lazy as Saturday...many Sopranos episodes...and now that Josh and Susie are going out, I'm going to make some kale and white bean soup (thanks, Martha!). It's clearly nice to have some chill time, time to watch DVDs with no set time to stop, to write boring-ish life update blog posts, to wander around a bookstore and almost buy Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities (seriously, the intro was soooo interesting), to not set an alarm to wake up for anything, to think that I should use some Sunday afternoon time to vaccuum the dust water buffalo that have accumulated around our apartment and then decide not to and read Bust magazine instead. Let Spring Break 2005 begin.

Yarrrrrrrr.

It is currently snowing, very hard, and has been since I got to work this morning. It is now 1:30 pm, and I will have to brush off my car. This after Sunday, when Sus and I took a long walk just for the sake of walking and looking at pretty people not wearing coats in the 65-degree sunshine. Oh, Chicago weather, what a rocky relationship you and I have.

Related: Chi love.

Oh, and winter's not all bad: Pretty Chicago winter photo.

Cuisine.

Mmmmm...all that friendly cilantro garnish makes it look harmless, but it will kick your ass. Kick. Your. Ass.

Sus and I have decided to shun our five-minute-quesadilla dinner regimen, and have stepped up our cooking motivation this week to make some wicked meals. We got all excited about new recipes, and on Sunday we bought everything we need for all of them in...drumroll...one shopping trip!! If you know us and our granola bar world at all, you know this is unprecedented. Anyway, the week began with a lovely seasoned, pan-seared halibut on a bed of asparagus. So good, Sus! Then I made spicy sweet potato and coconut soup, very yummy, but spicy as hell. (I know we're both total spice wimps, but maybe we didn't need a whole tablespoon of red curry paste, hmmmm, Real Simple Magazine?) Then last night we made pecorino ravioli with walnuts and marjoram. Interestingly, the ravioli were made with fresh wonton wrappers. They made for an exceptionally thin, delicate ravioli, and no, dear sister of mine who "cooks really well" and "knows a lot about food," they were not italian potstickers. Shut up.


We are so fabulous.

Planetarium and Pulaski

Saturday night Brian and I got all fancy-fancy and went to the wedding of someone I work with. So much fun! The ceremony was at a Greek Orthodox church; we understood very little of the ceremony and had to stand for an hour, but the church was lovely. The reception was at the Adler Planetarium, in an area of the museum where the entire wall and ceiling were windows, with the most incredible view of the lake and skyline. AND, we got to learn all about stars and planets while drinking mojitos and eating yummy food. Amazing. The bride is Cuban and the groom is Greek, so the music alternated between salsa, merengue, and cha-cha that we could dance to, and many circle-centered Greek songs during which we were sort of exiled from the floor, even though I think we really could have held our own had we tried.

This afternoon, I will honor Kasimir Pulaski, the great Polish hero of the Revolutionary War. Chicago seems to be the only enlightened city that recognizes his heroism properly, by marking it with a public holiday. This means, of course, that I do not have to work at the after-school program. Thank you, General Pulaski, for all that you have done for our great nation. I will reflect on your valor and selfless contributions as I finish up disc 2 of Ali G this afternoon.

I [heart] Bolivia!

Check it out.

(Yawn.)

Wow, I'm officially one of those people who can't survive on less than 6 hours of sleep a night after about 3 nights. How sad-- I've always loved my sleep, but I had entire semesters in college where I never got 6 hours at once, and I was generally fine. In fact, I did some of my best work during those times. Now that I'm an old fogey, I guess that doesn't apply anymore. Nerts.

The weekend approaches at a snail's pace...