Cast No Shadow

Late nights going through thousands of bricks, and I am really making headway in re-assembling my Lego collection. It was a stroke of genius that Laura Anne started separating pieces by color. Though still time-consuming, building goes much smoother. Notable rebuilt sets: Camouflaged Outpost Wolfpack Tower Black Falcon's Fortress (Original) Siege Tower Battering Ram Yeah, I had a thing for Castle sets. It was a pretty eventful weekend. We recently discovered Redbox DVD rentals that are new releases for only $1/day. We rented 3:10 to Yuma , one of the best Westerns I've seen in a long time. It was more character driven than Unforgiven and had a much more compelling story than Open Range, the 2 big 'recent' Westerns. This movie went past the normal theme of revenge or good guy vs bad guy. The leads played by Russell Crowe and Christian Bale were very complex characters and you never knew quite what their motivations were. Though nominated, it did not win the Ens...

In addition to recycling, we have gone even greener with canvas bags when we're out at the store. Its amazing how much can fit in those bags. We picked up a few at Pier1 and a few at Ikea . Today I fit over $100 of groceries in just 4 totes. And Safeway even gives you a $.05 bag credit for every bag you bring. A photo from the Field Museum :

For our final big meal in Chicago, we went to Tango Sur in Wrigleyville for Nick's birthday. For either personal choice or licensing, this Argentinian steakhouse is BYOW--Bring Your Own Wine; the four of us drank 3 bottles, including my new favorite red wine, Red Rocks. Nick and I split the 'Por Dos' as is our custom, after some tasty empanadas. It included flap steak, short ribs, sausage, black sausage, and beef sweetbreads. Yeah, I know...black sausage and sweetbreads, both more pleasant names for some unpleasant sounding food items. The black sausage was not very good. Very dry and almost the consistency of cake & coffee grounds. The flavor itself was not bad per se, but the texture combined with the flavor turned me off and I probably would not eat it again. The sweetbreads were actually enjoyable, very similar to alligator. I would have a whole order on my own, but 2 or 3 along with a meal add a nice subtlety. I think Nick and I's favorite was the fla...

Chicago is, no doubt, one of the best places to eat. Just off the plane, we had to grab a Vienna hot dog to tide us over to dinner. We did eat at a chain or 2, but always like local flavor. On our way to get wine for Nick's birthday is a place on the corner, Julius Meinl , a fairly large coffee house which seems busy every day of the week at all hours. It has quite an extensive menu of coffees and teas , along with delectable pastries . Needless to say, it was very hard to choose. Laura Anne and I settled on a large mocha and chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream icing. It was huge; it was delicious. I wish I had one right now... For a late brunch on Sunday, we went with Nick to Ann Sather to eat one of the biggest meals we'd seen in a long time. Let me just say that the empty 4th placesetting was full of extra biscuits & gravy, cinnamon rolls, sausage, and other side. Laura Anne and Nick both had huge omelettes, stuffed so full it was coming out. I had S...

We ditched meetings on Friday to head to IKEA , our newest favorite store. It's our favorite to hate, too, because when you go there, you realize that your own limited stores (Target, Home Depot, etc) are woefully not cool in IKEA's shadow. My office arrangement, though cool, would've done so much better with some other shelving. But we are planning on putting in a separate office on the 1st floor, and IKEA will probably furnish most, if not all, the storage and furniture and decor in the space. The great thing about IKEA is that there's so much of a range of stuff there...we got a long receipt list and only spent $30. LauraAnne got a great As-Is Knappa lamp for only $2.50! Unfortunately, we don't have an IKEA in Colorado. We'll have to order online and ship, but that's ok since we won't have to pay any sales tax. I have some great storage ideas for my Legos on my shelves and most of IKEA's items are not assembled, so it gives me something to...

Well the office was organized...now I still have all that stuff from FL that's begging to be organized...but its not too much stuff. One box of old comics, 1 small pile of misc household eBay items, 1 tub of Legos, & 1 box of Legos. On my new bookshelves, I'm going to get clear glass jars to put all my spare Legos in, but that will have to wait until we get back from Chicago. LauraAnne and I just rebuilt the LEGO 6270 Forbidden Island . It was my first Lego Pirate set, and I remember coming home from Toys R Us in Lakeland that night. It was a 45 minute drive, and between streetlights, I studied the front and back of the package. I think I fell asleep on the way home and had to wait till morning to build the set. The set is in great condition. I need to find a 'firing' cannon (since they switched production the next year to non-firing) and I have lost the upper jaw of the shark. Otherwise, its complete with the box and instructions. How's that for being 19 years...

We had some really great weather last week, but then the wind started to blow and blow on Saturday. A moving truck on I-25 got blown over and caused an instant 7-car pile-up and a local building burnt down after power lines blew into it. We woke up Sunday to several inches of snow! Needless to say, we havent been out-of-doors much the past few days. We've stayed indoors and worked on my office, the last unorganized room in the house, a haven for my Star Wars collection, dumping ground for eBay auctions, and generally a very 'busy' room: We're gearing up to head to Chicago for a meeting or two and a belated Christmas party in Schaumburg at GameWorks. LauraAnne has never been to the Field Museum of Natural History, and it's been 5 years since I've been, so I think it'd be a fun time. I think they've moved the German U-Boat indoors by now, which was amazing last time I was there. We're also trying to talk our friend Nick into ...

We didn't think we'd make it till midnight, but holy cow! we were out till 3am! We went to our friends, Dick & Merrily's, to have a light dinner with Janet & Gary...wow, is Merrily a great cook! We had crab & artichoke dip, a salmon dip, texas caviaer, carrot soup, potatoe soup, great bread, wine, cocktails, and a champagne toast at midnight! Janet made some giant chocolate chip cookies we ate while we played som games: Pop 5 by Cranium and Scattegories. We didn't know it last year, but there's group that hikes up Pikes Peak on New Year's Eve and sets off fireworks at midnight. You can actually hear them downtown and the fireworks light up the entire peak. I am on roll 18 for my Negative Project. Here's my favorite from Roll 17, taken in Atlanta's Historic Oakland Cemetery : We didn't get out today at all and it was nice to chill out...of course I didn't get out of bed till 1115 after our late night. A great brunch of a huge bacon, e...