365 things

Oy, I haven't posted in more than a month. It's not that I don't have things to blog about: We recently had our annual Cinco de Mayo party, my uncle's doing our landscaping right now, we're getting our roof replaced, we're planning to partially redo the kitchen, and so on.

But instead of blogging about any of those things, I'm going to blog about this iron:

Thing 1

I've had this iron for many years. I don't remember exactly when I got it, but I believe it pre-dates me and Chris' itemhood, meaning that I've had it for at least 8 years.

But I haven't used it in quite a while. This used to be our back-up iron — we had another iron we liked more, but kept this one around just in case. But about a year ago, we got a new, fancy Rowenta number. It's like the Cadillac of irons. And as a result, this iron became our back-up, back-up. So, should our all-mighty Rowenta fail us, we have another iron. And if that one should fail, we have this fella.

That's a lot of ironing insurance for people who iron, oh, maybe once a month.

Which is why this iron is being sacrificed for my newest blogging project — a project I'm sure to get all gung-ho about for a week or so, and then abandon, as I'm wont to do.

I recently read an article in Body + Soul about de-cluttering — something I'm so desperate to do. Chris and I have a problem with clutter. When an English major/lawyer and journalist get married, it's inevitable. Identical copies of British literature. Every copy of Esquire from the past four years. All my newspaper and magazine clips. Old reporter's notebooks. Volumes and volumes of law books. And these are just the things I can see. Right now. From my computer.

Add to that all the things not currently in my line of sight. And then add all the clutter a 7-month-old accumulates. I'm amazed we don't have a show on TLC.

I've managed to organize, file and store things in a somewhat neat way, so to the untrained eye, we don't look like hoarders. But I still know it's there — useless crap taking up precious space in my house.

Anyway, in this article, the author talks about how she decided to tackle her own clutter problem by getting rid of one thing every day for a year. She called it 365 in 365. I instantly fell in love, and promptly decided not only to steal her idea, but to blog about it as well.

Which brings me back to this dear, old iron. This iron is going to go live in a box in the basement with some other things I had already decided to purge. I'm going to keep adding to the box every day. Then, later this summer, we're going to have a yard sale, and whatever clutter doesn't sell immediately goes to good will. And after that? The clutter collection shall continue, until I hit the one year mark, or I run out of stuff to get rid of, or I forget about the whole thing and start some other ridiculous project.

9 Links, June 17

There's just too much good stuff floating around the internets today.

1. So cute. Rottweilers get a bad reputation, but check out this male rottie that adopted an abandoned wolf cub. Adorable.

2. More cute stuff. They're called "mini-schwein." I want one.

3. Kinda cute. I've watched this video of The Count Censored so many times, but it still makes me laugh every time.

4. Not cute. The 1968 Chicago riot cops are holding a reunion. And if that weren't enough, check out this gem from the article: "Former Police Supt. Philip Cline is scheduled to be a keynote speaker." Unbelievable.

5. I can't stand Joe Buck, so for this week at least, I'm in love with Artie Lange.

6. I'm sure a lot of people have already seen this video of Obama going Mr. Miyagi on a fly, but if not, enjoy.

7. I'm not sure how I feel about the film adaptation of The Time Traveler's Wife. I love Eric Bana. I'm undecided on Rachel McAdams. And Ron Livingston as Gomez? But who am I kidding? I almost started crying during the trailer.

8. It only took two years, but I've finally started redesigning my Web site. It still needs some work, but it's infinitely better than my old one.

9. And finally, a BIG congrats to my boss, who just won the American Business Media 2009 Custom Media Innovator of the Year Award. Yay Jim!

9 Links, April 2

1. Hazardous hairballs. No matter where we are, Rosie has an amazing ability to figure out the exact spot in her immediate surroundings that will draw the most foot traffic, and then lie there. At home, for example, it's the spot between the living room and the hallway leading to the kitchen. If you're watching TV, and you might like a beverage, you'll have to step over Rosie twice to get it. I've yet to have a serious Rosie-related fall, but my mom tripped over her once while dog-sitting, and her shoulder was messed up for more than a year. Whoops.

2. One more reason I want my own sheep farm. Like most videos I see online these days, I'm never really sure what's real and what's not. But it's entertaining nonetheless.

3. Their fries suck. But I do love Steak 'n Shake's burgers. Although until I read this, I had no idea there weren't any in the city.

4. The Wallflowers? Chris and I recently heard a Wallflowers song on the radio and asked, "What ever happened to that band? They weren't so bad, but they just disappeared." Or so we thought. Looks like they're playing the Taste this year.

5. We're #1! Speaking of the Taste, and live music, and the all-around awesomeness of Chicago in general, according to some male-centered Web site, Chicago's the #1 city for men due to its abundance of good food, sports and cultural attractions. Because, apparently, only men like those things.

6. Plant a tree. Our yard has zero trees. (Although you'd never know it from the the 40 pounds of leaves I raked up a few weeks ago.) We do have a tree ring in our parkway that's currently home to a bunch of ugly branches that may have at one time been a bush. I'm not sure. Anyway, the master plan is to plant a tree there this year. But which type of tree to plant is still unknown. Chris wants a good climbing tree or a fruit tree. I'm fine with anything that'll fit in a city parkway, other than evergreens. (Although I had apple trees growing up, and they were really messy and attracted lots of bees that liked to attack my dog, so I don't know how I feel about a fruit trees.) I've been searching through this handy Web site lately for trees that grow in Zone 5 or 6—Chicago's right on the cusp of those zones. Did you know we could grow pear trees here? I had no idea.

7. Tamale Guy. I love this guy. I hope he starts Tweeting so I can follow him and ask him to come to my new 'hood more often.

8. No fooling. Some of these newspaper pranks were kinda funny. Some were just meh. I did enjoy the Twitter recap of Lindburgh's first flight from New York to Paris.

9. My love-hate relationship with Emeril. I really don't want to like Emeril. I find his shows really annoying, and he's very Flay-like in that he adds the same ingredient—Essence of Emeril, which sounds like it's his own personal musk. Ew.—to every dish. (For Bobby Flay, it's chipotle pepper. Seriously, every time I watch Throwdown, Bobby Flay just makes the other person's dish, but adds chipotle. Real creative, dude.) But as much as I don't want to like Emeril, for some reason, his Mexican recipes rock. For the past two Cinco de Mayo parties, I ended up using his recipes for fish tacos, salsa fresca, ancho chile flourless-chocolate cake and tres leches cake. Yesterday I found this poblano-cilantro rice recipe online that I might have to try out this weekend. So, maybe Emeril's not all that bad. Especially because using his recipes only involves reading them online and never having to hear him yell, "Bam!"

9 Links, March 13

1. Yum. Just try to read this without craving black beans by the end. It's impossible, unless you don't like beans for some reason. And if that's the case, what's wrong with you? Weirdo.

2. If you're not a weirdo, then you probably think this recipe looks amazing. I have to try this out. If it's as good as it looks, it just might be this year's vegetarian enchilada dish at Cinco de Mayo.

3. The Phoenix forecast. In 8 days, I'll be on vacation Arizona. I tend not to rely on long-range forecasts like this, but I can't help checking it at least once a day.

4. Speaking of Arizona, I'm going to Spring Training! I am so, so ready for baseball season to start again. Bring on the hot dogs, peanuts and...water. No frosty beers for me :( I gave up alcohol for Lent.

5. Fearing change. My dad worked in the Sears Tower when I was a kid. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever to a 10-year-old. "My dad works in the Sears Tower!" Then, in 1992, Sears sold their space and moved out to suburbs, which was kind of a let down. "My dad works in Hoffman Estates!" didn't pack quite the same punch. I'm still mad that Sears left the tower 15 years ago, but I'm also a little sad to see the tower's name change. Willis Tower? I dunno about that.

6. Dance machine. My nephew, at a recent wedding, tearing it up.

7. He takes after his father. My brother-in-law, at a wedding this summer, tearing it up with his "faux-hawk."

8. Our Lady of the Underpass. I used to live a few blocks from this Mary, who always had tons of flowers and candles by her side, while 90/94 roared overhead. I just might have to go see this play.

9. Loo with a View. Hilarious.

9 Links, March 5

1. IL Senate race begins. I thought Alexi might be more interested in becoming Illinois Governor. But now that Blago's out and Quinn seems to be doing well enough (so far) to possibly secure the Democratic primary, Alexi's off to the Senate.

2. Hot property. The folks at the Tribune think this is a bad time for the CTA to sell off its property, given the state of the real estate market. I dunno. If I hadn't just bought a house, I'd be interested in buying something closer to the train and cutting my daily round trip commute by 20 to 40 minutes.

3. In case you're not already in love with Jon Stewart. Jon sticks it to that Santelli fella, along with the rest of CNBC. Watch the full 8 minutes. You will not be disappointed.

4. And some more videos. My co-worker lent me this awesome DVD recently of really strange and hilarious TV clips. You kind of have to watch it to get it. Or you can just check out this Web site to get a taste.

5. Puff puff. Medical marijuana might be coming to Illinois. Here's my favorite quote from this story:

"David Jocson, statewide drug enforcement coordinator with the Illinois State Police, opposed the bill because he said marijuana is not an FDA-approved medication and because allowing people using cannabis for medicinal purposes would make it easier for others to obtain."

Right. Because it's really hard to get now.

6. Twitter Peraica. We might be on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but I kinda love this guy.

7. This is kind of ridiculous. There's a huge difference between police brutality and a citizen complaint against a cop. I can't figure out why this list is even needed in this case. A woman is suing the city because a cop supposedly used excessive force while arresting her kids. So, how does this list relate? If the cop's name is on the list, that proves he beat up her kids? I'm no lawyer, but I can't imagine how this would hold up in court. Fortunately, my hubby is a lawyer: Honey, help me out here. Am I missing something?

8. Missouri munchies. Sure, Mizzou may have lost horribly to KU last week, but you know what? One of our future alums invented beer-flavored popcorn. So there.

9. Oh yeah, and we beat the crap out of No. 5 Oklahoma last night.

9 Links

I'm going to start compiling interesting links I find online everyday, or maybe less often. Mostly, this is so I don't clog up Chris' inbox with interesting articles and pictures of Rottweiler puppies all day. And I went with "9" because it's my favorite number.

Anyway, here's my first go at this:

1. This is Twitter. Yes, Twitter is ridiculous. But everyone from celebrities, to congressmen, to yours truly is addicted.

2. Chicago rules. Speaking of Twitter, Chicago ranks third worldwide as the most tweeted-from city. And it's second in the U.S.

3. Unfortunate Topiary. Not sure how real this is, but it's pretty darn funny.

4. The Daily Plate. This is my new obsession. Up until last week, I tracked everything I ate each day on Bally's nutrition site. But that site suddenly disappeared this week, and a bunch of other weird stuff seems to be going on with Bally's. (They've filed for bankruptcy twice in the past two years, so I dunno.) Anyway, The Daily Plate is my new place to keep a food journal. After using it for two days, I can say that it totally kicks Bally's ass. EVERYTHING is in there. Every Trader Joe's product. Every type of cheese imaginable. Even Oberweis. The only drawback is it doesn't track vitamin intake, like calcium and vitamin C, which I like to track. But whatev. It's free.

5. The Obligatory Cute Dog Picture. I want one.

6. Car Bomb Cupcakes. I've been meaning to surprise Chris with these for weeks, but I haven't had the time, or a few necessary ingredients and tools, to make them. And then I consumed the largest cupcake ever on Tuesday, so the thought of cupcakes now is sort of revolting. Anyway, one of these days, Chris, I'll make you these.

7. Soccer Blog. I once again cheated on this blog with my work blog. It's a little two-game recap of the losingiest soccer team in history.

8. Vintage Cereal. Not sure what I love more: the vintage cereal boxes, or the name of this site. Hilarious.

9. The Godfather Wars. Interesting Vanity Fair article about the making of the Godfather. Apparently, the mob tried to shut it down, Corleone-style.