After several years of not cooking, I’ve been getting back into it lately.  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I have people to cook for.  In Chicago I was pretty much on my own and limited my culinary activities to making myself salads.  Now however, I have my grandmother and parents in close proximity and willing to eat whatever I ( Read more... )

Since Easter I’ve been pretty busy between work, family, medical appointments and a story I’ve been working on for lgbtfest.

My Dad was in town from New York State for a five day visit. I was working most of the time but managed to get over to my sister’s place to see him everyday. Also yesterday I had off so I showed him around my neighborhood, ( Read more... )

St Patrick’s Day has been called Chicago’s Mardi Gras in the worst sense of the term. It’s basically a trashy, touristy drinking binge. While St Patrick’s Day isn’t actually until tomorrow, around here the party started a couple days early. On Saturday I was driving to work at 7:00 a.m. when I spotted my first reveler in gilded green plastic ( Read more... )

A few final thoughts on the election.

First, this is a huge deal for Chicago.  I talked to my father this morning and he said “It looks like Chicago’s taking over Washington.” I believe my response was “Hell yeah!”  I have a co-worker who’s sort of an old hippy and didn’t vote but even he was excited about the rally in Grant Park and the ( Read more... )

Over the weekend I finally got out and did some serious bike riding.  On Saturday morning I rode to an ANAD meeting which was a couple of miles away and then on Sunday I rode to work.

It’s taken me an inordinately long time to get back on my bike this year.  Part of it has to do with the crazy weather we’ve had this spring (I actually just ( Read more... )

On Wednesday night I went to see a reading by Lydia Lunch at Quimbys (an underground book/comic book/zine shop on North Avenue).  I was a little hesitant to go because I’ve been feeling off lately and really don’t want to do much but stay home and watch movies.

Lydia Lunch looms large in my personal pop culture hierarchy.  She was one of ( Read more... )