This last week has been a fun fest for me; fell down the stairs to the basement early Sunday morning and generally hu5rt myself - and suffered a mild concussion.   The swelling and pain have down down, but I’m still moving rather gingerly.  And sometime Friday, I came down with what is probably a case of stomach flu - which was majorly unpleasant, ( Read more... )

Coming back from the Norovirus or whatever it was that had me screwed up for a big chunk of last week; staying away from anything greasy (lots of butter, say) seems to have kept the worst explosions at bay, and my appetite came back…still had stomach cramps at the dangdest times.  I think that’s past, but energy-wise, I’m still running on low power ( Read more... )

• Rampaging red squirrels in France
• Kashmiri militants, meet bear.  Bear, eat militants.
• Dead bison stink really bad: South Dakota meat producer abandons meat storage locker full of 44 tons of kosher bison, and the power gets cut for nonpayment.
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Due to overload on the family (and that I’m unable to handle the mower at present) we depend on a mowing service to come over and do the lawn - a very nice operation, really, and we recommend them to any locals that might need it.

But the dogs have been plagued recently with some kind of biting bug, and even Kay, my niece, got chewed on by them, ( Read more... )

One thing that struck me at the hospital, by the way, listening to the news rolling in about the rapid advance of swine flu, is the issue of sheer, blind panic.

I remember at various times in my life when people blindly struck out at Those People as representatives of Some Other People that they were angry about.   Those People looked like Some ( Read more... )

From the ChiTown Daily News and Chicago Journal: on work towards rehabbing the Cafe to meet the standards laid down for re-opening, and also on on the past history of the Cafe’s health violations from a FOIA of the Chicago Health Department.

One local very right-wing and abrasive blogger, who really can’t stand the owners (mostly over their left- ( Read more... )

The Heartland has a big reopen-soon-better-than-ever sign out front, as they clean out the joint, and the health department sign is obscured so that passers by can’t see it and know what happened.

Other nearby similar violations at an Einstein Bagels.

Health inspectors closed down the Heartland Cafe, a Rogers Park institution (Chicago), for serious health code violations. The Cafe’s website, on the other hand, claims:

HEARTLAND CAFE CLOSED FOR SPRING CLEANING
We apologize for any inconvenience
Please check back for our re-opening celebration

Some spring cleaning.  Here’s some negative ( Read more... )

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