(no subject)

I called in sick to work. Mmm, delicious gratuitous day off.

I really am feeling rotten, and I'm tired too, so it's not without merit. Not rotten enough that I couldn't haul my ass into a suit and in to work, but rotten enough that when R said "Call in sick, we'll have a movie day" I caved. It's not really for my sake, since That Girl is over, but it should be a nice quiet day, anyway.

Also, my Easter present arrived (why mum sends Easter presents I'm not sure, but it was nice to come home to). It is a horizontal-loaf bread machine, and it is my preciouss. As much as I love making bread by hand, I also love the idea of dumping a bunch of ingredients into a pan, walking away, and coming back three hours later to BREAD.

It's the staff of life, you know.

Last night I made a loaf and left it out so R could have some if he wanted. He told me "I had some bread, but I'm not sure I prepared it right."

Wondering what the wrong way to prepare bread was, I said, "What did you do to it?"

"I dipped it in ranch dressing."

Imaginative. Not wrong. I just have to keep telling myself that.

Ommmmm nom nom nom fresh french bread.

(no subject)

Hey Chicagoans -- if you're going to be in town on March 29th (I'm not; I'll be in Houston) head out to Navy Pier or take a long drive down Lake Shore roundabout eight pm, because the lights will go out in Chicago.

Well, some of them. For a little while.

Earth Hour is a new movement by the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness about climate change, and it's kicking off in Chicago. On the 29th, between eight and nine pm, more than a hundred and sixty downtown buildings will turn out their lights.

The Sears Tower will be shutting off its broadcast-tower lights, and is "encouraging its tenants" to turn off their office lights as well. Navy Pier itself will be switching off its decorative lights, including the ferris wheel and probably the Shakespeare Theatre sign. Over four hundred McDonalds restaurants in Chicagoland and Indiana will turn off their Golden Arches (though not, I suspect, their grills) and other corporations including Motorola and LaSalle Bank will be turning out all "non-essential" lighting. Broadway in Chicago will darken marquees at the Oriental Theatre, Cadillac Palace and the LaSalle Bank Theatre. I reckon, however, that they won't be switching off their parcams, seeing as how most shows have an eight o'clock curtain.

As a gesture, it is very typical of Chicago: a demonstration of solidarity, will, good-intentions, belief in the power of the people, and wholesale hedging of one's bets. "Nonessential lighting" and "encouraging tenants", oh how we laughed.

It amuses me, as someone who spent eight years in California, to see what the midwest considers progressive and Earth-friendly, not to mention "grassroots". Daley is adorably fond of being seen as a Green mayor, and I'm sure the poor lad tries very hard. It's just...it's sometimes kind of like watching toddlers pretending to be their parents.

But it should still be quite the spectacle. The lights will go out in the city on the lakeshore, and maybe if you look up you'll see a few more stars than usual.

Which is never a bad thing.