board stuff

I'm home.  For a few days, and that's it.  A weekend in Chicago, doing board things, as boards do:

Meetings!  Lots of discussion, lots of forward progress, some tough topics.  The distraction of a pro-Palestine rally on Michigan Avenue below on Saturday. 

Lots of time spent in a board room.

A communal meal where we could unwind, debrief, and get to know each other a bit better. 

This was the first in-person meeting where five of our six (six!) new board members were together with us (the sixth person attended all of the meetings virtually from California).  So it was good to have that space to sit down and NOT have an agenda.

Bowling! 

Something new for us.  It's been a busy and even stressful first quarter for the board, and we decided that we would combine the second dinner evening with a fun activity to help build board cohesion.  One member had to fly home early, two others did not attend for very understandable personal reasons, and the rest of us went to the bowling alley.  Only six of us bowled, but all of us had a good time.  I broke 100 in two of three games, and - fittingly - our president bowled the highest score of us all.  And then we headed back to our hotel for a nightcap.

After the meetings were done yesterday, a handful of us headed to O'Hare together. 

Sara, Steven, and I were all on United, so we had leisure time in one of the lounges, sipping a drink, and letting conversation roam all over in relation to the weekend activities.

A fulfilling weekend, and work that while sometimes challenging feels rewarding because of the people I get to work with.  It's off to Tampa next, early Wednesday morning.  Let me get that laundry started before I launch into my workday at home.

now you see it...

A funny thing happened on Thursday evening.  No, not dinner out - Kathy, Sara, and I

had a lovely and leisurely meal at Taxim,

a restaurant I had fond memories of.  No, it happened later, when I was at the bar of the Hyatt with other members of the board.  A man came up to the table, we have no idea who.  We were all trying to figure out if he was a librarian or not.  Anyway, he admired my sweater and asked how much it cost me.  I didn't remember, so I said $100.  He said he wanted to buy it.  I let him try it on, he got out his wallet, asked friends for more cash, and in short order, he had a leopard print and I had a $100 bill.

I will miss the sweater at least a little, but hey, $100!

week two of three

It's coming up on the middle weekend of three in a row on October when I am traveling.  Sigh.

Oh, I do it to myself.  The early mornings at LAX. 

The exit row seats looking out over the wing. 

The hotel rooms. 

Yes, the views can be nice. 

Yes, the miles I accumulate and status are enjoyable.

I'm in Chicago until Sunday.  Next week I go to Tampa.  And then I come home for several days.  I like travel, yes, but it is getting to be a lot.  Ah well.

pumping iron

Yeah, like you'd catch me in the gym?  Um, no.

First duty in the hotel room:  get unpacked and get the shirts ironed and on hangers.  Done!  On with the weekend!

better than zero, right?

Busy day, not feeling, and so on.  But I drove on down to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center and hauled my overly large butt back and forth for a bit.  Better than zero!  I mean, slightly, but still.

see you soon, gorgeous!

Thursday, I'll be back.  Not just passing through O'Hare en route to and from visiting Conrad's family, but actually leaving the airport and being in the city and just enjoying (insofar as my time devoted to meetings allows) being in my favourite US city. 

I caught this view yesterday as we flew in from Green Bay.  Conrad and I picked out our old building as we passed north of it, too.  Ah, Chicago, I'll see you soon, you wonderful place, you.

Yooper cuisine

No trip to Conrad's family is truly complete unless we have ourselves that classic of Yooper cuisine, the pasty.  No, it doesn't originate in the UP, but in Cornwall, in England.  

Beef, carrot, potato, and - of course! - rutabaga fill the tender pastry.  I didn't remember how very large they are, and so Conrad and I shared one between us.

The absolutely necessary side dish?  Old Dutch brand dill pickle flavoured potato chips. 

I remember the first time I had a pasty on a visit to the UP with Conrad, and I was floored that they had a Canadian brand like Old Dutch, and in my favourite flavour.  Conrad quickly disabused me of that notion, that it was a Canadian brand.  It is big in Western Canada, though, so even though it's a US company, it has a lot of operations in place to cover my side of the homeland.  Ah well, no matter where it's based, it's nostalgic for me, and it goes well with the pasty.

So that was our last meal in the UP for this trip:  pasty and chips.  Not the most nutritious dining, but it filled our bellies for the travel ahead!

a short weekend in the UP

We're in Escanaba, but not for much longer.  Conrad came up on Wednesday.  Me, I took a red eye, and I made it here on Friday.  Super tired, but worth it for Karen's 70th birthday.  And in the blink of an eye, it's time to go home.  A very short trip indeed.

I love cool and even cold weather, but I don't know how to deal with it any longer.  I did bring layers with me, but the wind is so cold, and the lows in the 40s are shocking to me this time.  Brrrrr.  It's embarrassing, but there you are.  I guess fall is here!

Conrad's hometown remains as inscrutable to me as ever.  I grew up in a small town, and yet, I cannot relate.  I go to Starbucks or restaurants, and I just don't get it here.  It's small town, hunters and Trumpers, and it's so foreign to me.  Ah well.  We've eaten heartily (including on our drive down to Little Suamico),

walked a little (around the nearby community college campus),

and celebrated Karen.  It's all gone quickly, and it was a nice time.

over WI

Hey there!  I'm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the weekend, heading back home tomorrow.  And getting there means flying over Wisconsin.  So let me do a short post with a few aerial shots as we approached Green Bay.  More to come, I promise!  Yes, that is Lambeau Field.🧀🏈

red-eye

Ugh, this is so not the way that I normally travel.  I mean, yes,I've had a few overnight flights this year, but those have been international flights, and at least one was in a nice pod seat!  My sad life, right?

I boarded a plane at LAX at 10:19 last night. 

I hoped for that upgrade, but no.  No upgrade.  At least I had a window to lean against while I dozed off through the short night.  A flight to Chicago, landing just before 5AM.  That C Concourse looks mighty empty at 5:06AM, right?

And now, as I write (I'll publish this a little later), it's still over 2 hours until boarding for my flight to Green Bay.  You better believe I will nap on that flight and in the car ride north from there into Michigan.  A wonky weekend of sleep and travel and then back to California on Sunday just to come back to Chicago next Thursday!

PinSac

For some years now, I've been friends with a lovely man, also a librarian, named Peter.  Over time, we've jokingly come to refer to ourselves by our locales.  I was PinC for a period of time that coincided with him being a director of a library in New Jersey.  Hence, PinNJ.

And then he went and moved to California as well.  PinSoCal and PinNorCal.  Or PinSac, short for Sacramento, as I think I prefer to think of him.

PinSac came to town this week, and for one night, we got to host him.  It was so great to catch up in person, because goodness knows that when we attend his wedding next month, we won't get so much time with him.  Weddings are busy times for any groom!  Anyway, I picked him up at Burbank Airport on Monday, brought him back to the condo, got us lunch, drove us around a little, and then that evening Van picked all of us up to go to Dunsmoor for dinner.

I didn't photograph much of the food at Dunsmoor.  Just know that there was a big steak involved that we all shared, and that the wine was very good, and that I was absolutely floored a tickled to see that their fig cake dessert was actually a Battenberg cake. 

That made me laugh with delight.

Peter spent the night, did his speaking engagement, we had lunch,

and then came back to the condo to relax before I popped him in an Uber to head back to the airport.  A whirlwind, to be sure, but how lovely to finally have him see our home, to host him for that one night.

2000

Yards, that is.  2000 yards this morning.  Which represents some sort of amazing accomplishment in the past year or more scheme of things but is, frankly, rather sad.

Still, as Conrad and I say, it's better than zero!

morning walkies

Sunday morning, and the little girl was eager to get out the door and get out on foot.  Morning walkies for all of us, and look:  Plan C is there being towed along!

Girl and the Goat (LA)

Saturday night the three of us headed into LA for dinner somewhere other than Pasadena. 

Oh, we love our local favourites, have no fear, but we wanted to enjoy a meal a little farther from home, somewhere different.  So it was that we found ourselves at the Los Angeles outpost of that beloved Chicago mainstay, Girl and the Goat.

If you have watched Top Chef, you should know the name Stephanie Izard.  Winner of season 4, the Chicago season.  And a Chicagoan herself.  I loved watching her on that season.  She demonstrated terrific cooking skills, a fascinating sense of flavour, real leadership, and subtle humour.  Small wonder she also won the fan favourite voting.  After she opened Girl and the Goat in Chicago, I went a few times - it wasn't far from work, so happy hour meet-ups were feasible.  In more recent times, I've been to the Little Goat diner a few times, treating myself to tasty and filling brunches.  She opened a Los Angeles branch a couple of years ago, down in the Arts District.  None of us had been to that one, so there we were.

It's a fantastic space, what I saw of it.  It's also a loud one, and I was not unhappy that the three of us were seated on the patio area (we had reserved an outside table) at the very end.  A quiet corner, relatively speaking.  The weather was just fine for being outside, and so we had a nice evening with a terrific server.

We ordered cocktails, and then some wine.  For food, we went simple.  The cornbread to whet our appetites,

and then the goat shoulder. 

That was a substantial platter that included multiple sauces as well as lettuce leaves, naan, and tostadas for wrapping up the meat.  A meal that we could really dig into and enjoy.  We did.  We had some vegetable sides as well, I promise.  And then it was on to dessert.  We were torn between the sticky rice and something called the popcorn situation, and when we settled on one, the server decided to gift us with the other so we wouldn't miss out. 

That was awesome of her.

Dinner done, it was home to the little girl.  Our bellies were full, and although we thought we might want some television, we instead crashed pretty early.  A very good meal, though, and I would be happy to go back.