Chimps Like Us

Well, it’s Thursday, so you know what that means: Cap’n Crunch for breakfast. Now, as we all know, Cap’n Crunch is delicious, but also basically empty calories. So I did the responsible thing and quickly had some guacamole and chips for a snack 30 minutes later. Nutrients keep you healthy!

I was a bit afloat with no schoolwork in front of me, so the morning sort of drifted away. Around 10, a friend called to ask if I wanted to go to the casino. Well, it’s important to get out of the house, so I had to say Yes. I picked him up at 11 and we dashed off to Rivers Casino to see how slowly I could lose my money.

My friend is one of those people who never seems to lose money at a casino. He doesn’t usually win huge sums, but he always seems to walk away with a profit. I planned to lose $100 at most, so I passed on sitting at a $15 blackjack table with him; I was looking for a $5 table. About the only option available was a Four-Card Poker game, but no seat was immediately available. I didn’t know the game, so I decided to watch it for a while to study it.

In Four-Card Poker, you are given five cards, and have to make the best four-card hand you can. The dealer, meanwhile, is given six cards to make the best four-card hand possible. Pretty obviously, this is a terrible deal for the player. But it was so cheap! After a few minutes, a seat came open and I went to take it, but the dealer explained there was a waiting list, and the seat was given to the person on the list.

I added my name to the list, but it took almost an hour before a seat was finally open. I won a couple hands, but the money dwindled pretty quickly, and I didn’t last more than 20 minutes. So much fun! Meanwhile, my friend had come over from his blackjack table, where he had turned a tidy profit. He wanted to play some craps, but I had spent my entertainment dollars for the day, so I instead went to the noodle shop for some lunch.

After a lovely bowl of duck noodle soup (approximate sodium level: 40 times the daily limit), I met back up with my friend, who had won more money playing craps. After that, we headed home.

I took Gemma and Cecilia on a walk in the afternoon, but at separate times. Gemma is too fast and energetic compared to Cecilia, who looks for a more leisurely pace. Cecilia didn’t quite have the gas for this trip, though, and I ended up carrying her home the last quarter mile. I’m sure she was just trying to make sure I got in some strength training.

That night, I attended a meeting for the Chicago Marathon. I work at the marathon every year, putting out and setting the clocks at each mile. We have a meeting every year the Thursday before the event to make sure everyone understands their assignment and where and when to show up. Not much changes from year-to-year, so there isn’t much to discuss at the meetings, but they have free pizza and beer, so you’d be crazy not to go.  It’s like someone from the casino putting money back in your pocket.

The meeting runs a little past 8 p.m., and by that time it’s too late to really catch up on the Bears game. Oh well.

Did you know you have to clean your house, like, every week? This seems a preposterous notion, but sitting around all day with little to do makes it difficult to ignore the dirt Gemma tracks in from the yard. Not to brag about my dog, but she’s kind of an expert at it. Took hardly any training, too.

I started the day by finishing my final paper for class and submitting it. No schoolwork until Monday! Or possibly Sunday, depending on when I have access to the new course.

Gemma and I then went on an hour-long walk, where she attempted to meet four dogs but spazzed out every time. She should be able to go back to daycare on Saturday, thank goodness.  After the walk, I had the last waffle I made over the weekend.

I considered going to a movie, but instead decided to celebrate the end of class by walking to Johnnie’s Beef for a late lunch. I had an Italian sausage sandwich with sweet peppers and a hot dog. The hot dog also came with fries, so I had to eat those as well. And I had a large lemon Italian ice.

After lunch, I walked to a local grocery store to pick up some limes, cilantro and chips for guacamole. (I bought the avocados at Costco earlier in the week.) While there, I remembered to pick up a jar of molasses for some homemade baked beans I plan to make this weekend. And wouldn’t you know it, Cap’n Crunch was on sale, too. So I had to buy a box of that. Also, a box of Cinnamon Life.

The grocery store has a Redbox kiosk outside, so I rented four movies. After arriving home and letting Gemma and Cecilia out, I made the guacamole. For heat, I chopped up some giardinera from the fridge. At 4:20, I put in This Is The End in the ol’ DVD player, and had a bowl of Cap’n Crunch. Good movie.

I skipped dinner, on account of the late lunch where I overate and such, plus the bowl of cereal. The next movie in was a Jason Statham film called Redemption. It was OK, not great. Annette came home as the movie was ending, in time for us to watch Criminal Minds.

I have an early call tomorrow, because Cecilia has a 7 a.m. appointment at the groomer’s.

I had a bowl of spaghetti for breakfast. Don’t worry, it wasn’t until after Gemma and I returned from our walk. Don’t want you to think I was trying to carbo-load 20 minutes before exercising or something. I know that’s not how it works. Also, I feel good about my decision to not add seafood to the dish. Seems like it would’ve been the wrong choice for 8:30 in the morning.

I did some work for school, and played with Gemma in the yard a couple times while Cecilia sunned herself in the yard.

For lunch, I caramelized some onions and made the kielbasa I bought yesterday. I sliced it up and sauteed it with some of the sauerkraut and a spoonful of spicy giardinera. I walked some leftovers from yesterday’s lunch over to Annette’s office for her, and picked up the car to run a couple of errands. I wanted to go to Costco, but I didn’t.

Gemma and I played in the yard a couple more times in the afternoon, and I cleaned up the kitchen. Had some pulled pork and fries for dinner. I did a little more work on my paper, and wound down the night with some TV.

Note: These Sabbatical posts cover only my weekday experiences. I would normally have the weekends off, so writing about my activities then is not remarkable. Also, I will try to avoid doing anything remarkable on the weekends in order to further enhance these entries.

I seem to be falling into a rut: wake up, feed the zoo, take Gemma on a walk, have some breakfast at home, lose track of time until noon or so. Of course, the animals have to be fed, and I appreciate the exercise I get from walking Gemma, but I hoped for a bit more at this point in my sabbatical. I had hoped to walk to a different breakfast place every day, for instance, but I’m pretty tired by the time Gemma and I are home from our 45-60 minute outing. I’d also considered going to the movies, but not much that’s out now is good, and I have to finish my classwork this week.

Today I had some leftover waffles and bacon for breakfast. I watched some TV I taped on Sunday, then I needed a nap. After the nap, I had some leftovers for lunch (finished off the last of my brisket, and some rice). I made lunch for Annette (roasted tandoori-marinated halibut and biryani couscous with peas), then drove Annette back to work.

After that, I was off to Costco. Yes, I go there a lot. They have stuff. If I don’t at least look at the stuff, it will go away and it will be my fault.  Also, Cecilia was out of dentatoochies (her word for dental treats), so I had to go there. We also needed bread, salmon, peas and corn. What I didn’t know until I got there was that we also needed frozen french fries, kielbasa, sauerkraut, and (for some reason) a five-pound bag of gluten-free flour.

In terms of samples, they had chicken burgers (not great), spinach ravioli (they are always sampling some kind of ravioli), onion rings (excellent!), potstickers (they were only steamed, should have been sauteed), tomato-basil soup (meh), bite-sized pizza bagels (good, but not very bagel-y; believe me, I tried two of them), a lovely sharp, white cheddar cheese, and tortilla shells. I had a couple moments of weakness where I  picked up a bag of chocolate chips, and a box of brownie mix, but I put both of them back on the shelf. So much strength for one person in a single day!

Since Costco did not have the proper buns for the kielbasa, I went to another store for those, as well as some other buns for the last of my homemade pulled pork.

Annette finished work early, so I picked her up and brought her home while I jumped in the shower to go to the library and work on my paper. It’s not required to shower before going to the library in my town, but since I hadn’t had one since Thursday night, I figured it was time. Additionally, I’m not sure people were still buying the explanation of my appearance (told them I was in the middle of camping).

The quiet of the library was a welcome and productive change from the distractions of home, but the library has distractions of its own. Apparently I sat in the religion section, as I noticed a number of books on Catholicism nearby, and a tome titled, “Hitler’s Priests.” I stayed at the library for almost three hours, then headed home to cook up some of the french fries and have a beer.

The days of the week are starting to run together. Is it Thursday? No, Friday. I think it’s Friday. Sort of has a Thursday feel to it. But, no. Friday. Definitely Friday.

Gemma took me out on a walk in the morning, where a kindly neighbor suggested Valium might do her some good. I explained she was only six months old.

Later, I went on another walk to pick up my new glasses. Immediate improvement in my vision! I love it when a plan comes together.

In the early afternoon, Annette was out running some errands, and was on her way back to pick me up to take care of a couple other items. At one point, she texted me that she was 30 minutes away. I timed it so that the dogs were put in their crates and I was outside exactly 30 minutes later. I figured I would open the garage door, and she would pull into the driveway. Didn’t happen. So I pulled the trash can and recycling bin back into the garage. Then I noticed some leaves from our red maple tree had scattered themselves all over the lawn. Well, I thought, I’ll never be able to rake them all by the time Annette arrives, but I can at least get started. I raked all the leaves. I will now be monitoring Annette’s texts to see if I am being set up to perform chores against my will.

We made a tour of a few stores, but didn’t buy anything other than a tank of gas. We also made a stop at Jason’s Deli, where I had some of their free custard for the first time. I probably shouldn’t go there too often.

We were going to go a friend’s for dinner, but it was canceled, so I spent the evening doing homework. Only one week to go for my first two classes!

It was raining when I woke up, so no walk for Gemma and I today. She seemed pretty chill about it; I think the weather had her down.

Instead, I used my energy to clean the kitchen all day: washed the dishes, pots & pans, cleaned the recycling material, then started breaking down the counters one by one. Fortunately, Spotify kept me company all day. I cleaned the stove, the floor, even put away all of the dishes from the dishwasher and strainer. I still need to straighten out the cabinets and refrigerator, and clear off the table, but it looks good for now.

Annette and I went to a fundraiser that night for Safe Humane Chicago. They had a silent auction and gave awards to a number of people for their help with the organization, including former Superintendent of Chicago Police Terry Hillard. Annette bid on a couple of items, but focused on an oil painting a local artist was offering to do of your dog. She won that auction, and plans to use it for her aunt, who lost one of her dogs earlier that day.

Annette’s Mom was kind enough to stop by and check on the dogs while we were out. Gemma tracked mud all over the clean floors, and both dogs forced their way into the cats’ room to eat their food. But other than that, they behaved perfectly for her.

Wednesday started off as the first two days, with Gemma and I going on a walk. After that, I spent some time doing some homework for my grad school class, then catching up on some TV.

I mopped the hallway and family room (I did a really good job, you should be impressed), and washed and dried a couple loads of laundry, including the new kitchen towels from Costco. Annette is pleased with the towels.

I managed to avoid sneaking off to Buona Beef, which was having a $1.99 milkshake special. Instead, I had some pasta for dinner with my homemade marinara sauce. I spent some more time that evening doing some schoolwork.

The second day of the sabbatical started a lot like the first: Gemma and I went for a walk. I also went back to the eye doctor, to have Annette help pick out the frames for my new glasses. Annette found only a couple of frames she liked on me (the others were too dark or heavy, it seems), but ultimately she wanted me to make the choice. This is a bit silly to me, because I have to only look through the glasses. She’s the one who has to look at me in them. May as well be happy with what you’re looking at.

After that, we went to a late brunch/early lunch at Le Peep. Annette had a salmon wrap with a side salad and orange juice; I had a cranberry juice and the Vera Cruz benedict, a special with blackened salmon, red pepper and a cilantro hollandaise. Great stuff.

After dropping off Annette at work, I went to Home Depot to return an item I didn’t need, then went to Costco. I picked up a new pair of sneakers ($17!), a new belt (size 34, which isn’t quite right for me just yet), some socks, an umbrella (lost the old one on Metra last week), some new kitchen towels (we only had two, if you don’t count the Santa Clause ones, which come out only at Christmas), and a box of green tea. Originally, I planned to buy only the green tea. But Costco does that to you. As for the samples that day, about the only remarkable one was a Smart Choices breakfast burrito that I did not care for, but ate all of it anyway. The Kashi spinach and mushroom pizza was surprisingly not terrible. The woman who was handing out samples of it told me how she likes to make it at home, but also put maybe some sausage and bacon on it, too.

The afternoon was spent vacuuming the whole house, and decluttering the family room. I also washed a load of laundry. Dried it, too, but it did not get folded or put away. After all, I’ve got plenty of time for that.

I dropped off dinner (grilled tilapia sandwich and sweet potato fries from the Burger Baron) for Annette (who was stuck at work), grabbed a strawberry milkshake for myself (was still kinda full from that lunch), and went to a board meeting for my townhouse association. Mercifully, it was a short meeting and I made it home in time to watch the World Series of Poker on ESPN.

I am currently on a sabbatical from work. Actually, it’s only half a sabbatical, but the important thing is: I have the next three weeks off of work. Every four years, my employer grants each employee six weeks of paid leave to do whatever that person wants. Many people use this time to travel, others pick up a new talent or hobby, and some explore a gift they’ve allowed to grow dormant. I will be sleeping in and mopping some floors around the house.

However, I also figured that this would be a good opportunity for me to pick up the blogging pace as well. As such, I will be posting my activities of the day each day I am on sabbatical. While you could say that this past Saturday was the first day of my sabbatical, today was the first weekday I did not have to go to the office.

I started off the morning with a 45-minute walk with our six-month old pup, Gemma. After that, I had breakfast, which consisted of two pieces of bacon and a glass of iced tea. One of my other goals with this half-bbatical is to conduct a walking tour of local breakfast places. Today, though, I am trying to make my weight for my monthly goal (see my Pound-A-Month Club posts), so a meager breakfast it is.

After the walk, I rang up the ol’ optometrist and made an appointment to have my eyes checked. They had an opening an hour after I called, which worked out perfectly. Since I figured they would dilate my eyes and I wouldn’t be able to drive afterward, I walked to the office, which is only about 1.5 miles from my house.

Sure, enough, the doctor dilated my eyes. It takes a few minutes after they put the drops in before your eyes fully dilate, so I was sent out of the exam room to the lobby and told to pick out some new frames. This seems the wrong time to do this, but maybe it only seems to be true because you can’t really see at that point. I had the receptionist at the office help me evaluate some frames, but I’m going back tomorrow with Annette to see what she thinks.

Although I remembered to not drive to the office due to the dilation, I did not remember to bring sunglasses for afterward. Fortunately, the doctor gave me one of those molded pieces of shaded plastic you put behind your glasses to help protect your eyes.

Upon arriving home, I had a sandwich for lunch. About the only thing remarkable about the sandwich is that I used some spicy hummus from a Mediterranean market in Chicago. Love that stuff! After that, I was pretty useless since my eyes were still dilated. I tried watching some TV, but daytime TV is pretty annoying. I gave Tom Skilling’s forecast a chance on the WGN News at Noon, but he talks about the weather like a condemned man trying to stall the executioner.

The only option at that point was a one-hour nap. After that, I wrote out the bills and headed out for some errands. My eyes still weren’t completely back to normal, so I put the temporary shades from the eye doctor back behind my glasses. The first stop was our old townhouse, where I needed to measure the window well for a replacement cover. (The current cover is actually a bit too narrow.)  As I leaned over to remove the cover, the temporary shades fell out from behind my glasses and down into the bottom of the window well. Welp, so much for those!

Next, I mailed the bills, deposited a couple of checks at the bank and made a stop at Costco for some samples (I was going to buy a few things there, too, but I wasn’t going to buy anything if they didn’t have any samples because then I would have an excuse to go back tomorrow, but then I figured, “Hey, why not come back tomorrow and eat samples, then, too?”) – the Main St. Inn macaroni and cheese is outstanding, by the way. And I went to Home Depot for the window well cover.

After that, it was back home to feed the animals and water the grass seed in the backyard. (We had four trees taken out in the backyard and I planted a bunch of grass seed.) And that’s about it for day one of the half-bbatical: walk the pup, breakfast at home, optometrist appointment, lunch at home, nap, errands, home. And a couple of blog posts.