The Adorable Chorus

So....

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:50:00 +0000

I'm getting married. Yep!

That is all. ;-)

Heard on the streets of Chicago yesterday

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:44:00 +0000

"KISS ASS AND DIE!!!!!"

...in a really strange voice, too.

Vegan on Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:41:00 +0000

Hellooooo...here's me checking after a little over a week! BAD! But, I'm still livin' la vegan loca. GOOD!

This past weekend Dave and I took our veganism experiment on vacation. Whew! We barely survived it. We spent two days and two nights in Spring Green, Wisconsin (read: middle of nowhere) to see the House on the Rock and tour the Cave of the Mounds. Usually when we're on vacation it's no holds barred as far as food goes. We always pick local places to eat and we always let ourselves indulge. While fun at the time, we usually come home vowing to eat nothing but fruit and salad for the next week because we're so gross and full from overdoing it.

Look, y'all, I'm on vacay.

Not this time! We had to plan carefully and skip out on a lot of tasty but unhealthy treats. On the drive to Spring Green we stopped in Madison to eat at the vegan/vegetarian restaurant The Green Owl Cafe. WOW! Great selection and really great prices, to boot. I had the vegan 'crab' cake po boy with kale crisps and Dave got the curry melt with roasted potatoes and a side of chili. I was thrilled to discover that the special dessert of the evening was a vegan version of my favorite cake in the world, black forest cake. It was AWESOME! You seriously couldn't tell it was vegan.

Our hotel featured a schmancy pants restaurant that served breakfast and dinner. We were worried. Bacon, eggs, pancakes, ham...absolutely nothing vegan. We surrendered to the a la carte menu--they had oatmeal cooked in water (we asked) and a fresh fruit plate. We were pretty sad about missing out on all the 'good' stuff until our server came out with two huge bowls of oatmeal sprinkled with cinnamon and sliced apples with a side of brown sugar and raisins. It was really good! Combined with the fresh fruit, it was a great healthy breakfast that got our day started without wiping us out from a sugar overload (which is what would have happened had we not been doing the vegan challenge).

We were very fortunate to have a friend's recommendation to visit the General Store in Spring Green. While looking at the menu on the wall we mumbled to the guy at the cash register that we were vegan and he said, "well you've pretty much come to the only place in town for that." Not only was it the only place with vegan options, it was probably the place with the best tasting food and nicest atmosphere. Every local in town seemed to be there. A live blueglass band hummed in the background and we'd hit the jackpot with our lunch order--sweet potato peanut soup and veggie burger for Dave; vegan chili and a lemon tanini veggie hummus sandwich for me. But then came the sad part--they had a peach bread pudding special for dessert that was in no way vegan. I asked one of the servers there if they had any vegan desserts and after checking with the kitchen she came back with a (devastating) no. Gah! Sadness.

General Store, you were so good to us!

Afterwards we visited a tea shop across the street and saw she had ginger snap cookies. "Those can be vegan sometimes, I think," I said to Dave. I asked the lady at the counter and she said, "Well, I've got the recipe in the back, let me go see." After flipping through at 3.5 inch binder full of recipes she delivered the sad news: "nope. It's got eggs." Dammit! Need sweets!

We settled for a gourmet dark chocolate bar, but it wasn't the same as a gooey bread pudding or spicy ginger cookies. But, on the other had, we had a ton of energy to explore the little downtown area of Spring Green because we had eaten so well.

Because we ate a late lunch and we had a microwave back at our hotel room, we decided to try to get creative and eat in for dinner. We went to a grocery store, bewildered by the task of trying to find something that was vegan AND microwavable AND didn't require any additional kitchenware (we had no bowls or plates in the room). Enter Annie Chun's Noodle Bowls and the problem was solved. We picked up some junk food to aid our evening goal of zoning out in front of the cable TV...chips and salsa and salt and vinegar potato chips.

The next morning we went back to the General Store for breakfast and enjoyed some ridiculously good tofu migas (which I hope to figure out how to replicate). After touring the Cave of the Mounds we decided to check out the antiquing in nearby tiny town Mt. Horeb. We started to get hungry and saw an old fashioned diner across the street, so we went there hoping to find a snack. Good. Luck. The people were super sweet and completely fascinated by our challenge. They ran down the list of menu items ("Pie? Let me see. Nope. Eggs.") and we settled for homefries ("Cooked in oil, not butter.") and an English muffin ("We'll make sure it's dry.") They sat with us our entire meal to hear the grueling tale of being vegan for the entire month of January.

It's Dave in a cave!

On our way back to Chicago we swung back through Madison to eat at the Indonesian restaurant Bandung which made me a believer in tempeh again. There's no way I can put into words how insanely, ridiculously, extraordinarily great the food is there. If you're in Madison, please eat there. Good lord. We ended the trip with a visit to Willy St. Co-op and finally got to indulge on some TREATS! Vegan pumpkin cookies, vegan bran muffins, vegan sesame bar...we even picked up some of the Bandung's tempeh while we were there. We ate our sweets all the way home to Chicago still feeling full of energy, feeling just as light and healthy as before our trip, and feeling proud to have stuck to our vegan challenge despite all the chances to bail. Hooray!

Final thoughts: awwwwesome antique store find.

One Full Week Vegan!

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:32:00 +0000

Hooray!

Things I Can Take Back With Me to the Other Side

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:34:00 +0000

I don't care if you're vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, omnivore, carnivore, flexitarian, fleximoron, you will LOVE LOVE LOVE coconut milk ice cream.

While blowing my dough over at Whole Foods grocery shopping last weekend I decided to hit up the ice cream aisle before walking to the check-out line to meet my financial fate. A treat for being true to my eating goals and for being too lazy to pick up the rest of my groceries at a regular grocery store like I had plan.

I had heard rumors of the frozen dream that is coconut milk ice cream, but I had never tried it. I picked up a small carton of Turtle Mountain's Purely Decadent Mocha Almond Fudge (100% vegan).

3/4's empty carton later (hey, Dave helped!) and here's what I have to say:

OMGMMJJFDS@#*()@(%@(**)MMMM%*@))*%NOMMY))((@BABYJESUS()*#)($*@YUM*()*#$HOLYMOLY(**MELTY)#)$LOVESIT!!)(*)#!!

If coconut milk was the original choice for making into ice cream, we'd all look like Jabba the Hut right now.

My interview on Outside the Loop Radio

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:44:00 +0000

I was on WLUW's Outside the Loop Radio this morning to discuss my one month vegan
challenge. Thanks to host Mike Stephen for inviting me on his show to discuss this topic!

Listen here:

OTL: Episode #224- The Vegan Experiment, Aldermanic Websites Analyzed, Project Onward Art Program

A Growing Movement

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:49:00 +0000

I was born and raised a meat-eating Texan. I love to tell people about my favorite way to finish off a t-bone steak as a child: grab it with my bare hands and dig into the remaining bites like a complete animal. I also used to put chicken skins on my face a la Hannibal Lecter to make my siblings laugh. I was goofy.

I ain't got nothing against people eating some gosh darn meat. But after reading several eye-openings books (Eating Animals and The Ethics of What We Eat, to name a few), watching a few horrifying-but-true videos, and just some plain 'ol soul searching I realized that eating animals just isn't for me...me, personally. I do have some strong opinions about factory farming which might lead me to get preachy, but I'll save that for a post I plan to write called "How to Be Vegan and Not Be Annoying." I try hard not to offend anyone with my new found passion for this subject.

When I first became vegetarian back in May, my sister make a few sarcastic comments about how I'd gone off the deep end. I met a few people who talked to me like I was an alien after declaring I don't eat meat ("How do you LIVE??!") I even felt discomfort at certain dinner gatherings when the host who invited me over discovered I was vegetarian and they hadn't prepared any non-meat options. I hate to inconvenience anyone or make them feel bad--I absorbed just as much guilt as they did.

I know I'm not the first person to dabble with veganism, but man! I can't help but feel something's different this round. When I posted my one-month vegan challenge to Facebook, I received nothing but positive comments (19 comments and growing), several personal messages, recipes suggestions, and encouragement to start blogging about it so my experience could be followed. My brother has decided to join me for two weeks and my sister completely shocked me by calling me to let me know the she and her boyfriend were going to try being vegetarian for one full week. To top it all off, my boyfriend is joining me for a month of veganism too...something I didn't ask him to do but he's doing anyway for the added support.

While I don't expect the majority of people will ever be true full-time vegetarians or vegans (and more power to those who are), it is very heartening to know that more and more people are waking up to the fact that maybe this country has gone a little overboard on the animal product consumption. Even just these little challenges, whether it be to have a vegetarian day every now and then, or be a vegan for a week or even a month, helps us see what a meat-crazed society we live in. The way meat is produced and consumed in this country contributes to our obesity epidemic, it pollutes our environment, it affects families who live downstream from factory farms, it wipes out farmers who are trying to make a living doing things the old-fashioned way but can't because high meat demand means get big or get out, and of course we can't forget the hundreds of thousands of animals who die a traumatic death--most of which never get the decency of living a regular, stress-free day in their life--just so we can have what we perceive to be a 'real' meal.

(That's me getting preachy again--yeesh!)

Even just a little consciousness of how much we're consuming goes a long way in the end, and I'm just plain grateful to personally know an ever-growing amount of people who have taken the time to think a little more about what goes on their plates each day.

Vegan Bran Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 02:55:00 +0000

Breakfast is a challenging time for a new vegan, I tell you what. It's been a long time since I've cared about bacon and I prefer Earth Balance to butter and almond milk to cow's milk. Eggs are tough, though. If you think about it, they're like *the* quintessential breakfast food.

What have my vegan breakfasts consisted of so far? Steel cut oats, lots of fruit, whole grain toast with aforementioned Earth Balance (so tasty!) There are many alternatives to regular cow's milk yogurt, too (soy, coconut milk, yummy Good Belly probiotic juice). Pancakes, waffles, and even french toast are easy to make vegan. You know what else is? BRAN MUFFINS. They've become my new breakfast delicacy.

I altered this recipe from one I found on vegweb.com, and you too can alter the ingredients to include what you want. What's the big whoop about bran? Well...

Bran is an awesome source of fiber but in addition to this it's also 'rich in omegas, starch, protein, vitamins and dietary minerals, making it a compact nutritional powerhouse. ' (linky)

Add the antioxidant properties of raisins and the omega-3s and vitamin E of walnuts and you've got yourself one mean multinutritional muffin.

Here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup wheat bran
1 cup soy milk (or almond, rice, hemp, whatever)
6 tablespoons applesauce (no sugar added kind)
2/3 cups turbinado sugar (or substitute agave, or sucanet)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
handful of raisins and chopped walnuts (or whatever you want--carrots, zucchini, cranberries, blueberries, etc)

Method:

Combine wheat bran and milk. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Beat applesauce, sugar, vanilla. Add to wheat bran mixture.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Add wet ingredients to dry.
Fold in raisins and chopped walnuts (or filling of your choice)

Bake at 350 degrees for 16-20 minutes

Serves: 12

Preparation time: 15 minutes prep

My advice: make these at the beginning of the week so you can grab one on your way out the door throughout the week. Also, experiment with the sugar amount. I personally put a bit less in and it tasted fine. Whatever you do, don't use regular white sugar. It's terrible for you and it sure as heck ain't vegan .

January = Vegan

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:48:00 +0000

As part of my new years resolution, I've decided to spend the entire month of January eating vegan--a decision I'm very, very happy with.

I've dabbled with veganism this past summer and I never felt better. I had tons of energy and woke up feeling great each morning. I actually got to a point where the smell of dairy repulsed me. I quit after Dave's family visited for over a week and I needed to cook more family friendly meals.

I've been vegetarian for 8 months with hopes of doing the vegan thing again on a more regular basis. It took reading Skinny Bitch over the holidays to remind me again why I wanted to try to eat a more vegan diet. It's a good book--really more of a vegan manifesto than a diet book. It is an incredibly easy read...a dumbed down version of Eating Animals or The China Study or Omnivore's Dilemma. My favorite thing about it is it's been able to reach a broad audience who normally would never pick up a book about veganism and helped them see the health and environmental hazards of a meat-heavy diet.

One of the people it reached was my brother, Sean. While making an epic trek from Tampa, FL, to Missoula, MT, together this Christmas, I lent him my copy because he had nothing to read. By the time we had landed for our layover in Minneapolis he was overly curious to see if eating vegan would help him lose a couple unneeded pounds he put on while finishing up his degree in Computer Engineering (and graduating with honors!)

So we started a bet on Fatbet.net that we'd be vegan for two weeks (although I'm planning the whole month). If I make it, Sean will buy me the African thumb piano I wanted but didn't get for Christmas. If he makes it, I will give him money equal to that of the thumb piano. If we fail we have to donate $50 to Kiva.org and still reward the winner if they go the full two weeks.

I was really surprised to see such a positive response on Facebook when I first posted about this personal "challenge" (challenge may not be the correct word; it's actually been really fun and easy). I received many requests that I blog about it so here I am. I'll try to get as many recipes on here as I can. Stay tuned!

2011 New Years Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 02:44:00 +0000

I used to be one of those "my resolution is to make no resolution" type of people, but over time I've come around to the idea of challenging myself throughout the year. Last year my resolution was to leave work at 5pm everyday (more like, just realize the work will still be there in the morning and there's no point in staying until 7, 8, sometimes 9 o'clock at work) and to get more serious about being healthy. Both resolutions turned out to be great for me and so this year I've got a whole slew of ideas.

I'm not into the idea of setting myself up for disaster...no use in setting the bar so high you'll feel guilty if you can't accomplish anything. These resolutions are just the right amount of challenging for me. I want to put them down somewhere so I can come back to it at the end of the year and see how I did.

DB's Resolutions 2011
1. Be vegan the entire month of January.
2. Get a physical.
3. Really figure out my finances, pay off that last credit card, and start saving more money.
4. Bring my lunch to work everyday instead of eating out so much.
5. Spend every Monday night doing something creative (this started last month, but it's a good resolution to try to keep it going throughout the entire year).
6. When I book travel, start keeping frequent flier miles. I never do this! Bad!
7. Write more letters to my friends.
8. Perform really well at my job, try to accomplish my bigger goals for the station.

Easy peasy...let's do this, 2011!

Note

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:41:00 +0000

Things I can be on time to: zero. Zero things.

So long, October.

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:43:00 +0000

My favorite month of the year has officially ended, and as usual it did not disappoint. It started with a fun week at the Chicago International Film Festival where I saw some brilliant films from Argentina, the US, and Romania (of course). It ended with a screening of Rosemary's Baby at our friend Andrea's last night.

Other amazing things that happened:

Dave, Bob, and I made a fatbet that we would lose 10 lbs in a month. Bob won, we lost. Ah well.
I signed up for my first 5K, which I'm running next week. Completely unprepared at this point but we'll see.
Dave, Jasmine, James, and I had a weekend getaway to our favorite little town in Wisconsin...Baraboo! It was there that the game "Steven Spielberg" was invented.
Dave surprised me with a secret birthday trip to my favorite town in U.S.A...Boston, Massachusetts!
I participated in a super fun 70's themed murder mystery dinner party as CHAKA MOON. Even better...I was the KILLER!
Jasmine, James, and I carved some bomb ass (that's right) pumpkins.
I had a lovely birthday celebration with friends over pizza and board games.
Bob and Curt's Heaven and Hell themed Halloween party was a blast...after many years of being out of town on Halloween I was finally able to attend.
Jasmine, James, and I put some gorey faces on and passed out candy to all the adorable Trick or Treaters in our neighborhood.

Thanks, October. You're the best.

hiking at Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo, WI

Pumpkin patch ride

Loving the sunset in Boston.

Granary Burial Ground in Boston.

Twanky seven.

We had the right tools for the job.

Tea partier, Kim Jong-Il, and an evangelist. All very scary things for Halloween.

Things That Have Happened Since I Last Posted Here

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:28:00 +0000

1. Dave had six screws and a metal plate put into his wrist after breaking it.

2. I was t-boned leaving work and my beloved '94 Toyota Camry was totaled.

3. I started seeing a chiropractor for the first time.

4. Dave's dad passed away.

5. I became vegetarian.

6. I moved to a new Chicago neighborhood.

7. I visited Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle for the first time.

8. My sister started dating my good friend.

9. My sister moved to Chicago, within walking distance of my new apartment.

10. Dave's family visited us over summer and we went to Medieval Times and Michigan.

11. My best friend Bob moved up here.

12. I tried acupuncture for the first time.

13. I went to Baraboo, Wisconsin twice.

14. I finally watched all of Twin Peaks and Fire Walk With Me and developed a healthy obsession for Kyle MacLachlan and David Lynch in general.

15. I tried veganism for a few weeks, which was much easier than I thought it would be.

16. The radio station I manage did a live, 3-day broadcast from Lollapalooza.

17. My friends Haley and Jason had an adorable baby.

18. I lost about 7 pounds.

19. I went to TWO Cubs games.

20. Discovered the hardest part about moving wasn't finances nor the pain of packing, but losing our friends Tim and Ruth as neighbors.

21. I started driving a Subaru.

22. I launched headfirst into a nutrition and fitness binge with a pal and we ran a blog called Treadmillionaires. I had a personal trainer and everything!

23. I decided that after Chicago I'm going to live in Europe.

TREADMILLIONAIRES!

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:46:00 +0000

Look out world, I'm a Treadmillionaire!

After months upon months (actually, it might be years upon years) of being dissatisfied with my weight and overall fitness, I've decided to take the necessary steps to edumacate myself on the subject and get my act together.

I'm in the prime of my life, yet my body and fitness habits are super-blah. I'm not fat by any means, but I'm not very fit either. I sit at a desk all day and act pretty carefree about what I eat and now it's slowly starting to catch up with me. I'd like to get it together before it becomes an even *bigger* problem.

So for the past few months I've been trying to come up with a strategy, but without much success. One day a friend of mine posted something on Facebook about getting a personal trainer...this post got a conversation going between me and a new friend I had just met and it turns out she was in the same boat as me. We decided to team up and try to lose weight and develop healthy habits together.

Our biggest tool to do this is not a gym, nor a work-out video or cookbook or weights or a jump rope or anything like that...it's a...BLOG!

Everyday we keep each other in check with a blog we nicknamed the "Treadmillionaires" and it's slowly developing into a great motivational tool not only for us, but possibly for others who feel the way we do about our eating/exercising habits. So, please, feel free to check it out. In addition to posting our daily food and exercise logs, we will also post tips, tools, recipes, insights and more about our journey from blah to bam!

http://treadmillionaires.blogspot.com

For the record, I'm not dieting...just trying to be more conscious about what I put in my body. Also, I hired a personal trainer who meets with me once a week to teach me about fitness in addition to kicking my booty with all sorts of weight-training torture techniques such as burpees and jump squats and planks, etc. It's hard but I'm loving it! I'm going to be in tip-top shape yet...

A blog post about Zach White, my friend and former protege

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:26:00 +0000

I DJ'd this morning at WLUW...being the manager of the station, usually when I'm at the board it means something has gone wrong. But not this time...I signed up for a winter freeform shift and spun my 80s-crazy head off.

And then I got a call from ZACH WHITE on the request line. Zach is not only my friend and former protege, he is also the owner of this domain name, AdorableChorus.com, in addition to another failed blog of mine, FlourBed.com. When I don't update my blogs I feel guilty about ZACH and wasting his domain name monies.

Zach is still in Lawrence, Kansas. But tomorrow he will be at Chicago's Union Station for five hours. So I will be there too and we will catch up.

And now, a photographic journey through the life and times of Zach White, the owner of this blog, technically:

he's like a kitty cat!

Oh, Zach!

Like angels crying

back when Zach was my protege

around the time he stopped being my protege

Thieves are stoopid

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:06:00 +0000

See the blog entry below this one? The introduction of our new bicycles? Yeah, well, those happy days are over.

We came home to lame-weathered Chicago to discover that our brand new bicycles had been swiped from our own building. We only owned them for a little over a month.

Monday morning, December 28th, Dave said, "bye," and I said, "have a nice day at work," and I heard the front door close and thought it was going to be a regular morning until about five minutes later when I heard the front door open again and Dave belted out a very panicked, "HEY!!"

When I came to the door he explained that glass was everywhere downstairs...the small window on the door of our basement bike room had been smashed. Of the twenty some-odd bikes in that room, his brand new $1,000 Specialized and my brand new $500 GT were the only ones gone, along with our new bike pump.

No, the bikes weren't locked up while in the bike room...nobody does that as there's no room and nothing to lock them to except an extremely hot water pipe. Someone must have been watching us, because the bike room isn't in a completely obvious location and it's extremely strange that only ours were stolen. We last came home with them together a few days before Christmas after gift shopping and they were stolen while we were out of town for the holiday.

It's shattered our sense of security in Logan Square. When we purchased the bikes I pondered the absurdity of paying so much while living in a bike thief-riddled town like Chicago. So I'm not surprised they got swiped. I just thought they'd get taken from us while out and about. I never would have guess someone would have pulled something so meticulous as to steal from our own home.

Anyway, that's that. $1,500 down the drain. Riding the CTA in the morning is miserable enough...even more so when then only reason you're doing it is because some asshole stole your bike.

P.S.--we called all the pawn shops nearby, combed Craigslist, etc. Our bikes were registered with the city, but I doubt that'll make a difference.

Also: http://chicago.stolenbike.org/ for more horror stories, if you're into that sort of thing.

Back on the Horse

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:29:00 +0000

Meet my new commuting machine.

This weekend, after four irksome weeks commuting to work on the CTA, Dave and I set out to get him a new, not-cursed bicycle. A car door landed him in the ER one month ago, the second major accident and fourth or fifth worrisome mishap he had with his old bike. As a show of support, I've been taking the CTA with him this whole time and it finally got to a point last week where we were both really tired of it.

So I came along on the bike hunt with the sole purpose of making sure he did not spend past the budget he gave himself. Dave's not a spendthrift by any means, but I've seen him under the trance of a desired but stupidly-priced object, and I'm pretty darn good at getting him to snap out of it. He knows this, and that is why he requested my presence.

I have a bike (what's your bike gotta do with me?), but I don't like it much. I like that it's pink and that I got it at Working Bikes for $40, but that's about it. It hurts to ride, the gears are rackety, and I can't go very fast on it. But it works and it cost me barely nothing, so I've never thought about replacing it.

I was watching Dave wizz around on the third floor of Kozy's Cyclery, testing out his potential new pedalmate. He wanted me to try out the bike he was considering buying, and even though the seat was so high up I couldn't sit down, I instantly felt what a difference a good quality bike made.

So I snuck back down to the main floor and starting poking around. And there I found it: a 2010-11 GT Traffic 4.0. I took it for a test spin indoors and my heart started racing at what an easy and fun ride it was. I took it outside and some construction workers wolf-whistled at me, probably because I was riding an awesome bike.

I'm not the kind of person who would ever spend $400 on a bike, because I've never liked riding enough to justify it. But then again, I've never owned a new, quality bike. So I bought the bike. And I haven't been off it since.

I got to work in 20 minutes today, without waiting for a bus or train, without spending a dime, and without being sandwiched between strangers...and I got some exercise to boot.

P.S.--Here's the mama Dave got: 2010 Specialized Tricross Singlecross, and he didn't spend a penny over his budget.

Three Years of Nose

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:19:00 +0000

Yesterday marked 3 official years of D+D! It'd be really easy for me to get all gushy on here, but I ain't gonna. But here's some pics of us around anniversary-time over the years:

Oh happy day! in 2006

On top of the world (or a building in Manhattan) in 2007

Loving me, loving you, loving Groucho in 2008

We've-been-together-so-long-we're-starting-to-accidentally-dress-the-same in 2009!

Austin, Texas

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:10:00 +0000

Went down to my home state of Texas for the 2009 College Media Advisers conference for work, but had the chance to throw in plenty of pleasure, and migas.

Bat attack.

And we'll go honky-tonkin', honky-tonkin'.

Shoop, shoop.

Pedernales Falls State Park

6th Street Halloween wakka wakka

Unfortunate.

Blog, I'm sorry I've ignored you

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:53:00 +0000

Dear Adorable Chorus blog,

This is ridiculous. It's been months. I should be updating you more often. When we first got started, it was exciting...like the beginnings of any romance. But then I got "busy." I started and stopped posts without ever publishing them. I'd write something out but couldn't find a good photo to accompany it. I'd read other friends' blogs and think mine could never be as entertaining as theirs, so why bother.

Well, whatever. It's time to start again. I'll blog on my lunch break. I'll get up 15 minutes earlier than usual and blog before work. I'll quit vegging out at home in the evenings and think of some fun way to update you. This blog is supposed to be about my every day encounters here in Chicago. Well, I'm encountering stuff out the wazoo. Time to start writing about it again.

Attached is some random photo I thought was pretty. Talk soon.
Love,
Danielle

I rode my bike to work today!

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:29:00 +0000

View Larger Map
I did this! 8.1 miles! Took me nearly an hour but I did it!

G Twanky

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:18:00 +0000

via Wonkette

Happy Birthday, Miro

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:59:00 +0000

I can't believe it's been almost 6 years since I first laid my eyes on Miro, a little grey furball of a kitten who was rescued from the streets of Dallas and brought to Denton Veterinary Center, the clinic I vet teched at while attending UNT.

Miro was born on March 15th, 2003 and today is his 6th birthday. In celebration of his big day he gets:

a big bowl of tuna
as many hours as he wants hanging out on the back porch
a brushing session, as long as he wants, and a nail trim (which he strangely loves)
catnip galore
a thorough scrubdown of his litter box
unlimited scratches and pets, and an open-minded attitude from his owners about his taste for toilet bowl water

And now, here are some other things that have made Miro happy during his six years on this earth:

Attacking the sheets while the bed is being made

Hanging out with E.T.

Dancing

Posing with various pooches and Bascis

Inspecting the preparation of Jack-o-Lanterns

Taking drugs while roadtripping

Admiring himself in the mirror

Dressing up for Halloween

Sleeping like this

Hanging out with E.T...even more...

Getting caught drinking out of the toilet bowl

Graduating

Being an all-around wonderful and adorable feline companion! Happy Birthday, Miro!!

Mike Gunn's facebook profile is my favorite facebook profile

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:33:00 +0000

A real life drama unfolds in our bedroom

noreply@blogger.com (kid extraordinaire) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:27:00 +0000