Listen to the Rain

My sister wanderluster_kp came to visit this weekend!

She was originally going to come visit last weekend, but at the last minute she was on call and couldn't make it. She was going to come early on Friday to meet me right after work, but taking the day off turned into being stuck at work until 4 a.m. She's a veterinary surgeon, so almost all of what she does is surgery, and if there's an emergency, she'll get called in to operate, which means that even most of her free time is stuck waiting for her phone to ring and summon her in to work. She works like 80 hours a week and basically doesn't have a life outside of work, going to the gym, and sleeping, though she does get to travel internationally a few times a year (to go to veterinary conferences). That's why she's quitting and doing...something. She's not entirely sure yet, since she hated her first private practice job, and she currently hates her job at a veterinary school, so what's left?

Anyway, she got in late on Friday, so after I left services we met in Lakeview for dinner--it was Valentine's Day, but we found a Thai restaurant that wasn't too crowded after Strings had a giant line of people waiting to get in--and then I texted around to see who was free. britshlez got back to me saying that her sister and her sister;s boyfriend might be coming up from the south side to go out and said we could over while we waited for them. We ended up hanging out and talking until 2:30 a.m. and her sister never showed up, which I guess is par for the course. We drank wine, and wanderluster_kp talked about our family, and wanderluster_kp told britshlez about her work dilemmas, and then we called it in the early morning and went home, and I set up the couch bed for wanderluster_kp and went to sleep.

I woke up at 10:30 a.m. the next morning, and apparently wanderluster_kp woke up around the same time but kept drifting in and out of sleep. I guess I happened to catch her at all the wrong times, because I checked on her several times and every time she seemed to be fast asleep to me, only waking up at 1 p.m. That meant we missed the Chicago Folk Festival down in Hyde Park, so instead I made us breakfast and then we walked around Andersonville and looked at the shops--mostly antique shops, since I didn't want to bore her with shoe shopping or the other things I have to do, though I did go and buy more groceries at the Middle Eastern Grocery Store--went back home and ate dinner, and then came the time for the evening's entertainment.

I had originally planned to go with liszante to Whisper House, a musical by Duncan Sheik, who I was only familiar with though his 90s hit Barely Breathing before. I knew that lisekatevans had gone to see it and said she liked it when I asked her about it, so I suggested it to liszante, and when wanderluster_kp was going to be here I asked if it was okay that she came too. We arrived just barely in time thanks to my local Red Line stop being closed for repairs, but liszante saved seats for us, so we sat down and the musical began.

It was...extremely odd. It was almost like there were two separate productions going on which had been uncomfortably smashed together. In one of them, a boy whose father had died in World War II and whose mother had suffered a nervous breakdown went to live with an aunt in a remote lighthouse in Maine. His aunt had a clubfoot and so had a Japanese handyman, and the boy--and some of the surrounding people--weren't happy about having one of "them" so close by, so the play was a story about prejudice, love crossing barriers, overcoming tragedy, and the way the past comes back to haunt you. In the other one, there were two singing ghosts who kept popping up to perform musical numbers like Better to Be Dead. They were kind of the narrators, if the narrator only talked about the emotional undercurrents of what was happening rather than a strict recounting of events.

It didn't quite cohere for me, though. Very occasionally the ghosts would speak, and very occasionally other people would sing, so the musical illusion--that this is a world where sometimes people just burst into song--never took hold. It was jarring when the ghosts spoke, and it was jarring when the others sang, and sometimes the ghosts would sing songs that weren't entirely relevant to what was happening on stage like The Tale of Solomon Snell. The singers were talented, and I liked all the ghost songs...and the actors playing the other characters were compelling. The stage was well-ordered and they maintained proper distance, so that even on a small stage, when they went back behind the pillars and across to the other side, it was obvious they were going to the bell house, or the basement, or were otherwise in a separate location even though the two stage sides were maybe two meters apart. But like I said, it was like two separate performances that just happened to be taking place on the same place. I had a nice time, but I don't know that I'd recommend it.

Afterwards we went out to Murasaki, a sake lounge in Streeterville, for their monthly City Pop night. Again I texted around and again no one could come, so wanderluster_kp and I went and sat in the corner and each had one drink. I got a Minty Kiss, which both looked and tasted like mouthwash, and wanderluster_kp got a gin and tonic, and then a second gin and tonic for free because they had used the wrong gin in the first one. She drank the second one, I drank my mouthwash, and then we went home and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up at a much reasonable time, and after I made Japanese breakfast, we walked down to Andersonville again and went to the Swedish-American Museum, which I wrote a bit about here a while ago. The permanent collection was the same, though this time there was an exhibit of photography by someone who went to the Chicago Botanic Garden! There were several pictures of trees and parts of the garden in fog that looked gorgeous, but I didn't take any pictures. I suggest you go see it while you can, if you're in Chicago--it will only take a bit.

We left the museum, walked across the street, and hopped on the Clark bus to head to Boystown for Milt's Barbecue for the Perplexed, which wanderluster_kp, who has a mild dairy allergy, was extremely excited to go to because she could be sure they had no dairy on the premises. Unfortunately, while we were on our way, lisekatevans texted me and told me that Milt's was closed for a private event. I asked her if there were anything nearby that was suitable, and of the choices she suggested, I picked Shiawase, a sushi restaurant, because it was at least likely to have little dairy. We sat down and talked a bunch about the show that lisekatevans is in--she was rehearsing lines when we came in--and about wanderluster_kp work woes while we ate bento box lunch specials, and then we all rode the bus back north so lisekatevans could go to rehearsal and wanderluster_kp could pack up and go home.

She told me she was meeting our parents at a truck stop so they could give her back the dog they've been taking care for a couple months, and that she suggested we all meet in the city for brunch, but they said, "We saw dorchadas last weekend," so

But I'm really glad that wanderluster_kp came to visit! And hopefully next time she'll have more time then, and Milt's will be open, and more people will be free to meet up! And maybe she'll come in the summer or spring when the icy winter wind won't be blasting us into ice as we walk down the street. But even with the winter wind, it was a lovely time.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans who celebrate!


It's just me and my parents--my sister had to work this morning and lives five hours' drive away--so it didn't take that long to cook and cleanup is going on now. Just turkey, gravy, roasted cauliflower and kabocha, and rolls with jam, and apple crisp with ice cream later. But that was enough.

Hooray!

Friday afternoon, I took a phone call! And I wasn't nervous and it didn't bother me! This might seem silly, but I used to hate even calling utility companies when there was an outage and I had justifiable reason to complain, so this is a great progression for me. It was the Director of Development from Mishkan--by the way, I joined Mishkan as a member, so I finally have membership in a synagogue again--asking about me, why I joined, and what I wanted out of my membership. I talked about how much I loved the nigunim during the services and how it managed to pull me fully in, in a way that I usually never manage to attain during large events. I wasn't (and still aren't) sure what I want, but the director successfully talked me into signing up to one of the small groups meeting a few times around the High Holy Days, so I'm going to get together with other Jews and presumably discuss teshuvah (lit "returning," usually translated as "repentence"). Surprisingly, I'm looking forward to it. Good thing, since I signed up and paid money to go.

Friday was also the beginning of LIVE's sixth season, so I bought tickets to their show (now at 8 p.m., so in future I'll be able to attend both it and Shabbat services). The show was good but didn't stick with me as much, mostly because the serials were the ones I'm not as big a fan of ("Clark and Belmont" and "Chi Beta Justice"), but I definitely remember the intermission, where one of the actresses was talking to her friends next to me and I got to hear about her trip to a knitting retreat in Scotland and her visit to Italy where she learned firsthand that Michelangelo's David is seventeen feet tall. She also explained that it's under a dome, meaning that while you're walking down the hall to get to it, all that's visible is the waist down, leading to the following conversation when worldbshiny came over to say hi to me:

Me: "We're talking about David's junk."
worldbshiny:
Me: "Michelangelo's David's junk."
worldbshiny: "...I'll get the Cliff's Notes version later."

Then we went out for ice cream later, where she collapsed into laughter when I told her about Polteageist (ポットデス pottodesu, "It's a pot") and where she ninja-paid for my ice cream before I got to the register, so the Dessert Wars are once again back on.

Saturday, I woke up early, had my matcha and sweet, and then took a shower, got dressed, and went downtown to catch the train from Union Station out to the Brookfield Zoo to meet my parents. They asked if I wanted to see the Brick Safari, and how could I say no? The sun was brightly shining, much to my annoyance in terms of comfort while I was traveling to the zoo, but it made for great pictures:


There was a video showing their construction, and most of the animals had a Lego framework inside providing structure, built around a metal support, and then a Lego "skin" that created that actual animal shape. So they were heavy and took thousands or tens of thousands of pieces, but they weren't solid Lego.

The Lego animals were off in a shaded path to the side, which made them more tolerable for me--I got sunburned already during my trip to Baptist Lake and I didn't want a repeat--so I walked down the path with my parents and we talked. A lot. On of the nice things about getting older has been the better relationship with my family, something I know that a lot of people my age don't have.

We went to check out the giraffes too, and the wolves on the way out. We would have gone to look at the elephants but the zoo doesn't have any anymore, which is probably for the best--elephants strike me as too intelligent to keep confined like that. I do like them a lot, though. I think I have a soft spot for any animal that's taller than me, since there aren't many.

I took the 3:08 train back into the city (the next train after that was 5:08, so) and when I was walking down Adams Street I saw the Art Institute in the distance. After a bit of debate with myself, I thought that I was already down here and the Manet exhibit was closing this weekend, so this was my chance. The benefit of being a member is that I can just see the Art Institute and decide to duck in if I want to.

I'm not a big fan of Impressionism and, while Manet wasn't quite Impressionist, his work is close to it. But I enjoyed the Manet and Modern Beauty exhibit, mostly for the discussion of Manet's life, about which I knew almost nothing. I also liked the more quirky art like this painting of a bunch of asparagus:


Next to it was another painting of a single stalk of asparagus, dashed off by Manet and sent together with the first painting when Charles Ephrussi paid 1000 francs for it rather than Manet's asking price of 800 francs. That's the good context that I'd have a much harder time stumbling on if I saw a picture of this painting online.

The rest of the weekend I was more of a homebody. I put together a shoe rack for the genkan area--three times, since I screwed it together wrong twice --made lunches and dinners, and went shopping. I briefly went for frozen custard since the local frozen custard place has malt flavor for a few more days and got malt custard, crushed Whoppers, and chocolate sauce. It was extremely good and made my stomach hurt from all the sugar. I bought tickets to the Distant Worlds concert next weekend because they posted a 20% off discount code. Then I ate chicken tikka masala for dinner with stir-fried peppers and kale, and while I thought the peppers weren't spicy, apparently I was wrong.

Very wrong.

Tonight is more chores and trying to finish the last few levels in Hyrule Warriors Deluxe so my slate is clear when the Link's Awakening Remake comes out in a couple weeks. I have a couple lower-key days and then it's events from Wednesday through Saturday night, so I'll be happy to stay at home for a bit.

Maybe I'll take out my Dreamcast, which I found while I was moving, and play some Soul Calibur II in honor of the Dreamcast's 20th anniversary. I played a lot of that game at university...

I'm currently sitting in my mostly-packed-up apartment listening to podcasts on an extremely-rainy Sunday. If this is the last week I live in my old apartment, it's been a good one.

( Many meetings )

Feels like -26°C. ❗️ Wind Chill Advisory ❗️

Just another March in Chicago.

And currently I can't work because everything is broken 💻, so while support is fixing that, I'll write here.

Last Saturday my parents came into the city and we went up to the Chicago Botanic Garden to see the Orchid Show , a by-now years-long tradition. There's not much specific to write about it--it was nice, I took pictures of orchids, my secret favorite part was the desert flora greenhouse area and not the orchids at all--but the garden's orchid display seemed more subdued this year compared to previous years. There were fewer orchids on the walls in the entry hall, the vendor who sells little clay display orchids or small garden dioramas wasn't there at all, and there weren't as many informational displays outside the greenhouse. There also wasn't a vanilla variety exhibit, which maybe is due to the vanilla shortage? None of that stopped the crowds, though, which were as thick as they always are. But only inside, since it's still cold and snowy outside and there was nothing to see anywhere there wasn't a greenhouse. Sometimes it's warm enough during the Orchid Show that the tulips have started to poke through the ground, but not here.

After the traditional stop at Graeter's for ice cream, and then back to my apartment so my father could fix the slightly-broken drawer that he further broke while trying to fix it, my parents dropped me off in the suburbs at MomoManLove's birthday party. It was medieval-themed, which I had known about before I went, but I didn't realize how far it went. There were banners hung from the walls and most of the attendees were appropriately attired, whereas I was (as usual) dressed like an extra from Blade Runner. So, I said I was an emissary from the Dark Lord.

I also brought matcha white choco cookies, which I made using this recipe, and everyone loved them! It's only the second time I've ever (non-bread) baked, after the flourless choco cake I made for the Seder I threw last year, and so far I'm 100% in on people loving my baking. Let's see if I can maintain my record, since I've got Passover this year coming up.

Last Wednesday, I met up with scottjohnsonhatboro for dinner, since he's in town (well, Skokie) for work and Andersonville was having its own restaurant week. We went to Octavio and got their prix fixe menu, where we talked about scottjohnsonhatboro's job and each got ordered the opposite item of the two choices for each category. The banana tres leches cake was the best part of the meal, sadly--the fajitas were merely edible--but I've always heard good things about brunch there. The cake was enough that I'd go back again.

This week is full up already. A friend is coming over tonight and I'm making shakshuka and we're going to play board games, and tomorrow I'm going to a rum tasting. Wednesday lisekatevans invited me over to watch First Reformed, since she has to watch it for a discussion on a local access channel she was invited to. Friday is a Within Temptation concert, and that should be fun since I last saw them in concert ten-and-a-half years ago and I don't know what any of their recent music is like. And I had to turn down a game night invitation on Friday due to said concert!

I'm looking forward to this week.

As is tradition, I took the whole week of Thanksgiving off. It's not actually as dramatic as it sounds, since the AMA gives us both Thursday and Friday off, so I took Monday through Wednesday off and settled in for a relaxing week. I sent in my JET essay, so I had no deadlines hanging over my head. I mostly just sat back and played Breath of the Wild. I'm 85 hours in and I finally uncovered every region of the map, so I guess I should get to doing story things now.

I put on the Ocarina of Time outfit I got from the Amiibo when I went to draw out the Master Sword. It made for a pretty good image, I think.

On Wednesday I went out to my parents' house for Thanksgiving and mostly just relaxed out there. There aren't any relatives that come to visit for Thanksgiving, and my sister was busy with work and studying, so it was just the three of us. We had turkey and roasted cauliflower and Brussels sprouts with rolls and strawberry jello, and my parents had stuffing. A small meal, but it's satisfying for me. That's the sort of thing I've had every Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember, and our Thanksgivings were never a huge affair.

I spent part of the time I was there reading the manga version of Ocarina of Time, which I bought in Japanese as an excuse to read it and call it studying, and part of it watching a TV show called "Trails of Tsukiji" on NHK World that my parents got in the habit of watching after they came to visit us in Japan. They record it when it's on and watch it every time I come to visit, and every time it makes me miss Japanese food.

Well, this time when my parents sent me home with a load of fish (which I go through pounds and pounds of since I eat it every day for breakfast), and a load of Thanksgiving turkey, I decided that the turkey wouldn't go to waste. One of the Trails to Tsukiji episodes we had watched was about sudachi, a Japanese citrus fruit, and so there were a lot of noodle dishes flavored with sudachi sauce or rind featured in the episode. Well, I didn't have sudachi, but I did have a lot of noodles and a lot of turkey, so I combined them and, well.

( Turkey yakisoba )

I tagged it 和米料理 on Instagram, "Japan-American food."

Friday I got back from my parents' house and other than going shopping, I did nothing all day. Saturday was the same, except that lisekatevans invited me out after her show to what used to be called That Little Mexican Cafe for post-show margaritas with the cast, and then the margaritas were stronger than any of us expected. And today, I likewise haven't done much of anything other than some cleaning and some prep for the week. The laundry is in, the eggs for my week lunches are boiling, the chicken is thawing, and I'm writing this while all that is going. I'll be ready.

Which isn't to say that I wouldn't love more time off, but I have two weeks coming up at the end of the year. Three more weeks until then.

The whole office got sent home early on Friday because of the Laquan McDonald shooting trial verdict. We got an email about it stating that people who were worried about their safety could go home, and I was going to stay because I live on the far north side and don't have anything to worry about. Then the section chief went around to talk to people while I was in the stairs, and then my boss came to me and very nicely told me to get out, so I went home at 10:45.

I mean, the whole "We need to protect ourselves! You know how those people are!" aspect of the warnings are pretty racist, but also I'm not going to argue against going home early on a Friday. And then when I came in today, there was an email that building management closed the whole building anyway. I ended up going to the art museum with lisekatevans instead with my afternoon, and then later out to Izakaya Mita for Japanese food and shōchū. Delicious.

On Saturday I woke up early (after going to bed at 3:30 a.m.), took a shower, and then took the train out to the suburbs to visit my parents. This weekend was the Scarecrow Festival, probably my favorite cute suburban festival I've been to, and so I went out into the rain to look at the scarecrows with my parents. They weren't as impressive as previous years, and I think that a lot of people didn't even show up. The mechanical section was almost completely empty, for example, but there was this one in a tent:


The scarecrow itself shot out steam and there was a zeppelin circling in the background. Sadly, this was really the most interesting scarecrow there was. There were a couple others I liked, one designed like a butterfly and one with a scarecrow monster emerging from the corn, and one straw statue of a large wolf that wasn't a scarecrow at all but was still really neat. Not as many as previous years, though, and even the lack of crowds due to the weather wasn't enough to make up for it. I look back on the festival two years ago more fondly, but maybe that's because all of the pokemon scarecrows. Geek scarecrows will always be a draw for me.

( More scarecrow pictures )

I was staying at my parents' house, and while I was there they told me they're planning to make me a successor trustee to their trust, in a conversation that just makes me think "there comes a time in every middle-class white person's life where..."

Well, and also:

We are Sex Bob-Omb and we're here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff!

Better now than later, of course.

The UN just released a report about climate change and the capsule summary is "we're fucked." Sure, it says that decisive action can still avert catastrophe, but proto- or actual fascists are being elected all over the world and they're much more likely to go to war over resources rather than work together to fix the problem. We're not going to do anything to fix it, industrial civilization will get increasingly strained, the refuge issues now are going to seem like nothing compared to what will happen in twenty years, and while humanity probably won't go extinct, who knows what will happen to global civilization.

We are doomed and no one will save us.

That's basically been my thought process for years and really, every report about global warming just confirms that I'm right. I don't end up despairing over it, fortunately, but I can't say it doesn't affect my life. Part of the reason I was on the fence about having children for so long is because of climate change, because I wasn't sure I wanted to bring a child into a world where they'd grow into adulthood in a time of civilizational collapse. Previous generations didn't have the choice not to do that, but we do, and I think it's a pretty rational choice.

I don't know why climate change doesn't fill me with despair when so many other things do. Maybe it's because it's such a large problem that there's literally nothing I can do. No action I take will affect climate change in any measurable amount. I mean, one hundred companies are responsible for 71% of emissions. Me personally not buying them won't affect those emissions any more than me not going to see movies for years after MPAA support of SOPA kept the FCC from dismantling net neutrality, and I missed out on all the Marvel movies. Maybe it's that there's no point I can latch onto as a shortcoming in my myself, and so I am more detached from it? Or maybe it's just that the enormity of the problem is overwhelming--I can understand people being cruel to me but not the end of the world.

Happy Monday.

Tod Douglas Megibow (z"l), 1951-2012. May his memory be a blessing.



I said kaddish for him last night, on the beginning of the first of Sivan, and lit the candle. This picture is from this morning. His obituary is still online here.

I did not get the chance to know him very well. We only interacted a handful of times, since he was very busy with practicing law and schoolpsychnerd and I lived in Japan for three years. He thought fast and talked fast, like he was trying to get just a few more words out than the flow of time would let him. I honestly found him a bit overwhelming, but as far as I know, he liked me. He liked my level head and my thriftiness. I wish I had gotten the chance to know him better, to hear more of his stories. I wish he had been able to visit us in Japan, or in Chicago. He wrote a book based partially on his life. I've never read it.

In the interview linked there, he said:

"In this business if you don't laugh, you cry."

He and my father built the chuppah together, for the wedding.

( Psalm 130 )

I'm 35 today! Halfway through my three-score and ten.

Today is a low activity day. schoolpsychnerd invited me to go along to the Glenwood Art Fair, but I've been pretty active for the rest of the weekend and I thought rather stay at home, so I've mostly been playing Four Swords Adventures and reading my RSS feeds. I did take a short break to go out collecting Pokemon and one of my eggs hatched into a ゴマゾウ.

The events happened yesterday and the day before. On Friday, I had the first birthday party I've had in over a decade and a half, and while it was sparsely attended because my birthday had the bad luck to fall on Gen Con weekend, I had a nice time. I went with a cyberpunk theme, because I already dress like this, and we got appropriate food to go with it. schoolpsychnerd made street-vendor-style skewers and bought an incredibly salty seaweed salad, sōmen, and taiyaki from an Asian market nearby. goodbyeomelas had asked me earlier in the week if I wanted anything baked for the party, and then showed up with two caramel cheesecakes. One of them got eaten at the party, but we still have the second one in the fridge. Yum.

We got a bunch of alcohol and I came up with some on-theme drinks, too.

( Here's the drinks menu )

I really liked the Company Man, actually. I'll probably have another one tonight so I can use up more of the syrup before it goes bad. And while I didn't specifically set out to do so, I thought it was funny that all the drinks were varying shades of green.

Last night, after Call of Cthulhu, my parents met us at our apartment and we walked into Andersonville to go to Anteprima for dinner. We got in after a short wait, and while the main room was deafeningly loud, they led us through it into the small courtyard in the back, so we were actually able to have a nice conversation and eat a large meal. I got the duck--the duck on the menu and my father requesting a place with food that my mother would eat were what led me to pick Anteprima in the first place--and it was delicious. schoolpsychnerd got a yellowtail dish that was almost good enough to make me wish that I had ordered it instead, but not quite. After dinner, and presents, my parents made the trip back to their house out in the suburbs, since they're still looking after my sister's dogs and so they couldn't stay too late.

A lot of what I asked for was silly Kirby and Warcraft goods, but I did get a set of bluetooth headphones, so maybe I can stop cutting it so close with my battery at work. An iPhone 7 and listening to podcasts all day don't mix very well with wired headphones.

And now, back to Legend of Zelda.

Well, no more Shabbat dinner! schoolpsychnerd's strep caused two people coming to cancel, since they just spent a while passing strep between them and their son and don't want to risk another round. Then another person pulled out because their partner's grandmother died unexpectedly, and with half the attendees unable to come, we thought it was better to postpone the dinner.

My parents invited us out to dinner for Mother's Day, but we also had to turn that down. I mean, schoolpsychnerd does have strep throat and still needs to recover, and while I think I'm safe, I won't really be sure until Monday. So better to stay home and rest.

I won't lie, though. I got a little happy rush when I didn't have to agree to plans that would disrupt my whole weekend at the last minute. Now I know it's coming and I'll be happy to go.

I might go get a manicure this weekend with my free time. My nails now are long enough that I'm having trouble typing this post and haven't broken, so it's probably worth it getting them shaped so they won't interfere with my typing but I don't have to cut them all off before ACEN next weekend. I already typed my entire Majora's Mask review with them and that wasn't fun either.

I've loved marzipan basically as long as I can remember. My father always used to get boxes of See's candies for any holiday or birthday available, and eventually I developed a taste for them too. I presume that my father picked up his love of marizpan from his time living in Germany, and that's also why he pronounces it without the R (which is much more subtle in the German pronunciation). As I mentioned in Week 33, schoolpsychnerd and I go to Christkindlmarket every year and get food, and there's a giant marzipan display in one of the buildings set up by a candy-maker. So of course, I had to get some marzipan bars to write about.
( Read more... )

Not at the same time, obviously.

Yesterday, my parents came into town and schoolpsychnerd and I went down to meet them at the Shedd Aquarium. They're members and go a few times a year. They're much better about it than we are--while we were members of the Field Museum for the last year, I'm not sure we went once--and often we only end up going when they come in to visit. This time, it was pretty fortunate that we were meeting them. The line was out the door, down the stairs, and stretching out into the park in front of the aquarium when we arrived, but we were able to skip all that and just walk in the member's entrance.

Maybe everyone was trying to forget the election. There was a large protest downtown yesterday which my parents walked by. My father mentioned that he wasn't sure what good it would do, since Trump was a terrible person but he had won the election, so I pointed out that it's more to demonstrate that Trump doesn't have a mandate despite any claims to the contrary. Though I admit, in some ways I share his cynicism. I remember the Iraq War protests and how much effect those had.

We had tickets for the cetacean show at 5 p.m. so we didn't have a lot of time to look around, but we did hit some highlights. The otters for schoolpsychnerd, the special frog exhibit for me--that's a special exhibit of frogs, not an exhibit of special frogs --and the penguins for my mother:



The cetacean show was a lot more focused than I remember it being. I think the last time I saw it was twenty years ago, and then it was much more about simple entertainment. This time there was a conservation message heavily woven through the show, including a rescue dog that the aquarium keeps. There were no dolphins somersaulting through hoops, but I think I appreciated the show more.

After a dinner at Chicago Curry House, where even my spice-averse parents found something they could eat--though since they have the appetites of birds, they were pretty much full after the samosas we ordered as appetizers--we said goodbye since we had to make our performance:



We first went to Symphony of the Goddesses in 2013 and this is the third time we've been. It's slightly different each time--the first time we went was the "Second Quest" arrangement that featured a medley of the music from Ocarina of Time, and the second time we went was the "Master Quest" and had a feature of music from Link's Awakening. This time was more similar to the first concert, though with the addition of some music from Triforce Heroes and A Link Between Worlds, both of which came out since the last time we went to Symphony of the Goddesses. There was also a piece I remembered from Phantom Hourglass, though I say "remembered" in the loosest terms since I can barely remember anything about that game. That didn't stop it from being a great performance!

I think the loudest crowd cheer was when the conductor reached into her coat, pulled out a perfect replica of the Wind Waker baton, and then started conducting the theme from Outset Island.

There was a little girl, maybe four or five, cosplaying Princess Zelda sitting in the seat in front of us. She fell asleep during the intermission and schoolpsychnerd exploded from cute overload.

I don't really like being the center of attention at an event. I don't even like being the soft center, which is why I haven't had a party for myself in years--not since high school, I think. I thought about having a birthday party this year, but eventually decided against it. Maybe next year when I turn 35, since that's more of a milestone.

Which isn't to say that I'm one of those people who hates birthdays. I celebrate every year, just quietly, and this year was no different on that score. schoolpsychnerd met me on Friday after work and we walked the two blocks from my office to Benny's Chop House for the first of two birthday dinners. It wasn't my birthday, but August 19th (until sundown) was Tu b'Av, an ancient festival that died with the Second Temple and was forgotten until the Israelis revived it as a kind of Jewish Valentine's Day. I only know about it because of the Jewish holidays calendar addon I have in my phone calendar, but it's as good a reason for a fancy dinner as any, even if half of Benny's menu is an abomination before Hashem.

The parts that are good are really good, though:



schoolpsychnerd told me that my whole face changed when I took a bite. It was probably the best steak I've ever had in my life.

The next day, I woke up to a thunderstorm just like I had on Friday, which is probably the best weather I could have wanted on my birthday. My parents came into down and met my sister, who was already here meeting up with high school friends before her flight to Costa Rica today, and we went out to breakfast at a French-Vietnamese restaurant nearby. I got duck curry, because curry for breakfast sounds amazing to me at all times, and then we went back to schoolpsychnerd and my apartment until they all left to avoid the traffic. Then we mostly stayed at home until dinner time, when schoolpsychnerd made me even more duck:



Not visible there is the flourless chocolate cake she also made, this time with real vanilla extract. It's in the recipe, but schoolpsychnerd usually left it out because we don't use vanilla for that much and it would just sit around otherwise. But my parents gave me a bottle of it for my birthday along with a few other spices, so why not use it? And I think I could taste the difference, too.

I was feeling a bit off for most of my birthday, and I think it's because while I wanted to have a quiet weekend I still ended up with a lot of stuff to do--yesterday I woke up at 8:30 and it still seemed like it was dinnertime before I had even blinked. Today has gone a bit slower, though I still haven't gotten as much time as I'd liked. But we never have enough, do we?

I got to read more The Lord of the Rings to schoolpsychnerd today and have a quiet breakfast inside with her, and even though it's taking place today instead of yesterday, it's one of the best birthday presents I could have asked for. I don't mind getting older as long as those are the opportunities that it will bring.