Groundhog's Day? Experience 30

Saturday is Groundhog's Day and I can't help but worry that I'm going to be subject to it. Remember the movie with Bill Murray? He wakes up and every day is the same as the one before. As most of you know, I'm going in for a biopsy today, to explore the nature of some calcifications that showed up at my 6 month post-surgical check up. Feels like June all over again! And here we are at just about the half-way point in our stay in Chicago! But with any luck the outcome won't be the same as June and I'll be able to dodge the Groundhog's day scenario. It's snowing today and is expected to really snow big tomorrow, so there's no way any groundhog would be seeing any shadows in Chicago. But the official groundhog is in Pennsylvania, right? In any case, thanks to everyone for once again sending so much positive energy our way. All those good thoughts and vibes really do make a difference!

The Secret Life of Bees: Book 28

This book is a coming of age story of Lily a young white girl who's been abandoned by her mother and is now living with her hateful father (T.Ray) and a black housekeeper named Rosaleen. It's set in the South in 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was passed and it is definitely a story of busting out of the old ways and into uncertain new territory. It contains an integrationist-based fantasy which seems highly implausible at best, but realism is not the point of this book. Rather, the voice and spirit of this young girl and her coming to terms with a complicated world are what it's all about. I laughed out loud in certain parts, while other parts made me think hard about my own beliefs. This is a book well worth reading.

Atonement - Movie 21, Lake Theatre - Place 29

Susan went to see Atonement this weekend with Patti and Teri, friends from golf and bowling. We met at the Lake Theatre in Oak Park, just west of downtown Chicago. This is a great old theatre that has been somewhat cut up, while still retaining much of its original art deco stylings. The resulting theatres are still enormous by any standard. It is pictured on the right in all its glory in the 30's.

What to say about Atonement? Set on the verge of Britain's entry into World War II, it explores the question of forgiveness for the act of a young girl that has severe consequences for the two people she seems to love best in the world. It deals with such an interesting question in a compelling fashion, but it is really quite sober when all is said and done. In addition, the movie seemed to move along pretty slowly at certain points, really trudging to get to the initial exposition of the plot and then again to get to Normandy. Despite all of that, there is a kind of satisfying feeling that comes at the end of a story that is really looking hard at a very complicated and interesting moral dilemma. I'd recommend it, but if you're looking for emotional uplift, this may not be the right movie for you.

Hop Leaf - Restaurant 39, Beers 36; Fun Fact 33

People have been telling us about Hopleaf pretty much since we arrived in Chicago. We finally visited this bar / restaurant in the nearby Andersonville neighborhood on a freezing cold night recently, to meet our friends Sandy and Trish for dinner. These girls are elite rowers and continue to coach in the sport at the college and high school levels. Fun Fact: We were virtually introduced to them through our friends Helena and Wayne, who live in Pennsylvania.

After all the hype, Hopleaf did not disappoint. It offers a truly amazing array of beers (pages and pages on the menu -- we could complete the 40 beer category here and then some!) along with a good selection of excellent comfort food items (perfect for a subzero temp night if you're a meat eater). We started with a Cain and Abel beer -- a nice dark amber with a touch of spice, not unlike the Maudite previously mentioned in these pages, but not quite as strong alcoholically speaking. Susan had a beef stew entree with mashed potatoes mixed in, yum! Kate had a ham and cheese sandwich that was also quite good. We also shared mac and cheese on the side -- delicious!

During the course of conversation attention turned to 10x40 and Trish wanted to know why we don't have a category for 40 new people. For a while we were entertaining the possibility of swapping out the rather anemic recipe category for people, but we decided there were too many logistical difficulties in doing so at this point. Sorry Trish! Great idea, but the execution was lacking on our end!

Moxie - Restaurant 38, Dead Guy Ale - Beer 35

A few days ago we went to a restaurant down the street from Wrigley Field called Moxie. We had been planning on stopping in there for a while, at a time when our friend Marissa would be there cooking. We went on a freezing cold night and were immediately warmed by the friendly atmosphere, great drinks, and fantastic food. We started out with a few beers from the bar, including a new one, Dead Guy Ale a fine pale ale from the Rogue line. Sure, it was a bit cold out for a beer, but when you're committed to completing 10x40 you can't let a few low tempatures get in the way! As for food, the whole table began with hummus and pita with a twist -- a bit of red pepper flake or something along those lines -- which made a usually routine appetizer much more interesting and tasty. We then split a Carribean salad, followed by portabello and goat cheese in a wonderful sauce and skewered shrimp in an excellent pesto sauce. Friends at the table let us try their crab cakes and gnocchi which were also quite good. Great company, great food, and it was fun to see our friend happily cooking away in Moxie's kitchen -- what more could you ask for?

Celtic Crown Football Sunday - Place 28; Fun Fact 32

Last Sunday we met up with a bunch of the girls to watch football at a cozy and friendly neighborhood pub called Celtic Crown in the Lincoln Square neighboorhood just north and west of our place. The Celtic Crown is an interesting mix of an old timey wood-based bar along with an enormous number of flat screen tvs placed strategically throughout the pub so that you can see the action from wherever you're sitting in the pub. Sunday was also our friend Teri's birthday, so we all shared a delicious cake from a neighborhood bakery in Homewood. Yum! The Packers came to an unfortunate end, but apart from that, it was a fun time.

Fun Fact: Chicago just passed a no-smoking ban in public places. The upholstery in the furniture was so smoke-ridden in the Celtic Crown they decided to replace it when the ban took effect!

Juno - Movie 20 and CD 18; Maudite - Beer 34;

Friday night was a weird night. We had planned to see the movie Persepolis, only to find that it had sold out right before we got to the head of the enormously long line (probably due to everyone going out on a really cold night to avoid the horrifically cold night to follow on Saturday). So we decided to see Juno instead. We had read some mixed reviews, so were not sure what to expect but this movie and its central character are both winners. The movie tracks Juno's alternatively sardonic and sweet chronicle of her year as a pregnant teen still in high school. We liked it so well that we went out and bought the soundtrack which features pared down acoustic rock from The Moldy Peaches and others, as well as covers from Cat Power and others and some classics by the Velvet Underground and others. Then we headed off to Uncommon Ground to meet up with our friend Andrea to see a friend of hers play in a guitar and cello combo, and once again we were closed out! However, we were able to sample a really excellent beer called Maudite brewed at a Quebec brewery called Unibroue. This amber beer has some interesting spices in it that made the beer quite tasty and satisfying - especially on a cold winter's night. While we are not normally fans of the spiced beer, this one did work -- really well, in fact, for without knowing it we stumbled home to find that it had an 8% alcohol content. Fun fact: the label on Maudite protrays a flying canoe, provided by the devil, to whom these gents had sold their soul to get home for Christmas. Based on our experience of Maudite, we don't think you need the devil to fly home after drinking this beer! Or perhaps that's what ocassioned the story in the first place!