Cup o Flan

In my many travels there has been one particular food product that I sorely miss upon returning to the US. That, my friends is individual cups of flan. So amazed was I that these little bites of heaven existed, it required two or three to convince me of their reality. When back in the States, Katie and I mourn the loss of our friend with the greatest of regret. "I wish I had had just one more for the road..." Well, those lamentations are over! I'd like to announce today that I, Noelle, have FOUND the elusive Cup O Flan, and it is beautiful. The angels sang when I happened to glance upon the dairy shelf at Berwyn Fruit Market. The clouds parted, the wind ceased, the sun beamed down on those golden cups of happiness...(all of which I would have seen had I not been inside a brick building at the time) *sigh... Now I can live contently and be buried with a Cup O Flan in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Sweet number 7

Way to go Lance.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/4712583.stm

Journey

Saturday night was jam-packed with mullets and music. I'm talking some serious rocking here...

I was privileged to attend a spectacular concert featuring.....JOURNEY!

I think everything can be summed up in two words: Journey rrrrrocked!
or perhaps: na na nana nana, nana nana na, na na nana nana, nana na nana

The new singer was just as good as Steve Perry...and the drummer was UBER talented. The played songs in chronological order, starting with their Classic Rock, Rush-esque, little-known music. I was QUITE impressed with early-Journey, and am looking into buying those albums. They even played some blues...but the highlight of the night was when the audience joined in on songs like Open Arms, Don't Stop Believin, and Faithfully.

Journey played from 7:30-11:00 PM. That 3.5 hours of rock n roll, and they never showed signs of slowing down, but got progressively energized.

Everyone in the audience got Journey's new CD "Generations" free.

The audience was an array of ages and backgrounds. Five guys behind me were wearing ridiculous blond mullets. A woman asked one of them if it was real. He looked at her with incredulity. "C'mon. *lifting the wig to reveal his bowling ball I don't have ANY hair."

PS: I hope I used the word "incredulity" correctly....I'm sure Shelece will correct me soon.....stupid GRE word list.

Harry Potter 6

So, college kid that I am, my Friday night was spent in Oak Park...at a Harry Potter party! This was a SUPER party. Multiple blocks were blocked off and they held events throughout the day: quidditch, wizard's chess, dramatic readings.... Oh yes. There was butterbeer, costuming, and (of course) the book! Yummm...butterbeer.... Anywho, I stood in line by this adorable pair of sisters and one's son named Rinaldo. Turns out Bernice is my age, and coincidentally live 4 blocks from each other. We exchanged numbers. At 11:30 I called Mazzillo because I knew she had gone to a similar party in Florida with her sister and mum. She had her book already and started reading the first 7 pages aloud while I was still in line. You should have seen the hungry faces of the women around me....they wanted to listen too! Luckily, no one got daring, so I made it safely through the night. Ahhhhhhh, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince....must....read....before someone gives the plot away.....

Explore the Field: Anthro

The Field Museum, being the educational institution that it is, sponsored a day in which all new interns got a back-stage pass to a few of the departments. Our particular tour consisted of visits to Anthropology, Zoology, Paleontology, and the library.

The Anthro tour was fun because it was led by a very funny, very sarcastic 28 yr. old collections manager named Will. He took us into the storage rooms and showed us some very cool artifacts. "I mean, we basically think we're the sh**, right, being all technologically advanced...with our iPods, PlayStations, and DVD players...all thanks to our manufacturing power of things like surgical steel. Well, here in my hand is a piece of obsidian, and when hit a certain way it breaks up into this-an obsidian blade. Now, our industrialized culture developed surgical steel through complicated processes. First there's the oh-so-attractive process of strip mining, which Nature loves. Then the ore must be smelted...and if you've ever been to Gary... (everyone laughs). There weren't any Garys back then. Here were our "primitive" ancestors with their two little rocks producing a blade 10 times sharper than any surgical steel we've been making. To me, that's cool."

We were shown a toy stone-wood chariot from Mesopotamia. "This was Hot Wheels 4,000 years ago."

Will picked up a Mexican-native ceramic chihuahua. "A question we get all the time is: how much is this stuff worth. The truth is, we don't know. There are irreplaceable items in this collection that are extremely hard to price. But, to give you an idea...This chihuahua I have in my hand is roughly worth $40,000. It is in excellent condition, but more importantly, it comes from a documented archaeological site so we know who made it, when and why. If I were to break this, there is absolutely no way the Museum could replace it. 1. It's illegal to take these things out of their native country anymore. 2. There aren't any others like it to replace it. So, you take a piece like this and multiply it by the 1.5 million items we have in our collection...well, you get the picture. Oh, and can any of you tell me why this ceramic chihuahua is so fat? ... No? Chihuahuas used to be raised for meat...which gives the phrase Yo quiero Taco Bell a whole other meaning."

The Anthro's collection is NOT INSURED. That's right-no insurance. Why? First off, the Museum couldn't afford the premium. Secondly, what would the Museum do with the money? These artifacts cannot be replaced. They are stored in 15 storage rooms that dedicate about 2 million cubic feet to their housing.

Taste of Chicago

It's the 25th Annual Taste of Chicago Festival!

(I know. At first, it meant nothing to me too.)

Every year, Chicagoans, and tourists alike partake in a very Chicagoan event. About 100 restaurants from around the city setup booths and sell the tastiest of their menu offerings. Some food items include: BBQ anything, Harey Carey fries, alligator pizza, steamed lobster tail, gyros, kelewele (plaintains roasted in garlic), chicken masala, crab-stuffed salmon, Bailey's ice cream, flan, frozen bananas...etc. The ethnic foods come out in force and make it worthwhile to fight the crowds and spend the money (which is quite a bit per food item). This weekend is the Taste's most busy. Three million people are expected to attend in three days. All those bodies sure don't help the thermometer.

In addition to the food, there are seven stages setup for various forms of entertainment, mostly musical. So far, I've seen a break-dancing troupe and some sort of mermaid/pirate diving show sponsored by a phone company.

Tomorrow, the Taste is hosting Santana at 4:30 PM! I'm so there.