Fashion A-bomb - Pink Jean Jacket

I saw another fashion a-bomb on the CTA this morning.

A Man.
Wearing.
A Pink Jean Jacket.

Why? How did he even find a pink jean jacket in his size? Where did he even find one outside of 1987?

I can see wearing it for the irony, or the humor or something. Actually, no I can't.
He couldn't work the pink jean, because in truth, no one can. Not a woman. Not a hipster. Not a 5-year-old girl. Pink jean should have died with the career of Tiffany.

Playgrounds are Plazas Too

I went biking on Sunday along the river lake path on the North side. I've been biking there more often as spring has sprung and am amazed by the number of people that hang out in the parks along the river.

I've seen: some ladies plein aire painting. A traditionally dressed muslim couple pushing a stroller, followed shortly by a hasidic mother and son strolling too. An intense ultimate frisbee game. The most populated areas are playground areas, which have their own plaza type function. Kids play on the equipment while older brothers and sisters, muslim mothers, or whomever sit along the sides and gab.

Chicago - a city of plazas?

I love plazas. I love hanging out in plazas, spending time reading a book, or drinking coffee, or observing other people, or chatting with a friend.

I often associate the social and design elements of a good plaza with European cities, so I've never really thought of Chicago as a city with good plazas. But a walk around the Loop and along the Chicago River yesterday made me reconsider some of the great public spaces downtown.

As spring unfolds, more should be said about Chicago's plazas. And Miz M will say it! The Valve Blog will bring you some descriptions of local plazas, including descriptions of seating areas, plantings, water elements, how people use the plazas, and where they are located. So stay tuned -

Today I visited the plaza at the Board of Trade.
Things that make it nice:

• Working fountain
  
• Large number of orange and yellow tulips in many bench-type planter boxes, and a number of shade trees
  
• Signifcant width of plaza that lets sunlight into some areas
• Many people
• Relatively clean - no garbage in seating areas
  

Things that suck about it:

• Smokers
• People talking business on their cell phones
• People wearing those trader jackets
• Bench seats are not very comfortable for more than quick lunching
  

"You still a doll, you still a doll"

I was walking back from lunch today and a guy asked me if I felt like giving him some change. I was going to say no, but I had a dime in my pocket so I put it in his cup.

"Sorry, it's not a lot," I said.

"That's okay. You still a doll. You still a doll."

More sights on the Chicago River downtown

Some workmen working on the Civic Opera Building downtown...

Don't mess with this seagull!

Conan having lunch on the riverwalk!

Conan O'Brien and Mr. T canoeing on the Chicago River. Whoo!

Quote of the Day

"Nothing but honey is sweeter than money."
- Benjamin Franklin

Fridge Smellification Committee - A Workplace Necessity

I formed a Fridge Smellification Committee at my office. It's a committee of one. (Me.)

The FSC has total power and control over our office mini-fridge. Which isn't that great of a job because it really entails monitoring the fridge for nastiness, moldy leftovers, and expired milk. Also, the mini-fridge does not close, which causes the ice from the freezer to melt all over the other stuff in the fridge. Running the FSC is a thankless job, to be certain.

Because of the heinous state of our fridge, I took it upon myself to find another used fridge in the classified ads. I arranged to pick up the fridge, and pay $50 for it. Again, a pretty thankless job.

When I make the switch from heinous fridge to not-yet-heinous fridge, I've threatened my co-workers that I will throw their shit away. I wrote them in an email:

I will not transfer your stuff into the new fridge.

I will throw it away.

This includes all the little condiment things that are in there like peanut butter and mayo and dressing and whatever else including tupperware.

A coworker's wife took this to another level at her office, when it was her turn to clean the fridge. Her method was actually calling out the disgusting stuff that she had to throw away. Hilarious! See her text below:

I already threw out the following:

• very large take-out container with small 1 inch piece of tofu(?) - why did you save this?
• rotten CB tuna salad
• moldy rice&beans mix in a small quality tupperware (it is soaking on the sink if you want to claim it)
• mayonnaise jar (best before August 30, 2004) - please don't tell me someone was still using this, there is a perfectly fine one that only expired last week on the door. ;)

Here is what I found that I will probably pitch on Friday if it isn't claimed/labeled:

• small tupperware w/ white mystery sauce
• medium old-school tupperware w/ end of chili
• bag of organic salad mix (turning brown and slimy)
• 4 square sandwich size containers with respectively: 1 egg, 1/2 chicken breast, cooked veggie mix that is rotting, weird white slime, and meat/veggie/pasta leftovers.
• slimy ham in drawer - your sliced gouda is still ok, but I would eat it soon

Kiss this Carp - Fish Sampling in Plano, IL

A large-scaled ...something or other...

On Friday, I went fish sampling with a couple of great guys from the DNR. The way this worked was that the backpacks shown in the pictures carried a gas powered motor which ran an electric current down the poles (orange and yellow.) The electric current temporarily paralyzes the fish (about 10 minutes) so they stop swimming. One guy nets the fish when they are paralyzed, and puts them in the blue tub shown below. Once the guys sample the area, they count the fish they found, note the species, and mark some of the bigger fish.

Netting the fish

Filling the fish tub with water

Hipster Coffee Shops are the Worst Place to Eavesdrop

On Friday afternoon, I went to coffee shop for some chill-time, and to enjoy some jazz music, rain, coffee, and pleasure reading.

There were a lot of people in this coffee shop, and a lot of them were on laptops. What are they doing, I wondered. Maybe they are writers, writing stories about some intense emotional experience, or a fiery political piece about illegal immigration. But the imagination buck stopped there.

When I sat down, I overheard a really loud conversation between two girls about how one bought a bunch of clothes at American Apparel. The other one couldn't find a good pair of jeans for under $100. Boring! This conversation did not even provide enough material to fuel a good rant on hipsters. What a disappointment!

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy fuddling around. Is he knitting?! Awesome, a guy knitting in a hipster coffee shop! When I looked directly at him, he was actually only uncurling the cord of his earphones to plug it into his laptop.

Oh, well, I guess I got my chill time after all.