Like Christmas in July

My last few days have been eerily reminiscent of Christmas. (This phenomenon is perhaps appropriate in July.) I have received some excellent gifts. I got a free day off of work due to weather, like a snow day in summer. And I've even had significant interaction with a Kringle.

Let me explain.

As most of you know, my birthday was yesterday. This fact explains the gifts. Sarah (sort-of) surprised me with a really fun trip to Wisconsin. (I knew she was taking me somewhere, I just didn't know where.)

Our specific destination was Racine. That small city is the home of a very nice, free, public beach. We walked along there for a while, and, pleasantly, saw surprisingly few plus-sized people stuffed sausage-style into swimwear, as I'd expected in Wisconsin. We also walked around the downtown area a bit. Much of the town really is lovely.

After noon, we found our way to a very fun British-style pub called Toad Hall for lunch. There we had some large burgers not exactly in the British style but delicious nonetheless. Sarah had a California-themed "NWA" (Neufchatel and Avocado) burger, with some poblano peppers as well. I opted for the "Ryan Express," which I assume is named for Nolan Ryan, given its Texas-style composition. It featured jalapenos, cheese and a new condiment to me called "bacon relish." This relish comprised what I believe to be poached bacon lightly pickled with red onion and perhaps peppers. It lent a nice, lightly sour note to contrast the rich hamburger, which the menu claimed was ground in-house.

Sarah has pictures of the food, which perhaps I'll be able to post later, or perhaps which she will post on her blog. Here's a picture of the inside of the place. It's not great but gives you an idea of the dark wood interior. You can't quite see the TV here, which was appropriately trained on Euro Cup soccer.

Princess in the Toad.

I should note that this spot was second choice to a much nicer-looking place Sarah had picked but wasn't open on Sundays. On a side note, many businesses in Racine are similarly closed on Sundays, or open only until noon. This fact made it difficult to achieve Sarah's main task in the town, which was to pick me up a birthday Kringle.

For those unfamiliar, a Kringle is a large pastry of Danish origin, made up of many layers of flake-thin dough and filled with an assortment of nuts, fruits or other delights. After passing two of the four Racine bakeries known for this treat, both of which were closed at the time, we found our way to Lehmann's where we were successful in obtaining a cherry-and-cream-cheese-filled Kringle. We delayed our gratification in eating until we were home. (Sarah also has pictures of this).

On the way back to Illinois, we stopped at the Pleasant Prairie outlet store, where Sarah bought me a new shirt. This shirt having been picked from the outlet store clearance rack, Sarah insists that it does not count as a proper birthday gift, though I feel it is perfectly legitimate both as a gift and piece of attire.

That brings me to today, and why I am at home typing this post instead of sitting in my office at work. After arriving home yesterday, I received a call from work that the campus was without power due to a storm. I had to put out some communications stating as such yesterday, and I was told to be ready for a call at 5:30 a.m. today telling me whether classes would be held. I got the promised call, and, lo and behold, the university was closed today, as forcing people to work or study in 100-degree heat without air conditioning was deemed unacceptable. Yippee!

It's been nice. So thanks to all who called, sang, gifted and wished me a happy day. And to all a good night.

IWU Woo!

In case you didn't see this, my proud alma mater, IWU, made the sports page of the Chicago Tribune because of the great story of both its men's and women's basketball teams making the Final Four of their respective D-III NCAA Tournaments (while NO D-I teams from Illinois even made the field of their Big Dance).

It's made even more impressive by the fact that the women's coach, Mia Smith, has led the team during a grueling treatment for breast cancer. I had her for one class, and she is very sharp. She also worked with the student newspaper while I was there to try to get people to go to women's games, attempts that were not overly successful in increasing attendance but that did help me earn an Illinois College Press Association Award for editorial writing (see lead editorial, page 4, here: http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/iwu_argus&CISOPTR=1255&REC=4).

I just heard that the men's team lost their Final Four game, but them women have advanced to the final. You can keep track of the action at iwusports.com.

Anyway, it's a nice story, and nice that a small D-III school and one of its dedicated coaches are getting richly deserved recognition.

UPDATE: The women have won it all! http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/women/national-champions-iwu-women-win-d-iii-title/article_b4a759f8-7094-11e1-9903-0019bb2963f4.html

Vacation, part 1 - Nash Up

So we got back from our first-ever weeklong vacation yesterday. I believe it was also the first substantive time I've taken off of any job apart from holidays. It was a very good trip, with an activity itinerary mostly planned by Sarah and a dining itinerary mostly planned by me. Thus I think we struck a good balance of expending and consuming calories.

Our route, traveled by car, took us from our home in Chicagoland all the way to Southern Florida and back, with overnight stays in Nashville, Jacksonville, Orlando, Clearwater, Gainesville, Atlanta and Pigeon Forge (Tenn.) Here are some highlights of the first leg:

Tennessee, round 1

The first day of our trip took us to Nashville, Tennessee, where we met up with our friend Dea. We toured a little around downtown where Dea's apartment is located, saw her top-tier law school (Vanderbilt), ate a behemoth meal at a restaurant called Monell's, and then did very touristy things around Broadway, also known as Nash Vegas.

I found Nashville to have less charm than I'd expected, though parts of it were nice. The best parts, aside from seeing Dea, were eating at Monell's and meeting a dog named Chloe in one of the countless Western Wear/kitch shops on Broadway.

Monell's is a restaurant located in a converted house the Germantown neighborhood. It has a varying nightly menu of Southern cuisine, served family style. Parties are seated together at tables with other guests in the order in which they arrive, so it forces some degree of sociability with total strangers. Dishes such as skillet fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, cheesy hashbrowns, green beans, biscuits, catfish, pulled pork, meatloaf, mac and cheese, etc. are brought out of the kitchen in large bowls to be passed around tables. All you can eat, along with never-emptied glasses of sweet tea.

Vanderbilt's law school is, expectedly, fancy



Outside Monell's



Inside Monell's



One of several plates I ate at Monell's, featuring, clockwise from top, fried catfish, fried (pickled) green tomatoes, hush puppy, green beans, peach preserves, cheesy hasbrowns, fried chicken (middle), mac and cheese. Not pictured is that evening's dessert of from-scratch banana pudding.



Broadway, aka Nash Vegas

(Sorry this post is so late. Subsequent parts of the trip will be posted on an varying basis!)