2010-05-31

by Colleen

Not much happened to me in May. This is what the basil did.

Yes, time passes...work changes, plants grow exponentially, another song pops up on iTunes just to be skipped over (How Do You Like Me Now? by Toby Keith is a really mean song, come to think of it...why do I even have it on my itunes list?)...blah blah blah...time measured in daylights and sunsets, midnights and coffee spoons...I grow old, I grow old....I may wear my trousers rolled..or something like that.

2010-05-16

by Colleen

Soon after I got my first job, I started buying the ugliest decorated kleenex boxes I could find to put at my desk, as sort of a weird homage to the people who spend intense amounts of time and thought decorating their cubicles*. The practice kind of turned into tradition, so this is the little gem I picked up on May 16th.

It's always tough choosing between boxes that were designed to be pretty (at least I think that was the goal) and FAILED and the random graphic design boxes that may look cool on the computer but don't transfer well to a kleenex box medium.

I think this one falls in the first category. I try and alternate between the two for variety though.


*It turns out that while these people are mentioned all the time in office-humor related books and Dilbert strips, there's really not that many people in real life who do this. Or at least, not many that I've encountered so far. In fact, my cubicle may be one of the more decorated ones on my team...sigh.

2010-05-03

by Colleen

Taking photos from planes is cheating - the only thing that can top the advantage of a 10,000 ft view is if that 10,000 ft view is over Colorado (see previous post). All I had to do was press buttons.

2010-05-02

by Colleen

Every time you click the shutter on your camera in Colorado, you get a gorgeous picture. It's really that simple.

Oh yeah, I love clouds by the way.

Mountain vistas and other geological wonders after the jump, also, my friend Roberto:

2010-04-24

by Colleen

This one's for you, Javelin! Molly's doing well. I'm so glad we rescued her from her hard life on the streets, so that she could enjoy a life of peace and comfort...sleeping on gravel. 

2010-04-18

by Colleen

Moar sun pls...kthx

2010-04-17

by Colleen

Cracking down hard on the city cats at Cafe Society.

2010-04-11

by Colleen

Pig tchotchkes. Sighted walking back from Flattop Grill where we celebrated Joe's birthday early. The pigs are out! Spring is here!

2010-04-10

by Colleen

Super green.

2010-04-04: A picture that's also an offer

does that count as a double entendre?

by Colleen

It's flower growing season in Chicago! I have 3 pots of varying sizes and one rectangular planter with which to work.

Last year I did petunias in the planter and half of the largest pot, with disastrous results. Little   white     flies    everywhere: infesting the stems, breeding on the leaves, dying on the flower petals. I didn't learn what they were until my friend and I visited a nursery in August, but by then it was too late. The florist recommended a mild lemon-soap bath as a detractor. After bathing 2 leaves individually, I found the soap acted as a mild adhesive, further securing all white flies onto the fuzzy stems of the plant. So I gave up, pulled them all up and tried to save the remaining plants in the pot, the purple cone flowers: native Illinois prairie flora, which apparently, need more than one growing season to bloom. Yay! for leafy green fronds all summer...but not really. The other pot contained a freaky tomato plant that ended up growing at a pace reminiscent of the Little Shop of Horrors, even without all the blood. In all, it yielded 4 1/2 feet of vertical stem, a 3 feet diameter spray of leafy greens, 16 or so blossoms, and 3 incredibly bitter cherry tomatoes. Well, there's always next season.

Which brings me to:

Ferry's partial-shade wildflower mixture went in the largest pot. My goals are less lofty then the 2ft high petunia plants of last summer - I'm going to go with 3 inch ground cover (Alyssum) in the rectangular planter (hopefully resulting in less stems and white flies and more blooms). The now freaky tomato plant-free pot will get the Calendulas, and I'm reseeding a spare herb planter with more basil (so far the only plant besides my faithful african violets that's flourishing) in hopes of enough leaves for home made pesto.

And now for the offer: Now that my planting's done, I still have enough seedage left to fill more that a 50 sq foot area garden (according to the planting guides on the seed packs), so if you would like any spare seeds, just let me know! Sharing is caring and all that. what what

2010-03-26

by Colleen

I remember this day. It was one of the first of all these gorgeous days we've been having lately. Sunny and '50s. My co-worker and I had just finished talking to the feds and were coming back from Lisle when he told me about this chocolate shop that we should visit in the South Loop. Hand-painted chocolates, people, made right in the back of the store.

L to R: Raspberry truffle, Dulce de leches

moar chocolates!

March 24th or 25th

by Colleen

Mmm, freshly picked basil and strawberries. Good stuff - although not necessarily when eaten together.

2010-03-12

by Tally Hall

Yellow-lit strumming.

David Addison may have ruined me for every other man in the entire world..

by Colleen

Oh David, with your bantering and your singing and your ray bans. How could any other man ever compare*?

More roguish charm after the jump:

2010-01-14

by Colleen

 

Medals ceremony for the men's 1500 meter speed skating event. South Korea could have swept, but this'll do.

2010-02-13

by Colleen

 

Back in business. First picture in February: some weird ice formations on the lake(?) wall of Lake Mich.

2010-01-26

by Colleen

Madeleines, the sequel.

DINO-MIGHT!!! (2010-01-24)

by Colleen

Frozen since the Cretaceous Period, they've been resuscitated by the toaster oven in the name of science. It's eat or be eaten! RAWR!!!!

Bring lotsa ketchup!

2010-01-21

by Colleen

Tha - tha - Tharsday in the Loop. In case you don't venture into downtown Chicago that often, or in case you do but you're blind, let me just say that these Puma billboards are plastered all over the elevated stops to advertise the opening of the newest Puma store in the Block 37 building.

They....drive....me......mad.  Am I on board with selling the idea that some scrawny, tool of a guy can pick up his own entourage just because he wears Puma? or works for Puma? or both?! No. How about the mentality behind his stupid sign - I'm a player, give me a woman, but only one that looks good, cause, you know, I'm a player? No. The fact that he expects to receive a woman plopped down before him just like he would an ipod? Oh inner Gloria Steinem, be still.

So I'm a firm believer of "voting with your dollar", but being a boycott of one of the Puma brand, doesn't erase the fact that I still have to see these boards every time I travel around the loop. Until, this beautiful day when I noticed someone decided to make a little addition to every single board at the Randolph&Wabash stop. Spot it yet?

Oh sweet, sweet grammatically correct graffitist, how I love you so. You just made my evening, times a million. xoxo - Colleen

----

"Umm, clearly I'm interrupting. I feel badly. Let me... What are you drinking?"

"Bad."

"Bad? Sorry... feel...? "
"You feel bad."

"Bad??"

"Badly is an adverb. So to say you feel badly would be saying that the mechanism which allows you to feel is broken." 

"Go. Sleep badly. Any questions, hesitate to call."

"Bad."

"Excuse me?"

"Sleep bad. Otherwise it makes it seem like the mechanism that allows you to sleep..." 

"Who taught you grammar? Badly's an adverb. Get out. Vanish."
-kkbb

2010-01-20

by Colleen

That's me, bee-tee-dubs. I don't normally wear this hat (sadly) because in order for the hat to look right on my surprisingly large head, I always need to mess up my hair, and then I can't take the hat off for the rest of the day. Kind of a problem when you work in a corporate office 5 out of 7 days every week.