Local Post Office

Photos From My Phone?

 Testing if Ivan post photos and stuff from my phone... Our desktop is r. I.p. 9 years a house fire and three moves. My update on my phone had a photo app so I'm hoping this works.... I just picked random photos that came up hoping to uploaf

Fried Chicken

 I have not made fried chicken before. I had bought a cast iron frying pan a few months ago...and my friend at work kept asking me if I made fried chicken yet. No I did not...so I finally tried it. I just soaked the chicken in yogurt, then ground up some corn flakes (yes I don't like crn but it was for Stagg)

 I used my cool new rolling pin...put the corn flakes and some spices into a dish and rolled the chicken in it.

 The chicken came out very good. But I had some challenges because the coating kept falling off. Next time I will try a different technique.

Chicago Organizing Spree

The above picture is literally what you see as you come in our front door to our apartment.

 Since I've been back in Chicago I have done a lot of organizing. In January this year I made a little pledge to myself to stop procrastinating. Basically I got really exhausted ha! Yes, it's very tiring physically to stop procrastinating because I began finishing up all kinds of projects that left half done. I also began hardcore purging of items like old socks, old magazines and papers. Shredding documents and giving away stuff I didn't love or really need. It's been pretty cool.

 I had stashed all kinds of crap and flotsom on the mantel...so I took everything off. I winterized the mantel by taping plastic on any open woodwork. The fireplace is long dormant and air is leaking so now I have covered that up and I replaced some of the objects I had here...and the rest were either put away or disposed. The Madonna picture is an advertisement turned into a  collage by Stagg of a concert of hers I went to
in 2006.

 The porcelain Jesus in the middle of these figures is Stagg's from when he was growing up. I needed a female goddess and I found one in a second hand store with pink glitter!

 The watercolour is Stagg's from art school. I just painted a frame I found in the alley for it. A project I had procrastinated but now done!

 This is a polaroid of me from xmas 2004.

 This is Stagg and I dancing before we even dated...this is a dance at Eugene and Sheila's wedding 2001.

 Stagg and I are on our first date in the picture frames above. Memphis 2005. The fish is "Pickles". He's a fighter not a lover.

 This is a postcard I have on the mantel. It's from my dad
and step-mum Dariel. It's from Greece, July 13, 1988. It's a picture of squid hanging on a line by a boat and outdoor restaurant.

 Here is what the postcard says..."We weren't on the unfortunate cruise ship. Two days in Athens, heading for Istanbul today. Athens is hot, noisy, polluted, etc and very dependent on tourists. As you can see from the card, much of the seafood is self-serve. Miss you, wish you were here," Very representative of my dads kind of humour and opinions. Funny and not easily impressed.

 This is sitting on the mantel too. I found this in a secondhand store in the 90's. It's a cosmetic mirror. It says 50th festival du Cannes. I don't know the story behind it and have looked but not found anything. I assume it's from a  "swag bag" for festival events. It has "Davis" inscribed on it as well.

 We have these two metal storage cupboards int he corner. I've got our paints, brushes and hardware in them. We are suing this room to paint.

 Standing in front room looking down through apartment...if you click on the picture you can see all the way to the kitchen in the back of the place. I've changed the carpet in the living room this week...we now have a black and grey carpet in there.

 Standing in the living room this is the front room. I have atable with the computer on it. I used to have an "office" with a tv and the desktop. It was very dark and kind of not a good use of space....I realized our desktop had wifi so I just moved it out here as an experiment. It seems to be an okay spot for the desktop so far so good.

Duluth

 We stayed ina really cool hotel in Duluth. Duluth is an incredible city...near Winnipeg and Thunderbay Canada. It's often called "the big city" to a city like Thunderbay and Canadians would go and shop there in the 70's and 80's or go to party. I loved the industrial landscape. We had supper in a revolving restaurant at the top of our hotel....where I took these pictures. None of the pictures seem to capture this road trip. I love the pics...but I feel as if I may as well let these be the last few I post. I'm going to jump into the present with Chicago life in my next post.

Montana, North Dakota

 I thought this sign was just grand. Its a list of all the ranches nearby and their mileage from here.

 Oops this one messed up...hmm I'll re-post it at end of this set of pics..I was loading several pics at once...lets see if I can fix this lol

 Again...these pictures don't even seem to capture how wonderful and delicate and vast this area really is....

U.S Route 2

U.S. Route 2 (US 2) is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning 2,571 miles (4,138 km) across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southernCanada. Unlike some routes, which are disconnected into segments because of encroaching Interstate Highways, the two portions of US 2 were designed to be separate in the original 1926 highway plan.

The western segment of US 2 has its western terminus at State Route 529 (Maple Street) in Everett, Washington and its eastern terminus at Interstate 75 in St. Ignace, Michigan. The eastern segment of US 2 has its western terminus at US 11 in Rouses Point, New York and its eastern terminus atInterstate 95 (I-95) in Houlton, Maine. (from Wiki)