No Pictures Please

Last Tuesday (20 April 2010) night I had a bit of a beard trimming fiasco. I pulled out my trimmer stuff as usual and decided that I needed to oil the blades so I removed the guard and oiled them. I cleaned off the oil and any residual hair went back to the mirror and took a pass. A whole bunch of hair came off. As I watched the clump hit the floor, I was thinking that it was a bit more than usual. It must have been a while since… oh no, I forgot to put the guard back on! So I look up at the mirror and there is this blank spot where I had made a single pass with the trimmer. Hmmm, I don’t want to shave it off and start over. So I decide to just do a swipe on the other side to see if I can make it match. That was relatively successful. When my beloved gets home, the look says it all. No good. But I decide to stick with it anyway. I go into work the next day and no one says anything. Now I am intrigued. This is a challenge now because I have several coworkers and client who like to take the mick out of me (give me a hard time). How long will it take before someone says anything? And can I make it until it grow with no one saying anything? Thursday, again, nothing. Finally, Friday at around 2, I am in the engineering workshop and the engineer says something. I made it half way. It was bad, but not as bad as any of these.

Photo Credits:

forum.calgarypuck.com

glennlist.com

studionemo.com

dailytelegraph.com.au

Good Friday in Chicago

I spent most of yesterday shopping. It is funny how two years in London has changed my perspective. I am in one of the biggest cities in the US and wow… everything seems so incredibly cheap. In the midst of my shopping I stumbled upon Berghoff’s Restaurant. It was apparent that this place WAS something… just look at the sign. I later learned that it had closed and reopened, so it is no longer what it was. The portabello sandwich was good… and the homemade crisps (potato chips) LOOKED awesome… but unfortunately lacked any taste whatsoever… and some of them were quite rubbery. The Berghoffs apparently were brewers back in the day and they had a selection of beers, which I later learned are of the Dortmunder-style. I had the dark. I have apparently become a real/cask-ale snob because this stuff tasted like it had added carbonation and it had that mass-produced kind of flavour. I mean it any beats any of big piss-water makers (Budweiser, Millers, Coors, etc) hands down. But that’s about it. Staff was nice and friendly, but after living in London, I might have low standards for customer service. It was amusing watching the Chicagoans huff off out of the T-Mobile shop (store) after having to wait in a queue (line) more than a few minutes when I was getting my phone topped up (refilled).

Last night, the Shakespeare Association of America had an event at the Chicago Cultural Center, which is an old library. It was absolutely GORGEOUS inside. This morning, I am in search of a place called West Eggs Cafe in a few minutes. Then I am off to St Chrysostom’s for something called The Three Hours. Tomorrow after the conference, we are off to the Art Institute, where the Seurat hangs. Then its off to the floods of New England.

All Photos from Wikipedia.