I make a mean Chinese take-out

Yesterday, I made spaghetti bolognese. I cooked the sauce for a good 5 hours, tossed in the cooked spaghetti, and served with an expensive block of parmigiano-reggiano cheese (we're picky about our cheese in this house) and some italian bread. (No, not even any salad. At that point, all we could think about was spaghetti.) It was scrumptious. It was sublime. I was Maria Batali in the kitchen. Hell, I left Batali in the dust. He wishes his bolognese sauce would be half as good as mine. He begs me regularly for my secret. People throw flowers in my path and offer fabulous gifts to be allowed to eat my spaghetti bolognese....

....but I digress.

Tonight, it was back to the real world; I ordered Chinese. Two decent home-cooked meals in a row seem to be beyond my capabilities. Maybe I use up all my creativity and it takes a day or two to renew itself, or maybe I'm just too unmotivated to work in the kitchen on a regular (read: daily) basis.

Whatever.

The quandry tonight was, whose Chinese? We have several Chinese restaurants in Downers Grove, and there are two that I frequent. Restaurant A has my favorite hunan chicken, but Restaurant B has sezchuan string beans, which is my favorite chinese dish. But I like hot and sour soup, and the restaurant that has string beans doesn't have hunan chicken. Decisions, decisions.

And, honestly, neither one of them are the best of the best Chinese. They're okay. I have a friend who considers himself a Chinese food connoisseur (I knew how to spell that without checking, by the way) and he thinks all the Chinese places around here are crap. I'm not that critical, but I do wish I could get my string beans and my hot and sour soup in the same restaurant.

What's your favorite dish and where is your favorite restaurant? I'm always on the lookout for something new!

Texting 101 or, It Adds Up Fast

Verizon's customer service department called me today, asking if I wanted to upgrade my text message feature, as my bill this month was $107.00 extra with text overage surcharges.

Huh? What?

Maybe I overreacted when I sent my college student a text (heh) telling him he was on my major, um, bad list and that he owed me $107. He texted me right back, telling me I was crazy; no way did he text that much over his plan. Turns out, he was right and the Verizon guy was not entirely accurate in his description of where those charges came from, which I discovered as my son and I went through the bill online together. (Although college boy does owe me $33!)

Actually, MY phone number was the main culprit of text overages, because I didn't have a text plan (I do now)- I didn't realize I texted that much. Oops.

Oh, but I've been busy catching up on methods of communication lately. Facebook (FB rocks, I can't believe I missed out on this for so long), Twitter, and now I'm blogging (again). And, of course, the ever present cell phone and (much to my chagrin as I looked at my Verizon bill today) text messaging. Not to mention email, oh, who could live without email?

I have a theory about all these different methods of communication (you'll learn I have a theory about almost everything!). I think we have all those different methods of communication and information access because there is too much we have to keep up with now. There's too much to know and too much to learn and too many schedules to keep track of and we simply don't have enough brain power to keep it all upfront and accessible. My theory is that the internet was the result of the progression of our knowledge- we had to have someplace to look up the stuff we can't remember because that chunk of memory has been temporarily taken over by the latest studies on breast cancer and the endless political interviews and all the other bits and pieces of information that we are bombarded with, everyday. We need the internet. We must have cell phones. I WANT A BLACKBERRY.

But I digress. And that was more of a soapbox than a theory. Eh.

Which is why I upped all of our text plans, gritting about the cost as I did so- I know we're not likely to cut back on our communication shortcuts. I did manage to get Verizon to credit me the $107 with my new text plan. Now, if only Comcast would offer a special on my broadband...

Of Public Works and Infrastructure

Let's be blunt: sewers are not sexy. Frankly, I try not to think about them. I'm forced to, however, when my street floods and the water is bubbling up through the tops of the sewer covers. Ewww. Oh, sure, Public Works comes and blockades the street and gets out their pumps and the rain (or melting snow) eventually is absorbed into the ground or through the sewers and the road clears and all is well again.

Until it happens again. And it will. It does. Over and over.

My neighbors at the end of the block, where the flooding is concentrated, bear the brunt of our crappy and outdated infrastructure. They spend rainy days wondering if they'll be able to get out of their house without putting on thigh-high waders. They've spent umpteen dollars on their basements- if they even bother anymore- and anything that goes below grade is put in Rubbermaid tubs.

Fortunately, Downers Grove is finally- albeit painstakingly slowly- fixing the aging (and ancient) infrastructure. It takes money- gobs and gobs and piles of it- and thoughtful planning (not that I'm terribly impressed with the village engineers, but that's another story for another post.) and patience from the residents. We bitch about the cost, and then we bitch about the timeline. We all want OUR streets done FIRST. No, really, MINE first!

Recently, our Village Council floated the idea for a new village hall and police station. Right away, you could hear the bitching. Too much money, not necessary, bad economy, can't you combine facilities with the school districts (that was the crappiest idea I heard. seriously.) and park district to save money? As soon as you start talking about doing ANYTHING that requires ANY money or ANY vision for the future, there's a certain (and usually the same group) of people who start whining.

Here's the point, people: Things age. They wear out. They break down. They cost more to maintain then to rebuild. Villages grow- and outgrow their facilities. What worked in the 60's when the town was half the size doesn't work now. Standards change. Needs change. Design changes. A recycled building that was meant to hold you 25 years has lasted 4o. Shut up already!

We need to stop trying to live off the last generation's generosity and foresight. Our grandparents- and great-grandparents- dreamed big. They worked hard to ensure that their efforts would be worthwhile. They built for the future. They built for us. Can we give less to our children and grandchildren then our grandparents gave to us?

It's our turn to pony up. Time for us to fix the penny-wise, pound-foolish mistakes of the past and build for the future. I'm in. You?

Good News/Bad News

Every year in the recent past (how long has it been? 10 years?), Downers Grove has hosted an Ice Sculpture Festival in February. And, (seemingly) almost every year, the temperature during the Festival finally warms up a little from sub-freezing to not-so-bad.

Sure, a couple of years it has been very cold during the Festival, but if I want to know when we'll get a break from the weather, I just look up when the Ice Festival will occur and figure on that being the date.

There's probably a good, organizational reason why the date can't be moved. I know that there's a competition and I believe there's some kind of ice sculpture circuit that the organizers have to work around, but maybe mid-January might be better?

Just sayin'.

Regardless of the weather, I love the changing themes of the Festival, and as a Gulf Coast girl who grew up a couple of hours from New Orleans (which, by the way, is pronounced New Orlens, not New Or- leans, and only pronounced Nawlins if you can say it in an authentic deep south or cajun accent), I'm thrilled that this year's theme is MARDI GRAS!

I celebrate Mardi Gras every year- I used to take moon pies to my children's classes (sent from home by my mother) so that everyone could celebrate Mardi Gras. When my dad was in the hospital during Mardis Gras a few years back, I ran out to the local party store to grab some decorations for his room. It's not Mardi Gras without beads, cher.

This is the time of the year when I really miss my native land. In Northwest Florida, the air is warming and you can tell that spring is just a few weeks away. Here in the frozen arctic wasteland (my siblings' moniker for Chicago), Spring is months from showing her pretty, green face.

Which is why I'll take the 5o degree weather this weekend and feel the obligatory sympathy for the organizers and participants who put so much work into making this a fun winter weekend for Downers Grove. Ice sculptures vs. getting rid of the heavy coat on a February day? I know the winner of that contest!