Friday, August 23, 2013
Awoke too early, around 5:00 AM local time, got up. Logged in to Jaime and Matt's wifi, ran a speedtest on speedtest.net. It started out relatively fast at 9 Mbps then stabilized at 5 Mbps and never finished after several minutes. Troubleshot a problem with my MacBook Air in which upon logging in Finder appeared to hang. It was caused by a network resource shortcut placed in the Finder sidebar. After removing that the problem went away. Restarted. Reran the speedtest: 26.44 down, 5.76 up (Comcast). Wrote in my journal. Pre-breakfast: corn flakes with milk, water. Walked to Rockwell Station. On the way I stopped at an unnamed coffee shop which I later learned was called Beans and Bagels. I ate a small plastic container of organic blueberry yogurt ($1.50) and an onion bagel with cream cheese. If I return, I need to ask them to go easy on the cream cheese. Brown Line to Adams/Wabash: $2.25. Bought a CTA 7-day pass: $28. I was last to leave the apartment this morning, so I unknowingly locked Jaime out by locking all the door locks before I left. He was not feeling well and returning home, trying to get in to rest. I took the Red Line and in about 15 minutes met him at Sheridan Station and we exchanged keys. I returned via Red Line to Adams/Wabash and began exploring, encountering the Art Institute of Chicago. I was a bit hungry so I ate at Terzo Piano. Complimentary bread and olive oil; pulled chicken sandwich with Moroccan spices, apricot-orange, goat cheese, pistachios, watercress ($14); Susan Feniger’s curry coconut caramel corn ($4); ice water. When I asked if the pulled chicken sandwich was spicy, the server replied that it does have a spiciness to it but it's tempered by the sweetness of the apricot orange. There is some truth to that, and although it was spicier than I would have liked, the interesting combination of flavors was worth the mild unpleasantness of the spiciness. The caramel corn was also intriguingly flavored and textured and would be a perfectly decadent snack if it weren't marred by frequent occurrences of unpopped kernels. I took a few photos from the Terzo Piano patio. Only 3 hours before the Art Institute closed, so instead of visiting the museum today I explored Millennium Park: Lurie Garden, the Great Lawn, Cloud Gate, Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Wrigley Square, Boeing Galleries North and South, Crown Fountain. Rode the Brown Line back to Jaime and Matt's place. Left a voicemail message for Patrick. Rested and napped. Lou Malnati's Pizzeria with Jaime and Matt: medium deep dish cheese. Although I liked the cheese, overall I was not impressed with this pizza; Paxti's is to me a much better Chicago-style pizza than this in that its crust tastes richer, and the sauce is thicker. Malnati's puts more cheese on it than I prefer. Walked to Boystown. Progress, Spin, Berlin, The Closet. Late snack at Pie Hole: Jaime and I had one mushroom pizza slice each. Home.