It’s about this point where I started to significantly decrease the amount of time spent on this blog. I can’t quite explain it, it’s mostly a combination of being busy, being lazy, and being bored. I’m not sure when I’ll be back to full blast on this. I’ll at least keep track of books and screened entertainment so I can record what I’ve read/watched, but it will be brief.
The 56 Bus with a few diversions will avail you of the heart of Chicago coffee culture. For a curated tour, I’ve set up a Foursquare list called Coffee Corridor. It’s unbelievable how many excellent coffee roasters and purveyors have set up shop along a single public transpo line. Also note that the Blue Line works too. Furthermore, I suggest stopping half way at Chicago Avenue, grabbing something from Big Shoulders (and checking the 66 Bus), then diverting west to Asado Ukrainian Village and Star Lounge.
I just made a smoothie in our Vitamix with one frozen banana, four pitted dates, one tablespoon of creamy peanut butter, one cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and four ice cubes. Call it 350 calories of awesome in a 16 ounce cup! Potentially life-changing.
Our friend found this great rental called Casa Mariposa in a small town about an hour south of Cancun. Dollar for dollar, especially if you can occupy all four rooms (each with an en suite bath), it may be one of the best off-season, warm weather deals going. There’s no sandy beach, but the waterfront is beautiful with a community tide pool right out front. Here’s the view from the Midnight Suite. Awesome. Here’s all the pics.
We spent ten days in one London hotel. I took over 600 photos with an iPhone and Nikon P7000. Here’s the Flickr London 2013 set. They are in chronological order and titled with about 20 different captions to outline the distinct sections of our visit.
We did a little ‘splorin on this Denver trip with family. We hit two great “gourmet” food markets, Marczyk (with it’s huge hot sauce collection) and Tony’s (and it’s killer blueberry biscotti). We also hit two great coffee shops, St. Mark’s and Stella’s. The awesomest experience, however, was the Donut Maker donut shop (check the notes on the pic), with it’s surprisingly crappy strip mall storefront architecture, which did not reflect the deliciousness of what was inside.
Just a quick rundown of where I went in Indy a week ago for coffee and lunch:
Click the links for more info and pictures.
I’ve tagged all the Maui stuff with vacation-Maui. Click it and you get snippets of all posts in reverse chrono. All the pictures are in this Flickr set. Here are food posts: O’o Farms, Grandma’s, Coffee, Day Four, Day Three, Day Two, Day One. Here are miscellaneous pictures/videos: Honolua Bay, Guidebook, Waves, Surfer, and Lahaina. It was a laid-back six days.
It’s hard to explain my feelings in the midst of this Tigergate coverage. Golf has never felt more like the sport of boring, intolerant, old, white men, especially in contrast to the raucous fun of the Ryder Cup only six months ago. Playership will continue to shrink as this demo becomes a smaller proportion of society. I fear the game does not have a bright future unless we figure out a way to uncomplicate it and inject more fun. I’m going to begin working on the manifesto to carry our game into the future, look for a 2013 release.
These statements are reflective of a closed mind and lack of experience in consuming sports. If you hear them, immediately begin ignoring the speaker if they’re talking sports. (1) Soccer is boring (2) the NBA is better than/worse than NCAA basketball because of blah blah blah (3) Golfers/Race Car Drivers aren’t athletes (4) Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing in sports (5) I’m rooting for so-and-so team because I have so-and-so player in my fantasy league.