#76 and #82; Play Tennis and Walk to the Mall for Lunch

Nicholas is back in town from Italy, having returned on Wednesday evening.  I haven't blogged about it, because it was his trip and I'll let him give the update on his blog.

Anyway, he and Tee were here today and decided that we should go down to the clubhouse to play tennis.  We sent Denise to Sport Chalet to buy tennis balls while Tee, Nick and I walked to the courts.  (Leo was somewhat dismayed I think, watching us through the fence as we walked off into the commons.  I'm pretty sure he's never seen us go there without taking him along for a walk.)

Denise showed up with the tennis balls and we smashed the ball around the court for a while, Denise and I versus Nick and Tee.  Denise and I lost (surprise), but not too badly.  I had the most home runs, with two shots leaving the yard.  The best anyone else could muster was a ground-rule double by Tee.

After a full set of doubles we played a little cutthroat, one-on-two, with one person rotating out to the bench each game.  We played to six games, with Nick winning, but I was close with five.

This is a good shot of me.

After the tennis we walked the rest of the way to the mall and lunch at the Yard House.  Mmmm, beer!  Having finished lunch we wasted some time in the Williams-Sonoma store, looking at all manner of cookware too expensive to purchase.  Williams-Sonoma sells a lot of uni-taskers; strawberry slicers, avocado pitters, stuff of that nature.  Alton Brown would be appalled.  We did buy a few items, most notably some espresso to make in the stove top espresso maker that Nick brought me from Italy.

From Williams-Sonoma we moved over to the Apple store, just for a few minutes.  Nick played Angry Birds on an iPad 2 while Denise and Tee went back to the Yard House to use their facilities.

Shopping completed, we walked back to the clubhouse.  Denise, Tee and Nick took the car, and I walked the rest of the way home, probably a mistake since it was now mid-afternoon and pretty hot.  Nick actually met me with a water bottle part way back, which was nice.

So, now I need a ruling.  Can I check off two list items at the same time?  Is it fair to incorporate a tennis match into the walk to the mall?

More to the point, I feel like a single tennis match or single walk to the mall doesn't really meet the spirit of the items.  "Play tennis" should probably mean play tennis routinely; maybe once a week or twice a month.  And "walk to mall for lunch" should maybe be every other month or so?

Oh well, I didn't specifically say they had to be recurring, so I'm checking them off.  I'll just have remind myself to keep going.

#69 - Attend a Concert - Jethro Tull at the Greek

Well, it was just pathetic.  Not the concert, the fans.  There was not a lot of growing old gracefully on display.

There's something surreal about waiting for a Jethro Tull concert, old men with trophy wives, conversations quoting Rush Limbaugh and shopping for Porsches in the theatre pavilion.

At one point Denise commented that I was the cutest person she'd seen in attendance, which I considered a sorry indictment of the Tull fan base.  She and the guy seated next to her were speculating on the average age within amphitheater; Denise went with 60, her neighbor was a little more kindly, coming in with an estimate of 58.

So the good news was that I was not the oldest, fattest, baldest, frailest or stupidest of the assembled masses.  The guy sitting behind me was going all out for the latter title.

Fuckin' A!  "Hot Night in Budapest!"  My favorite!

"Farm on the Freeway!"  This is my favorite!

Oh, my fuckin' favorite!  "Locomotive Breath!"

He was either extremely fickle or not clear on the concept of "favorite."  I'm pretty sure he and his party were all co-workers at JPL.

Cannabis, Lipitor and Flowmax were probably all present in about equal quantities.  There were more than a few people "Living in the Past."

Ian Anderson did make a few jokes about the assembled decrepitude, at one point during a flute finale he was making his trademark gyrations, grabbed his groin and said "Shit!", suffering a mock hernia.

Speaking of Ian Anderson, this WAS a Jethro Tull concert after all, he was very good.  Can't quite hit the same notes that he once did, 35 or forty years ago, but who can.  Started off with a bit of "Thick as a Brick" and over the course of the evening played all the tracks from "Aqualung" along with other selections.  I read on the Jethro Tull web site that Ian Anderson had broken his finger back around March.  Apparently, he was able to adapt to playing the flute with one finger splinted, but the guitar was impossible.  The band was forced to cover for him.  Fortunately for us, the splint was off last night and he was playing his own guitar.  Lead guitarist, Martin Barre was excellent, as ever.

A funny thing about Jethro Tull songs, and probably more specifically Ian Anderson's voice, is that they were never the sort where one could easily sing along.  Naturally, that didn't stop people from trying.

This was only my second event at the Greek Theatre, the first being a showing of "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor.   I will say that the PHC fans were better behaved and apparently smarter or maybe just less disoriented by the concept of stacked parking.

And speaking of pathetic, I give you the following...

#7 - Eat Chicago-style pizza in Chicago

SCORE!  On the recommendation of Jane Griffin, made a late lunch/early dinner stop at Lou Malnati's Pizzeria in Lincoln Park, Chicago. 

After schlepping luggage through a pair of airport terminals, then from transit station to hotel and then trekking another mile and a half through hot Chicago weather, I was all hot and sweaty and ready for a beverage; Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale, as it turned out. 

Mmmm, Beer!  I quite enjoyed that.

The pizza is not fast food - takes 30 minutes or so to bake - so started off with a Malnati Salad.

After the salad, the star of the show, The "Malnati Chicago Classic."

The sausage; fabulous!  The cheese, cheesy, the sauce, saucy.  The butter crust; awesome!   Yumm.  The only disappointment - we ordered a small, having no convenient way to transport leftovers.

Happily, it appears that Malnati's ships, so I can always order a pie on the web.

We have received other Chicago-style recommendations; Edwardo's Natural Pizza promoted by Denise Haerr and Pizzeria Due, recommended by some helpful Chicagoan on the Red Line.  Actually, I think he was hitting on Denise.

It turns out that there is an Edwardo's just down the street from our hotel and Pizzeria Due appears to be within easy striking distance.  I intend to hit both before I'm done.