shave ice and urbs in horto

this weekend we hoofed it along the lakeside trail to lawrence. our closest asian grocery closed earlier this year so i wanted to see if it was possible to walk to the one on broadway. (it is.) 

while at argyle, we stopped off at immm for a snack. their shave ice with bread is SO GOOD!

i know that i said giving subq fluids was easier than we thought. it's still not an enjoyable experience. as such, neither of us have had much energy. so you get sky and flower shots.

dat lake tho.

a bit easier than i thought

to date, it has been easier than we thought to administer subcutaneous fluid at home to the cat which is GREAT news. hopefully, i will be back up to speed next monday with new photos.

until then though, please enjoy leff's new short video about our trip to the end of the purple line! 

taking another break for a bit?

a lot is going on behind the scenes here at casarl. i'm crash coursing how to make geriatric cats comfortable. it's stressful. i'm tired. everyone at the vet knows me now. you...probably don't want to read more about it. so a break is in order, not only for you but also so i can focus on the little dudes. 

here are a few things that i managed to do between visits to the vet last week. the chris bradley show at mca.

a quick stop at water tower to check out a photography exhibit. here is one of the lions that lives inside.

got a really great key lime shake at m burger.

the interesting marks and tags of the week.

i fucked up a gudetama pudding kit by micowaving it too long. it was still tasty (and my jiji mug was salvaged. yay!)

and i still love the lake.

see you guys soonish. not sure how long i'll be gone? i'll probably be posting on ig sporadically if you need a fix. bye for now.

takashi murakami's the octopus eats it's own leg at mca chicago

ever since leff found out about the murakami retrospective at mca, we have, essentially, had a countdown clock running until the show opened. (longtime readers will NOT be surprised by this.) on saturday, we took the express bus downtown to bask in the superflatness. 

as i had promised on ig, i took ms ko with me. no worries tho, this was her only posed photo.

the show takes up the entire 4th floor

and includes, as is expected in a retrospective (der), some very early works. i didn't take pics of the very painterly, muted pallet paintings at the beginning but, i swear to you, i would NEVER have pegged those as early murakami! (even though thematically, it makes sense. the paint application was  just SO different!)

i am more accustomed to seeing superflat images. (used to subscribe to gr so, that is not surprising!)

mr dob is one of the real reasons why i got hooked on murakami. dobojite? well, look at the guy!

i never tire of dob. for that matter, i can watch "good morning"  for days cause of graduation bear.

here's the evolution of the flowers. from a whole wall (idk, circa 2010? maybe earlier?)

to this *gorgeous* piece from 2015.

but guys. guys. GUYS! around the corner from that painting is what could be described as a temple. and these two huge monsters live there, one on each end. i swear, i screamed and then hit leff when i saw the red guy peeking around the corner.

he casts quite a shadow.

his opposing blue friend.

and another shot for scale.

the sculptures would be enough but there are also massive canvases silkscreened with selective glitter. they GLOW like backlit stained glass! is it because of dark to light printing? idk. they are SUPER impressive. have some details.

i tried to get a long shot for you but it was crowded and, well, these are HUUUGE.

another detail.

leff and i got a membership to mca on saturday SPECIFICALLY to see this show again. lol (i mean, mca always curates so many interesting and diverse shows. it's not *just* for murakami.(although, yeah, it was. bwahaha))

and, double lol, we hit the gift shop. hard. (did not buy a $3500 plush dob tho. even though i'd love one.)

tickets came with free murakami temp tattoos which, if i hadn't been yearning for superflat merch since the early aughts (when i couldn't afford it), would have been enough. super cute!!

we *did* get (not pictured) 1) the show catalog 2) a show poster  (sorta pictured here) 3) two postcards 4) a show tshirt and finally (pictured) 5) two enamel pins.

remember that time i made superflat cupcakes? yeah, well, now i have the pin. i can die happy.

(oh! leff just reminded me that i also made some murakami flower cookies for the bake sale for japan!  (i swear, guys, i make so much stuff that i forget.))

so yes, long story short, if you are in chicago from now until sept 24, 2017 GET YOUR ASS TO THIS RETROSPECTIVE! it is so good.

it is SO good.

a ton of food, bahai temple, edgewater yardsale and a year in chicago

since the wrigley field visit warranted its own post, some of the pics this week date back to memorial day weekend.  liiiike...the day after my birthday, we finally made it to pequod's.

oh, MAN! was it ever worth the wait. the crust at pequod's is incredible. pictured below is my chicago default-- italian sausage and giardiniera. (i pretty much live on giardiniera these days.)

we had planned on going downtown on memorial day itself until we realized that there was A PARADE with thousands of people right where we needed to be. so, no. leff found a place in willamette that looked interesting. this owl was at the very end of the purple line.

and the bahai house of worship was not far from that. look at this place! it's very peaceful here

and ornate.

although the detail is poured and not carved. which, hey, fine. it still looks cool. here's a detail of all the little rocks that make it so luminous.

no pictures of the inside because, even though religion's not for me, i still try to be respectful. *shrug*

at howard, there is an AMAZING jamaican restaurant. good to go makes the best jerk chicken! AND you can get a side of mac and cheese.

i also had a carrot, ginger and uh...i'm blanking...juice smoothie. very refreshing.

also refreshing? gordo's. i am planning on stopping here a lot this summer.

probably will not always get the bars dipped and sprinkled like i did with this one tho. (avo banana dipped in dark chocolate, sprinkled with fruity pebbles, if you were wondering.)

leff and i went to our second edgewater yard and sidewalk sale! the first time we went, we had just rolled up into town and were desperate to find chairs, lights, ANYTHING since our moving van was arriving a week after us. THIS YEAR was more relaxed and i got a chubby bunny pin,

a chocolate covered caramel from a school bake sale

and two new friends! (total cost for all four things-- $4)

not pictured-- the dolmas, spinach pie, sourdough bread, lemon pound cake slice, dill and garlic curds and hunk of parm that we picked up along the way. (the farmer's market has started again. heh. (this year they have bands!))

on sunday, we headed to irving square for budlong nashville hot chicken.

there is a reason this place is so popular. i mean, lookit.

AND they have cheerwine!

we accidentally stumbled upon a german fest that was happening while we were there. i pikachose to not stick around cause i wasn't in the mood. (altho the brats and beer garden looked great!)

SPEAKING of having been in chicago for a year, why not check out leff's recap? he's picked his highlights from the last 365! i think it's pretty damn good too!