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It's been a while since I did a crochet pattern, so here one is: Tanooki Mario from Super Mario Bros. 3 for original NES!
It's an all-cotton item again, so it could be used as a dish cloth, but I'm sure that washing would make the colors fade. Here's the chart:
As usual, if you are crocheting the pattern, you chain the same amount of stitches as the chart is wide, plus one for turning. If you are knitting, cast on the same amount of stitches as the chart is wide.
OK, so I am assuming that a few followers of this blog have been waiting for the cool Nintendo crochet stuff to come back. Here it is!
I did not create this chart, so I'm not going to post it here. However, you can find it on Ravelry and at this blog.
I've got some plans for some more items coming up soon, so keep watch!
For Dave's 30th birthday, I set up a beer tour of Chicagoland.
Our first stop was Three Floyds, which is one of the most famed breweries (and brew pubs) in the Chicago area. Technically it's in Indiana, but I love Dave, so we went anyway.
The line was huge and we didn't get in to the brew pub before our tour. The tour was interesting, but we didn't get any samples to taste, so ultimately I would have rather not done the tour and spent some time in the pub instead, but what are you gonna do.
It was interesting to hear about brewing after we'd brewed and fermented our own beer. Dave and Tom, who tagged along with us to all of the breweries, bought some beers from the shop, so we will have our own tasting later (when Dave has any desire to drink beer again).
Next stop was Flossmoor Station, probably the most pleasantly surprising stop of the day. We met up with a bunch of college friends, one of whom ordered a sampling of every beer on the menu. Dave drank his favorite of the entire day here: barrel-aged brown ale. My favorite was also here, the blueberry wheat. We bought a growler of the blueberry wheat and Julie brought Dave a growler of a double IPA she found. Woot, woot!
Next was Revolution Brewing in Logan Square. I got into a bit of an altercation over our parking spot, but Dave was proud of how I stood my ground. At Revolution, I was unimpressed with their Witbier, but Dave liked the hoppy beers he tried. I ordered some pizzas for the table and we really started to amass a large following of people at this point. There had been probably 8 of us at Flossmoor, but by this point there were probably about 18 or 20 (mostly law friends and Dave's coworkers).
The last stop was Haymarket Brewing in the West Loop. At this point I had no more desire for beer, but I was really hoping to get a glass of their Bananahammock hefeweizen. Unfortunately, they stopped brewing it, and I wasn't a fan of the wheat beer I tried (or maybe I had just drank too much beer already that day). We met up with about 25 people, and it was really good to see everybody. Some people said that Haymarket was their favorite pub over Revolution, and others said the opposite. I'd probably do Haymarket for more of a happy hour event, and I'd do Revolution for a small dinner, I think.
After all that, the poor guy had to bottle our home brew the next day as he battled a hangover. And although the home brew hefeweizen smelled good, it looked like this:
Gross.
That is the half-fermented beer. Basically you cook the pre-beer mixture, which includes malt extract, water, and hops. Then you cool it and add the yeast, which eats the sugars over a period of about a week. Then you bottle with some more sugar and the yeast carbonates the beer in the bottle for about a month.
Burt stayed the night and helped us bottle the beer. Here he is, holding a siphon and sporting an incredible handlebar mustache.
We got about a case and a half of beer out of it, although I think some of that was wasted because we just weren't very efficient at bottling. Next time I think we could get more out of it if we used a strainer. After we do one more kit, we'll probably start using recipes from a beer brewing book we bought.
So that was our weekend - pretty much a beer bonanza. My dad is still in the hospital and we visited him both days, and I look forward to sharing our home brew with him when he gets out of the hospital. (He will be home long before the beer is ready, though!)
Happy 30th, Dave, from your 20-something wife!
Several things converged yesterday to make it a wonderful New Year's Eve indeed. First, we went to the Robie House to finish our WrightPlus pass, 2011.
The Robie House in Hyde Park is Frank Lloyd Wright's ultimate expression of prairie-style architecture. It looks small from the outside, which is the whole idea - to blend in with the flat prairie. In fact, it is a three-story, 9,000 square feet house!
The long living and dining rooms were truly breathtaking. (Sadly, no photos are allowed.) They're still renovating a lot of the Robie House, but it is definitely worth a look. It's amazing to think that they almost tore it down a few times.
Next, Dave and I went to Top Notch Burgers in Beverly to finish out my top five burger list, which is part of my 30 before 30 list. Dave and I split a chocolate shake and each ordered a Mexican burger, which was amazing. I honestly don't know whether I preferred this one or DMK Burger Bar. I think if I had to re-write Mr. Dolinsky's list, I'd put DMK and Top Notch in the number one slot, then Kuma's, then Twisted Spoke, then David Burke's Primehouse.
After lunch, we visited with my parents for a few hours. I helped my mom make a hat for a cancer patient and we watched some episodes of "The Office."
Then it was time to go to the main event: the New Year's Eve party at the Girl and the Goat!
We met some really fun people and ate some tasty food, obviously. Another few people shared our little standing table and we got to chatting about all kinds of things. Here's a photo of me with one of them, Wanda, and Miss Stephanie Izzard herself!
Yes, I am wearing a Happy New year hat. They were all over the tables, I was just getting into the spirit!
Out of the tasting menu, here's what we got to try:
- Roll with herbed butter
- Fried oysters with egg salad and crisp capers
- Scallop tartare with tomato soy, trout roe, finger limes, and crisp rice
- Smoked tofu with shiitake broth and pickled slaw
- Green tea pork belly with pork fat crumpet, lemongrass, kimchee, and sesame aoli
- Kitfo (steak tartare) with piri piri and preserved lemon
- Brown buttered squash soup with bourbon butter poached lobster and sherry gastrique
- Goat rangoon with fennel and rosemary vinaigrette
- Seared duck breast with rilette ravioli, avocado, and grapefruit
- Chocolate-thai chill gelato with chocolate cake, peanut fluff, pomegranate, and Left Hand Milk Stout
There was also some kind of salad thing, but I don't recognize it from the menu list. I knew that this party would push my taste buds into new territory, and I was really proud of myself for trying the fried oyster and tartare. Actually, my favorite item was the steak tartare. I also had a cabernet, a mimosa-style drink, and a few glasses of champagne (which were distinctly apple tasting and delicious).
I'm glad we went, but some aspects of the evening were kind of disappointing. I didn't get a few of the items on the menu, most likely because the kitchen was flocked with guests that grabbed all the items before the servers could even bring them around. Although we liked our table mates, many of the people there were distinctly douche-y.
So, I don't know if we'll go anywhere next year, but I'd probably be more willing to go somewhere in the future if we actually had a table for the whole evening, and servers were bringing things out to us rather than having to fight for each dish. But you never know whether you will like something until you try it!
Happy new year, and welcome to 2012!
