Dear Everyone,

I took the boys to the gym this morning, and they lifted some weights and fooled on the aerobics machines while I ran about 3.5 miles on an elliptical. Since then I’ve been marinating a skirt steak (soy sauce, olive oil, lime juice, brown sugar, garlic, onion) and making chocolate caramel swirl ice cream for tonight. Of course, I spent time watching the Bears play fantastic football for about ten minutes of the sixty regulation, and then manage not to screw it up and lose. The game last week against the Giants was pitiful – plus the Steelers lost, and the Packers won (the Steelers are off this week, and I don’t know what the Packers are doing). Cindy and Nicola were pseudo Giants fans last weekend, because they were in New York to attend Melanie and Howard’s wedding. While they were in NYC, Lucas departed to Iowa for several days at a collection of history farms (http://www.lhf.org/index.html). This is a series of farms were they use techniques from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Apparently the highlight for Lucas was the opportunity to use an ax on a living chicken (which was no longer alive when he was done).

Last night we went to a little hole in the wall restaurant that I had read about in the Tribune several times (yes, we still get the Tribune, although the quality of the paper has come down a long way). This was a little Chinese restaurant that could seat at most 25 people called Katy’s Dumpling House http://www.katysdumpling.com/Katys%20Dumpling%20Westmont/index.html . They are famous for their homemade noodles. We ordered potstickers, Dan Dan noodles, shrimp fried noodle, General Tso’s chicken, triple delight (seafood) noodle, and beef noodle soup. This was enough food for ten people. The noodles soup came in a giant bowl, and the noodles were slightly twisted, chewy, and flavorful. The leftovers did not last long. I think we will need to call ahead for take out (we were lucky to get a table, and service was not exceptionally fast), and also try some of their pre-made frozen dumplings. I hope we won’t be adversely affected by the kimchi shortage.

I have been reading some interesting books lately. I just finished the Kraken by China Mieville. http://www.amazon.com/Kraken-China-Mieville/dp/1596063378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286749965&sr=1-1
Funny, good puns, but way too long. It should have been ½ the length. Was Mieville’s choice of a squid god playing homage to Jeff Vandermeer? Or Lovecraft? I have also read David Mitchell’s 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, good historical fiction about the Dutch trading post of Dejima island off of Nagasaki http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Autumns-Jacob-Zoet-Novel/dp/1400065453/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286750028&sr=1-1 , a strange book by Tom McCarthy about a memory-less man reenacting meaningless bits of life http://www.amazon.com/Remainder-Tom-McCarthy/dp/0307278352/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286216095&sr=8-1, and a collection of short stories by Joseph Epstein about Jewish men from Chicago of a certain age. His details are spot on, as far as I can tell. http://www.amazon.com/Love-Song-Jerome-Minkoff-Stories/dp/0618721959/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286215931&sr=8-2 .

We also watched Terry Gilliam’s last movie (out some months ago), The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. Tragically, this was Heath Ledger’s last film. It is a wonderful work of film-making imagination. The plot it fairly predictable, but the screen is just throbbing with Gilliam’s vision. Too bad it wasn’t made in 3-D!

Cindy’s going over our tax returns, and I need to go fire up the grill.

Love, H.