Pictures of the Day] The Art Institute and the Taste of Chicago!!!
Mood] Satisfied
Weather] Sticky. High 92
Currently] In the living room
Quote of the day: "Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air…"
YAY for adventures downtown Chicago! There were so many things to look at! First at the Art Institute, they had a great exhibit for children's story book authors. The artwork for the stories was sooo beautiful, most done in graphite and acrylic. It was great. It really inspired me to actually pick up doing some art, namely, painting. It all looks quite whimsical. The 3rd photo above is of me with one of the paintings. It is a story about mussels (or oysters, it is difficult to tell) getting out of their shells and having adventures. Kind of reminded me of that Walrus and Clam story from Disney? Am I just crazy or do you know which cartoon I'm talking about? Totally youtube it. Worth it.
Anyway, that was neat. Then the taste was fabulous! Really it's like a carnival, more fun to do with friends. I mean, you end up spending a lot of money, but it is worth it to be able to try things and laugh. I have become more tan. @.@ Too much sunlight! Probably should use sun block...oh well. >.>
Anyway, my food details are pictured above! I started out with a great hibiscus sorbet (totally into hibiscus now...), followed by fiery drumettes, THEN a giNORMOUS turkey leg smothered with BBQ sauce (it totally defeated me), and topped with a rainbow waffle cone ice-cream. It was AMAZING. The ice-cream had like, 5 different flavours and real nuts in it (I liked the pistachio!). I encourage anyone who has not yet visitted Chicago for the Taste, to definitely try the next time around!
Definitely stuffed,
~Jaye
Picture of the Day] THE BEST COOKIES IN THE WORLD!!!!
Mood] Satisfied
Weather] High of 74. Sunny and breezy. :D
Currently] In the kitchen
Quote of the day: "Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on?"
I am so glad that I made these cookies again! It took a bit of experimenting, but I think I found the right balance in the end. If you are the kind of person who likes crispy around the edges and soft in the middle kind of cookies, then I recommend this recipe! I have added a bit of my own pazazz, but you can definitely alter it to your tastes! They are best served nearly right out of the oven (I am known to my family for my need to devour extremely hot foods directly from the cook top, but I promise you, these are better left to sit for at least 5 minutes) with a tall glass of milk!
Here for your enjoyment! The perfect chocolate chip cookies:
Makes a crazy large amount (probably 2 dozen depending on how big you make them)
2 cps all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cp unsalted butter (or margarine)
1 cp packed brown sugar
1/2 cp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk (which can be substituted with instant coffee)
2 cps semisweet chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. If you want to do the instant coffee thing, then dissolved one tbsp of instant coffee into about one to two tbsp of hot water. Set aside.
3. Grease cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper.
4. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
5. In medium bowl, cut the butter of magarine directly from the fridge with a wooden spoon, beaters, or whisk (I prefer wooden spoon). Add brown sugar and white sugar and mix until a little clumpy.
6. Beat in vanilla, egg and yolk [or coffee] until light and creamy (can still have some clumps).
7. Mix in sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips. If the final cookie dough is too liquidy, put it in the freezer for a few minutes to stiffen it a bit before using it.
8. Drop cookies using two teaspoons or tablespoons onto the cookie sheet. Bake about 16 minutes.
ENJOY!!!!
~Jaye
Picture of the Day] Blower Door Demonstration
Mood] Hungry
Weather] High of 90. Sunny. Bright. HOT.
Currently] In the basement
Quote of the day: "The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls."
So our IPRO team spent the whole day at a client's house doing an energy audit with EZING (an energy auditting company run by a man name John Porterfield). We used many different pieces of technology to figure out what the possible problems and leak areas were around the home! First of all, we set up the blower door. The guys pulled out what looked like a large red tent and began putting together the frame for the blower door that you see in the photograph. Then the professionals helped install the fan part into it. We hooked up another device that looks about the size of a huge Gameboy (maybe the original size!) that had two tubes connected to it. The tubes would help measure the pressure difference between the exterior of the home and the interior. That would give us a better idea of how the circulation in the home was and how much air was lost.
While the guys were doing that, Julie and I went outside to measure all around the house and look at all the windows. We went back inside and took these smoke-making tools (fondly dubbed "Wizard Sticks" on the tube part of the device) to use around the cracks of the windows and baseboards. You press a button on the small hand tools and they puff out smoke (Sherlock Holmes in the most recent movie done uses a similar tactic except his device looks like a small bellow). We marked all the areas of the home we saw were sucking the smoke away quickly or were blowing it away.
Another interesting bit of technology was a gun-like machine that gave infra-red readings. We were able to look at a shadowy image on the screen to discern where there were holes of insulation in the walls. Bright areas and dark areas on the screen distinguished where the insulation ended or where there was no insulation at all present. It was important to mark these areas, should the home owner choose to remedy those areas.
All in all the day was long, but kinda fun. I felt a bit awkward becoming intimate with someone else's home, but it was enriching to see the process. We'll be getting the report for the audit to do more research and use as a case study for our IPRO!
Tired,
~Jaye
Pictures of the Day] The town of Pullman.
Mood] Tired
Weather] Sunny and breezy
Currently]At the front desk
Quote of the day: "Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."
So we went to the historical town of Pullman last week. It was seriously like stepping into the past. The Hotel Florence there has a beautiful exterior. The gardens around it are well maintained through volunteer efforts and the building itself is still standing after all these years. The interior is a shock! You step from painted, bright and happy exterior to gloomy and dilapidated interior. The floors and the walls are all torn up. The different rooms have terribly old carpet and some of the glass in the windows are missing. The bathroom has a whole section that is inaccessible and what furniture that is there is broken or looks like if you touched it it would fall to pieces instantly. The town of Pullman has a ton of volunteers that are trying to help preserve the buildings, especially the Hotel Florence, so their work on the interior is obviously not finished, but it is amazing to think that that space used to be filled with bustling people in large dresses and full suits, smoking, laughing, talking, and waiting to check in.
After we learned about the history of Pullman, we left the Hotel and moved toward a few of the garden/park spaces. Although the plants are not exactly the same as they were in the past, a lot has been done to try and recreate the look of the whole area. I think my favourite building might be the Green Stone Church, which actually has green stone! It was beautiful and apparently no one could afford to actually use the church back in the day, so it stood for quite some time, completely built, before anyone actually used it for its purpose.
We went to the market square, now completely devoid of life, and a roof for that matter! Then we walked to some of the homes to see the many differences between them. Although the homes were each done in a slightly different style, it all seemed to be connected somehow. Maybe it was the colour palette. There was a lot of brick and wood.
In the end, it was great to see the place where all these industrial workers used to enter through high gates to work and to live. Now the town is completely empty, or at least, it feels like it. There were not that many people on the street and although there probably is a sense of community between residents, it was not visually apparent. Overall, our visit was very very interesting, and I think that Pullman is an important historical district for Chicago! A must see!
~Jaye
Picture of the Day] Map!!!!
Mood] Excited
Weather] Cool and breezy
Currently] In my living room
Quote of the day: "Our time is so specialized that we have people who know more and more or less and less."
So one of the things that I would totally love to boast about later in life would be the fact that I have grown up with the Harry Potter phenomenon. It isn't equivalent to the inauguration of President Obama or anything, but you have to admit, the popularity of Harry Potter and the madness that has ensued from it is (if sadly at times) a definite marker for the times. Of course, the coming out of Harry Potter Land (technically called "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter) at Universal is something that a TON of people have been waiting for. I just hope that I'll be able to spend enough time there to really look around and take good photos/sketches. With places like that and people running around like mad, it might be difficult to actually take a break, sit down, munch on a dragon leg or something and draw. I think the architecture and the design of the buildings though will be fascinating!
So, if anyone is interested in taking a peek at that, I would totally recommend googling just Wizarding World of Harry Potter. There are quite a bit of renderings for the different shops that are HILARIOUS. Photoshopped people into high resolution spaces where there are tons of HP gear and lots of obviously rendered light. It's great, plus it gives you a view of what the space should look like. I'm thinking some of it has more than likely changed, but it would be awesome to hop in and see what it looks like. They really don't miss a beat when designing theme parks. If you ever get a chance to go into one, totally take the time to look at every nook and cranny. The details will be there.
:) SOO EXCITED
~Jaye
Pictures of the Day] The dishes I have recently cooked, including: dango (Japanese dessert) with sweet soy sauce, homemade chocolate chip cookies (with a hint of coffee flavour), chicken and fresh garden vegetable casserole, chicken, asparagus, onion, and goat cheese pizza on whole wheat crust, bacon wrapped dates stuffed with asparagus and sharp cheddar cheese, Latke (potato pancakes) with sour cream.
Mood] Good
Weather] High of 63, sunny and wonderful!
Currently] At home.
Quote of the day: "The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure."
So I've been planning lots of dishes lately, cooking up a storm pretty much. I think that it's a fun thing to do, though it does make my apartment pretty warm. I have the fan on mostly and enjoy just sort of messing around on the stove with the frying pans. I'm working on my timing. It's not working out well. I still am ending up having dishes semi-warm. I think I just don't think things through. Also, I keep on thinking up things I want to do while I've already started cooking, so then I start cooking the additions and of course it sets things back. Still nice though to have some actual meals. I'm definitely looking forward to cooking during the year.
I think it's been kind of funny how the past years there have been these totally big movie crazes. Of course you must have noticed. That's what they make all those spoofs off of. A great number of super-hero/comic based movies have sprung up, cooking movies, dance movies, end of the world/apocalyptic movies, and of course, stupid humour movies. Maybe it's just me, but they seem to pop up in pairs or triplets a lot of the time.
Speaking of movies, anyone see the new Harry Potter trailer? I'm kinda not as excited as I hoped I would be. I am actually a little disappointed. Hopefully more footage will remedy this. :/ I have been reading the books again and I have to say, the earlier novels so far have a lot of nice humour. It's refreshing. :D
Until the next meal,
~Jaye
Pictures of the Day] Andy Warhol's Clouds in Crown Hall!
Mood] Pleasant
Weather] Pleasant
Currently] Basement
Quote of the day: "You can only be young once. But you can always be immature."
So Crown is proud to have an exhibit by Andy Warhol! It is called Clouds, and basically there are huge rectangular silver Meyler balloons that float around the whole space, lifted by fans that are specifically placed in different corners of the building. It's actually kind of funny because the balloons seem to have a mind of their own. They keep travelling up and down the stairs, sometimes ending up in the classrooms in the basement in amazing ways. They are like animals, creeping along and trying to be unnoticed.
There are many architectural firms that come through Crown Hall and place exhibits in the space now that it's cleared for the summer. Another cool thing I found was an interactive table in the basement that has been sort of an interesting piece of technology that I've seen in videos, but never actually touched myself. It wasn't exactly how I'd seen in the videos, but it is similar. It is basically like a large ipad/iphone. You could use your fingers to shuffle through the photos, expand them, and more. The ones that I've seen in the videos is even more amazing. You can place your drinks on the surface, your phones, your airplane tickets and more, and it'll pull up itineraries, applications, etc...Wish I had one!
It is free for IIT students and staff to enter, but sometimes outside students and parents must pay. I think that the Clouds exhibit is five dollars a person. Sometimes the entrance is free though. Lots of little children have been in the building, playing with the balloons. The building is open for people to enter during the weekdays from about nine or ten until five in the evening.
I can't believe the awesome stuff that happens on campus when no one is around (or at least few people!). I wish that students were around campus to see how lovely it is. I know that prospective students get to see the campus nice, sunny, and bright. I can't wait until Summer Open House comes!
:)
~Jaye
