(e:terry) and I took a walk to pick up the car from getting the exhaust repaired at Forest Automotive. Side note, they are the only auto repair people that haven't felt like a complete scam. Pretty honest assessments, they give you estimates for the short-term cheap fix and the long-term real fix.

So after picking up the car we stopped at the West Side Bazaar for Abyssinia Ethiopian and a Sudanese stand I hadn't tried before. The veggie platter is so good.

I miss going to Fast and Tasty on Allen multiple times a week.

This feels like the first real winter in a while. Like snow stays on the ground and no thawing.

I always feel the need to get out and walk around after it snows. One, because besides peak summer, Buffalo looks best covered in a layer of snow. And two, part of me thinks snowy winters will be mostly gone in the near future.

But this time in-person. Cookie decorating with my family, Christmas Eve with both (e:Paul) and my family and then hosting (e:Paul)'s relatives for a big famy party.

A lil late but (e:):terry and I whipped up hundreds of Christmas cookies to deliver.

I scoop cookies small so we had a lot of plates. Scotchies, ginger snaps, raspberry thumbprint, chocolate chip and Italian ricotta cookies. Almost all delivered by bike, with (e:Paul) too!

(e:paul) left before us so (e:terry) and I had one more day before our train left at night.

Turns out in a big city you need to plan your day in advance, because a lot of things we wanted to do needed to be reserved.

We did manage to find a tasty Kurdish breakfast. Tofu scramble, fresh bread and a lot of dips. It was called The Gundi's on North Clark.


A lot of L rides and walking around. We tried to go to the free Lincoln Park botanical garden but they required tickets in advance.


Kept on walking around through the old town and eventually took the train back downtown. I showed Terry the crazy beautiful dome in the Chicago Cultural Center and the 7 story Macy's.





A quick stop in Boystown before we left, a last dish to eat some mediocre deep dish, and we were on the Amtrak back, heavy unicycles included.

Chicago is pretty amazing, I definitely think I could live there.