Crunch

So, the expressways around Chicago carry a decent amount of traffic during the day. Of them, the Ryan and Kennedy carry the most. And being a city, there are going to be accidents, especially on said roads. Coming back Saturday from some delicious pheasant, we were heading home on the Kennedy in some light traffic. All of a sudden some car swerves across a few lanes, back and forth across a few lanes, and then across all four directly into the center median. The last swerve ended up taking out a car into the median with it.

This was probably the most violent crash I've actually seen firsthand. Was a bit too close for my liking though, since all this happened (at most) four cars in front of us. I actually thought we might end up getting involved somehow. Since I wasn't driving, I was able to check out the post-crash scene as we pulled away. The crash was reasonably high speed and kinda violent...but surprisingly (and luckily), most people seemed fine and were able to get out of their cars. And I was legitimately surprised that only one other car ended up getting taken out.

I guess I don't have a real point to the post. I was just surprised at how forceful a crash can be and at how people can actually walk away from some of them.

Deliciousness

So I've sampled a few food places the past few weeks. Results as follows.

La Sardine
Good, if not expensive, French place. Probably the best salmon I've ever had here: both the salmon and the sauce were just insanely tasty. Never thought I'd say that about salmon. Really good escargot, blood sausage, and mussels if you're into appetizers. Like I said, on the expensive side though.

Penang
Don't know much about Malay cuisine, but I can vouch for this place's offerings. Had some roti and chicken curry for an appetizer. Shared some soft shell crab, lamb, and chicken family style as entrees. By far the best part was the soft shell crab...crunchy, but not too crunchy. And spicy, but not too spicy. End result: delicious. If that's not your deal, I believe they have a sushi bar.

Patio Hot Dogs
This place is actually in my neighborhood, just hadn't noticed until recently though. Got all sorts of good stuff: italian sausage, Italian beef, chili dogs, and various other burger/dog choices. The thing to get is the sausage and beef combo. For about $5 you get an Italian sausage with Italian beef piled on top. Throw on some peppers and you're golden. Pretty filling meal for $5.

Jim's Original
Similar food as Patio, with more emphasis on dogs/sausages. Will not go wrong with a Polish or a chili dog. And I'm a fan of the chili dog. Grilled onions are abound, even on the burgers. I personally am partial to them, your mileage may vary. Fries come with everything you order, and it's reasonably priced. For $6 I got a Polish, a burger, and two orders of fries. Can't really argue with that.

Hot Doug's
Yes, another hot dog place. Not your usual hot dog place, they've got all sorts of different sausage offerings. For example: pheasant, tongue, alligator, elk, and other assorted animals/combos. And that's just off the weekly special menu. The pheasant and elk have been "games of the week." They've also got duck fat fries on Friday and Saturday, which are pretty much goodness. Not sure if it's the deep frying in duck fat or the fact that they make the fries there, but it doesn't really matter to me. If that's not doing it for ya, they've got regular Chicago style dogs, chili dogs, corn dogs, and whatnot. Only thing that sucks is the specialty sausages are a bit expensive: probably $6+ on average. So good though.

Revenue

As I'm heading out to move my car for monthly street cleaning, I see something hanging off my driver's side window. Ooo, I wonder what event/venue decided to make me aware of their existence? Alas, an invalid question. The brightly colored object was yet another request for money from Chicago. And by request for money, I mean ticket...of which three unpaid ones result in the boot. (Only reason I knew about the boot is because I read the fine print trying to figure out how to contest the ticket.)


Note how this guy couldn't find anything actually wrong with my parking, so he ventured down to the "other" violation line and proceeded to write something in. Cool, thanks dude. On top of that, the ticket was timed at 2:30. Military time. Double cool. Oh, and the only way my plate's not legible is if you're not looking at it.

And where do I go to pay said ticket? "Cityofchicago.org/revenue" Sure, tickets are something to be associated with having a car in the city. This one's a bit more ridiculous than the others though. At least I got a decent chuckle out of it...I actually laughed out loud when I read this one.