After a five-day weekend, I'm back in the studio and very refreshed. Nothing like doubling up your weekend to put you at ease, right? It was all about having fun too, not a whole lot of plans. Let's run through a checklist, shall we?

1. Go wakeboarding - CHECK!

2. Enjoy the great outdoors - CHECK!

3. Root on the Brewers - CHECK!

4. Catch up on video games - CHECK!

5. Eat lots of junk food - CHECK!

Can't compete with that! It was one of the better vacations I've had simply because it wasn't packed to the gills with things to do like so many of my days off are. My sister and I are always saying that there's never enough downtime and this weekend I finally got some.

The Windy City or How Joe Met Hog Doug

I decided to head to Chicago at the last minute this last Fourth of July weekend. Lucky for me, I had a chance to check out Hot Doug's before they closed for the upcoming week. I had never been to Hot Doug's before, but after seeing the fine establishment on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" I knew that I had to visit. So a friend of mine and I took a journey over to the encased-meat emporium to see if it was really up to snuff. The answer, in a word, is an overwhelming: YES.

Our Journey began at around 1:30 in the afternoon. Hot Doug's is well known for having long lines to taste their magnificent sausages, so we figured that would be plenty early to get through the door by 4:00 when they close. Lucky for us, we had beautiful weather in Chicago for our long wait in line. I didn't think to start taking pictures until about 3:45 when we were STILL in line. We were starting to get nervous that we weren't going to make it in the door before the closing bell. This is how long of a line was behind us yet too.

That's about another two blocks worth of people. Here's how close we were at that time.

That's about eight more people before we get to the door, and it's getting ever so close to 4:00. We have NO idea how strict their closing hours are either, so again, we're getting pretty nervous. Finally, 4 o'clock rolls around and we're still outside the door, though just barely. So close now, we can almost touch their beautiful sign.

We finally were able to step inside the door at around 4:15, somewhat bewildered as to how we're still able to stay in line. After we enjoyed our food, we found out that an employee went to the end of the line at 4:00 to stop people from continuing to line up. We didn't really care how we were able to get in though, as our tummies were rumbling for sausages.

We placed our order with Hot Doug, who is quite possibly the NICEST guy in all of Chicago. I mean, his place was set to close at four, and even though he wasn't going to get out of there until well after six or even seven, he was still as polite and happy as could be. We then went to sit and enjoy our food. First up is the Spicy Beef Sausage with Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce and Applewood-Smoked Cheddar Cheese. Delicious!


Next up, the traditional Chicago Style Hot Dog. My first ever, by the way, and I don't think I'll ever have a hot dog any other way ever again.

Then there was the only disappointment of our visit. My friend ordered the Catalonian Pork Sausage with Saffron Rouille and 12-Month Manchego Cheese and it wasn't so good. We agreed that the cheese had a soapy texture and aftertaste that wasn't very appetizing.





And finally, there was the side of Duck Fat Fries. Yes, that's right, fries cooked in duck fat. They're only available Fridays and Saturdays and they're pretty good. There's a slight difference between these and regular fries, but we couldn't quite define it.



I was completely satisfied after our Hot Doug's adventure and I HIGHLY recommend checking them out the next time you're in Chicago. Just make sure that you leave yourself plenty of time to wait in line!

This Makes Me Want Coffee

The Best Beard in the Biz

It's with great sadness that I have to say goodbye to Billy Mays. Not only was he one hell of a pitchman, he also had a beautiful array of facial hair. We'll miss you Billy... and your beard.

Do Want

Heat Wave

Well, we had the typical Wisconsin "One Week of Spring" in order to break up the frost advisories from the 90 degree weather that will start tomorrow. It never fails, everyone always goes from complaining about it not being warm enough to complaining about the heat and humidity. I am by no means excluding myself from this grouping, as I do it all the time.

With the heat coming in, I set up my air conditioning units in my living room and bedroom today after finishing up on Jon and Mary in the Morning. I live in an older building and am using some older AC units, so they don't really get set up all that well. They're a little crooked and don't completely seal off the outdoors, so I've got old socks and tee-shirts to plug up the holes. I really wish that I had a digital camera so I could prove it. I guess my word will just have to be good enough! By the by, if you have any better ideas on closing off the leaks let me know. I have a bad feeling that the fans on the AC units will be blowing some foul odors along with the cool air...

Two Large Corporations; Two Polar Opposites

I came across two stories today. The first made me furious. The second gave me goosebumps.

The first story was that of a 32-year-old single mother in Minnesota who was sued by the RIAA for $1.9 million dollars for downloading 24 songs illegally. That amounts to $80,000 PER SONG! That is an absolutely ridiculous amount of money for such a minor infraction. There are rape and homicide cases that are settled on smaller sums of money than that. Sentencing in this country, for both criminal and civil cases, is so out of whack, I'm at a loss for words. The RIAA is just a big bully trying to grasp at anything they can because they're failing to adapt to the way their own consumers want to purchase their products. Ridiculous. I haven't ever contacted my congressmen before, but believe me, I will on this issue. And just when I thought large corporations (or unions of said corporations) couldn't get any worse, there was a light in the distance...

Pixar has always put out fantastic family films, as most of us know, but they've also done an incredibly genuine thing for one 10-year-old girl who was dying of cancer. Her final wish was to watch UP in the comfort of her own home. This was thought to be difficult since it has yet to see a DVD release, much less leave theatres. But Pixar heard about her wish and made it happen. The young girl then passed away just seven hours after seeing the movie. If that isn't touching enough that Pixar would go out of their way to make sure this young girl saw the movie before she passed, they also refuse to comment on the situation. Pixar isn't taking this act and using it for their own gain. They're not taking this young girl's death in order to say, "Look at us! We're such a great company! We care about kids!" It's such a refreshing story to wash the bad taste out of my mouth from the RIAA.

I'll step off my soap box now...