New at-home pandemic haircuts!
Mitch here!
- Emma says “Yes, man” instead of “Yes, ma’am,” and we haven’t corrected her because it’s just so hilarious.
- We’re giving up and making homemade bagels. Bagels in Chicago are disgusting. Even the bagel shops that claim to serve New York Bagels are a joke. Bread with a hole in it does not a bagel make, Chicago. Get real. How hard could it possibly be to make a bagel? I mean, you run a freaking bagel restaurant! You call This A BAGEL?! HAVE YOU EVER EVEN SEEN A BAGEL?! So I’m taking it in mine own hands and we’re going to make bagels in our home because it can’t be that hard to make a decent bagel. I’m just saying. Bagels aren’t hard even if you live in Chicago.
- Kelly and I had a standing “no-gift” policy for Valentine’s Day this year. We’ve had a similar policy for our birthdays and Christmases for like four years. But not once have either of us ever lived up to the policy. Not once. It’s like a game of gifting chicken and both of us blink every time. (I’m writing this in advance, so I’ll let you know how this all went in my next “10 Things” post.)
- I’m a full-time snow shoveler guy now. Luckily, I have only a single 15-foot stretch of sidewalk to maintain in the city, but when it snows half a foot of snow each day for most of a month… I feel like I’ve earned the right to brag. Also, shout out to Salt for being the unsung hero of winter. Salt is like a winter eraser. After Emma and I salt the stoop and the sidewalk, we stand in the window and watch it melt everything. Way more fun than it sounds.
- I get stuck in a giant mound of snow every time I leave my garage. It’s seriously like doing moguls out there. It’s a nice little routine I have. I wait until the last possible second to leave, rush out the door, get into the freezing cold, gun it out of the garage and immediately get stuck in the alley. Even worse, there was some snow on my little going backwards car camera thing and I crashed into a concrete wall while gunning it to jump the snow cliff. Why do I live in Chicago again?
- We don’t think we can go to Florida this year. Okay, I’m still talking about the weather. I know everyone has a similar complaint this February as we wait for our Fauci Ouchie, but I’m bummed. Kelly and I established a routine of taking a warm-weather family vacation every February to ward off the seasonal blues. Last year, we were at Disney World this very week. It makes such a difference for us, and it’s one of the ways we make living in Chicago doable for our family. But who knows. Maybe a spring break trip is possible? And if it all falls through, we’ll be just fine. There’s always next year!
- Still on the weather. Growing up, my dad used say, “After a certain point, cold is cold. Stop your complaining.” And now that I’m an adult with kids of my own who just survived the last two weeks of single-digit and negative temperatures in Chicago, I’d like to publicly say, “No it’s not, Dad. You’re a psycho.”
- Kelly gave me the most comfortable shoes in the world. They’re Uggs made to look like regular chukka boots, and they’re all fluffy and fun and I like them. Now, of course, I don’t plan on going outside or anything for a few more months (still on the weather), but someday this will make the perfect little shoe. Thanks for the gift, Kelly.
- I’m learning to cook traditional Indian food. Shaheen, before you crawl through the internet to slap me, just know that I’ve got a lot to learn. But my best friend’s mom—who’s a wonderful cook and prepared incredible Indian meals for us growing up—finally wrote down her recipes for me and I’m sourcing the ingredients to try. The problem here is that I’m an awful cook, and as Shaheen knows, I often make inappropriate substitutions when I can’t find a particular ingredient. But her food is just so delicious and I’m determined to GET THIS RIGHT. Hopefully I don’t poison myself.
- I’m forcing myself to eating all my random pandemic food. About a year ago before we knew very much about the pandemic, I wrote a post about how to stock one’s home. It turns out that grocery stores would continue to function fairly normally… so now I have a house full of some very strange foods. And to earn back my cabinet space, I’m forcing myself to eat it all. It turns out that mandarine oranges are really great. I even just restocked my supply. Crap.
Mitch. OUT!
