This is what happens when I step away from the internet

One activity I did to pass the time when my blog was busted was check out my neighborhood a bit more. I've lived here (Bucktown) for a year, and will be in this same apartment for another year. However, my friends all live 2 miles north or 2 miles south of me. This means that whenever I go out, I go to one of their zones. Nobody comes to mine. Now that Nate's around, I've been heading out to the various bars nearby. We went to the Charleston last week, and liked that. I liked it mostly because its nonsmoking, one of very very few bars in Chicago like that. It also had pretty good music on and a decent beer selection. And it was super easy to get a table. I would have brought a game or my laptop (free wireless) though, as we got sort of bored just sitting there. It's like a coffee shop more than a bar.

A second Cleo's bar/restaurant opened up on Armitage! The other one is down by Nate's house, but he said this one is nicer. And it will have an incredible outdoor dining patio. The place is also partially nonsmoking. Two nonsmoking places in my hood!

There's also Quenchers and the Map Room within a brief walking distance. This means that if I want to go out, but don't want to trek way south or north I can actually go places. It's too bad I didn't figure this out earlier, but I never had another brave soul to wander somewhere with me. There are a few restaurants I want to try, namely this one Cuban place on Armitage.

I also watched a fair amount of DVDs from netflix, including: all of Big Love season 1 (great), Down by Law (good), An Inconvenient Truth (rather would have read this as a book than watch the lecture), Match Point (meh), and Munich (good, but long). Up next? Herzog's Signs of Life and Fishing with John (to show Nate the Willem Dafoe episode).

And P.S.? I'm pretty sure Boom Bip's release later this month, Sacchrilige, is going to be amazing if the songs on his myspace are any indication. Very different than Seed to Sun, but still good. I should just admit that I'd rather listen to dancey crap over all other types of music.