January 2025 – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Another Restaurant Week, another new restaurant tried

This year’s Restaurant Week (which actually runs for two weeks) took us to the nearby suburb of Aurora, to a restaurant I have been following on Facebook since before they opened this location: Leilani Asian Fusion. Restaurant Week, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is an opportunity for local restaurants to draw in new customers with fixed price (“prix-fixe”) menus that offer a limited selection, showcasing some of their best options.

Honey Walnut Shrimp: Tempura Fried Shrimp, Honey Aioli, Candied Walnuts
Salmon Teriyaki: Scottish Wild-Caught Salmon, Miso Carrot Puree, Charred Broccolini
Drunken Scottish & California Rolls: California (Crab Mix, Cucumber, Avocado); Drunken Scottish (Crab Mix, Cucumber, Avocado, Seared Salmon, Unagi Sauce)
Ube Crème Brûlée: Ube Custard Topped with Seasonal Fruits

I’m not sure it’s possible to overstate how good this meal was. The Honey Walnut Shrimp had a surprising bit of spice to it (probably those red specks in the aioli sauce), and that may be well have been the best salmon dish I’ve ever eaten. The waitress mentioned that they use sushi-grade salmon for it, so it’s high enough quality that it can be served anywhere from raw to well done. The entire outside of the salmon had a delicious crunch to it. (The sushi plate wasn’t mine, though I assume it was also tasty.) And then the dessert… the Ube Crème Brûlée was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, with that beautiful purple color and fresh berries on top. And everything was perfectly-sized, so we left feeling full without that overwhelming need to explode or sink into a food coma.

Leilani Asian Fusion is conveniently located just down the street from the Paramount Theatre, which makes it an easy meal choice before or after a show.

Are you coming to Capricon 45?

By the time I wrote last year’s post about Capricon 44, I knew was putting in a bid to co-chair Capricon 45 with a friend. It’s less than two weeks away now and I’m super excited about the guests, the events… everything! We are going to have a rockin’ good time, as evidenced by the fabulous items listed in the flyers I’m including below.

Flyer for Capricon 45, a SciFi, Fantasy, and Literature Convention held February 6-9, 2025 at the Sheraton Grand Riverwalk in Chicago. The flyer mentions the four Guests of Honor (Dr. Tom Barclay, Astrophysicist; Zeta Jane, Cosplayer; Dr. Micaiah Johnson, Author; and John Kovalic, Comic Author) and some of the events they're participating in, with small images representing some other parts of the convention (Silent Auction, Parties, Gaming, Live Music, Writer's Room, Art Show, Dealer's Hall).

But… oh my goodness, there’s so much to choose from and I’ll be chairing and won’t have time for most of it. We have an actual astrophysicist talking about how to design a spaceship, an amazing cosplayer leading some hands-on sewing workshops, an award-winning author discussing automatons, and our friendly neighborhood cartoonist (if you consider Madison in the neighborhood of Chicago) comparing graphic novels and comic books. And that’s just a handful of the programming events, ranging from panels to round tables to make-and-take gatherings and even a cosplay parade.

The room block is open until January 31st, you can still join us and get in on the fun. Even if you can only come for a day – we have day badge rates here – it is absolutely worth the experience!

Take the sick day.

I took a sick day this week. I woke up a couple times during the night feeling poorly, then a couple hours before my alarm that morning, unable to get back to sleep. I dragged my way towards breakfast and realized that I would have a terrible day if I attempted to work. I commuted my way to the living room, booted up my work computer, send out some “I’m sick” messages to team channels, posted an out of office message, and logged out.

I hesitated though, in making that decision, and I realize that’s a flaw in our system. In elementary school, we had awards for “perfect attendance” (it didn’t count excused absences, which I wondered about when I received one), though if you think about it, that’s mostly an award for your parent calling in when you’re absent. As an adult, my early jobs didn’t involve e-mail, so calling in sick was actually calling someone and hoping they didn’t object. (I don’t recall it being a problem, though there was one time when my car wasn’t working where I was asked if I had another way to get into work.)

We shouldn’t have to justify sick days. If anything, people should be encouraged to take them, paid, to avoid sharing their illness with co-workers and, depending on the job, customers. In my case, working remotely, I have to be fairly miserable to call in sick. Fortunately, my boss understands that sick days exist to be used when needed and has never questioned my need to use one.

A short(ened) trip to Virginia

We traveled to Virginia last week, originally intending to stay for three nights. For flight time convenience, we flew into Richmond and out of Norfolk, with a plan of staying in Williamsburg and exploring the area. Research into the area showed that public transportation wasn’t going to be an option, so I rented a car through Costco.

The Williamsburg area feels fairly tourist-oriented, with a plethora of hotels and resorts. While the Colonial Williamsburg is eminently walkable (as was our gated resort), the area from our resort to nearby restaurants was not – the lack of sidewalks combined with poorly lit roads meant driving to get dinner even if it was within our definition of walking distance. To be fair, that lack of ambient light meant we had fabulous views of the night sky.

After the timeshare talk that inspired our trip (the resort stay was free other than taxes and such), we explored one of the Art Museums in Colonial Williamsburg – despite different names, the museums are attached and you move easily between them. On our way there from the nearby public parking, we had noticed a section of street closed off (through February) for an ice rink. When we left the museum around closing, the ice rink was reasonably full with children who let up a cheer as a light snow started to fall. We finished off the evening with video games at the resort’s arcade – free play for everything – and some time in the indoor pool. (Yes, the outdoor pool and hot tub were open. At 30-some degrees, no, thank you.)

On what would have been our last full day there, I woke up to news of a winter storm heading towards Virginia and an emergency declaration from the governor, recommending anyone who was planning to travel on the Sunday more up their schedule. By a couple hours later, the airline app had updated to offer free changes, so we dropped our plan to explore the historic guided sites and gardens and moved onto our day of departure plan: visiting the Virginia Zoo. (To be clear, we were flying Southwest anyways, where changing flights is fairly easy under normal circumstances.)

There are pros and cons to visiting a zoo in winter… especially somewhere that experiences winter. The primary disadvantage is that many animals, especially those from warmer climates, are off exhibit, and only some of them have indoor viewing areas. On the other hand, other than the Reptile House – an entirely indoor experience for obvious reasons – you can walk through parts of the zoo without crowds. Or really, any other people for large sections, which gives you time to appreciate the animals (and a surprising amount of bamboo) without feeling like you’re monopolizing the space.

There’s a lot more we would like to see and do in the Williamsburg area. I suppose we’ll just have to go back at some point.

Goals we set are goals we get… sometimes.

I’ve talked about goal setting before, I find it’s a more useful approach to accomplishing things across the year than resolutions. That said, sometimes life throws some twists in that interfere with those goals. As an example, I returned to karate near the end of 2023, so had a goal of attending a certain number of classes across the year. And then I had hand surgery in March, which knocked me off the mat for a couple months, followed by physical therapy for arthritis in my knees for a couple summer months, and a whirlwind of travel in the fall.

At least that’s explainable… I’m not sure how I only tracked 42 books on Goodreads. After hitting my goal of 52 books multiple years, I had increased it to 54 for 2024. Even if I missed tracking a couple, that seems low, especially with all of the Hugo nominees I read before voting in those awards before attending WorldCon in Glasgow.

Regardless, I accomplished some goals – fixing up my master bedroom closet (which had been on my list for years), paying down my home equity loan, and, of course, writing my weekly blog posts. Now I reset, determining what goals I want to work towards in 2025. I’ve found 10 to be a reasonable number, and have made sure they meet the SMART requirement – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-based.

Having done that, I should decide what I want to work on… re-organizing my work desk or my reading goal, noting that I’m currently reading Wind and Truth, which is over 1300 pages. As one of my karate instructors says, start strong, finish stronger.