weekend wonders

so, quick update:
my saturday was awesome. i got up early and went to the Green Cities farmers' market and got delicious relatively-local food with my friend Rachel, then went to the Chicago Cultural Center with Rachel and our friend Zach. The cultural center is awesome - in the old Chicago Public Library, built in the late 1800s. half of the building used to be the Grand Army of the Republic headquarters - that's a club for Civil War vets. In the 1920s, the library took over the GAR half of the building, and then the library had to move out in the 70's because it outgrew the building. instead of razing the building to put in a skyscraper, as was fashionable in the 70's, Mayor Daley decided (or rather, his wife decided) to make it a public exhibit and concert space, and a home for city-based NGOs and not-for-profits.
the building itself is absolutely gorgeous, with the Library half being Roman architecture and the GAR half, Greek. Both sides were built at the same time, and each side has a Tiffany dome - incredible works of art! and the one is the largest Tiffany dome in the world. in one of the domed rooms, the walls are all mosaic, with each mosaic chip set at a slight tilt to its neighbor so that the walls sparkle as you move your head. it's pretty amazing, all of the tiny details that went into this place.
what we actually went there to see, though, was an exhibit of a crochet version of the Great Barrier Reef, done as a visualisation of hyperbolic space. it was pretty incredible. the exhibit taught us about math, handicrafts, and the biology of coral reefs.
then we went to Rachel's house and made mozzarella cheese, from my new book called Home Cheesemaking. this was my first attempt at making cheese, and i definitely think it was a success. lactose-intolerant zach ate a bunch of the cheese and didn't even get sick, that's how good it was. we also made ourselves very popular with the kitten that lives in Rachel's house.
we then headed out through the snowstorm to a benefit concert of folk guitarists, held at a coop called Stone Soup. it was a great hippiefest, full of dreadlocked people with high ideals for the world.
now i'm baking bread and trying to get things done, but i'm getting distracted by reading the newspaper and loooking out the window at the beautiful day - it looks deceptively nice out, as it's very sunny on all the fresh snow, but i know it's cold as the dickens and windy. maybe i will still brave a trip over to the lake.