My dad knocked on my door and woke me up:

“Criss, someone hit the World Trade Center.”

“Uhhh, yeah, that was like 8 years ago.” I thought he was talking about the time someone tried to fertilizer truck bomb the WTC in 1993. (You gotta admit, it’s pretty impressive that I got the number of years right at 5 a.m.)

“No, just now,” he insisted. “The buildings are gone.”

I probably shouldn’t repeat the next words that came out of my mouth, but needless to say, I was horrified. It was barely 5 a.m. Hawai‘i time, but it was already past 11 on the east coast, and much of what would be known of that day was known by the time most of us in the Pacific woke up: Two planes had been flown into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center, and both buildings had collapsed. Another plane had purposely crashed into the Pentagon, knocking out a large portion of that facility. Another plane had crashed in a field in a little city in Pennsylvania that none of us had heard of until that morning — Shanksville — and word was that it had been intended for a D.C. target, possibly the White House. All passenger airliners were being ordered to the ground. Of course, some would not be able to land for hours, as they were somewhere over the ocean, partway between the west coast and Honolulu.

But no one could tell us whether it was over yet, whether more hijackers were out there, just waiting to strike, whether bombs had been planted anywhere and were ticking away, ready to destroy strategic targets — and Honolulu was far from being a random city: We have the strategic military sites in the Pacific, including the last domestic site to come under foreign attack, Pearl Harbor. So while unthinkable tragedy had already occurred, perhaps the worst was yet to come, and we just didn’t know. We couldn’t imagine what might happen . . . but then, up until a few hours ago, who in their right minds would have imagined flying an airplane loaded with jet fuel and people into a skyscraper? It was completely crazy. What would “they” think of next?

As the next few days went by and it became clearer that all immediate danger had passed, further uncertainty set in. Commercial flights were grounded for days. This seemed like an eternity: I never realized how much ambient noise was created by airplanes until they no longer flew, until the skies were completely quiet. The silence was eerie. Would we ever fly again? It seems so silly to think that now, but at the time, it was all together possible that the answer might be no. Maybe the terrorists would “win” that one. After all, we had taken precautions after Oklahoma City: Even though that was not flight-related, I remembered airport security becoming tighter. We had done all we thought we could, and the terrorists had still slipped through our fingers — because why would we ever think that flight lessons would be a threat? Why would we think that a box cutter — a tool my dad uses probably every day — would be used to take someone else’s life in mid-air? But now, knowing this and knowing there was so much out there in the minds of criminals that we could never comprehend, how could we ever fly again with any sense of security? And yet, how could we not fly again? I live on an island. The only way I’m getting off this thing is on something with wings. Sure, boats can get you places, but they take a really, really long time.

Of course we took to the air once again within a matter of days. The rules of the game changed a bit, but a plane could still take you from Point A to Point B. People went back to work. Sports and prime time TV started up again, and politicians remembered that Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on everything. Our lives were changed, but everyday life eventually kind of came back — which we could not have been so sure of 10 years ago. Nonetheless, we must continue to pray for those who lost loved ones that day and for those who continue to sacrifice their lives to protect our freedom. That should truly be what we mean when we say never forget.

I get at least one hit on this blog every week from people who are Googling something like “Javert suicide Les Misérables 25th anniversary.” I am assuming you all want to know how Javert’s suicide plays out in the new production. Wonder no more:

Yeah, watch the whole thing. It’s worth it. The guy who plays Enjolras looks like Simon Baker from “The Mentalist” (i.e., hot).

SIGH.

Peyton Manning was my fantasy quarterback, dammit.

Apparently, it is just going to be that kind of season. This is potentially going to be worse than the season where I had Rex Grossman at the helm and would sometimes make negative points in QB.

Yes, I dropped him. But now I’m stuck with Sam Bradford and Matt Cassel. Yes, Matt Cassel. But at least he has a P next to his name — that’s for Probable. P Manning? Not so much.

Thank God hockey season starts soon.

I feel like turning the comments off for this entry in advance because I’m kind of afraid of the responses I’ll get from both sides of the aisle on this issue, but a lot of people have been really nice in asking after my migraine treatments, so here goes:

I went to a new acupuncturist for the first time today. This acupuncturist was trained by the one Debbie’s mom goes to, so she uses the same quick technique to test for food sensitivities: applied kinesiology. Basically, it goes like this: The therapist has you put one arm up at a 90-degree angle from your body and resist the pressure that she puts on your arm using one of her hands, like in this illustration, kind of like how they do in a basic neurological exam. Then she starts putting vials containing liquid suspensions into your other hand, one at a time, to see whether you’re still able to resist the pressure on your other arm while holding each vial. If you’re able to resist the pressure on your suspended arm when holding a certain vialed substance in your other hand, it supposedly means you’re not “allergic” to that substance; if your arm gives way a little or a lot, it means you’re sensitive to the substance. Now, I was pretty skeptical going into this, but I saw it with my own eyes and felt my own arm waver while I was holding certain vials — the contents of which weren’t revealed to me until after each test was completed. As it turned out, I was sensitive to . . .

• wheat gluten
• corn
• artificial sweeteners
• food additives/food coloring
• nuts

I was not sensitive to eggs, dairy (yay!), Vitamin C, Vitamin B complex, chicken, sugar, yeast, beans, soy, Vitamin A/shellfish, iron, salt/chlorides, coffee, chocolate or caffeine (again, super yay).

Today, the acupuncturist treated me for my newfound sensitivity to wheat gluten. During the treatment, I held the vial containing wheat gluten for about 20 minutes, during which time I lay there with the acupuncture needles in me. After the needles were removed and the vial was removed from my hand, I had to wash my hands and then avoid touching or consuming wheat gluten for 25 hours (i.e., until about 12:30 p.m. Saturday). This is known as he Namburipad Allergy Elimination Technique. I guess then I am on my way to being “cured” of my sensitivity to wheat gluten. Next week, we will probably do the same thing to work on my sensitivy to corn. Another week, we will work on nuts. The acupuncturist says we can probably tackle artificial sweeteners and food additives/coloring in a single session. And then I may be done, other than for maintenance, which I believe will be less frequent.

So . . . does it work? I don’t know. But I do know that forgoing dairy was not effective, and the applied kinesiology supported that (there was a 50/50 chance that it would, statistically speaking, anyway), at least. As for the rest of this stuff, I don’t know. But I also know that more “scientific” treatments have also been completely unhelpful. My neurologist has tried a series of different migraine prophylactics on me, and even the ones with the most horrendous side effects didn’t deter my headaches. At this point, if we can figure out what my triggers are and treat my sensitivity to them by doing anything that isn’t forbidden by the Bible, then I say go for it. Even if something works for me, I wouldn’t say it would work for everybody else — because goodness knows the medications that have failed me have certainly worked on a number of people — but when you reach this point of futility in treatment, you start to take on an every man for himself mentality. It’s bad, I know, but again, don’t judge unless you’ve felt like your skull is splitting open at the seams.

I will say that forgoing wheat gluten for 25 hours is a lot tougher than I’d thought. You’d think that with all the people out there with gluten sensitivities these days, there would be a lot of options, but even where there are options, they aren’t very convenient or tasty, and there are only so many salads one can eat. I’ve had a really busy day, so the most cooking I’ve done is of a deli-made patty I got at Whole Foods (yes, I checked to make sure there was no bread, etc., in it). Other than that, I got a Larabar, which was pretty funky (the main ingredient was dates) — everything else, including Luna Bars, said they were made in facilities that also processed wheat, so I didn’t want to take a chance that a trace of wheat would blow this entire therapy out of the water. I really need to make my best effort until just past noon tomorrow . . . which probably means that, for my own safety, I should just sleep all morning. And that really doesn’t sound like such a bad idea!

We’ve reached the more-than-halfway point in the two-week dairy embargo. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I’m afraid that it’ll be like driving Pali Highway, where I’ll just transition from one tunnel to another. Will wheat gluten be next? Good God, I hope not. I’m seeing an acupuncturist Friday morning (not the one I was originally “auditioning,” but one that she works with locally and can see me much sooner), and I guess I’ll find out then. Maybe she’ll tell me that the dairy embargo is useless (I coulda told you that) and that I can have pizza on Friday. That would be the best news. The worst news would be that I may as well start painting my palms yellow now because all I get to eat for the rest of my life is carrots, and they’re gonna stick 50 needles in me just for the heck of it. We shall see.

For what it’s worth, I have totally been sticking with the dairy ban even though the results have been terrible. I’ve had migraines in 6 of the last 7 days (Friday night being one of the most splitting headaches of my entire life), which may or may not have happened anyway, so I’m not blaming the lack of dairy — I’m just saying, it definitely hasn’t helped. I’m kind of annoyed to be dipping into my supply of Relpax so often, so I’m getting “cheap” and using the liver-plunderers instead. Surely this will not end well, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

Hopefully I am paying some kind of pennance up front and will not have migraines while I’m attempting to ride roller coasters and such at Disney World later this month. One can only hope.

The absence of a migraine is a beautiful thing. Most people wander the earth without giving the lack of intense pain a second thought, but those of us who suffer from chronic migraines know better. From time to time, we are acutely aware of the absence of pain – unfortunately, such observances can also be few and far between.

My cerebrovascular system knows four threat levels:

1. Complete absence of migraine
2. Vague sensation of pain/slight nausea (sometimes known as denial)
3. The “oh, no, dammit” migraine
4. The OMGWTF migraine (d0n’t judge unless you’ve had it — that is how it feels)

Normally, one should medicate when in Level 2, before the migraine progresses to Level 3, but here’s the rub: Neurologists will tell you that Level 2 is a migraine, so you have to treat it even if you’re not sure that if you let it go, it will actually develop into real pain, BUT my medical insurance will only pay for one medication in any particular class of drugs, and if that class of drugs is triptans (the most effective drugs), insurance will only pay for maybe six pills a month. Now, Level 1, as I have mentioned, is extremely rare, so as you can imagine, more than six pills a month are actually necessary, so a doctor may prescribe another type of treating medication, such as a combination acetominophen (Tylenol) and opioid. This second type of medication is less desirable because (a) it is not as effective as the triptan and (b) prescription strength acetominophen can take a toll on your liver. So while the knowledge that a Level 2 migraine could progress into a Level 3/4 migraine is definitely something to consider, I must also consider how much medication I’ve managed to stash and whether I want to be jaundiced when I’m 40 even though I’m vaccinated against two kinds of hepatitis.

Even IF I treat my migraine and even if it’s early, I’ll typically only achieve “painlessness” for a limited period of time before the aggressive migraine returns. Of course I feel I should use this time to clean (don’t laugh, sometimes it happens) or get work done, but really, even this supposed Level 1 can be confused with Level 2 because it may be accompanied by a case of exhaustion while my body recovers from fighting itself: It’s like I finally got the Three Stooges to leave my house, but it took everything I had to shove Larry, Moe and Curly out the door, kicking, screaming and doing that super annoying nyah-nyah-nyah thing. (I hate the Three Stooges; even thinking about them makes me want to put my head through a wall, but I am pretty sure that would just cause a migraine.) I deem this period Faux Level 1, because it isn’t really bliss — you just kind of think it is because you’re not in “real” pain anymore.

But — BUT! — once in a while, I experience Level 1 in all its glory. These are the days where I wake up without pain or throbbing, when I don’t feel my “brain” all day. When you don’t feel your cerebrovascular system, it’s definitely a good thing. Again, these days are few and far between, but I take ‘em when I can get ‘em.

UPDATE: I started writing this blog entry when I was experiencing Level 2 a few days ago. I am now in the middle of a mother of all Level 4s: It hurts every time I move my head, even to open my mouth to talk (or scream, which is what I really feel like doing right now), and the pain goes through the roof when I stand up or walk around. I’ve been on my feet all night and around some defective tiki torches that were just spewing gas, so all of that probably didn’t help. I’m really hoping the Relpax I just swallowed will do some kind of pharmaceutical magic while I try to sleep. This really sucks. I am on Day 5 of no dairy, and I am not feelin’ the love at ALL right now. I’ll stick it out with the dairy embargo for the whole two weeks, but obviously, dairy is not my trigger. Umm, yay?

I have been dairy-free since Monday (8/29) as an experiment for an acupuncturist I’m trying out. The practitioner actually lives in another state but comes here once in a while to practice, and my friend Debbie says her mom swears by this woman, who has treated her for lactose, gluten and egg allergies. The acupuncturist agreed to see me as a client when she comes to town this fall and asked me to try going dairy-free for a couple of weeks to see whether it helps. I agreed to do it only because I am under the assumption that if dairy is the culprit, she will help me the way she helped Debbie’s mom: poke needles in me and let me process the milk like a normal person.

. . . because, you know, if this is forever and we’re just gonna say that dairy is the cause of all my woes and that’s just too bad, then I’m not sure I even want to know. People who have seen me deal with my migraines have wondered whether maybe being rid of that plague would be worth it, but think about your favorite food and whether you’d be willing to give it up for the rest of your life. Not that easy, huh? I know a lot of people have been giving up gluten, etc., recently, but I don’t think I could be one of those people. I don’t even want to be able to be one of those people.

The first sign of promise exonerating dairy came this morning, though: I woke up with a slight migraine. I have never been so happy for a headache in my life. Sad, isn’t it?

These little critters are called ‘ōpae ‘ula, or Hawaiian volcano shrimp (Halocaridina rubra). Being the scientist that I am, I call them shrimpies.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how you’re actually supposed to care for these guys. Little information cards where I bought them (Shirokiya, a Japanese store in Honolulu) say you don’t have to feed them at all; one of my friends insists they can’t live on water and waste alone and need to be fed fish flakes once in a while. I gave feeding them a try, but they just ended up dirtying the water, and having access to actual food didn’t stop them from going all Hannibal the Cannibal on each other, as their kind are sometimes apt to do. One website I visited insists you can’t not feed these guys because they will essentially starve to a very slow (i.e., 1- to 3-year) death, but really, that sounds about as scientifically determined as the nickname shrimpies.

What really boggles me, though, is algae. It’s not a consistent problem, but once in a while, algae will start to form on the walls of the glass container . . . and then it spreads like crazy until the glass is completely covered in a light green haze. The shrimp eat it a little bit of it, but not nearly enough to make a dent in the greenery. It doesn’t really bother me that much, but once things start to get bad, my co-workers start making comments, and then I get self-conscious. And then I have to buy more brackish water at Shirokiya and clean out the “tank.”

The past couple of times, I’ve poured most of the water out of the tank and poured the shrimp, gravel and accessory plant into a small vase that has some of the brackish water in it. This has, admittedly, ended in a “Finding Nemo”-ish “escape to sea” for at least one unfortunate creature. Oops. Anyway, then I get to scrubbing. Scrub, scrub, scrub. This is super hard because I have to use a lot of elbow grease and a few napkins to clean a small space through a narrow opening. I sometimes resort to using (gasp) soap. (Yeah, yeah, they’re still alive, give me a break.) Once everything’s set, I pour the shrimp and their accessories back in. The shrimp seem stressed for a little while and “protest” by changing from red to clear (nah, I don’t really know whether that’s why they change color — sometimes, when I was feeding them, they would change color after they ate, too), but eventually, things settle down, and everybody is happy again.

There has to be a better way to either (a) prevent so much algae from forming or (b) clean it off once it does. I guess if I use a small strainer, I can get the shrimp out without risking anyone falling into the drain again (oops), but I’m all in favor of primary algae prevention, if possible. Any ideas?

Whenever people check out my iPhone (ahem, Gina), I notice that they are inspecting which apps I have loaded on it. I have a lot, but they I wouldn’t say they’re all of equal value. Here are my MVP apps (aside from Mail, Contacts and Calendars, which I assume most people use), in no particular order:

Games

Angry Birds . . . This game has topped the iTunes App Store’s download list time and time again. It’s featured on a Sprint commercial pretty much all by itself. There are toys, T-shirts, iPhone cases . . . And there’s a reason for all of that. Just try it. Even if you’re not a gamer (because, believe me, I am so not), you’ll be back. The tunes will haunt your dreams. And you’ll find yourself craving bacon a lot more often.

Words With Friends . . . I had never played Scrabble in my entire life until my co-workers convinced me that I needed to get into Words With Friends. Maybe it just didn’t seem fun to me, especially since the only people I know who play real Scrabble anymore are the ones who spend their Tuesday nights at the mall — you know those people, they have timers and everything. Well, I started playing WWF, and even though I totally get my butt whupped by pretty much everyone, I’m hooked. Hooked, I tell ya.

Hanging With Friends . . . From the makers of Words With Friends. It’s kind of like playing Hangman, but much, much more perverse. You pick a character to represent you, and that person is being held up by balloons — over a pit of lava. Each time a word isn’t guessed correctly within a given number of attemps, a balloon pops, and your character inches ever so much closer to the fiery pit. Just as in WWF, you challenge either a friend or a random opponent — and it’s ultimately a race to stay away from the bottom.

YOU DON’T KNOW JACK . . . As I said, I’m not a gamer, but I had to add this one on because you can’t be my age and not like YOU DON’T KNOW JACK. (Yes, it’s yelled.) For some reason, this “irreverent trivia” game was included in the Apple Campus Software Pack when I was a freshman, which of course meant I had to check it out. My dorm even had a tournament. I was a beta-tester for Jellyvision and got cool prizes for reporting minor bugs. The only drawback was, there were only a limited number of questions, and people basically ended up memorizing the answers. Now, we get brand new questions through updates! Very cool. And very current.

Social Networking

Facebook . . . Cliche, I know, but how can you consider yourself to be “hooked up” if you don’t use Facebook? Even my mother uses it. You know how they say “keep your friends close but your enemies closer”? I’m pretty sure that Facebook is what whoever said that really had in mind, even if it hadn’t been invented at the time. Frenemies beware. Even though the iPhone app is far from being perfect (you still can’t tag people in posts, for example), it’s better than the mobile in-browser version.

Echofon Pro . . . Even if you believe Twitter is for the extremely narcissistic, it’s pretty important to have an account these days so you can keep up with your favorite celebrities, stores and mobile food venues. That vegan artisan sandwich truck might be on Main Street today, but it’ll be somewhere else tomorrow, and the only way to follow it is through Twitter. Echofon Pro is particularly handy because it lets you manage multiple accounts through a single app, and I like its interface a lot better than the one put out through Twitter itself.

HeyTell . . . HeyTell is probably the least commonly used app I’ll list here, but Todd and I use it so much, I consider it essential. It functions like a digital walkie-talkie: You text or e-mail someone to invite them to your network and subsequently push a button to record a message that they can play and save on their side; likewise, they push to talk to you. There’s a slight delay as the data travels from one device to another, but it’s almost instantaneous, and there is rarely any lag. This is particularly helpful if you’re on a limited talk or text plan.

Flickr . . . I’ve always been one to share photos once I take them (so, yeah, don’t ever ask me to take any racy pictures for you), and while Facebook is a great way to share photos with friends, not everyone has Facebook — and besides, it isn’t easy to remember where you uploaded stuff there. Flickr lets you tag each image, which makes recall easy. The iPhone app has its limitations (you can only upload five photos at a time), but it’s a lot faster than plugging your iPhone into your computer, downloading the photos to iPhoto, etc.

Sports

MLB.com At Bat . . . THE essential app for any real baseball fan. Yes, here is a free version, but the paid version includes Gameday Audio access to any game on any station for any team. My only qualm is, you end up paying double if you already pay for Gameday Audio through the web (which I like to have because Ethernet connections are generally faster and not capped) — but then, you don’t really have a choice if you want to continue to access games while on the road, at a graduation party (uhh . . . ), etc. Not quite as sassy as the iPad version, but that’s another beast all together.

North Side Rundown . . . I feel like such a gangsta (or a classist) having something on my phone that’s simply labeld “North Side,” but let’s face it: I’m a Cubs fan, and this is what it boils down to. I love the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of the Cubs, especially Paul Sullivan’s “mailbag” columns, so I was thrilled when the Trib came out with this app. Everything is organized pretty neatly for once, and I hope they’ll continue to tweak it so that things get organized a little better.

Chicago Blackhawks . . . To be fair, this one just came out, just within the past couple of weeks. But I have been waiting for an official Chicago hockey app for so long, I’m pretty much just happy to have anything. So far, the app lets you pick your favorite player, which lets you see their stats right up front, above the scrolling headlines, just below the current game’s live score or the scheduled date/time for the next game. I love that the startup splash screen is a nice graphic of the front of the jersey, including the neck and fairly nice detail with regard to the stitching.

Reference

PubMed On Tap . . . If you work in the medical research, you know how essential PubMed is in keeping up to date with your references. Thanks to the countless worker bees who sacrificed themselves to carpal tunnel putting everything online, keyword searches and abstracts are at our fingertips, even on our phones. Some articles are even available full-text for free, even if you don’t have a subscription through any particular institution. If you do have subscription access by institutional proxy, it’s even better.

Yelp . . . Regardless of how you feel about Yelp and its politics regarding post/photo deletion, sponsorship, etc. (I have heard all the complaints), there’s no denying that it is the definitive source for consumer-friendly reviews at this time. It is also, therefore, the most reliable in terms of keeping venue information populated, which makes it awesome for locating nearby watering holes, restaurants and other business on your iPhone.

Bible . . . I’m sure some people will take issue with this, but yes, I am a Christian; yes, I go to church; and yes, I read the Bible. Feel free to agree or disagree with my point of view. Anyway, this is a great app that provides free access to dozens of translations in English, Spanish and other languages, including some you can download for offline use. Daily reading plans are also available. This app also uses YouVersion.com, through which churches can provide searchable sermon notes — very handy!

Kotoba! . . . Kotoba! is a handy, comprehensive Japanese translator-type app. In addition to providing simple translation services, it also shows the kanji and kana renderings of each word (including outdated usages, where applicable), examples of usage and kanji decomposition. You can also use the app to decode kanji you don’t understand, but I’ve had trouble with this feature because my knowledge of kanji is very limited, so I have difficulty entering the components for analysis.

Etc.

Dropbox . . . If you ever transfer files between computers/devices, you must try Dropbox! It is by far the easiest way to accomplish this, especially on a phone. You can even share files/folders with friends by invitation or through publicly accessible folders. Super easy! If you sign up for an account using this link, I get extra storage space for free!

Starbucks Card Mobile . . . You’ll never need to carry a bunch of cards around with you again! With the Starbucks Card app, all you have to do is add your cards to your online account, then select the card you want to use, hit the Touch to Pay button and swipe your phone by the barcode reader. It’s super easy to transfer money between cards, too. One of my favorite features, though, is that you can keep the images from the “front” of every card you load on there, even if you transfer the balance to another card — for example, I have a “picture” of the L from the souvenir card I got in Chicago, and some cute pictures from some old Christmas design cards, even though I have all my money on my gold card, which earns me a free drink every 15 visits. Yes, I am an addict — why do you ask?

Groupon . . . I know there’s controversy surrounding Groupon, as well, re: whether it hurts small businesses, etc., but those of us who like a good bargain find it difficult — if not impossible — to resist a 50% off coupon for a favorite restaurant or salon. The Groupon app for iPhone helps you keep all your coupons in one place without ever having to print anything out, and you can set it up to allow you to view and purchase Groupons from whatever cities you want.

iBooks . . . Big competition here between the iBooks app and the Amazon Kindle app, but for my money, I’m going with iBooks. Both apps are free and have comparable prices for content, but iBooks was built for iOS and thus has some design flair — like pages that curl and turn just like real book pages — that matters to people like me who prefer the beauty of Apple products. The books are a little harder to read on the iPhone than they are on the iPad because you have to turn the pages a lot more often, but it’s easy to whip out your phone and start reading a book when you’re bored.

Pocket Penguins . . . This one is relatively new to the App Store, and I LOVE it! I came across it on the Featured Apps page one day and had to get it because (a) it contained a penguin live cam and (b) it was free. It’s basically the same three live cams you can view directly on the website of the California Academy of Science, but there’s just something that’s massively cute about seeing these things waddle or swim around on the screen of your iPhone. Twice a day, you can see them being fed and hear the educational program that goes along with the feeding.

Well, those are my Top 20 iPhone apps. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?

So we all know that I love, love, love Chicago. I also love food, so it follows that I love — are you ready for it? — Chicago food. And who doesn’t like a good deep dish pizza?

Fresh out of the Lou Malnati’s oven on Wells.

If you say you don’t like deep dish, I would wager that you have never had Lou Malnati’s. Now, a lot of people have had Giordano’s, simply because there are so many freaking Giordano’s restaurants, you can’t avoid them, but Giordano’s really specializes more in stuffed pizza, and I find that their pizza has (and I never thought I’d be saying this, but it is possible) too much cheese. Other people have had deep dish from Pizzeria Uno or its twin, Pizzeria Due, but something about this “original” never really cut it for me, and neither does the deep dish from Gino’s East, whose real attraction is the graffiti you can add to on the inner walls of their River North restaurant.

What makes Lou Malnati’s special? Just about everything. They really produce Chicago’s greatest pizza, from juicy tomatoes to savory mozzarella and to-die-for butter crust. If you’ve had it, you know. If you haven’t, you must!

For years (yes, years) my mother begged me to bring pizza back with me when I returned to Honolulu from the Midwest, but it would have been a logistical nightmare to try to keep an already-baked pizza from spoiling, and virtually impossible to keep a frozen pie frozen. A few years ago, I broke down and ordered a couple of Lou Malnati’s pies from tastesofchicago.com, but the shipping costs were so prohibitive, I pretty much told Mom she wasn’t going to get anything else for her birthday. And then, when we got the pizza, I was disappointed to find out that I had to buy round baking pans, defrost the frozen pizzas and then bake them in the round pans. What? I didn’t even have round baking dishes, so I had to go out and buy those, too.

I feel like I am totally making that part up because I just ordered some Lou’s last week, and it was SO EASY this time, it’s ridiculous. First of all, the price was much better: I feel like I paid only slightly more for six pies this time around than I did for two a few years ago. Second, I didn’t need to thaw anything: I took a pizza right out of the dry ice-laden box, unwrapped it, wiped off the condensation inside, slathered a little olive oil between the pie and the aluminum pan, and popped it into my preheated oven for 45 minutes. Crazy easy! So easy, in fact, that I baked a second one to take to work the next day — and yes, my co-workers loved it, even though it wasn’t fresh out of my oven.

Fresh out of MY oven.

If you can’t decide what to get as far as “toppings” go, go with the sausage. You really can’t go wrong. Chicagoans are very serious about the solid disk of Italian sausage than spans the entire area of the pie, and for good reason: It is amazing and adds a whole ‘nother dimension of wow to a deep dish. Sure, you could go with spinach, but seriously? It’s deep dish, you’re already splurging, so why lie to yourself about veggie being healthy?

Don’t believe me? Try it yourself. Don’t forget to come back and say thank you. ;o)