1/31/2009 - Happy Birthday David

Saturday: January 31st, 2009
Today is David's Birthday. We basically just took it easy during the day and I ran a few errands, then for dinner David chose to go to dinner at Moto. Moto is a fine dining venue in the Meat Packing districk of Downtown Chicago. The Chef has been featured on many television shows because of the way he uses Liquid Nitrogen to prepare meals. The presentation is always interesting and they use this method to create interesting meals as well. I was able to get a picture or two, but I forgot the put the memory card back in my camara before we went so I have to figure how to get them off of my internal memory. If I'm sucessful, I'll post the photos shortly.

I don't even want to tell you how much this place cost, but let's just say I've paid rent on a two-bedroom aparpment that was cheaper than this dinner. It was worth it, I just really have a hard time spending or having anyone spend that kind of money on food. I was joking with David that this will the most expensive BM we'll ever have! and Yes I am refering the eventual exit of this fine food. :)

1/30/09 - Nostalgia Night

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Our friends, Eric and Shar had a party tonight. The theme of the party was "Back to your childhood". The basic idea was to go back to when you were a kid so you came dressed as you would have dressed when you were between about 6 and 10 years old. We watched Fraggle Rock, The Muppet Show, The Goonies and The Labyrinth. We ate food from our childhood as well. There was Twinkies, PixieStix, CottonCandy, Oreos, Rice Krispy Treats, Cheese & Crackers, EZ Cheese, Capri Sun, Lemonade, and much much more. There was so much "junk" food, we were all sick by the time the night was over, but it was well worth it. We had a lot of fun. Also floating around the room was punch balls, silly putty, silly string, hot wheels cars and stuffed animals for us to play with.

It also happened to be David and Bof's Birthdays (nearly) so we had a little celebration for them as well. It was a great idea for a party and a pretty good time!

1/29/09 - MiC New Member Happy Hour

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Tonight was our MEETinChicago New Member Happy Hour. This is a monthly event we do to welcome new members though lately it seems like it's mostly the regulars that have been showing up. We did have one new member come to this event, but I'm afraid she was scared by away by another member of the group who is a little much to take. I wont go into details here, but lets just say he's been kicked out of the group twice, but will still show up every now and then. He's basically harmless, but for lack a better work, he's pretty much a jackass. He one of those types that thinks he's really cool and interesting, but really he's just annoying and overbearing. Anyway, despite his appearance (which was late into the evening) we actually had a pretty good time.
We went to a place called Celtic Crossing. It's an Irish Pub in Downtown Chicago. It was a cozy place with a fireplace and an overall great place to hang out and chat. The music was great and low in volume so you could actually hear yourself think which is good (in my book). I hate it when you go to a place where the music is so loud you can't really even have a conversation without yelling the whole time.



That was about it for Thursday!

1/28/09 - Columian Food

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

A friend of mine mentioned the other day that most of my blogs seem to involve food and she's right, but eating does seem to be one of the more common things people do for entertainment in Chicago and there are so many good restaurants to choose from here. One in particular is El Llano. It's a columbian place we frequent and tonight was one of those nights. I'm actually trying to loose weight and wasn't going to go, but it didn't take much to twist my arm. At least it is mostly meat (protein). The great things about this place is that the portions are so huge you can take home half of it and use it for at least two more meals. I made a chicken salad for lunch the next day with my leftovers. Yum!

1/27/09 - Darn VW :(

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
My car wouldn't start today. Ironically, I was going to go take it to the Mechanic because the Check Engine light has been on for a couple of months and I need to get it fixed so I can get it registered and then get it sold. I hardly drive the car so I decided actually nearly a year ago that I was going to sell it, but with my work schedule and all the traveling I've been doing, I just haven't been able to get to it and of course now that I'm not traveling as much it breaks down. Ugh!

1/25/2009 - Brunch & T.V.

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Today was rather lazy day, but I have an excuse. I woke up with a pounding headache and no I wasn't hungover from the Beer Tasting. Honestly, at first I thought I was, then I was like I didn't really drink enough to cause that. Though how much beer does 25 sips add up to? Maybe one? One and a half perhaps? I don't know. Anyway, it wasn't a hangover, but I didn't feel very good all day for reasons you would prefer me to keep to myself. So, as usual David wanted to go to Brunch as he does every Saturday or Sunday and at first I didn't want to go, I'm trying to eat healthier and lose some weight and brunch is always so tempting. There are so many good things to choose from and it's hard to pick the eggs over the waffles and the fruit over the bisquets and gravy, but I was hungry so I dragged myself out of bed and we went to O'Donovans. We've been there a few times before. It's pretty good and I tried to choose the healthy stuff, but alas ended up with a belgin waffle, but I asked for only 1/2 and I put fruit on it instead of suryp so at least I tried to make it a little better.

Anyway, after brunch we came home, cleaned up after the beer tasting, lazed around the house and then later watched some T.V.

1/26/09 - Perry Mason

Monday was an extremely unproductive day. I worked as usual. I'm still going through varios demos and tutorials of several different applications that will be used by my new department. I wasn't feeling very good most of the day so when night rolled around I didn't feel like doing much so David and I sat in front of the T.V. and watched our favorite Lawyer, Perry Mason, solve some impossible crimes. Raymond Burr is so dreamy. David and I love the part when his name comes up on the screen at the beignning. He sort of bats his eyes and even though it's in black and white you can see his blue eyes sparkle, then he gets this grin on his face and you know he's just solved the case and is ready to throw out the truth! It's awesome! I highly recommend the show.

1/24/2009 - MiC Beer Tasting - East Coast

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

Our Meetin group does several beer tasting events a year. Each event focuses on a different region. Now, I'm not much of a beer fan myself, but it's always interesting to me to see how many different kinds there are and how people have their favorites and how drastically different those preferences can be. I guess its no different than someone preferring Coke over Pepsi, but it just seems so much more involved and important.

David had our friend Bof pick up some beer when he was in Philly over Christmas and bring it back with him, then there is a liquor store here that sells beers from other regions. We ended up with 25 different varieties.

I made a tasting guide for everyone to use to keep track of what they liked about each beer. Given that there were so many. Now, I did try all 25, but I'm still not a fan a beer so can't say that I found a favorite or even one I liked a little bit. Oh well. People say it's an acquired taste, and as of yet I haven't quite been able to acquire it. It'd still rather have a Diet Coke.

The event was really fun though. I think everyone had a good time. We saw a few people that we haven't seen in a while and it was great to see them again (Heidi & Graham). Our neighbors and a friend of theirs also joined us.

We did a Raffle and gave away some prizes, which actually turned out to be pretty fun as well. Later on after nearly everyone had left we introduced our friend Jon to Hot dog Boats! Apparently this is Utah delicacy that few have heard of or enjoyed so I'm trying to spread the word :)

Here are some additional pictures from the night:

1/23/09 - Lunch with Denese

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

My friend Denese and I went to lunch today at a place in Evantson called Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop. It's a Southern Style restaurant with a heavy New Orleans theme. We went for two reasons, one is because Denese is working on a project that involves trying different New Orleans themed restaurants and two, it gives us a reason to get out of our home offices and hang out together during the week. Our critique is that the food is mostly authentic and true to New Orleans style and would recommend it to anyone, but especially to those who are looking specifically for New Orleans food. We spoke with the Manager of the restaurant and she did have some interesting thoughts regarding the difference between or challenge of providing New Orleans culture in Chicago and running a successful business.




Friday evening we pretty mellow, we cleaned (here's me washing dishes) and got ready for an event we're hosting at our house on Saturday.

1/22/09: Chicago Pizza Tour (MiC)

Day 22:
Tonight I attended an event posted via our social group, MeetinChicago. Its actually one of our "series" type events. Every month or so we go to a different Pizza joint. It's been pretty cool, especially for a new comer (to Chicago) like myself. So far I've been to:

• Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinders
• Art of Pizza
• Paninos
• Spacca Napoli Pizzeria (tonights event)

There have been more, but these are the ones I have been to. It was pretty good. True italian style pizza. Thin, fluffy crust, fresh toppings, italian cheeses and herbs. Very good and one of my favorites so far.
Plus, they served me this diet coke, which an 8oz bottle. It was soooo cute! The picture just does not do it justice!

1/21/09 - Zucchini Bread

Day 21 - Wednesday



Again, not much exciting going on today. I worked. After work I made Zucchini bread. I made a low cal/low fat version. I used 1/2 Splenda and 1/2 Sugar, then instead of using 1/2 C. cooking oil, I only used a 1/4 C. and 1/4 C. applesauce. I also used whole wheat flour as oppose to white. It turned out pretty good. It's a little on the dry side, but that's mainly because of the lack of fat, but it tastes pretty good. A little "I Can't Believe it's Not Butter Spray" and you can't even tell the difference. Okay, maybe a little, but your thighs or butt will thank you.

Day 20: Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 - Inauguration/Grocery Shopping Day!

Aside from the inauguration of our first African-American President, not much happened today. I worked. Then after work I went to the grocery store because our fridge was basically empty. Now it's pretty-well all stocked up! I'm kind of anal when it comes to my kitchen fridge and cupboards. I prefer everything to be as symmetrical as possible. I try to put all the square things together; all the round things together or order them in some logical way. Dairy together, meat together, etc. I know it's a little weird, but it's a quirk of mine, I guess. And trust me! I'm not nearly as bad now as I used to be. It still bothers me when things get out of a place or don't look right, but I've learned to deal with it and accept that it can't be "perfect" all the time. I owe this mostly to my college roommates and my co-workers. In college, my roommates used to mess up my cupboard and my closet just to mess with me and I'd spend hours fixing it all. Finally I just gave up or simplified my orginizational style. For example, I used to have hangers that matched my clothes. Yes, it's true. Blue shirts went on blue hangers, green shirts went on green hangers, etc. So as you can imagine it would take forever to fix when the roomates would go in an put the blue shirts on green hangers, etc. So I simplified my madness by putting shirts on white hangers and pants on black hangers. Much easier to manage those pesky roommates! :) Now, I mostly use white hangers and don't worry so much about what's on what, though I do color code my closet. I put all the blue shirts together, green shirts together, etc.
Well, now that I've probably shared WAY too much and you're convinced I'm insane, I guess I'll call it a night.

Day 19: Monday, January 19th, 2009 - 10 Cent Wings!

Pretty much every Monday, we go to the Rail for 10 Cent Wings. This time, our friend Greg posted it as a Meetin event and several people joined us (Greg, Tommy, Marcus and Denese). Also with us was our neighbors, Rich (seen in this photo) and Katherine and a friend of theirs, Chris. We had a nice evening of yummy wings and good conversation.

Yum! Messy, but oh so good! :)

This Picture is of Marcus, Greg and Chris (and Tommy's hand)

Day 18: Sunday, January 18th, 2009 - Eagles nearly win!!

So today was the big Eagles vs. Cardinals Game. If the Eagles, (David's favorite team) wins they'll go to the Superbowl. Well, it just wasn't in the cards. They didn't play as they have in the past and they were ahead by 1 in the 4th quarter, but the Cardinals scored a touchdown in the last few minutes and made it nearly impossible for the Eagles to come back. They couldn't tried for a tie and a win in overtime, but that didn't work out either. They made it pretty far and for that they and David should be proud. One weird thing to mention, this morning when we were getting ready to eat breakfast, we looked outside and there in the tree was this bright red Cardinal. It looked really cool against the dead tree and all the white snow, it just glowed like a beacon! It was actually very pretty, but turned out to be bad omen. David and I joked about shooting it or wouldn't it have been cool is a big Eagle swooped down and ate it, but we let the alas neither happened and the Eagles lost. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it, but he flew away before I could my camera out. Therefore, guess what? No picture for today. I thought I took one of us at the Rail, but I guess I didn't. Oopsie!

Day 17: Saturday, January 17th, 2009 - Lazy Saturday Morn

I've been longing for a lazy day...Today was as close as I've been able to come. I got up around 10am, showered, put on some comfy, warm clothes, grabbed a cozy blanket and plunked myself down on the couch to read. This is one of my favorite winter-time activities, but I haven't really had a chance to do it much of it this year - there always seems to be something going on. I suppose that's not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes I just like to hang out with myself! :) and that's exactly what I did for about an hour anyway...

Around 12pm, Eric, Shar and Jennifer came over to bottle the beer they brewed last weekend. This process was not as involved as the brewing itself, but still a major process.

First you have sanitize the bottles and remove the existing labels.

Then you have to let them air dry so that now towel particles get inside the bottles. For this step you use what is called a "beer tree". We decided this device would look good all decorated up at Christmas time. Next year, I suppose.

Once the bottles are ready to be filled you have create some gravity to get the beer flowing from the jug, through the tube then you filter it into another jug, using a colander or sieve.

Once the beer is flowing and you've filtered it into the white jug/bucket you connect the tube to the bucket and start submerging the other end of the tube into each bottle. Filling it nearly to the top. David suggests loading all your beer bottles into box first that way you don't have to keep grabbing a bottle each time, you can just go right to the next one. Seems like the easiest method to me as well.

Here it will sit for about 2 more weeks. Then it will be ready for drinking!

********

After all that you'd think the day was done, right? Oh no, not so quick. After the beer was bottled we rushed downtown to see a 5pm movie. We had planned on seeing Valkyrie, but the people we were suppose to meet were not there so we ended up seeing a different movie, Slumdog Millionaire. This was a great movie. I wasn't sure at first because I was just shocked by the way of life the kids (in the movie) were used to and how he among others were treated. I'm sure when you grow up in that atmosphere you don't know any different, but wow! Wow! As many troubles as our Country has, I'm still extremely grateful to have been born here and am extremely impressed and amazed by my friends from other Nations. I guess you just don't think about it much, but this movie really affected me and opened my eyes. I knew other nations were different and I've heard of this stuff going on, but to see it in this fashion was eye-opening. Not so much about what the story was about, but the lifestyle and living conditions in which it took place. Amazing. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Before the movie, David and I grabbed some dinner at "Lucky Strike" it was pretty good. More cute, than good. For those that know me well, you know that I love miniatures and so I ordered the mini-burgers. They were adorable. See, see for yourself...

this is a terrible picture (of me), but here's David and I at our booth...

Now the day is finally over!!

Day 16: Friday, January 16th, 2009 - Internet Down/GNO

First I must say that yes there is a reason I'm a few days behind. Our Internet went down on Friday and we just got it back today so I'm playing catch up with getting my photos and blogs posted from the weekend so I'll make this one quick. Tonight (Friday), I got together with "The Ladies" these are all girls I've met through Meetin, but have become pretty good friends with since. Karen was nice enough to open up her home to us as our original plan was to go ice skating, but 30 below temperatures put a kai-bosh on that plan. Instead we met a Karen's, ordered in Thai food, chatted and played Trivial Pursuit! Yes, we are a wild bunch!! :) It was a good, fun, mellow evening. I enjoyed it very much.

Day 15: Thursday January 15, 2009 - Hard Hat Tour of CHIJW

As I have stated in pervious blogs, I was to go on a Hard Tour of the CHIJW or in non-hotel jargon, the Chicago JW Marriott Hotel & Spa. I've been looking forward to this tour all week. The building is historic and was most recently a bank. During the demolition they uncovered a vault that was built in the late 1800's, then covered up in the early to mid 1900's as it was no longer used. The hotel has decided to keep this historic vault and use it as a closing room. That is where they will take clients to wine and dine them and sign their business contracts. Pretty cool, if you ask me. Here are some photos of me and my co-workers during the tour.

Photos: From left to Right/Top to Bottom: 1. Julie, Stephan and Me in front of Vault 2. The Burnham and Rookery Ballrooms (or what will be anyway) 3. Toilet placement of a room (I just found this hilarious, somebody had the job of painting toilets on the floor - I want that job.) 4. Looking through the walls (taken from inside a future room down the hall into other rooms.)

Later Thursday night we hosted another Texas Hold'em Poker Night. I didn't do so well this week. Here's our friend Jon taking all my money:( Boooooo! BUT as always, we had a great time.

Day 14: Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 - Normal Day

I actually had a pretty eventful day today, but I forgot to take a picture!! I mean, not much really happened. I took the train into the office downtown as I've been doing all week, nothing new there. I worked all day, nothing really exciting there. Then after work I went to dinner with my co-workers and David. It was Julie, Stephan and Reba. Julie and Stephan are with the SFA/NGS or Seims Team and Reba used to be, but now is the Assistant Director of the Central Northwest Regional Sales Office for Marriott. David had actually met Julie in San Francisco when were there training the folks at Hotel 480.

We went to Lou Malnati's on 8th & State. Lou's is one of the best pizza places in Chicago for Chicago Style pizza. Giradono's is the second best in my opinion, but everyone seems to like Giradono's better. Oh well. Anyway, I should have taken a photo of us all at dinner, but I just completely spaced it until we got home. So I had David take a photo of me when we got home. Here it is...me - winding down after a long day. I'm actually half in my jammies and half dressed. :)

Day 13: Tuesday, January 13th, 2009: Fermentation Begins

I commuted into work again, something I'm not used to. It's freakin cold here in Chicago and I was basically cold from the time I left the house until the time I went to bed. Not only is the walk to/from the train station cold (on both ends), but the office I'm working in is cold and and the ride home on the train was freezing. I forgot to put my boots on before I left the building so I had on my dress shoes which are basically just slippers so needless to say after trudding through ice, slush and snow, my feet were ice cubes. I could barely stand on them when I got off the train to walk home. Not good.

By the time I got home I was starving so David and I went to dinner at this little columbian restaurant we like, but I fogot to take a picture. So when we got home we went downstairs to check on the beer and fermentation has begun. The brew is bubbling and doing it's thang. So I took pictures of that. Incidentally, I mentioned that I was going on a hard hat tour today, but I guess it's been moved to Thursday. I guess that's about it.