The Windy City

I am not kidding when I say that Brian and I are barely going to be home for a month. We went to Grand Rapids for Valentine's Day, and this past weekend, we went to Chi-town for a visit with his BFF John and his wife Erica, and their gorgeous kids, Lia and Dominic.

The Fontana's moved to Wilmette, north of Chi-town, late last summer after John took a different job within his company. We've been wanting to visit them since they moved, and just now got a chance, due to many things that have happened with us, and things that have happened with them. Things are finally settling down, so we planned the weekend and went. We left at 10:30 am for the 4.5 hour drive so that we'd get there before the crazy insane rush hour traffic began. We were lucky, we did miss it for the most part, and made it there in 5 hours with a stop for gas and lunch. As we were driving through the neighborhood, I was struck by how narrow the streets are, even the main thoroughfares! I don't think I'd feel comfortable driving there, especially not Brian's truck. Maybe my car, but with as bad as my depth perception is, I'd probably be taking off other people's mirrors!

John and Erica's new house is nice, in an old neighborhood that looks like it's really great for kids. Lots of neighbors, and easy to ride bikes and push strollers through. The house itself is old, from the 1920s or so, so it has lots of character and details that our circa 2001 McMansion just doesn't have! (To frequent reader A--you would love this house totally and completely, it is right up your alley!) Their house is actually about 1 block from Northwestern University's football stadium, so I see more tailgates in my future. Tailgates right in John and Erica's driveway. We spent Friday night in Evanston, having dinner with the Fontana's and the Adams', other friends who live in Chi-town. We haven't seen Tom and Meridith in ages, and haven't seen their daughter Olivia since she was 6 months old, and now she's almost 3. Dinner was great, but chaotic with 3 little kids, and trying to wrestle around for parking spots. We played some Rock Band and MarioKart also, and had fun.

On Saturday, we just hung out, and ended up going on a drive up through the North Shore suburbs. Holy Crap. Some of those houses look like castles and have servants' quarters that are larger than John and Erica's house (which is not small, mind you). We got coffee in Winnetka, and came back to the house. The Adams' came over for dinner, and the kids played great by themselves for a long time, so we adults got to play games for almost 2 hours. We played some more MarioKart and went to bed! (As a side note, I think 3 year old Lia is better than many of the adults.)

Sunday coming home was fine, thank goodness, all the bad weather had passed. We came home down Lake Shore Drive, which is always pretty, and Brian pointed out to me his old neighborhood. We actually ended up stopping in Chesterton, Indiana for lunch, which is about 10 miles up the road from Valpo, off the same exit. That was weird, I obviously haven't been there in almost 5 years! We made it home in good time.

So, the next post here will probably be from Florida. We leave Saturday for MickeyMouse Land and then a visit with our friends Steve and Nancy. I'm so excited to go to warm weather, and we really need some time for ourselves to have fun together!

Grand Rapids Weekend

Brian and I went to Grand Rapids this weekend. He was seeing Motley Crue at Van Andel Arena Friday night, and I was going to hang out with April and finally meet baby Olivia. The drive to GR went great and we made great time. We were staying the weekend at the JW Marriott downtown, which is a gorgeous hotel and is hooked right to Van Andel by a catwalk. Saturday, for Valentine's Day, I had planned trips to the Meijer Gardens, the Van Andel Museum, a restaurant and a piano bar. Brian knew these things were planned, by the way, I'd like to add.

Friday night was great. I had a great time with April and her sister Anne, who is staying with her and JB for awhile. Baby Olivia is gorgeous and huge for her age! Since April is 5'10" and JB is 6'4", it's not really a surprise that Liv is big! We went to a great restaurant called Marie Catrib's, which is Middle Eastern/a little bit of everything (the owner immigrated from Lebanon). The food was great and Marie herself came out to fawn over Olivia! I left April's at about 10:30, wanting to get back to the hotel before the concert got out. I did, and was walking on the catwalk from the parking structure to the hotel, and the most random thing happened. I ran into Laura, who is a paralegal at B&T in Grand Rapids (I did a summer project for them a couple years ago in South Bend). She was in South Bend at the same time, working on the same project and we became friends. She had been at a bar across the street after work and was walking to her car, which was parked in the same structure I was in. We ended up going in the hotel bar and chatting until 12:30. It was so nice to see her too!

Ummm, as I said above, Brian and I had all sorts of fun things planned on Saturday. The day did not go as planned. All I want to say is that it was a very bad Valentine's Day for us, and it'll take Brian a long time to make it up to me. By later in the day, things were somewhat better, and we attempted to go to San Chez, a tapas restaurant. When I called them earlier in the week, I was told they don't take reservations and that I should get there before 6 to somewhat beat the rush. We arrived at 5:30 to find that half the restaurant was taken over by a wedding reception, and the wait was already over an hour long. I wasn't told about the reception earlier in the week or I probably would have picked another restaurant! Well, we were both starving, so we decided not to wait, and went to a steak place that was a couple blocks away. It was great, but we were a little underdressed, so we tried not to draw attention to ourselves! Anyway, we left at 7, and went to Mojo's, a dueling piano bar. It was tons of fun and I would definitely go back.

I'd like to go back to Grand Rapids and go back to Meijer Garden in the summer time and get to go to San Chez this time. Hopefully, we will again and will have a smoother weekend next time.

But I'm Not Dead Yet

The title of this blog refers to my favorite bit from the always awesome movie, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." It's the scene in which people are supposed to "bring out your dead" (people who died in the plague), but they end up throwing someone on the funeral cart who's not dead yet. That makes me laugh every single time when the guy pops his head up and says "But I'm not Dead Yet," only to be whacked over the head and killed. Well, it was also an awesome scene in the awesome musical based on the movie. Yes, last night, Brian and I saw the absolutely hysterical "Spamalot" (along with our fantastic friends Danielle and Grady).

Okay, so if you've seen the "Holy Grail," you pretty much know how "Spamalot" is going to go, but I have to say, I think the musical is even funnier than the movie. It starts with the Finnish "Fisch Slapping Song" and goes on from there. They do all the best bits--the sentries arguing over the velocity of an African Swallow vs a European Swallow, whether coconuts migrate, the French Taunters, and my favorite, the Not Dead Yet Scene. There is also an awesome song called, "His Name is Lancelot," in which the scenery was so colorful Brian thought his head was going to explode. I was pretty much laughing out loud for 2 hours. The best part though, was in the Knights Who Say Ni scene, where they updated the play and did a shout out to Kwame. They broke out into a little bit of of "All My Exes Live in Texas," which became "All My Ex-Mayors Live in Texas," and then they said that he'll come back from Texas when he realizes that the strippers there shoot back. I thought the entire audience was going to fall out of their seats laughing. I enjoyed myself so much, I just may download the soundtrack album onto my iPod for $11.99 off iTunes.

Anyway, after the show, we went to MGM Grand Casino downtown (the play was at the Fisher Theater) and had dinner. We had dinner at a restaurant called Bourbon Steak, which was fantastic, but about twice as expensive as I thought it would be. And that's my fault--I obviously didn't scrutinize the prices very closely before I made the reservation. Stupid me! Oh well, we were helping the economy (that's what Brian and I tell each other lately--as in, "can't have a baby, help the economy!"). I did apologize to Danielle several times. I felt so bad. I would recommend it for dinner, but for two people, you will easily drop $150 if not more (and that's if you don't buy the Kobe beef--$150 for ONE STEAK.) Only for special occasions! We also gambled a bit, and Brian had no mojo at all. Luck HAS NOT been his lady lately, unfortunately.

Lots of good posts will be upcoming, because we have SO many things going on in the next few months, it's ridiculous. So keep reading!