Weekend Round Up

The cold weather must be frying my brain, because I cannot for the life of me remember what we did last weekend... I know Monday we had for the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, and went and finally saw the Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Highly, highly recommend!) I loved this movie, and the message about following your dreams, and living your life was awesome! We also had Pequod's Deep Dish Pizza, and oh, I just remembered, Sunday I went shopping. Saturday we must have stayed in, we've been doing a little more than my liking of "hibernating". It's not so fun when you feel "forced" to stay in because of the weather. The sun makes all the difference, because the grey days are just awful - the sunny days, even if they are freezing are so much more inspiring!

Last night we went to Zanie's Comedy Show, and saw some truly funny comedians - and tonight we're going to Second City Comedy - but last night walking home was the coldest we've been since moving here! It was bitter! -15 windshield, with 4 degree temperatures. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

This upcoming weekend we're going to a Rusted Root concert and on Sunday I'm meeting up with a new book club (fingers crossed for some nice, normal(?) ladies!) 

Lean In

I wasn't sure what to think when Facebook COO wrote Lean In last year. It certainly made a buzz in the news - and at the time I admit, I resented someone telling me to Lean In to my career. After reading the book though, I have to say - she raised so many valid points, most of all she is encouraging women and men to inspire girls to reach whatever goals they want to in their lives. I would recommend this book highly and thank my friend Shani for telling me she enjoyed it! There's a part in the book where Sheryl Sandberg mentions a video that went viral in 2011, when a little girl named Riley goes to a toy store and wonders why all of the girl stuff is pink and only princesses, and why aren't there any girl super heroes. It's super cute - and if you have a second recommend you google for it! "riley, little girl at toy store"

On a very different note, I finished A Paris Wife this week about Ernest Hemingway, and his first wife. I joined another book club up here that's reading this and meeting at the end of the month. Very interesting read, so if you're looking for any suggestions - there's two :)

Happy reading! Please share with me any good books you've been reading - I love recommendations!

Chicago Pizza

I feel that this subject deserves it's own posting. I also feel Drew and I could qualify as junior experts in this subject matter.


Here's an article on the Chicago Visitor's Bureau website that I found interesting (and also justified in our passionate pursuit of this subject!

Chicago Pizza Week

Snow Soup

Last week all of the snow melted, and it looked pretty bleak. Last night it snowed again, so everything is back to a white sheen. I have to say that last nights snow was the prettiest we've seen yet. It was glittering as it fell, and even when it landed. When we held up our arms and hands to see the flakes on our jackets and gloves, you could see the tiny perfect snow flakes. It truly was beautiful - it's amazing how perfectly formed these flakes were. Breathtaking to see something so beautiful.

A while back Drew found photos of someone who had taken up close photos of snowflakes, they are amazing: http://news.discovery.com/earth/snowflakes-up-close-and-personal-macro-photos-131211.htm

Parking Dibs

There are many reasons I am thankful for living in a high rise vs. a town house or home here in Chicago. Top of the list, especially in winter though is that we don't have to deal with shoveling snow, and street parking. There is a phenomenon here in neighborhoods that have street parking, where residents have to shovel their car out of the snow, and then after moving their car, some people put old furniture in the spot they just vacated, claiming "Dibs" on that spot. This is an understandable idea, but I find it funny that it's just not something we in FL ever had to deal with. Drew's heard horror stories from colleagues where if someone dares take a spot that's been "saved", then people will retaliate by pouring water on the door handles to freeze them!

In this city, I would not mess with the crazies by provoking anyone and taking a "Dibbed" spot. Therefore we will always need to either live in a high rise with garage parking or have a garage.

Here's an article from the Chicago Tribune about "Dibs" and all of the interesting things people do to save a spot. Chicago Tribune "Dibs"

Deep Freeze from Inside our Apartment

The inside of our windows and glass doors were covered in ice! At one point the door was sealed shut from the ice. It was pretty frosty near those windows - and we had our heat on pretty much non-stop. I had to laugh when going back to work on Wednesday, I've never seen so many people so happy to be out of the house. Thanks to everyone that called to check on us! We got lots of calls from family across the nation as Chicago made the news for this record breaking weather. 

The Deep Freeze

Whew! This week brought some cold temperatures, the lowest was -35 windshield, with the actual temp at -15. My work was cancelled on Monday and Tuesday, and Drew was thankfully able to work from home. We hibernated inside our warm apartment those two days! But on Sunday we stepped out of the house for the day, needing some fresh air before the cold(er) weather came! Over the last week we'd spent a lot of time in the house, so Sunday's outing was much needed! Chicago has burned through it's 2014 budget for snow removal. This year they have $20.3 million allocated to snow removal, and they've used half of that so far in the first 10 days of the year! Last year O'Hare airport had 19 inches total for the year in snow - and this year they've recorded 23 inches already! Crazy!

So as for last Sunday, the plan was to go to brunch, and then the Chicago History Museum, but after making the trek to Brunch, we ended up staying for over two hours, eating, drinking, and watching the people, pets, and snow removal going on outside. Being in a high rise we miss out on the street level activities, so it was nice to just people watch. We had gone to one of my favorites, RJ Gruntz, which is home of the original salad bar - and they do a weekend buffet brunch - well we finally figured out how to get our money's worth at a buffet! Just sit long enough, and you'll keep getting hungry :) 

After that, we decided to hold off on visiting the museum, as it was to late in the afternoon, so we instead walked to the Lincoln Park Conservatory - it is so beautiful in there, it reminds me of the garden we got married at in Florida at the Veranda. Everything is green, and lush, and flowering - it's a wonderful place to visit when there's a winter storm outside, and everything is brown and dead looking. That was a great stop! We were going to visit the Zoo - but they were closing early because of the temperatures. 

Then Drew decided he wanted to take me for a drive, as I really haven't experienced driving in the snow…I wish I hadn't - we almost got stuck leaving our apartment driveway the snow was so high! Then we were driving to the grocery store, and almost got stuck again…the snow plows do a pretty good job on the main roads, but the side roads can get bad. So that was our Sunday adventure! 

 Our view from inside RJ Gruntz

 Ice carvings outside of Lincoln Park Zoo! 

 Look at those icicles! 

Happy 2014! (a few days late :)

I feel like New Year's Eve is one of those holidays like Valentine's Day, that there is a huge expectation for it, and the best thing you can do is lower your expectations to make sure it's fantastic. We had grand plans to go to dinner, and to a pub to ring in the New Year, and we made it to the Pub, but a late afternoon bowl of soup made us to full for our dinner plans...another time we will have to make it out to Bistrot Margot - a cute little French restaurant around the corner. The Pub was fun though - they had party hats and horns for everyone, and the crowd was dressed to the nines. I am not sure how people do it here, unless they take a taxi - I cannot imagine walking the short distance from our house out wearing heels, and exposing any skin. I give up and leave that to the singles to do! It hasn't stopped snowing since New Year's Eve, and when we set out at 9:30 there was more snow than I've seen so far on the sidewalks - I first had on my leather boots, then changed into my LL Bean sub zero snow proof boots. It was a good decision! We laughed though when we ran into couples where the girls were wearing heels walking in the snow, literally with a plastic bag over their head to protect their hair. I guess it's whatever floats your boat - but I did not want us to have to worry about catching a cab on such a busy night...so sensible boots it was :)

It was a lovely night, with beautiful white snow, and a novelty for us to see New York ring in the Year an hour before us! At 12am Central Time we had a champagne toast, a kiss, and a whistle with our horn (not at the same time...)- this was by far my favorite part of the night. There's been so many years Drew and I haven't been able to celebrate together, that I was so happy to start 2014 on such a high note. It's amazing to think how much has happened since New Year's Eve 2013 (which we didn't even stay up to see the ball drop for :)

Marriage and a family wedding, a beautiful honeymoon, and a move to Chicago round off the highlights. We are so blessed, but most of all for our family and friends - you are what matter most to us, and we are so thankful for you, and hoping that 2014 brings health and happiness to us all!

30th Birthday Celebration

December 28th marked my 30th year - and it was a wonderful day. Quite warm by Chicago standards, in the low 40's! We had a quiet morning at home, and Drew baked me my favorite kind of cake, chocolate with chocolate! Homemade icing and all - it was his first ever - and it meant so much! Being far from friends and family, it was nice to have this tradition kept up :)

Then we went to the old Marshall Field's (now Macy's) to their legendary Walnut Room, on the 7th floor. The store is unbelievable in itself, a huge 13 story building, 10 of which have everything you could ever think of buying, and a food court and restaurant area. The Walnut Room has a two story tree, and for the holidays they had fairies (woman dressed up with wands) spreading fairy dust and granting wishes to people…I did get to meet a fairy. She confided that they really enjoy spreading the glitter dust on eight year old boys and bald men :) But she was very happy to grant me my wishes.

After a great champagne lunch at the Walnut Room, we went to meet Drew's niece Megan and her fiancé Kyle. They were in town visiting Kyle's family - and came in to visit the City. We then went to a few different places with them, showing them some of our favorites. We finished the night with Chicago style pizza, and Drew's chocolate cake. It was a fun 30th birthday, and I'm glad Kyle and Megan were able to join us!