hello crockpot (and Sean)

Sean and I spent this weekend hanging around our lovely new house baking baked goods and making buckets worth of veggie chilli.  It was delightful.

home

jellies

Turns out, Bank of America sponsors a lot of the museums, which means that BOA members get to go to a bunch of the really expensive museums for FREE the first Saturday and Sunday of each month!  What a deal!

Anyway, after reading that somewhere random, I made Sean go with me to the aquarium, since I’ve only been there once, years ago.  After waiting in a ridiculous line outside in the insane wind for about an hour, we finally got inside and spent the next few hours being mesmerized by all the crazy fish friends.  One of these days I’m going to give up on all this nonsense, move to the South Pacific or Caribbean, and become a professional diver or fish watcher or underwater spy.  Whatever involves me swimming around with the fish a la the Little Mermaid.

And now I leave you with one of my favorite fish ever – the Frog Fish.  Why is this fish so ugly?  I do not know, but I love him for it.

frog fish!

1. Windows! Yes! My new apartment has windows! And lots of them! One of those windows is actually a patio door, which opens on to our brand new…
2. Patio! Complete with a lovely seating area left by the previous owners, who also left brand new…
3. Couches!  Multiple!  Microsuede pull out couch, loveseat and armchair.  Which is lovely to lounge on in front of the working…
4. Fireplace!  Which warms up our apartment nicely, which is especially nice for when I get out of our…
5. Jacuzzi Tub!  Jets and all!  Which comes in super handy after I get my pump on in our building’s…
6. Fitness Center!  Though the in-building fitness center makes me sweat a lot, which produces a lot of laundry, which is ok because of the new…
7. Washer & Dryer!  Which live in our front closet and it’s glorious.

Ok, that’s as long as I can go on like that.  But the list goes on and on.  The apartment is AMAZING.  In addition to all that junk, we also have a DISHWASHER and REFRIGERATOR WITH WATER THAT COMES OUT OF THE DOOR!  Plus a DOORMAN and HEATED UNDERGROUND PARKING!  And a ROOFTOP!  And FREE CABLE!  And FREE INTERNET!  I mean, this place is crazy town.  Oh, and there’s a Whole Foods on the corner, a Walgreen’s downstairs, Core Power Yoga on the other corner and quite possibly one of the best neighborhood bars behind our building.  Love.

Last weekend Sean and I decided to go to The Bedford for brunch after we saw that they were having bottomless mimosas for $15.00.  Had to do it.

We showed up around 2PM (it serves brunch until 5PM!), and it was pretty dead so Mark came out with a special breakfast plate for me:

why yes, that is my name spelled out in eggs

Tee hee.  Loved it.  The rest of the brunch wasn’t bad either (neither were the mimosas).

The events weren’t anything to write home about, but I was pretty stoked to see some familiar faces. It’s weird that for two years, most of my friends were also traveling nomads whom I’d see in random cities. I’ve kept in touch with some of them (like Niki), but most of them I’ve fallen out of touch with, so it was awesome to have the chance to catch up with those that are still at it.

I also got the chance to have dinner with my parents and grandparents in Ann Arbor, and grab a beer with my cousin Colleen and Nick, whom I haven’t really hung out with outside of our grandparents’ house before. It was a pretty lovely time.

After a minor amount of car trouble, I finally made it back to Chicago and am happily sitting on my warm couch working. On a Saturday night. Cause I’m a dork.

Hope your weekend is more fun than mine!

oh my belly...

Pappardelle with pork belly, mushrooms, shallot, cherry tomato, pickled mustard seed, apple butter, egg, and parmesan, wine, warm olives and cheese…

My co-worker in Chicago just ran the marathon last weekend and she has inspired me to start training for something.  I have no desire to ever run 26.2 miles at once, but I decided that I am going to start training this winter to run 5Ks and things in the spring, building up to the half marathon at the end of the summer.  I can totally run 10 miles if I try.

I’m making Sean do it with me.  We always talk about getting healthier and working out, but we never do it.  It is time.

We’re moving in a few weeks to a fancy new loft apartment, complete with an in-building gym.  There also happens to be a 24-hour massive gym across the street, a Whole Foods next door, and a Core Power Yoga around the corner – there is no excuse to be unhealthy this winter.

Now that it’s blogged, I can’t turn back.  I’m totally doing it.  Watch out half marathon!

Helen had her annual Pumpkin Carving Party last night, which meant it was time to cut open some of those beautiful Wisconsin gourds.  Sadly, it was a party of two for awhile since everyone else bailed.  Helen and I swallowed our loser-pride and went to town on our pumpkins (and wine) anyway, resulting in this amazing work of genius.

all freehand, suckers!

We finally gave up on the pumpkin festivities and had her downstairs neighbor light up their fire pit.  Sean wandered over to hang out and we decided it was a good time to move from wine (we drank it all) to vodka/Gatorade punch.  That’s probably appropriate for a Monday night, right?  Probably.

Anyway, Happy Almost Halloween, kiddies!

I do.  Rocking out to Buddy Holly and Say It Ain’t So, being emotional and thinking about how hard our suburban lives were.  So great.

They were playing at the Congress Theater this weekend as part of the Riot Fest, and there were promises of them playing the entire Blue Album.  So Sean and I scored some free tickets and headed over to the Congress Theater to reignite our love affair with Weezer.

It was a pretty decent show.  They did play the entire blue album which was awesome.  I also secretly loved watching the security guys in front of the stage scramble to catch all the crowdsurfers.  So entertaining! 

Added bonus of the night was that after exiting the show through a side door, we came across this empanada stand outside, which had some of the best corn empanadas I’ve ever had.  Two thumbs way up for that empanada stand for sure.