Happy 30th Birthday, Joe!

We started Joe's birthday celebration in South Dakota, with his fancy DQ race car cake. But that was just the beginning, because this wasn't just any old birthday. It was the big 3-0! This meant I made Joe feel celebrated and important for WEEKS on end, with a fancy birthday celebration on his actual birthday, and a party with our friends a few weeks later. Would you like to hear about it? Good!

We started the celebration with drinks on the 13th floor of Trump Tower.
It was quite fancy, and we did some great people watching.

The drinks were quite fancy, and pretty darn tasty. Not your normal weeknight drinks!

We took some lovely tourist pictures. It was a pretty captivating view!

We went to Avec for a delicious dinner.
Photo Source

And we ended the night at Monk's Pub, celebrating the arrival of Oskar Blues beers.

But remember, since this wasn't just any birthday, we had to have a party as well! We had our friends over this weekend for the official fete, and did a pretty good job ushering in a new decade of Joe's life.

After we sang "Happy Birthday", Joe decided they should shotgun some beers.
A desperate attempt to hold on to his youth? I think so.

Still smiling, and feeling a bit proud of the shotgunning.
I'm kind of surprised this didn't lead to flip cup or some other nonsense :)

Singing!

Happy Birthday Joe!

Thanks for coming everyone! We had a great time celebrating Joe's birthday. We're so lucky to have such awesome friends to celebrate with. And now, only 9 more months until my big 30th blowout!

Happy Birthday Joe!

My handsome husband had a birthday this week, and we celebrated the beginning of the last year of his 20's the only way we saw fit-- with Korean BBQ and a growler of beer!

Have you guys tried Korean BBQ before? It's so tasty, and also a really fun dining experience! First, they bring out literally a million appetizer dishes, ranging from seaweed to kimchi to scallion pancakes. These dishes are typically delicious, and are almost enough food for a whole meal. Then, they bring out plates of raw meat, and a charcoal grill that fits into the middle of the table. The marinated beef short ribs were fantastic, and the pork loin was so tender and flavorful. Joe was a happy camper by the time we finished our meal-- and I was happy we were walking home, because I was stuffed full of Korean food!

Turns out the restaurant we went to was not BYOB, so we had some Kirin with our dinner, then enjoyed a growler on the back porch when we got home. It was a relaxing end to a low-key and enjoyable birthday. Lucky for Joe, we get to keep celebrating, because his birthday gift was tickets to the Minus the Bear concert in October. And , as a MAJOR SUPER AWESOME bonus, the sales girl at The Metro gave me free tickets to Mates of State when I bought Joe's birthday tickets, so we get to go to a concert in September, too! I adore Mates of State, but since we've already seen them live a couple times, Joe's been trying to convince me to use our concert budget to see other bands. Problem solved-- he can't complain if the tickets are FREE!!

Happy birthday Joe! I am lucky to have such a thoughtful, kind, fun husband, and I am thankful for you every day. I know how lucky we are, and I don't take for granted how easy and enjoyable our relationship is. I look forward to celebrating MANY more birthdays together!

Family Weekend Adventures!

I'm finally recovering from my cold... and I have to say that a summer cold is just about the worst thing. We've had some beautiful days lately, and I've been too busy sucking on cough drops and sniffling to really enjoy it. Thankfully, I was still able to have a pretty good weekend, with my parents and little sister in town hanging out with us! We always enjoy slowing down and playing tourist around our city, and it was such a treat to have a whole weekend off from work.

We wandered around downtown Evanston on Friday afternoon, then enjoyed a typical Chicago cookout of brats, potato salad, and baked beans. Plenty of beer and wine went down smoothly with the meal, and we decided to aid our digestion with a nice walk around our neighborhood. We ended up walking past Rod Blagojevich's house right as his wife Patti was walking in with some groceries. She said hello and commented on what a nice night it was for a walk, and as we continued on my mom started talking about how friendly people in Chicago were, as Joe and I tried to contain our laughter until we got far enough away to tell my mom who we had just run into. It was pretty hilarious, maybe more so thanks to the aforementioned drinks with dinner...

Saturday started out with some wonderful sleeping in, and a lazy morning at home.  Then we went over to Mostrose Beach to walk around and have a lunchtime picnic, which was so enjoyable. I love how much people use the beaches and parks in Chicago, since so few people actually have yards of their own.

After the picnic we did a little shopping along Lincoln Avenue, stopping in at Brew Camp, a new homebrew store near our house. The guy was really nice, and we're excited to go back there next time we need supplies.

That night we went to dinner at The Gage, to celebrate my birthday. We had a fantastic meal, and a surprise dessert to top off the celebration. It was so fun to hang out with my family, and to soak up our wonderful city through the eyes of visitors.



Millennium Park with my little sister.

 

Cute parents on Michigan Avenue



Delicious birthday dinner

 My parents timed their trip well, because we were able to celebrate Father's Day with my dad! My family is spread out across the country (the 6 of us are in 4 different states at this point, but we were in 6 different states just a few months ago!), so we don't get to spent too many holidays together. We had a nice breakfast at home with my dad on Sunday morning, before they headed back towards Missouri. It was a nice end to a fun weekend catching up with some of my favorite people!

Easter Weekend

We had a great time this weekend! I had to work early on Saturday, so we kept Friday night low key. The first disc of season 4 of  Big Love finally arrived from Netflix, so I convinced Joe we needed to watch all three episodes within a single evening. It's such a great show! Now I'm checking the mail everyday to see if the next disc has arrived yet.

Saturday night we went over to Julie and Jay's condo, to eat tasty Mexican food and help them brew their first batch of beer. Really, mostly Julie and I sat with our beverages and talked nonstop, while the guys did most of the brewing. Their equipment and supplies were a little different than what we're used to, but I think the batch should still be a great success! It was fun chatting with them as we did the brewing, and I can't wait to try the final product. Also, I'm constantly amazed at how well Joe understands the brewing process. He is able to answer so many advanced questions in a really in depth way. Maybe after he makes his millions in finance (a girl can wish, right?), then he can open a brewery of his own!

I was lucky to get Easter off from work, so we planned to spend the day with our good friends Jess and Henry. We've done multiple holiday celebrations with them before, and now that they are talking about moving, I wanted to make sure we spent Easter together.

We decided sleeping in was important, so we didn't meet up until the 11:30 mass. It was a lovely service, with a full choir and not too many loud adorable children. I love how joyful Easter is, after the somber time during Lent.

After church we went home and made a huge brunch, with amazing coffee cake, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, and an asparagus and red pepper strata. It was a feast! At this point we added some mimosas into the celebration, too :)

Joe and I had planned on brewing on Sunday afternoon, since it was a rare weekend day that we were both home all day. Jess and Henry couldn't resist the fun, so they stuck around and helped with the Belgian Tripel that we brewed. Besides the wort chiller shooting out boiling water as it was sanitized, the batch seemed successful, and I'm pleased to report it was fermenting away by the next day.

It was a pretty beer centric last couple of days!  I can't wait to taste the batches that were started this weekend, and I'm glad we're reinvigorated after a couple slightly frustrating batches of beer. We have to brew a lot in the next couple months, because by later summer it gets too warm in our condo. Hopefully we can stock up by that time!

A weekend in pictures... and a few words

You can't expect me to not "talk", right? I have a big mouth, and it is sometimes hard to get me to shut up! But I'm going to mostly just show you pictures from this weekend, since adding words will make this into an unpleasantly long blog post. I know I always skim other people's super wordy posts, looking for pictures. Don't you? So, here are some highlights of our weekend in Kansas City.

Almond croissant and apple bacon (!) muffin at The Filling Station. 

Not often we get to spend Friday morning relaxing at a coffee shop! 

Love spending time with family! 

We ate. A LOT. 

Nelson-Atkins Art Museum 

These photos made us cry we were laughing so hard.  

 Catching up with old friends. Great to see Jaime, Jess, Kieth and Tara!

Moments of relaxing  

 The man of the weekend!

75th Street Brewery 

Such an honor to be godparents for little Liem. My friend Ben, an awesome painter, made this painting to hang in Liem's room. I love how it turned out!

We packed a lot into this weekend. It was great to hang out with family, and to catch up with old friends. It's always fun to go back to Kansas City, but it also makes us glad we made the move to Chicago. KC is a great little city, but Joe and I agree we fit so much better in Chicago. Now which KC friends are going to come visit us this summer?

Fat Tuesday!

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

Photo Credit

Today is the last day of celebration before Lent, a time of repentance and quiet contemplation. I look forward to Lent, because I am a far from perfect person, and it gives me a chance to challenge myself. I know I am too judgemental and materialistic, and that I have a hard time drowning out the hustle and bustle of the world we live in. I think pretty hard about what I'm going to give up each year during this time, and I try to focus more on my faith and how I handle my life each day.

This year I'm giving up two things... non-necessary shopping, and drinking alcohol (with a couple *minor* exceptions!). Shopping is a pretty easy one. While it can be easy to forget, I lead a life that is full of everything I need, and then some. We own a beautiful condo full of nice furniture, I have a closet full of clothing and shoes, and bookcases overflowing with favorite novels and cookbooks. Yet I always seem to think I need more. I know that this is quite ridiculous, and a big weakness of mine. I never spend more money than we have, but I am a champion at justifying every random, unnecessary purchase I make. So during Lent, I will only buy necessities like groceries or toiletries. Joe is better at this than I am, so if I think I 'need' anything else, I'll run it by him first. I know I have more than everything I need, and that this Lenten sacrifice could have a good impact on my day to day life for the rest of the year. Wish me luck!

Joe and I also decided to give up alcohol... almost. We're not giving up home brewed beer, because we have A TON of it that is fermenting and conditioning right now. But we won't be buying any new beer or wine, and we will be limiting our consumption of the homebrew more than usual. We will also be trying to limit our nights out at bars, but I do not want to cut that out completely because I do not want to miss hanging out with our friends. We really don't go out to bars too much these days, but I don't want to miss out on a night out with friends because we're not drinking. And don't even suggest I just drink some diet coke at the bar... yeah right! We won't be going out for drinks without other friends, though, so I really don't see us going out to bars more that a few times through all of Lent.

So for Mardi Gras, I will be having a drink or two tonight. I also treated myself a little at Target today, but since the jeans and top I bought were on clearance, they hardly count. Right? (See, that's the justifying I am talking about!)

Want to know more about Ash Wednesday or Lent? Check out this great 2 minute video my mom sent me!

Making the Most of Chicago Summertime!

Somehow I managed to not post to this blog for an entire month! I guess that shows how busy we've been. Thankfully, it's mostly been a busy month of fun stuff, like out of town visitors, pig roasts, and summer fun! I'll do some highlights, but try not to overrun this post with millions of pictures.

First, our friends Tara and Kieth came to visit from Kansas City. They brought their ADORABLE almost one year old, Jack, and we had so much fun catching up with them and hanging out with this little guy. They are great friends, and we always enjoy spending time with them. It was a quick weekend, but we squeezed in some time in Lincoln Square, a visit to Green City Market, and a tasty lunch at Goose Island. This was the first time they'd flown with Jack, so we tried to make it really fun and easy, so they'd come back again soon!

We had another visit a few days later, when Chris and Elena came up from Austin. We showed them the swanky side of Chicago when we had dinner at Sushi Samba, followed by drinks at Roof at the Wit Hotel. They also came over that Monday, to help us celebrate Joe's birthday. It is always entertaining when we get to catch up with Chris, and Joe and I agreed that Elena is a cool girl and a great match for Chris. I tried convincing her that she should move here, but she seemed to think the winters would be too hard on her Texas upbringing. I'll keep trying to tell her otherwise...

Next up was a baby shower for my friend Cathy. We've been good friends since high school, and I'm so excited for her and her husband Troy. They're going to be great parents, and I'm excited to watch their family grow. I can't wait to hold their little girl, and have already offered up my babysitting services whenever they need me :)

That night we went to a pig roast at my friend Clair's house. She's a former coworker from The Chopping Block, and she hosted quite a bash. There was a ton of amazing food, great people, and free flowing beer... so obviously, it was a good party!

The day after Cathy's shower and Clair's party, we attended the Slow Food Pig Roast at Goose Island. Yes, two pig roasts in two days! It was amazing... there were about 8 or 9 well know Chicago chefs that offered up fantastic pork dishes, and they were all pretty amazing. I think my favorite came from The Gage, but it was really hard to decide. We got to tour the brewery, too, which is something not usually available to the public. This event was such a special treat, plus the proceeds went to Slow Food, an organization I really believe in.



I couldn't resist asking these two guys for a picture. On the left is Greg Hall, the brewmaster for Goose Island. On the right is Paul Kahn, one of the best known local chefs. Their food and beer have been a part of some of my most memorable nights out in Chicago, and it was so cool to just be hanging out with then at the Roast.

It was a great day for food and beer on the west side of Chicago!

Ok, that got me through mid August. I still have more fun stuff to share, but I have to call it a day. This post is officially full... I told you we've been busy! Hope you're enjoying the end of summer as much as we are!