BBQ. Beer. Baseball.

A few pictures from last weekend, along with some scintillating commentary:

We've really mastered the art of the whole 'hold the camera out in front of yourself and snap a picture' trick. In the days of disposable cameras this was a highly dangerous, borderline irresponsible trick. Here we are at Wrigley Field, drinking soda and waiting for some sort of sporting match to start. If you're so inclined, you can read an entire game recap, using much saltier and immature language, here.

Here we are in front of the marquee. Same camera trick. Years of practice my friend.

A picture without us in it. Boooooooring.

After the game we ended up at our favorite neighborhood dive, Edgewater Lounge. They serve beer there!

Katy ordered some turkey sandwich, which wasn't nearly as photogenic as my ribs. Pretty decent ribs for a dive bar. Very sweet sauce. Not as good as my Dad's homemade ribs, but not much in life can really top those things. If I can attain Bernie's standard of excellence when it comes to BBQ, I'll consider my life's work complete.

A few weekend notes: Hung out with long lost pal Wade Hastings on Friday night. We met at an English bar, Elephant and Castle, which ended up being about as English as Bennigan's is Irish. Fish and Chips for me, a quesadilla (how very English!) for Wade. Our bartender, a bald pseudo English man, started out really nice but by the end of the night he was downright rude. Cross England off of my Christmas card list! Afterwards, we swung by Wade's place, had some leftover birthday cake with his wife Ola and then they graciously offered to drive me home. I have my suspicions that his motive was so that he could "case" my place, but I can't prove that.

And like the wife said, what's the deal with plants? Apparently if the plant has any sort of palm tree stem to it, you have to sell your child on Ebay to be able to afford it. After hours of deliberation I think we finally made the right choice. I have no idea what kind of plant it is, but it looks like it's got a good heart and a dry sense of humor. I've named him Peter.

So Long to Summer

As August draws to a close, we hope you've all had a relaxing and enjoyable summer. We are looking forward to my parents visiting over Labor Day weekend. Much to my dad's chagrin, being a White Sox fan, we'll be going to a Cubs game! Poor Dad!

Last weekend, Ben and I vowed to take it easy...we went to another baseball game on Saturday and enjoyed some Chicago-style hot dogs, Old Style, and Katy's "color commentary" throughout the game. You could say I'm Ron Santo to Ben's Pat Hughes. Hopefully Ben has come to appreciate my baseball-related topics of conversation, which at times have included:

"Just how tall is Derek Lee?"

"You know, I bet I could make a good living being a beer vendor. Think about it, if you get a fifty cent tip every time you pour a beer, and you pour 500 beers a day, you could make decent money for a day's work at the ballpark! Do you think you have to work your way up to Beer Guy from being the Cotton Candy Guy?"

"Did you know Ryan Theriot has THREE kids?!"

"Why do some baseball players wear their socks pulled up? Is it code for something? I think it looks cool!"

COOL

NOT COOL

Clearly, Ben has schooled me on baseball rules for the last seven years, and now I'm moving on to more important topics (at least in my book)...

On Sunday, in the words of Will Ferrell in the movie "Old School", we had quite a BIG day planned, which included a trip to a local garden center to buy a houseplant. Embarrassingly enough, we had actually made the trek to the garden store a couple of weeks ago to make this very important purchase, only at the time, we were so overwhelmed by the choices of tropical flora and fauna and the hoards of gardening experts that surround the place that we walked out empty handed. This time around we bought a gi-norm-ous plant which is now making it's home in our living room. Carmella The Cat has also spent the last three days eyeballing it and licking her lips. With any luck, it will survive my non-green thumb and Carm's appetite for longer than a week. My question is, who knew that plants could be so freaking expensive? And just exactly how mad will Ben be if I can't keep this thing alive? Is this what being an adult is all about?! Just kidding!

Hope this finds you all well; happy September!

Painting the Town Red. Well, More Of a Light Red. Almost Pinkish Really.

Friday

Ben: We had a gift certificate to this restaurant called 'Avenue M', a fancy pants place over by our old digs in Wicker Park. We were greeted at the door by the maitre d', a doppelganger for current KISS lead guitarist Tommy Thayer. His flowing locks screamed, "I like to party and I like to make love, not necessarily in that order". I winked in approval, but I think he took it the wrong way. Tommy sat us outside on their patio, with it's ivy covered walls. It was like a steakhouse on the warning track of Wrigley Field.

I ordered some Pinot Noir and the 16 oz New York Strip Steak. I immediately proclaimed the steak to be in "my top 5" and various media outlets took note of this statement. Lots of salt and pepper, seared to perfection. Creme Brule for dessert. You really can't go wrong there, though my wife would beg to differ. Unfortunately, the service, unlike Tommy's hair, left something to be desired. A bit too "I'm European and my silk boxers cost more than your life" for my tastes.

Katy: I'll admit, I'm not a creme brule kinda girl, but I am a chocolate chip cookie baked in a skillet with ice cream on top kinda gal, and what do you know? They did have that! Our server recommended the special of the day, swordfish, which I enjoyed along with a Cuban martini. I'm not sure exactly what that was, except that it had champagne in it, and for that, I am a fan.

I really enjoy the idea of Avenue M - the chic and sleek all white decor, a hip location, and yum-o food...but with an over abundance of women doing their best Carrie Bradshaw impersonations and S-L-O-W service, I'm not sure if I would go back.

Wow, that's a huge cut of meat! That's what she said! Hi-Yo!

Excuse me Mr. Thayer? What martini pairs well with swordfish? Give me two please.

Avenue M host or KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer? You make the call.

Saturday

Ben: We were supposed to meet up with my longtime partner in crime, Wade Waylon Hastings and his newly christened wife Ola, but duty (work) called for Wade, leaving Katy and I on our own for the day. We headed towards Lincoln Park and the beach, walking a solid three miles in the process. The Air and Water Show was going on and it was quite a site to behold. You probably heard about Bill Murray jumping out of a plane and landing on the beach to kick off the festivities. That was originally supposed to me, until I came down with a nasty case of the "chicken s*&ts". Anyway, the Air Show (didn't see much of the water part) was cool. Blue Angels screaming overhead, right above the tree tops, so low that they would set off car alarms.

While in Lincoln Park we decided to check out the Lincoln Park Zoo, free of charge. We hadn't done this since Cory and I had started the Batroom back in 89', but it was cool. Lions, cheetahs, and best of all, apes. Check out the video at the bottom and make sure you're wearing adult diapers. After that we headed over to the local multiplex to catch Tropic Thunder, which I give a "middling C". Hopping onto the Red Line, we were hoping to get to northside streetfest in time to see one of my new favorite bands, Tapes N Tapes, but the CTA delays thwarted our best efforts, as they usually do. Instead, we capped off the night at our favorite neighborhood pub, Edgewater Lounge enjoying a tasting brew and watching some late night Olympics. Very good grilled cheese sandwich there oddly enough.

Katy: As Ben and I usually do just about every weekend, we start off down a road in the direction of our destination, saying that we'll just walk "until the next bus comes", and then we'll hop on and catch a ride. However, the next bus usually comes at an exact moment that we're busy chattin' up a storm, window shopping, or eating free bomb pops that are being given away on the street. So, we end up walking FAR. But today that was a-okay, as we had a great view of the air show to keep us entertained. It took me back to my youth when I would watch "Footloose" seven times in one day (with my poor mom holding the boombox up to the tv speakers to record the songs for me) and follow it off with a showing of "Top Gun". Does that date me at all? Those were the days when Val Kilmer was super hot and Tom Cruise was not nutty...so you know it's been awhile. It took me back.

When the air show was over, we continued down the road (sans bus) to the Lincoln Park Zoo. There we witnessed the largest gorilla I have ever seen in real life (see video) and a hobo singing the song, "I'm a Little Teapot". Oh, the things we see!

Goose and Iceman strut their stuff.

Lincoln Park, Circa 2008

I was unable to get the monkey video to upload properly. I will continue to work on that, but in the meantime, you can watch a recreation of the video by clicking here.

Break Out the Ascots, We're Going to Din Din

On Thursday night, five people from my department (including me, gussied up in big boy clothes) got to dine at the four star Avenues Restaurant, located in the decidedly upscale Peninsula Hotel. They do this kind of thing every so often in hopes that we book our clients at The Peninsula as opposed to say, The Four Seasons or Park Hyatt. And after eating a meal fit for Zeus, here's to hoping that they use this type of persuasion more often. They have a new Head Chef, Curtis Duffy, who wanted to strut his stuff. (My brother Cory can be connected to their old chef, Graham Elliot Bowles, through Six Degrees of Separation. Ask him to tell you the story of Graham's brother Bo and the wayward cilantro sometime.) He was formerly second in charge at the world renowned Alinea, one of the top restaurants in the city.

It was a highly pretentious (in a good way), one-of-a-kind dining experience. Like something off of Top Chef, each dish was intricately prepared and presented. It was an 8 course meal, each course like a work of art. But unlike Dogs Playing Poker, you could eat this art without indigestion. I saved a copy of the menu (it even had a 'Welcome Allied Advertising' header on it) so that I could take a picture of it and use it with this post, but it seems that Carmella must have used it to line her litter box, because I can't find the thing anywhere. You can see some semblance of the menu by clicking here, although ours varied slightly.

A few stray observations and highlights:

-The two best things I had were the Morels, a mushroom risotto that would make women swoon and lesser men weep, and the Wagyu, a Japanese Kobe Beef which clocks in at a recession-proof $100 a pound. The slice of beef was only about 3 bites worth but was better than any steak I've ever had. It came with a dried soy sauce crouton. Sounds weird, tastes tremendous.

-There were 2 different deserts, but the best one was this banana-blueberry concoction that looked as if it were flown in from outer space. The blueberry was set like a over easy egg; you poked it, causing the hardened blueberry to explode all over some foam and banana gelato. Ok, that sounds gross and vaguely sexual, but there's no other way to describe it. It was so good that I would have chest bumped someone had that been appropriate in such a setting.

-The meal started out with our choice of 5 different kinds of champagne. After our waiter went through the descriptions and names of all 5, I simply said, "I'll take #3." With the meal we got wine. Pinot Noir; my favorite. Just don't ask me what kind or what year. Much better than church wine.

-Many of the dishes had 'foams'. Not sure that these really added to the taste, but they sure made them look fancy.

-My least favorite dish was a whitefish with cocoa foam. Not bad, and surprisingly the chocolate tasted good with the fish, but the fish itself wasn't all that great. Tasted like it had came straight from the Cedar River. I am looking to replicate the dish here at home by melting a Hersey bar on top of some Gorton's Fish Sticks.

All in all, it was quite the experience. Nothing that I'll probably ever be paying for on my own dime, but one that I'm glad I got to experience none-the-less. As a champion for the blue collar man, I can just as easily appreciate a good burger, but it was fun to see how the other half lives, if for only a day.

Jeeves! Get me my pipe and my slippers! And where is my copy of The New Yorker? Dammit Jeeves. Good help is so hard to come by these days, I swear!

*Look for the wife and I to recap our Air and Water Show weekend in the next couple of days. It will include a videos of monkeys! If that doesn't sell you, I don't know what will.

My First Time

Well, first off, hello to everyone!

Some of you (all three readers of our readers) we talk to daily, and others...well, this blog may be the only way we keep in touch. Or get back in touch. I have to admit, when Ben suggested that we start one of these I was more than a little hesitant. Put our life on display for all to read and judge? Go in a head-to-head writing competition with my husband? Finally provide tangible evidence to everyone that we are not all that exciting? Where is the mystery in that?

Good grief. I don't know about all this. I mean, right now Ben's eating frozen pizza and I'm doing some laundry. Carm's sleeping in the basket. Does that really warrant a whole webpage? Are you intrigued enough to read on?

I guess I'll start out by catching up with everyone. Ben and I moved to Chicago from Iowa five years ago and we recently moved into the Andersonville neighborhood on the far north side of the city. The move north definitely supports our crazy Cubs game habit and we are at Wrigley as often as our schedule and bank account allow. We've been taking lots of bike rides and trying plenty of new restaurants as we get settled these last few months. This summer has been especially good to us and we are looking forward to having a great time with lots of visitors to the Windy City this fall.

Anyway, check back, as we hope to keep this blog updated enough to keep you interested. And, I fully admit, Ben's writing is far better than mine. As he said, we'll post a summer recap to explain what we've been up to. And keep in touch, we look forward to hearing from you too.

The Maiden Voyage

So the other day I was reading the newspaper (undoubtedly some high brow publication like The Wall Street Journal), and I read about these things called 'blogs'. (The 'o' is silent) Apparently, they're all the rage nowadays, right up there with running water and the George Foreman Grill. So after having a pow wow with the wife and cat, we decided we would give this whole 'blogging' thing a go.

This will be a way for both family and friends (albeit, we don't have many of those...Katy blames me for that) to keep up on our goings on. Not that we really have a lot going on per se, but that's neither here nor there. And for those of you that are familiar with my alter ego over at that other blog, Thunder Matt's Saloon, rest assured that I'll will keep the shop talk and f bombs to a minimum here. In fact, I encourage you to bookmark this site and read the entries aloud to your children in order to put them asleep.

Now, I will take a few questions from the floor in regards to the blog.

Q: Will the blog be updated daily?

A: Oh God no. Maybe once a week. Our lives aren't that exciting.

Q: Who will contribute?

A: Besides me, my lovely wife Katy will contribute. Also, our cat, Carmella will occasionally chime in, although her paws aren't conducive to the human keyboard, so expect numerous typos.

Q: What will you write about?

A: Nothing earth shattering to be sure. It will mostly chronicle the mundane happenings in our life, if and when anything noteworthy occurs. Are you dying to know what I put on my ham sandwich last night? Of course not, but I'll tell you anyway. (Boetje's mustard, toasted bread) We do go to a lot of Cubs games and restaurants, so that's pretty sweet. Perhaps Katy will share her new potato salad recipe. Carmella may weigh in on the latest trends in birdwatching. That's the great thing. You just never know!

Q: Do you think anyone will read this?

A: Good question. Well, given the fact that as I mentioned before, we have a dearth of friends, and our families aren't especially Internet savvy, the answer to your question is a rather sad 'no'. But the goal isn't to get millions of readers. Nay, even one would suffice, although it's in Carmella's contract that she can quit any time our readership dips below 8 people.

Ok, time is up. There you have it. Bookmark this page, as the typing in .blogspot every time would seem to be a hassle.

Next up, Katy and I recap our summer so far, complete with color photos and surprise cameo appearances! Stay tuned...