Epic Handfelt-Petersen Summit In Galena, Cubs Lose Again, Pictures of Food

Since we have posted anything since the GeoCities era of the Interwebs, I figured I would take it upon myself to do the heavy lifting of making our rather ho-hum lives seems chic and dashing yet again. Katy seems to have some sort of seasonal allergy to blogging and Carmella thinks the whole thing is lame, so once again the onus falls on me. Fear not dear reader, as in the coming weeks we lots of built-up monotony to share. Let's dive head first into this batch.

• Over Memorial Day weekend we paid a visit to the quaint city (town?) of Galena, where we met up with Katy's parents and did the whole Galena thing. We walked the main drag, visiting lots of homey shops and stocking up on some salsas, jams and assorted homemade delicacies. Harry and I sampled a hot sauce that could be described as both 'life altering' and 'life wrecking', depending on the sample size. Let's just say that my chest went from clean shaven to this in a matter of seconds. We ate an early dinner at the awesomely named Benjamin's and then made a brief pit stop to see Cory, Gretchen and the kids just long enough for me to comment on my brother's rather heinous golf stench. Then we hopped back in the Saturn, peeled out and floored it back to Chicago. (I floored it not because we were in a hurry to get home, but more because I'm a badass.)
  

Cindy, Katy, Harry and Chandler Bing. If you look closely you can see the steam coming out of Harry's ears from the hot sauce aftershock.

• On Sunday, May 28th we took in our first Cubs game of the year, a nationally televised night versus the Dodgers. Alas, the Cubs must have been nervous knowing that the Handfelts were in the crowd scouting them, as they proceeded to peel the ivy right off the wall with their stench, losing 8-2 on a nipply night at Wrigley. We ate at The Stretch before the game and it was once again delivered. You have to get the Clark Burger. A little slice of heaven on a toasted bun. We also stopped by Sluggers in search of a rumored photobooth. The photobooth is long gone, but Katy was able to get in a couple of quick games of Skeeball, rocking out like she was at Showbiz in the Regan Era. Remember that creepy banjo playing bear with the overalls? I did some digging and apparently these days Billy Bob isn't allowed within 200 feet of a school, or ironically, a Showbiz. One time I woke up in a cold sweat only to find Billy Bob standing over me with a knife. Then, just like that, he was gone. I swear that wasn't a dream. The smell of wet bear still sends chills down my spine.
  

Katy is all smiles here. Little does she realize that Billy Bob is standing right behind her.

This sweet picture looks like every other picture we take of ourselves at Cubs games. Which is why it's still sweet.

• A couple of new restaurant reports, complete with food pics. First up was Blackbird, a gloriously pretentious hot spot from chef Paul Kahan, who was been nominated for a James Beard Award (basically the food Oscars) back in 2007 and just opened the much talked about upscale pork palace, The Publican. Blackbird didn't disappoint, although it wasn't life altering either. My endive salad was to 'dive' for (oh my God that was terrible) and my drink, the Blackbird Orange, was like something you see in Esquire, and afterwards made me look like this. Katy got the pork belly and I went with the sturgeon. The service was very friendly and the food was solid, although I have a feeling I'd enjoy the communal dining tables and craft beers at The Publican a little better.
  

Pork Belly all up in my belly.

• On our way back from Old Orchard mall the other weekend we made a point to stop at Wholly Frijoles, a BYOB Mexican joint in Lincolnwood that we had first seen on our favorite show, Check Please, way back in the day. Located in a strip mall, it doesn't look like much from the outside, but the food is definitely better than your standard Mexican fare, even if it's priced that way. Great little place with awesome chips and salsa, although the word must be out on this place, cause it gets busy fast. I opted for the breaded pork with chipolte mashed potatoes and much less famished Katy settled for a quesadilla. I did think that it was funny that even though we were less than 10 miles from our place you could still totally tell that we were in the burbs. Perhaps it was the predominance of the windbreakers with shorts or dudes with slicked back hair and floral shirts, but we certainly weren't in our horned rim glasses and skinny jeans comfort zone.

The tenderloin's snooty cousin. He thinks he's better than you and frankly, he's probably right.

More posts coming up next week, including chronicling a visit from Cody and his whippersnapper of a boy, Milo. In the meantime, you should probably go see The Hangover, so long as you don't mind peeing your pants. (Which I don't.) Also, 500 Days of Summer was awesome, but that one isn't out until July 17th, so you're just gonna have to calm down and wait for that one. Eat your pork and bide your time.