Goodbye Old Life

The weather outside is starting to get frightfully cold just as things are heating up inside the Handfelt Hacienda and more specifically, Katy's uterus. Yes, that wily love child of ours is now only a few weeks from making her presence (and name*) known. Expect hearts to melt immediately.

In the meantime, we've been keeping (relatively) busy (not really). We headed back to Iowa over Thanksgiving since we won't be making it home for Christmas this year. We had turkey and all of the trimmings on Thursday (major kudos to Mom's mashed potatoes and Gretchen's Apple Pie), before hitting up some OP Pizza (taco and veggie) with Katy's parents on Friday and homemade spaghetti and meatball with my Dad and Chris on Saturday. Thankfully, I fasted the week before Thanksgiving, so I was able to maintain my svelte, feminine figure despite the cornucopia of carbs.

Thanksgiving was the last 'checkpoint' before the kid comes, so now things are bout to get real up in here yo. That said, the thought of said realness had me reaching for a stiff drink, and luckily some co-workers obliged by taking me out for 'daddy drinks' one last time. Shane, Amanda, Katelyn and I hit up El Jardin Cafe in Wrigleyville for some margaritas (only one...multiple margaritas make a 31 year old's life too difficult), quesadillas and assorted Mexican beers. I spilled salsa on myself upwards of a half dozen times (and this was before the margarita), while the girls played 'guess the baby name' and a decidedly khaki-less Shane made wildly inappropriate comments that he passed off as jokes. Good times were had by all and I arrived home at a decent hour, my sobriety and dignity still intact. Yet another promising sign that I'm ready to be a father.

Last Saturday, Katy and I went to Mixteco restaurant, a foodie favorite in Lakeview that we had been eyeing for quite some time. Helmed by former Topolobampo chef Raul Arreola, this BYOB hot spot is famous for it's mole sauces, which certainly lived up to the hype. Mole is pretty roof raising when done right, but finding good mole is no easy task. I would go as far as to say it's easier to find a good mole (animal) than it is good mole (sauce). But I digress. I had the lamb chops with mole negro sauce and garlic mashed potatoes and Katy had the pork marinated in orange juice and achiote. Everything was as good as it sounds, but the real star of the show was the desert, the tres leches. You know those shampoo commercials where the lady sounds like she is having an orgasm in the shower? Well that was what our table was like, with me in the role of 'that lady'. Muy bueno!

Enjoy the pics of these lambchops, because in less than a month, we'll have moved on to pictures of frozen breast milk, leftover Chinese and butter sandwiches. I can't wait. But no, really, I can't.

*Really, what name doesn't go good with 'Handfelt'? I mean, really?

Lambchops in negro mole with garlic mashed potatoes. Oh no you didn't!

Katelyn, Amanda and some bearded, creepy random at The Dark Horse. At this point, Shane was driving his Pontiac aimlessly around Chicago, yelling tearfully, "I'm a man! I drive a Pontiac! You will listen to me when I talk to you!"