Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Newman, You Bastard!
I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but Paul Newman has pretty much fucked me...and not in a good way. I have a love for ranch dressing where there was none before...particularly, Newman's Own Ranch Dressing. Now, I understand that I have been fucked already with the way I eat but I certainly do not need to be adding to that and clearly, I have. This is not good, folks.
Vino
I wanted to shoot myself and/or others at work yesterday. Thank the heavans and all that is true and right and good in this world that someone jumped on grapes and got the idea to make it into the best alcoholic beverage in the world. I have said it before and I will say it again...Wino Forever!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Hazel Ilene Schlichting
Here is my friend, Molly's baby. These were just so cute I needed to steal them from her blog and put them on mine.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Almost VIP Scene
I forgot about one other aspect of our Chicago trip. On Saturday, we met up with Elena's friend, Mike, from Omaha that happened to be visiting Chicago the same weekend. It turns out that he and his wife, Kalen, stayed with his buddy the night before (and were supposed to the whole weekend) and he was just a horrendous host and really weird. There was some sort of happenings on Saturday morning as well so Mike decided they were getting the hell out there and staying at a hotel. He has another buddy of his get online and reserve a room (turns out it was $300 cause the Chicago marathon was taking place Sunday) for them. They got to the hotel and they did not have them down for a room. Mike, of course, was pissed and did not want to deal with anymore bullshit at this point so he sort of flipped (also turns out that the room had already been charged to them but there was no record at the hotel for some reason), telling the front desk people that this was shittiest weekend they had ever had so far and now this, yada, yada, yada. Well, they were like we are so sorry, this hotel is booked, we will stay with you until we can find another room for you. Get this...they put them up in a "spa" room at the new Trump Towers Hotel, which is $2000 per night. Not bad, huh?
Mike is telling us this over drinks at the Trump Towers hotel bar, Rebar, where I was going to get a glass of wine until I realized the cheapest glass was $16. Yep, $16. I settled for a glass of cold sake for $10, a bit more manageable. Anyway, so we get the story and are having a good time. We part after the one drink cause Elena and I are hung over and are just going to catch the 8:35 train back to Deerfield and stay in for the night (plus, all of our money was gone at that point) and Mike and Kalen had to make their 8:30 dinner reservations. Mike has a cigarette out front of the hotel (I bummed one...I know...but the pack that I have has lasted through two drinking weekends and I believe that only about 8 cigs have been smoked over that time period), Kalen runs up to the room cause she forgot her camera, she gets back down, we say our goodbyes and Elena and I walk away. Come to find out, right after we left them, 50 Cent and his entourage show up out front! Well, shit! That would have been the icing on our VIP cake. Not that I like 50 Cent or anything but, hey, two celebs in two days...and that close...V.I.P...I'm not saying, I'm just saying...
Mike is telling us this over drinks at the Trump Towers hotel bar, Rebar, where I was going to get a glass of wine until I realized the cheapest glass was $16. Yep, $16. I settled for a glass of cold sake for $10, a bit more manageable. Anyway, so we get the story and are having a good time. We part after the one drink cause Elena and I are hung over and are just going to catch the 8:35 train back to Deerfield and stay in for the night (plus, all of our money was gone at that point) and Mike and Kalen had to make their 8:30 dinner reservations. Mike has a cigarette out front of the hotel (I bummed one...I know...but the pack that I have has lasted through two drinking weekends and I believe that only about 8 cigs have been smoked over that time period), Kalen runs up to the room cause she forgot her camera, she gets back down, we say our goodbyes and Elena and I walk away. Come to find out, right after we left them, 50 Cent and his entourage show up out front! Well, shit! That would have been the icing on our VIP cake. Not that I like 50 Cent or anything but, hey, two celebs in two days...and that close...V.I.P...I'm not saying, I'm just saying...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
VIP in Chi-Town
Well, at least we felt like VIP, which, really, is the only thing that matters.
So, I left for Chicago on Thursday right after work to go pick Elena up at Midway. The chaos at that place could be entire blog post in and of itself so I won't go there...let me just say this...holy shit! So, I pick Elena up and we head back to Deerfield, the suburb her grandma Peg has a house in...good news for us, she doesn't live there right now so we had the whole place to ourselves. Well, due to aforementioned chaos at Midway and a decent drive to Deerfield in itself, we did not get to that area until 9pm and we hadn't eaten dinner yet so we stopped at a Jimmy Johns. On the way home, we are talking about how Elena has the code and needs to disarm the alarm when we get to her grandma's house. I point out that with all of the chaos so far tonight, watch, the alarm is going to go off and the cops will show up. Sure as shit, what do you think happens...luckily, we figured out how to shut it off in a relatively short amount of time but, of course, the alarm people called (Jackie, you know how this goes although you usually dealt with it much earlier in the morning...sorry about that...although I will say that I don't believe I was there any of the times the alarm went off but I digress...), Elena gave them the verbal code and let them know 3 times that we were ok and no, you do not have to send the cops...we wanted to eat, bust into some refreshments of all kinds and just relax with some bad reality tv...mission accomplished.
So, Friday rolls around and we go get some breakfast and coffee at a Panera-type place but better and use the internet to find out which train we need to take to get to the city and what the times were. After that we had just about enough time to sit for a bit, get ready, grab refreshments (Jose Cuervo Margaritas - Mom, your favorite drink or do you buy the Sauza ones?) for the train ride to the city and grab said train. So, we get to the city, dressed to kill and we head to our first destination, Berghoff. I am sure that most, if not all, of you know what Berghoff is, a really good beer, root beer, beverage maker in general that was established in 1882 and managed to stay open through Prohibition by selling near-beer and its sodas.
After some appetizers, free bread and two martinis each (Elena - Root Beer martini and me - Kettle One dirty martini, of course) we head to the very historical, very famous Chicago Theatre to see Kathy Griffin. The theatre was established in 1921. It was the "first large, lavish movie palace in America and was the prototype for all others."
Kathy was hysterical and as amazing as ever. She looked good, her jokes were great and it ended way too quickly. However, it was time to go to theWit Hotel to its new bar and, from what we heard, the hottest new club in Chicago, The Roof, on its 27th floor. This is where the VIP (if only in our minds) status comes about.
Elena's aunt is the Commerce Commissioner of Chicago. She called down to theWit to see if she could get us a reserved table. She did. We were to ask for Chris when we got there. We walked up and stood in line; there was a line to get to this guy with a clipboard, he took your name and you sat down in the lobby to wait until you could go up the elevator to Roof. When we got up to him, Elena asked for Chris (he was Chris) and she said her name and that her aunt had called earlier. "Oh yes, ladies" he says. "I have to warn you though..." his face goes blank and his voice gets very serious, "The Commissioner said you must be on your best behavior or she will have the state police after you." We develop sly grins and laugh. He puts one of those bracelets you get at an event where those who can legally drink are mixed with those who cannot. "Right this way to the elevators, ladies."
An elevator finally opens up and we squeeze in. There are so many people in the elevator I have to keep getting out to let others out on their floor. The second time I get back in and BOOM! I recognize the guy that is standing across from me in the elevator. I fiercely (but discreetly) tap Elena on her leg. She taps me back to say I KNOW! The guy introduces himself to the elevator conductor (yes, they have one of the those) as Benjamin and states he will be going up later with 6 people. The guy was none other than Ben Foster of Six Feet Under and 3:10 to Yuma fame.
We couldn't believe it! A celebrity...on our elevator! And one that we know and truly like his work (even if he does tend to play the psychotic characters). If I hadn't already had two Jose Cuervo margaritas, two dirty martinis and a big glass of, I am sure, very cheap red wine at the show, I would have said something to him or at least caught his eye more or something. No biggie, he said he was coming up to exactly where we were headed...Roof.
Look at this place! It is gorgeous! We got a two person table right by the window so we could see the absolutely wonderful view. http://roofonthewit.therestaurantsatthewit.com/#
If you look at the picture, I can tell you exactly where we were sitting. If you look to the back corner of the room, a bit to the left, there is a lamp. In front of the lamp is a table and to the right of that table is a smaller table with big grey seats. That is the table we were at. I will show you the awesome pic we got of the view when I get it. Elena took a great pic on her phone. (Um, yeah...forgot my camera...Mike took it out a couple of days before I left and completely forgot about it until we were on the train heading downtown from Deerfield.)
So, Benjamin, never ended up coming up or at least not while we were there, but after three drinks each, Elena and I asked for our tab since we needed to catch the last train out to Deerfield at 12:35.
"The tab has already been taken care of."
"What about the tip and everything?"
"Everything has been taken care of."
Not only did Erin get us this great table at one of the hottest new clubs in Chicago but she paid our tab as well. Too nice for words really. So, Elena and I bought a shot and left some money for our waitress and headed out the door. So goes our VIP treatment in Chicago...besides the fact that I almost vomited on the train on the way back...I guess VIP status only lasts so long.
So, I left for Chicago on Thursday right after work to go pick Elena up at Midway. The chaos at that place could be entire blog post in and of itself so I won't go there...let me just say this...holy shit! So, I pick Elena up and we head back to Deerfield, the suburb her grandma Peg has a house in...good news for us, she doesn't live there right now so we had the whole place to ourselves. Well, due to aforementioned chaos at Midway and a decent drive to Deerfield in itself, we did not get to that area until 9pm and we hadn't eaten dinner yet so we stopped at a Jimmy Johns. On the way home, we are talking about how Elena has the code and needs to disarm the alarm when we get to her grandma's house. I point out that with all of the chaos so far tonight, watch, the alarm is going to go off and the cops will show up. Sure as shit, what do you think happens...luckily, we figured out how to shut it off in a relatively short amount of time but, of course, the alarm people called (Jackie, you know how this goes although you usually dealt with it much earlier in the morning...sorry about that...although I will say that I don't believe I was there any of the times the alarm went off but I digress...), Elena gave them the verbal code and let them know 3 times that we were ok and no, you do not have to send the cops...we wanted to eat, bust into some refreshments of all kinds and just relax with some bad reality tv...mission accomplished.
So, Friday rolls around and we go get some breakfast and coffee at a Panera-type place but better and use the internet to find out which train we need to take to get to the city and what the times were. After that we had just about enough time to sit for a bit, get ready, grab refreshments (Jose Cuervo Margaritas - Mom, your favorite drink or do you buy the Sauza ones?) for the train ride to the city and grab said train. So, we get to the city, dressed to kill and we head to our first destination, Berghoff. I am sure that most, if not all, of you know what Berghoff is, a really good beer, root beer, beverage maker in general that was established in 1882 and managed to stay open through Prohibition by selling near-beer and its sodas.
After some appetizers, free bread and two martinis each (Elena - Root Beer martini and me - Kettle One dirty martini, of course) we head to the very historical, very famous Chicago Theatre to see Kathy Griffin. The theatre was established in 1921. It was the "first large, lavish movie palace in America and was the prototype for all others."
Kathy was hysterical and as amazing as ever. She looked good, her jokes were great and it ended way too quickly. However, it was time to go to theWit Hotel to its new bar and, from what we heard, the hottest new club in Chicago, The Roof, on its 27th floor. This is where the VIP (if only in our minds) status comes about.
Elena's aunt is the Commerce Commissioner of Chicago. She called down to theWit to see if she could get us a reserved table. She did. We were to ask for Chris when we got there. We walked up and stood in line; there was a line to get to this guy with a clipboard, he took your name and you sat down in the lobby to wait until you could go up the elevator to Roof. When we got up to him, Elena asked for Chris (he was Chris) and she said her name and that her aunt had called earlier. "Oh yes, ladies" he says. "I have to warn you though..." his face goes blank and his voice gets very serious, "The Commissioner said you must be on your best behavior or she will have the state police after you." We develop sly grins and laugh. He puts one of those bracelets you get at an event where those who can legally drink are mixed with those who cannot. "Right this way to the elevators, ladies."
An elevator finally opens up and we squeeze in. There are so many people in the elevator I have to keep getting out to let others out on their floor. The second time I get back in and BOOM! I recognize the guy that is standing across from me in the elevator. I fiercely (but discreetly) tap Elena on her leg. She taps me back to say I KNOW! The guy introduces himself to the elevator conductor (yes, they have one of the those) as Benjamin and states he will be going up later with 6 people. The guy was none other than Ben Foster of Six Feet Under and 3:10 to Yuma fame.
We couldn't believe it! A celebrity...on our elevator! And one that we know and truly like his work (even if he does tend to play the psychotic characters). If I hadn't already had two Jose Cuervo margaritas, two dirty martinis and a big glass of, I am sure, very cheap red wine at the show, I would have said something to him or at least caught his eye more or something. No biggie, he said he was coming up to exactly where we were headed...Roof.
Look at this place! It is gorgeous! We got a two person table right by the window so we could see the absolutely wonderful view. http://roofonthewit.therestaurantsatthewit.com/#
If you look at the picture, I can tell you exactly where we were sitting. If you look to the back corner of the room, a bit to the left, there is a lamp. In front of the lamp is a table and to the right of that table is a smaller table with big grey seats. That is the table we were at. I will show you the awesome pic we got of the view when I get it. Elena took a great pic on her phone. (Um, yeah...forgot my camera...Mike took it out a couple of days before I left and completely forgot about it until we were on the train heading downtown from Deerfield.)
So, Benjamin, never ended up coming up or at least not while we were there, but after three drinks each, Elena and I asked for our tab since we needed to catch the last train out to Deerfield at 12:35.
"The tab has already been taken care of."
"What about the tip and everything?"
"Everything has been taken care of."
Not only did Erin get us this great table at one of the hottest new clubs in Chicago but she paid our tab as well. Too nice for words really. So, Elena and I bought a shot and left some money for our waitress and headed out the door. So goes our VIP treatment in Chicago...besides the fact that I almost vomited on the train on the way back...I guess VIP status only lasts so long.
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