The new BYOB--Bring Your Own Baby

Mika Patterson (3 months) and Chloe Tauber (6 months)

Things are definitely changing. At our last BBQ, we had not 1, not 2, but 3 babies in attendance! Awwww :)

Another thing that's changing? The quality of the food! No burgers and dogs for us. We feasted on specialty sausages (lamb curry, turducken, etc), chicken skewers, and Jason's tasty and delicious fall-off-the-bone ribs. Yum.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

I wanted to like this book more than I think I actually did. Zadie Smith is an incredibly talented writer, and obviously very smart, but this 400-something page book about a mixed-race family living in a fictional east coast college town just felt like it was trying too hard. Kind of like Dawson's Creek or Juno with all the unrealistic dialogue.

Anyway, the plot centers around Howard, a white art history professor from England, his African-American wife, Kiki, and their 3 kids, Jerome, Zora, and Levi. Howard cheats on Kiki, Jerome is a renegade Christian, Zora is a very annoying academic type, and Levi wants desperately to be "street."

Although stuff does happen, I never felt like there was a real plot to the book. And then after the climax, the story quickly ends leaving half of the plotlines dangling. Come to think of it, that was my biggest complaint about Smith's other book, White Teeth. Looks like I won't be first in line for her next novel :)

Happy birthday to me!

I officially turned 29 on Wednesday and had about a week of festivities to celebrate. Jason took me to see Star Trek on Tuesday (fun!) and surprised me with a homemade cookie and ice cream cake on Wednesday (at right). Then we went out with my Northwestern friends on Fri, and to dinner with B, Sus, Sean, and Lindsay on Sat. Yup, I'm pretty spoiled :)

One more year til the big 3-0!!!

It should have been Adam...

Adam was just so much more fun than Kris Allen. Sorry Kris, but you were kinda boring.

Anyway, I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing! Not that it's that big of a deal, but I was just so sure he had the whole thing in the bag. Kris even seemed surprised that he won! Oh well... This might even end up being better for Adam's 'career.'

Next up: So You Think You Can Dance??? I know I can't! :)

Ladies' night part deux

I always have so much fun when Dana and Natalie come in town. And, we got a lot accomplished this weekend! We picked out bridesmaid dresses for Dana's wedding and Dana bought her dress, veil, and shoes. Photos of that to come next May :) Until then, here are the lovely ladies from Cincinnati: Dinner at Nacional 27.

Both Natalie and I rock the bangs look!

Taxicab confessions.

LOST Lunch Thursday: The Incident

Rest in peace, Juliet. It turns out Sawyer did love you like you wanted him to. Sigh.

So what happens next? My mom was thinking the final season would be what happened if the plane had never crashed. But now, with the whole Jacob-Nameless Guy rivalry (Jesus-Devil? Good-Evil?), I wonder how they're going to pay that off if the final season is just a 'what if.'

I guess we'll find out in 2010!

Because it's ladies' night...

Courtney's AWESOME aunts came in town this weekend and we all went out on Saturday for Courtney's bachelorette party. There are 4 aunts, nicknamed "the girls," and they definitely know how to party. We started the night out with champagne at the hotel and were taking shots before we even sat down for dinner. The restaurant (Trattoria Roma) hooked us up with a table on the second floor so we could be as loud and obnoxious as we wanted without annoying everyone else in the place.

And then we headed to bachelorette central--Rush and Division. Specifically to the Hangge Uppe, where we could dance badly to 80s pop music. Who's that guy? We don't care!

Sarah partied with us, as did Courtney's future sisters in law (that's Sylvie sharing her boa with Sarah), and Courtney and Brian's moms even hung in there til 1 in the morning or so. Fun night! Now I need to spend the next week drying out until I pick up and do it all again next weekend when Dana and Natalie come in town. Wah! Just kidding, I love it :)

My top 5 Chicago dining experiences

Jason and I got on this topic the other night at dinner, so I thought I would post our list of Chicago favorites.

1. North Pond

There's just something special about North Pond. It's in the middle of Lincoln Park (the actual park!), the food is unbelievable and fresh, they use mostly local/seasonal ingredients, and the service is impeccable. It also helped that we knew one of the sous chefs when we went so we got a couple of fun extras (free champagne, recommendations, dessert, etc). I remember having a black sea bass dish and thinking at the time it was the best piece of fish I ever had. We only ate here once, about 5 years ago, but it still stands out as my favorite dinner in Chicago.

http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants/contemporary/north-pond-lincoln-park/134922/content


2. Blackbird

We went here to celebrate when Jason got his job offer at MedPage (little did we know there was nothing much to celebrate!) and just sat up at the bar to eat. It's kind of a fun way to do fine dining. We chatted with the bartender and got some good Chicago foodie gossip, ordered whatever he recommended, and loved every bite that went into our mouths. Some of the combinations sound a little strange on paper, but you have to trust the chef. Everything on that menu works!

http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants/contemporary/blackbird-west-loop/135951/content


3. Japonais

While North Pond and Blackbird are both really great date night restaurants, Japonais is hands down the best place in Chicago to go with a group (assuming everyone is willing to lay down $100 each for dinner). It's got a really cool vibe going and everything on the menu is delicious. I love the Kobe beef carpaccio, and there's also some kind of steamed sea bass dish (can you tell I like sea bass?) that comes in a bag of the best-smelling broth...I wanted to put my face above the plate and just breathe. Heaven.

http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants/international_fusion/japonais-river-north/144700/content


4. Marai

Ha, I didn't realize one of the owners of Japonais is also the owner of Marai until I went on Metromix to copy the links for this post... Makes sense that I love both restaurants! Anyway, I think I have a soft spot for Marai because it was the first time I had really high-quality sushi and learned about the magical goodness of fatty tuna. They have a special king crab roll that is to die for, but watch out because it's hot (temperature-wise). I burned my tongue once.

http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants/international_fusion/mirai-east-village-ukrainian-village/142864/content

5. Meritage

I can't post a link for Meritage because it's gone :(. There's a new restaurant, Duchamp, in its place, but it just doesn't compare. I miss Meritage, especially for it's awesome wine list. They had wines you just don't see on a normal menu -- like our favorite Miner zinfandel from Napa Valley. And it was just a few blocks away from our place. We're very lucky to live in Bucktown where you can just walk down Damen or Division and have a crazy good meal right in your own hood!