What's up, Target.com?

About a week ago I ordered an Adirondack chair cover for my blue deck chair to weather the Chicago winter. After playing door-tag with the UPS man for a few days, I came home one night to find this in my hallway. Yes, it is what I ordered, and I am all for saving packing materials, but I was still a little shocked that the packaging was the product box and not a mailing container. Interesting.

Trip to Philly and another wedding!

Last weekend Nate and I headed to Pennsylvania for our friend Emily's wedding. We decided to make a mini-vacation out of it and went a few days early to spend some time in Philadelphia. I got a great deal on Priceline for a room at the downtown Marriot which basically on top of the Reading Terminal Market.
I had checked the Man vs. Food website to see where we should try to eat while in Philly and found a few spots at the Reading Terminal Market that we just had to try right away - Dinic's for some Roast Pork sandwiches and Miller's Twist for pretzels and ice cream (I combined and got my ice cream in a pretzel cone!).

After having our fill, we walk to the nearby Fabric Workshop and Museum, where we saw the coolest felt cave made by Marie Watt. It had stalactites and stalagmites - much more advanced than the felting I've started. Hopefully I'll make it out west next summer and I can check out more of her stuff.

On Friday, after having some crepes for breakfast at Profi in the RTM, we headed east for the historical portion of our visit, spending time at the Franklin courtyard, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Then we went to the Franklin Fountain for lunch (which was ice cream, but hey we were on vacation). Another Man vs. Food suggestion, and another successful meal! Lest you think that all of our food choices came from television shows, we did pick a restaurant for dinner Thursday from the hotel guidebook - Nate chose Time because the guidebook said it had a large selection of whiskey - but the food was absolutely amazing.

Nate also picked our museum for Friday afternoon - the Mütter Museum of medical oddities. It was actually quite interesting - as long as you don't mind seeing lots of bodies and things in jars. For dinner on Friday we met up with my high school friend, Ly, for sushi at a nice restaurant by her new condo, on the south side of the city.

On Saturday we drove up to Quakertown, PA for the wedding. I didn't know many of the people there - Emily is Nate's friend from high school, though she did live out here in Chicago for a few years with her (now) husband, so I did get to know her some. The wedding reception was at an adorable country club - lots of food, drink, and dancing, as well as a few guests who were showing their team spirit by wearing a Phillies shirt to the wedding.

On Sunday, with some extra time to kill before our flight, Nate and I drove around Bucks County a little and ended up in Doylestown, the home of Henry Mercer, tile tycoon. We were able to tour the Moravian Tile Works as well as Fonthill, Mercer's tile covered concrete castle. Lunch in downtown Doylestown was at Paganini, a very cute Italian restaurant. It gave us enough sustenance to stand the drive back to the airport, which we really needed because we got kind of lost and it basically took twice as long as it should have.

A great visit to Philly and Buck's County, PA. We hope to get back there someday!

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Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this book off the "to read" pile because I thought "hey, it's a quick read - Nick Hornby and 150 pages or so." Like Nick Hornby I do have a large pile of books I want to read and I'm constantly buying them faster than I can get through them. So it was ironic that I chose this book because it's short; it's really a gateway book- book reviews of everything he's read in an 18 month period and of course I now have a long list of more books I want to buy and read! How counterproductive!
I have to say I always enjoy a book by Hornby, even though they're not all as stellar as High Fidelity. He's always a human and realistic writer, so realistic in fact that in the forward for this book he argues: "we have got it into our heads that books should be hard work, and that unless they're hard work they're not doing us any good . . . please, if you're reading a book that's killing you, put it down and read something else . . . Your failure to enjoy a highly rated novel doesn't mean you're dim." He questions what makes a book "literature" and then what can make it a classic. But most importantly, he reminds us that he, a writer, is really just a reader like us. In fact, he gives us a few short chapters and snippets from some of his favorite recent reads.
In short, reading this isn't like reading a New York Times book review (not that I tend to do that anyway); it's more like having a conversation, a really smart conversation, with a friend about what books he's been reading. And it tells another story for him, which is more the story of his own life than any of his fictional narratives. I can't wait to read Juliet, Naked!

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Visit from Dad means finally getting out on the water.

My dad, the sailor, came for a visit last weekend. Although he's recovering from a surgery and laying low for a while he managed to get me and Nate out onto Lake Michigan for an afternoon to watch the Shields' Nationals, which were held at the Chicago Yacht Club - Belmont Harbor this year.

We were out on a gorgeous cruiser of a boat, hosted by the Tevorek family. Their son was racing on one of the Shields and ended up coming in 2nd place, I believe. Before even leaving the dock, Nate and I had a good time watching this boat, Water Works, getting its mast taken out. We first noticed the boat because of its name, of course. If you consider the sidewalk square I found in an earlier post, you will see that I am starting a collection, if you will, of Monopoly spaces.

The weather was absolutely perfect - the sky clear and the wind sufficiently windy (for lack of a better word). The water out on Lake Michigan is weirdly choppy though - I could not get my old sea legs under me, so Nate and I packed it in and went home after the first race (of two that day).

That evening we were treated to an amazing dinner at the Yacht Club before the awards ceremony. Awwww, I miss my yacht club days!

Very summery weekend - better late than never.

We've finally had some perfect summer weather here in Chicago. We had to wait until mid-September, but I guess it was worth waiting.

On Saturday it was perfectly sunny and clear for a cookout at Kian's (far right in the photo) apartment in Hyde Park. His building has a great back yard with gardens, a jungle gym and a swingset which of course we had to try out. The food was amazing - although it was mostly traditional cookout fare, all the dishes were prepared with a Persian flair.

Sunday was equally Sunny and dry so the ladies and I met up in Wicker Park for brunch at a new restaurant, Jam. We had heard good things about the place but didn't expect the lovely spread we received. We did have to wait a while for our delicious breakfasts, but they gave us an Amuse Bouche while we were waiting. Yum!

I had Eggs Benedict, which was anything but traditional, with pork belly and spinach hollondaise. And it was served with such panache - I felt like I was the guest judge on an episode of Top Chef. Nobody's getting eliminated at this breakfast!
After having our fill at Jam, we walked up to the Renegade handcraft fair, where we spent hours poring over all kinds of clever products. I bought some great glass bicycle coasters from Kiku handmade (a gift for Nate and myself), some christmas tree ornaments from K Studio, and a lacy necklace from Cursive design. I also eyed objects by Tartella, Megan Lee Designs, Mok Duk (perhaps wedding invitations someday?), and Raquel Masri.

It was a great day for collecting project ideas and people watching. One of the vendors had brought a pet hedgehog with her which I found irresistible and I had to take a picture. We took a gelato break before making our final purchases. I love hazelnut gelato whenever I can get it!

Lots of work to do before the Renegade Christmas fair in early December. Time to consult the crafting to-do list!

Labor Day weekend continued

On Monday, unlike most of the country, I was working. Luckily my students' families had requested earlier lessons that day so that they could go to cookouts and things, which left me with a whole afternoon off to spend with Nate, lounging around the house.

Far from lounging; I completed a project I had been thinking about for a while: repotting my indoor plants. Since I had finally gotten some plants that are thriving, I thought I should give them some bigger pots to grow in. The pots I bought at Ikea on Saturday were lovely but had no holes in the bottom, so I made a quick trip to Home Depot and got a glass and tile-cutting drill bit. It was a pretty easy and rewarding project, and now my spathiphyllum has some room to stretch, and hopefully continue blooming.

For dinner, we ventured out into the neighborhood and discovered a new (to us) pizza place on Lincoln Ave., Pat's Pizza. It's thin crust and we agreed it would definitely be worth coming back to, even though we rarely eat pizza.

The big excitement later this week was Beatles Rock Band. It came in the mail on Wednesday and by Thursday night we had played and unlocked all of the songs. One of the projects for the weekend is to get Nate to learn to sing so that he can do harmonies with me. The other event this weekend is:

the ladies and I are going on Sunday :-)