Pre-Thanksgiving Bitching

I know there is something wrong with me, but  I really don't care for Thanksgiving. In fact, I loathe it and dread it every year.  I don't know if its the food, or Bill and I always having to plan between families, or if it means that Bill is going to start working non-stop until the end of the year.

It means the weekend after Thanksgiving I trek it back to my folks, make 85 trips up and down the stairs bringing up Christmas decorations, fighting with people at Home Depot for the perfect tree for the front yard, freeze my fingers off hanging and tying each and every bow outside and making sure each light on the inside tree is perfect.  Obviously my parents can't do it on their own, and of course I love helping since I don't have a front yard to decorate, but man its a lot of work!

I'm sounding extremely selfish, I know, but for ONCE I would love to host a holiday at our house.  Sadly, I don't own a big enough table, but I am determined to get a cool one from CB2 like this one.
Anyway, enough bitching.  I will go into it will low expectations, but come out proud of my hard work I did on their house, full from left over pie and turkey, and buzzed from Bloody Mary's.  So perhaps I should really just stop bitching, and start decorating the Ford's place.
UPDATE.....12.4.10
The decorating went wonderfully, and I brought Lenny and he and Sheba (my folks dog) get along so well!  It was really fun, went off without a hitch, and the house looks fabulous as usual.  I've got mad skills!!!!

Halloween 2010

As Mary-Frances & Jeff's wedding is quickly approaching I decided its time to reflect back 14 days ago to Halloween.  Whoops!  Almost missed a holiday post!
We had a great Halloween - went to John & Kadima's annual party with the creepy haunted house in their basement (and John even took the last week off of work to complete it).  It is honestly really scary.  I can realize that I'm in my friends basement, but I'm still terrified!
Regardless, Bill and I went as Sookie Stackhouse & Vampire Bill from the books, not True Blood, and there were some amazing costumes.  As per usual, pictures follow after the jump.

Mary-Frances's Bachelorette Party!

As November 19th approaches us, as the "Matron" of Honor, along with Mackie, the "Maid" of Honor, the time came to have an EPIC bachelorette party for Mary-Frances.  From the moment in December 2009 Jeff + Mary got engaged, we knew what we had to do to throw the party that would be remembered, or at least remembered in bits and pieces.  We rented a trolley, got a gaggle of girls together and hit the town for an Irish themed bar crawl.  We had a BLAST.  Not much more to say, pictures follow after the jump!!!!

Poker night...and Autumn Cleaning

I had one rule.  One rule upon marriage that I thought, as now a wife I could have.  NO POKER!  Bill has plenty of single friends, or at least friends that don't live with their significant other.  Dude apartments.  I tolerated poker for many, many years, in a much smaller apartment where I had no escape to go to, and the next day I found myself  fishing out Old Style Tall Boys turned upside-down in the sink (the thought is....what?  Draining the last drop so it doesn't get my recycling bin wet?)

Regardless, it has happened, when I'm out of town, or spending the night at my folks, whatever, as long as I'm not here.  Well, last Friday, my weekend of only cleaning, organizing, washing my tights, yes my tights,  and only ONE  birthday party - I decided you know what - I don't care.  Have poker here.  Why not.

And what happened?  It was FUN.  I went downstairs to find my neighbor Shirley (her husband was upstairs playing cards) and we had some Ouzo (left over from our wedding) and beers.  And we had a blast.  It was nice seeing Bill and his closest companions all under one roof.  It was a great night for all.  Would have been better if Bill took the money pot, but eh, it was still super fun.

It's Fall Around Here!

It sure feels like it, although tomorrow its supposed to be 88 degrees!  My classes are going full force at Columbia, I have three sections of Producing 1.  My students are great, and I really think its going to be a great semester.  Lenny is adapting more and more each day, although we do toy with the idea of Doggie Day Care, for the days we are gone longer then eight hours, and Bill wants to get another dog so he's not alone.  Doggie Day Care is cheaper.

Regardless, back to the soup.  As soon as there is a nip in the air, I do what I do best.  Make soup.  I have more soup recipes that I can make in a year, but I also love winging it!
This evening last week, I made a spin on my grandma's zucchini soup - It was tomatoes (thanks CSA!), onions, veggie stock, cannelloni, garbanzo, and kidney beans.  And of course the most delicious spicy sausage from my corner Italian store, Fiore's.
We invited Lex, who said he was missing homemade soup and we chowed.

Fresh tomatoes!

Parmesan Rind is awesome in soups - freeze it when you're done with your hunk o' cheese!

Happy, full boys

I made my first tapenade, too! 

Off to Milwaukee!

Mackie, Me and Mary-Frances

Bill and I haven't escaped this concrete city since our lovely time in North Carolina.  Now I'm going without him, because he has to work, to Milwaukee for Mary-Frances's Birthday weekend.
We are going to the elusive Irish Fest.  This is the other reason Bill isn't going - he's not much for fests, drunk people, Irish music, etc. I can barely get him to go to Greek Fest (which is next weekend and we are going).
So - highlights of Milwaukee:
Friday night, got there around 8:00 and I was super dehydrated and feeling terrible, so I went to dinner then resigned to the hotel room.  LAME-O!
Saturday morning I was up and alert so John and I went to Beans and Barley and there was a super cute farmers market in the parking lot, so John and I grabbed coffee and wandered around.
Moving onto lunch, we all regrouped and manage to eat together, too!  My favorite Mexican restaurant in Milwaukee, Cempazuchi.  The best shopping of the trip was Art Smart's Dart Smart and Juggling Emporium!  We were trying to make the brewery tour at Lakefront Brewery but sadly it was sold out.  So we had a couple beers on the river (not lake) and headed to Irish Fest!
After closing down the fest, we went to Bruno's on Brady.  A superior dive, with lots of dart games and an awesome jukebox!

Mary-Frances and Mackie at Lakefront Brewery.

John, Kadima, Me + Todd

John, Mary-Frances, Jeff and Justin post Bruno's!

Todd & Darren

More Lenny, All the time!

Somehow this summer has come and gone.  Why is that?  Why are the best 3-4 months out of the year the ones that fly so fast?  It's a major bummer.  Warm weather, awesome CSA (thankfully have it until the end of October) and another shout out - best CSA ever!  Regardless, I have enjoyed many a pool day a la Darren's Chateau (in Lombard) and long walks with  my lovable Lenny!

Lots of fests, parties, music and fun.  But the theme of the summer is Lenny.  Lots of Lenny.  We hired a dog walker, my friend Amanda who is awesome and loves Lenny, and we also rely on our amazing friends.  Being a puppy (we still think 17 months or so) he needs to go out at least four times a day, and he only "goes" on walks.  Its rare he uses our wonderful yard.  I hope that changes in the winter time!

And he kind of still freaks when we leave.  He has locked himself in the hallway twice (although we keep the door closed) and in the bathroom, and I can't believe I didn't take photos of that.  He is into knocking his food over - pic to follow - but he has been super fun.  We do family walks at night, when somehow the city is so, so silent.  It's one of the reasons I love our neighborhood so much.  You feel like your totally alone.  You, the sound of your footsteps and his.  It's awesome.

Lenny's food scattered, note the over turned bowl.

Like father, like son.

My mom makes these dog toy pillows, and Lenny loves them!

What spice would you like?

I'm really a lap dog!

Lenny loves the frozen bison bones, just like his elder spirit dog Victor did!