Eating Extravaganza Part I

Lots of work and a free Cubs game ticket is why I'm only now posting about Andy's birthday eating marathon from the weekend.

It turns out that Andy definitely did want to go to Hot Doug's for his birthday lunch, so we left pretty early to try and grab lunch before the giant line got too ridiculous. Apparently, 50 other people had that exact idea, so we had to wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

We amused ourselves... okay, I amused MYSELF by taking artsy photos of Andy against the brick wall.

I like to call this one, Vacant, Drooly Stare. What do you think? Go ahead and click on that photo and look at his amazing ability to relax every single muscle in his face. Yeah, Andy's not awesome at looking what other people might call natural or normal in these types of photos, but I really love that he humors me and keeps trying.

Finally... SUCCESS!

Yep, that's a corn dog, a Chicago style hot dog, a Gyro Sausage with spicy raita and olive tapenade and a Bacon Sausage with Wine-Infused Grainy Dijon Mustard, Herb-Garlic Eurocreme and Caramelized Onions alongside a giant pile of french fries fried in duck fat. Can you hear our arteries clogging? It was delicious though, and we were sitting at the counter near the entrance so all the suckers still in line got to watch us stuff our faces with FOUR SAUSAGES of different shapes, sizes and flavors.

What can I say? Andy and I are over achievers.

I'll post about our gut-busting dinner later. Stay tuned!

Happy Birthday Drewshus!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful boyfriend with the face of an angel.





Or something unearthly anyway.


Hey, I think it's cute.

Welcome to 26 years of life! Hooray!

Birfday festivities

Yea for Andy's birthday weekend!

We're not entirely sure what the weekend will entail just yet, but it does involve a mystery dinner on Saturday that I'll post about after since Andy's not allowed to know (and I know he totally checks my blog like 15 times a day, right?).

I have a sneaking suspicion that Hot Doug's might pop into our Saturday somewhere as well.

Anyway, Happy Almost Birthday, Andy!

Guitar Hero Intensity

Andy, his brother and I all played a little guitar hero when his parents were in town a couple weekends ago.



Apparently intense GH3 playing runs in the family.



Looks like I've got some practicin' to do.

Green Thumbs?

One of the many perks of our second Chicago apartment is the presence of a backyard. Renting a place that includes your own patch of grass is pretty amazing, and ours even comes with a fence around it!

Since we have a yard and two blocked off garden patches on either side of it, Andy and I, in all our spring-time, ecotastic vigor have decided to try our hand at growin'.

The seeds we bought last weekend include:

cucumber
yellow squash
watermelon
green beans
jalapenos
tomatoes
chives
rosemary
basil

I'm taking bets now on the chances of us eating a poisonous weed we misidentify as a mutant herb. Any takers?

It's FRIDAY!

Time to Play!



Going to Cafe Iberico tonight with friends. Mmmm, tapas.

Blasphemy!

A couple of weeks ago, Andy and I visited "Cinners" a new bar/restaurant in Lincoln Square about 2 miles north of us that promises to be a "Cincinnati-style chili parlor". SKYLINE IN CHICAGO!?!?!?! Needless to say, we were there on opening weekend.



We started off with a coney which Andy gave a... thumb sideways? It was alright. It was full size, though, and didn't have the delicious skyline cheese so we weren't too impressed.



The real test came with the 3-way. I was so wound up at the possibility of finding a workable chili joint in Chicago that I was willing to accept just about anything that came out on my plate. I was pretty nervous when I saw this.



Couldn't they have opened the bag and put them in a dish in the kitchen to at least make it seem authentic? Plus, we only got one packet of crackers for two 3-ways. Not cool. Andy was disappointed at the size and shape of the crackers which were not optimal for dribbling on hot sauce which is his usual 3-way appetizer.

Because I was so amped to find this place in the city, I only had that much farther to fall. I was crushed when I tasted the atrocity placed before me.



I guess I'll just have to keep stocking up on cans whenever I go back to the Queen City.

Cougar in the city! (and not the old lady kind)

Milo and I almost got eaten by a cougar today!

I was just hanging up the phone after chatting with my sister when I heard a bunch of gunshots (which I originally thought were firecrackers) about 200 yards north on the same street I was walking Milo on.

Police were shooting and hunched behind cars, just like in the movies. I ran home with the puppy so as to avoid any stray bullets since I figured it was some sort of dramatic shootout with a crazy person or a serial killer (because serial killers aren't crazy...) or something.

Nope. Just a not-so-friendly urban cougar.

Eye of the Tiger

"You're gonna eat lightnin' and you're gonna crap thunder!"



Milo = Mickey
Andy = Rocky

puppy therapy

Yeah, so I had a hole drilled into my jaw this week. Yep, A HOLE WAS DRILLED INTO MY SKULL. I'm tough like that.

The backstory: I had a bone infection in my jaw about 10 months ago which they had to crack and pull a tooth to get to, scrape out the infected bone, put in a bone graft and then stitch up my minus-one-molar gums.

This week: I went in to have a screw put into my jaw where the missing molar is (aka an implant). Once that screw fuses with the bone graft, they can attach a brand new, shiny tooth to the top and Voila! No more toothless hillbilly!

When I called to make the appointment, the woman at the office assured me that the procedure wasn't very invasive and I'd be fine to go to work, carry on with my normal life, etc.

Me, "Are you sure? Cause... you will be drilling a HOLE INTO MY SKULL and then putting a screw in that hole, right?"

Lady, "Yeah, you'll be fine. Sunshine, daisies, blah, blah, blah, *more lying to me*."

SO, fast forward to Tuesday afternoon when I actually enter the office for my appointment. I'm escorted to the chair and ask the surgeon's assistant if she can explain the surgery and the recovery to me.

Different, truth-telling, lady, "Well, it'll be pretty standard. No solid foods for a few days, only soft foods for at least a week, then try not to chew on that side of your mouth for about a month. There will be some swelling and pain, but we'll give you medication."

I actually raised my hand at this point and made sure she knew who I was and what procedure I was there for since I had to be at work all week.

No mistake. I was a victim of the devious/misinformed/insert-expletive-here receptionist.

THEN the fun began. They put a mask over my eyes to keep be from freaking out at all the large, bloody tools that would be popping in and out of my mouth, numbed me up real good and got started. The actual drilling went pretty well, though trouble popped up when they put in the screw. Apparently the earlier bone graft was a bit too thin, so the screw was sticking out of the side of my jaw. Yeah, it gets better.

So they made the decision to add more bone graft and PEELED MY GUMS BACK to get the bone in there. Yeah, I'll wait while you shudder and try to get THAT image out of your head. After some boning (heh), stitching and x-rays to make sure the screw was adequately covered on all sides by bone, I was released.

For the past three days I've spent most of my time at home with an ice pack on my face, trying to find new foods to liquify and waiting until my next Vicodin dose. Good thing I've got this guy to look after me:








This is not a posed photo. Dogs really are therapeutic.

That, or Milo just likes the smell of my shampoo.