Hiii. Happy Friday and November. Wild. Are you still celebrating Halloween this weekend? Is it over for you? We finished up last weekend, with two parties, and a lazy couple costume of Jack and Coke, where my boyfriend went as himself, and I wore a Coke T-shirt and leggings. Comfort over everything.
Next week, I’m going to not do the thing where I skip talking to you for the whole week. Sound good? Yeah, me too. Let’s get into this two weeks of favorites.
Chicago trip
Last time we talked, I told you we were in Chicago. We are now back. However, we had a very fun weekend. We got in late Thursday and crashed. Then, we went to UChicago on Friday morning for a little campus tour.
From there we walked to the Museum of Science and Industry, which I’d generally only recommend for people with kids because it’s kinda lame and overly interactive, but I thought Jack would want to see the captured German U-boat there, and I was correct. Also, MSI totally nickel and dimes you to see all the different exhibits, and the other one we paid for was not worth it. Oh well.
Then we hopped back downtown to rest up before a dinner of deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s (and waiting-for-dinner drinks at Pink Taco nearby). We watched the Blue Jackets vs. Blackhawks game while we ate, and I followed the OSU vs. Northwestern game on my phone.
Saturday we had a lazy morning and then took a long and winding walk to the Willis Tower. Please do not ask how I was less scared skydiving than on that plexiglass floor at the top, but I was. I am told I was a pain in the ass at the top, when Jack tried to get me to go all the way out to the corner.
This information does not surprise me. But we paid for the fast pass, got a picture, and now I don’t have to do it again for a very long time, though I’m pretty sure it’d feel better next time. We grabbed a couple donuts (fine, 4 – the lady gave us one for free) from Do-Rite at the ground floor, and then walked to Au Cheval to put our names in.
Now, neither of us were hungry, but I know how long it takes to get into Au Cheval. The wait was about 2.5 hours at 4pm. So we went to go sit at a quiet bar a couple doors down and had a couple drinks while we waited. When we did get seated, we were next to the host, so from about 6pm to 7:30, I got to listen to him telling everyone their wait would be 5-6.5 hours. Suckers.
Still the best burger ever.
And then on Sunday I went for a walk along the lake while I let Jack sleep, since I knew he was going to drive the whole way home.
Also I wanted a picture of Jack’s favorite building in Chicago. No, it is not one of the many oddly-shaped ones. It’s just perfectly symmetrical and has a lot of straight vertical lines.
It’s the tallest one in that pic.
Then we went to brunch with Susie, Alex and Emmie. It was so nice to catch up with them and introduce them to Jack. Emmie has grown SO much since I saw her in January. So sweet.
And then we drove home. The end. It was a lot of fun to show Jack around one of my favorite places, and nice to get away for a little bit.
Lunch with my mom
My mom had the day off on Monday, so she came up to take me out for lunch. We had salads and flatbreads at Matt the Miller’s and got to catch up. I didn’t really see her for 2 weeks! We live 15 minutes apart! Madness. But it was lovely and i wish we could do that more often.
A day off
I ended up with an unexpected personal day leftover after I planned out all my time off, so I took today off. Jack and I are going shooting this morning, and then it’ll be nice to have a day of not doing interviews/coffee chats for my next rotation in January. I crammed a bunch of those into this week. While I love meeting new people and finding out what they do, it also wears me out. Yay long weekend!
Pumpkin bars
Hi. These are the best pumpkin bars ever. They’re super easy, the frosting is insane, and they make a ton. Jack ends up eating them for breakfast because he’s weird and doesn’t really do after-dinner dessert. We went to a party last week where I barely knew anyone and they all raved. They’re magnificent.
Dinners this week
Ummm I killed it with dinners this week. Just saying. They were lovely the first time and they made magnificent leftover salads the next day, too. So good.
On Sunday, Jack made our usual steak with asparagus and potatoes on the grill.
Monday, I made these cheesy chicken baked avocados. I used Tabasco instead of Sriracha in the sauce because I think the flavors make more sense. Either way, these were awesome.
Tuesday, I made these nachos, which we ate while watching The Witch. Next time, I’d use way more chips, because this time the toppings wayyy outnumbered the chips and we had to go get the bag of leftover chips to scoop everything up.
We went to a (very bad) hockey game on Wednesday, and I didn’t cook, so we got chili cheese footlong hot dogs at the game. Those were kinda the highlight of the game. We left right after the second period, and had no regrets. The game didn’t get any better, and I got more sleep.
And then yesterday I made this beef and mushroom stew, but with regular potatoes instead of sweet potatoes. It was really good, but I think the beef was a tiny bit overdone. Or I just don’t like stew meat and will use a different cut of beef in the future.
And that’s all from me for the week! Have a lovely weekend.
Your turn:
What’s your favorite scary movie?
What’s your favorite fall dessert?
Best thing you ate this week?
Awwww…lunch made your favorite list. So happy!
I do not watch scary movies.
Apple pie or crisp are my favorite fall desserts.
Pinch of Yum’s Freezer Meal Italian Beef Sandwiches were the hit of the week and quite possibly the year!