on canada day i went to visit jp and louisa… who surprised me with a belated birthday party. yay! we may be over 30, but you can never be too old for hawaiian leis and yellow bday balloons. pre-dinner activities involved eating gummy bears and making a pooh bear.
we made bbq pizza from scratch which was delicious!
mmmm….
thanks louisa, my BFF, for a very chocolatey vegetarian birthday cake. i had a really great time!
today while we were downtown, we went to a festival called “chicago arabesque.” it gave a glimpse into various aspects of the culture of the arab world.
we milled around the little tents and shops while listening to middle eastern music. it was really hot and we were happy to eat some handmade syrian (roasted pistachio) gelato.
we were in daley plaza, with the big picasso sculpture.
this weekend we went to ‘taste of randolph’, a street festival on the west-side of downtown chicago. we wished there were more food stands, especially since it was supposed to feature more of the upscale restaurants in the neighborhood, but we did try some ahi tuna tacos and a very juicy pulled pork burger. just can’t beat the food from richmond night market…
I learned today that June 6th is the 25th anniversary of Tetris. It brings back memories… I spent(!) many hours of my youth mastering the subtleties of this simple yet addictive game. Turns out I haven’t completely lost my touch:
If you are bored and have a few spare minutes (or hours), click on the image above to play your own game of “Tetris 1989″ (the retro version) and to see if you can beat my score!
yay, another visitor! i got to play with liz for a couple of days in chicago this week. here we are in front of ‘cloudgate’, the big silver bean in millenium park. after bit of debating (museums vs. shopping) and despite some erratic weather (ranging from cold rain to hot and humid), we explored downtown and the magnificent mile. crate and barrel + anthropologie + cheesecake factory = good times. dinosaurs next time.
a greek-inspired burger with a side of yam fries. the recipe was adapted from a recipe by susan mello, winner of the bigger better burger competition in CA, so i figured it must be pretty yummy. it tasted as good as it looks. 
farmer markets are starting to open, including one in our neighborhood. for some reason i’ve never managed to check it out in previous years, so we dropped by today. it was small but friendly. we also walked through the 61st street community garden. i was very impressed by some people’s vegetables… i wanted to eat them! i think i need to work on growing a green thumb.
the last couple of weeks have been pretty much a blur with a lot of work, which was good. i had a couple of opportunities to play a bit including kevin and stacy’s wedding:
joe’s head was of course directly behind the camera flash.
and a mini reunion with mike ediger who was visiting from germany.
pretty girls.
mike.
milka: german chocolate bar.
we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go to game four in chicago when we found some reduced playoff tickets online. we were a bit apprehensive about getting heckled, but we were definitely excited about attending a canucks playoff game!
in front of the michael jordan statue at the united center… entering enemy territory.
section 324, row 10.
playoff towels. i must say though, that chicago did not have very much towel power. go vancouver!
i think we saw a couple of canuck jerseys out there, otherwise it was all black and red. we had to laugh listening to some of the “interesting” four-letter word chants by those chicago fans. by the end of the night, we received a bit of heckling but otherwise we left unscathed. the end of the game was obviously disappointing with vancouver losing their lead and then in OT, but onwards canucks! win the cup!
we attended our second kentucky derby party hosted once again by the spears. we filled our stomachs with goodies and sweet tea while watching the pre-race coverage. this year the winner was a 50-1 upset … “Mine That Bird” who literally raced from the last position to win in the last stretch. really exciting! next year i need to remember to bring a pretty hat.
