Girl & the Goat, Boy & the iMac

This is one of those random update posts.  First of all, this happened:

Part of me feels like I'm defecting but, at the same time, it was time for some upgraded computing power around here.  So far, I'm loving the [ridiculously big] screen size, Finale, Garage Band, etc.  And no, 12 GB of memory isn't overkill.

Moving on.  We've had a reservation at Stephanie Izzard's Girl and the Goat since early August and we finally got to go last night.  It really was amazing.  We had the roasted cauliflower (with pickled peppers,  pine nuts, and mint), mussels (with goat sausage croutons), the wood oven roasted pig face (yep), along with some amazing desserts and drinks.

exterior from Randolph

menu

wood oven roasted pig face

Megan and her roommates graciously invited us over afterwards for some quality Monday night TV (Castle and Jeopardy).  Earlier in the weekend, we celebrated Kristen's birthday with her family and friends up in Wrigleyville.  Her mom prepared a delicious, homestyle feast for us all.

Earlier yet, we attended our first ever Turkey Fry at Steve and Rachelle's house.  I've never had turkey that moist and succulent.  Special thanks to your hospitality and great friendship -- we had a great time!

Back one more day to Friday, Jami and Scott were in town with our niece and nephew (Megan and Justin).  They stayed downtown and did some shopping, ambling about the city among the crowds.  They joined us for dinner Friday night at Salatino's in Little Italy which was great and then came to the 10am at Old St. Pat's.    And finally a random picture of the piano at church for good measure:

Our Thanksgiving travels will take us up to Lansing this year.  We are more than ready to have a few days to relax and visit with friends and family.  Up next:  a family picture, omelette cook off, doggie play dates,

Will Run for Chocolate

On Thursday we got to have our near-annual visit with Jenny, in from DC.  Last time was their wedding!  We went to one of our new favorites, the Davanti Enoteca, in Little Italy.  Nice wine, great company, subtle, yet comfortable ambiance (right Jenny?), and burrata – a cream filled fresh mozzarella cheese:  can’t go wrong!

I was inspired by the delicious baked goods and realized that I’ve not baked bread in a while so in preparation for our post-race brunch on Saturday, I made a loaf of cinnamon swirl and regular bread.  These are just amazing in the new toaster oven by the way.  Nothing fancy in the recipe, just the standard Better Homes and Gardens recipe (although I did craft my own cinnamon filling but you really can’t go wrong with cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar and Mexican vanilla!).

  

Friday was Michael and Keara’s Wedding Reception at Old St. Pat’s.  It was fun to get all dressed up and be in a space of frequent, otherwise casual socializing to celebrate their marriage.  What a great couple, we are blessed to call them friends.

Saturday was race day.

The Hot Chocolate 15k was finally upon us.  We had a beautiful day and gathered with about 15,000 other chocolate-motivated runners in Grant Park for the start (including Fr. Tom, Emily, Megan, Meghan, Michael).  It was in the mid to high 40s all day with bright sun throughout.  In terms of results, Aimee and I were both really happy with our times, considering this was the farthest either of us had ever run.  We ran 10.5 minute miles which was definitely faster than expected, thanks to Aimee’s unflagging determination to power through.  The official ranking aren’t quite as impressive, but hey, there were a lot of people running….

	Overall	Our Age Group	Men/Women
Mark	9,946th	806 / 903	3,745 / 4,348
Aimee	9,953rd		1,173 / 1,758		6,194 / 9,067

Below is a picture of the route we ran (taken from Nike+ on my iPhone) and Aimee enjoying her post-race Ghirardelli chocolate fondue.

                   

Post-fondue was brunch hosted by Michael and Joanna.  Crowley got to tag along for this one but didn’t get to enjoy the French Toast Casserole, Swiss Chard Egg Dish, fresh fruit parfaits, mimosas, Blood Marys, and doughnuts.  Well, she may have gotten a little doughnut.