Happy 30th Birthday to Aimee

"Time and tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of thirty."

- Robert Frost

Wise words indeed. This "fortune" was occupying a giant fortune cookie that arrived in the mail from Kristen N. We had a lovely time celebrating Aimee's 3-0 this year. Of course it started with our trip to Chicago and dinners/brunches with friends. The next indication that a birthday was among us was a visit to the Atlanta Cupcake Factory on Highland. I wanted to find a bakery that would make a banana cake and, striking out at Alon's, I decided to try the cupcake route. I found this place which specializes in red velvet with almond frosting and also, that's right, banana with brown sugar frosting.

Birthday Morning began with breakfast tacos featuring egg and potato with a hint of cumin and chili, topped pepperjack cheese in a corn tortilla. And some candle wax. Along with some thoughtful cards, a delivery of flowers from Aimee's parents arrived, adding a floral scent and more life to our home.

We'd been saving it for a special occasion and this was it: birthday dinner was at The Iberian Pig in Decatur. Wow -- what a great experience! We started out at the bar with a glass of red for Aimee and glass of white for me (both designated "Damn Good" by the menu)

and a portion of their drunken goat cheese which was possibly one of the best cheeses we'd ever had. The cheese was a semi-soft, made of goat's milk, aged 75 days and soaked in red wine for 72 hours. Shortly thereafter we were greeted in a surprise visit by Dr. Newman and Dr. Biousse, Aimee's fellowship directors. They introduced us to the chef and offered to pre-buy dessert for us. Once seated, we ordered the Arugula salad, Pork Cheek tacos, Esparragos con Moscatel, and then split the Spanish Lamb Ribs. The dessert selection were the house made churros with cinnamon-chili infused chocolate sauce.

The Iberian Pig facade in downtown Decatur

Flowers from Aimee's parents. She loved the colors!

The fortune cookie met its match.

New birthday outfit from my mom

The long anticipated visit home...

By popular request, Aimee is narrating this week's blog! As I'm sure most of you know, we made a much needed trip back to Chicago last weekend. (Crowley stayed at home with our friends Michael and Jeff from IHM!). Also, as some of you may or may not know, my 30th birthday is quickly approaching. We took advantage of our trip to spend some quality time with friends and family, and to celebrate my birthday!

Our trip began with a perfect flight from the world's busiest airport (ATL) to the world's second busiest airport (ORD, depends on how you count) that was not only on time, but EARLY! Which was perfect because we were definitely stretching on making a dinner reservation... unfortunately, AVIS had other plans for us. Their computers were "down" and it took a whole hour for us to get a car!! So we were a tad bit (40 mins) late for dinner, but luckily the staff at Veerasway was very accommodating! We had a wonderful dinner with the Neary's, Irena and Wes.

Our accommodations were provided by Mark B. We felt very "at home" there and certainly enjoyed watching the Notre Dame game there! He had a pretty nice view too...

The weather was amazing all weekend - certainly a nice case for how lovely fall in Chicago can be -- although I must say, the weather in Atlanta these last few weeks has been spectacular as well. I think I'm gaining a renewed (or just new actually) appreciation for fall.

Saturday we made a trip out to Lombard so I could get my driver's license renewed and then visited Megan at work and went back to our old 'hood. I was very excited to see that a Marshall's opened up in the Southgate Market at Canal and Roosevelt - very nice. After finally meeting our tenant and her new finance, lunch was enjoyed up in Wrigleyville with Kristen - had some excellent Mexican at El Jardin. My dad and sister visited and we enjoyed watching the Notre Dame football game (unlike today...grr).

Saturday night was an intimate get together at Café Ciao on Monroe. Great space, great food, and great wine was had by all.

Spontaneously and with no coercion from Mark, Megan made me some delicious and nutritious Rainbow Chip Cupcakes for my birthday. It is not truly a birthday without a little Rainbow Chips!!

In addition to birthday cupcakes, I also enjoyed a very delicious "Chocolate Wonton Sundae". I would be OK making that a birthday tradition as well! Thank you to Julie and the wonderful staff at Cafe Ciao for your hospitality - we had a lovely time!

One other tradition that we continued this year was that of the Birthday Brunch! This year's was at the trendy Branch 27 (continuing the para-tradition of brunch spots with numbers in their name, i.e. Cafe 28). They featured quite a few Southern dishes - which Mark and I could not resist... we're just embracing the Southern culinary arts while we can. It was delicious!

Our weekend was capped off by mass at Old St. Patrick's - just like old times. It was a very special visit and the perfect end to a perfect weekend. The last thing on our itinerary was a potluck dinner courtesy of the OSP 5pm choir. What a great time with great food and friends!! We made it to O'Hare just in time for our flight and had a terrific flight home!

Our trip was a breath of fresh air and it was great to see so many of our friends and family. We are already trying to plan our next trip. After 2 wonderful weekends, we are taking it easy this weekend and enjoying down time with Crowley!

Visit from Megan and Katie

We are so blessed to have had Aimee's sister and our dear friend Megan visit us in Atlanta. On the same weekend! We had a filling couple days of catching up, eating, praying, and of course commemorating the European re-awareness of America. Hard to believe it's been 518 years.

We started the weekend at Fat Matt's Rib Shack. Hey, if it's good enough for George Clooney's character in Up In The Air, it's good enough for me. We followed that up with some local beer selections at Neighbor's in Virginia Highlands.

Sunday brought another beautiful morning, a work out, and then mass at IHM where we used my new setting of Psalm 98 (see previous post for recording). Our friend Tommy from IHM was kind enough to host a dinner afterwards which gave us all an opportunity to get to know people better. Monday was a bit more relaxing and featured a creative lunch prepared by me and some freshly made pumpkin bread. Secret ingredient? Apple cider.

We also took Crowley for her obligatory trip to the dog park and took in some Fellini's Pizza. Here are some other pictures from the weekend:

As if this past weekend wasn't enough, we leave Friday for CHICAGO to celebrate Aimee's 30th birthday!! Stay tuned for that. We're so excited to see everyone and be with our friends from Old St. Pat's. Before we leave though, I need to do a quick shout out to Michael and Jeff for watching Crowley. We're so happy to know she'll be in good paws.

Happy Anniversary

In honor of our three year wedding anniversary, I am posting the semi-complete set of digital pictures from our photographer. There are a few samples below but check the Our Wedding album in Picasa for all!

Some random updates

Okay got a few various things to mention...

1. Aimee and I met up with Michael and Jeff for the Atlanta Greek Festival on Saturday. Different from our usual Greek experience because it was put on by the Greek Orthodox Church here in Atlanta. We were lucky enough to time it to coincide with a choir performance and an overview of the Eastern church. Made the gyros all the more tasty!
   
   
2. We were grocery shopping at Kroger at happened upon a box of Coffee Crisp! I've seen them before in the states but certainly not in a grocery store, and never this far south. The Coffee Crisp is a delightful chocolate bar, one of Aimee's favorites. "How do you like your coffee?"
   
   
3. It's been a while since I've written a psalm setting so I looked ahead to the next time Psalm 98 makes an appearance in the lectionary and saw that it was not the typical "All the ends of the Earth" refrain, so I took the opportunity to write a setting of it. Here is a very amateur recording of it we did in our apartment. I haven't quite gotten the acoustics down yet so the piano is too loud but we did get good vocal clarity. Please enjoy:
   
   Psalm 98: The Lords Comes to Rule the Earth With Justice
   
   
   We'll be using this setting at IHM next Sunday!
   
   
4. Serrano Peppers. When we were last at the DeKalb International Farmer's Market, I picked up some fresh Serrano peppers. Aimee has a different take on this (perhaps she'll voice that in a comment?) but I thought they would add a nice kick to a future mexican dinner. Turns out they are much hotter than jalapenos. While dicing them up, Aimee decided to take a bite and, finding them extremely hot, she ended up rubbing her face and eyes. A painful surge of piquance streamed its way through her eyes and tear ducts and, despite several hand washings, lingered on her fingers as a stinging reminder while putting on her contacts the following morning. Ouch! The culprits are below (before being thrown away):
   
   
5. In more successful culinary news, I decided to bake homemade bread this morning. I could not has been more pleased. A nice piece of toast will be waiting for me as soon as I'm done writing this post.
   
6. Last thing, our three year wedding anniversary is on Wednesday. Hard to believe we have three down already but it's absolutely the best. We are going to dinner at Wisteria in Inman Park to celebrate. To commemorate this events, I'll be posting a couple hundred pictures from our photographer from the wedding along with a link to our wedding website.

Our Trip to DC for Jenny and Matt's Wedding

Our first weekend away from Atlanta and Aimee's first visit to Washington DC. Hard to believe! As always, flying with Aimee validated my sense of rationality and calm. The flights were actually pretty smooth which made it better for everyone involved. Pictures from the weekend are in our Picasa Album here.

Friday night we got in and visited Cafe Asia for dinner in Arlington and then decided to hit the monuments at night. What a great experience (and thanks to Jenny for the suggestion)! There are few pictures below from that. Plus it gave me good opportunity to gain experience with night photography.

The wedding ceremony and celebration occurred at the Hendry House near Arlington. It was a beautiful day and an intimate setting surrounded by family and friends, new and old, of Jenny and Matt. I came home with the prize for the guest knowing Jenny the longest, second to family. Not really a prize so much but I got a nice picture with the bride!

Their wedding ceremony, dinner, celebration, and whole weekend were reflective of Jenny and Matt, both individually and as a couple: hospitable, authentic, warm, and open-armed. This excerpt from a reading that day stuck with me:

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

(from On Marriage by Kahlil Gibran)

We finished off the weekend with a trip over to the Georgetown campus, mass at Church of the Holy Trinity, and brunch at Peacock Cafe. Below is a picture from the Francis Scott Key bridge.

Congratulations Matt and Jenny Have a look at all the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mscozz/TripToDCForJennySWedding#

Our first visitors

This past weekend my Mom and Dad flew down to Atlanta to stay with us for a few days. Last time they were here we moved in, spent a lot of money, got lost a lot, and kept them up late. This time around, there was no moving in. And we got lost less often. Aimee and I were just so excited and thankful to be able to host them here and show them around a bit. Naturally, it revolved largely around food.

The weekend started at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, gate C30. We were able to time our incoming flights pretty well as I was arriving from Austin. We got home, got a proper greeting from Aimee and Crowley and the headed out for some Fellini's Pizza. Due to a pesky hole in our air mattress, my parent's sleep was, well, pretty flat. Consequently, we are now the proud owners of two twin Aero Beds. Dinner Friday night was at Murphy's in VaHi. Along with Rosebud, Murphy's is fast emerging as a favorite spot for brunch and dinner.

Saturday we went to the DeKalb International Farmer's Market which never quite ceases to amaze me. The highlight of this particular trip was purchasing 3 pounds of Alaskan King Crab legs. Later, at the risk of giving my parents nightmares from owning a dog, we decided to give Crowley a bath. My dad snapped this shot of Crowley looking decided evil:

Back to the crab legs. This was a definite first for me. We went with a pretty basic cooking technique and made good use of our large All-Clad steamer. I steamed them for about 8 minutes until they were "aromatic and hot to the touch". I love vague cooking instructions. Anyway, paired with some clarified butter for dipping, fresh pasta, and homemade marinara sauce, we had ourselves a mighty fine dinner! A mighty fine way to kick off the Notre Dame/Michigan State game watch.

On Sunday we started with brunch at Rosebud. I had the Alon's brioche French toast with orange-rosemary syrup. Other entrees included the Ultimate Pancake, Gordo's Breakfast, and a broccoli and pimento cheese omelette. All fantastic!

The weekend drew to a close with us going to 5pm mass at IHM. As always it was nice to introduce my parents to some new friends there. Our outbound trip was similarly expertly timed as I flew to Tampa for some training. Next thing I knew I was driving across Tampa Bay with the top down (compliments of Avis):

This coming weekend we are headed to Washington DC for Jenny's wedding. Having met her fiance a few times I'm especially happy for her as he seems like a great guy. More to come after that!

Good News!

Well this post is long overdue and we've told some people already but Aimee officially has a job at Rush next year!

She will start in July as an Instructor in the Department of Neurology and as an Assistant Attending at the hospital. It's a three year appointment starting in July 2011 and has her becoming a full-fledged Attending in July 2012.

In related news, Aimee also took her 8 hour board exam last week which will allow her to be board certified in Neurology. We don't find out the results until December but I'm optimistic! While we continue to enjoy living in Atlanta, it sure is nice to know that we'll be heading back to Chicago next summer.

How good is it?

Slap-yo-mama good. Oh, we're not advocating any kind of maternal battery here. This is why hyphens are so great. The distinction between good and well aside (I did use "yo" after all), let me just be clear that slap-yo-mama is an adverb phrase-ette modifying the adjective good. Good is not an adverb descri... well I can just stop there actually. See, we continue to be exposed to great gems of the Southern lexicon and I felt compelled to share now and then.

Along with this phrase, we also learned about the utility and potential pitfalls of hiking kilts and, while clearly not a Southern thing, something worth sharing nonetheless.

This weekend marked the start of many things: Notre Dame football, Aimee studying for boards, and temperatures that start with a 6. We kicked off the football season by hanging our flag on our balcony (compliments of Matt and Allison from their wedding). We joined the Notre Dame Club of Atlanta at RíRá Irish Pub and had a great opportunity to meet fellow Atlantan Domers. One of which was a friend of Aimee's who she hasn't seen since college.

view from the apartment building entrance

Aimee's neurology board exam is September 13th and, not one to procrastinate, she has dedicated this weekend and upcoming week for her preparations. She has even taken the week off of work to remain free of distractions. Speaking of distractions, the weather has been simply exquisite. While still quite warm by mid-afternoon, it's been really nice waking up and walking Crowley to temperates in the high 60s and 70s. Since a photo of her seems to make it in most posts, here's one of her enjoying her pink bone:

She's really been enjoying the dog parks and her new friends Maggie and CeCe belonging to our new friends Michael and Jeff. They hosted us twice this weekend for dinner. We are blessed to have come across such welcoming and hospitable people. A chance to share this kind of musicianship and fellowship, both in and out of church, is a welcome gift!

Crowley being her usual submissive self

In other somewhat related news, how good is this -- we booked our flights to Chicago for October 15th-17th!! We are more than excited to spend some time with our friends there. I'm not 100% sure where we are staying yet but will plan to see as many of you as possible. And of course a visit to the 5pm mass will be on the books.

The brunch report for this weekend is rather uninspiring: we went to the Original Pancake House location on Cheshire Bridge where I had the worst blueberry pancakes I've ever encountered. Sorry but my bar is high for these things. Lest I end on a negative note, I made a delectable dinner tonight of BBQ chicken topped with fresh goat cheese and home grown chopped cilantro, accompanied by corn off the cob and baked potatoes.

More to come as always. Well, Happy Labor Day all!

Like a good neighbor...

...Aimee was there. One of the other residents in our building (who also happens to be a resident at Emory) asked us if they could borrow a couple of eggs to make some cookies. It occurs to Aimee that never before has she had the chance to do such a neighborly deed. She relished the opportunity and handed over two very brown, very cage-free, very salmonella-free eggs.

No borrowing was required for our tasty dinner on Saturday night. We made horseradish encrusted salmon. It was very simple: salt and pepper the fish then top with a mixture of

bread crumbs, EVOO, a healthy dollop of prepared horseradish. Then bake until done.

And what goes better with some salmon than a small glass of Corzo Tequila (compliments of the Castillo's) -- served neat of course. I don't know really. I think that's right.

On the topic of visits...

1. I told Megan we were evaluating yet another brunch spot so that we would fully know the lay of the land when she comes to visit. Sunday's brunch this time was at Einstein's (not the bagel place). We were quite pleased with the fried green tomato eggs benedict and the banana pancakes were pretty good too. Anyway, we're hoping it works out for her to visit us over Columbus Day!
   
   
2. In other visit news, a really nice note arrived from Fr. Tom this week. It made us realize that we need to figure out a time to get up to Chicago to visit our friends and neighbors from the north. So we're pretty seriously looking at October 15th-17th to head up there. Thanks for the note Rev -- it was wonderful to hear from you!
   
   
3. Found out my parents are coming down for a weekend in September (the 17th weekend). We are super excited to have visitors and show them around Atlanta a little more than last time (when we basically just got lost all the time).

A few more plugs before I go [to bed]:

• Friday's dinner was at a place called Farm Burger in Decatur that specializes in grass fed beef and locally sourced ingredients. They had a lot of great creative options and we both loved it! One -- we'll call it an observation -- but there were a lot of kids there. It kind of felt like a McDonald's for yuppies at one point.
• Sunday night we ate at Thai Chili and we both got a curry which was very nicely done. I will likely go back.
• No hyperlink for this one. The aforementioned cookies, straight from the oven, were delivered to our door 30 minutes later. They were phenomenal. I guess being a good neighbor goes both ways. Too bad they already had sugar; surely there was a witty Outkast quip lurking in there somewhere...

Staying Busy in Atlanta

Happy Sunday all! This past week I was in Austin for a few days visiting my colleagues and the client there. Good trip but man it was hot. They should work "Hot" into the name for Austin and leave Atlanta to be something like "Humid-lanta" because that's all it's been lately. (Do any actual Atlantans use the exonym Hotlanta?)...

Let's see where to start... here's the latest family picture with Aimee and me sporting our new Emory t-shirts. On Friday night, donning our collegiate gear, we went to La Fonda Latina (umm, it's a restaurant). We had some great Cuban/Latin fare. I highly recommend.

Thought I'd share this cute picture of Crowley. As a reminder, all of our Atlanta pictures are on our Picasa site.

In shopping news, several fun purchases were made! We went to Atlantic Station and hit Banana Republic and Ann Taylor Loft. Aimee got some nice new work clothes on sale. And I.

I finally got a Blu-Ray player! I had it all picked out at Best Buy but ended up going through Amazon -- it was hard to ignore the price difference. Despite some warnings that Atlantic Station is fast becoming "thugged out", we made it through. Nice area really!

Brings us to today which started with a trip down to the Old Fourth Ward for brunch Highland Bakery. We got ricotta pancakes with blueberries and a breakfast BLT -- great start to the day!

From there we finally got to the Atlanta Botanical Garden adjacent to Piedmont Park. Couple things. One is that they have been plugging this canopy walk, inviting us to "tip toe along the treetops". I'd say they rounded up on that description. Here's a better one: "we've created a new walkway that is long enough to not be considered a ramp but short enough to not serve any real purpose except drum up business". I guess I was just underwhelmed. The rest of the gardens were great though. We saw no fewer than two carnivorous plants (Venus Flytrap pictured below), a beautiful conservatory of rare orchids, and waterlillies that appeared as if they were placed by an artist's brush.

Mass at IHM at dinner at Shorty's with Michael was a great close to the weekend. Their baked potato and bacon pizza was a fond reminder of our trips to East Lansing to Georgio's pizza. Have a great week all!

p.s. for those who mistakenly thought Aimee was at Old St. Pat's this weekend, she'd like you [Wes] to know that she is updating her Facebook privacy settings.