Stuffed peppers in the making. Doesn’t it look pretty?
Steamed shrimp with steamed veggies (broccoli, onions, celery and carrots) with a side of lemony rice and diced cherry tomatoes. The rice is actually a mixture of white and brown rice and tabouleh.
Wednesday night (9/13) we decided to splurge on dinner to officially celebrate our anniversary of 4 years.
So, Dave let me spend an hour geting all dolled up and he looked loverly in his slacks and pressed shirt. I thought I had badgered him into bringing a tie for this fancy dinner but he doesn’t appear to be wearing one, does he?
We walked to this great Irish Pub that was two stories tall and had a boat built into the middle of it. We had a pint and then walked on towards our dinner destination, Wildfire.
We had 8:30 reservations and it was only 7:30 when we arrived. We didn’t check in, we just went to the bar. I decided to save red wine for dinner so I went with a cocktail. My favorite cocktail is one that Dave concocted for me using a recipe in our Playboy Bartender’s Guide. We call it a Gin Sidecar. It’s one third gin, one third couintreau, and one third lemon juice served in a glass with a sugared rim. Most places won’t take the time to conjure fresh lemon juice so I only ask for it at really nice places. I requested it from the bartender and he didn’t bat an eye but whipped one right up for me. It was mighty tasty!
The restaurant was everything you’d expect from an expensive steak place, with dark wood, low lights, and leaded glass, staffed with immaculate servers. The steak was perfect, served with broccoli and potatoes that we split. Yum! No room for dessert, though.
Sated beyond necessity, we headed to a jazz club around the corner where we were entertained by a four-piece jazz ensemble. I thought we were tired when we went to bed the night before, but we were really exhausted at the end of this night!
The Dolphin exhibit was amazing, and we got to watch a show where we learned how the dolphins trained the handlers to feed them whenever they did fun tricks.
Beautiful lizard. Can you believe I took this through the glass?
A colorful swarm of chiclids.
Wednesday morning we walked down to Navy Pier, but it was raining and cold out so nothing on the pier was open. Navy Pier seemed endless, clusters of shops one after the other, tons of restaurants small and big. The best part of walking halfway down Navy Pier was to happen upon the Smith museum of Stained Glass. How beautiful and stirring. Secular and sacred imagery, all very beautiful. 
In related news, Saturday is my birthday! I’ll be 32. It’s weird, there’s been no buildup to this birthday at all and I just don’t mind. I told Dave I wanted a Caribou card for my birthday, and a Thai Yoga Massage. I set up the appointment for the massage with Bob Haddad for October 21st. I wanted it to be this Saturday but he was out of town for 2 weekends and I am unavailable for the weekends after that. He sounds really great over the phone and he appreciated the fact that I didn’t want to have a rushed session. I have an 11 am appointment and it will probably take about 2 hours. I can’t wait!!
So, for the birthday plans I decided I also wanted to have cocktails at Azitra. My friends always go out so late in the evening when Dave and I are tired, we wanted to do something early in case they already had plans. From there we’re going to Hayes Barton for a nice cozy dinner and birthday cake!
I think I’ll have a lovely birthday. 🙂
What an awesome time we had in Chicago!
We flew in on Monday afternoon. Our first adventure was to get from Midway to the hotel using public transportation. I’m always fascinated by public transit because it’s never a decent option whereever I live. It was also much cheaper to take the train than a cab. Unfortunately, we ended up arriving in the city at rush hour so the trains got very busy and it was difficult to navigate our luggage, but we made it!
Our first night out we wandered around until we found Jake Melnick’s and had our first local pint. After a few pints there, we went off in search of something scrumptious. We found it at Heaven on Seven, a cajun restaurant near our hotel. I got the chef’s choice, a four-course meal designed by the chef. I was already full from our beers so I couldn’t even think about picking out dinner from their vast menu. The chef’s choice was perfect and everthing they brought me, except for the turtle soup, I loved!
Several weeks ago I noticed a bird on the bird feeder that didn’t fly away when I went outside. On closer inspection, it appeared that the bird was blind, either due to natural causes or injury, it was hard to tell. He flew away and it was crazy to watch him fly! He couldn’t keep a steady altitude and actually did not run into anything. I kinda gave him up for lost. I didn’t know what his chances were “in the wild,” as wild as our suburban neighborhood is, anyway.
Well, look what I saw when I got home tonight!
We’ve been Netflix subscribers for about a year – it was Dave’s Christmas present to me last year. We’ve been really happy with the speed of delivery and the choices available. I have nearly 200 movies in my queue right now!
What we have not been happy with is the sometimes questionable quality of the DVDs we receive. We have had too many movie nights ruined by an unplayable or skipping DVD.
So, I sent an email to Netflix and here’s the thread.
___________________________________
Hello Jennifer,Thanks for your inquiry.I certainly apologize for any difficulties you may have experienced with the quality of our discs. I can assure you our warehouse staff performs an inspection on each and every DVD before it leaves our warehouse, and will scrap those that cannot be cleaned or repaired. We do rely heavily on our customers to notify us of any defects or damages experienced, so we thank you for your feedback. If a movie is not visibly damaged and there have not been any previous reports of problems, we will ship the copy to the next customer.I have passed your comments on to the appropriate department so that they may review their Quality Control procedures.If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. Thanks, LilyanNetflix Customer Service
—–Original Message—–> From: jeniqdickens@gmail.com> Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2006 7:43:13 PM> To: customerservice@netflix.com> Subject: DVDs and Mailers: Condition>>> Subject: null> I’m a happy Netflix customer but I’m (not pleasantly) surprised at how> many movies arrived scratched. Some are unplayable but most just skip in> all the important parts. I expect more consistent quality from the DVD’s> I receive from Netflix. It is very disappointing when we line up a movie> with friends on a Saturday night and find that we can’t watch it or we> have to miss the important bits because the DVD refuses to play certain> chapters. I know I have recieved discs that could not possibly have> played perfectly for the person who had the disc before me, so I wonder,> Are these discs being reported as damaged and you’re waiting to see that damage report confirmed by another user, or are they really not being> reported?> I hope that you can find a better way to keep these damaged discs out of> circulation. Thanks.
So, here’s our latest disc, BlackAdder III.
Dave brought me treats back from his Netherlands trip.
He ate a dry salad on the plane so that he could bring me back this teeny tiny little bottle of salad dressing, and he also brought this mouse-shaped set of salt and pepper shakers.
Then, he and his friend Cindy went to the grocery store and he picked up some local coffee candies. Yum!
I also got a fabulous magnet! We get fridge magnets from wherever we go. This one is a little teeny 3D flower box with tulips. I’ll have to post a pic, it’s so cute!
More nature pictures from our house.
We have the Advanced Pole System from Wild Birds Unlimited. We have three large seed feeders, two hummingbird feeders and a place to feed mealworms, too.
The hummers are quite bold! Here’s a blurry photo of one of the hummers perching on top of a stake I use for my tomato plants.
And Dave snapped this picture of me pruning the tomato plant. While I was out there working, I could hear the drone of the hummingbirds’ wings passing overhead!
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