"So Where the Hell Are You and How Was the Weekend?" You're Asking

Fabulous. Absolutely wonderful, save for the shit weather on Friday (the 2.5h drive took us nearly 5, making us miss our couples massage in the process) and the fact that I pulled a classic brigita bonehead maneuver and left my digicam behind at Whirlyball, so no pics from me, I'm afraid.

Jody and I checked into our room and it was lovely, with the only curious bit being that there was a crib and full kid-friendly layout in there. The majority of this stuff was promptly whisked away by staff, but they left the kids shampoo/bubble bath and a big duckie cookie behind, so hey, free stuff!

Oh, and speaking of toiletries, I'm usually not one to swipe itty bitty shampoos and soaps, but when they're made by L'Occitane, I shift into greedy gear. Mmm...verbena.

Jody and I changed into our fancy duds and went down to the lounge, where I had a totally unseasonal mojito and he had the world's most complicated/pretentious cocktail, a blueberry tea. Crazy thing is it all came together well, tasted pretty good, and was nice and toasty.

After being joined by Matty Matt Matt, esq., we went down to The Grill on the Alley for our fancy dinner.

Before I get any further, I need to tell a quick story:

The weekend before Chicago, I was all a twitter making reservations for Friday dinner and Saturday Whirlyball, beating myself up for having waited so long. Fortunately I had no problems with either and was so surprised I could make reservations less than a week in advance. Fast forward to Thursday morning, when I realize that I had had March 28th burned into my brain (surgery day) and had accidentally made all these reservations for that weekend.

The good news is that (1) I didn't realize this at 3am and (b) they were all able to accommodate our revised schedule without too much strain. I did swipe the cancer card in the process of rescheduling, but I totally did have my surgery on the brain!

Anyhoo, Friday night was dinner, and while the flight delays and cancellations did add a layer of stress to everyone's evening, it was kinda cool how a new person would trickle in every half hour or so. I made the rookie mistake of both continuing to drink cocktails and ordering the soup instead of salad, so by the time my gigantic stuffed trout entree showed up, I could only eat about three bites before pushing it away. It was so delicious, but I was so stuffed.

After dinner, most folks filed out while some of us went to the adjoining bar for one last bevvie. I cashed in my chips early due to the previous night's baby circus, with Jody retiring about an hour later.

Saturday morning wasn't too rough (possibly thanks to Chaser), so we were able to strike out early enough to get to the Chicago Diner when they opened (@10a). We were the second party in line, so they were able to push together five small tables for a large table of 10.

We quickly filled this and just about every other table in the area as more and more folks arrived and filed in. Every time the door would open and we would go "Hey!...", our waiter would give us a look like "How many of you are there?" He was super nice tho and did not grumble once about our multiple groups, splitting of checks, young kids, etc.

While I love me some breakfast (just an excuse to eat syrup), I had to try the cheesesteak:

Philly Cheese 'Steak': Sliced seitan with sauteed onions & peppers, melted cheese, served on an Italian baguette.

Um, crazy good. I wanted to fold up the restaurant and put it in my pocket. There's at least a dozen other things I'm dying to try, so the Chicago Diner is going to be a mainstay the next time we're down that way.

:::And now a brief intermission to go get the kid from daycare:::