This One's for Scott and J

"Chicago could finish the year with its fewest homicides since 1965!"

Two Enthusiastic Thumbs Up

Maybe we haven't mentioned this, but we really like living here. The little things* are so much easier.

Like seeing a movie

When we lived in Waldorf, our choices were a giant mega-movieplex in Alexandria or the local theater. Now, the mega-movieplex was supernice, don't misunderstand me. Brand new, stadium seating, ticket purchasing kiosks so you never have to talk to a person ... the trouble was getting to that point. First, to get to the theater, you had to cross a bridge. Not just any bridge, the Wilson Bridge. Looks nice, right? Yeah, well, it doesn't exist yet. It's been under construction for the last decade or so. But sometimes we were able to successfully navigate lane closures, accidents, and random traffic backups to make it to the Great(ish) state of Virginia. Challenge #2 is parking. The mega-movieplex had the most oddly shaped parking lot with spaces about the width of a SmartCar. I couldn't even squeeze my Civic into those spots. Especially with all of the suburban, um, Suburbans taking up 3-4 spaces each. But let's pretend that we made it across the bridge and were able to find and successfully maneuver ourselves into a parking spot. The chances of getting a ticket were about 2 in 5 in our experience. Weekend evening and matinees of any movie less than 5 weeks old were always sold out.

"But Ashley," you are probably asking, "why not just go to the Waldorf theater and avoid all of that Virginia nonsense?" Ahh, the St. Charles Towne Centre Theatre. Home of the pretentious and unnecessary e. They mostly showed second run movies. Which is fine, since I don't need to see movies the second they come out. (It's still the same movie, whether you wait in line at midnight or see it on a Sunday three weeks later.) Unfortunately, they only had about six screens so the movies they got were the super blockbusters. Nothing even a little bit smaller, ever. All slapstick comedy and big budget FX spectaculars, all the time. Also? There was NEVER soap in the bathrooms. In a place that small, you know the heavily eyelinered teen scooping your popcorn with her hands does not have a super-special staff bathroom with extra amenities like, say, soap.

So, anyway.

In the last five months, Damian and I have seen at least as many movies as we saw in five years in Maryland. Which is awesome, since I lovelovelove going to the movies.

Tonight, after a sparkling wine tasting (amazing--six sparkling wines, all very different, all very good), we went to see Juno. D and I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. It was funny and sad and sweet and all-around excellent. We laughed and cried. (At least, I cried. Damian has never cried in his life. I swear.) The writing was great and the actors all did a fantastic job. If you haven't seen this movie, stop reading this stupid blog and go! Gogogo!

*Sure, the big things are turning into a disaster, but, hell, we can see MOVIES, people!

Catching up/ filler material

So, we have been bad about posting. Really bad. And we have been reminded of this (You know who you are... Jonnett). Ahem. So I'm just going to fill in some time here quickly with the help of a few pictures because I'm lazy.

Thanksgiving:

We spent Thanksgiving in Michigan this year. The beauty of it was that Damian worked a full day Wednesday and we were still in Niles well before dinner! We spent a great deal of the time at Ashley's parents since they invited Damian's Mom and Grandma over for dinner and his Dad had to work a good chunk of the time we were there. We went out to the bar in Niles that Wednesday to meet up with our friend Kris from high school. Needless to say, that didn't last long. It is Niles after all. But we did run into a few people we knew and it was good to see them and say hi. And then leave.

During Thanksgiving dinner, it began to snow. We got a good six inches or so and of course we took pictures.

The Final Frontier

Ashley's new CRV covered in it's first snow

Ashley's parent's yard

That Sunday was Damian's mom's birthday so we went out for breakfast before leaving town. We got back home early enough for some decorating. Ashley started putting up inside decorations while Damian put up lights outside. Here is a blurry picture of what it looks like.

The following weekend we went out to a Christmas tree farm to cut down a tree. Just as we finished walking out to where the trees were, it began to sleet/snow. Hard. And the trees were not very good. So we wound up with a pre-cut from the same place. They were nicer trees anyway. Plus that way were were able to focus on getting hot cider and donuts. It was win - win. We don't have any pictures of the tree yet but I'll add them when we do.

We would like to take a minute to list reason #3562 of why we love Wheaton. During the week we were the recipients of another six inches or so of snow. When Damian went out to shovel the driveway the next morning he was surprised to see two of his neighbors on their way over to help. Between the three of them it took about 3 minutes. Plus another 5 or so to talk afterwards. Granted these were a couple of guys Damian talks to somewhat frequently now, but still something that never would have happened in Waldorf in a million years. They both had to go to work as well but still took the time to help a neighbor. God bless the Midwest.

And an after shot just for the hell of it because snow = pretty. Especially when it isn't in the driveway.


And that brings us to last weekend. On Saturday, our friend Marty drove down from Milwaukee to visit for the weekend. We spent most of the time at the house but showed her around downtown Wheaton some as well. It was a good visit overall and good to catch up with her. Next time she visits we will take her around a little more to see some of the hot spots.

And to send this post off, here are a few more blurry pictures of Wheaton decorated for the holidays. The pictures don't really do the decorations justice however since our camera struggles mightily with night shots. Anyone who is curious will just have to come see it for themselves.

The south end of Main St.

Main St.

Christmas tree in front of City Hall

Christmas tree in front of City Hall from the side

The Greatest Show on Earth!

Last night we went to see the circus at the United Center. And not just any circus mind you. We saw Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus! I think we both went thinking it might be fun if not a little cheesy but we were both pleasantly surprised. It was very well done and quite entertaining. Some of the acts were down right amazing. Plus we were in the 5th row so we totally could have gotten sprayed with trapeze sweat! But we didn't.

We thought we were going to be really late after getting stuck in some pre-Thanksgiving traffic on the Tri-State but we wound up getting there just a few minutes after it started. Parking and traffic around the UC was easier than I expected which was a bonus.

So to recap: Circus = Surprisingly fun! This may say something to our maturity level but either way we definitely recommend everyone see The Greatest Show on Earth!

Jordan Statue outside the United Center

Jason Does Chicago!

Our good friend Jason came to town last weekend for his first trip to the windy city. It was great to see him again and always fun to show off our new home. Jason is essentially a much taller version of us. He was interested in doing all of the things we love, so it was a blast.

He got in Thursday morning (Ash and I both had to work Thursday and Friday) so he came to Argonne with me so I could print out some maps, etc. He killed some time exploring Naperville and Downers Grove and then we all went to Winestyles for a tasting. Then another flight of wines. Then we went to the Cellar Bistro for, you know, more wine. Friday morning was not awesome.

On Friday, Jason navigated the Metra to downtown to have lunch with his friend Elliot. When he got back we went to happy hour at Muldoon's (an Irish pub in Wheaton) with Mike Dunn for Ashley's birthday. Then we headed to Adelle's for a delicious birthday dinner. Everyone seemed to enjoy their dinner there as usual. When we got home there was a mint-chocolate ice cream birthday cake from Coldstone waiting for dessert.

Mmm... Coldstone...

Saturday we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was actually the first time either of us had been there in ages. The collection is one of the best you will find and we had a great time. Then we went to the Hancock Signature Lounge for drinks before dinner.

Which brings me to the best part. Jason's friend Elliot is the Chef de Cuisine at Avenues in the Peninsula Hotel. For those who are not familiar, Avenues is one of the highest rated restaurants in the US. Elliot sat us at the Chef's tasting bar where we settled in for the long night. We were served the 15 course (yes, 15 courses) paired with some of the best wines we have ever had. I'm not going to try and recall all 15 courses. All I will say is that it was by far the best dining experience we have ever had. All 15 courses were phenomenal which is an entirely amazing feat. Ashley and I are big fans of tasting menus, but there are always one or two courses (even on a reduced list) that are just so-so. Avenues blew away other similar places we have been (such as Komi, Zaytinya, Restaurant Eve, Spiaggia, etc.). I hate to heap on praise when many others have already said it better, but all of the accolades that Chef Bowles receives are well deserved. He and his staff have fine dining down to an art. After dinner, we went out with Elliot for drinks across the street from his restaurant before heading home. We had a great time hanging out with Elliot and hope for the opportunity again in the future.

The "Rookery"

Outside the Art Institute

Our view from the Signature Lounge

Enjoying our cocktails...

Sunday we made sure to get Jason some Chicago style pizza. Then it was off to the Shedd Aquarium (Ashley's favorite place in Chicago, if not the world), where we spent the afternoon checking out the fish. I think we were all fairly beat by that time so we went back to Wheaton and had dinner at the house.

Ashley, Jason, Lake Michigan and Navy Pier

Shedd Aquarium


Shedd Aquarium, the lake and the skyline

We were both sad to see Jason leave Monday, but we're hoping he'll be back soon. There is no shortage of things to see and do in Chicago!

Among My People

I have found my tribe, friends.

D and I were surprised by the amount of decorating people around here did for Halloween. There were whole themed tableaux with lights and graves and spiderwebs.

Well, in case you haven't heard, Wheaton has a bad case of the Jesus. So, given that and the precedent set by the Halloween decorating, we got pretty excited about the potential for Christmas decorating.

After all, it was no accident that they chose the Chicago 'burbs for this:



D and I bet on when we would see the first Christmas lights on houses (obviously the stores were ablaze by November 1). The rules were simple: 1. It had to be a private residence 2. The lights had to be turned on for two consecutive nights, in case they were only testing them on the first night.

I chose November 17. D chose the 20th.

We were both off by almost two weeks. D saw a tree with lights earlier this week, just one day before I saw them on a porch. Yesterday, I saw the first animated reindeer of the season.



Man, I LOVE it here!

Behold! The white deer!

Here is a (somewhat blurry) picture of the white deer we have here at Argonne National Laboratory. It's blurry because I took it with my camera phone and the zoom doesn't exactly work great.

The young deer are a light brown like our friend on the left here, but the adults are almost a pure white. It's kinda weird when you see them in person. And they say nuclear energy is unsafe...

Visits

Here is a quick recap of recent visits we have had from family and friends.

As mentioned before, our first weekend in the house we had some family out to visit. Here is one of the pictures. I hope Tammi doesn't mind us putting her on here, but we wanted to show the pool actually being used.

Prior to Beth Ann's wedding in St. Joe last month, Scott came to stay for one night on his way to Michigan. It was a quick stop, but it was great to see him and we were glad we had a chance to show him our new house and downtown Wheaton. We tried to give him the hard sell because three years will go fast and he and Jonnett have to live somewhere....

A few weekends ago, Wayne and Shawna (and Keeper and Page) came to visit for the weekend. It was a nice relaxing weekend but we don't have any pictures to show. We did however go to the new restaurant in Wheaton called The Bank. They did a really nice job remodeling the inside, but the food was hit or miss. We are planning on going back soon to try again (the service was so-so) because they had only been open a week or so.

Last weekend, Phil and Tammi came to visit for Phil's birthday. He didn't know what we were doing but the surprise was that we got tickets to go see Wicked at the Oriental Theater. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the show. After the show (it was the early show) we went to dinner at McCormick and Schmick's. Naturally we had plenty to eat and drink during dinner so we went on what became a fairly lengthy walk downtown ending up at the Hancock building. So we figured the only option was to go to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor for more cocktails. The view was spectacular that night and was a perfect way to end the day.

The "Johnny"

One of Those Weeks ...

Wedding #2

This past weekend, we attended a wedding in St. Joe Michigan. The bride was the little sister of our BFF Scott (another TD devotee). The ceremony took place in a pavillion right on the beach next to the St. Joe river. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception. BethAnn was rediculously beautiful as always and they seemed really happy which isn't always easy when you have wedding headaches going on. For those of you who don't know, BethAnn is like a little sister to us. She used to tag along with us in High School when we would all go out after football games, etc. (even though she couldn't pronouce Damian's name). So needless to say she is like family to us and were honored to be invited and very pleased to see the newly married couple doing so well.

As usual, here are some picutures.

Bride and Groom ditching the wedding

Lake Michigan

St. Joeseph Lighthouse

Damian, Ashley, Jonnett, and Scott before things got wild

Scott and Marilyn cutting a rug

BethAnn and Marilyn

Jonnett and Scott with BethAnn and their new brother-in-law Kyle

Wedding #1

The last few months have been hectic if we haven't shared that by now. We were fortunate enough to have friends and family in town for a visit Labor Day weekend which was the first in the house. We will post about this soon. Hoping to find some pictures first if any exist.

The following two weekends involved Michigan trips. Damian went to Kalamazoo the first Saturday to attend Brian Leppard's (college roomate and avid Team Dockery reader) batchelor party. It involved us going to watch WMU host Indiana. Unfortunately the game didn't go the way we wanted, but it was a good time nevertheless.

A couple of pics of the new engineering building on the new engineering campus at WMU.

Damian then drove back late that night/ early the next morning to attend the final round of the BMW Championship with Phil. That wound up being an exciting day of golf and they were able to get a spot right next to the 18th green to watch everyone finish as well as the championship presentation.




The following Friday, Ashley and Damian (and Maggie) went to Grand Rapids for Brian and Bridget's wedding. It was great wedding on a nice golf course in GR. It was great to see everyone again and see that everyone was doing so well.

Random paddleboat in Saugatuck

The next day we drove back to Illinois, but decided to take the long way down the lake shore. We stopped in Saugatuck and St. Joe and even had time to have lunch at Redamax in New Buffalo. Not a bad weekend if you ask me.

Grant Park

A couple weeks ago, we went downtown to enjoy the nice weather. We wound up spending a good portion of that time wandering around Grant Park. A couple of the cooler features are the "bean" sculpture which is always popular, and two giant waterfalls that you can wade into. The latter seemed especially popluar with small kids.

The Bean

We are the ones in the (almost) center. This is taken upward from underneath.

Waterfall Business

That is Ashley hoping she isn't about to be sprayed by the varying water pattern.

Cat

Well, Salem seems to be making himself at home. I think he was immediatley more comfortable here than he was at any other place we have dragged him.

It's a tough life...

The Cellar Bistro

We have lots of post to write, but I wanted to do a quick post about the latest restaurant to open in Wheaton. It's called the Cellar Bistro. We went last week to check it out and we were not disappointed. They have main courses to please the starving, but their specialty is small appetizer plates that you can get to share over a bottle of wine. We ordered the stuffed mushrooms, baked brie and some wine. It was delicious and the atmosphere was great. It's advertised as a restaurant (it is Wheaton after all) but I think it's better suited as a wine bar to order small plates and talk with friends. They also serve a lot of organic wines and plates as well as local selections. This is becoming very popular in Wheaton which is a nice surprise.

The Bank Restaurant and Bar should be opening this weekend which is the one I'm really excited about. So you can expect a review of that very soon...

Again, only half the story ...

Much like taking credit for the Chicago pictures (he only took, like, 99% of them. at least one is mine) Damian failed to mention that I TOTALLY beat him at WineStyles last Tuesday.

This may be because I talked Damian out of writing down his initial answers, then wrote them down myself. Hard to say.

But, whatever. I still got more points. D's going to try to avenge him good name and educated palate tonight.

I say, look at the family history, baby. You got no chance.

Wine Styles

In typical fashion, we have become members at a wine store near Argonne. The store is called Wine Styles and we really enjoy it. It isn't even close to the biggest or have the largest selection in the area (still a good selection) but it is a lot of fun. We joined because of the tastings. They have tastings on Tuesday and Thursday. More on that in a second. The memebership gets us both in (and guests...) for any tasting as well as 10% discount on wines, etc. Plus two free bottles each month (for around the same value as your membership). So we are basically buying two bottles a month and everything else is gravy. A coworker of mine is a member and invited us to one of the tastings and we were hooked immediately. The owners Tim and Maggie are a couple our age who simply decided they wanted to open a wine store when they graduated college. They really enjoy what they do and it shows during the tastings. Everyone brings in their own food from outside (they don't serve food) and you sit around sampling wine and socializing. Not bad.

Thursday tastings are fairly typical. You get three whites and three reds. They supply a sheet with all of the wine info and descriptions to help you better describe what it is you are tasting.

Tuesday is a little different. It is still three whites and three reds but with a twist. It is a blind tasting. Here is the description from their website:

Here's how they work...
We give you six wines (3 whites and 3 Reds) and a sheet with descriptions
of each wine. The catch is, we don't tell you which wine is which... That's your job!
It's a matching game, of sorts, and is a bunch of fun. Stop on in to learn more

You match the wines with their description but also, one white and one red does not say which grape it is made from. You also have to guess that correctly which is harder than it sounds.

So in conclusion, we are probably drinking too much wine but it's been a lot of fun.

Dine Away Hunger

Before I gush on about Adelle's, I need to clarify something. In a previous post I mistakenly took credit for taking all of the Chicago pictures. I didn't realize I had done this (I had a couple of drinks and I was tired) but I should give credit to Ashley as well. She took some of the pictures there were posted so it was a team effort.

Anyway, on to more delicious things. We have managed to do a few fun things lately but I only have so much time but I wanted to mention a restaurant we went to last Wednesday. It was for an event called Dine Away Hunger where 17 Wheaton restaurants donate a portion of their proceeds for that night to the People's Resource Center in Wheaton. The money goes to stock the food bank at the Center which provides food for 18,000 DuPage County residents who need assistance. We had not been to a nice dinner in Wheaton yet and thought this would be a good time to do so. Ashley made reservations for us at Adelle's.

We started off sharing the portobello fries which were so amazing, I think even Graham would like them. Ashley had the pistachio crusted salmon and I had the beef tenderloin. It may have been the best steak I've ever had. And while we were there we figured we may as well have desert also. They also have a good wine list and we both enjoyed our selections. Anyone coming to visit should check out their link above and let us know if it sounds interesting. There are plenty of other excellent suggestions in the area but we haven't been to most. Yet...

Awesome

Guess who learned this news the hard way?

Getting By With a Little Help From Our Friends

I think it goes without saying that we are WAY over the Residence Inn. Even before the incident with the mysteriously wet pillows (Really, I think housekeeping was just being nice and washed our personal pillows. They smelled like roses.) We miss our own space and our own bed and our red wine glasses.

The glasses in our "kitchen" (more on that in a second) look something like this:



Only uglier. (FYI, I found that picture by googling ugly wine glasses.)

Those wine snobs are onto something. Red wine really does taste better when it is served in the right glass. I thought my usually questionable ability to select wines (I choose the pretty labels) had really bottomed out. Then D suggested that maybe it was the glasses. I'm going with that.

Now, the kitchen. It's nice to have a full size refrigerator and a real microwave and dishwasher, but, friends, our stove does not work. We had a frozen pizza in there for an hour and a half last night at 100 degrees more than the instructions called for and it STILL was not cooked. So our sustenance choices are eating out or stovetop/microwave dinners. Any suggestions for the latter would be appreciated. Kraft dinner? Not all that I remembered.

But! When we sent out the email letting everyone know we were moving to Chicagoland, our friend from way, way back (half our lives, yo), Kris, wrote back to say that she and her husband and 7-month-old son were also moving to Chicago just days later! I drove into the city (only half an hour on the expressways on a weekday! Yay!) last Tuesday and had lunch with Kris and her gorgeous, happy son. We successfully navigated the El and shopping on Michigan Ave with a stroller. I controlled my shopping impulses, but did find some couches we might neeeeeeeeed for our family room.

And yesterday got to have lunch with our friend Marty. Marty went to Western with D and made sure his resume got into the right hands when he applied at Indian Head. She now lives in Milwaukee. We met her halfway in Gurnee and had some delicious lunch. At least mine was ... ribs ... mmmm ... we also really, really miss our grill.

It's so good to be able to see some old friends again.

City of big shoulders

And to top it off, here are a few random shots WE took this weekend when we were wandering around downtown.

The Chicago Theater



Hancock Building



A couple of shots of the new Trump Tower under construction


Heading towards the lake...


A couple of shots of the Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower





Skyline from Shedd Aquarium



Skyline from the Field Museum

In case you couldn't tell, the Dockerys love Chi-town!!!