Shutterbug Mama

My mom came over Friday night to give Ted and me a break. I love my kid, but I can't even remember the last time Ted and I had a meal in a restaurant WITHOUT Cadence. It's been WAY too long, that's for sure.

Ted had just gotten a growler of homebrewed tripel from a professional brewer friend of our friends' the night before, so we decided on a nice BYOB restaurant called Los Nopales in Lincoln Square. I never thought much of fish tacos until I tried their tilapia tacos. If you live in the Chicago area, I HIGHLY recommend it.

As expected, the food did not disappoint. The ceviche was scrumptious. It's not as limey as most ceviche I've had. It had a bit of a sweet tanginess that was just right. At one point, I prepared to throw a fit when I thought our waiter was going to take that bowl of ceviche away while there were still a couple morsels of pure goodness left, but lucky for him, he was only removing our appetizer plates to make room for our entrees.

The entrees were a feast for the eyes and just as tasty. I'm pretty sure that the dishwashers have an easy job at this joint because everybody probably licks their plates CLEAN. I know we did.

It was nice to have an uninterrupted adult conversation for a change. Ted and I both have big dreams these days, and it was exciting to share each other's enthusiasm.

It's easy to get so swept up in the swells of the day-to-day busyness of life (esp. life with a rambunctious three year old) that you feel like you're barely able to come up for air every now and then. I think Ted and I really needed this evening together, to reconnect even just a little bit and to remind ourselves of each other's respective awesomeness. And having yummy food while we were at it was an added bonus!

Labels: around.town, family, teddy, this.busy.life

There is a new coffee shop in the neighborhood. It's called The Common Cup, but the coffee ain't no common coffee; it's GOOD. Of course, I've only been there twice in the past 20 hours, so what do I know.

Yeah. I'm already on a first name basis with one of the managers, Chris.

We've been a Metropolis family for a while, so I was a little skeptical when I saw that they used Intelligentsia, but I have to say that the coffee was excellent. I still think Metropolis can't be beat for the tastiest coffee in the city, but for a neighborhood coffee shop, The Common Cup sure exceeds my expectations.

They get their sweet stuff from Red Hen Bread which has some of the best baked goods in the city. Cadence ate that whole cookie almost by herself. We were lucky to get a bite or two.

In addition to excellent beverages and treats, The Common Cup provides a a place where the community can come together. They are already displaying art by local artists and plan on supporting local musicians as well. There is an overflow room that will be used for gatherings such as knitting circles and book groups. And their tip jar? They donate the contents to a different local non-profit every month.

I don't think we'll stop going to Metropolis, but it's nice to have a coffee shop we can walk to that we can depend on for a quality cup of joe.

Labels: around.town, coffee, rogers.park, the.common.cup

That's right. Today's the Big Day. I am now 35 years old--a veritable state of venerability, you might say(thanks, Elaine).

I get a 3 day weekend for my birthday, and we started celebrating Friday after dinner with a little trip to Lincoln Square, our old haunt. Believe it or not, I have never been to a Cold Stone Creamery. I've always been happy with Sweet Occasions, our favorite ice cream place in the city, but we decided to try something new, so we headed to the Cold Stone Creamery that opened up this past year in Lincoln Square. It was interesting to watch the girl behind the counter fold my chosen ingredients into my ice cream. I had the German Chocolate Cake (since I was in a German neighborhood and it was almost my birthday and all), which was chocolate ice cream with pecans, coconut, caramel and brownie pieces mixed in. It was really good, no doubt, but I have to say that the ice cream itself was not as good as Sweet Occasions'. And I'm sure there were around 1400 calories in the concoction, but let's not dwell on that, shall we?

To avoid having Cadence bounce off our walls at home after her sudden ingestion of all that sugar, we walked over to Giddings Plaza, one of our favorite places to let Cadence run around and meet all the other kids who are also working off their various sugar highs. She soon made friends with a boy who must have been around 5 years old. She led him on a high-speed chase round and round the plaza. He finally got tired (cuz she could totally outrun him), and he gave up the chase.

Another reason I wanted to go to Lincoln Square was so that Ted could get me my birthday present, a couple CDs from Laurie's Planet of Sound. The CD in particular that I wanted was Wilco's new one, Sky Blue Sky, which just came out this month. I had already heard a few songs off the album, so I knew I would love it. The other CD I ended up having Ted get me was The Sea and Cake's latest full-length called Everybody. I had downloaded this album off emusic.com, and I love it. I can't wait to see them at Pitchfork!

Well, we don't have too much planned for the weekend. Ted's at work right now. I've promised Cadence a bus ride today, so we'll be taking off soon. Tonight, I think I'm having dinner w/ my cousin Kris and our mutual friend Connie. I need to find a BYOB place for dinner cuz Ted picked up some Tripel Karmeliet for me to share with the girls tonight. I wish I could go see Babyteeth tonight at the Hideout. I know Ted would totally let me go while he stays home w/ Cadence, but I haven't gotten a lot of sleep the past couple nights, and I'm totally feeling it.

Man, I MUST be old.

I guess at this age, I have to save all my rock 'n' roll energy for the one big show next week--The iG0 Audio Emissions CD release show that the Detholz! are headlining. My friend Derek Becker, the manager for the 'Holz was sweet enough to put me on the guestlist and get me a media pass so I could try out my new camera at the Metro, which has the best lights in the city for a small venue. The photoshoot is part of my plan to convince the folks at Pitchfork to allow me to bring in my camera, which is considered "professional" because it has detachable lenses and will not be allowed at the Pitchfork Music Festival in July. We'll see how that goes.

Anyhoo, have a happy Sarah's birthday, y'alls!

Labels: about.me, around.town, birthday, music, photos