Shutterbug Mama

It's Just 10 Days

Published by Sarah-Ji on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 23:36.

In around 6 hours, Ted will be heading east on tour w/ The Tim Lowly Ensemble. He'll be gone for 10 days, the longest he's been gone since Cadence was born, and the longest we've been separated as a couple since his Germany trip when we first started dating.

We spent our last evening together before the extended separation eating brats in Lincoln Square, getting milkshakes at Potbelly and taking some goofy photos.

As most of you know, Ted is a stay-at-home dad, so Cadence spends most of her awake time with him. Not only that, Ted does 99% of the cooking and 80% of the cleaning and 75% of the laundry. Plus he works two days a week at Trader Joe's and brews a LOT of beer. I won't miss the beer brewing so much, but the cooking? I'm not sure how Cadence and I are going to eat...

I don't think Cadence realizes what's going on. We've been telling her that Daddy's going on a trip, a LOOOOONG trip, but she has no concept of that because neither one of us has been away from her for more than one night since she's been old enough to remember. To her, a long trip is going out to Grandma and Grandpa's house an hour away. We'll see how this goes...

In case anyone reading this wants to see Ted's show, here is a list of towns they are playing. If you are near any of them, go to Tim Lowly's Myspace page for more details. If you DO go to a show, make sure you say hi to Ted, and if you're lucky, he may share a homebrew with you.

Jun 27 2008 8:00P Allegheny UUC (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Jun 28 2008 6:00P Art Center (Warren, PA)
Jun 29 2008 2:00P Kirkland Art Center (Clinton, New York)
Jun 29 2008 7:00P The Miller Family Home (West Monroe, New York)
Jun 30 2008 8:00P The Advent (Boston, Massachusetts)
Jul 1 2008 8:00P Pianos Upstairs Lounge (New York, New York)
Jul 2 2008 8:00P St. Andrews Summer Series (Block Island, RI)
Jul 3 2008 8:00P St. Stephen and the Incarnation (Washington, DC)
Jul 5 2008 8:00P The Good Cherry (Forest, Virginia)
Jul 6 2008 1:15P Bedford CC (Bedford, Virginia)

Labels: rock.n.roll, teddy, this.busy.life, tim.lowly.ensemble

Best Shot(s) Monday--Embrace the Blur

Published by Sarah-Ji on Monday, March 10, 2008 at 12:44.

A week ago, I wrote a post on Shutter Sisters about How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Blur. My best shot for this week fits quite nicely with that post. I snapped this photo while chasing Cadence down our hallway. There's something about this photo that I just love (and I don't say that about too many of my photos). Sometimes, the most perfect way to capture my little whirlwind-of-a-child is like this--a total blur.

In other news, it was Ted's 31st birthday on Saturday (which coincidentally was the 6th anniversary of this here blog). We celebrated w/ a few friends and family members at an Ethiopian place called Ethiopian Diamond. It's been a long time since I've had Ethiopian, and I forgot just how delicious it is. Chicago, esp. the North side has a large Ethiopian population, so there are a number of restaurants to choose from. I think we picked a pretty good one and hope to go back.

After dinner, we headed back to our place for more libations, including shots of a really really good bottle of scotch that I bought Ted for Valentine's Day. As you can see from this photo of Erik, the scotch had its intended effect.

So is anybody else's kid suffering from sleep deficit due to the time change? I have to say, that's the last time we have a late-night gathering on the eve of a spring-forward time change. We had to be up for church the next morning, and Cadence ended up getting only 8 hours of sleep Saturday night. Ouch.

Go see more folk's Best Shot's on Tracey' Mother May I.

Labels: best.shots.monday, birthday, cadence, friends, photography, teddy

Date Night

Published by Sarah-Ji on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 09:25.

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

Stop The Presses! We Have a Winner!!

Published by Sarah-Ji on Monday, September 17, 2007 at 21:20.

Ok, I'm like totally swamped w/ work related stuff, but here's a short post. So we went to the Great Lakes Brewfest in Racine, WI on Saturday. And by 'we' I mean Ted and his brother David, who was turning 35 the next day. It was a 21-and-over event, so Cadence and I had to find other things to do.

While Ted and Dave were at this all-you-can-drink mayhem, Cadence and I checked out the local tourist trap, where she had her Very First Pony Ride. I didn't think she would actually get on the pony, cuz the whole time we were in line watching the other kids get their turn, she kept asking me where the 'little horse' was. I told her this was the littlest one they had, and she seemed worried. Once she was on the pony, I had to walk with her almost the whole time, which is why I only have this one crappy photo. Still, a little girl's first pony ride is something that MUST be documented.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Can the sky get any bluer than that? And this photos was taken WITHOUT my polarizing filter. It didn't get any warmer than 70 degrees, if that. It's really my favorite kind of weather. You know. Seattle summer weather.

It was positively nippy by the time we headed back to Racine to pick up the boys. Cadence and I visited the lakefront where the fishermen were throwing their lines, and the wind was starting to get pretty chilly, as you can see from Cadence's nose matching her jacket.

The sun set while we were by the lake, and the horizon turned a beautiful shade of pink. I love Lake Michigan right around sunset.

We went to pick up Ted and Dave when the brewfest was over, as I was the designated driver. And it's a good thing. Stinkin' drunk they were by the time I picked them up. They were running down the street pretending to be shooting at each other like they were little kids, while I was honking and honking and they ran right past the car without realizing it was me. While I was taking this picture, I didn't realize there was a guy peeing in the bushes behind them (another inebriated participant of the brewfest), and he yelled out at me, 'What are you, the PO-LEECE?!!' If he'd kept his mouth shut, I wouldn't have even seen him.

Anyhoo, in conjunction with the brewfest, there was a homebrew competition. Ted entered 4 of his brews, and we just found out today that he won 2nd place in the IPA (India Pale Ale) category!!!! You can see the results here. Scroll down to Table 17 to see the winners of the IPA category. This was the one with most entrants (19) so 2nd place is actually quite impressive. And there's Ted in the photo above celebrating with the most excellent Rogue Mocha Porter, which just became available at Trader Joe's. A well-deserved drink, I'd say.

Read more about Ted and his homebrewing obsession on his blog.

Labels: beer, cadence, family, homebrew, photos, teddy

Best Shot Monday--Happy Father's Day

Published by Sarah-Ji on Monday, June 18, 2007 at 12:41.

In honor of Father's Day, which was yesterday, here's a photo of Ted playing the drums at the Rogers Park Artists of the Wall Festival yesterday. What a hottie!

Labels: best.shots.monday, live.music, teddy

introducing a new blog on the block

Published by Sarah-Ji on Saturday, February 10, 2007 at 23:58.

as you all know, my hubby's passion in life (besides me and cadence) is brewing beer. he's finally started a blog to document his creations, so go check it out: www.tedbrews.com.

Labels: teddy