mondovino

jonathan and i started watching the documentary mondovino with a nice bottle of owen roe's cabernet sauvignon from corks. we finished that with dinner. we were having a really hard time watching the rest of the documentary without sipping on some more wine for ourselves so we made a quick trip over to mondo vino to pick up some les obriers de la peira.

the documentary went a tad long but was extremely interesting, informative, and even compelling. i'm on the side that we need to be advocates for smaller vineyards and wineries.

fall

today is the perfect day for these things.

braised short ribs

happy birthday to me.

thanks jp, for your surprises and your cooking, which are filled w so much love.

i love you, bubs.

the coffee table that could

i had a game in milwaukee on saturday so jp and i decided to make a weekend of it. my parents are in town next weekend so we treated this as a sort of early valentine's day treat for ourselves. so we pricelined a hotel and to the hyatt downtown for fifty bucks.
we were off to a good start.

i'm always harping on jp about my 'need' for surprises and spontaneity in our relationship and, let me tell you, this man sure knows how to make something special even special-er. we left early saturday morning and our first stop was riverview antique market where we drooled over the mid-century furnishings and i coveted the oil paintings and oleo.
i am a geek when it comes to antique malls and estate sales and jp has always, first obligingly and now enthusiastically, tagged along. this stop was his first surprise for me.

we have decided--in the names of fashion and environmentalism--to not buy new as much as possible. our furniture consists of items either picked up on the side of the road or purchased for a steal at thrift stores. (the couch is an exception; twas a wedding gift from grandparents).

we've been using an old trunk for a coffee table and have been deeply dissatisfied. do not underestimate the emotional affect your interiors can have on you. so when we found this little guy in the back corner at booth 21E, you can imagine our delight. look at that wood! it's so sturdy and thoughtfully crafted and, well, the most beautiful coffee table in the world.
see for yourself:

we didn't buy it right away. we slept on it, mulling over the wiseness of making this purchase when i had just lost my job. but when we both woke up we said: we ARE buying a proper coffee table today. and we felt good about it. so we stuffed it in the car, miraculously, and drove it home back to chicago where it fits perfectly in our teeny living room.

the rest of the saturday consisted of the milwaukee art museum, reffing a 50 point blow-out at wisconsin lutheran, surprise champagne and chedder popcorn in the hotel room, hazlenut cutlets and micro brews at comet cafe and free nightcaps at the hotel bar.

sunday morning had more good meat substitutes in store for us at beans and barley for brunch.

i know. i sure am spoiled by what jp does for me and with me. but more importantly, we both have lots of fun doing what we do and doing it together. i can't think of a better field trip buddy.

dancing our faces off

jp and i went to yelle last night with the rest of the logan square gang. it's fun going to shows bc i rarely went to them before i met jp and he used to work at a venue and was always around that sort of show-going culture. he goes a lot less now that i am in his life.

but yelle is quite endearing to us. and i get to dance around like a maniac and for once i don't look weird. and--better yet--jp, who is averse to dancing, even joins in! i made him sweat last night.

it's an interesting crowd there: hipsters and wannabe hipsters and lots of suburban girls dressed down in american apparel and young gay men experimenting with leather jackets and moustaches. and there we are. the old married couple. cooler than them bc we are really so uncool. not going to lie though: i put on the leggings and the short leather boots and the mini dress. i even put on some mascara. and i jabbed the air with my fist and jumped up and down on my poor feet all night long.

in the bathroom a girl asked me if i would buy her a beer at the bar. it was an 18+ show. i told her no; i just loved yelle too much to get kicked out. certainly this will teach her the importance of investing in a flask.

playing at adults

jbp looked particularly dashing in his herringbone jacket with patched elbows (courtesy of papa power). I donned a frilly top overlayed with a black vest and accented with peep-toe shoes and rouge on my lips. for our wedding we had received play money (no, really) from a dear friend, with which to use to go to the chicago theater with. the picture of dorian gray sounded intense and interesting.

we drove up to heartland cafe at 7000 n glenwood in the arts district to enjoy some pumpkin ravioli and spicy black bean burger with beer. jbp hasn't had any of his own brews in the fridge and has desperately been needing a cold one. dinner out, though expensive (especially so, since we are broke), is decidedly important for us. we find ourselves on palmer around the house a lot. I am a homebody and, by extension, jbp becomes a homebody. don't read that wrong: he goes out and about with friends without or with me. but his friends live three blocks away so even if we aren't at palmer, we're at lyndale and just don't seem to get out of logan square. when we do get out it's to target or work or the bike shop or stanley's. so even with funds low, sitting in a completely different neighborhood around different people (certainly different than the demographics in logan square) eating different food gives, as silly as this sounds, us something to talk about.

it was like the honeymoon: so much time always together or around each other and, well, you run out of things to talk about. we became that couple that sat at dinner out together and did not say a word. we weren't angry with each other or even just annoyed. we had simply shared everything there was to share. inspiration had disappeared for a while, and time apart, which was a luxury, was scarce.

so saturday we got dressed up and then sat our butts down for a served meal and a dramatic performance. we felt rather adult and the intentionality of it seemed rather funny. perhaps it's because we know we are rather content to sit home with a movie from the redbox and some doctored-up boxed macaroni and cheese.

my hangover from last night's bottle of wine was still lingering in the corner and jonathan was exhuasted from having to wake up early to go schmooz at his lsac convention. we sure were adults.

i got too full from pumpkin ravioli. but it was good.
i got too cold at the play but dorian gray was good. we had fun.