My goodness, where to begin. I’ve been remiss in updating things (yes Mom, I know 🙂 so I have quite a bit to write about.
Last week was a bit of a blur – mainly just getting back into the swing of things after the previous short work week. Saturday was takaza‘s birthday party! After kicking around ideas of how to celebrate his birthday, he finally settled on spending time with friends, so a party it was. I was a bit worried about the weather – a nasty mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and rain – but most everyone got to us OK and everyone got home safely (sorry you got lost, awfulhorrid and bookwurm! We’ll see you again soon, though, I hope. Barbarian, check your e-mail!). We had about 20 folks, various snacks and desserts, and three huge pots of chicken and dumplings. We got in some Lupus in Tabula, which was fun, but not quite enough games – we’ll need to work on that at New Year’s.
On Sunday I had lunch with unclevlad and datahawk at Osteria di Tramonto (yum! The roasted duck cavatelli is to die for!) then we toured the Westin Chicago North Shore to give them an idea of the Security challenges for the coming year. It was a great meeting and there was a lot of good discussion. I’m feeling really good about Security for next year, and I hope that Vlad is feeling a bit more comfortable with me in the chairman role. Afterwards I stopped by the Hyatt Woodfield to pick up a bag of mine that they found after MFF (yay!), then picked up some dinner for Dan and me on the way home.
Yesterday Dan took a day off to celebrate his birthday with a little time away from work. We had agreed that this Christmas we would get a single big item for ourselves, then get each other a smaller gift. Dan went out and bought that item yesterday: an 8 cubic foot chest freezer. We got a good deal through Best Buy on a Frigidaire that Consumer Reports recommended. To go with that he also got a Food Saver vacuum bag sealer, which will be a big help if we’re going to be laying in a supply of frozen stuff. We started things out by breaking up a 4-lb. tray of chicken breasts into small packages, and I’m pleased to say that everything worked splendidly! I expect that the 20 feet of bag stock that they supply probably won’t last very long, though, so we’ll need to pick up more of that.
Now we need to experiment a bit and see what other fun stuff we can do with the Food Saver (sous-vide, anyone?).
So today, Dan is flying off to Detroit for a few days of training, weather permitting. Although it’ll be weird being around the house alone, the quiet time can be nice, too. I have a couple of projects I want to work on, and maybe a bit of shopping as well. So, not a very exciting week, but after last month who needs excitement?
Haha – we’ve also been looking at getting both a freezer and a Food Saver. You beat us to it. 🙂
We’re probably going to look at smaller ones, first, and I’ve been researching upright freezers. My parents’ freezer was always a disaster to find things in, so having shelves seems easier to manage.
Is that the resturaunt inside the hotel?
It’s one of the restaurants in the hotel. The other is Tramonto’s Steak and Seafood, which is truly amazing. The cost for the steakhouse is about on par with a Brazilian steakhouse (think $80 with appetizer, drinks, and dessert), so it’s not cheap. But it is so, so worth it! We’ve eaten there twice and I have yet to be disappointed.
hmmm.. sounds like I may have to check the place out then. I usually avoid Hotel restaurants as I find then way overpriced for the quality of food.
Now.. if only there was an actual Brazilian Steakhouse in the hotel….
mmmm meat…
😀
Looking at the map, I see exactly what happened: I turned off onto 132 / Grand Ave. instead of 31 / Rollins. 45 was pretty bad around that time and by the time we realized we weren’t where we thought we should be, we were way, way off course. (And about the time we hit the metropolis of “Solon Mills” I was having hypoglycemia problems … grr.)
And of course we had a bag-o-games with us, some of which we haven’t gotten to play yet. Next time, for sure!
I got the email, I’m on the LJ community, now we need to check with Fran’s cousins to see what the NYE plans look like. I am reasonably sure we’ll be there for at least some of the time!
yay, chest freezer! and i inherited one from my parents when they moved – it’s great for storing all the leftovers from the veggie boxes. 🙂 we’ve finally gotten enough soups & sides & whatnot into it that we had to get rid of almost all of our thermal ballast…
foodsavers are rockin’. it’s so nice to be able to buy the family pack of chix breasts at the store, then be able to grab 2 or 4 out of the freezer as needed.
i’m in detroit today, too! i’ll ping dan and see if he’s interested in getting together for dinner. hope you enjoy the downtime. *hug*