Chicago, Milwaukee, and BIG FUN

Well, I can't lie...I had a super duper amazing weekend in Chicago and Milwaukee! And now I will rehash all of it.

On Friday...Lisa, Randy and I went out to dinner at the 44th Ward Dinner Party. We all had high hopes, as it is a grilled cheese restaurant (!!!), but to be honest, it fell a little flat. We had amazing apps, but it took over an hour for our grilled cheese to come. Considering the size of the place (it was tiny!), we started wondering if they were cooking everything on a tiny George Foreman grill or something. It was weird. We had a really sweet waitress, however, who felt badly that we had to wait so long. She generously brought us a free dessert ... which had a giant hair in it. Blech.

On Saturday, I ran out to my car to grab sunglasses and saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up, and - surprise! A coyote trotted right by me on the sidewalk. I was totally confused and surprised. For a second I thought it was a dog, and then realized that he was a coyote. How weird is that??! Right in the middle of Chicago! I am still giggling about my coyote run-in. Definitely one of the weirder things that have happened to me!

Anyway...on Saturday, Lisa and I drove up to Milwaukee and met Jenn!!!!! We had SUCH a great time. From the second we met Jenn, it was like we were old friends. We spent around 5 hours hanging out in Milwaukee, eating and shopping and just generally having fun! I can't wait until we can meet up again. Jenn is every bit as funny, beautiful, and awesome as you think she is.

We stopped at a resale shop and I managed to find this KILLER dress for the holiday party she was going to that evening.

Maroon velvet? CHECK. Green taffeta? CHECK. Asymmetrical hemline? CHECK. Sleeves that come to a point? CHECK. Sadly, Jenn later shared with us that it was too itchy to wear sans bodysuit...so I look forward to photos from the 2010 holiday party. :)

We also found these KIND OF AMAZING "fur" coats. I have a much better photo of us in them, but for some reason blogger will only load it sideways (?). Sad face. This photo caught us mid-laugh, with Jenn mid-hair tuck.

We were sad to leave Milwaukee and just had such a fun time. But...we did eventually leave and headed to the outlets in Wisconsin on the way back to Chicago. Got a few good little things...mostly socks for work (wow, fun!) and some festive holiday soaps from the Bath and Body Works outlet. Score. Oh, and a few little treats for Matt. Shhh, don't tell. They're secret. :)

SO. That was Saturday. We got home and watched the season finale of Glee (okay, I had already seen it...but was desperate to watch it again. HOW FREAKING GOOD WAS THAT EPISODE??!). And then promptly fell asleep.

Sunday morning, we woke up and went to brunch at the Serbian-owned restaurant on the first floor of Lisa's apartment building. It was delish! Then, Lisa and I headed downtown for a chocolate tour. To be honest...the tour was pretty annoying. The tour guide announced right away that she was an actress (gah) and it kind of went downhill (read: overly cheesy) from there. We did, however, go to an amazing chocolate place - Teuscher, located at the 900 shops on Michigan Ave. Teuscher is a Swiss chocolate company, and they import their chocolate every week from Swizterland! Their specialty is the champagne truffle...amazing chocolate with a Dom Perignon center. They gave us one truffle to sample and it was AMAZING. I bought a couple more to take home for Matt. Lucky boy!

The other good place we went to is called More, and is a cupcake shop. Delicious. It is located...um, somewhere in the Viagra Triangle. On Delaware I think. They gave us each a teeny tiny mini chocolate cupcake, and it was great. The frosting was PERFECT. :) Highly recommended!

After that, Lisa and I shopped around a bit more in the Water Tower Mall and I scored some super duper cheap hair accessories at Forever 21. I finally thought I should leave at 5:00 (6:00 my usual time!) when I realized I wouldn't get home until 10. Double sad face...I was tired!

I made it safely home, though, and now am counting down the seconds until around 2:35 on Friday - which is when my vacation starts!!!! It's about this time (and, okay, pretty much every day) that I really love working in a school!

I hope you all had weekends as wonderful as mine!