Fine Dining Without Class: Taste of Chicago

Do you have tons of extra spending money?  

Do you have so much class,

that you raise your pinky when you drink a soda?  

If you answered no to both of those questions then you are ready to enjoy fine dining - without class!


On an overcast Saturday in July, Chicken, Ashes, Mr. Ashes, Momma C, and I went to the Taste of Chicago in. . .  well. . . Chicago.


It was a long drive.  We went past the windmills.

Made a pit stop at our favorite candy store.

And before too long we were there. . . Chicago!

Chicago had so many interesting things to see!


Chicken: So many buildings!

Ashes: So many people & people walking dogs!

Bo: And so many pigeons!!  They were huge!  I never realized how big these guys are and they come in just about ever color!

Ashes: They're rats with wings, Bo.
Bo: But they're so cute!  Does anyone have any bread?
Chicken: Rats. With. Wings.
Bo: Whatever.  Lets move onto the food.


Oh, the food!  They had just about everything!  There were so many good things to choose from; so we tried just about everything!


Bo:  Plus, the air smelled like Rally's french fries.
Ashes: Food tickets were 12 for $8.00 and most of the foods cost 5 tickets or more; although some were only 3 tickets.
Chicken:  They had 2 sizes of the foods to try; you could either have a full size entree or a 'taste size'.  We mostly got 'taste sized' portions and shared; this way we could try just about everything. 

We tried. . .

toasted ravioli

award winning bruchetta

real Chicago pizza

foot long corndogs

chocolate covered strawberries

crab rangoon

potstickers

buffalo style wings

chocolate fudge

vanilla churros

gourmet fries with parmisian cheese

chocolate covered frozen bananas

and so much more.

Ashes: Yea, we were totally stuffed!
Chicken: And drenched too!  It started to down pour a couple times when we were there.  
Bo: I was amazed at the length people went to to get out of the rain.


They ran into the port-a-potties

They hid under food trailers

They made mini umbrella cities

They stole umbrellas off of the picnic tables

And some even tied ponchos up in the trees.

After the Taste Momma C took us on a tour of the city.

Thank goodness Momma C was there!
She knew everything about the city; it's history, landmarks, and most importantly- how to navigate the big city.  She took us on an amazing tour of the city!


Bo: I learned so much and I'm so grateful that she volunteered to drive.  I may have eventually made it to the city, but I never would have found my way home!

Overall Food Rating:
Bo: I give the food at the taste it 5 sporks out of 5: for variety of food and friendly people
and
2 dirty napkins because the air smelled so heavily of Rally's french fries even though there were no Rally's to be seen- anywhere.  The second dirty napkin is for the fact that only 2 stands even bothered to hand out napkins; luckily we had the rain to wash off our hands.  


Chicken: I give it 5 sporks out of 5 for variety and quality of food.  I give the it 2 dirty napkins for terrible weather (many downpours) and really really long lines.


Ashes:  I'm glad we went, it's definitely something everyone needs to do at least once in their life.

Don't Forget: To follow our blog so you are always up-to-date on our latest shenanigans.  

Cuddly Kittens!

Well, today was a VERY exciting day.  Since it was the first day of summer vacation I had big plans.  Like sleeping in until noon and being as lazy as possible. But I was surprised to find my foster cat Mercedes delivering her kittens!  

It took nearly all day, but she successfully delivered 5 gorgeous kittens!    

Mercedes has been a wonderful mom!  Despite all the hardships she's overcome, like having been hit by a car and having a wrongfully healed back leg. . .she's so happy, purry, and just downright amazing all the time.

Here is a video of her kittens the first afternoon after they were born:

And here is a video of the kittens 28 days old:

*Notice how the mostly gray one (that looks like her mama) is basically saying, "I wan't nothing to do with this."

It's going to be really hard to bring this cuties back after their foster time is up.  They all act like their mama- which is absolute purrfection!  

More updates to come!

It's Soup-er Fruit-astic!

Bo & Chicken's 

Soup-er Fruit-astic 

All You Can Eat Ramen Noodle 

Belly Burning 

Bikini Wearing 

Ultimate Weight Loss 

(Lookin' Good) Challenge

Chicken:  Bo and I decided that we'd like to get into better shape and improve our health.  

Bo:  Since being gym-bos isn't a viable option (see Blog-er-size) we decided a combination of a healthy diet and home exercise would be the best way to go.

Chicken: So have decided for the next month we will give up ALL fried foods.  That means no french fries, no fried onion rings, and 

Bo: No Crab Rangoon!  My only weakness!!!!

Chicken: That's right.  No Crab Rangoon or sweet and sour chicken.  But, we are NOT giving up soda; we are just going to significantly reduce our soda intake.  I'm going down to 1 diet coke a day.

Bo:  I'm going to exercise 3 times a week.

Chicken:  I'm going to exercise at least 30 minutes 4 times a week.

Bo:  We made a trip to the store and picked up a bunch of fresh healthy foods.   I put out a bunch of healthy fruits for easy to snack locations.  This is not a diet- it's a healthy eating challenge!

Chicken:  We are doing this for 1 month.  So on July 15th we will do a big weigh in and blog the results.

Until then, the B.A.C.S.F.A.Y.C.E.R.N.B.B.B.W.U.W.L.L.G.C. is on!

Blog-er-size

One - Two - Three - Four

Touch those toes!

Run that mile!

Lift those weights!

Back in May Bo decided to join the Riverview gym.  

In June, Ashes decided to join the Riverview gym.
Chicken decided it was stupid and she wasn't joining a gym.

The following is the life & times of 2 gym-bos 
over the course of a week.  

Come on everyone, it's time to Blog-er-size.

Day 1: Monday
Ashes: Feel that burn!  This is the best idea ever!  
Bo: Exercising surely is hard sweaty work but it will all be worth it in the end.  I'm eating healthy and I'm feeling better than ever!
Ashes: I found some great new healthy recipes online that I'm excited to try out.

Day 2: Tuesday
Ashes: I didn't realize that there were so many muscles in your arms.  
Bo: I'm a little bit sore but it's all going to be worth it.  No pain no gain right?  
Ashes: Yep, this is really and truly the best thing we ever decided to do.  You know I slept like a rock last night.  
Bo: I know how you feel.  I was so exhausted I didn't eat dinner or do laundry.  I'm going to have to do that tonight.  
Ashes: Me too.  I should have done the vacuuming yesterday, but I was so sleepy I just went to bed early.

Day 3: Wednesday
Ashes: Oh, God.  Everything hurts.  I can't take this much longer.  
Bo: Did you have to pee like crazy yesterday.  
Ashes: Yeah.  I think it's all that water we're drinking.  I know it's good for you but I can't keep running to the bathroom every 10 minu. . . hang on I'll be right back.  
Bo: How do you feel about just doing the bikes today and not the treadmill.  
Ashes: Sounds fantastic.  Did you bring your mp3 player?
Bo:  Yep and I see that you've got yours.  I put some new motivational songs on here to put some pep in my step.

Day 4: Thursday
Bo: Okay we are not doing the bikes again.  My butt is still numb from that seat.  
Ashes: How do people do this?  
Bo: I have laundry everywhere!  It just keeps piling up and I'm so tired at night I can't do anything.  I only have 1 more pair of clean socks so I have to do laundry tonight.  
Ashes: I haven't made dinner all week- instead I've just been eating the ready made stuff that can't be good for you- but I don't have the time or energy to cook anything healthy.  
Bo: We can do this.  Other people do this right?  Other people are perfectly capable of balancing a full-time job, pets, and housework.  
Ashes: So, we can handle this.  It's just all about balance.  
Bo:  That's true.  We just need to find our balance.  I've decided to pick 1 day a week to do all the laundry, 1 day for the vacuuming, and so on.  

Day 5: Friday
Ashes: There are just not enough hours in the day.  I spend all my time frantically trying to get all the housework done and running to the bathroom to pee!  
Bo: It's just not possible.  I don't know how I'm supposed to do everything.  I'm wearing my last pair of socks.  Don't look too closely because they don't match, but at least their clean.  Then my cat ate my ear buds so I don't have any workout music!
Ashes: What happened to your plan?  
Bo: Well, it all went down the drain when I got home and found out that Rosie O' (my dog) had torn apart her dog bed making it look like it snowed in the house.  It was magical for about 2 minutes until I realized that A. It's June and B. There shouldn't be 'snow' in the house.

Day 6: Saturday
Bo: When the alarm goes off I turn it off and stare at the ceiling.  There is no way I'm going to be able to get out of the bed today.


Ashes: When I woke up the alarm clock says 5:27. . . that would be p.m.

Day 7: Sunday
The gym is closed.  Thank God!

Well our attempt to get fit didn't take a long time before our trips to the gym dwindled and then stopped all together.  But we did take a lot away from our gym experience.


1.  You have a lot of muscles.  Seriously.  Muscles in places that you never knew there were.
2.  You have to be willing to give up a certain amount of time on a weekly basis to achieve true gym-bo status; the two of us are so family & career oriented that we didn't make it.
3. You don't have to join a gym to get fit.  Small permanent healthy changes in your diet and adding a little walk here and there can make a dramatic difference too.
4. Getting fit is a life change.  You have to set up your mind and follow through with it.  
5. Think before you eat.  Should I really get a Jumbo fries instead of a medium?  Why eat potato chips when I have some apples right here? Choose grilled over fried when possible.  

Bucket List April Update

2012 Bucket List Update

Here is Bo's 2012 Bucket List:

*Finish writing a story
- No, but I did start another one that should be finished soon.


*Paint/sketch a picture for mom, Nonie, & Chicken
- Because of recent events, I'm going to have to change the specifics in this one.  Work In Progress


*Order clothing online
- No, but I did order curtains and a Thunder Shirt for Rosie & Violet.


*Create & upload a YouTube video
-Success!  I just uploaded a video of my foster cat & her 1 day old kittens.  Check it out!  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxnBUA3yWp8&list=FLn-OhOFr7MVqbZRPZBdaAVQ&feature=mh_lolz



*Paint & start decorating my library
- I moved, but I have new rooms that I can decorate.


*Read 100 books
-I'll have to count.  I haven't read 100 yet, but I've at least read 30.


*Make my garden even better than last year
- Um.  I moved; so I'm just happy when I get the lawn moved every week.


*Keep up better with the housework
- I think I can cross this off- but Chicken thinks I still need improvement.


*Write more amazing profile stories for HSHC
- Done & still doing!


*Teach Rosie O' (my dog) a new trick
- Yes, she knows how to annoy Chicken in amazing new ways.


*Redo all the outside flower beds
- Currently working on.


*Learn 2 new songs on the piano
-I now know Hallelujah and Take Me Home Country Roads.


*Complete an entire Sudoku Puzzle
- I can't find my book.


*Learn a new card game
- I need to find my cards.


*Keep up with my blog
- I think I'm doing an okay job with this.


*Try drinking tea again
- I did and it's still disgusting.


*Learn how to knit
- Yeah, I'm still working on this.

Chicken's 2012 Bucket List

A.K.A Things I want to do before the world explodes

*Finish the blanket I've been working on for the past 2 years
- I have not touched it.  Well, that's not true.  I did look to see what I have left to do, but then I put it back in the closet.


*Complete a 2,000 piece puzzle
- I started working on it and I got about 1/2 way into it.  Then I went about 2 months without working on it.  I was cleaning up my room one day and I accidentally vacuumed up a few of the pieces; so, I just boxed it up and put it in the closet.  So now I'm back to square one and have to buy a new 2,000 piece puzzle.


*Pay all of my medical bill
- I had to made an emergency trip to the dentist that's going to cost around $1600. . . BUT I haven't received the bill yet so I'm officially caught up. . . for now anyways.  I'm still marking this off.


*Go away on a trip
-I'm planning a couple.  Bo & I even started a fund to collect money for it.


*Loose 10 pounds
- I haven't even weigh myself, but I doubt I've done this.  In fact, I probably put on a few; but you know the saying "you've gotta gain some to loose some."


*Go to the movies 4 times
-I have not gone once, but I'm going to see the Avengers next weekend.  You're more than welcome to come along.


*Travel to Ohio to visit Lishes & Broham
- No, but I'm planning too (end of May- early June)


*Blog more
- Work In Progress


*Get new glasses
*Try new foods (like authentic Mexican, sushi, etc)
-I've tried lobster, crab, and a new Chinese restaurant


*Meet new people
*Complete Assassin's Creed 4 before The End of Days
- It doesn't come out until October, but I've done a lot of research on it and I'm excited!

*Create my own version of Chopped

-No, have not done this yet.

*Have an even better garden than Bo

-Yeah, it's already planted!  Ah- yeah!  Bo's not even planted yet.  Plus I bought my first weed eater.

*Expand my garden

- No I just reconfigured it.

*Try some new recipes

-Only the food that's Bo's made.  Oh, I did make chocolate covered pretzels; thought I don't think they count.

*Make a movie

- No, but I really really want to.  I just have to motivate myself to do it.  I almost want to make like a musical.

Oh, I'd also like to add to mine- Convince my parents to get a pool.

Worth 1,000 Words: A Fine Fall Day

Sometimes your heart needs time to heal.

Sometimes you just need time.

Time to cry.

 Time to think.

Time to remember.

When you remember you smile.

When you recall, you laugh.

And when you see it- you find the words.

While going through some photo albums, I found these photos, and it's true what they say- a photo IS worth 1,000 words.  I've decided to make a new addition to the blog- a story told through pictures.


So please enjoy the first in a series of blog entries where we let the photos tell the story.

A Fine Fall Day

October 2010

Sometimes we just need to remember, laugh, and talk.

Sometimes we just need a reminder about

what life is really about:

all we really have,

and where we came from.