Chicago Dogs

Today, Zach, Ryan, and I had a delicious lunch at Hot Doug's. 

Best Hot Dog in Chicago

Hot Doug’s is the only place I know of where you can get a vegetarian Chicago style hot dog, which was a delicacy I thought I'd never get to enjoy until I went to Doug’s.

The only downside? The long wait, especially on a chilly day like today, but it's all part of the experience. 

My other favorite Chicago hot dog?...

And my favorite Chicago dog?...

"The noblest of all dogs is the hot dog; it feeds the hand that bites it." - Lawrence J. Peter 

Happy Mother's Day

I want to wish all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day. I hope every mother feels appreciated and special today (and everyday).

To my mom: I wish I could be there to celebrate you in person. I hope you did something nice for yourself today. If not I'm sure Herbergers is having a sale. But for real, you are the best mom anyone could ask for.

Can you believe that Scooter didn’t get me anything? 

Three Generations

“I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.” - Terri Guillemets

Happy (Early) 30th Birthday Kirstin

Last night Zach, Scooter, and I went over to John and Kirstin’s to celebrate Kirstin’s 30^th birthday. They will be in Minnesota on her actual birthday, so we had to celebrate a little early.

We were lucky to get to there early enough to spend some time with baby Gunnar before he had to go to bed. Scooter gave him some very sweet kisses and I am extremely disappointed that I didn’t get a picture.

Instead, here is a picture of dad and son reading bedtime stories.

After Gunnar went to sleep we ate a nice dinner and had a mini birthday cake that turned all of our teeth blue. 

Not bad for a quiet Sunday evening. 

“All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.” - George Harrison

Weekend with Friends

Friday night after work Zach and I went to play trivia at Buffalo Wild Wings with Chris and Mark. Check out the scoreboard for the last game. SCOOTR=Zach, FERRET=Kerry, OMEGA=Mark. I would’ve won overall if I’d listened to what my dad always says and “bet it all” on the final question.

I also wanted to document the funniest conversation of the evening that occurred after a trivia question about Tina Fey…

Mark: Tina Fey has been married to the same man for sixteen years.
Kerry: I’ve been married to Zach for almost four years.
Mark: I’ve been married to any number of women for any number of years.

(I did fact check this later and Tina Fey has been “with” the same man for sixteen years, married for ten)

If you know Mark it’s hilarious. True story.

On Saturday I had the best time. Mahrya was in town from St. Louis, so us girls decided to get together. Colleen came into the city and we all met downtown by Meg’s place. We caught up over a lovely brunch at Yolk. It’d been so long since I’d seen Mahrya or Colleen that it was delightful to talk, reminisce, and laugh a lot. 

"We are so Lipstick Jungle right now. So Cashmere Mafia."

After brunch we walked to Millennium Park, because Mahrya had never seen the bean. 

Pretty soon it started to rain, so we went to a restaurant on Michigan called Sweet Water and just hung out and talked until the rain stopped. We put Mahrya in a cab (when we told her that cab drivers have to accept credit cards, she asked “they have to take you to a credit card device?”), so she could meet up with Dave for awhile. 

Then we went back to Meg’s place and ordered Connie’s Pizza. I have to admit that I’m a bad Chicagoan because I have never had it outside of at a baseball game. Colleen, good call on adding spinach to the cheese pizza, it was amazing.

Sadly, Colleen had to leave, but Mahrya came back with Dave and I was able to convince Zach to come down, so we had a couples hang out for awhile and watched the Cubs game.

I wish everyone lived closer, because it was so great to hang out with people who really get me. We missed you Anna and Cherie.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful weekend.
　
“The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” - Elizabeth Foley 　

Happy 3rd Birthday Scooter

My little mutt turns three today. These past three years Scooter has brought so much joy and laughter into my life. He showed me that it is okay to get excited over the smallest thing, he taught me to spend more time outside, and he has always given me unconditional love without expecting anything in return except a warm lap to sit on. He’s such a good boy. Whenever I get down about not being able to sell our condo I think about how without it we never would have had Scooter and I realize it was all worth it. 

“My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet.” - Edith Wharton