Roscoe Village, Chicago

This is the third year in a row at this apartment that I’ve hosted a barbecue for my birthday (2007, 2006). I like to have everyone over. It’s a bit of work, especially since we always have a Labor Day weekend barbecue the weekend before too, but sometimes I like not being out on my day and not having to figure out how to go home.

Since I started a job at Roundarch this past Tuesday, this barbecue was also the last Summer of Rachelle event. Sometimes it feels like we just had the Summer of Rachelle kickoff, but I think I spent the summer well with the right amounts of relaxing and traveling and spending time with friends and family.

Aside from Scott and Erin, who had just left; Ed, Cinnamon and Andrew, who hadn’t arrived yet; and Jill who, was manning the camera, the following two photos show everyone who was at the party.

Chris, Lisa, Kate, Alden, Amanda, Jessica, Jessica, Paul, Quinn, Rachelle, Chris, Dallas, Limey, Jen, Brian, Caroline, Chad

Richard, Stephanie, Danny

We grilled a ton of sausages and some turkey burgers Dallas made earlier. I had special requested the turkey burgers. Also, last year when we made wontons, we had a bunch of leftover filling. It has been in our freezer all this time because Dallas and I never made wontons ourselves. Dallas’ mom gave us the idea to saute the filling up and serve it with lettuce, and make lettuce wraps. We forgot to put it out for the barbecue, but it was a delicious snack, along with hot mustard, later on in the night. I have been making this pasta salad with fresh basil all summer and people seemed to like it a lot yesterday. I also made some cookies and will post the recipe at another time.

Dallas as the lead Rock Band singer.

Alden, Jessica, Paul

We spent a lot of time last night outside, but also spent a lot of time inside playing Rock Band. I bought another guitar so now two people can play guitar at the same time, one on lead and one on bass. Everyone was taking turns on the different instruments. It was a lot of fun. I was psyched because we were getting the old band back together, too. Paul, Alden, Jessica and I used to play Rock Band all the time when we worked together at Google. It was fun to play with them again.

I had a really great time last night and was thankful to everyone who came over. I have great friends and family! Thanks to Jess for the flowers and to everyone who brought wine and beer and delicious food, too. Happy birthday to me… and welcome to the working world!