I was listening to the Fresh Air podcast today and Terry Gross was interviewing Stephen Colbert. They were playing clips from his upcoming Christmas special, talking about the election, and at the end they played part of Stephen singing the Star Spangled Banner with John Legend (above). I posted previously on a duet Colbert and Legend did to the song “Girl is Mine” and I really enjoyed that. It looks like they might sing together in the Christmas special (below). Just how many songs have these guys done together?

WTF? I did not understand this.

The week after we bought our condo I was at CVS using the Kodak machine to make prints of the photos I took of the new place to send to our parents. While I waited for the prints to come out, this Otis Spunkmeyer muffin display was staring me down. I don’t understand how this is selling muffins. What was the creative director on this campaign thinking? “MMMM kids love giant muffins!”

Also? Otis Spunkmeyer is my new alter ego’s name.

Roscoe Village, Chicago

I was making an order on Peapod last week and I noticed they added a new feature. You can designate different nutritional filters and it will categorize your search results for you. So, if you were allergic to gluten or lactose intolerant or on Weight Watchers you can see customized results. For a gluten allergy, it puts an icon by all items that are gluten-free. For Weight Watchers it will show point values next to every item. Kind of neat, I thought. You can also make customized nutritional plans based on any number of ingredient requirements.

Mitch, Brad, Chris :: Bartlett, IL

Tommy & Heather :: Bartlett, IL

Uncle BB & Cory :: Bartlett, IL

Jeff Carving the 23-pound turkey :: Bartlett, IL

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Dinner

Danny & Caroline :: Bartlett, IL

Doug & Naoko :: Bartlett, IL

Doug & Naoko :: Bartlett, IL

Tommy :: Bartlett, IL

Every year some of Dallas’ family in the suburbs have an early Thanksgiving dinner because everyone disperses the the week of the holiday. This year was the first year we joined them for their celebration. We had a lot of fun and ate a ton of great food, which Danny, of course, had a big hand in making. I brought the cranberry bars I’d made earlier that day. Caroline and I got a sneak peek at Cory’s wedding dress and we also all gave Doug and Naoko a few gifts for the baby they’ll be having in a few weeks. They knew Tommy was going to be a boy, but this one is going to be a surprise. Exciting times on that side of the family.

Logan Square, Chicago

On Saturday I spent the morning baking for the first time since we moved. I must say, I love my new kitchen. There is so much cupboard and counter space. In our last apartment we were always jamming things in where they didn’t really fit and in this one we have so much space that some cupboards are empty. We cook from online recipes a lot so it’s awesome to have enough space for the computer and not be afraid that I’m going to dump flour on the keyboard like I always used to fear. And I love how many lighting options there are in the kitchen. I can turn on the drop lights above the island, or the recessed lighting in the ceiling or the under cabinet lights or the light above the sink, or any combination of them. Oh, and the power outlets? They’re everywhere.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffin

Yesterday, I made chocolate chip banana muffins for us to eat for breakfast and Laura’s Cranberry Bars to bring to a dinner party. I’m still slightly obsessed with that recipe but I need to find a new one for this holiday season!

Laura’s Cranberry Streusel Shortbread Bars

Today I got up early and prepped a roast and a bunch of vegetables to cook all day for dinner tonight (recipe here). Danny came over and we watched the Bears/Packers game. Yay Packers (37-7 win)! We ordered lunch from Taqueria Moran and have just been relaxing at home. I made a 3:30 p.m. beer run to Foremost Liquors and I saw the first snow of this season, but luckily it was only flurries.

Cooking and having people over, cooking, and having our TV hooked up on Friday is starting to make this place feel more like home even if we do have a lot to organize yet and loose ends with the developer.

Page turner murder mystery. I enjoyed the beginning, middle and right up til the end. The ending I thought she sort of “called in.” Like.. her deadline was tomorrow so she just ended it. Still, I enjoyed the book. I’ve read at least one other book with the same characters on another case, so that helped. Also, there were some “techie” parts of this book, but since it was written 13 years ago they were kind of comical. Like how they go on Prodigy to post internet messages and talk about autoexec.bat. Note: I can remember sitting in a college course in 1993 or 1994 learning about Prodigy and when I found out that you could get recipes from it I was really interested. Wooo.. free recipes on the World Wide Web. Crazytime.

P.S. Remember I said I thought I’d be finishing fewer books because my commute is so much shorter now? Well, I forgot to factor in that we haven’t had TV for two weeks. So, another book down lickity split.

I meant to write this down a while ago but never got to it. Been buuusssyyy. You know how that goes.

I just wanted to comment on my expectations on going buying a new construction versus something pre-owned. I went in thinkging that when you bought new that everything inside would be fresh and untouched and ready for immediate use, but the truth is that if no one has used it before then how do you know if it even works. For example, we didn’t have hot water for the first 3 days in our place because no one was living there to know if it was turned on correctly. Our laundry wasn’t operational for a week. We plugged something into a kitchen outlet and it just didn’t work. I’m sure they hooked it up and then never plugged anything in. Our door buzzers don’t work. Our tub is all nicked up. I don’t know why I thought when we moved into a new construction that everything would be perfect, as opposed to if someone had been using it and may have broken it. It’s like now we have to go turn everything on because we don’t know if anyone has ever tried before. (on a side note, does anyone know how a gas-igniting wood-burning fireplace is supposed to work?)

Also, not everything was finished in the construction when we moved in. Some has been done now, but not everything. And the whole place was covered in construction dust. Luckily our builder got a cleaning lady to come over and clean last weekend. We’re working with our developer to try to get everything fixed, but I don’t know… I feel kind of like naive because I thought with a new construction we’d have less issues to follow up with our developer on. Guess not. Also, when stuff is new… it’s tough knowing you’re the one who messed it up! That mark on the wall… that scratch on the cupboards.. that was YOU, dummy!

Anyway, I’m not saying I don’t like our place or am not happy with our purchase, I totally am. Just wanted to write this down. On Friday we’re supposed to get Comcast cable, finally. We’re not wired right and Direct TV won’t install. So long Sunday Ticket! When we were packing and planning at our old place, it seemed like the moving part was some sort of ending but really it’s just a new beginning of a long list of things to do and follow up on. And buy. I never before had to stand in front of 298 bathroom towel rack fixtures at Home Depot and decide which matched the faucets the most. Home Depot is a major money pit and is to be avoided at all costs. At least our cellular shades are all on order now and due in at the end of the month. Then we can take down those classy sheets that are hanging in the downstairs den windows! Upstairs we’ve just been exhibitionists. Without a television, we have eaten more dinners at the dinner table in the last 2 weeks than in the whole time we’ve known each other.. although a few times we were watching our shows on my little laptop using Hulu.

Before we were unpacked upstairs - Rachelle, Mom, Dallas :: Logan Square, Chicago

Allison, Rachelle, Herm :: Village Tap, Roscoe Village, Chicago

Chad, Kristin, Rachelle, Dallas, Trent, Allison, Herm

Irish Car Bombs :: Village Tap, Roscoe Village, Chicago

Allison & Herm Victorious

Ed, Allison, Herm :: Village Tap, Roscoe Village, Chicago

In June 2007 John and Susan moved to San Francisco. We went to their going away party and it was a great time. Shortly after that - like a week later - Allison moved to San Francisco. I was stuck in New York for work and couldn’t make it to her going away party. I think John and Susan’s party was the last time I saw Allison in Chicago. In all the times I traveled to California when I worked at Google I was only able to meet up with Allison one time, back in August 2007. I think she’s been to Chicago since, but I was out of town. Anyway, what I’m trying to get it is that we haven’t seen Allison much since she moved so we were really excited that she was in town this weekend.. and that she was bringing her boyfriend, Herm, with whom she just celebrated their 1 year dating anniversary.

For dinner we went to Piazza Bella, which I thought was fabulous. Up til a week ago we lived not even a block away from this restaurant, but we hardly ever went. Afterward we went to The Village Tap, which of course I’ve been to billion times. For some reason there was an Irish Car Bomb throw down between Trent and Herm. Everyone did 3 of them each and in the end, with the aid of video, it was determined that Trent drank them the fastest. It was fantastic to see Allison again and she was a great sport. When you get together old friends with a new boyfriend…. let’s just say that there was a lot of story telling going on. Herm was great. Dishing it, taking it, fitting right in. Allison is doing really well for herself out in San Francisco but I must admit selfishly that we miss having her around.

This book is written from 4-5 different points of view, each of which is kind of just a running conscious of thoughts, which at first made it hard to get, but once you got it you were good. I mean, because people think of really odd things when their minds just go and that’s kind of how this book was. I really liked some parts, particularly the Astrid and Magnus chapters, but towards the end my interest waned and I just kept reading to finish it.

Also, since my commute is so much shorter I suspect that I won’t be able to read as many books as I used to. We’ll see.