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Entries Tagged as 'eric'

Rogers Park Winery Horseshit Red

January 22nd, 2012 · No Comments

One of my coworkers, Eric, makes wine every year. I’d heard about this process for years but it wasn’t until a couple months ago that I finally got to try one of his wines. Eric lives in Rogers Park, hence Rogers Park Winery.

As for the name of the wine, Horseshit Red, Eric said when they first opened the wine it was awful, but as they let it age and then breath it turned out not so bad. This is so true that they added this warning to the label: “Warning: This wine used to taste like horseshit but it has taken a turn for the better after aging two and a half years. For best results, open the bottle and let it breathe before drinking.”

I thought the wine was pretty decent. Eric can bring wine for sampling any time he wants!

Limey’s Going Away Lunch at The Village Tap

November 20th, 2011 · No Comments

Diane & Limey

Casey & Quinn (fancy hairdo!)

Limey, Rachelle, Jamie, Paulie, Diane, Eric, Lynn, Laura

Because not everyone could be at Limey’s going away pub crawl (namely Diane and the kids), a going away lunch was organized for the end of November at the Village Tap. The Packers were playing and won, so I was happy with that, if not sad to be attending another event on Limey’s Going Away Tour!

Limey’s Going Away Pub Crawl

November 8th, 2011 · No Comments

Bernie, Vickie, Limey :: Rockwood Place

After 18 years in America, Limey Dave is leaving. His work Visa has expired and without a sponsor he has to go. We have done a few things over the past few weeks as part of Limey’s going away period – cooking class, dinner and football – but this past weekend was the big blowout.

Limey & Kevin :: Bar Celona

Limey & Trent :: Bar Celona

Loden & Limey :: Bar Celona

Limes will still be here for a few more weeks and then he’s off to explore the world. I think he’s still unsure of where he’ll end up. I heard Australia and Asia are in the running, as well as England, of course. All nice places to visit, I hear, so I can’t wait to see where he lands.

Chad & Limey :: John Barleycorn

Limey & Rachelle :: John Barleycorn

Wrigley Field

Limey has lived in Wrigleyville the whole time he’s lived in Chicago, so for his going away party he coordinated a pub crawl around the neighborhood. As well, he’s always loved the Cubs so he chose to make the pub crawl baseball themed. Game time began at 1:20 p.m. with a celebratory shot and then we went to 9 bars around Wrigley Field, one bar for each “inning.”

Ted, Trent, Kevin, Chad, Danny :: Cubby Bear

Natalie, Limey, Annie :: Cubby Bear

Paulie & Limey :: Sports Corner

Dallas and I actually missed the first inning at Mullens, but made it for inning two at Rockwood Place. From there we went to Bar Celona from 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. Bar Celona opened the bar just for Limey, their most loyal customer, so we spent two hours here instead of one. From 5 – 6 p.m. we were at John Barleycorn, from 6 – 7 p.m. we were at Cubby Bear and from 7 – 8 p.m. we were at Sports Corner.

Ted, Dallas, Jen, Loden, Danny :: Yak-Zie’s

Ted, Dallas, Jen, Loden, Danny, Chen-Je :: Yak-Zie’s

Here’s a secret: Limey’s shot only had Monster energy drink in it! :: Yak-Zie’s

Somewhere between Yak-Zie’s and Guthrie’s we saw this snowmobile and Sara and Jess had to get on it.

We were supposed to go to Murphy’s Bleachers next, but it was too packed to get in. Limey’s entourage was about 50 people strong and there was just no way we could fit in there. So, we were going to go to an alternate, Bernie’s Tavern, but we ended up going right to the next inning at Yak-Zie’s. The final inning, beginning at 10 p.m., was at Guthrie’s, of course, and we stayed there til close.

Eric & Kevin :: Guthrie’s Tavern

Sara, Jess, Rachelle :: Guthrie’s Tavern

Limey, Maria, Jill :: Guthrie’s Tavern

Jill, Danny, Jamie, Fitz, Paulie, Kevin, Jen, Chad’s Hands, Dallas :: Guthrie’s Tavern

Dan, Limey, Maria, Jill, Danny :: Guthrie’s Tavern

Limey & Maria :: Guthrie’s Tavern

Chad, Ted, Danny :: Guthrie’s Tavern

Time to go!!!

It was a fun day and great to see all of Limey’s friends come together. He is a great guy, which is reflected in how many people made a point to be there. We were taking over whole entire bars and making them open for business when usually they’re closed. It was such a fun day. Bittersweet. I’ll miss The Limes, but I know this will not be the last we’ve seen of him. Maybe he’ll even move back one day, who knows. Hopefully we can get to see him a time or two more before his actual move date.

Paul & Kate’s Wedding

November 1st, 2011 · 6 Comments

On Saturday Paul Baker and Kate got married. The ceremony was at St. Vincent de Paul Church in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. I hadn’t been inside an old Catholic church for so long, and this one was gorgeous. Tons of stained glass and sculpture and carvings. The ceremony was about 45 minutes long, just short of the hour we’d expected. A Catholic wedding in less than an hour!? Wow! It was a beautiful ceremony, though, and didn’t really feel like that long.

Kate & Her Mom

Kate

Alden, a groomsman

Jessica, Alden, Rachelle

Outside the church everyone gathered and chatted. Paul and Kate had some photos taken at the church. Look how gorgeous Kate looks! Her hair was so vintage Hollywood, but still modern. And when she was walkign down the aisle and passed us, Jess and I couldn’t get over how gorgeous the back of her dress was. Between that and her hair, I apologize in advance for how many photos I took of her facing AWAY from me! Also, her mom made the bouquets for Kate and her bridesmaids and the boutonnieres for Paul and the groomsmen and table decorations at the reception. They were so unique. No flowers. Peacock feather accents. I loved them. Very subtley fall-like.

We caught up with some FeedBurner coworkers from back in the day. We had about two hours before the reception was to begin and were figuring out what to do. Eric and his wife were going to check into their downtown hotel. Jon was headed home to get his wife before the reception. Alden was a groomsman and had wedding duties to attend to. That left me, Jess, Dallas, Chris and Lisa. We dropped off Jess’s car and then Chris and Lisa were nice enough to drive us to Old Oak Tap for a drink and then to the reception. Side note: Jess and I had a delicious cocktail called The Champfleur, made with Champaigne and St. Germaine elderflower liqueur, that was so good!

Salvage One

Rachelle, Paul, Dallas

Kate

Salvage One

Jessica, Rachelle, Lisa

With LEGS and LIGHTS

Salvage One

Jessica, Kate, Lisa

Rachelle, Jessica, Kate, Lisa

Salvage One

The reception was at Salvage One, which is this amazing space filled with salvaged materials. Anything from a bowl to a stone column to couches and lamps and windows and bath tubs. Everything you could ever think of. This stuff is all for sale, but Salvage One is also an event space. I can’t think of a better business model: Let’s sell merchandise and on the off hours we’ll charge people to use the stuff that’s not sold yet!

Salvage One is so unique and gorgeous inside, though. I loved how it was not just one wide-open room. There were so many nooks and corners and different seating areas. When we arrived drinks and hors d’oeuvres were being served on the first floor. We ran into Paul right away and gave our congrats and talked to him about the ceremony and the party. He said that Kate had been to Salvage One years before with her uncle and knew then that she wanted to someday have her wedding there. Dallas and I spent some time just walking around. There’s so much to see. I wanted to redo my whole condo with vintage, antique things. Later on we talked with Kate, told her how gorgeous she looked. She told us about the things her mom made. And how she was wearing her grandmother’s jewelry. So nice. Oh, and see her shoes in the dragon photo? We learned later on during a toast/speech that those were the shoes Paul proposed with. He gave her the shoes for a gift and the ring was tied in the shoelaces. So awesome.

Rachelle & Alden checking out the reply cards

Masquerade masks & candy

Eric & Christine before dinner

Chris trying his mask on

After a while we were ushered to the second floor where there would be dinner and dancing. There weren’t seating assignments to pick up, but we were still greeted with a table of goodies. There were masquerade masks and later on Halloween candy, for Halloween weekend. Paul and Kate had a doodle area on their RSVP cards and they displayed all the cards with doodles. They also had a “wish tree” where people could leave wedding wishes and advice and then hang it on a small tree.

Food Stations

Mashed Potato Magic Bar

Pasta Station

Harvest Martini Salad Bar

Salad

Wedding cake

Cutting the Cake

Paul and Kate coordinated a very unique wedding dinner. Instead of a meal served family style or a buffet, they had stations. There was a carving station, a pasta station, a salad bar, and a mashed potato bar. At each station, except the carving station, you could customize what you wanted. So, the potato bar had regular mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and you could pick your toppings. At the salad bar you told the guy what you wanted and he mixed it up in a cocktail shaker and served it in a martini glass. Mashed potatoes were in a martini glass as well. At the pasta station you could choose from several kinds of pasta and pair different sauces and toppings. So fun. I never saw so many people excited for mashed potatoes.

For dessert, they had a funnel cake station! You could choose whatever kinds of toppings you wanted for your own customized funnel cakes. There was also two different cheesecake shots, fruit and wedding cake.

FeedBurner reunion! Chris, Eric, Joe, Rachelle, Jessica, Jon, Alden and of course Kate & Paul

I know Paul from when I worked at FeedBurner.. and Google. Paul is still at Google, but only a few of us are left there. It was so fun to see some of my old friends from those FeedBurner days. A couple I see often, but it was fun to have a mini reunion of sorts. I mean, even just getting eight of us together is like getting a third of the whole company together!

Marveling for the 100th time over Kate’s hair & dress.

Alden & Chris’s Thriller zombie dance.

Taking a rest after a long night of dancing.

Rachelle, Jessica, Alden

I don’t know who Paul and Kate’s DJ was, but someone told me he once played with Moby? I don’t know if that was just a wedding rumor, but he was good. He had people dancing all night. Except for one song that I didn’t like and the wine made me tell Kate I didn’t like it. Oops. Otherwise I had so much fun dancing it up with Chris and Lisa and Jess and Alden. What a great party with so many fun and unique details. Congratulations to Kate and Paul and thanks for inviting us to share the day with you!

Roundarch Team Dinner at Prosecco

August 29th, 2011 · No Comments

Last week we had a Roundarch team dinner at Prosecco, an Italian restaurant on the Near North Side. Prosecco has a huge selection of wine and one of the largest selections of Italian sparkling wine in Chicago.

I’d never been to Prosecco before and the menu online looked good, so I was excited to try this place. Upstairs the dining room was really pretty and brightly lit. Our private party was taking place downstairs in the private room/wine cellar.

Claire, Mark, Stella, Tony, Ryan, Adam, Marlena, Anjum

Wa-Jiw, Garrett, Bill, Ed, Doug

Ed, Doug

Before dinner we enjoyed some Italian wines, prosecco (of course), and Italian beer.

Claire, Bill, Tony, Adam, Anjum, Marlena

For dinner we were all seated at four tables. There were menus at the table and each course had several things listed.

Primi

Mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, carrots, red wine vinaigrette

Secondi

Rigatoni, pancetta, italian sausage, light tomato cream sauce
Risotto, sauteed beef tenderloin, diced tomatoes, fresh herbs, Parmigiano-Reggiano
Orecchiette, wild mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus, black truffle cream, shaved Grana Padano, white truffle oil

Terzi

Sauteed monk fish medallions, sauteed spinach, lobster sauce drizzle
Scaloppine of pork, cremini mushrooms, Prosciutto di Parma, Marsala wine reduction
Balsamic-marinated chicken breast, basil-bread crumbs, portabello mushrooms, fresh mozarella, Dolcetto d’Alba reduction, asparagus
Grilled egplant, fresh and smoked mozarella, tomato sauce

Quarti