Roscoe Village, Chicago

On Roscoe Street between Kitsch’n and Orange there is a small business with a sign in the window that says “Dogs Understand the Importance of Naps.” Many times when I pass there is a dog sleeping in the window. I’ve taken a few photos of this scene, but they always turn out horrible with reflections and stuff. This photo is no better, but I’m posting it anyway.

I walked to the Addison Brown line and took the train downtown for lunch. It was Giuliana’s last day at Google and, as is tradition, all the old FeedBurners were taking her out to Singha. We did the same thing on my last day and I remember at that time trying to order Phuket beer. I believe that the correct pronunciation is “poo-ket” but of course, our sixth-grader minds thought “fuck-it” and thought it was appropriate for a last day celebration. Unfortunately, the beer wasn’t available for my last day, but it was for Giuliana’s, so a bunch of us ordered it.

After lunch a few people had tickets to see The Dark Knight on IMAX as part of some Google-sponsored event. Someone couldn’t go and there was an extra ticket. No one knew what to do with it. Since I didn’t have anything planned that afternoon, I volunteered to use the ticket. Thanks Google for lunch and a movie! I’d already seen The Dark Knight, but it was amazing on IMAX.

After lunch I ran a few errands. Dallas called to say that unexpectedly his college friend Chandra was in town visiting from San Francisco and he was going to meet up with her and Kristin. I’d met Chandra once in 2004 when I lived in Chicago and she lived in
New York. It was either this trip or this one, they were only a week apart. Kristin and I were both working for Monster back then and we were both visiting New York for the same project. We took Chandra out with us for Blue Ribbon Sushi, some of the best sushi in New York. Anyway, after I got home and changed I met up with Kristin, Dallas and Chandra at Kristin’s house. We had a glass of wine in her back yard before heading out for dinner.. which was sushi. This time at Tank. The photo at the right is not a good quality, but shows how much sushi the four of us pounded through. It was almost as much sushi as Dallas, Kristin and I ate that one time at Blue Fin after the Old Town Art Fair. So good.

After dinner we went to The Long Room and sat outside in the garden, which is fabulous. The beer list at The Long Room is pretty impressive too. Not as great as when we were at Hopleaf, but really good. Danny, Killian and Alden met up with us at The Long Room. Jessica also came and brought her college friend Lizzie who was visiting from the Twin Cities. Randomly there were two of their college classmates at The Long Room. They didn’t even go to school in Illinois, so kind of weird.

Rachelle, Alden, Jess, Lizzie at Sidekick, Irving Park, Chicago

When The Long Room closed at 2 a.m. Alden, Jessica, Lizzie and I decided it was a good idea to go out for karaoke. Alden’s friend Kristen works at a karaoke place called Sidekick out in Irving Park, so we decided to go there. When we arrived we found out that they stop doing karaoke at 2 a.m. Dang! We bought a few shots (mine was buttery nipple) and asked around to see where we could go for karaoke. On a recommendation, we went to Hidden Cove.

Hidden Cove, Lincoln Square, Chicago

I was excited to go to Hidden Cove because of a dumb inside joke we had at Google about a conference room we called “The Cove.” It was everything we wanted. Nice staff, french fries, open til 4 a.m., karaoke. Jess, Lizzie and I sang 9 to 5 and Alden sang R.O.C.K. in the USA.

Lizzie, Jessica, Rachelle at Hidden Cove, Lincoln Square, Chicago

Alden at Hidden Cove, Lincoln Square, Chicago

08.08.08 was a fun day for me. Totally unplanned, aside from lunch, I just went with the flow and had a great time!

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