Entries Tagged as 'kate'

Paul Baker’s Birthday at Headquarters Beercade

February 3rd, 2013 · No Comments

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For his birthday, Paul Baker got everyone together at Headquarters Beercade. This is a new(ish) arcade/bar that opened in the fall. We had fun playing a bunch of arcade games and pinball games and celebrating Paul’s birthday.

Headquarters had most of the same arcade games that Emporium has, the bar/arcade place we’ve been to in Wicker Park. I couldn’t help but compare the two places. Headquarters lets you play the games for no charge, where Emporium charges a quarter. I almost like paying the quarter more because then there are consequences when you die. At Headquarters you just keep pressing “Continue” til infinity if you want. It makes it so it doesn’t matter if you die. And also people can hog the machines forever! Headquarters is a little more of a sports bar feel. They have a lot of TVs and even when the games were over, they played some old Hulk Hogan WWF and American Gladiators. Both bars have good beer lists.

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Dallas left after a few hours to meet some other friends. At some point after midnight Jess and I went and met Chris, Tim and Ken at Barrelhouse Flat. I’ve always wanted to go there after hearing my coworker Garrett talk about it. We had some fancy drinks and fancy popcorn. Then everyone said it was time to go home, but I went and met Alden for some decidedly not fancy tacos at Arturo’s. Somehow it was 3am and I had to go. Dallas and I got home at pretty much the exact same time. Long night. .. but fun. Happy bday, Paul!

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Wii U Party

January 31st, 2013 · No Comments

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I have been a Nintendo Brand Ambassador for over 4 years now and have gotten to do some really cool things. In the fall I was invited to travel to Los Angeles for a preview party on their new Wii console, the Wii U. Over the Christmas holiday I was given a Wii U. Dallas and I set it up (mostly Dallas) and have been playing with it. I’ve been watching a lot of streamed content through the Amazon app too. We even brought the Wii U to a new years party, so it could become karaoke party.

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Last weekend Nintendo helped me host a Wii U party at my house. I got to invite 20 people (boys and girls!) and Nintendo provided the food, drinks, games and prizes for guests. Not only that, but they also flew two people, Dawan and Chris, to Chicago to help set up for the party and then to help us play the games. I had fun playing some of the games that allow up to 5 people to play. I hadn’t ever had enough people over to play those yet! There was one where the person holding the large Wii U controller with the touch screen is Mario and he runs and hides (only he can see the whole map). The other four players use the regular Wii controllers to run around and try to find Mario in the maze. There was also a fun ghost game.

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I wasn’t sure how engaged people would be with just one gaming system for twenty people, but I was surprised. People were gathering around and really getting into it. Also, some of the Nintendoland games were quick, so people could all have a turn in a short amount of time. We also played Sing Party, which is more of a party game. And we played Super Mario Brothers, with several people all at once. The person with the touch screen can add blocks to either help or hinder the other players.

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At 8 p.m. we video chatted over the Wii U with a party that was taking place in Tennessee. The party there was mostly kids. We chatted with them a bit, told them how cold it is in Chicago. It had snowed that day, so we pointed the camera out the window so they could see the snow and all the kids loved that. They pointed the camera out their door window and we could see their cute dog who wanted to get in!

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Big thanks to Nintendo for being so awesome!!

Disclosure: It might be needless to say, but Nintendo provided the gaming console, prizes, food and drink for this party. I was not paid, or even asked, to write this post.

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Movie Weekend

January 21st, 2013 · No Comments

I go in spells where I don’t go to the movie theater for many months, but in these past few weeks I have seen a lot of movies. Silver Linings Playbook. Django Unchained. And this weekend I saw both Zero Dark Thirty and The Hobbit.

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For Zero Dark Thirty we went to the Icon theater on Roosevelt again. Jess and Paul and Kate joined us there. The movie is “the story of history’s greatest manhunt for the world’s most dangerous man” aka Osama bin Laden. I know that probably not every single thing in the movie is entirely accurate, it is a movie after all, but it made you think a lot about what goes on behind the scenes in all of this stuff. I think everyone liked the movie but it was super intense.

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After the movie we met up with friends at Municipal Bar. Dallas and his friends have been hanging out here a lot lately, so it was nice to see, even if it wasn’t my most favorite place ever. I did like my huge cobb salad.

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My brother and I had been trying to figure out a time to see The Hobbit since it opened in mid-December, but because of the holidays it never worked out until now. We both read all of the Lord of the Rings books and saw those movies together each year they came out. Even when I lived in New York we’d see them together because they always opened around Christmas and I’d go back home for Christmas. I’ve read the Hobbit twice, I think, at least, and so has my brother. When we were young we had the Betamax version of The Hobbit cartoon that came out in 1977 and watched it often.

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We decided to see the movie at Navy Pier so we could see it on the IMAX screen in 3D. I liked the movie. It was long. Over 2.5 hours, but I didn’t think it dragged. It has been a long time since I read The Hobbit, the book, and I couldn’t remember all the details of what was about to happen, but when something happened then I’d remember it.

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My brother and I also had brunch at Dunlay’s before the movie. We tried Longman & Eagle and Lula’s and both were jam packed. Dunlay’s had a line when we left, but not when we arrived. I had a great omelet and my brother had the Benedict of the Day, which was fried chicken eggs Benedict.

We also stopped by Todd and Adam’s to watch a little football and see how the sandwich bet went. Dallas lost a bet and had to make a fried green tomato and shrimp po’boy for Adam (and everyone else). Then we ran over to Revolution Brewing for dinner and I completed his Christmas gift, finally, but getting him a growler sleeve.

I almost forgot that this happened at Navy Pier:

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New Places Over the Weekend

January 14th, 2013 · No Comments

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On Thursday, we had dinner with Adam, Christine, Todd, Kelly, Brian, Sara and Josh at City Winery. None of us had been here before (it’s been open for about 5 months) and our friends are really into wine, so they were definitely interested. City Winery has its house wine on tap and a long list. We drank the tap wine from carafes. Our friends who know said that the list was overpriced. Overall, we thought the food was good, but no one thought any of it was outstanding.

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Scofflaw has been open in Logan Square for about 10 months, but I just made it over for the first time on Friday. I met Paul and Kate and Alden for fancy drinks (I had hot buttered rum) and some great food. I thought it was funny that the cocktail menu had a glossary! Loved the atmosphere, and we got there earlyish so getting a great spot to sit was no problem. Can’t wait to go back.

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Frasca is not new by any means and I’ve been there many times, but not for a couple years! So, new in my mind recently. On Saturday we met friends for brunch and I ordered a cup of coffee and a small bloody mary and didn’t realize the bloody mary came with a baby beer chaser. I didn’t drink it, but the beverage lineup, along with a glass of water, made it look like I was going to be very hydrated. I also had a great omelette.

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Market is not new, but I’d never been there. We went on Thursday before and after dinner at City Winery. The guys discovered that they have ping pong tables there, so we were back after brunch on Saturday to play. On both days, I had hot toddys.

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On Saturday night I met Alden at the new Peruvian sports bar in Logan Square. It’s called Suite 25 and we were there to watch the Packer game. It’s only been open for about a month, so I was excited to check it out. We thought it was fine for the game. Plenty of TVs, one a projector. Lots of seating at the bar, a row of booths, and plenty of high tops. One sort of weird area with cheesy leather couches that look like they were purchased from one of those furniture stores on Milwaukee Ave, but whatever. Some dudes plopped down on it and seemed happy enough. I’d recommend leaving as soon as the game is over, especially if the game is ending at 10pm, because this strange DJ came on and played horrible music and people started coming in dressed like they were at a club. Even though the place was filled with sports fans and 20 TVs were playing Sports Center.

We had to get out of Suite 25, so we headed over to Boiler Room. Ok. This is definitely not new. And not new to me. But it’s where the night and the weekend ended. On Sunday, after visiting all these places all weekend, my butt barely left the couch!

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Alden’s Second City Graduation Show

January 12th, 2013 · No Comments

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Alden took a bunch of Second City improv classes and an late October, he had a graduation show that he invited us all to. It was a fun time! Cool to see a friend doing it. I SO could not!

Beforehand, Jess and I checked out Old Town Social, where we ate a ton of meats and cheeses and wine, while getting asked by some research person if we were under 30. Thanks, lady, for thinking maybe we were, but reminding us that we’re not.

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