Entries Tagged as 'matt'

Catching Up With Old Friends at Simone’s

February 8th, 2010 · 2 Comments

Matt was back in town last week so on Wednesday he got a bunch of people together at Simone’s in Pilsen. Matt and I used to work together at FeedBurner and Google and has since moved to Seattle, so it was good to see him again. A few of my other coworkers from those places that I hadn’t seen for some time also came and it was fun to catch up.


Eric, Jessie, Alden, Rachelle, Joe, Jessica, Matt

I also got to see Blagica, who I still keep in touch with online, but don’t get to see in person much any more.

Simone’s has a great beer list, which we sampled heavily. Matt also ordered up an assortment of food like empanadas, pizzas, fries and mozzarella sticks. Later on after a lot of people had left, Sam, who was taking care of us that night, appeared like this: Flaming.

And Matt looked something like this: Day-am!

He blew the fire out and we drank the shots and they were delicious. Sam’s own creation, they tasted like black forest cake. I can’t remember all of the ingredients, but there was Bailey’s and Grand Marnier on the top (which is the part that was lit on fire). Sam would then sprinkle cinnamon over them. Can you see it?

It looks like the shots aren’t on fire because of the flash, but they are. Look again.

We had a couple round of these shots. They were so good. Alden wanted to drink a pint glass of them. But he didn’t.

After a few rounds Matt started to look like this. (He had just flown in that day on a 6 a.m. flight!)

And the bar started to look alien.

Fun night. Nice catching up with friends. And I liked Simone’s, too. It’s somewhat hard to get to, but if you live down by Pilsen or the neighboring hoods you should definitely check it out. The owners of Simone’s are the ones opening Nice Slice Pizza Bar at the end of my block, so I’m very hopeful now.

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Kenji’s First Birthday

December 10th, 2009 · No Comments

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Kenji

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Rachelle & Kenji

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Doug, Dallas & Matt

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Kenji’s Thank You Note

Before going to Jess’s 30th birthday party on Saturday night, we went to Kenji’s first birthday during the day. How much he has grown since the little peanut I held last year at Christmastime! Kenji is a bit more reserved compared to his big brother Tommy who runs around and is super open with people and outgoing. Kenji’s better one on one and if he sees mommy Naoko, then your gig is probably up!

Naoko, of course, made the most delicious meal. I remember a hot reuben dip that was delicious. Also, she made eggplant parmesan and meatballs for about 30 people. So, so yummy. You can always count on Naoko for super good food! For dessert she made cake – yellow cake with strawberries and bananas in between the layers. She also made a homemade twinkie train where each car of the train is a homemade twinkie cake. Kenji got his own cake to himself. It took him a while to figure out what to do, but soon he was digging in there eating the cake and frosting like it was nobody’s business!

For take-homes we all got these personalized thank you notes (that matched the party invitation) attached to a bag of chocolate chip shortbread cookies and some smores treats. I don’t know how Naoko finds the time to do all of this with two little kids to chase after, but it sure is cute! Martha Stewart, that one!

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Fish, Friends & Family

December 2nd, 2009 · 4 Comments

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Beijing Noodle No. 9, Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas

On Friday we only slept a few hours, which was not good, since we’d been out at the crazy dance party the night before. We got up and met everyone down at the buffet to eat breakfast. Dallas then went back to bed, but I got talked into walking around a few casinos. After an hour or two I couldn’t take it, and neither could Ross, so we went back to the hotel to rest. I walked into our hotel room and I thought Dallas said “Ross is on the way,” which I thought was weird since I’d just walked over with Ross, but he actually said “Guy Voss is on the way.” So much for that nap!

Guy is a good friend of Dallas’s from back in college. He and his wife Amber live in the Las Vegas area with their two kids, Liam and Ella. We saw Guy and Amber at Killian and Liz’s wedding last year, but we hadn’t seen Liam since he was 2 months old, and now he’s 5 years old! Compare a photo of Dallas and Liam in 2004 to the photo of Dallas and Liam last week:

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Dallas & Liam, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas

Ella was a little shy, but as adorable as ever. I was glad we could see everyone, even if it was brief. Oh, and I was all smoky and felt like death warmed over, but Amber said that on the way home Liam said “Daddy’s friends are really fun,” so maybe it wasn’t so bad. Or maybe he was just on a sugar rush because we accidentally let him drink a whole soda!

I feel exhausted just typing this out, but next up we got ready and went to dinner at the Rio. That’s where Dallas’s parents and Caroline and Jordan were staying. The Carnival World Buffet there is the longest buffet I have ever seen. Crazy. They had everything.

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Jordan, George, Kathy, Dallas, Caroline :: Rio, Las Vegas

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Jordan, George, Kathy, Dallas, Caroline, Rachelle :: Rio, Las Vegas

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Ross, Rachelle, Dallas, Matt, Molly :: Rio, Las Vegas

Since sleeping is what you do when you leave Las Vegas, we then went over to the New York New York Hotel & Casino to see Zumanity. This is the Cirque show that you have to be 18 to see. Enough said.

After the show we hung out at New York New York. I tried really hard to rally by drinking more, drinking coffee, getting cold air in my face, etc. When we finally went back to our hotel, I had to go to bed early. I say early, but it was at least midnight, probably past. In Vegas, that is early. Anyway, I had a great time, but I think I’m still recovering. And trying to get used to not drinking beer at breakfast.

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