Visiting Pizza Hut in Cicero

Some of my coworkers and I who work on the digital products had an opportunity to visit a Pizza Hut store in Cicero, not far from Chicago. It was so insightful to see what happens after the order is placed, to see the end to end. And we all had a lot of fun. Tracy, Randi and Paul showed us the ropes!

Paul Baker’s Birthday at Headquarters Beercade

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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!

Paul Baker’s Birthday

Last year Paul Baker had so much fun at his birthday that he decided to do the same this year: dinner at Spring World in Chinatown at 7:30 p.m.

To pass some time after work, before dinner, I met Alden and Emily at Wabash Tap for a beer. I liked this place. Good unassuming neighborhood bar. Lots of pool tables.


Wabash Tap, Near Southside

After a drink there we headed down to Chinatown and met up with Paul Baker, Kate, Paul’s sister Jen, Nicole and Dallas for dinner.


Paul and Dallas deciding what to order.


Paul talking to friends, waiting for dinner.


Kate & Paul digging in!


The afterglow!

We all ordered a dish, except Paul who ordered about three, and then we put them all on the lazy susan and tried everything. So good!

After dinner Paul and Nicole and Jen headed home. Alden, Emily, Dallas, Paul and I started looking for a cab to go somewhere else and hang out for a while. We couldn’t find a cab, but we found this:

A free shuttle bus to the Horseshoe Casino! So…. of course we got on the bus.

At the casino we had to sign up for the players club to get our free bus ticket back, but it was no big deal. It was free and took about 5 minutes.

Paul played blackjack for the first time ever. Kate texted me and asked me not to let Paul blow their wedding savings. I asked the same of Dallas. Paul ended up $25 ahead at the end of the night. … uh…. Dallas.. did not.

While at the casino we had a Slim Jim, which was delicious til we noticed the second ingredient is mechanically separated chicken. Ok. I’m not going to lie. It was delicious after that too!

At 1:36 a.m. we took the bus back to Chicago then took the train home. Fun night. Unexpected. Happy Birthday, Paul Baker!