Life Only Goes Down After College

Or at least that's what we learned at Avenue Q on Monday night. Not your typical broadway show, Avenue Q is made up of a cast similar to Sesame Street - both actors and puppets.

The show was hysterical with songs like "Everyone is little bit racist" and "It sucks to be me" and included acts with puppets getting frisky after having too many Long Island Iced Teas and Gary Coleman as a landlord in a NYC apartment building. I would definitely recommend it. The only bad part was when I got yelled at for having my feet on the chair ahead of me.

"This is the theater lady!"

See Ya Gas Hog!

Just in time. When our brakes began to squeal and the cd player ate our cd's we really began to hope that the third Honda dealership we were visiting would have the car we were looking for.

Three hours of our Memorial Day spent in Lisle with Ken (see picture) were worth it when we walked out with our Honda Civic. And we walked quickly hoping they wouldn't come running after us to tell us the deal was off, that our trade in was actually worth nothing. But luck was on our side and we drove off into the sunset with the soothing voice of our navigator pointing the way home.

Did I mention we just went from 15 miles/gallon to 30? It makes the excruciatingly high gas prices not seem quite so bad.

It's Business Time

The Chicago Theater has been good to us. We got some excellent pictures in front of it on our wedding night, and saw a great concert there on Wednesday.

If you haven't seen The Flight of the Conchords on HBO, I'd highly recommend you add it to your Netflix queue. Especially if you like awkward situations and singing New Zealanders. We loved the show when it aired last year so it was a no-brainer to check out Bret and Jemaine's live show when we heard they were coming to town.

The Chicago Theater is really cool...interesting decor and an old-fashioned feel (so old-fashioned, in fact, that cell phones don't work in there). We had a really good view of the stage from our seats in the lower balcony.

A standup comedian named Arj Barker was the opening act and he didn't disappoint. He had interesting and hilarious takes on gay marriage (we should support it until we can 'find a cure for them') and how difficult it is to be an uncle (it's exhausting playing with kids for an hour or so before heading home...tell me about it) before he introduced 'the two guys from New Guinea'. A good warm up to the main event.

The Kiwi musicians put on quite a show. Here's a detailed review with all the highlights, but I have to say that the banter in between songs was worth the price of admission...Bret's imaginary family with his miniature grandchildren and Jemaine's concern for the issues (no issue in particular...just 'the issues') were particularly hilarious.

Sometimes we get annoyed with living in Chicago (it's expensive, the commute sucks, etc.) but nights like these make me realize how glad I am that we're here. Whether it's a restaurant, a concert, a game, cooking classes...there's always something new to do.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

Drinking margarita's, eating carne asada with homemade salsa verde....with 24 strangers and a chef named Tobin. Oh, and Nicole and Louis, our awesome cooking table buddies.

Last night's class at the Chopping Block was much, much less intense then our first one. But the laid back atmosphere - we made the churros, salsa verde and carne asada while the other tables made the guacamole, queso fundido and mexican rice - provided us with much more time to sip our margaritas and beer. (I am assuming this is why I heard Ryan grabbing for the Excedrin Migraine in the middle of the night.)

The Chopping Block keeps adding more good looking, good cooking classes, so I am looking forward to our next time there and hoping that Tobin is our sous chef. I think he is good luck.

17 & 11

Only 83 more games to go and I'll get a new Prius.

Okay, maybe not, but that is what I am trying to convince Ryan that we need to get since gas is near $4 a gallon. Or maybe some matching scooters...

Even Aramis is Excited by the Cubs' Hot Start

Yes, we haven't even seen a full month of games. And yes, half of the wins have come against the hapless Pirates. But what a pleasant three weeks of baseball this has been. Aramis appears to be fully healed from Cesar's "how's your father" from last season, and the Cubs have completely excised the unseemly goiter of Dusty Baker's influence on this team. How refreshing is it to watch a team that works the count, takes walks, and forces the opposing starter to actually exert some energy? After a long trek through the Neifi Perez-Corey Patterson-Jacque Jones wilderness of 'aggressive' at-bats and dumb baseball, we've got a group of guys who have a plan:

- Han Soto. The guy is making my choice of jersey look very wise. Under the tutelage of the burly wiseman, Hank White, he's turning into one of the best catchers in the league. Going into today he was leading all MLB catchers in OPS, he isn't afraid to make a visit to the mound when a pitcher is struggling, and he's done a nice job blocking pitches in the dirt. His one weakness has been throwing out basestealers, but if last year was any indication, he'll be fine in that area.

- Fukudome. He's an actual baseball player - he has a great approach at the plate, he's an excellent defender with a good arm, and knows his way around the basepaths. And for those of us lucky enough to be at the ballpark, his ninth inning home run on Opening Day was about as memorable as it gets.

- Derecles. It's good to have him back. The wrist is healed, he's pulling the ball with authority, and he might just get that MVP trophy he was screwed out of in 2005.

- Reed Johnson. I'm still a Felix Pie fan, and I hope he can figure things out eventually. But there's no way you can take this gritty, grindy, scrappy son of a gun out of the lineup. Ignore the mindless blather that he's a throwback to a time when men were men and dirt was used instead of Neosporin - just pay attention to his .408 on base percentage.

So don't let racist T-shirt selling morons or miserable old farts bother you - we've got a really good team to watch this summer.

No Tigers

It's official. Emily is a big girl. She not only brushes her teeth, eats McNuggets and draws works of art, but now she has had her first slumber party. Two Friday's ago, after a delicious meal of Uncle Donald's and running back & forth 50 times in our place Emily was ready for reading and bed time.

Promptly at 6am the next morning we heard "Out" from the baby monitor. We were impressed she slept through her first night over. Saturday, we got to enjoy the Lincoln Park Zoo, but made sure to avoid the tigers and lions after some reminding from Emily. I think if anyone would have seen us trying to keep her awake on our ride back to our place, they would have thought we were ridiculous. Oh well, it worked. Who knew that all of us would have ended up taking a 2 hour nap.

Can't wait for our next sleep over! Maybe next time we'll take all 3 Simons........