Best Birthday Ever

What an awesome weekend. Tea at the Drake (delicious!), dinner with LOML, my brother, and his lovely girlfriend at Mindy's Hot Chocolate (really, really yummy), and delicious margaritas at Cesar's with some fantastic friends I hadn't seen for a long time. Oh, and lots, and lots of Downton Abbey.  It was a weekend full of great food and friendship that made me feel so loved.

Adventure

I spoke with two different people today who are going on vacations in the next few weeks and I started to get really jealous. Not because I particularly need a vacation (I don't--due to all of the holidays and being sick, I haven't actually had a full week of work in a while), but because I'd love to see a new place for a long weekend.

I have no idea where I would go though, which I suppose is half of the problem. Obviously it would depend on how much time I was taking to go on some sort of adventure, but if I were to go somewhere with LOML, I'd love to go to Europe for a ten days or so, but if that wouldn't work, I'd love to go somewhere warm. Anywhere warm. Not that it's really cold here (thanks Chicago weather gods!!), but I could use a really warm beach.

Photo Credit

On second thought, this was a terrible thought experiment.

I'm going to go cry now...

No, I'm his sister

Well, I wrote a whole post out this afternoon while sitting on the bus going to writing class, but I seem to have misplaced the scrap of looseleaf, so there goes that....

It is my birthday on Friday, and if I had been a tad bit more organized, I would have planned some sort of big party or something. Instead, I will be going out to dinner with LOML, my brother, and his awesome girlfriend. I called the Drake this afternoon to make reservations for tea (!!), but I nearly fell out of my chair when I spelled out my last name, and they responded with "oh, Pieter?" To recap, I called one of the fanciest hotels in the city to make a reservation for afternoon tea and they asked me if I was my brother,  by name. I mean, my brother is sort of a rock star, but seriously....

Watch out!

Dear Pedestrian Walking Down the Sidewalk in Front of the McDonald's--

Watch out! Stop enjoying that half-caff, part-skim soy latte and pay attention! You nearly just got creamed by a car careening its way into the parking lot. I know, I know, it's McDonald's of all places and the food isn't really worth it, especially their breakfast menu. I've wished for years they would serve french fries this early, but alas, they haven't listened.

That's not the point, anyway. You distracted me with the fries. The point is that the drivers at this corner are insane and they don't look for pedestrians as they cross three lanes of traffic to pull in here. So please watch out!

Love,

That girl who screamed at you so you wouldn't get hit by a car on your way to work

----

Dear Drivers of (Generally-Oversized) Vehicles Pulling into the McDonald's--

Get off the phone.

Seriously, get off the phone.

You're driving a car and you're about to run someone over. Some innocent commuter who is just trying to get to the over-crowded train. Is it really worth it? Your conversation is not that important. If it were, someone else would be driving you.

Love,
Caroline

Found in Town

Oh, my...have you heard about this really interesting Chicago start-up? It's called Found-in-Town. Users register with the site and they receive a set of tags with a code on it. You put the code on your keys or your camera (or your boyfriend?) and if someone else finds it, they can go onto the FiT website, type in the code, and get reunited with your lost object.

Perhaps if my brother had this he would stop losing so many phones....

Sleepless nights

I'll be back later this week with some actual, hopefully interesting content, but I've been a little distracted these past few days because of this guy:

and his brother, Jack, who I can't get to trust us long enough to take a picture of. They kept us up all night last night, running around like maniacs, yowling, and generally getting into trouble. Here's to hoping we can get them to calm down and realize that we're really into this whole "sleeping" thing...

Welcoming Yerpa and Jack

Welcome home!

Announcing the adoption of Jack (left) and Yerpa! 

We went to the Anti-Cruelty Society today to find the cats who were waiting for us to bring them home. We are excited to announce that we found Jack and Yerpa, two adorable Siamese cats. We are very excited and have spent the afternoon trying to get them to realize they are finally home forever. More to come soon!