Congrats Connor and Molly

Happy New Year

Dont Get to drunk

Merry Christmas

Presents

A Flask Belt Buckle

Bear vs. Packer Checkers

I got these gifts, amazingly, from Vorrel and Stevie. Thank you so much, they are amazing.

George's Hot Dogs

I am a sucker for old school hot dog joints and this one is perfect. George the owner and cook is especially great. He is nice to everyone who walks in and really makes you feel like you are his best customer. Just the other day I walked in there with 2 minutes before close everything was put away and you could tell he was ready to close up. I walked in apologized and said sorry are you still open, he said yeah of course come on in. He struck up the grill again and got me a pizza puff and fries in no time. I didn't want to bother him so I was going to get my food to go, but it would have for sure been cold walking 5 blocks in the freezing Chicago winter, he though insisted that I stay and eat, he genuinely seemed to want me to stay so I did. The food was great and I was glad to be warm eating hot food.

Christmas meme

Stevie asked me to fill this out.

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Some are wrapped some are not depending on how he is feeling.

Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Colored

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
My Moms bread

Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Waiting on the stairs while our Dad checks to see if Santa came, then he would always coming back and say "sorry not this year"

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
The brothers and sisters give each other presents

How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
Big colorful bulbs maybe some ornaments, Im a fan of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Dislike it greatly

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
hmmm...

What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Anything by these guys Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Yum

Christmas Tradition growing up:
Going to a different Aunt and Uncles house for Christmas eve with a million family members

Least Favorite Christmas Tradition Growing Up:
None

Breakfast or Presents First?
Presents, I don't know if we even make it to breakfast

Winter Renegade

Everyone should check out the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend. Its at Pulaski park In the Rec center and will be in three different rooms. Stevie will once again be displaying her awesome jewelry. The fair is running on Saturday and Sunday from 12-5. There is a ton of different things that are for sale there from scarfs and hats to necklaces and earings.

NFC North Division Champions

Well, Rex Grossman played absoulutly terrible but the Bears still easily clinch the division, thanks to, once again, the special teams and the Defense. The final score was 23-13 with Devin Hester running back a punt and Rickey Manning Jr. scoring off an interception. The Defense also had three sacks and a safety. The Bears are 10-2 with four games left, now we are going for home field advantage.

First Major Snow

Today it snowed like crazy in Chicago.

(not my picture, AP photo)

New York Flickr

The Crew


Phat Cats


Arthur's


Downtown


Little Italy


Late Night Pizza


One and One


Pete's

I've decided no more novels. My camera broke when I was in New York so some of the pics are bad, but you get the point. Each picture above represents a part of the NY trip. The top one is a picture we tried to retake at every place we were at. Thank you so much Nell and Cerone, it was great.

All pics here

Chumley's (another novel)

Well another one of many late story's from the island of Manhattan. It wouldn't be a trip to New York without going to one of my favorite bars, Chumley's. This was only my second time there, but I was just as impressed with it the second time as I was the first. My first time I was brought there by Cerone and when we got out of the cab at the corner he pointed down the closely lined apartment buildings and said alright its over there. What, where, over there, where only apartment buildings stood. As we started to walk down the block it sounded and looked as though one of these Greenwich Village residents was having a party and as one person came out of their apartment and the door shut behind him showing a great old wooden door with a gold 86 on the front and a metal gate over the small window, Cerone said alright go on in. It wasn't an apartment at all. I couldn't believe what a great place this must be. I could only assume, if the outside was this great what was the inside like. As we entered you immediately walk up a few steps still not really being able to see what you are going into. After walking through a second doorway you can now grasp what this place really is. As you look across Chumley's standing atop the three stairs that lead into the seating area you can really take in the old feel, its like you are in back the 1920's. The first section you see is for people trying to grab a bite to eat. The whole area is covered in packed booths with waitresses running around trying to serve everyone. I wasn't here for the food so I walked through this section to get to the center room. Here they have a few small tables but it is mostly a standing room. The bar is along the wall and behind the bar coming straight out of an old cooper wall there are taps serving only Chumley's special brews. Every beer is brewed by them, but they do have quite a nice selection, red, amber, pale ale, stout, they have what you need. In the center of the bar is a statue of a bulldog which is there representing the marines, somebody must have been a marine because there was memorabilia like that all over. Sitting on a ledge above the taps there is a pint of beer and above that beer is a giant picture of a fireman. When asked what the beer was for the bartender said, "for him" and pointed to the picture, Cerone then asked, "when do you take the beer down?", "when he's finished" he replied. This was not the only representation of firemen, it was all over the bar along with the entire history of the neighborhood and Chumley's. There are pictures of many authors, artist, and poets among them Ernest Hemingway. There books, in the original covers line the walls, this places walls are in themselves a history lesson. After trying all their beers we decided it was time to leave and the way we do that is of course through the back door which leads into an open courtyard which I am told was an old stable, then out through a gate and out you come onto a street around the corner from where you went in. This place is especially famous because of this back way out. Supposedly during prohibition when this bar was a speakeasy when the cops came knocking on the front door everyone would sneak out the back, leading to the phrase "they 86'ed the cops". I love Chumley's.

pics here

Its Late, But Still The Greatest Game Ever

I cannot begin to describe how lucky I was a couple of weekends ago, not only did I get to go to New York and hang out with great friends but I was able to get to go to the friggen Bears vs Giants game at the Meadowlands.

Ok, so on game day we get on the first bus to Jersey and we are off. Its Nell, Cerone, Joe and I all out of are minds excited about the greatness ahead of us. It was a slight warm rain when we left, so Cerone and I were obviously wearing bright orange ponchos. When we get there we are let off right in front of the Giants stadium.

Pat is sitting with a friend of Garrs so we go looking for their tailgate tent. Joe and I were lucky enough to get tickets through a co-worker of Cerones who amazingly wanted us to go over him and his friend, Nell we were hoping to find a ticket for outside the stadium.

While Cerone was on the phone trying to find his friend in one of several ridiculously huge parking lot by having him describe the way to go, a man walked right by Joe and Nell..."Got one, anyone need one". What? Thats doesn't happen, we need one, we have been off the bus no longer than 10 minutes and we already have someone selling just one ticket, this is to good to be true. So, Joe tells him yeah we need one, but how much is it going to cost, (they were on stubhub.com and other sites for over $250 a ticket) well amazingly the guy says "face value", that being $75. This was getting better every second, but it could be a fake even though the guy look straight, but then he says yeah this ticket is right next to me and my friend I will see you in there. The guy had season tickets and just wanted to get his money back for the extra one . We gave him $80 and started to walk away but he was addimint about giving us the change and when he could only find 4 he said he was going to go back to his tailgate site and get the dollar, we new this guy was legit. We all had tickets now and no longer had to worry about that. The game day was off to an amazing start.

So since this place is huge and Cerone and his friend were not having any chance of finding us the right path, we stood next to a huge sign and had him come get us. When we get to his tent we meet his hilarious New Yorker crew and started grillin. They had a little habachi out there along with some chairs and a cooler full of beer. We brought food and beers also but nothing like these guys had. They had brought not only burgers, but also they had a cheese and meat platter, and a huge one at that, and also a tray of homemade buffalo wings, which were not suprisingly delicious, they are New Yorkers.

Ok, ok, food greatness, tailgating greatness,...I'll get to the game. When walking in everyone was going in around the same time so it was just a huge crazy wave of people trying to fit in through not enough gates. The jokes in the crowd and the general atmosphere was fun , but I really wanted to get in. Before going in Cerone left and went with the NY crew. Nell, Joe and I were now on our way in and we were about to split till halftime, back at the tent we decided that it was probably better that Nell and either Joe or I sat together and the other sat in the solo seat. I went solo first and we were going to meet back at half and switch. Outside the gate Joe and Nell went up and I went down, what lied ahead I had no idea. I did however know that I was going to be sitting by myself, a Bears fan, in the middle of the G mens house.

I walked to my area which took forever, I think it was at the other end of the field from where I was. I got to my section as I looked down the stairs towards the field in amazment I quickly glanced at my ticket, row 4, I looked at the top row it was something like 40, as the math poped in my head I almost jumped for joy and then once again looked down the stairs, but this time I counted up four rows and almost died. I walked slowly and in aww taking in everything around me as much as I could while still being pushed down the aisle by other fans trying to get to their seats. I was in the Meadowlands and I had seats to the Bears Game and I was sitting four rows up on the Giants side next to the end zone.

Once I got my bearings I sat in my seat took a couple of pictures the game began. At first I was a little scared the first quarter was just ok and Rex was really not that impressive, Rex threw an interception that was ran back to the 1 yard line, and then the easy score. The Bears retaliated with a Robbie Gould kick, but going into the 2nd quarter down by a score I was a little nervous. Some of my nerves may have come from the insane, shouting, yelling and swearing Giants fans all around me. In the second quarter there was not a real big improvent by the offense but the defense was doing all they could to stop every Giants drive but twice they had to let up field goals. The score was now 13-3. After that there was the Rex I had seen glimps of in the past games and right before the half Rex throws a nice little touchdown pass into the corner of the end zone. Halftime, 13-10, Giants.

At half I went up to meet with Joe and Nell. As soon as half came Joe called, "Louie where is your exact section, we will come meet you." When they finally met up and saw the greatness of the seats they couldn't just turn around. They said there seats were at the top of the stadium in the end zone and there was not Bears fan in site. Well since the day was obviously some how going in our favor every time, turns out there were two empty seats directly to my right and when I asked the guy who sold the tickets if he knew who's they were he said we could take them he didn't know where the people were.

So now for the whole second half Joe Nell and I sat in the fourth row in amazing seats. The Bears came out of half time with a quick score with a pass by Rex to "Moose" and then after another stop by the defense the Bears scored again with a short pass to Desmund Clark. The score was 24-13, now the Giants fans were gettin real angry they wanted everyones head, the coach, the QB, and the left guard, but before the 3rd quarter ended and not before a lot of the NY fans left they scored a touchdown, but the momentum was still in the Bears favor. And to start of the fourth quarter the Giants came driving down, but the Bears held them to a field goal and a long one at that, 52 yards, the kick went up...short, and in the hands of Devin Hester. He waited a second and then, he was off he ran with blocks by Hunter Hillenmeyer, then somehow the next 2 amazing blocks were also by Hillenmeyer. it was amazing from the back of the end zone Hester was flying all the way down the field and in a matter of seconds it was over Devin Hester had just tied the longest score in football history tying Nathan Vasher a cornerback for the Bears who got the record last year. The game and the night was going perfect.

The Bears would score again only minutes later, but the damage was done, nobody could recover from that and as the time dwindled down and the Giants fans left the stadium, I could only look around at the empty seats, Nell and Joe and thank God for how lucky I was that somehow Cerone got me tickets and that I was in New York and had just been to the greatest football game ever.

The Halloween Party

More great pics Here

Grupo Di Amici

IMG_3143, originally uploaded by Manufacturer.

This place is a hidden gem, it is right next to the Morse L stop in Rogers Park. They make brick oven Roma style pizza and they do it well. The oven has to be over 10 feet tall and is the centerpiece of the restaurant. They have a great wine list and a surprisingly large amount of food, I mean you would think the pizza is there bread and butter, turns out it is only a small part of their menu. There appetizer were phenomenal especially the buffalo mozzarella. We all split some entrees along with three pizzas which was more than enough food. We had pork chops and potatoes, along with veal ravioli and the pizzas. The food was delicious and there was nothing I could complain about. Hope to be back soon.

New Flickr Pics

More here

RevoFuel

Here is a website worth checking out, RevoFuel. It is a "nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding the marketplace for energy efficient products" which is very much needed concidering the way in which our country is headed. Anyways I will let you read it for yourself and make your own decisions, but do check it out, http://www.revofuel.org/wscraft/page.php?id=90.

Some Wines

Some wines I have been drinking lately that are really, really good,

Cusamano
Colonia Las Liebres
Caldora
Nino Franco

And yes of course they are all Vin Divino Wines, what can I say Ryan is good at pushing his product.

The McRib

Why, O, Why am I addicted to the McRib, I don't even know what this thing is made of and yet every time it makes its once a year appearance I need it. I know it has zero, if not negative, nutritional value, but the taste of the bbq sauce, that mystery meat and those way to many onions just have a grip on my mind and have for some time now. What is also funny is I think McDonald's knows they are addictive to people and use it to there advantage as seen in there ad campaigns http://www.mcrib.com/ , they must put something in the sauce, I mean it is so needed by people that there are actually websites devoted to following it around the country. Damn you Mickey D's, Why can I not stop eating your crappy food that makes me feel like shit right after I am done eating it. I would like to pretend that I am going to stop eating McDonald's and in particular the McRib, but there is no point in lying to myself. So for the next month that this stupid sandwich is out I will be having my own internal battles...Hope I can win a few.

Lindy Hop

Tonight Carmel and I will have completed the first installment of our Lindy Hop classes from Big City Swing, so they are having us all go to the bar Fizz after class were we will be dancing a small portion of the night away. Its starts at 10 and I think is like 5$ to get in and anyone can come. They have live DJ's playing swing, blues, and jazz all night. I haven't been to this in awhile so it should be interesting hope I can remember the moves. Any one interested in coming should stop by it will be fun. Here is some stuff going on this week in the world of swing dancin.

Mondays @ Fizz Bar & Grill (3220 N Lincoln Ave)
Tuesdays @ Big City Swing (1012 W Randolph St)
Wednesdays @ Green Dolphin Street (Webster & Ashland)
Thursdays @ Images (see the Windyhop.org calendar for current dates / schedule)
Fridays @ Java Jive (see the Windyhop.org calendar for current dates / schedule)

Bears Shoes

bears shoes, originally uploaded by Manufacturer.

I just ordered these shoes. I got to custom design them myself. They should be coming in next Friday just in time for my trip to New York were I will be watching the Bears beat the Giants.

New roommate

IMG_1671.jpg, originally uploaded by trudesign.

Well Ryno, my friend and old roommate, moved out, so I put an add on craiglist for a new roommate and after many applicants I am now living with Erin McIntee. She is originally from Michigan, outside of Detroit. After college she did some traveling, then lived in Baltimore and worked in DC for the last year or so and now like most Michiganders is living in the Chi. So, there is a new addition to the stoop.

Halloween/Yelp

Hope every one is ready for Halloween. I have my costum ready it should be hilarious, cant wait to bust it out. Stevie is throwin a bash at the old stoop, I'm excited.

Also, I found a new way to talk about things I like and dont like. Its called Yelp. So now I will be venting and complimenting a lot more over the internet should be fun.

Upcoming Shows

A couple of really good shows are coming up at the Metro that should be looked at:

The Saw Doctors October 24, Jamie Lidell is playing on the 27, already bought my tickets for this one.

And the Chicago International Film Festival is going on this month along with the Haunted "L" rides which I plan on checking out. Its free, tickets are first-come, first-serve beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m. Saturday.

Unbelievable

I know this is late and should have actually been written on Monday night because of the greatness that took place, but I've been a little busy, sorry. Ok so on to the night in which I had three heart attacks. The Bears versus the Arizona Cardinals, just as an example of how bad the Cards are they put the point spread on the game at 12 and a half points, on Monday night football.

The Bears get the ball first and what do they do on the first play, a bomb to Berrian, deep, his man is beat and he is open the throw... LONG, crap, then three and out. Nothing to worry about though the game just started. Man were we wrong the Cardinals were picking apart the defense piece by piece in the first half. Short routes, catching the corners off guard who were playing them to deep. Massive protection for there rookie quarterback, Matt Lienert, giving him all day to throw. The run though that didn't have a chance. They were a unstoppable wall when Arizona tried handing the ball off to Edgerrian James.

The biggest problem though was the great Sexy Rexy, who was neither great nor sexy. He was over throwing passes left, right and up the middle, I think Muhammed had one catch. The game continuously got more and more depressing as the half went by. The score at halftime 20-0. We needed something to happen and fast.

Well, the offense came out after half and still were just as terrible, Rex could not get anything going, somehow they scored a fieldgoal, but the real story was that after half you could see a little something new in the defense, and that little something was the absolutely psychotic Brian Urlacher. The man was literally everywhere, he was in on or making ever single tackle. He stuffed all the Cardinals lines of offense. The rest of the D was also pickin up the slack of the offense and late in the third quarter caused a fumble and recovered it for a touchdown, but still the score was now 23-10.

In the fourth quarter the same was still happening the Bears offense was terrible the D was now lookin great and... Urlacher could fly, but all this was to no avail because all the Cardinals had to do was run out the clock and with 7 minutes left that is what they planned to do. Hand the ball off to the good running back let him go and let the clock die down in one of the biggest upsets in awhile. But, then with 5 minutes left and all hopes and dreams fading from all the wishful eyes of Bears fans all around me Urlacher strips the ball out Edgerins hands by shear force and will, the ball goes flying and then is immediately scooped up by Tillman who runs it all the way back for a touchdown.

The defense tired and beaten up has to immediately turn around and play D all over again but this time the hope is back and they have a attitude that cannot be defeated. The score is now 23-17. What does the D do led by Superman they stop them in three and force them to punt, but what does that even matter the offense has been playing like crap all game, well they punt to Devin Hester the rookie and he takes off with a nice block in the beginning, duckin and weavin in and out of Cardinals only a couple more Cards to get by and of course there is a guy comin right for him, but then out of nowhere URLACHER with a huge block to let Hester take on the kicker who he easily blows by, TOUCHDOWN. The Bears now lead by 1 and there are three minutes to play.

The defense, who now basically has not left the field in 7 minutes worth of play, is back on the field again ready to defend there small lead, but its not easy and they let up some big plays. Lienert lead them all the way down to the 22 yard line and with no time on the clock hands the ball over to there veteran kicker for a 40 yard fieldgoal. The kick is up and its... NO GOOD, wide left, he missed it, amazing the Bears win. The Bears Win. Chairs are knocked over people yelling and screaming all over the Chicagoland, drinks flyin, people are dancing. The Bears Defense and special teamed just pulled off greatness comback in the last 7 minutes off that game. It was truly unbelievable and something I will never forget. I am so glad that I would have never stopped watching that game, and don't feel sorry for those who did.

Oh and Happy Birthday Meg and Ditka

The Best Pint In The City

There is a place called Celtic Crossings on Clark, just off of Chicago, that pours a mean pint of Guinness. They have the obvious "true" old Irish bar feel with the Bar tenders all from Ireland, and from what I can tell they are all named John, but why they are so great is their Guinness. They fly in Kegs weekly from Dublin and they know how to pour it right. Also they, like a true Irish bar, love to hang out and tell stories. Here there is no loud music or loud noises from a Golden Tee machine, there is just the sound of conversation and the occasional phone ringing. They do have though live Irish Music every once in awhile. So, if you are ever wanting to hang out and just talk with friends or hear stories and jokes from an old Irish man than this is the perfect place to get that and a great pint of Guinness

more pics here

Straight Domination

Its Unbelievable how good the Bears look this year. They are truly the best team in the NFL right now. Another great performance in every aspect of the game. Everyone this week, as in weeks past, contributed; from the air and ground offense, to the solid foot of Robbie Gould and of course the monsterous defense. They were beating a supposed good team in the Buffalo Bills so badly that they brought in there second string quarter back and ran the ball for the whole 4th quarter. I am not going to jinx them to much, but if there is any team right now that has ever look like a shoe in to go deep into the playoffs this is it. The final score 40-7. GO BEARS.

Spacca Napoli

WOW! This place was amazing. Thanks to Ryan for bringing me to this place. Ok, we walk in and are immediately greeted by the owner who gives us all big hellos as we sit at are table and even before our waiter gets there the owner, John, gives us all glasses of Presecco, an amazing sparkling wine from Italy. The waiter than came over to take our order.

We order some appetizers prosciutto and mozzarella and some salmon, it was unbelievable. We then ordered our pizzas two reds and a white. The first, diavolo, a red with spicy sausage slices and mozzarella, all of the ingredients are flown in from Naples weekly. Next we order a broccoli and sausage white pizza which was amazing and finally a four cheese red, which was dripping with flavor. Once our order was placed and we had drank a glass of our wine we walked up to the giant wood burning oven they had.

This thing was built right into the wall and all the material that were used to build it were flown in from... yep, Naples. We watched as the owners wife prepared the pizzas, not by tossing them but by smashing them to the circumference by hand. Once they were prepared they are sent into the oven, which I think burns at 1600 degrees. Ryan set his timer, a guy with a paddle rotates all the pizzas as they are inside making sure they cook evenly, 60 seconds later they were out of the oven and on there way to our table. The pizzas were like nothing I have had before, the crust the flavors the presentation everything made me realize that I have been eating a lot of bad pizzas. This place needs to be visited by me more often and I am sure it will be.

4-0

The Bears once again looked dominant. They ruled the field this passed Sunday night by destroying last years NFC champions, the Seattle Seahawks, in a score of 37-6. As usual the Defense was truly great with multiple sacks and 2 interseptions (both by Ricky Manning Jr) and what is now becoming "the usual", the offense again looked perfect. Rex Grossman threw 2 more touchdown passes, one to Berrian and one to Muhammad. The running game which up until now has actually been somewhat contained was looking real sharp. Thomas Jones had 98 yards and also had 2 touchdowns. This game was an all around team dominated game because everyone contributed, the offense, the defense and special teams. The Bears are now the only undefeated team in the NFC and considered by most to be the best team in football. GO BEARS. Next week, the Bills.

Roomate Wanted

Well my roomate and good friend Ryan is is movin out, after the almost 2 years of livin together, so now I am on the hunt for a roomate. My post, Ryan did it for me. I have already interviewed one person and am interviewing another today. This should be interesting. I have never had to do this and it kind of feels like I am being set up on a blind date for a friend. I'll let you know how it goes. This also means that we will be gaining another addition to the stoop crew, which is always good.

My Bed

Finally I finished my Bed I had been waiting on this headboard to come in for months, it is a photograph of my old Jeep that I really like.

DA BEARS

Man, sorry I even let this get to Tuesday, Well once again the Chicago Bears lead buy Rex Grossman are showing greatness. With there spectacular win over the Detroit Lions. Scoring a Ridiculous 34 points to there 7, the Bears once again showed they have an can use many weapons. There was just like last week a dominating presence on defense and great catches and big plays buy the receiving core. The Bears are going 12-4, ha ambitious, but what the hell I love the Bears. They great part about how they look is that there running game hasn't needed to carry them like it did in the years past, but it is still a threat and can be used at a moments notice, even Cedric Benson is looking good. I know its only 2 games and that they played a couple of bad teams but you can not take away the fact that yes they are bad teams and that is why they are destroying them, these games aren't even close.

Bring it on Vikings.

Cafe Gelato

Well luckily I found this amazing little place on Division, Cafe Gelato, but the problem is I found it the weekend before it is supposed to never be warm again. This place is just a little gelato/coffee place hidden in the corner of a recessed building. It is almost covered from view just by the cars that park in front of it. Anyways I went in there to get a gelato and was surprised to see the amount of people in this place. While trying to see what flavors they had I found my self bobbin and weaving around people just to see through the display. Finally it was my turn and I didn't know what to do there were about 10-15 flavors and they all looked amazing, I know this sounds like I am a child, my first time at Homers Ice Cream, but it did feel that way. After much internal dilemma I went with the tiramisu and after my first bite I knew I had made the right decision. So now I wait, I doubt the weather will permit me to go back again, but now that I know it is there I will be back at the first sign of warmth.

Some Frames

I made these at work...


more here

The Renegade Art Fair

Just letting everyone know that this weekend is the Renagade Art Fair in Wicker Park. It is on Saturday and Sunday from 11-6pm. They will be selling everything from T shirts to jewelry, but the most important reason to go is to see Stevie's both, where she will be selling her hand made jewelry. So definiatly try and stop by to see what is going on this weekend and look for Truche's booth.