Snow Ice

Last night Dave and I went on a date to commemorate our first date three years ago (see the post below). We went to this small Italian restaurant (since we went to an Italian restaurant on the first date) and it was tasty -- and kind of odd because we were the ONLY ones in there. It was Wednesday evening, so I guess that's not a very busy night...

For dessert we ventured to Cloud 9 in Lakeview. They specialize in Taiwanese "snow ice" which is the closest thing in Chicago to shave ice. It's fluffier than Hawaiian stuff and made with real pureed fruit rather than syrup. Imagine eating frozen cotton candy and you're probably getting the right picture. It was definitely no Island Snow, but I'll take what I can get here! I got the mango and Dave got green tea. We both got sweeetened condensed milk drizzled on top. In Hawaii we call that a snowcap. And it's delicious no matter where you are.

Snow ice. It's going to be the big summer thing.

Kristy Yamaguchi! And good views from a safe distance

Kristy Yamaguchi of Olympic fame is currently on a book tour for her new children's book "Dream Big, Little Pig" (cute, right?) and she came by Dave's work for a book-signing! Naturally I went and had my picture taken with her (promising that someday when I had a child, I'd buy her book, haha). She was really nice... and she fell when she was getting off the ice rink. It was hilarious, and she was laughing the hardest of anyone!

 While I was up there (have I mentioned I'm super afraid of heights?) I hung out at the cafe watching Dave and his coworkers do their thing. I also tried to enjoy the view... when possible. You'll notice that all of my pictures of the city and the sunset are from a safe distance. I just couldn't get myself to go close to the edge! (Or closER to the edge; there was honestly a lot of yardage between me and it.) Hey, we're all just proud of me because I rode up the elevator by myself. (Okay, maybe I'm just proud of me. Maybe everyone else expects that of an almost 24 year old.)

Dave made me a mocha. I'm really impressed by his increasing latte art skills. He's a great barista!

And the sun is setting. Crazy how those main streets just light up and go west, west, west.

I took a few creeper pictures, but I promise I was really, really subtle.

And night falls on Chicago. Not a bad view from your workplace, huh?

Lately I...

Lately I: have been in love with my new phone; visited Dave at work at the Hancock building; found my Curious George raincoat in a box; had a date-day with Dave; celebrated the new Starbucks logo (and free desserts!) with the girls; made a lasagna; did a major purge/clean/organize of my cube at work; bought a grown-up trench coat; bought some awesome heels; celebrated Paige's 24th birthday!

48 degrees in February?

What's going on Chicago?

I'm confused, but I'll take it for sure.

Blizzard of 2011

Hey folks, Ashley here on my SECOND snow day! I can't even believe it myself. Yesterday I did a little jig because it was my first ever EVER snow day. Now I have another one. I am so lucky!

So we got this huge snow and these high winds and everything went white here. Yesterday at the tail end of the snow, my roommates and I ventured out to explore the winter wonderland. It was pretty epic and the whole time I was saying, "This is so much fun! This is so much fun!" (Hard to believe, right?)


We got 20.2 inches of snow, but because of the high winds, HUGE piles had formed all over. Right outside our apartment there was snow up to my knees!


On the normally busy street cars were swallowed up by snow. The street still had a good layer accumulated on it and only big cars were out. And lots of people walking around. It was really fun to see all the people out because everyone was friendly and smiling and waving to each other. It was like new years day all over again!


We decided to go see what the beach and the lake looked like, so we headed east with many of our neighbors. We found Chiberia! I've never seen something quite so ominous as the lakeshore yesterday. Large snow-dunes were piled up and the wind was whipping flurries all over the place. Everything was grey, grey, grey.


On our way back home we ventured onto Lake Shore Drive! It was closed for 36 hours (or something like that), so there was no traffic. While we were up there we saw a few snow plows and police cars. Besides that, it was all people taking advantage of the chance to walk on the Drive. There were even some sledders!

So it was a pretty epic adventure. I ended up with melting snow in my boots so I immediately got into bed to warm myself up. Then there was some hot chocolate. It was the best snow day!

Eat, Drink, and be Merry!

Saturday night I got to celebrate Christmas AGAIN. David, Holly, and I went together on buying a cooking class for Dave for Christmas. Lucky for me, I got to go along. Yay!

We cooked a four course meal for ourselves at the Chopping Block in the Merchandise Mart downtown. (Can you say fancy?) It was really fun, especially because everything was measured out for us (my least favorite part of cooking!) and someone else washed the dishes. Amazing! Plus the whole kitchen was fancy-shmancy and we got to use the best tools. Definitely not the kind of experience I can replicate at home... at least without a shopping spree beforehand.

First, we prepared sausage and herbed cheese stuffed mushrooms. Neither Dave nor I am a fan of mushrooms, but we went in with an open mind and these little appetizers were very good. (I'm still not sold on mushrooms, though. I mean, they're fungus. Come on.)

Then we whipped up some broccoli and cauliflower gratin - complete with roux, one of the three French sauces. I love me some broccoli casserole... err, fancy gratin. And then there were the steaks. Mmm. With homemade herbed butter on top. And finally, my favorite part, cinnamon pumpkin donuts. I was on the frying shift for these guys and it was a lot easier than I expected! Maybe it was the chef-supervision and the state of the art kitchen tools?

Our spread at meal time

Oh my Chicago...

I know the Tribune weather report is wont to overreact about the coming weather, but still, this is what they have to say...

"The ice isn’t going anywhere any time soon, as even colder winter weather moves into Chicago this week. Wind chills of up to 25 below zero are expected by early Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service."

Oh yay. Good thing I have a new coat!

New Year's Eve

 The weekend of New Year's was a very special one this year (last year?). I mentioned before that I had friends from all over the world reunite in Chicago and let me tell you, it was a sweet reunion. Christa was back in the states for a few weeks from Bangladesh and it was such a joy to see her!

There were also friends from Europe and all over the United States. It was truly wonderful. We celebrated the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 with  Chicago pizza, Taboo (my favorite game!), laughter, lychee champagne, and general good good times. It was such a good time that there's talk of Fourth of July at the lake... Woo!
 
I spotted this marquee downtown on January 1st. It was so festive! I think that day was one of my favorite so far this year because everybody on the street wished me a happy new year. It was such a friendly day!

Two years!

Today is Dave and my second anniversary! 

requisite anniversary photo

Because we aren't in the same state (or even on the same continent) at the moment, we celebrated earlier this week with an asian fusion dinner and dessert at Hot Chocolate - a really great restaurant in Wicker Park. (We had some decadent hot chocolate and peanut butter dessert. Mmmm.)

Oh dear.

We had a beautiful and warm fall in Chi-town and then BAM. It's cold. Seriously. It's wicked cold. I told Dave tonight that I don't remember it being this cold. He laughed. But you know what? Winter will have the last laugh. And it will be an evil one, for sure.

Weekend + Weather

You know what Chicago is great for? Weird weather. Let's examine:

I had a wonderful weekend - one that didn't last long enough even though it was an hour longer than normal! As much as I hate how it's going to get dark so early now, I did love the extra hour of sleep. Plus it's only a four hour time difference to Hawaii now; you can ask my mom how much she loves that. (right, Mom?). Oh another plus: it's light out when I wake up now. This makes it easier to get out of bed.

This weekend we four of our delightful apartment went to see the Lion King musical (thanks to Kate's grandma and Kate's birthday!). It was ah-may-zing. The only way I know to describe it is 'visual spectacle.' The costumes and puppets and animals and my oh my, I whole-heartedly recommend it. I sat in my seat with my mouth wide open. (Were you embarrassed, Paige?)

I also got new boots (yayyy), barn danced (who knew there were real barns in Chicago?), and celebrated All Saints Day. I love church potlucks. And I love my church.

I have another photo from the weekend to share but it's on my computer at home, so that will have to wait. Weekend part 2... to come.

Hi, I'm alive!

Happy Friday! Did you miss me? (Rhetorical question. Please don't say no!) Life has been busy and full and tiring the last two weeks. I have been storing up lots of pictures and fun things to share but then the amount of things I hadn't posted began to overwhelm me so I just avoided it like the plague. (This is also why my room gets so messy. Sorry about that, Paige!) Hopefully I'll be sharing from my "to-post" list over the weekend - this may include the two book covers I've designed over the last few weeks! My first two! So exciting!

Two photos to share. ABOVE: Marissa came to visit me and we spent a full day walking/shopping/eating/talking and it was glorious. BELOW: We celebrated Ashley's 24th at a swanky gastropub. Good times!

Happy Friday! Chilifest today at work!

P.S. It's 31 degrees outside!

Happy Friday!

Hi friends. Happy Friday to you! I just want to say that I have had the best afternoon. Dave came to have lunch with me, Chicago is having the most gorgeous weather, I got some fantastic encouragement at work, and now... the weekend! I hope you all are having a glorious day as well! Happy weekending!

Typographic Maps

My friend Adam pointed me to these awesome typographic maps designed by Axis Maps. They make so much sense in that the street names are easy to read and the important things are easy to locate. How many times have you lost your place as you tried to figure out the name of the street you're looking at? Happens all the time to me. You can purchase prints of these posters for Chicago and Boston (NYC, SF, and DC are in the works.)

via fastcodesign

Sighh...

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that my dear co-worker and friend Amy got a fantastic new job. The bad news is that she's leaving me! Today is her last day and since she is a faithful reader of my blog I decided to give her a shout-out here.

Dear Amy,

Today is your last day here and I am reflecting on what my life will be like post-coworker-amy. After today I am going to have to make my own Jimmy John's account and build my own "favorite order" for gourmet sandwiches. Not to mention brave the strange JJ delivery guy who makes me so uncomfortable I lose my ability to tip correctly. I am going to have to find my own interesting articles, pictures, and stories to distract myself with during the day. I am going to have no idea what's going on in baseball. My lunch hours will be just me and my books. Who will I stop by and visit and catch up on the latest news with?? And who will explain to me how this place works and who all these people are?

Amy, I will miss you terribly! But I'm so excited for your new job. And I'm glad you'll still be in Chicago so we can be real friends. So goodbye (but not really) and GOOD LUCK (definitely)!

Love,
Ashley xoxo

Heirloom Tomatoes

Let's be clear on something: I love tomatoes. I love, love tomatoes. I grew up on what I call "Hawaii tomatoes." These would be the ones that are barged in to the islands and don't quite measure up to their mainland peers. On moving to the North American continent, I discovered the joy of non-barged tomatoes and my love for the little buggers has swelled. My new favorites are heirloom tomatoes. Paige and I bought a gorgeous yellow one the other weekend and it was exquisitely delicious. I got even luckier this week when last night Dave brought me a little bucket of small ones from the community garden next door to his office. (He's so nice, isn't he?)

I love tomatoes!

(picture from here)

Dinkel's Bakery

So every now and then my boss brings in donuts from Dinkel's Bakery, much to everyone's delight. I have never been to the actual bakery, which is in Lakeview, but consider it officially on my list for this weekend. I have sampled some of the most delicious donuts + pastries and I just looked at their website and they have other baked goods (i.e. breads + cakes), too. Dinkel's was founded in 1922 and has been family owned for four generations. This place is awesome. Who's up for a field trip? (<-- Marissa, I'm looking at you.)

Understatement?

This weather update from Friday cracked me up. Was adding "Hot." at the bottom of the temperature reading really necessary?? Seems like an understatement to me.

(I had intended to post this on Friday but ran out of time. I know I've been slacking on posting lately; I'm going to work on it this week!)

I miss this...

But more so, I miss you people. You know who you are...

More photos and stories to come... In the meantime, I'm going to try to stay cool in this hot land of Chicago.

One More Storm Photo

A simultaneous lightning strike at both the Trump Tower and the Sears (aka Willis) Tower, as seen from the John Hancock Building.

photo by: Chris Sweda, Chicago Tribune / June 23, 2010