weekend in review

I may have one of the top 10 best meals Friday night. Here in Chi-town I have access to some incredible restaurants; I'm spoiled I know. I also take full advantage of eating out on a regular basis. Mostly because of we both travel and partly because I love to eat out on the weekends. While we make it our goal to try a new restaurant each month we tend to hit the same 10 restaurants over and over. We love them, people know us and give us price breaks every so often, and it becomes difficult to branch out. Friday night we branched out after realizing a good ole standby wasn't our best option because of a Cubs game. We tried Brown Trout in North Center (northwest side of the city). A-MAZ-ING... I opted for the vegetarian meal (yes I meat but I've been trying to incorporate more veggie centric meals since we eat out so much) and this dish could turn any steak and potatoes kind of eater on to more veggie centric meals. The restaurant uses organic food and focuses on local food as well as growing their own herbs and veggies on their rooftop garden. AWESOME! This is a reason why I love Chicago. Fabulous, tasty restaurants outside of the downtown hustle and bustle but could totally work in the thick of it all. Then we able to enjoy an after dinner drink at a local brewery all in walking distance.

Friday ended up being a late night so Saturday's morning long run started off much later than anticipated. Lucky for me it stayed relatively cool for an early August day so the weather wasn't a factor in my mostly craptastic run. While I had moments where it all clicked and the overall pace was where I wanted it was a mental struggle. That's what I get for staying out late and having a drink or two! But let's not dwell on that... it got done and that's what matters. The big, exciting deal that had me acting like a 4 year old on Christmas morning was this...

A big girl camera! I have to give my dad his camera back so it was time to suck it up and spend the money. I saw the FedEx truck down the street when I came home from my run and I was standing at the front window waiting for him to walk up the street and hit the buzzer.

I spent the rest of the weekend taking the most random pictures, mostly of my cat Maggie...

she's so cute (but I'm partial)

And I took a lot of food pictures...

mmm... el mariachi the best mexican restaurant anywhere hands down

Now I need to find fun stuff around the city to practice my picture taking skills (or lack there of).

I finished up the weekend with running errands, a humid 4 mile recovery run, and enjoying a dinner (and dessert!) made by husband. Ah, weekends, why do you have to be so short?