Beer Time!!

Megan and I had dinner with a friend at RJ Grunts, a restaurant in Lincoln Park that has not changed since the 70s. They claim to have invented the salad bar; I'm not too sure about that. But, they did have Bell's Hopslam, one of the best beers I've ever had. If you ever happen upon the chance to try any of Bell's beer, I recommend it.

Knit One, Purl Two

John's sister, Stephanie, and I have been taking knitting classes at a neat little knitting shop in North Center called Knit 1. The idea of knitting came to me while one vacation in Mexico. I wanted to come up with activities in which to fill my evenings. That way, if I had a commitment, I would also have the perfect excuse to leave work and do something for myself rather than stay chained to my desk.

We have mastered most of the basic stuff -- knit stitch, purl stitch, casting on, binding off -- but I recently started working on my first real "project": a scarf. I am not a crafty person, so the fact that I have nearly knitted a scarf is a big deal (at least to me). It's made of alpaca, and I'm knitting it on size 15 needles, so it's going to be sort of chunky. I only have a few classes left, but I think this is something I will continue.

My magnum opus

Big Comeback

We got Simon a new little outfit for our big comeback to blogging. Check him out in his snappy new tie!
The weather here has taken a turn for the worse, being totally miserable, cold and snowy the past couple of days. The cold front has really put a damper on any interesting outings (and thus interesting blog material), but we're hopeful for April. John just got a new set of golf clubs and can't wait to hit the course and try them out. I'm part of a running group with Chicago Endurance Sports and am training for a 10 mile race in May and a couple of half marathons in the summer. Of course, all of these activities would be more fun if the weather would just cooperate with us!

Bad Bloggers

So we admit, we haven't been the best at updating for, oh, the entirety of 2009. But, there really hasn't been anything cool to blog about. We've been total hermits this winter and haven't gotten out to do anything on the weekends.

This has been the first nice weekend in Chicago in forever. We spent lots of time outside, walking around the neighborhood and grabbing dinner at one of our new fave pizza spots, Frasca. Hopefully our lives will become more eventful now that the weather is improving, and we will have more to post about.

New Arrival!

We have a new nephew! Beckett Timothy O'Halloran arrived on Friday morning (his parents are Megan's stepsister, Natalie, and her husband, Sean). He's super cute, and could be his big sister's twin (that hung out in there for an extra four years). We can't wait to meet the little guy!

Mexico Vacation!!!

We are tanned and rested from our great trip to the Maroma area of Mexico, just north of Playa del Carmen and about 30 miles south of Cancun. It was awesome. Our resort was all inclusive, but not cheesy like you would think. The beach was beautiful. The food was always very good and even fantastic at times. We highly recommend Secrets Maroma. More pictures below!

Celeb Sighting (Updated with brighter pics)

Last night I met my girlfriends, Sarah and Erica, at the Crimson Lounge for a charity event benefiting breast cancer research. Normally I'm a total bum on Friday nights and go straight home and pass out on the couch at 8:30 from my exhausting week. But the highlight of this event was that celebrity DJ Samantha Ronson (better known as Lindsay Lohan's girlfriend) was spinning at the event, so I gladly passed up my normal Friday night activities for the chance to see someone famous (the only celebrity I've ever seen was Cate Blanchett in a diner in Rome). Anyway, it ended up being really fun, and it was for a good cause. I'm nursing a bit of a hangover today, and I didn't catch any glimpses of Lindsay, but it was fun to hang out with the girls.

Erica, Sarah and me




The first of many pictures of Samantha