more sweet home chicago

 So this week we had three nights out at restaurants as we try to orundhtings up here in Chicago.

On Tuesday the two of us went to mfk. We hadn't been since Covid I think - it was still good and still expensive but we had a nice evening with excellent service. 

The next night we met Ron and Mary Lewis for a Teitur celebration at Bad Apple.  We always celebrate Teitur on September 18th of course. And for years we have had a tradition of having burgers for Teitur. Since none of us have been to the Faroe Islands (home to Teitur) we don't know what they eat there. But I digress, the dessert was huge and enough to serve four people easily. The server didn't warn us as she was new and had never seen it before. The server was very diligent and brought all the food we ordered exactly as we ordered it. I always want to like this place more but I'm all about the pure burger experience. Cheese only works well for me. Everyone's meat was cooked to the temperature they requested. Sadly sometimes between the last visit and tonight's they stopped allowing wine with a corkage fee. We had a round but a corkage fee would likely have netted them more revenue. The wine on the list was all $38 a bottle at restaurant prices. 😥So we took our bottle home. Even though it was an older vintage it probably cost more than what they were charging. Short sighted IMO. SO, bottom line: we won't be rushing back. But no matter what the meal is like, we got to spend time with our friends and discuss plans for their trip to Sevilla in February. 

Then the following night (Thursday) we met Mike & Leslie at Tanta. Not sure we could have chosen a better evening to dine outside. It's been a while since we have been to Tanta's roof deck but the food is still great. We had favorites from prior visits: veal heart (anticucho corazón); salmon tiradito and tuna ceviche; carne empanadas; and Phil's long time favorite the chaufa aeropuerto.  All shown. Mike & Leslie were more circumspect in ordering. They had a lomo dish and the pulpo and some thing I don't really recall but I think it was in the appetizer section of the menu. Two champagnes paired well with the variety of dishes. Our choices shown first and marked on the menu. Their choices follow.  Leslie has a busy year coming up, so seeing them in a foursome may be a bit difficult, until she completes her term as the president of a trade association of securities regulators. Her travel schedule is reminiscent of mine when serving on a similar organization's board in my industry (thank God ancient history as I haven't worked in nearly 15 years.)

Mike & Leslie chose the pulpo and lomo with rice and a seafood ceviche.

This weekend we stayed in and worked on various things around the house - I started to get the deck closed up for the winter.

We are getting closer to October - fall arrives tomorrow and I am bringing the indoor plants back inside this weekend. working on packing for Spain etc... muy list gets shorter but still not completed... need to arrange car service for arrival in SVQ. Still have dentist, eye doc and cardiologist appointments before I leave - all in the last week before I leave...  Really looking forward to being back home in Spain. 

Visa renewal and visit from Oscar and a trip to the Algarve to visit Laurie Estabrooks all coming up... 

Our visitor calendar starts in earnest in January. We may go to Madrid in November  or December to visit with Megan and Christian. So our life gets busy but it's in ebbs and flows...