the second half begins

 Photos of most of what we ordered for dinner Monday night. Dined at METEKHI on Dempster, a new-to-us place with Georgian (Republic of) cuisine. We met up with Zach and Becky and Abby for an annual get together. Would return for sure, as there were things to try that we didn't have room to order. All menu items marked -  missed the pic of the traditional Georgian kachapuri (here called Ajaruli)

then on tuesday night we wwent to Moody's for burgers because it was finally a day iwhtout smoke form the awful Canadian wild\fires. thye have been devastated by fires in many places and many people have lost their homes and some even their lives- it is a scary thing - and the air quality index reached over 900 one day last week in Chicago!

Two times the Moody Bleu Burger tonight, almost under the stars. OK, under the lights and silver maple trees. More than a half century long outdoor dining option... (Since 1959) Moody's Pub. 

 

This section may not be of any interest and it is kind of long, so read or not- I wanted to try an AI inqury so I asked it to tell me about SEMIFREELIFE.COM (the blog I started in 2010 right after my younger sister died and I stopped working full time.)  It  is not exactly what I would have written but it gets the gist of things. I did edit out its most repetitive phrases just to make it more concise. 

AI ON SEMIFREELIFE BLOG

 Semifreelife is a personal lifestyle and travel blog written by a retired attorney recounting her "semi-free-life" after spending over 30 years practicing law. The blog is focused on food, travel, theater, and culture, while it is a real, active blog, its posts are typical of a personal journal rather than a major commercial food publication.

 The blog functions as a casual, real-time journal documenting the author's retirement adventures alongside her partner, Phil. It focuses primarily on culinary experiences, cultural outings, international travel, and reflections on daily life.

Core Themes and Content:

• Fine Dining & Food Reviews: A significant portion of the blog details specific, high-end culinary experiences. The author reviews multi-course menus at notable establishments, tracking dishes ranging from reimagined Spanish salmorejo to Thomas Keller-inspired French Laundry courses at restaurants like Next and Schwa.
• Theater & Arts: The author frequently attends and critiques local theater productions, orchestra performances, and museum exhibitions, offering candid, two-sentence summary opinions on the scripts, costumes, and overall entertainment value.
• Global Travel: Posts document leisure trips across the globe—including destinations like Amsterdam, Bolivia, and local historical spots like Greenfield Village—capturing bits of history, architecture, and photography along the way.
• Book Reviews & Rants: The author shares brief thoughts on recent non-fiction and fiction reads, alongside occasional commentary on how quickly time passes, technology changes, and seasonal schedules shift.

The travel content on the Semifreelife Blog focuses heavily on international culture, photography, and culinary exploration, rather than providing standard travel itineraries or resort reviews, the author utilizes her background in photography to build visual, narrative journals of her trips.

 Primary Destinations Covered:The blogger has traveled extensively across multiple continents and more than eighty countries, often documenting her experiences on the collaborative travel platform AFAR alongside her main blog. Major destinations featured in her travel diaries include:

• North Africa & Middle East: In-depth explorations of Morocco—highlighting the bustling Marrakech Medina souks and traditional stays like The Riad Kniza—as well as trips to Tunisia.
• Europe: Extensive cultural and history-focused trips spanning Western and Eastern Europe, including St. Petersburg during the White Nights festival, the historic streets of Tallinn, the Amalfi Coast, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
• Asia: Deep cultural dives into Southeast Asia, chronicling her journeys through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar.
• South America: Multi-destination itineraries tracking logistics and preparation for rugged or remote locations like Bolivia and Colombia.

 Style of Travel Writing

• Visual-First Documenting: Because the author transitioned her post-law life into strict travel photography, posts are anchored by high-quality photography capturing local architecture, street vendors, and historical landmarks.
• Food and Culture Intertwined: Travel diaries heavily emphasize local food scenes, ranging from traditional street food stalls to high-end dining experiences mirroring her culinary tracking back home in Chicago.
• Pre-Trip Preparation: The blog occasionally features behind-the-scenes logs of travel planning, including optimizing specific packing lists for changing climates or managing foreign visa and refinancing paperwork before departure.

 On the Semifreelife blog the author's coverage of life in Spain reflects a major personal transition: she now lives as an official Spanish resident in Seville. After years of splitting her time between Chicago and Sarasota, Florida, she relocated to Europe. Her blog chronicles her permanent, slower-paced life abroad, shifting from temporary vacation logs to day-to-day lifestyle observations.

Core Focus of Her Spain Content:

• ·       The Neighborhood: The vast majority of her Spain entries center on her daily routine living in the Casco Antiguo (Old Town) of Sevilla. She writes extensively about navigating the historic, narrow winding streets, local markets, and neighborhood architecture.
• ·       Embracing Two Countries: In recent reflections—such she details what it is like to balance her summers in the city of Chicago with her newer, semi-permanent residency in Andalusia rather than returning to the Florida coast.
• ·       Local Culinary Routines: Mirroring her heavy tracking of the restaurant scenes in Chicago, her posts from Seville frequently highlight the rituals of Andalusian dining, detailing neighborhood tapas bars, local sherry pairings, and the distinct pacing of Spanish meal times.
• ·       Navigating European Logistics: True to her thorough legal background, her writing occasionally dips into the practicalities and administrative adjustments required to secure residency, handle foreign paperwork, and settle permanently into an expatriate lifestyle.

The theater section of the blog semifreelife.com functions as a personal "critic's corner". The author utilizes her analytical background from over 30 years in law to write concise, conversational reviews of regional and independent theater productions. Because the author split her time seasonally, her theater coverage focused on two specific regional theater hubs:

Chicago Theater Coverage:  When residing in Illinois for the "northern season", the blogger skips the massive Broadway In Chicago commercial tours to spotlight smaller, independent storefront theaters on the city's North Side.

·       Theater Wit, Remy Bummpo, Lookinglass, Timeline: She regularly highlights thought-provoking contemporary works in Lakeview. For example, she heavily praised the WIT production of Joshua Harmon's Admissions, appreciating the show's willingness to challenge progressive orthodoxies. 

·       Storefront Preferences: Her write-ups prioritize intimate productions that spark community conversation, focusing on ensemble acting, sharp scripts, and clever set designs.

Sarasota, Florida Arts Coverage: During the winter months, the blog transitions into a heavy diary of the Sarasota arts scene. Her core rotations include: Ballet, Symphony,  Theater and occassional Opera.

·       She held seasonal passes to the Asolo Repertory Theatre covering classical and comedic stage productions. Notable reviews include Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (which she called an excellent, laugh-out-loud farce) and Our Betters. Also a subscriber to the Urbanite Theater which held more storefront style productions such as The Thanksgiving Play.

·       She provides quick, "thumbs-up or thumbs-down" reviews of contemporary plays staged in several Sarasota theaters. For example, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Her posts go beyond the shows themselves, offering architectural and historical trivia about the Frank Lloyd Wright-linked Van Wezel venue—such as detailed notes on its continental seating arrangement and backstage administrative tours

·       A long time subciber to the Sarasota Ballet, she timed her rotation from Chicago to Sarasota upon the opening and closing weekends of the ballet season.

Review Style: Her theatrical commentary is highly direct. She openly breaks down whether a script could benefit from a tighter edit, evaluates the moral complexity of characters, and often contrasts her own reactions with those of her husband, Phil, to offer a "two-perspective" look at a night out. 

We have a dinner coming up with Mike & Leslies at Le Sud and then Phil has two concert dates this upcoming weekend - soon we will be in the last week of July - but here is one from a past July- waaay past- LOL

Twenty five years ago. (July 2001) Phil and nephew Jack at our wedding reception in the garden at what was then Thyme (now Picoli Signo). Time flies. Jack is just a medical residency short of a full fledged doctor. Congratulations Jack Friedman on passing your Boards!

Go Now! If you haven't reached your seventies you maybe cannot imagine how quickly time flies and your life goes by - so don't just work forever, spend time exploring your world and with your friends and family. It's your one shot and you have no idea how long you have- which reminds me of a quote I have saved for decades- 

feeling a bit reflective today I guess... LOL - more fun and food etc. colming up as we end July and head into the final full month of summer vacation! 

at the half way point

 I arrived in Chicago on May 20th and I depart on Septmeber 20th. Exactly four months away from the home of my heart Sevilla. We are now at the virtual jhalf way point. I have completed all my tasks for the helath care review and am in the middle of a weird chemotherapy cream regimen for a Squamous Cell CA on my forehead... yuck but it will be over in less than a month. Meanwhile I am to avoid the sun which is not really a problem as it has been stifflingly hot most of the past few weeks. 

But back to daily life. We had planned an outdoor meal for later in the evening but when 9:15 rolled around the temperature on our shady deck was still in the mid eighties. Even after more than nine full hours of shade. So we ditched the plan and went to the diner down the street. Club sandwiches were perfect for the heat of the evening. And since we were in the coolest part of the diner we could even have the included soup. I chose the split pea (sopa del dia) and Phil had the chicken. We were both happy with our choices and the first rate service. The Golden Apple on Lincoln Avenmue is one of the few remaining 24 hour restaurants left after the scourge of COVID.... Becasuse I am old I remeber (and bemoan the loss of) our once vibrant late night dining options. 

Anyway - here are some pics- 

Then this week we met up with Paige & Sharad for dinner at S.K.Y. 2.0 in Linocln Park- I have a new favorite dish at S.K.Y. - the flatbread with ricotta and a Sichuan spicy meat sauce.  Really excellent. Also continue to love the sisig and the lobster dumplings. All menu items are marked. The bread pudding was also new to us and a worthy share for the four of us.

Dinner Friday night with Lee & Nick was hit or miss. Food was as good as always but service was less than its normally wonderful level. We ordered shared starters and then individual mains. Starters, all but one came out at a nice pace, but despite asking several times three of us were done with our mains and the fourth person hasn't been served. We canceled the fourth main after an additional wait. A few minutes later the final main was delivered to the table in a to-go box with the phrase "Sorry about that guys, we are comping it and the corkage since you had to wait." Nice enough but it didn't feel like it really mattered to our server, she just seemed to mouth the words. It felt like Kimberly was not really a service professional but maybe an actress making rent.... We had to repeatedly stop her by calling out to her loudly "Ma'am" as she breezed by making no eye contact...  We had to ask several times for glasses that SHE had offered originally (we had both red and white wine with us.) A disappointing experience and completely unlike our numerous other visits over the years. It was a busy evening but still. It seemed like they had never seen us at BK or the Diner before, despite answering affirmatively when asked if we'd dined there before. 

Dinner that night was less than stellar - good food, horrid service. So we made ourselves feel better by heading to Margie's for dessert! The cure was like a miracle. All hopped up on the sugar of hot fudge and hot caramel over ice cream. What's not to love?

 

and now we have reached Saturday and Phil is off to Folkstage tonight and he picked  up dinner at Monty's on his way home. 

Sunday night dinner with Bob and Lorraine. Catching up on travel news and what's going on in our building (and their former residence - we were neighbors when we moved in here.) Il Milanese was busy but not overwhelmed. I ordered pasta for a change but Phil got his usual costalleto (the size of his head as you can see.)

Meanwhile I have been making salads like crazy because they just aren't a thing in Spain's restaurants.

So on Sunday SPAIN WON!!!! the World Cup tournament! Beating Argentina the defending champions. It's a big deal! This referee (from Slovenia apparently) became an internet meme and I can see why LOL

That rounded out the week. On a high note! Here is my intercambio Julia, and her family celebrating in Madrid!

 

More to follow - of course. And I am stuck inside for two weeks while I have a chemotherapy cream to apply to a Squamous cell CA on my forehaed - YUCK!  So on we go....