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....