November: Nesting in Evanston (Part 2)

Week of Nov. 17: Wine & Food & Theatre

We celebrated the annual Nouveau Beaujolais release at Le Tour on Thursday evening, managing to squeeze in at the bar to enjoy our complementary glasses of wine. Mr. E also ordered a burger and frites while I focused on the Happy Hour pricing for oysters. As usual, we got a dozen of the mollusks, but when we were halfway finished, I noticed that there was an odd number remaining, meaning that we were served only 11 of the 12. We alerted the server, and she returned to the kitchen to resolve the issue. When she came back, she presented us with the missing oyster plus an extra "apology oyster" to make a nice baker's dozen total. I certainly didn't complain about having the surplus offering!

I took the day off on Friday for some intensive homework time as the end of the semester is getting close. Mr. E and I finally tried out Cafe International at the Rotary Building for breakfast and were pretty pleased with the options and especially with the pricing. It reminded both of us of a very nice hotel breakfast buffet, including made-to-order omelets (I got egg whites and veggies) but with prices more similar to the cafeteria at one of the CA state agencies or at the Intel campus in Folsom. I ended up taking half of my omelet home since the portion size was quite generous. And the triangular hash browns were another good find -- crispy enough and no onions!

Friday afternoon, I headed to the WCE for my 3-5pm volunteer shift to help with vendor move-in for the annual Holiday Bazaar. There were fewer than 10 vendors who arrived later in the day, so I was done by 4:30pm, giving me plenty of time to come home for a bit before Mr. E and I returned to the Clubhouse for the opening evening of the Bazaar. We sponsored the event this year, and that included tickets to the opening, so we were able to enjoy the light bites and wine as we browsed the various artisans. We indulged with several holiday baking purchases, including an apple cake, white chocolate ginger cookies, tart cherry cookies, ginger snaps, mini holiday truffles, and a specialty hot chocolate mix. 

On Sunday, we met up with M & L for an early brunch at the locally famous Walker Bros. Original Pancake House. I tried the blue crab benedict and nibbled on some of Mr. E's mini Dutch baby pancake with fruit on top. Our afternoon activity was the play Among the Dead as part of our DIY mini-season subscription to the Wirtz Performing Arts Center on the Northwestern University campus. We didn't know anything about the show, and we were both totally engaged and impressed by the script, the staging, and the performances. We wrapped up the evening with Happy Hour at Prairie Moon. I really enjoyed their new spinach and mushroom quesadilla HH offering, but I have to admit that their oysters just aren't as tasty as the ones at Le Tour!

Week of Nov. 24: No Classes! Blood Donation, Thanksgiving, Weekend Change of Plans

I didn't have any classes this week for NYU, LTCC, or CASA. It felt a bit odd to have so much free time! Mr. E took Wednesday off to get ready for all of his holiday cooking plans. Unfortunately, he had a challenge with picking up the rental car, which threw off his timing for the day. Luckily, he was able to borrow M's car to do his errands and for us to go to our Vitalant blood donation appointments in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, I got deferred due to a low hemoglobin, despite trying two finger sticks. Darn! Mr. E was able to complete his donation, and we took care of the final grocery shopping as well. We figured out the swap-out with M's car and the rental before we headed home for the evening.

We started out Thanksgiving Day by walking the Evanston Flying Turkey 5K. The weather was chilly but sunny with minimal wind, so we just bundled up to enjoy the stroll. We had a late brunch at home afterwards and then relaxed for a bit before heading to Mr. E's mom's in the early afternoon, since she was hosting the family gathering for the holiday this year. Originally, we were all going to go to Montreal, but Mr. E's sister's work schedule had changed several weeks ago, making an out of town trip more challenging, so we decided to just stay local instead. 

Mr. E settled into his mom's kitchen to begin all of his prep, and I headed down to the awesome geodesic domed pool for a swim. By the time I was done, L & M and G & L had arrived and were munching on the appetizers and chatting. I did a quick errand at Mariano's and then joined the group to visit and enjoy the food. We sat down to dinner around 5:45pm to enjoy the offerings from Mr. E (steak, oven-baked asparagus with parmesan cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and roasted fingerling potatoes) and his mom (beet and green bean salad, cocktail shrimp, and other parts of the appetizers that joined the main meal). We finished up with the pumpkin pie that Mr. E had ordered from Bennisons and then headed home to Evanston (with lots of leftovers!) around 7:30pm.

Our plan for the rest of the weekend was a trip to Madison, including a tour of Taliesin on Saturday afternoon and meet-ups with friends P and S on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. However, due to the winter storm warnings, all of the Taliesin tours for Saturday were cancelled! Luckily, on Friday morning, I saw the phone call and email notifications before we started the drive, right when were just about done with our packing. So then we decided to just cancel the entire road trip, especially once I called the hotel and they were kind enough to waive the usual cancellation policy so that we didn't have any charge at all. Now what to do with the weekend??!!

We had already planned to visit the Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum and make a stop by the See's Candies holiday pop-up shop at Old Orchard Center on our way to Madison, so we figured we could still keep those plans. Unfortunately, when we looked up the directions for the Museum, we saw that it was closed on Friday. D'oh! We did brave the traffic to get to See's for my lollipop re-stock to tide me over for the next couple of weeks. Later in the afternoon, we played three games of pool in our building's Community Den [aka game room] and then tried out the Corner Bistro bar at the Orrington Hilton (Bourbon Bee for Mr. E, Smokey Negroni for me), and finished up the evening with takeout from Joy Yee and streaming of Agatha Christie's Crooked House.

On Saturday, we navigated through the snowy roads to visit the Museum, which was offering free admission for Small Business Saturday. We both really enjoyed the permanent and special exhibitions, and we procured a turtle magnet and purple hummingbird fleece blanket at the small gift shop. On our way home, we stopped by the Oakton Community Center for the C.A.R.E. Faire to support the shelter where L volunteers. The cookie walk was definitely the best part! We ended up with 1.75 pounds of a variety of cookies, all homemade by volunteers. Yum! Once we got home, Mr. E fit in a short workout downstairs while I had a nice long talk with A. Then we braved the snow to walk to the AMC Theatre for the 3:30pm showing of Wicked for Good. We were surprised that the theatre was so full, given the ongoing snowy weather and road conditions!

Sunday was a very leisurely day, with no specific time commitments. After brunch at home, I took down and put away the Thanksgiving decorations and pulled out the Christmas decor to get started on the next holiday. A bit later, on our way out to do some errands, we almost got stuck in the snow at the top of the parking ramp! Luckily, I noticed a snow shovel nearby, so Mr. E was able to shovel out the stuck front tires of the rental car, and we continued on our way. We stopped by M's to drop off his big pot that Mr. E had borrowed for the sous-vide steak on Thanksgiving and then found some great holiday lights at Home Depot. Nice to have the rental car for some of these farther-away errands! Stops at our usual nearby Binny's, Jewel, and Trader Joe's rounded out the afternoon. The rest of the day included more holiday decorating, computer stuff, and our weekly international film viewing. 

And that's a wrap for November!