I've said more than once lately that I am blessed beyond belief. I have a husband who loves me, and along with our puppy, we have a happy, cozy home. I have an amazing family, and I'm so lucky to live near them all.
While this year has been less than perfect, we've made it through, and together we'll keep making it.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Ten Days of Gratitude: FAIL
I give up. I knew I should have given up before I started. I'm just too busy lately to actually get up 10 posts, 10 days in a row. So you'll see all of the rest of my thankfulness on Thanksgiving day. Assuming I get that post written. Family starts coming in for the holiday today!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Ten Days of Gratitude: Day Two
Today I am thankful for my job. Because it's been a long long struggle getting where I am. I haven't had a "real" job since I graduated, but have jumped between lots of little jobs. Some I loved, some I hated, most just got me a paycheck.
And while I'm not going to claim that this is my dream job, and I plan on being there forever, it is a great company. I work for and with people I love, and I get to travel just enough to be able to enjoy it! I'm also getting to blog for an hour or two everyday and get paid for it, and you just can't beat that!
And while I'm not going to claim that this is my dream job, and I plan on being there forever, it is a great company. I work for and with people I love, and I get to travel just enough to be able to enjoy it! I'm also getting to blog for an hour or two everyday and get paid for it, and you just can't beat that!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Ten Days of Gratitude: Day One
I'm stealing this from a fellow blogger (who stole my "Respect the Bird" title... love it!!), and I'm going to make a desperate attempt to do this every day, BUT for those of you who know me and love me (I hope), you know that I'm really really bad at the follow through on such things. So here goes...
Today I'm grateful for my husband's job, because while it isn't making us rich with money, it does provide us the opportunity to do things that we'd never be able to do otherwise. And I'm not just talking about my two birthday trips this year.
Because of the nature of my job, I have to travel. And I hate, hate, hate being away from my family for so long. If it weren't for Steven's job, we'd never be able to afford for him to come and visit me on long trips, and that would make spending two weeks in Chicago unbearable.
So thank you to my husband's employer. For putting up with his craziness, and for giving us the opportunity to do so much more than we could ever afford to do otherwise. We are truly blessed!
Today I'm grateful for my husband's job, because while it isn't making us rich with money, it does provide us the opportunity to do things that we'd never be able to do otherwise. And I'm not just talking about my two birthday trips this year.
Because of the nature of my job, I have to travel. And I hate, hate, hate being away from my family for so long. If it weren't for Steven's job, we'd never be able to afford for him to come and visit me on long trips, and that would make spending two weeks in Chicago unbearable.
So thank you to my husband's employer. For putting up with his craziness, and for giving us the opportunity to do so much more than we could ever afford to do otherwise. We are truly blessed!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Respect The Bird!
Despite the fact that I love (and I do mean LOVE) everything about Christmas, I am trying desperately hard to "Respect The Bird." I firmly believe that Thanksgiving is a really important holiday, and not because of the food coma that we intentionally put ourselves into.
In a society where so much of our lives are ruled by our possessions and our desire for possessions, it's really important to reflect back on the past year and give thanks to the one who gave it all to us. I think it's sad that the stores ignore Thanksgiving to pile on Christmas, which to them, is solely about profits and increasing our materialistic standpoint.
Now I'm not claiming to be a saint. I love the presents and the "stuff" just like everything else, but this year, I'm going to try to "respect the bird" and give thanks for what I've been given.
In a society where so much of our lives are ruled by our possessions and our desire for possessions, it's really important to reflect back on the past year and give thanks to the one who gave it all to us. I think it's sad that the stores ignore Thanksgiving to pile on Christmas, which to them, is solely about profits and increasing our materialistic standpoint.
Now I'm not claiming to be a saint. I love the presents and the "stuff" just like everything else, but this year, I'm going to try to "respect the bird" and give thanks for what I've been given.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Home Sweet Home
I'm home! And completely exhausted. If you count travel days as work (and since I get paid for them, I do!), I haven't had a day off since October 17th. That should make this week a TON of fun.
My sweet husband works with a girl who's a massage therapist, and I am so blessed because he's already arranged for her to come give me a massage on Tuesday. To say I'm excited is an understatement.
OH and I tried another pizza place. It was amazing, but 100% different than everything else we had. I might get up the energy to blog on it soon, but for now, I'm going to sleep!
My sweet husband works with a girl who's a massage therapist, and I am so blessed because he's already arranged for her to come give me a massage on Tuesday. To say I'm excited is an understatement.
OH and I tried another pizza place. It was amazing, but 100% different than everything else we had. I might get up the energy to blog on it soon, but for now, I'm going to sleep!
There's no place like home...
Friday, November 5, 2010
Food Faceoff: Chicago Deep Dish
As I'm sure movst of you have figured out by now, I'm in Chicago. I've been here for almost 2 weeks, and I have 2 days to go before I get to go home. I love my job, and this show has been fantastic, but I'm so ready to be home with my husband and puppy!
Luckily, Steven's job gives us lots of flexibility in this sort of situation, so he was able to fly up and spend a long weekend with me! While my hours (and exhaustion) made it difficult to do any real sight-seeing, we did have one thing on our to-do list that I just wasn't willing to give up.
Deep dish pizza.
I'm starving just thinking about it.
So we began the hunt to decide which two pizza places we'd hit up, and lucky for us, the choices stuck out loud and clear. The Locals vs. My Coworkers (I should note that people from my office tend to come to Chicago at LEAST once a year, because McCormick place is such a busy convention center).
I took a quick survey of my coworkers, and while there were a few favorites, the final choice was clear. Meet contender #1: Lou Malnati's Pizzeria
Steven asked around at the airport, on his shuttle, and around the hotel. The answer was unanimous: Gino's East. We had contender #2.
We hit up Gino's first. It has a killer reputation, and I had high expectations. The day we went wasn't busy, and we were seated quickly. The atmosphere was graffiti covered and not really my style, but still very fun.
We ordered up our pizza, and an appetizer (a deep dish necessity, since they take 30-45 minutes to cook. At Gino's we selected a simple pepperoni with extra cheese, and their garlic sticks.
The garlic sticks were ok, but lacked alot of flavor. Being the bread addict that I am, I was a bit disappointed. The service here was also hit and miss, but there's not much for the guy to do when he's waiting for your food to cook. I'd have been happier if I had seen him more than once between dropping off our appetizer and bringing our food, but you can't have everything.
Now on to the main event:
The sauce was great, the meat was flavorful, and the cheese was clearly high quality, but the crust.... well it was not great. Our crust was hard, and lacked flavor. I'm usually a pizza crust lover, and this wasn't a good one. I found myself leaving the crust on the plate and moving on.
The next day was Friday and we headed to Lou Malnati's Pizzeria.
It was busy, so we waited, and oh was it worth it. The atmosphere here was perfection. Very classic. Busy and loud, but not too loud, and very simple.
We ordered up their classic (home made sausage), but added pepperoni to it. We also ordered their Toasted Cheddar Cubes at our waiter's recommendation.
This appetizer knocked Gino's garlic sticks out of the ring. They were flavorful and different, and a perfect start to our meal.
45 minutes later it arrived. I was worried. It looked just like Gino's. Our waiter served it up, and we dug in. The sausage was light in flavor, and I actually liked it (I'm not a sausage fan), and the cheese was clearly fresh.
And the crust? Their famous buttercrust?
Perfect. Melt in your mouth, flaky, flavorful heaven. I died.
And then I came back to life so I could eat some more and die again.
The service at Lou Malnati's was better than Gino's East as was the atmosphere. Lou's clearly won the appetizer battle, but let's be honest, this is about the pizza. Let's break it down:
Red sauce: Tie. Both had great flavor and didn't go overboard on volume. Too much sauce can make things soggy, and luckily this didn't happen at either location.
Cheese: Slight advantage to Lou's. You could taste the freshness. They bragged on the quality of their ingredients, and you can taste the difference, but with the cheese, it was close.
Toppings: Tie. We got slightly different items, and I couldn't choose between them.
Crust: Let's be honest here. You already know the answer. Gino's crust was just not good. Lou's was fantastic. There is no comparison.
Hands down Lou Malnati's Pizzeria. I wasn't sure I was a deep dish kind of girl after Gino's, but Lou Malnati's won me back over. It's all about the total package and Gino's poor crust killed it for me, while Lou's won my heart with every bite.
So what do you think? What's your favorite deep dish? Or are you a hard core New York Style kind of person?
Luckily, Steven's job gives us lots of flexibility in this sort of situation, so he was able to fly up and spend a long weekend with me! While my hours (and exhaustion) made it difficult to do any real sight-seeing, we did have one thing on our to-do list that I just wasn't willing to give up.
Deep dish pizza.
I'm starving just thinking about it.
So we began the hunt to decide which two pizza places we'd hit up, and lucky for us, the choices stuck out loud and clear. The Locals vs. My Coworkers (I should note that people from my office tend to come to Chicago at LEAST once a year, because McCormick place is such a busy convention center).
I took a quick survey of my coworkers, and while there were a few favorites, the final choice was clear. Meet contender #1: Lou Malnati's Pizzeria
Steven asked around at the airport, on his shuttle, and around the hotel. The answer was unanimous: Gino's East. We had contender #2.
ROUND 1
We hit up Gino's first. It has a killer reputation, and I had high expectations. The day we went wasn't busy, and we were seated quickly. The atmosphere was graffiti covered and not really my style, but still very fun.
We ordered up our pizza, and an appetizer (a deep dish necessity, since they take 30-45 minutes to cook. At Gino's we selected a simple pepperoni with extra cheese, and their garlic sticks.
The garlic sticks were ok, but lacked alot of flavor. Being the bread addict that I am, I was a bit disappointed. The service here was also hit and miss, but there's not much for the guy to do when he's waiting for your food to cook. I'd have been happier if I had seen him more than once between dropping off our appetizer and bringing our food, but you can't have everything.
Now on to the main event:
The sauce was great, the meat was flavorful, and the cheese was clearly high quality, but the crust.... well it was not great. Our crust was hard, and lacked flavor. I'm usually a pizza crust lover, and this wasn't a good one. I found myself leaving the crust on the plate and moving on.
ROUND 2
The next day was Friday and we headed to Lou Malnati's Pizzeria.
It was busy, so we waited, and oh was it worth it. The atmosphere here was perfection. Very classic. Busy and loud, but not too loud, and very simple.
We ordered up their classic (home made sausage), but added pepperoni to it. We also ordered their Toasted Cheddar Cubes at our waiter's recommendation.
This appetizer knocked Gino's garlic sticks out of the ring. They were flavorful and different, and a perfect start to our meal.
45 minutes later it arrived. I was worried. It looked just like Gino's. Our waiter served it up, and we dug in. The sausage was light in flavor, and I actually liked it (I'm not a sausage fan), and the cheese was clearly fresh.
And the crust? Their famous buttercrust?
Perfect. Melt in your mouth, flaky, flavorful heaven. I died.
And then I came back to life so I could eat some more and die again.
THE SCORES
The service at Lou Malnati's was better than Gino's East as was the atmosphere. Lou's clearly won the appetizer battle, but let's be honest, this is about the pizza. Let's break it down:
Red sauce: Tie. Both had great flavor and didn't go overboard on volume. Too much sauce can make things soggy, and luckily this didn't happen at either location.
Cheese: Slight advantage to Lou's. You could taste the freshness. They bragged on the quality of their ingredients, and you can taste the difference, but with the cheese, it was close.
Toppings: Tie. We got slightly different items, and I couldn't choose between them.
Crust: Let's be honest here. You already know the answer. Gino's crust was just not good. Lou's was fantastic. There is no comparison.
THE WINNER
Hands down Lou Malnati's Pizzeria. I wasn't sure I was a deep dish kind of girl after Gino's, but Lou Malnati's won me back over. It's all about the total package and Gino's poor crust killed it for me, while Lou's won my heart with every bite.
So what do you think? What's your favorite deep dish? Or are you a hard core New York Style kind of person?
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