Weekend Update

This was a fun weekend here in Chicago. Started out Friday at Sushi Wabi on Randolph for dinner with Mara and Mike. Mara is my cousin, Mike is her husband. They are both so good to me. We ate a ton of sushi; and it was good, but not as good as Sushi on the Rock. I miss the Kitchen Sink roll! From there we went to Red Kiva, where I had previously gone on a date. It's a jazz bar down the street. They had a good dj and we had a couple of drinks. Then after Sandy, Mike's buddy showed up we went to Fulton Lounge a couple blocks away.

Saturday morning went to my favorite Yoga class at Yoga Now Chicago. I take an Ashtanga yoga class, which is an extremely challenging form of Yoga. I love it. But as I was hung over from the previous night, I was pretty slow and lazy during the class. After a couple hours of naptime, I felt rejuvenated. Since it was cold on Saturday, I spent the day cleaning up my house and laundry, watching Lord of the Rings on TBS. It was a nice afternoon.

Saturday night Mara and I went to dinner at Sepia. A fabulous restaurant. We didn't have reservations, so sat in the lounge. I had a wonderful lamb stew with pasta, it was delicious. The wine was excellent. From there we went to a co-worker's 30th birthday party. Yes, 30! He was going on about how old he felt. Punk. Yet, there I was shot gunning beer.

I was so hung over on Sunday. After a long morning, reading the paper and drinking coffee I took a nap. Finally made it out to The Art Institute of Chicago to see the Homer/Hopper exhibit. But because I arrived so late I was unable to see both exhibits. I really enjoyed the Homer exhibit. He really mastered light in both watercolor and oil paintings.

It was a nice weekend... but too much drinking. :)

Fun San Diego Event

Here is something that falls into the best kept secret, do that again category! Saturday night I headed over to Ray Street in North Park for the monthly Ray At Night event with some friends. Basically, Ray Street is home to several art galleries and the second Saturday of the month all the Galleries celebrate the opening of an artist at the same time. They close the street off and there are bands and DJs, wine, cheese, beer and of course Art! All sorts of art, good art, bad art, mostly very contemporary art. Something for everyone. Make sure you save the date for May 12, and check it out. Lots of people, very social and entertaining. Great people watching.

Anyway, afterwards, we headed over to Apertivo for dinner. Apertivo offers Italian Tapas and wine. A very small place, with great food. With small plates you can try many different tastes. The wine selection was great and service was good. Kitchen got busy... as the restaurant filled up. We waited about 20 minutes for a table... it flew by. Definitely would go again. Finally, after that we headed over to Heaven Sent Desserts for some rich indulgence! We tried four desserts and the thumbs up winner among all of us was the Apple Tart. Delicious!

The only thing that would have made the night better would have been some actual art purchases or some shopping at the fabulous boutiques in the area... maybe next month.

Still light out

It's 6:00 pm and with the time change, it's still light out. I'm so happy that the days are getting longer. Pretty soon it will be warm enough to spend the afternoon at the pool. I'm very ready to enjoy the summer. I had a great summer last year!

Today has been a really great day. Got up early and met my friend KZ for a visit to the San Diego Museum of Art to check out the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. The exhibit was wonderful; featuring her professional work alongside personal family photos from 1990 - 2005. The photo series was very touching; especially the personal photos of her partner Susan Sontag's struggle through many bouts of cancer. She shared some very sad photos of Susan and of her father's death. I got very teary looking at those photos. But weird fact, Annie, gave birth to her first child at 51! And then three years later to twins. I definitely am a supporter of women having children whenever they decide, into their 40's, but in your mid 50s seems extreme. Her children will be 10 when she is 65. I want to go back sometime during the week to go through the exhibit again as there was a movie I didn't get to watch completely, it was very crowded. I highly recommend checking out the exhibit if you get a chance.

From there we walked over to Spanish Village and checked out some of San Diego's local artisans. It was beautiful in Balboa Park today and we decided to have lunch at the Prado. It's definitely spring in San Diego. Lunch was delicious and I enjoyed a Mojito. I'm ready to mix up the first batch of 2007 Mango Mojitos for poolside enjoyment.

Tonight will be a nice night in, I've got plans to make some Brussels sprouts with panchetta. Yumm! I've been out every night this week since Tuesday night. And will be out most of next week.