'Twas the night before a transatlantic move...

I can't believe it's been almost a year. Dan and I realized that we were sitting in the middle of Transatlantic Move Eve last night (well,technically it would have been about 6 hours ago Chicago time), and it just brought back memories of the insanity that was our last couple of weeks before heading to O'Hare Airport with 10 bags on the morning of the 11th of February, 2010.


[2 bags not shown.]

The better part of the last two weeks of our time in Chicago was spent jumping through red tape hoops, as I needed to not only change my name (which is a long drawn out process in itself), but also had to get a new passport with my new name, and get both a french and swiss visa before leaving. Most of what I remember of this period was filling out paperwork (lots of paperwork), taking a number (lots of numbers), waiting in line (lots of lines), and being told that the documents I was holding to prove my identity weren't worth their salt (who knew there was such animosity between social security and passport services). The bureaucratic stars aligned however, and about a week before we left I had all the stampable scannable presentable papers that uniformed people would want to see.


So what else did we do during this time? Aside from a lot of packing like our (read: Dan's) Tetris reputations depended on it, we ate a lot of pizza. And not just any pizza, Chicago style Lou Malnati's deep-dish pizza.


We also got in a lot of face time with our number one favorite coffee shop in Chicago, "Star Lounge." One of the things I really miss about the US are coffee shops. There are cafe's here, but no "coffee shops" in the American sense. No couches, no free wifi, at least not that I've found yet. Most of our packing plans, paperwork filling out, and generally trying to relax before such a big move happened here.


[Someone doesn't look very relaxed.]


So, we actually had 2 Transatlantic Move Eves, truth be told. We were orginally supposed to leave for France on the morning of the 10th, but Chicago was in the middle of a blizzard so our flight was cancelled. However, it wasn't cancelled until about 9 PM on Eve #1, so I spent that day running around Michigan Ave picking up last minute essentials like American Apparel t-shirts, lululemon running pants, and Chanel Blue Satin nail polish. It was beautiful snow to be out shopping in for most of the day, and it made downtown look so pretty, but once it got dark that snow turned to wet slush. By the time I got done shopping downtown and picking up plane snacks at Lincoln Park Whole Foods, my Uggs boots were soaked through completely. Good thing these were my only pair of shoes as the rest had been shipped over to a friend's place in France the week before. My Uggs were so wet, that they made squish-squash noises as I walked to the door, and little sludge colored bubbles came out the side everytime I took a step. Trop fort. No way these were dryin' by the next morning...


By the time I got back to the apartment where Dan had been finishing up some cleaning and packing, we both needed a break. Badly. We hopped in a cab and went out to our favorite restaurant in Old Town, had some shish kabob, some wine, and some baklava. It was at dinner that we found out our flight had been cancelled for the next morning. Dan then spent half the night on the phone getting us re-routed for the following day, but I think we were both secretly happy for the extra day. I honestly can't remember what we did on that last day, because we were so exhausted, but I'm pretty sure Eve #2 was spent with bags being repacked by my Type-A packing machine. And maybe another Lou's.

I hope we had another Lou's.

Tomorrow: Our one year France-a-versary...

A la prochain friends...

See ya, Chicago...

This is it, the big day. Today we're off into the wild blue yonder and moving for our next epic adventure to Ferney-Voltaire, France. The plans right now are for an afternoon flight out of Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany, and then another flight from Frankfurt to Geneva, Switzerland. I feel like this day has been "right around the corner" for at least 6 months now, and I can't believe that's it's finally happening. We're very excited for the move, but are going to miss the faces and comforts of home as well. See youse on the other side of the Atlantic.

Au revoir for now (that's peace out in French)... :)

Blizzard - 1, Duggans - 0

So all this talk of Philly getting owned by snow lately and I forgot about the possibility of Chicago getting hit with anything. Well we did. All day. My Uggs have never been so soaked through. Downtown was so beautiful with all the big fluffy snow falling all afternoon. I'm not sure how much we got, probably around 6 or so, maybe more. Whatever the actual totals are it was enough for our flights to Newark and Geneva tomorra to get cancelled, so our move to France date has been pushed back by a day. This is good for several reasons. One: I'm still not feeling great. Two: I need socks. I forgot to buy them today. I was in the sock store and did not purchase socks. Curses. Three: We can get adequate sleep tonight without running around until 3 am trying to fit things in checked bags that we forgot about. Four: Maybe we can play in the snow a little tomorra, as long as my boots dry (unfortunately all of my socks/shoes/brand spanking new flashy rain boots are packed and/or have been mailed overseas already).

So, in the meantime, it looks like we will have to wait an extra day to flee the country, which gives us another day to meander around Chicago and get organized for the epic move. I just think it's hilarious that the only flights that either Dan or I have ever been on that have actually been cancelled have been when we've been moving with loads of bags...which also happened to be during blizzards. We like to move (and fly) in blizzards apparently. Just how we roll...

We were fortunate to take a short break from the insanity to grab a Turkish coffee and baklawa at our favorite restaurant in Chicago, Old Jerusalem, which is in Old Town. Sad to think we won't be going there for quite some time, but it was nice to steal away for a few minutes there before returning to the packing. Hope all you kids in Philly are holding up ok in the impending Snowapocalypse!!!

Tick Tock Tick...

* Catch the bus, end up walking...

* Try it on take it off still not sure...

* Tomato basil soup, grilled cheese on rye, chammomile peppermint tea...

* Won't be long now...

Ode to Lou's...

...Lou Malnati's that is. I never knew thick crust pizza until ye, dear Lou Malnati's. You were my ascent into Chicago style pizza and my favorite of the bunch. Oh Lou's, how we will miss your spicy/vinegary giardenia toppings, thick buttery crust and perfectly roasted tomatoes.

That is the face of a happy man. This very well may have been our last Lou's here in Chicago until we move abroad, and we savoured the hell outta it. Well, maybe tomorrow night for one last slice...or two... :)

Love me some grit...

I love the down, the dirty, the forgotten, the urban, the grit, the old, the used. I think Chicago and Philly are very similar in certain ways, and that's a bit of a common area for the two. I've always had a thing for old buildings, fire escapes, and old signs, and I've finally started compiling pictures of the like from my travels to and from. Here's some from yesterday in downtown Chicago by Michigan Ave...

Yesterday was absolutely grey and somewhat mild in cool temps (30s) - my favorite weather. I was downtown trying to run some of the last of my errands before we leave on Wednesday afternoon, but couldn't help snapping shots here and there.


BT-dubbs: Pitchers and catcher reported to spring training on Wednesday, which means that baseball is right around the corner - Oh happy day!!!

Ode to Karyn's Cooked...

Well hello there! I'm just gonna put it out there, I'm feeling a little bummy today. Feeling very under the weather and that always depresses me because there's so many other things I'd rather be doing and exploring than lying in bed with a runny nose, drippy throat, and congested head, especially since we're in the final countdown of our days here in Chicago. I'm hoping that a day in bed full of hot earl grey tea and honey will get me better so I can resume my exploring and errand running tomorrow. Here's is my Thursday late edition of "Ode to..." with my Ode to Karyn's Cooked, an amazing vegan restaurant just off Chicago Ave. on Wells Street, just a few blocks from downtown Michigan Ave.

Look at all this food! All for under $14 with a coffee! (The mac 'n cheese was actually given to me free as a "sample" - how sweet is that?!) There's so many things I love about this place - first of all, it's super clean and super conscious. The staff are very nice and don't rush you out of the restaurant as soon as you've sat down. The desserts look great, though I've never had room left in my belly to try any. I've only ever come for lunch, however it looks like it'd be a really nice place to come to dinner as well. The beer and wine list is also very if not all organic and many of the drinks themselves are brewed/distilled locally. I also love that if I had not known that this was a vegan restaurant before eating the food, I wouldn't be able to tell after eating the food either. The mac 'n cheese tasted super cheesy (despite the lacking of cheese) and the chili was very hearty (despite the lacking of meat). They even offered me coffee to-go for free because "it's cold out there." All in all one of my favorite lunch spots here in the city, especially if you're downtown because a large majority of the food places that I've seen in that area are chains or pricey or both. Overall it was the start to a very lovely day in downtown Chicago! :)

Ode to Star Lounge...

This is our last full week in Chicago, and in honor of this great city I'd like to take the time this week to highlight a few of my favorite spots here in the city. I know I haven't spent as much time here as Dan, however I do have a profound respect and appreciation for this city. I've really enjoyed my time spent here over the last year and a half, both in being a tourist and now a (very) temporary resident. Today I'd like to say a big thank you to Star Lounge, an awesome coffee shop by our place.

I love love love this place. It's kind of been our home base for doing work, scheme-ing, and just relaxing. My favorite drink here is the Mayan Mocha - basically an awesomely made mocha with red pepper flakes in it. The loose teas are great too. Everything, including the pastries, is really fresh. They also know a lot about coffee and are very, very, very passionate about it.
There's a great deck and yard outback for the warmer months...

I sit here now as numerous plans and schemes have evolved in this coffee shop, and I hope will continue to do so at a later date in the future and for the remainder of our time here in Chicago. I can't help but love a place like this that is so good at supporting the local arts and music scene, as well as being so environmentally conscious. If you come to visit this awesome city bypass the Starbucks and try to make a stop in for a Mayan Mocha, or a pastry. It's well worth the search. :) I'll miss you Star Lounge!!!

Feeling under the weather in a yellow submarine...

I'm feeling a little under the weather again today, not full on sick, but definitely congested and with a serial headache. I've diagnosed my body as being in full-on rebellion for all of the moving/stressing/traveling/standing in line at offices that's we've been doing lately to make this move abroad happen, and I can't stop daydreaming about the fresh produce at the local markets in Geneva and the wonderful cheeses and cafes in France that will put me back to feeling normal. It's hard to stock a kitchen with good for you whole grains and fruits and veggies when you know you'll be leaving almost as quickly as you moved in. But as I'm not feeling well today, I thought I'd share this little gem that I came across today on the interwebs:

It's a little submarine tea infuser! Isn't it so cute? Found via swissmiss

In addition to getting our French and Swiss visas on Wednesday, we also went to celebrate a surprise birthday party for one of our friends at an amazing little bar called "The Violet Hour." I wish I had pictures of this amazing speakeasy-esque bar, but the place was pretty much pitch black and only lit by (very) dim and small overhead lighting, candles, and a fireplace. The walls were blue with white trim, and heavy dark velvet curtains divided the rooms, which added to the dark vibe. There were big comfy couches and the drink list was amazing - I hadn't heard of a single drink on the menu as many contained things like whole egg or egg whites, and liquors that I hadn't heard of. I think I picked the best drink at the table - it was a mixture of Laphroig and Johnny Walker red, and then had a few other ingredients in it that I don't recall, and THEN the server lit my drink on fire. And this wasn't a "Oooh look at us we're so extreme we're lighting a drink on fire because we're an awesome kind of place," this was "I'm heating up this slice of orange peel to release the oils from it into your drink, and then I squirt it into the drink which creates a small flame." And it must have worked, because the orange peel never made it into my drink, but there was definitely an orange flavor to it. Well played "Violet Hour," well played. Just a really awesome place. But good luck finding it: there's no sign or name on the place, and the door is pretty hidden on a wall covered in an artist's mural. Definitely worth the search though if you're carousing around Wicker Park...

Last night we again chose some hearty comfort food in the form of some beef chuck and black bean chili, with a side of roasted eggplant and beets. We kind of made the recipe up as we went along as I made this often in grad school as my go to "Poor Grad Student Dinner" (sans the meat), however it took some reorganizing to figure out how and when to incorporate the beef chuck. There was even a little celery in there because we needed to use it up, and it went really well in it (I think celery goes well in everything so maybe I'm a little biased).

Buying the beans in bulk and cooking them yourself is much more economical and for me satisfying than buying them canned at the store (and less packaging to dispose of - yeah!), but you've gotta have the time to make them (these took about 1.5 hours simmering on the stove in the Le Creuset). Something we also learned as we went along is that this one was much more on the hot side than the ones I used to make in school - I'll tip my hat to the blending of lives in the institution of marriage, and to my husband who eats jalapeno, serrano and habanero peppers like they're apples. So in hindsight, also preparing a bed of either organic long grain brown rice or organic long grain basmati rice would have been helpful in cutting the heat a bit for me. Mental note for next time...

This bad boy took about 2.5 hours to reduce down to the level it should be at for serving. We were really hungry at the 1.5 hour mark and it was getting late, so it was a little more watery than we would have liked, but nonetheless delicious (and HOT). Luckily we let the rest simmer for another hour while we ate and cleaned up, so the rest of the batch is just right (and HOT).

A little shredded jalapeno cheese on top finished off the meal. Can't wait to dig into the leftovers! :)

Dang you tall Hancock...

Yep, that's it - the Hancock Tower. You can just barely see the tall antenna like thing at the top. I've had the pleasure of having drinks on two occasions with some amazing people at the 97th (or is it 98th?) floor, and aside from the hefty drink tab it's a really cool experience. I think the elevator ride takes about 30 or so seconds, and my ears popped about halfway up. The views are incredible, as are the nuncing and stink-eye involved glances required to score a seat by the window wall. Luckily this falls within my skill set. We were downtown for other reasons today however, all being the hopeful returns of several Swiss and French visas. We came back to our place victorious in what was an unheard of victory: a french visa obtained over the counter. I'm told that Manbearpig sightings are more common than this event. Had it not happened, we would have been waiting on bated breathe in hopes that it was mailed to us before we left the states. Sometimes things all fall apart and every once in awhile they all fall into place. With how stressful the last few weeks/months have been I'll take it.

Have I mentioned it's cold here? Really, really really freaking cold? The only colder temperatures I've felt were in Omaha over Christmas and New Year's where temps at night dropped to -15 degrees F. Midwest cold is a whole 'nother brand of beast.

T minus 2 weeks until the big move. Were both beyond exhausted at this point, as I think is pretty dang obvious in this picture. We haven't stopped to breathe since at least Thanksgiving, and I'm just hoping we have the chance to slow down a little bit once we've moved over and gotten over the jet lag.

So scrumbshlicious I can barely move; also known as fancypants comfort food...

The weather here has apparently returned to seasonal temps, but being that I've heard that Philly has been in the middle of a windy monsoon as of recent I'll take the redonkulous cold and snow to windy cold rain any day of the week. After a very blustery bus ride down to the promised land (Lincoln Park Whole Foods), and a great sale on Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese, it seemed that all dinner roads were leading to a delicious dinner of Mac 'N Cheese - make that Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese with Champagne and a side of spinach sauteed in garlic and olive oil. I can't take the slightest bit of credit for this recipe, as I found it here. I love that the first step to cooking the dinner is to open a bottle of champagne and pour yourself and anyone around you a glass ("repeat as needed"). I've always been a fan of mixing high end and low end anything and everything, and I think that fancypants mac 'n cheese and champagne is really a testament to that collab.




Add a little Will Ferrell "Best of SNL" in there and I'd say it's a pretty good night to stay in and keep warm. And after all, don't we ALL need a little more cowbell?