Pining for the Fjords

Don't miss Part 2 ! Enjoying food and drinks at Dearly Beloved in Chicago In the last blog, we'd just awoken from a well deserved nap in our hotel in Chicago on a Friday afternoon, and it was time to get gussied up and head out on the town for the evening! Our first stop for the night was a nearby cocktail restaurant, Dearly Beloved.  In preparing this trip, I'd run across a list of great cocktail spots, and when I found out that they 1) were less than a mile from our hotel and 2) had an incredible happy hour where most of their fancy cocktails were HALF off, I made us a reservation ASAP.  When we arrived at 5pm, there were plenty of open tables, so we grabbed one in the darker, moodier side, away from the noise at the bar itself.  Our server was a delight, and the drinks were amazing; while we didn't want to eat too much, since we had dinner reservations later, we did try their "chips and dip" appetizer, pictured above, which was also great - it had a sour c...

Greetings, everyone!  We hope you're having the happiest, loveliest, most merry of holiday seasons!  The effort to save the trees by creating a holiday blog instead of sending out a holiday card seemed decently well received last year , so here we go again! From our household to yours - happy holidays, all! Like last year, we've rounded up a few notable photos and events from each month; many of these are described in more detail in other blog posts, and if so, I've linked to those in each section. January 2023 In what I would imagine is common for many folks, during January, we stayed close to home, recovering from the 2022 holiday season (we hosted Amy's Mom for her birthday, Amy's Dad and his wife Risa for Christmas, and had a wonderful time celebrating with friends and family).  We ate at some great spots , hung out on our back porch and enjoyed the amazing Phoenix weather, and visited some local attractions, including the Japanese Friendship Garden  for their ...

What about Part 2 ? In the last post, I finally saw my stitches for the first time and documented the start of the healing process (I had a Mohs procedure to remove a basal cell carcinoma on my face at the Phoenix Skin clinic).  It's been super duper fun (not really)! Sunday, October 29 As I mentioned in the last post, Sunday was a busy day.  Chris and I walked the doggos over to nearby Phoenix College (it's a slightly longer walk than normal, so we save it for Sundays, and Zoe starts to look forward to it about halfway through the week) and then made chilaquiles for breakfast.  I did a few things around the house (mostly laundry - there's always laundry) before cleaning up and getting ready for book club.  Post book club, it was back home to relax for the afternoon; after dinner, we headed to the nearby Japanese Friendship Garden for their Otsukimi Moonviewing Event.  An otsukimi is a festival dedicated to viewing the autumn moon, and like at our garden, it...