where are the good jeans?

After Philip and I dropped off our Rabbit to get detailed this morning we headed to North Michigan Avenue to do a little shopping for ourselves. Sadly the only things we left with were a bagel, a panini, and two small coffees from Einstein Bagel. Nothing at Sonoma in our budget, Lulemon has cool things but c'mon Philip...downward dog knickerbockers?, J.Crew was way too overwhelming and while that vest looks REALLY hot, $98 was quite a stretch. We walked through Filene's basement and after 5 minutes I felt like Karen from "Will & Grace"... "Honey, what is this place, where am I, how did I get here?". I'd like to not spend too much money on Jeans, but even the CK ones looked disgust. Moving on to H&M, we were welcomed by black, black, black everything in the lobby... black must be back. Excitement over jeans lasted about 10 minutes, then when we came to our senses we threw them back on the shelf and made a dash for the exit. An obligatory stop at Pottery Barn royally annoyed Philip, but made me feel good about my store! Our last hope was Express, where we actually tried on several pairs and even admired how they fit, but let's be honest... if I'm spending that much on jeans, they better be freaking amazing. So to cheer us up we crossed the street to the Apple Store and pretended like we might actually buy something. All this and still at home by noon.

holiday's a coming

The holidays are coming so quickly that we may not even realize when they are actually here and when they are gone. Retail business over many brands that people are already having insane Holiday sales. Like Old Navy was having a 40% off Outerwear sale and it's not even cold yet. Yesterday while walking through J.Crew, I couldn't help but notice their massive piles of warm weather clothing on sale already. Holiday music traditionally starts playing the week of Thanksgiving, but some retailers who are desperate to get people in the mood have been blaring Holiday songs on busy days to push their merchandise out. There's so much Holiday product everywhere that I think some people have forgotten about Thanksgiving. Ode to the Turkey is out and Hurrah to the big green tree is in.

laundry, dishes, and petty fights with Bailey...

Today was very eventful. Having two days off in a row in the middle of the week means two things. 1. That I have to work all weekend and 2. This is my weekend all by myself. So in order to not feel like a total loser, I try to get as many errands done as possible and not sit on the sofa all day watching my dear Tivo. I started my morning by getting up with Philip, bright and early... well, after he left I went back to bed, but soon after I got ready and went to Jewel to sign up for "Pay By Touch", got quarters and went to the laundromat to do 3 loads of laundry. Why waste time sitting at the laundromat watching my clothing spin when I can get so much done at home in between those cycles? So I began doing the dishes and ran back to dry, then ran back to do more dishes, and so on. Leftover rice and beans for lunch...yum!

I decided to hop on the Halsted bus and take back a lamp to CB2 which was missing hardware! SHAME! No worries, we got a nicer one anyway. Bought tickets at Steppenwolf for a show that one of our friends is starring in, then foolishly took the North Avenue bus East and the Clark Bus north, to Best Buy on Clark. I bought myself a SD adapter, so now I can finally put music on my phone. Waited for the Broadway bus Northbound to drop me off right by my building. I do love the Broadway Bus...

More.... I got our rug back from the dry cleaners, and btw... It's not as clean as I had hoped, maybe there is no hope for my Shag. Remembered that I hadn't folded the laundry.. damn! Spent forever doing that, then decided it was the perfect time to try on all my pants and long sleeve shirts to sort through the big ones that i don't need. What fun that was!

So now, I'm sitting waiting for Philip to get home, smelling the deliciousness in the crock pot and watching the uneventful evening news. Oh, btw Bailey and I are happy right now. We only had 3 little fights today, but it's all cool.

ode to couscous

Have you ever been grocery shopping and running errands over the lunch hour when your stomach is grumbling and every fast food restaurant you pass looks amazingly delicious? As I was in that predicament today shooting past the door of Trader Joes after leaving CB2 and passing all the "good" fast food restaurants on Addison Driving home, the only thing that stopped me from giving in to the grease pits was the thought of making some good old 7 minute couscous at home. I love couscous because its easy to make and you can mix anything with it. Today I made it with sliced hot dogs, edamame, sesame seeds, and sesame oil. Yum Yum!!

haircuts,bad service, and groceries

Philip and I woke up early this morning to get a head start on our Saturday activities. We went to Gabby's Barber shop to get our haircut. We walked in to a full waiting room and a long list of about 20 names before us. When you walk in, you have to write your name on the chalkboard and if you want write the name of the barber that you want to cut your hair. Philip always requests the same barber every time, while I just take whomever is first available. So, instead of waiting in the room the entire time we went for a walk down Clark. On our southbound journey as we came out of Hanig's shoe store a dog was running down the sidewalk and right into the street. Her owner was following behind with two other dogs on leashes. The running dog kept going in and out of the street in front and behind cars. After many failed attempts to get her dog back, a stranger volunteered to hold the two other dogs on leashes as the owner chased after the run-away. I was so nervous that something bad was going to happen that I had to walk away so as to not witness anything.

On our way back to the Barber Shop, we stopped at Baladoche to get some coffee. On our last visit to Baladoche we were overwhelmed by the happy manager and upbeat customer service. This time, the happy manager was not there and the two girls working in the place were AWFUL. We waited about 5 minutes while they slowly shook sugar on other people's waffles before one of them even acknowledged us. When she finally did, I ordered our two coffees and paid for them. Then we waited a few more minutes while she forgot to get our coffee and then she came back and asked if she could help us. I was like" I already paid for two coffees" and then she magically remembered and got us our drinks. I wasn't so much mad as I was sad thinking about these poor people who think that they are doing a good job.

Anyway, so we made it back to Gabby's, got our haircuts and then bought yummy groceries at Trader Joes.