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Author Archives: carlieblissirwin
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Last week, Will and I had a moment of complete insanity and indulgence.
A friend was able to score 4 tickets to Next restaurant and invited us to go. And even though it was a total splurge (I’m pretty sure we could go on a weekend vacation for the amount we spent), it was absolutely worth it.
Have you heard of Next? It’s a Grant Achatz restaurant (of Alinea fame), but the cool thing is that it changes every three months. When we went, the theme was Sicily. Other concepts from the past include El Bulli, Childhood and Paris 1906. You have to buy tickets ahead of time–and they are NOT easy to get. So you understand why we HAD to go.
Everything I ate (and drank) was delicious. I even ate some swordfish, and I HATE fish. I would actually very much appreciate it if every single fish would disappear from the earth and never return because they are ugly, smelly, slimy, scaly horrid creatures. I don’t even care about the environmental ramifications that would result. But the swordfish did not make me gag, and that says a lot.
The very best thing we ate was the pork shoulder above. (Sorry for the blurry photos, I didn’t have my good camera with me.) It was served with a spoon – that’s how soft and melt-in-your-mouth juicy it was. So crazy. And amazing. Cray-mazing! See? It inspired me to create a whole new word just to describe it!
I honestly can’t remember everything we ate–there were a lot of courses, all of which included wine. But I do remember that this was a blood orange granita. Or taste bud heaven, as I like to call it.
And for dessert, they brought out some sort of insanely delicious cake that used to be made by Sicilian nuns, plus some other assorted treats.
Here’s what the menu looked like. But unless you can read Italian, it’s not super informative.
In addition to the amazing mouth party we were treated to, the service was also excellent. We got tons of information and history about each dish that came out, and our wine glasses were never empty.
Cray-mazing, I tell you. Simply cray-mazing.
Rome, Day II
Well here we are, back in Rome again! This post covers our second day in the city. (Like how I used Roman numerals in the post title? It’s all about the details, folks. )
Of course we couldn’t go to Rome without visiting Vatican City. I’m not very religious (except about watching Mad Men), but I have heard of the Pope before. Mostly because I’m not an idiot. And there are seriously a lot of cool things and gorgeous architecture in that weird, tiny country.
Just as a disclaimer – we did see the Sistine Chapel, and Michelangelo’s ceiling was huge and amazing. But there were no photos allowed. So I strongly suggest that if you have the means, get over to Rome to see it for yourself if you haven’t already. You won’t regret it.
Rosella, our tour guide from the day before, decided she hadn’t quite tired of us yet and graciously agreed to teach us a few things about the Vatican as we walked around and gawked at everything.
And there was a lot to gawk at.
As you can see, my mom (lower left hand corner above) really brought her A game when it came to gawking. Well done, Debbie.
I’m not a perv! He’s wearing a fig leaf.
So I may not have photos of the Sistine Chapel, but I do have photos of St. Peter’s Basilica. And that’s almost just as good.
After the Vatican, we moved onto the Pantheon. We were basically just going from one historical landmark/architectural wonder to another. That’s pretty much what you do when in Rome.
The Pantheon is the oldest building I’ve ever stepped foot in. It’s from ancient Rome. Even before all of that Jesus stuff. Crazy.
After the Pantheon, we wandered around Rome, checked out the Borghese Museum and walked down the Spanish Steps.
There were a lot of huge knockers in Rome. Yeah I just said that.
Thanks to a recommendation from my friend Emily (shout-out to SF!), we ate dinner at a restaurant called Cul de Sac off of the Piazza Navona. Best caprese salad I’ve ever had in my life!
After dinner, we strolled home by way of the Trevi Fountain. And I spectacularly failed at getting a good picture of it.
And that’s it!
The next stop on our trip is Sorrento. Hopefully I’ll have that post up within the next week or so.
You can see my recap of our first day in Rome here if you haven’t checked it out already.
The Rookery
Most of my posts in the near future will be focused on the amazing scenery and architecture I saw on our trip to Italy, but today I thought I’d share an awesome building right here in the great city of Chicago!
A couple of weeks ago, I moseyed on over to check out The Rookery during my lunch break. It was designed by Burnham & Root (they’re pretty famous for those of you who are unfamiliar with architecture) and built in the late 1800’s on LaSalle Street downtown in the Loop. I don’t think they called it the “Loop” back then… but don’t quote me on that.
In 1905, Frank Lloyd Wright (you DO know him, right??) was commissioned to redesign the lobby, and I must say he did a fabulous job. The photos below don’t do it justice. There’s gold and white marble everywhere, and on a sunny day, the whole place literally shines underneath the huge glass ceiling. Nice effect, Frank!
If you live in Chicago or plan on visiting, The Rookery is an architectural landmark not to be missed. No joke – I promise I would tell you if it sucked. I keep it real on this blog.
Now hopefully that tides you over until my next Italy installment – coming soon!
Rad Dad
My dad can beat up your dad.
Just saying.
Hope everyone had a fantastic Father’s Day! We celebrated yesterday with my family. And as a token of appreciation for everything my dad did to help raise me, I brought him a moronic greeting card and a bag of Ranch Doritos. Because I was really hungry.
I could tell he was pretty touched.
Love you, Dad!
Rome (if you want to)
I don’t know if you read this blog because (1) You’re entertained by my writing; (2) You enjoy looking at my photos; or (3) You’re that creepster boy who used to stalk me in 3rd grade now you’ve found me on the internet and you just read my blog instead of hanging out in the bushes in my front yard like you used to. (And by the way, that experience is why I had an extreme distaste for suburban shrubbery in my adolescence. And boys.)
All of that to say – this post includes a LOT of photos. So hopefully you picked option #2. And if you don’t visit this blog for the photos, feel free to thoughtlessly scroll through as you please. That’s why I added the parenthetical “if you want to” to the title. It had absolutely nothing to do with wanting to reference the B-52’s song from the 80’s. Nope, nothing to do with that.
So Rome!
It was fabulous. And maybe my favorite city we visited in Italy. I’m not going to try to describe everything pictured here, so if you have any questions about what’s in these photos or where we went, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.
We had gorgeous weather the whole time we were in Rome and made sure to take advantage of the cheap beer and wine charming al fresco dining options.
Attraction #1 on our Rome itinerary was of course the Colosseum! Our tour guide Rosella was fantastic, and I really learned a lot about the history of the ruins. I also learned that getting zero hours of sleep the night before turns my short term memory to crap. So all I can tell you about the Colosseum is that it’s super cool looking. Find it on Wikipedia if you really want a history lesson.
Did I mention our parents were our travel buddies on this trip? Both sets!
Rosella also took us to see the Forum, Palatine Hill and some of the other ruins scattered about the area. I don’t know if you knew this, but Rome has a lot of ruins. And all of the buildings are so old and beautiful, which of course prompted me to be all, “Hey look at me, I’m a photographer!” and take an obscene amount of photos.
And of course it wouldn’t be a trip to Italy if we didn’t gorge ourselves on gelato on the first day. And everyday thereafter.
And at the end of one of the longest days of my life (yes, this was all on our very first day!), some wine. Because I wanted to be just a bit more comatose than I already was.
So that was Day #1 of our fantastic Italian journey! Stay tuned for Day #2 featuring the rest of Rome, including the Vatican where I discovered a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church and embarked on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs and deserted cathedrals! All in my mind, of course. Angels & Demons, anyone?
A summer morning
Last Saturday, Will was out of town for a bachelor party and pretty much all of my friends were either out of the country or busy taking care of new babies. So I had the whole day to myself! And it was glorious.
Naturally, I spent the morning on the beach working on my tan. (Read: I have 3 new freckles!) I also started reading Divergent. So far, it seems like a Hunger Games wanna-be, but I’m going to give it a fair chance before I break down and switch to Fifty Shades of Grey.
On my way home, I stopped by Green City Market to check out the produce and offend people with my sand- and sweat-coated un-showered self. It was lovely. One thing I always enjoy is grossing out people who are trying to eat.
While I was there, I bought some cherries and drank apple-mint soda while relaxing in the shade of a friendly tree. I felt like a real live hippie!
Afterwards, I showered, got coffee at Starbucks, worked on my Mac laptop while catching up on The Real Housewives and walked my tiny dog Gatsby. That was the yuppie part of my day.
And how was your weekend??
Party planning
Yes, I am the spawn of the lovely people in both of these photos.
The first photo was taken on their wedding day in August 1972, and the second was taken last weekend.
My sister and I are planning an epic 40th anniversary party for our parents and we used these pictures to make the invitations. The party will involve a yacht, an open bar and lots of good friends and family. You can bet there will be a blog post about it, so stay tuned for that!
We figured 40 years of marriage was definitely cause for some major celebration. And I just wanted to thank my parents for being such amazing role models and for giving me something that I hope to remember for the rest of my life – the chance to party on a YACHT!! Wooooohooooo! 🙂
My weekend looked like this
Bacino’s pizza date and catching up on Mad Men and Girls on Friday night. (Sadly, The Bachelorette is still on the back burner.)
Brunch and day-drinking for my Emily’s 30th birthday on Saturday. Don’t we look festive in our multicolored jeans?
Meeting an old friend’s new baby, who just happens to be adorable.
Hanging with college friends at a lovely outdoor wedding shower on Sunday.
Snuggling with Gatsby.
And finally squeezing in an hour of relaxation before the weekend was over.
Monday, you’re such a party pooper.
I’m back!
Hellooo America!
I’ll just say it – our trip to Italy was phenomenal. I mean, look at this photo:
And this one!
I promise that’s just a preview. I’ll do posts on all of the places we went, but first I have approximately 5 million photos to go through, which will take approximately 5 million years. It’s like I’m building a cathedral (you know, because that used to take a really long time?) and hopefully the result will be just as breathtaking. If I should perish before this epic project is completed, that’s totally not my fault, so don’t be mad. But I’ll try my best to get the photos done. And also not to perish.
I’ll be honest and let you know that no photo editing will be taking place this week. We got back on Monday, and my life has been a little disorganized since then.
If you ask me what day it is, there’s less than a 50% chance that I will provide the correct answer. I haven’t shaved my legs in 6 days. And yes, I’ve worn shorts since then. I’ve eaten Subway (6-inch turkey on wheat) for lunch for the past 3 days in a row because that’s how much I’m craving routine. And I haven’t even watched a single episode of The Bachelorette! I don’t even know who I am anymore! And at times over the past few days, that statement could be taken literally!
Thank God today is Friday. I could really use a vacation.
(Kidding, I’m just kidding! Geez, stop glaring at me…)
Carlie Crash 