plug

Maid in the shade

/ Shane / Leave a comment

So I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this, but we now have a maid.  Aren’t we hmm hmm hmm?  When we were renting we used to have a maid and it was actually pretty awesome.  I could justify it though because it was just included as part of our rent.  It’s almost like they were twisting our arms. 🙂

Now however…its all us.  I do feel a little guilty about paying money for something that we could (should) do for ourselves.  I feel like if we just worked a little harder we could fit it all in.  The fact is, we just don’t have enough time to clean like we would like to.  And with Evie crawling all over now, and with the lead levels in Chicago, we should probably mop, dust, etc. regularly.  A quick sweep now and again isn’t going to cut it and when you’re short on time you cut corners.

The thing is, people used to make fun of us for saying, “The maid is coming tomorrow, we’ve got to clean!”  Anybody who would say that though never had a maid!  First off, who wants anybody seeing their house as a disaster?  Second off, we didn’t hire them to tidy up our clutter.  In fact, I’d prefer that they didn’t actually.  They don’t know where to put anything and it ends up in weird places.  We want them taking care of our dusting and stuff like that which is only more difficult with our junk lying all over the place.

We did some investigating and interviewed a couple of people and ended up finding the same people who used to clean for us when we were renting.  They always did a good job before and it is a little scary to let strangers into your house when you aren’t there, so it is nice to find someone who you’ve already taken into your confidence (and they haven’t burned you) and not have to go through that again.

So today was the first day of the cleaning and I have to tell you, it is sooo nice to come home to the cleanest house we’ve had since we’ve moved in!  Call us bougie if you want but I didn’t know our place could look so good.  And I didn’t have to lift a finger! 

So if anybody is looking for a recommendation for a cleaning service in the Chicago area, I’ll go ahead and vouch for Edith’s Cleaning Service.

Almost famous

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Well, almost Internet famous at least.

After our trip to Molly’s Cupcakes last week, Tony and I both blogged about it.  Well, yesterday Tony was listening to Ron and Fez and Ron was talking about the Ron Bennington “I have my own cupcake” cupcake (which is of course what we ate when we were there).  He went on to say through the magic of Google alerts he knows when he is talked about on the Internet and that most of this talk revolves around his cupcake.  He went on to say that just in the last few days “two blogs” had talked about his cupcake!  Now it might be a coincidence, but I have to assume he was refering to Tony and me.  I guess we’ll never know, but it is sort of exciting none the less.

But I don’t just plug these places for the fame and I certainly don’t do it for the money (since there isn’t any).  I only plug things that I really like and think other people should check out and that they would enjoy.  I would never plug anything that I didn’t like myself, unless there is money involved.  Then I would proudly endorse anything on God’s green Earth!  That is to say, if it were something I didn’t like and then someone paid me to like it, I would start liking it a lot more.  (Hint, hint advertisers!  J/k I don’t think I have the kind of readership it would take for something like that)

So anyway, if you happen to be in Chicago, you should check out Molly’s Cupcakes sometime.  If you don’t want to listen to my endorsements, skip anthing with the “plug” tag, I won’t be offended.

Sweet Cuppin Cakes

/ Shane / 5 Comments

While Tony was here, we went to Molly’s Cupcakes twice to eat their delicious confections.  I have never even heard the Ron and Fez show, but Tony is a huge fan and apparently Molly’s Cupcakes is featured on the show.  Ron even has his own cupcake there.  You don’t exactly have to twist my arm to get me to eat delicious cupcakes.  We went once on Friday and then again on Sunday so he could get some to take home with him.  I can definitely say they were the best cupcakes I have ever eaten.  My favorite was the smores one, but they were all really good.  The cupcakes were like $3.50 each which I’ve seen some people online complaining about, but come on!  You can’t compare them to cupcakes you would make at home, you have to compare them to like a desert at a restaurant or something.  I guarantee you can’t get an equally delicious desert at a restaurant for $3.50.  Anyway, the owner was super nice.  Tony had me take his picture with him and when we came back on Sunday he totally remembered us and everything.  You can also sit on these little swing things and design your own cupcakes, but we didn’t do that.  So anyway, if you are in Lincoln Park you should definitely check the place out, you will not be disappointed!

On the other hand, boo to you city of Chicago!  We could not find the Metra station we were looking for in Millennium Park and the person in the Millennium Park Chicago Information booth DIDN’T KNOW WHERE IT WAS!  She gave us a map and said, “Hmm, it looks like it should be right here.”  Then she proceeded to use a highlighter on the ENTIRE BLOCK on the map.  Thanks so much!  5 minutes later we found a Policeman and asked him.  He said (in a completely sincere and not sarcastic voice), “Maybe you can find another officer who knows something.”  We ended up hoofing it over to the next station and buying our tickets just as the train was pulling up (no train for another hour and a half or so after that one) and ended up buying a more expensive one than we needed in the rush.  I can understand the cop not knowing; maybe it was his first day working that area or something.  But the Information Booth??  They serve no purpose other than to answer questions and they were apparently literally on top of the station.

City of Chicago, FAIL!

If I had only one tooth, I’d use it to eat bacon

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Evie finally got a second tooth!  Even though it has been more than 2 months since her first one came in. 

And frankly it is just in time, because there are big things afoot in the culinary world.  I recieved an email today from InteractiveReader that made me weep with joy.  Two words: bacon salt.  It is a seasoning salt (or magical pixie dust) that makes anything it touches taste like bacon.  There is even a blog with links to other bacon related blogs.  This is a gold mine.  So, if you are looking for an early Christmas present for me, look no further.

But, to be fair, she really only wrote the email to remind me her new post is up at Foreward Magazine.  But obviously bacon is the quickest way to my heart.

Ah!  I just found a blog that combines bacon and pirate skulls!

Baconpalooza

/ Shane / Leave a comment

After an off-handed remark* by my brother that he should make a blog, I’ve been pestering him mercilessly to do so.  I don’t know that I’ve told so many stories of him on here, but he has plenty to tell.  There’s the mall fountain incident, the heated-swimming-pool-in-the-apartment incident, all of the school pictures (Dr. Evil, Spiderman Suspenders), the “I smell” school ID, and many more stories that could probably be described as “incidents” that I don’t even know about.

*All of his remarks are off-handed…he’s a lefty

So anyway, now that he has his blog finally up and running, maybe he can share some of these stories with you.  I must say, as a man devoted to bacon (9 posts now, counting this one), I did not center my entire blog around it.  I also must say, as a man devoted to fighting zombies, I did not devote an entire page to my apocalypse survival plan.  (In fact, though I’ve given it much thought, I haven’t come up with a current working plan since I moved from Philly; my current condo being much less defensible and no Tony Vegas to be my own personal Andy.)

I just hope he realizes what an honor it is to have a link from my blog.  The fact is, blogging is hard work.  Blogs have even been described as the Vampires of the Internet for their ability to suck the time (and life!) out of you.  I have known many people who have tried to start a blog only to quickly lose interest.  Therefore, there is little sense in linking to a blog until you are sure they mean it.  So I am giving him the benefit of the doubt here, but I’m sure you all will go over and convince him to keep it up.

P.S.  Friday is Oprah’s favorite things episode and you might want to watch it…I heard a rumor that one of our favorite people might make a guest appearance…