Parlez-vous en francais...Honeymoon?

That's right, we have selected Paris as our honeymoon destination!!! I booked our accommodations this morning, and we will be booking our flights shortly. Thanks to a recommendation from a parent of one of my students, we found a fantastic apartment rental in the 7th arrondissment for a very reasonable price. Check out the website at www.parisperfect.com. We will be staying in the Cotes du Provence apartment for six nights. I think it will be a most romantic honeymoon. :)

Cozumel, Mexico

aerial view of the coast


our ocean view balcony





view of our resort, Melia Cozumel, from our balcony


gorgeous sunsets


relaxing on the beach with a fruity cocktail!




cozying up to the bar


lots of walks on the beach


shot of downtown Cozumel during our driving trip of the island


gorgeous views from the other end of the island


exploring some Mayan ruins


lovin' that balcony!


goodbye Mexican paradise!

Back

We are indeed back from our wonderful trip to Mexico. In dealing with the usual vacation backlash: hundreds of emails to sort thru, laundry, cleaning, work, taxes...I haven't had time to post anything. I will definitely post some more pics and do a quick recap later today or tomorrow. Anything to procrastinate that wretched task of preparing my tax materials for the accountant...

Holy Grail(s) of Chicago food: The Highly Coveted Yet Unattainable Foods I Cannot Seem to Get My Hands On (Part 1).

As I have mentioned before on this here blog, I am an Elite member of yelp.com. Before joining Yelp (and before it even existed), I considered myself pretty knowledgeable about hidden Chicago food gems. Add Yelp into the mix, and I am suddenly confronted with a multitude of must-eat Chicago foods and restaurants. Several of these places present severe challenges in regards to location, wait times, weather...you get my drift. It can take up half your day. So far, there are a few places at which I have been trying to eat for months now, and with no success.

The first of these is Hot Doug's:

The have a foie gras hot dog. And french fries cooked in duck fat. DUCK FAT, people. I need to eat those fries. But the duck fat fries do not come easy. Hot Doug's presents some unique challenges:
1. They only make the duck fat fries on Fridays and Saturdays.
2. The line for said fries (and hot dogs) stretches around the block on these days. I know from personal experience, as Nick and I did two drivebys this past Saturday at 1:00 pm and at 2:30 pm. Note that this place is not near where we live (in a Chicago sense--it's probably really only a few miles away) and not accessible by public transit.
3. The weather in Chicago right now, if you couldn't guess, is less than desirable for standing outside for over an hour.
4. The place was recently made more popular by being featured on Anthony Bourdain's show on the Travel Channel: No Reservations.

Looks like I'm going to have to wait until warmer weather when I can enjoy a carefree wait for my foie gras dog and duck fat fries.

The second restaurant that defies my ability to eat there is Kuma's Corner.


Kuma's is purely a Yelp find -- we would have had no idea about this place if it weren't for the nearly 700 reviews on yelp. We tried to go one Saturday night in October around 7:30 and were nearly laughed out the door: over 2 hour wait times and hipsters packed into every square centimeter of space in the bar area. We are going to have to plan our next visit to Kuma's like a war game: strike at just the right moment when they aren't expecting it so we can get those burgers and get out. I mean, look at this thing:


There are more. And I will continue to post them. Mark my words, before I am dragged move out of this city, I will eat at Hot Doug's and Kuma's!

New Look!

How do you like my new look? I decided after 4+ years of blogging (the first edition of the Midwest Princess began in Jan 05), it was time to move on from the polka dots. I'm not too technology savvy, but blogger makes it so easy! So here she is, post-makeover.

So lately I've been spending a lot of quality time with this guy:

Yes, that would be none other than the big man of Baroque music, J.S. Bach. I've been singing soprano I chorus in the B Minor Mass with MOB, and I have to say it's definitely the most difficult choral work I've ever sung. I'm already looking forward to the next time I get to sing it, because it's something that you can't really master the first time around. Last night was our first performance -- it was sold out and the crowd was on their feet as soon as the final note sounded. It's just that exciting, people. Tonight is our second and final concert, and I'm really looking forward to it. But I'm also looking forward to a nice break from choral singing after tonight!

In other news, yesterday marked 6 months until the wedding! I really cannot believe how fast the time is flying. I've just about got my florist nailed down, and we finished up registering for gifts last weekend. It seems every week I have a new wedding project to undertake. This week: invitations. On my way to the gym this morning I noticed that the paper store around the corner from our place had a lovely display of wedding invitations, so I'm planning to stop in this week and see what they have to offer.

So, life chugs along. I've had some good auditions lately (for gigs in town, hooray!) and have a promising offer for summer singing employment that I will find out more about soon. I'm beginning to be more content with my career and realizing that these things take time -- slow and steady wins the race, right?

Let me know how you like the new and improved Midwest Princess!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nick had to be away in Minnesota at a dental class this weekend, but he still managed to put a smile on my face today. He left a package that said: OPEN SATURDAY that contained the card and chocolates; then at about 4:00 I got a buzz at the door -- flower delivery for me! Beautiful red roses! I am a lucky gal.

We will celebrate for real next week with dinner at the restaurant where we had our second date, Avec.

Tonight I'm out to dinner with my gay boyfriend, Mark, then drinks with a bunch of gals! Should be a fun evening.

Hope you've all had a love-filled day!

If today were a movie it would be called : False Spring (or, It May Be Global Warming But I Don't Give A Damn)

Call it what you may, and yes, I know it isn't here to stay, but today is GLORIOUS. I went out to do some walking errands this morning and just sat on a park bench and sipped my coffee, tilting my head toward the sun. Then I came home and threw open all the windows and let that glorious fresh air waft into the apartment (then I had a sneezing fit, but whatev). God must have looked down today and said, "You know, these people are having a rough time of it right now. Let's give them a sunshine-y, happy day".

Because it seems the news gets bleaker and bleaker every day; I find out about more and more friends and loved ones losing jobs, and I start to feel really down. But today, it seems like everything is possible.

So thanks to this glorious (could I please use that word once more? Thank you.) day, I feel like a new person. Last week, I started to turn things around as far as being bored and isolated in my apartment all day long. I realized that I get sucked into the vortex of the internet way too often and for way too long. I have to work really hard to limit my time in front of the computer each day. I'm much happier out in the world, connecting with other human beings.

I'm also very happy in my kitchen! My recent culinary endeavors have included: homemade chicken stock and roasted potato leek soup (both courtesy of Ina's new book, Back to Basics)

If you don't already own this book, I highly recommend getting it for your cookbook library. (The brownie pudding is also a little piece of heaven. I made it for a Super Bowl party).

Other excitement: We booked our trip to Mexico for March 9 - 14!!! Since we are no longer going to Greece, we decided a getaway was in order. In just one month, we will be relaxing on the sunny beaches of this island:


Now please excuse me, I have to go work out like a madwoman to get bikini ready!