v-day recap

With all of my obnoxious complaining yesterday (I was just pissed about not having a paid day off for President's day, mmmkay?), I forgot to mention what a wonderful Valentine's weekend I had. Nick brought me a dozen roses when he got home from work on Thursday, and then we went to a fondue restaurant near our apartment. Now, some of you may think that fondue is outdated and annoying, and in several ways it is exactly that. Who wants to cook their own meat in a pot of oil? But I find it slightly amusing and the giant pots of cheese and chocolate that begin and end the meal are enough to cinch the deal for me. We had passed this place while driving several times, and since we love the fondue at Geja's, decided that we should try it.

It was a slight disappointment, I will say. The decor was what we expected...a little cheap and seedy looking. And a warning: the pictures on the walls are not well-secured, a man in front of us knocked one down with a slight sweep of his arm and sent glass flying everywhere. Yikes. It was totally packed for the holiday, and the service was terribly slow. We like a slow dinner, but this pushed the limits a bit. I mean, they aren't cooking anything back there, so we didn't understand what took so long to put some raw stuff on a plate. The cheese fondue was delicious though, so creamy and tangy and melt in your mouth. The dinner was a little pricey for what it was, and the drinks were preposterously expensive. Fondue is kind of a once a year type meal, and in the future we will definitely choose Geja's over Fondue Stube in a hearbeat. But the evening was fun, and we laughed a lot despite the sub-par dinner.
Fondue Stube was only the warm up for our Valentine's weekend -- Friday evening we saw Falstaff at Lyric. It's not my favorite opera by far, but it is very funny and entertaining, and the music is beautiful, especially Fenton and Nanetta's stuff. It was a lovely production, but I wasn't overly impressed with the Alice Ford. Since I had to come straight from work in Palatine with hardly a minute to spare (seriously, we ran in one minute before curtain), I ate a McDonald's cheeseburger for dinner at intermission that Nick had smuggled in for me in his coat pocket. Cheeseburger and a glass of champagne, what a delicious combination! After the opera, we headed back to our 'hood for a beer and some appetizers at Charlie's Ale House, our favorite local pub.
Saturday night was the fancy dinner night, and we had a fantastic meal at Cafe des Architectes. It was a very reasonably priced dinner for being in a fancy hotel on Oak Street. For appetizers, I had scallops and Nick had lobster bisque. Both were excellent. For entrees, Nick had beef tenderloin, which was very high quality and perfectly cooked, and I had duck breast. It was a little fattier than I prefer, but came with a declious butternut squash puree. For desserts we had a scrumptious flourless chocolate concoction and a banana torte. Top it off with a bottle of good merlot and you're got one fantastic meal! The weekend o' love was great -- I feel so lucky to be having my third Valentine's with Nick.
The rest of the week is busy with teaching and rehearsals. Gotta make the donuts. What's exciting about this week is that I finally get my driver's license back! I will no longer have to carry around my passport as my form of ID. I have been able to legally drive with the ticket they gave me serving as temporary license, but it has been rather annoying. Other than that, I'm doing what every other Chicagoan is doing right now...praying for spring to come quickly, and the ice on my street (and in my heart) to melt. Kidding. Not about the street though, that crap is dangerous.