Friday night before our send-off of the library-program-attending friend that had been staying in town this week, we stopped and had some tapas at Radio Maria. The tapas side of their restaurant is as cool as the dining side.

This weekend’s weather was nice, almost record-settingly cool (mid 70s), so we went on a few walks. While we were downtown, we discovered our sushi place now has dollar-sushi-Sundays. Awesome.

lily – West Side Park
bee – Meadowbrook Park
sushi – Kofusion

Before I left for my week in Elgin, we went to Seven Saints to try their famous sweet potato fries and variety of ’sliders.’ (Brandon should appreciate that.)
I must say they have perfected the art of sweet potato -> fry transformation. The sliders were un-amazing but maybe I just ordered the wrong ones. There was a salmon one I was curious about, so maybe for round 2.

I am in Elgin for the week house- and dog-sitting with my brother, combing the Chicago Craigslist for any cool mid century items that show up. I will do a post in the near future about our Craigslist finds, we have been really fortunate. One of my Craiglist idols is Jenn Ski, who scored a womb chair and an arc lamp for nearly nothing (the womb chair had been described as a “disco chair”… that’s the kind of creative search that scores you the awesome stuff).

I had a great time at my parents’ house this weekend. Sunday, my dad made a great dinner of grilled asparagus, scallops and salmon, with naan and whole wheat couscous on the side. We saw two movies over the course of my stay (The Hangover, awesome, and Land of the Lost, amazingly bad), and attended my sister’s 6th grade recognition ceremony. My MacBook Pro is working out extremely well, too; I’m a happy convert so far. Work is hectic but I had a good meeting with my boss today and I feel better about things. I’m still getting used to having my thesis finished and over with, it’s a crazy feeling to finally shed the last of the well-known grad student guilt. It didn’t lift all at once for me, and my mental habits from it are still hanging around a little.