Springtime BBQ Savemore-ing Maple Syrup Superdawg Roller Derby!

SPRINGTIME IN CHICAGO! I decided to take a walk through Wicker Park the other day to get some groceries and took some pics. Here’s the Blue Line heading downtown.


Looking southeast down Milwaukee Ave.


Looking northwest up Milwaukee Ave. toward the Coyote Building


BBQ IS BACK!!! The weather held up long enough to grill last week. A bit cool. If we grill tomorrow, it’d probably be about the same.


SME and Karli hangin’ out!


Mike Nummerdor


Cliff


Nick


Nick, Cliff, Matt, and Matt all inside enjoying rock and roll while the girls try to watch Top Chef: Chicago


Here’s Marisa! She came in from New York City to hang out with Megan and I this weekend.


So, we brought Marisa to the SaveMore! This little sign is the only way to tell that this is a bar from the outside. My favorite is "Sunday 11am - ?"


Marisa and Megan


Jason and Marisa sharing a shot of "Fuck You Up" as featured in Wassup Magazine


Do you like maple syrup? Well, you should have come to the Maple Syrup Festival!


What’s a maple syrup festival without pancakes! Here’s the pancake stand on a bright Sunday morning.


Here’s a couple of buckets collecting sap. Plastic milk jugs have replaced those Vermont wooden buckets, I guess...


Here’s how they make maple syrup. For every 40 gallons of sap, you get 1 gallon of syrup. So, they have to burn off 39 gallons of water. Or at least something like that.


Follow the yellow hay road...


Look at the wild herd of children frolicking in the woods.


Here be a couple more


Not quite sure what this is. Some kind of rock under a little shelter out in the middle of the woods. That’s... Um... Pretty... Interesting...


Here’s a fox at the visitor center. Look at how amazing evolution is! His fur blends in to the walls and provide him the perfect camoflauge (sp?) for eatting babies.


The goose is loose!


We brought Marisa out to the deer preserve to see those deer we saw a couple weeks back. THERE ARE SO MANY DEER!!!


Here’s Marisa trying to ride one of the deer.


SUPERDAWG! Yet another sign of spring. If you’re in Chicago, you should stop at Superdawg located at 6363 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60646


Inside that little box is a good Chicago Dog surrounded in very delicious fries!


Me taking a picture of Marisa taking a picture of her hot dog


The girls and I went to the Fleetwood Roller Rink at Harlem and Archer in Summit to see a ROLLER DERBY! The Chicago Outfit Roller Derby hosted "The Graveyards vs. The Gate Keepers." Good times!


I have to apologize for the low quality of these photos. As this picture illustrates, the lighting isn’t ideal. It’s colored flouescent lights for the most part. It only looks this nice without a flash. It’s dark with a flash. So...


Cool pic of a derby girl, but an unfortunate side effect of losing the flash...












Chicago’s Derby Little Secret... You can also check out their myspace page at: http://www.myspace.com/ChicagoOutfitRollerDerby

xoxo,

Mike

So, Let’s Talk About Food!

Here’s the Kiera Knightley aka - Fire Dog (because it’s hot) from Hot Dougs. If you haven’t been there, you should visit "The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium."
www.hotdougs.com
3324 N. California Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618


Here are the fries. I believe you can get "duck fat fries" on Saturdays, which are delicious. If you go, expect a long line out the door.


Megan making the Easter lamb. A tradition of hers. Good stuff!


Here’s a close up. Unfortunately, the food was so good that I forgot to take pics of the finished product. 8-9 pounds of lamb, a heap of potatoes, gravy, asparagus, and mousse. Mike, Megan, and I were stuffed...


A snowman we saw on a post-Easter dinner walk. I think it’s doing the limbo. Plus, I like his pirate tie.


Megan has her traditions and I have mine. Here we are celebrating "Easter Monday!" Like other great holidays (x-mas on the 26th, Valentine’s on the 15th, Halloween in November), all the candy at Walgreen’s is 50% or more off.


We settled on Whoppers Eggs. What a great Easter Monday!!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary Baby Doll

HAPPY 2nd YEAR ANNIVERSARY MEGAN!!!


Two years means two days of celebration. So, Megan and I went to the Old Town School of Music to see a Columbian band called Revolu. Pretty good stuff...


Girls dancing like butterflies


Megan at the Calypso Cafe. Really good Caribbean food in the Hyde Park neighborhood. They are located at 5211 C South Harper Shopping Center.


Me. Somewhat fuzzy and in my finest goin’ out clothes.


Here’s the West Indies Patties (one vegetable, one beef) They are traditional mildly spiced pastries with citrus mustard sauce


This is Megan’s Crusted Tilapia that was mildly seasoned and crusted with crushed plantains. She didn’t care for it though...


This was the Jerk Marinated Chicken Breast. The chicken marinade was really good even though it was on cheap Gordon Food chicken patties. Delicious! The plantains were awesome!


Banana Pie with Coconut topping and Megan thinking "why does my stupid boyfriend take so many pictures." She’s annoyed because I’m preventing her from eatting that delicious dessert.


Now she’s happy because she can eat!!!


More SaveMore! Brent rocking out the Pirates of the Caribbean pinball. This is really a Caribbean themed anniversary and week.


Megan, Tony, Frances, Brent, Mike, and Noah at the SaveMore


Frances, Brent, and Mike. Two of the three had a hard time getting home. One I don’t know about. I hope all are fine...


Amanda and I. "Mike, I just wanna dance. Com’on and dance. pleeeaasse!" She’s not a bad dancer for having a torn ACL or whatever.


Brent’s rock and roll album cover


Megan and her classmate Tony from Cleveland. "What’s this place called? The SaveMore? What a dive! It’s just like home!"


Amanda telling me something very important...


Angela’s going to be in China very, very soon.


Frances had a very good time.


Went to Quenchers after the Mutiny and got myself a Tater Tot Pizza.


Roberto hates how much he loves his sandwich.


Megan out at the forest preserve near Irving Park and River Road.


Pretty cute for a longshoreman, eh?


DEER! DEER EVERYWHERE!!! By my count, we saw approximately 39 deer at the park. Not even at a distance. I mean these deer were so close I could have tackled them!


Hello little fella!


A few of its friends.


MORE DEER! Also, notice the poor urban planning. This is another example of suburban insanity. Here were are in a park loaded with tons of deer. What goes better with deer than a five-lane highway on all sides! I’ll never understand post-World War II city and traffic planners.


Another little deer just a few feet off the trail in the woods


Another of his buddies taking a rest nearby.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MEGAN!!!