Wait, Wait... It's Joe's Birthday!

Well, not really. Joe turns 29 on Monday, but we celebrated last night. His parents came to watch Lily so we could go out (Thanks so much Hammons!). We made these plans before it was announced that Obama was descending upon Chicago. 


First we went to dinner at La Petit Folie, a little French restaurant in the neighborhood. It was delicious. I had the wild mushroom crepes and Joe got some salmon dish. I do love me some savory crepes. There is a little crepe shop in Tucson we used to go to on the weekends. The crepes I had last night reminded me how much I miss that place. Then we were decadent and each got our own dessert. I had profiteroles and Joe got a chocolate tort. They were both excellent. The restaurant itself is very intimate with little tables, low lighting, and very professional waitstaff. Not a place we could take Lily to, but it was fun to try out. 


Then we hopped in the car and drove downtown to the Chase Auditorium to see a live taping of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. It was lots of fun. Peter Sagal and Carl Kassel are hilarious. The guest celebrity was David Simon, the guy who did The Wire, among other things. I didn't know who the guest was going to be and The Wire is one of Joe's favorite TV shows ever, so that was a happy coincidence. It takes about 90 minutes for them to tape the show, and then they do some re-do's at the end. Finally, they answer questions from the audience and sign autographs. It was general admission seating, and even though we didn't arrive right when the doors opened, we got seats in the 3rd row on the right side. It's such a small theater, though, any seat would have been fine. The tickets are super cheap, and I would highly recommend going to see this sometime. I'm really excited to listen to the show on Saturday to see how they edit it all together. 


Driving home was a bit of an adventure. Obama was at Navy Pier that evening, just a bit north of the Chase Tower. And he lives in Hyde Park, just down the street from us. He must have been leaving at about the same time as we were. Just as we were about to turn onto Lake Shore Drive the police threw up the barricades. Sigh. So we had to take surface streets all the way back down, and then figure out how to get to our building without getting in the way of the Secret Service. They closed all the streets for like 3 blocks in every direction of his house. It was a bit of a pain, but we finally made it. There were security helicopters circling the neighborhood all night, but since we had the windows closed it didn't bother us too much this time. 


So it was a good birthday celebration. There will be cake and presents later this weekend. It was nice to be able to have an uninterrupted conversation through dinner, and only having to try to feed ourselves. It was also nice to be able to sit and listen/watch something without having a sleeping lump on my lap or worry about the noises she's making. And, of course, it was extra nice to come home again and all snuggle together in bed while the cold wind blew outside.