Cast No Shadow

If you remotely love food, Chicago is the city for you, catering to nearly every palate and budget. Staying out in Oak Brook was a little limiting, and there was some good food around, like the staple Chicago Dog and cheese fries at Portillo's . You really can't go wrong with anything on the overwhelming menu. It can be intimidating to order there, since there's alway a crowd, which moves quickly, and the order-takers are very no-nonsense. We mainly chose to eat-in at the hotel, making a grocery run though sadly most of our groceries stayed behind, since we flew through the work and left a week sooner than planned. I didn't even open the bag of frozen shrimp! We ate our a few time in Oak Brook, but more by necessity or timing, mostly at the Oakbrook Center . On one of our fist outings to the mall, we grabbed a light lunch at  Mon Ami Gabi , where we fore-went the full meal and sampled some great smaller plates. It was cloudy and 50 degrees for our entire Chicago vis...

I get home and I just quit blogging, don't I? Finally, after pacing ourselves so it wasn't a last minute rush, LA and I finished all our write-ups from the Louisville market, coming in around 65 surveys. The deadline is tomorrow, so we rushed when the winter's last blizzard let up to FedEx the box, but DIA is shut down completely, so who knows when those surveys will leave and arrive in Schaumburg. It is such a relief to have those surveys done! Now I can move on to more important matters, like figuring out all the IRS stuff for our S-Corp. Wrapping up on Louisville, our last weekend in town, despite cold weather, was a good one. LA found a neat little area off Bardstown and we stumbled upon Lynn's Paradise Cafe , a wonderful little gem on a rainy Sunday afternoon with bright colors, fun wait-staff, a full bar, and the best breakfast since Memphis. Several of the menu items had been featured on a Food Network show, including LA's stuffed French Toast, to...

Today was a good day in Memphis. It started with sleeping in, a quick workout for me, then a fabulous brunch at Owen Brennan's across the street. Perhaps the best brunch we've had. We were joined by our boss and Shram & his fiance. There was nothing on the buffet line that wasn't excellent. Some standouts: biscuits & beef tip and mushroom gravy, shrimp, oysters on the half shell, eggs Benedict, grits, smoked trout, Petit Fours, eclairs, bananas foster, and mimosa's. I can't believe we waited this whole time to get over there. I've seriously been full all day. The restaurant was authentic New Orleans (without the trash) with great decor and even a small jazz trio near the front door. After a nap, we went over to the comic shop, where I picked up KOTOR #38 , Terminator Salvation 1 (movie prequel), and Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #1 . The new artist for KOTOR, Dean Zachary , will be signing at Comics & Collectibles on Wed, but we will be long gone...