Game #50 – didn’t happen
I thought I’d make it to 50 this year, which would be pretty close to my season high. (Primarily due to all the night games this year.) But we were leaving for Santa Fe in the morning, and I was very unprepared, and needed to stay home to take care of some house things before we left. So no 50 for me. I think Heather said she hit 50 last night. Woo Hoo!!
Cubs ended up losing 8-2. Shouldn’t the Pirates have been hungover from their champagne celebration yesterday? Even hungover, they can beat the Cubs…
And the Cubs have officially lost 50 games at home this year. 30-50 at home and 35-43 on the road. Still one game left at Wrigley and 3 in St Louis. Glad I’ll be in Santa Fe not paying attention to those games : )
Thanks for reading everyone. We only hit 32 restaurants, so I’ll have to write up my Santa Fe selections to see if we make it to 40!
Our 2013 Summer of Fun: Cubs games, Hawks games and Chicago Restaurant adventures.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Game #49 - Cubs vs. Pirates
Game #49 – Cubs vs. Pirates
Monday, September 23, 2013
Heather, Wigs & Julie
Zubazpalooza night in the bleachers at the ballpark! Not that we got them because you needed special tickets for them. And after looking at them, didn’t really want them.
Super short recap: Cubs lose 2-1 to the Bucco’s. I’m ok w/that – I’m rooting for the Pirates in the playoffs. Especially if they unseat the Cards (highly unlikely..). And, as it turned out, it was Clinch Day for the Pirates. Gee, if the Cards can clinch over the weekend, we can be witness to 3 clinches in one week!!
Marte hit a go-ahead homer – his last 2 homers have been off of Kevin Gregg. Ugh. Cubs did try to score in the bottom of the 9th. Schierholtz (of all people) tried to score from 1st on a single. Out at the plate. Always exciting! And kind of happy it didn’t go into extra innings…
From my gal Carrie: With one start remaining Sunday in the season finale against the Cardinals, Samardzija has 207 2/3 innings and 210 strikeouts, both career highs. He's in good company among other pitchers to reach 200/200, joining the Tigers' Max Scherzer, the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright, the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw, the Phillies' Cliff Lee and the White Sox's Chris Sale.
Cubs dropped to 30-49 at home. Ouch. Feel like I’ve seen all 49 of them. Nope – only 31 of them. Sigh. I will miss baseball, but am rather thankful this sorry season is coming to a close.
Recap:
Cubs Lose 2-1
My season record: Visitors 31, Cubs 18
No parking update
Monday, September 23, 2013
Heather, Wigs & Julie
Zubazpalooza night in the bleachers at the ballpark! Not that we got them because you needed special tickets for them. And after looking at them, didn’t really want them.
Super short recap: Cubs lose 2-1 to the Bucco’s. I’m ok w/that – I’m rooting for the Pirates in the playoffs. Especially if they unseat the Cards (highly unlikely..). And, as it turned out, it was Clinch Day for the Pirates. Gee, if the Cards can clinch over the weekend, we can be witness to 3 clinches in one week!!
Marte hit a go-ahead homer – his last 2 homers have been off of Kevin Gregg. Ugh. Cubs did try to score in the bottom of the 9th. Schierholtz (of all people) tried to score from 1st on a single. Out at the plate. Always exciting! And kind of happy it didn’t go into extra innings…
From my gal Carrie: With one start remaining Sunday in the season finale against the Cardinals, Samardzija has 207 2/3 innings and 210 strikeouts, both career highs. He's in good company among other pitchers to reach 200/200, joining the Tigers' Max Scherzer, the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright, the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw, the Phillies' Cliff Lee and the White Sox's Chris Sale.
Cubs dropped to 30-49 at home. Ouch. Feel like I’ve seen all 49 of them. Nope – only 31 of them. Sigh. I will miss baseball, but am rather thankful this sorry season is coming to a close.
Recap:
Cubs Lose 2-1
My season record: Visitors 31, Cubs 18
No parking update
Monday, September 23, 2013
Game #48 - Cubs vs. Braves
Game #48
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie
Beautiful outside today – sunny and warm, but not too much so. We picked up some tacos from Azteca D’ Oro and headed into the park. We were hoping for another win today so we could avoid the Atlanta celebration. No such luck. The Washington/Marlins game was about 3 innings in by the time our game started, so if Washington loses, the Braves clinch. That happened in about the 6th inning of our game, and all the f’ing Brave fans in the crowd started doing their stupid chant and chop. I really hate that chop – have for years. At least there weren’t as many Braves fans today as yesterday, but there were still a lot. The team did a mini-celebration – at least in the bullpen, the guys were shaking hands and doing the “man hug”. This made it easier to take since we didn’t have to watch them hop around on the field. Although I was pretty sure they still would after the game.
Edwin Jackson pitched today, so you knew this game could go either way. During his 28-pitch first inning, he gave up a 2-run homer to Freddie Freeman in the 1st – this guy kills us. Cubs came back with 1 run in the bottom of the first, but that was it until the 8th inning where they tacked on 1 more. Jackson gave up 2 more homers, both to Andrelton Simmons (what kind of name is this??), one in the 4th and one in the 8th. Cubs lose.
Wigs left in about the 6th inning to head to Bernie’s to watch the SF game. Kev left at the same time to head to airport for his flight to Vegas. “work trip”. Uh-huh… Heather & I stuck it out until the end of the 8th (after not winning the 50/50 again!), and then headed over to meet Wigs. We clearly didn’t miss anything. My friend Peplansky (who works at Wrigley), stopped by to say “see you next year”. His funny story: on Sunday’s, kids can run the bases, and they put velvet rope stands up to organize the line. Apparently, the Atlanta fans thought it was for the Braves players/fans to celebrate the division win. Um no. hahahahaha.
Over to Bernie’s to meet up with Wigs, Kristen, Trish & John. Bears night game tonight, but I knew I couldn’t stick it out at Bernie’s for the whole thing, so I headed home before start of game. Wigs did win the Marshall jersey – yippee! I hope we have a lot by the end of the year (we got Forte one last week).
Recap:
Cubs Lose 5-2
My season record: Visitors 31, Cubs 17
The OB’s did park today, and for the season, their total take was over $2K. Nice!!
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie
Beautiful outside today – sunny and warm, but not too much so. We picked up some tacos from Azteca D’ Oro and headed into the park. We were hoping for another win today so we could avoid the Atlanta celebration. No such luck. The Washington/Marlins game was about 3 innings in by the time our game started, so if Washington loses, the Braves clinch. That happened in about the 6th inning of our game, and all the f’ing Brave fans in the crowd started doing their stupid chant and chop. I really hate that chop – have for years. At least there weren’t as many Braves fans today as yesterday, but there were still a lot. The team did a mini-celebration – at least in the bullpen, the guys were shaking hands and doing the “man hug”. This made it easier to take since we didn’t have to watch them hop around on the field. Although I was pretty sure they still would after the game.
Edwin Jackson pitched today, so you knew this game could go either way. During his 28-pitch first inning, he gave up a 2-run homer to Freddie Freeman in the 1st – this guy kills us. Cubs came back with 1 run in the bottom of the first, but that was it until the 8th inning where they tacked on 1 more. Jackson gave up 2 more homers, both to Andrelton Simmons (what kind of name is this??), one in the 4th and one in the 8th. Cubs lose.
Wigs left in about the 6th inning to head to Bernie’s to watch the SF game. Kev left at the same time to head to airport for his flight to Vegas. “work trip”. Uh-huh… Heather & I stuck it out until the end of the 8th (after not winning the 50/50 again!), and then headed over to meet Wigs. We clearly didn’t miss anything. My friend Peplansky (who works at Wrigley), stopped by to say “see you next year”. His funny story: on Sunday’s, kids can run the bases, and they put velvet rope stands up to organize the line. Apparently, the Atlanta fans thought it was for the Braves players/fans to celebrate the division win. Um no. hahahahaha.
Over to Bernie’s to meet up with Wigs, Kristen, Trish & John. Bears night game tonight, but I knew I couldn’t stick it out at Bernie’s for the whole thing, so I headed home before start of game. Wigs did win the Marshall jersey – yippee! I hope we have a lot by the end of the year (we got Forte one last week).
Recap:
Cubs Lose 5-2
My season record: Visitors 31, Cubs 17
The OB’s did park today, and for the season, their total take was over $2K. Nice!!
Game #47 / Restaurant #32 – Pequod’s Pizza
Game #47 / Restaurant #32 – Pequod’s
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie
A lovely day at the ballpark today. Atlanta can clinch the division and celebrate on our field if they win. Boo. Dan & his friend Celeste also joined us. Travis Wood (our All Star) on the mound today. No scoring until the 4th inning when Atlanta scored on a fielding error by Shierholtz. No additional scoring until the 8th, when the Cubs put up 3 runs on a string of single, single, double, single, sac fly (by Nate, making up for his error). Our ex-closer Kevin Gregg was not coming in. New closer Pedro Strop came in and struck out the side to end the game! Woo hoo!! Take that you Braves!
Oh, and Sweeney made a great catch in the ivy (and the wall):
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?topic_id=51231442&content_id=30813513
After the game, we went to Bernie’s for a couple drinks. Erin & Barry showed up for a couple beers before they went to dinner. We decided to go to Pequod’s over on Clyborn. I can’t remember how we started talking about this, but last time we were here, we really liked their pizza. Wigs called and they said they could get us in in 30 minutes. So we hopped in a cab and headed over. We got there and holy moly – mobs of people waiting outside! We put our name in, pre-ordered our pizza (so they could get it started while we were still waiting for table), and then went across street to Webster Wine Bar. I’ve never been here and this was a cute place. We weren’t sure if our buzzer would work from 3 blocks away, so Wigs went outside after a bit to see, and sure enough, they were ready for us. We hadn’t finished the wine, so Heather put the cork on it and shoved it in her bag. Hahahaha. (Chicago does have special “to go” wine bags – it’s a special bag that gets stapled shut or something so if you get pulled over by police, they won’t say you have an open container. But they would obviously know you’d been drinking wine….)
Anyways – we ordered deep dish pizza w/green peppers, spinach, mushrooms and sausage. So good. We also did a salad starter, but I don’t remember anything remarkable about this. I really like the sauce on the pizza – flavorful and kind of chunky. Thumbs up for Chicago pizza!! By the time we left, the place had really cleared out, so we must’ve hit it right at rush hour.
Recap:
Cubs Win 3-1
My season record: Visitors 30, Cubs 17
No parking today.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie
A lovely day at the ballpark today. Atlanta can clinch the division and celebrate on our field if they win. Boo. Dan & his friend Celeste also joined us. Travis Wood (our All Star) on the mound today. No scoring until the 4th inning when Atlanta scored on a fielding error by Shierholtz. No additional scoring until the 8th, when the Cubs put up 3 runs on a string of single, single, double, single, sac fly (by Nate, making up for his error). Our ex-closer Kevin Gregg was not coming in. New closer Pedro Strop came in and struck out the side to end the game! Woo hoo!! Take that you Braves!
Oh, and Sweeney made a great catch in the ivy (and the wall):
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?topic_id=51231442&content_id=30813513
After the game, we went to Bernie’s for a couple drinks. Erin & Barry showed up for a couple beers before they went to dinner. We decided to go to Pequod’s over on Clyborn. I can’t remember how we started talking about this, but last time we were here, we really liked their pizza. Wigs called and they said they could get us in in 30 minutes. So we hopped in a cab and headed over. We got there and holy moly – mobs of people waiting outside! We put our name in, pre-ordered our pizza (so they could get it started while we were still waiting for table), and then went across street to Webster Wine Bar. I’ve never been here and this was a cute place. We weren’t sure if our buzzer would work from 3 blocks away, so Wigs went outside after a bit to see, and sure enough, they were ready for us. We hadn’t finished the wine, so Heather put the cork on it and shoved it in her bag. Hahahaha. (Chicago does have special “to go” wine bags – it’s a special bag that gets stapled shut or something so if you get pulled over by police, they won’t say you have an open container. But they would obviously know you’d been drinking wine….)
Anyways – we ordered deep dish pizza w/green peppers, spinach, mushrooms and sausage. So good. We also did a salad starter, but I don’t remember anything remarkable about this. I really like the sauce on the pizza – flavorful and kind of chunky. Thumbs up for Chicago pizza!! By the time we left, the place had really cleared out, so we must’ve hit it right at rush hour.
Recap:
Cubs Win 3-1
My season record: Visitors 30, Cubs 17
No parking today.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Game #46 / Restaurant #31 – Ñ
Game #46 / Restaurant #31 – Ñ
Friday, September 20, 2013
Heather, Trish, Lyletta, & Julie
Cubs vs. Braves.
Last homestand of the year. It’s almost over. Mixed feelings – I love baseball and the Cubs (although I’m sure it doesn’t always seem that way..), so this signals the true end of summer for me. Boo hoo. But games like today make me somewhat happy that the end is near : )
Scott Baker on the mound today for the Cubs (he of the $5 million, one-year contract making his 3rd start of the year…) vs. ex-Cub lefty Paul Maholm. It was windy and overcast today. So just waiting for the homers to start. Cubs are 0-4 against the Braves this year, and their magic # to clinch the division going into today was 2. Meaning they can celebrate on the field on Saturday if they beat the Cubs. On the pre-game, Dale said something like “it’s good for the young kids to see other teams clinch/celebrate so they get a taste of what it could be like.” Huh???
Braves hit 2 homers and the Cubs hit 3 (Castro, Murphy and Navarro). According to Al Yellon of bleedcubbieblue, Navaro’s homer broke a window in a post office minivan parked outside the park:
https://twitter.com/bleedcubbieblue/status/381159178514857984/photo/1
Game was tied 5-5 going into the 9th – kudos to the Cubs for coming back and tying it up. In comes Kevin Gregg. He started the season surprisingly well, but has returned to the Kevin Gregg from 2009 that we all know and love. He gave up 4 runs in the 9th – walk, out, walk, out, single, single, walk, double, out. Ouch.
After the game, apparently Kevin Gregg went on a rant to the media, and Theo got pissed and called him into Sveum’s office threatening to release him on Saturday. Gregg apologized and then even went up to the press box to tell the media his apology. This season is so weird… I guess the Drama gives us something to talk about.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0921-cubs-braves-chicago-20130921,0,3476700.story
Cubs have lost 22 of their last 29 home games. Yikes. After the game, we went to …. Bernie’s! Where we sat at the back bar and hung w/Lloyd until Wigs, Kevin & JO showed up. Trish & John & Lyletta all headed home and we went to dinner at Ñ. I had to copy/paste that from yelp, since I can’t do the tilde in Word. Or at least I don’t know how. This is an Argentinian place was over on Elston in the Avondale neighborhood.
Atmosphere was dark. Seriously, it was really, really dark in here. We felt very hip. Until we had to pull out our assistive lights on the phones to read the menu. Not very crowded at all. Heather & Wigs got fancy drinks and Kevin & I got a bottle of wine. We started with the 5 empanada appetizer and they were delicious. Just like at Tango Sur on Southport.
Milanesa – breaded beef seasoned “la napilotana” (topped w/ham, cheese & tomato sauce – Kev had that) while Wigs had it “al caballo” (fried egg on top). Kev said it was good, but not great. Heather had Ravioli. I can’t find the description on the website – maybe it was this: potato dumplings in tomato cream sauce. I had the Tilapia. I thought it was good.
Recap:
Cubs Lose 9-5
My season record: Visitors 30, Cubs 16 – this is really awful.
No parking today.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Heather, Trish, Lyletta, & Julie
Cubs vs. Braves.
Last homestand of the year. It’s almost over. Mixed feelings – I love baseball and the Cubs (although I’m sure it doesn’t always seem that way..), so this signals the true end of summer for me. Boo hoo. But games like today make me somewhat happy that the end is near : )
Scott Baker on the mound today for the Cubs (he of the $5 million, one-year contract making his 3rd start of the year…) vs. ex-Cub lefty Paul Maholm. It was windy and overcast today. So just waiting for the homers to start. Cubs are 0-4 against the Braves this year, and their magic # to clinch the division going into today was 2. Meaning they can celebrate on the field on Saturday if they beat the Cubs. On the pre-game, Dale said something like “it’s good for the young kids to see other teams clinch/celebrate so they get a taste of what it could be like.” Huh???
Braves hit 2 homers and the Cubs hit 3 (Castro, Murphy and Navarro). According to Al Yellon of bleedcubbieblue, Navaro’s homer broke a window in a post office minivan parked outside the park:
https://twitter.com/bleedcubbieblue/status/381159178514857984/photo/1
Game was tied 5-5 going into the 9th – kudos to the Cubs for coming back and tying it up. In comes Kevin Gregg. He started the season surprisingly well, but has returned to the Kevin Gregg from 2009 that we all know and love. He gave up 4 runs in the 9th – walk, out, walk, out, single, single, walk, double, out. Ouch.
After the game, apparently Kevin Gregg went on a rant to the media, and Theo got pissed and called him into Sveum’s office threatening to release him on Saturday. Gregg apologized and then even went up to the press box to tell the media his apology. This season is so weird… I guess the Drama gives us something to talk about.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0921-cubs-braves-chicago-20130921,0,3476700.story
Cubs have lost 22 of their last 29 home games. Yikes. After the game, we went to …. Bernie’s! Where we sat at the back bar and hung w/Lloyd until Wigs, Kevin & JO showed up. Trish & John & Lyletta all headed home and we went to dinner at Ñ. I had to copy/paste that from yelp, since I can’t do the tilde in Word. Or at least I don’t know how. This is an Argentinian place was over on Elston in the Avondale neighborhood.
Atmosphere was dark. Seriously, it was really, really dark in here. We felt very hip. Until we had to pull out our assistive lights on the phones to read the menu. Not very crowded at all. Heather & Wigs got fancy drinks and Kevin & I got a bottle of wine. We started with the 5 empanada appetizer and they were delicious. Just like at Tango Sur on Southport.
Milanesa – breaded beef seasoned “la napilotana” (topped w/ham, cheese & tomato sauce – Kev had that) while Wigs had it “al caballo” (fried egg on top). Kev said it was good, but not great. Heather had Ravioli. I can’t find the description on the website – maybe it was this: potato dumplings in tomato cream sauce. I had the Tilapia. I thought it was good.
Recap:
Cubs Lose 9-5
My season record: Visitors 30, Cubs 16 – this is really awful.
No parking today.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Game #45 – Cubs vs. Brewers
Game #45 – Cubs vs. Brewers
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie
Opening Day for Football Season (well, at least for us Bears and 49er fans)!!! So we started at Bernie’s to watch the first half of Bears game. I got there at Noon after my pedicure, and where is everyone?? Heather/Wigs came in a few minutes later and then finally Kevin (who was home prepping the house for the new TV’s – yes we are finally getting a tv with a screen bigger than 32”). Bartender Randy was telling us about the jersey giveaway to people who bought buckets of Bud Light during Bears game. Cool – we can switch to Bud. Turns out there were only 3 buckets bought that day, so we assumed our chances of getting the Peppers jersey was good. Nope, we didn’t get it. Go figure.
At halftime, we headed into the game. It was a nice day, a little cloudy and the game was not crowded at all! Time to buy the 50/50 ticket! Scott Baker, who has been on the DL all year was making his debut. He actually looked really good for the 5 innings he was in (55 pitches). Here’s what annoys me: we signed him for a one-year $5.5 million contract and he was on the DL all year. Great investment. He underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2012, so I’m not really sure what happened. He only made 8 starts in the minors before today’s game.
As for the rest of the game… Yawn. JR Lake hit another homer for our only run, and he had 2 of the Cubs 3 hits. Cubs bullpen blew another save (26 on the year if you’re counting; record is 29 set in 2000, so we have a chance to make a run for that this year too!).
Wigs & Kevin left to go watch the 49ers game, while Heather and I stuck it out to see if I won the 50/50. Nope, didn’t win that either. Ah well. Back to Bernie's to watch some football!
Recap:
Cubs Lose 8-3
My season record: Visitors 29, Cubs 16
Parking update: No update today
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Heather, Wigs, Kevin & Julie
Opening Day for Football Season (well, at least for us Bears and 49er fans)!!! So we started at Bernie’s to watch the first half of Bears game. I got there at Noon after my pedicure, and where is everyone?? Heather/Wigs came in a few minutes later and then finally Kevin (who was home prepping the house for the new TV’s – yes we are finally getting a tv with a screen bigger than 32”). Bartender Randy was telling us about the jersey giveaway to people who bought buckets of Bud Light during Bears game. Cool – we can switch to Bud. Turns out there were only 3 buckets bought that day, so we assumed our chances of getting the Peppers jersey was good. Nope, we didn’t get it. Go figure.
At halftime, we headed into the game. It was a nice day, a little cloudy and the game was not crowded at all! Time to buy the 50/50 ticket! Scott Baker, who has been on the DL all year was making his debut. He actually looked really good for the 5 innings he was in (55 pitches). Here’s what annoys me: we signed him for a one-year $5.5 million contract and he was on the DL all year. Great investment. He underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2012, so I’m not really sure what happened. He only made 8 starts in the minors before today’s game.
As for the rest of the game… Yawn. JR Lake hit another homer for our only run, and he had 2 of the Cubs 3 hits. Cubs bullpen blew another save (26 on the year if you’re counting; record is 29 set in 2000, so we have a chance to make a run for that this year too!).
Wigs & Kevin left to go watch the 49ers game, while Heather and I stuck it out to see if I won the 50/50. Nope, didn’t win that either. Ah well. Back to Bernie's to watch some football!
Recap:
Cubs Lose 8-3
My season record: Visitors 29, Cubs 16
Parking update: No update today
Game #44 / Restaurant #30 – Maleo
Game #44 / Restaurant #30 – Maleo
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Ian, Eric, Kevin & Julie
My cousin Ian and his friend Greg were in town from Madison for a conference to help them prep for the Boards, and they decided to blow off the afternoon and go to the Cubs game. (The conference ran from 7 AM – 6 PM Thursday –through Saturday and 7 AM – Noon on Sunday. Yikes! Those doctors don’t have it easy…)
They were staying downtown and took the red line up to meet us at Bernie’s. It’s always funny to hear “tourists” to the city talk about things we just take for granted and don’t even think about. Like how to figure out how to pay for the El. Funny. Quick beer at Bernie’s and into the game for the Battle for the Basement. Ian is originally from St. Louis area and so Cards fan. His friend Eric is Brewers (and Packers) fan.
Game was pretty crowded, but we found seats on the aisle in row 9/10, so not too bad. In the 2nd inning, Luis/Louis Valbuena hit a homer into the basket right below us. This was followed by a text from Ian’s wife Jenny saying we were on TV. We weren’t buying that since we were way up in row 9 and the homer barely made the basket. But she accurately described what Ian was wearing and eventually sent a picture she took on the tv. Ha ha!
Bogusevic also hit a homer to give the Cubs 95 homers at Wrigley, most in the NL. Homer or bust – the more things change, the more they stay the same…
A pitcher named Lim came in during the game (wearing Soriano’s #12, sniff, sniff – I miss him), and a few funny things about him:
After the game, we went to Bernie’s where Eric had an Old Fashioned. Ha ha. Ian said he had a super sweet tooth when it came to drinks. (He doesn’t drink beer so had a Mai Tai at the game )
We went to the Jewel to grab some wine and then headed over to Melao at 3941 N. Lincoln, a BYO Colombian restaurant where Wigs met us. We had gone here with JO and Cindy a few months back (pre-blog), and it was yummy. We started with empanadas – 2 of each, spinach, chicken, beef. For dinner:
Ian & Kevin shared the Picada, “a tremendous combination of meats: pork belly, top sirloin, pork ribs, sausage, fried green plantains, yucca, white cheese corn cake and tomatoes. It serves 3, and the two of them couldn’t finish it. The only downside was some of the meats on the “tremendous” platter had bones in them, so they had to be careful. And the platter itself didn’t look that appetizing, but that’s just my thoughts. I’m sure the boys were fine w/it.
Wigs & Eric both ordered the Bandeja Paisa, “our traditional mountain platter; grilled top sirloin, pork belly, white rice, pinto beans, white cheese corn cake, fried egg, colombian sausage, sweet plantains and avocado”
I ordered the Tilapia filets.
There was a ton of food, and even Wigs couldn’t finish his, and was able to take home the leftovers. I think everyone enjoyed their meals.
Recap:
Cubs Lose 5-3
My season record: Visitors 28, Cubs 16
Parking update: No update today
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Ian, Eric, Kevin & Julie
My cousin Ian and his friend Greg were in town from Madison for a conference to help them prep for the Boards, and they decided to blow off the afternoon and go to the Cubs game. (The conference ran from 7 AM – 6 PM Thursday –through Saturday and 7 AM – Noon on Sunday. Yikes! Those doctors don’t have it easy…)
They were staying downtown and took the red line up to meet us at Bernie’s. It’s always funny to hear “tourists” to the city talk about things we just take for granted and don’t even think about. Like how to figure out how to pay for the El. Funny. Quick beer at Bernie’s and into the game for the Battle for the Basement. Ian is originally from St. Louis area and so Cards fan. His friend Eric is Brewers (and Packers) fan.
Game was pretty crowded, but we found seats on the aisle in row 9/10, so not too bad. In the 2nd inning, Luis/Louis Valbuena hit a homer into the basket right below us. This was followed by a text from Ian’s wife Jenny saying we were on TV. We weren’t buying that since we were way up in row 9 and the homer barely made the basket. But she accurately described what Ian was wearing and eventually sent a picture she took on the tv. Ha ha!
Bogusevic also hit a homer to give the Cubs 95 homers at Wrigley, most in the NL. Homer or bust – the more things change, the more they stay the same…
A pitcher named Lim came in during the game (wearing Soriano’s #12, sniff, sniff – I miss him), and a few funny things about him:
- He’s 37 years old making his major league debut!!
- He became the 54th player the Cubs used this season, which is a Cubs record. The previous record was 53. Set last year.
- He gave up a single to his former teammate from Japan, Aoki.
After the game, we went to Bernie’s where Eric had an Old Fashioned. Ha ha. Ian said he had a super sweet tooth when it came to drinks. (He doesn’t drink beer so had a Mai Tai at the game )
We went to the Jewel to grab some wine and then headed over to Melao at 3941 N. Lincoln, a BYO Colombian restaurant where Wigs met us. We had gone here with JO and Cindy a few months back (pre-blog), and it was yummy. We started with empanadas – 2 of each, spinach, chicken, beef. For dinner:
Ian & Kevin shared the Picada, “a tremendous combination of meats: pork belly, top sirloin, pork ribs, sausage, fried green plantains, yucca, white cheese corn cake and tomatoes. It serves 3, and the two of them couldn’t finish it. The only downside was some of the meats on the “tremendous” platter had bones in them, so they had to be careful. And the platter itself didn’t look that appetizing, but that’s just my thoughts. I’m sure the boys were fine w/it.
Wigs & Eric both ordered the Bandeja Paisa, “our traditional mountain platter; grilled top sirloin, pork belly, white rice, pinto beans, white cheese corn cake, fried egg, colombian sausage, sweet plantains and avocado”
I ordered the Tilapia filets.
There was a ton of food, and even Wigs couldn’t finish his, and was able to take home the leftovers. I think everyone enjoyed their meals.
Recap:
Cubs Lose 5-3
My season record: Visitors 28, Cubs 16
Parking update: No update today
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