February bright spot!

It's 4:30am, and even though I would rather be sleeping, I am happy. Why? Because currently my house contains these (sleeping) people!

Abe, Jean, Clark, and Sherelle. I am so lucky!

My friends, Jean and Sherelle, are on their February break and are visiting from Boston. I can not tell you how excited I am to see them! They are some of my favorite people, and I have not seen them since grad school. We have had so much fun already, and we still have a whole day of fun to go.

Yesterday we all spent some time downtown at the Art Institute of Chicago. They have free hours, and so we joined the crowds and wandered happily around. Then we took the El back; Jean and Sherelle got off downtown to do some shopping, and I took it all the way back home to make it to a baby care class at the hospital. It was my first time riding public transportation while pregnant, and I thought it would be hysterical if I went into labor en route. Sadly, that is one story I won't be able to tell...

Today Jean and I took a long and super vigorous walk all around Evanston while we waited for Sherelle to join us (she spent the first night at her sister's). Jean is used to Boston crowds, and she sets a quick pace. I was huffing, puffing, and starving by the end. Since Jean is a hypercritical connoisseur of southern cuisine, we put our local southern restaurant, the Dixie Kitchen http://www.dixiekitchenevanston.com/evanston.html, to the test to see if it passed Jean's standards. She told me that there are places in her home state of Arkansas that don't even pass muster, but guess what? Dixie Kitchen passed with flying colors! She loved it.

Jean looking very happy with her hurricane and beignets.

We are both clearly happy to be eating. Jean was one of my best eating buddies in grad school, and this brought back many happy memories.

This was on the wall next to our table. It made me laugh so hard.

 Then we met up with Sherelle. Jean and Sherelle were sneaky and left me behind in the lobby chatting with a neighbor while they went up to the condo and set up a surprise for Lydia. I was so touched! They have such great taste, and I'm so excited for Lydia to wear and play with all of the pretty things they brought for her.

Afterward, Clark joined us for a rousing game of Scrabble. As usual, he won. (I play him constantly on Facebook and have lost 11 times a row that way. This game made it 12.) We had tons of fun anyway, and we even learned some new words. Did you know that "yom" is singular for "yomim," and that it means "day"? This vital information enabled several highly successful plays.

And then we ventured out to Whole Foods and picked up ingredients to make dinner. Originally, I envisioned myself cooking for Jean and Sherelle. They came all this way, and I wanted some way of communicating how happy I am to have them here. But every night I have been beaten to the punch! The first night I came home from the baby class to discover Jean cooking up an AMAZING meal, and last night Jean and Sherelle made the most incredible salmon. All I did was zest a lemon. It was pathetic. But dinner was sooooooooo yummy. What can I say? My friends are the best!

I did make a coffee cake before they got here. I wanted something fun to have around for snacking when people got hungry. Boy, does this cake fit the bill! But Clark has forbidden me to make it ever again because, in his words, "it's wrong on every level." (Translation: there is nothing nutritionally redemptive about this recipe; this cake will, quite simply, make you fat and leave you grovelling for more. But it is DELICIOUS.) Here's a picture and the recipe (courtesy of Martha Stewart!) if you feel so inclined to indulge in carbohydrate craziness. http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/new-york-style-crumb-cake

More to come! Today we are going downtown again for lunch. I am already looking forward to it. Now if I could only fall back asleep so that I don't sleep through today's fun...