My Bloggy Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day. Cha Cha and I went out for Valentine's Day last night. We went to City Winery in Chicago for dinner and to see Kathleen Madigan. I think I had mentioned in a previous blog that we had seen her before and I wasn't overly excited to see her but Cha Cha really likes her and I just like to go out on the town so I am pretty much in on anything. Wednesdays seem to be our date nights so this worked out very well for several reasons. I think the reason that I don't like to see comics much is because I managed a Zanies Comedy Club for about two years so I have a hard time finding stand-up funny. I find a lot of stand-up predictable which may come from hearing the same shows nine times a week. I have to say that I had a great time. The opening act - Stephanie McCue (not sure on spelling) did about a half-hour and she was funny. Kathleen Madigan came on and I think I laughed continuously for the entire 60+ minutes she was on. If you get a chance I would go see her; I would go see her again for certain. I even learn that she is from St. Louis which made me like her all the more. She, as I often do as well, reminded the room full of Cubs fans how inferior their team is to our Cardinals. She never mentioned my favorite anti-Cub comment (1908) but she did just fine. That reminds me that we are heading to St. Louis very soon (less than two weeks now). I love that town! Hit me up if you're gonna be home then Kathleen and we'll do some Muscat - all the cool kids are doing it.

The restaurant was pretty good but I really liked the venue. We started-out with ordering the wine (it IS called City Winery after all) . Cha Cha had a carafe of the 2012 Melbac from Mendoza, Argentina and I had a bottle of the 2011 Vignalta Fior d'Arancio which is an Orange Muscat from Colli Eugenei, Italy. I figured if was gonna drive a Fiat to a winery I was gonna drink Italian (actually I didn't even realize it was Italian until I just checked right now). I just like Muscat because I like sweet and bubbly (you are what you drink). Our table was small and when they brought my wine I was shocked that it came in an ice bucket half the size of the table. I really liked the wine/champagne I guess it really was. To eat we had Burrata (like a do-it-yourself bruschetta) and a cheese plate with a bunch or very different cheeses as appetizers. The we were still hungry so I had the Margherita Flatbread and Cha Cha had the Beef Sliders. The food was very good.

Hard to believe that this is My Valentine

Cha Cha's favorite part of the night was when we got back in the car on the way home (get your mind out of the gutter). She had tweeted Kathleen on the way to the show saying that we were stuck in traffic and asking her to order cheese sticks for us. When we got back in the car Cha Cha checked Twitter and Madigan had tweeted her back asking "would the Risotto Balls be okay?" I am not sure if those are the exact words of the tweet but Cha Cha was so excited I thought I would have to pull the car over to let her pee so she didn't pee her pants. Why do they say "I am so excited I could pee my pants?" That has been more of an issue of when I drank too much rather than when I was excited.

I guaran-damn-tee we will talk a lot about our night out on the 100th load of Dirty Laundry Podcast next week. (in case you haven't figured it out the underlined red words are links - it only took me about 800 blogs to spell that out). #798 to be more precise.

I really dislike radio trivia contests now. I used to really like them because I usually knew all of the answers and have won plenty of stuff that way. Now, with Google and all of the other cheat-sheets, everybody knows everything instantly. I don't even try any longer. It always surprises me what I have retained like: what is Shaggy from Scooby Doo's real name or who played Hazel or how many holes it takes to fill The Albert Hall but I have a hard time remembering my PIN number once in awhile. I would answer all of those for you here but you can Google them if you care.

I was just out and saw three huge tour buses rolling into town. I am guessing that the Miranda Lambert and Dirks Bentley concert is tonight. I worked security backstage last time Lambert was here two or three years ago and she does not impress me. I wouldn't walk to the end of my driveway to see that concert. In fact. if it was at the end of my driveway, I would probably call the cops for noise issues and maybe a permit violation.  To be fair, I am not a country music fan as you may have surmised.  I never said anything about the concert at the time but now that I have a better top secret job serving and protecting I feel I can talk about that one since there was never any confidentiality agreement though when I work somewhere I know to keep what is private private.

Today is the day that the Illinois State Senate votes on the bill to allow gay marriage in my state. I really hope they pass this bill. I have lots of gay friends and I want them to be happy (ironic). I don't have to speak much about that because if you have ever listened to the podcast or have read this blog for very long you know how I feel about this issue. I am a live-and-let-live kinda dude. I bet this is another thing we will talk on the 100th episode of the podcast next week. I feel like the room at the show last night was about 60% filled with people who may get married should this bill pass. Do the right thing Senate!

I have drudged on long enough. If you haven't listened to the newest podcast it is  up and has only been since yesterday so it is very new. If Kathleen Madigan comes to your town go see her! Now your entertainment calendar is a little fuller. Thank you a lot for being here, as always. I really do appreciate you. Have a fantastic day. I should be able to blog tomorrow. TTTT...MITM #30#