So instead of writing my blog on Sunday, I went down to The Roundhouse for appetizers and beers.  We decided to take a road trip to Aurora with a friend.  We had wanted to go down and check out the surroundings for Two Brothers.  We’ve had some of their beers and now it was time to see what The Roundhouse was like.  The structure is an old train turnaround on the tracks leading in and out of Chicago.

The Roundhouse had originally been saved from decay by Walter Payton and his business partners.  They set it up as a restaurant and beer house.  After Walter was gone, the restaurant slowly declined.  Two Brothers Brewing decided to expand their food and service by buying the property and making it their own.  They are in the process of setting brewing on the premises.

History is very nice and the restaurant is pretty good.  We took Rick along to act as chauffer for us.  The beers were very good.  I had samplers so I could enjoy more of the beers.  I can only drink one beer so the samplers equal to one, but I can have more flavors.

We got hit with winter and a snow storm on Thursday night into Friday.  We got about 7 inches on top of the 4 inches we already had on the ground.  It was heavy and wet.  Earlier in the week, we had snow and rain.  The commute was agonizing.  One day, it took an hour and an half to crawl to the Mot.  On Friday, it was a much better idea to stay at home and work.  Didn’t hurt that I wasn’t feel that well anyway.

The snow left a wonder world of lacy limbs and icy puddles.  On Saturday, Rich and I took Sascha out for a walk through the snow.  We wondered down to the river.  Geese were hanging out.  Sascha was barking and trying to reach them.  Not all of the river was frozen and the geese gained the freedom of the water’s edge.  I took pictures of the scene.

We continued around through the neighborhood.  We wandered down through squirrel alley.  This is the road that continues around by the river and back into the hood.  We call it squirrel alley due to the great number of squirrels who live in the woods surrounding it.  These squirrels go to great lengths to torment the dogs.  Sofie had a hard time walking through there and Sascha barely makes it through the length of the road.  We rarely walk through there.

Around and about, we ended up down by the lake.  It looked really questionable on whether it would hold a human walking across it.  We could see several fishermen out on the ice and fishing away. Rich attempted to walk out there.  He sunk into the water and decided to give up the attempt.  I wanted to take Sascha out on the ice to see if she would walk out there.  She’s going to have to pull the sled when Rich decides to ice fish himself.

Back home, I needed to clean up the house before the housekeeping people came out.  I know that sounds ridiculous.  I don’t do much, but I feel I need to pick things up out of their way so they could clean.  Then there is the matter of all that dog hair.  We do have a Husky and they drop an entire dog every two weeks.  I keep telling Rich we need to name that dog that appears in the hallway in our room.  So I vacuum up the excess dog hair so they only have to mop and get up the dirt.

Rick received his long awaited scarf in the mail this week.  Back in the fall, he decided that he wanted a scarf just like Tom Baker wore in an earlier version of Doctor Who.  This scarf is striped and very, very long.  I was surprised at his choice.  Tom Baker was my Doctor Who in the 1980s.  He asked around to see who knew how to knit.  It turned out that his Aunt Kelli could knit and was willing to create this scarf for his Christmas present.  Since it took a little longer to finish, Kelli sent the scarf through the mail.  Now, Rick wanders around with this scarf draped around his neck.  Everyone comments on it.  Thanks, Kelli.

Ah yeah, Rick finally completed the insulation in the garage.  Now the walls are ready for drywall.  Rich decided to have a professional do the work.  It would be easier on us and would only take a few days rather than week.  So Rich is checking around for someone to do the work.  He has a couple of sources to find a professional.  It just seemed like it was taking a while to connect with someone.  Rich thinks he has someone and there is a possible meeting for a quote on Saturday.  Hopefully, this moves forward.  More to come on that.

Valentine’s Day has come.  Our habit is only to exchange cards.  There is no need for gifts or a great show.  We’ve even given up going out to eat on that day.  The restaurants are packed and it is noisy.  We stay at home and enjoy the quiet.  This week, Valentine’s fell on our normal family eating out day.  We moved it up one day.

After having a really long day at work, I decided that a drink would help.  We headed out to The Onion Pub in Barrington.  This is a very nice pub.  The food tends to be iffy, but the beer is always excellent.  The beer cheese soup is also great.  So a Russian Imperial Stout and beer cheese soup is always good on a cold day.  Once again, Rick was the chauffer.  Did I really do that to him twice in one week?

This year, Rich snuck in and got me a gift for Valentine’s.  I was totally caught off guard.  I didn’t have my card yet!  I opened the package and was very, very surprised.  I didn’t even know that Rich listened to me when I rattle on.  Of course, I can’t tell you what it was, but I absolutely loved it!  I did finally go out at lunch time and picked up the perfect card.  Oh yeah, I also got the latest SI swimsuit issue for Rich.

The next big holiday is Rick’s 19^th birthday on March 9.  I know he wants a cool gift and that means a lot of money.  I tell him that’s not going to happen.  He keeps showing me pictures of cool guitars.  They are Les Pauls, no less.  Then there is something about a Jack Harkness coat.  It is not on my list though.  I did get a couple of things.  I don’t think he’ll be too disappointed.

I’ve even started on Rich’s birthday gifts.  It’s never too soon to shop.  Rich has decided that he wants to go to Hofbrau Haus that opened in Rosemont this winter.  That’s OK.  We’ll enjoy some good German food with some good German beer in a very nice German environment.

I’m still collecting up pictures of that moment known as “I have a heavy weight on my chest.”  Since Sascha loves to be a lap dog, it tends to spread to your chest.  My collection of photographic evidence of this phenomenon is growing.