Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a fun and treat-filled Halloween! Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, mostly because it's my birthday too! Turning 30 is scary if I think about it but not too horrible so far. At least I got married before I turned 30! Hah!

We were invited to a Halloween party last weekend that one of my attendings was throwing but I was sick over the weekend and didn't feel in a very festive mood. Unfortunately, we decided not to go at the last minute, after Chris spent a couple hours creating a costume that represents one of his favorite foods: a Chipotle burrito! Check it out:




















We went out for dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday but felt guilty for not being around to give out candy to the kids. So we filled a basket with mini candy bars and left it on our stoop - honor system, right? We came back 2 hours later to a completely empty basket. And there aren't very many kids in our neighborhood. We're trying to figure out whether it was greedy kids who took it, or maybe our scary neighbors. Halloween just isn't quite like it used to be when we were kids (now THAT makes me sound old!). At least dinner was yummy. Will do a foodie picture posting this weekend (once I figure out how to download pictures off of my new camera) but a quick taste: my dessert was 5 different scoops of homemade ice cream/sorbet: apple cider, honeycomb, white peach, thai basil and chocolate chili. The thai basil sounded intriguing and tasted exactly like basil but a little sweet and was really really good! The chocolate chili started out chocolately but ended with quite the kick from the chili!

Last little birthday gift for the day (in addition to all the calls and emails I got today - thanks!) - our photographer Jessica Claire posted pictures from our wedding on her blog! Perfect timing! The link is below along with new pictures from Peggy. Overall, not a bad birthday or Halloween (excepting the greedy candy nabbers!) this year!

Catching up with my life

Yes, I have been in the wedding black hole for the last month. And yes, I still need to post about the amazing dinner at the Piedmont. And yes, some people want to see all the official and unofficial pictures of the wedding. But since it's 12:45 am and I still have to work Friday, I can't do it justice. But here are some links if you want to see pictures from the wedding! We'll post more this weekend either on this site or on our wedding website: linsquared.googlepages.com (Wedding Photos link).

**new!** From our photographer, Jessica Claire: http://jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm?postID=194

**new!** From our other photographer, Braedon Flynn: http://braedonsblog.com/2007/10/24/alice-and-chris-got-married/

From my Facebook album: http://umichigan.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18458&l=d3da9&id=695048831

From Stephanie's blog: http://jandsrufener.blogspot.com/

From Tom on his Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomyoung/sets/72157602652550738/show/

From Joe and Loui: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=p8vt5ox.973ixhrl&x=0&y=-s98aqy

From Peggy Liao: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcNm7Ri5aMmPR
(someone tell me if this link doesn't work)

Foodies

Chris and I admit that we like to think of ourselves as foodies but really we're just food snobs. Or maybe it's just me. Chris will try just about anything and he has an amazing instinct for choosing the best thing on the menu. We like to eat at good places and love to read good writing about food. Our humble beginnings in Medina, OH and Okemos, MI may not lead you to think so, but living in Ann Arbor, home of the famous Zingerman's among other good eats, sparked our interest. Then we lived in Cleveland and made regular outings to the West Side Market, Lolita, and Sage Bistro (until it closed). Too bad it took us until our last two months in Cleveland to find Parallax and its really good sushi!

Living in Cleveland (Heights) also had another perk: we discovered Michael Ruhlman. For those of you we haven't raved to, Michael Ruhlman is a really good writer born and raised in Cleveland Heights. I discovered him in the local interest section in the bookstore. I was looking for something that represented Cleveland for a friend. I found 2 autographed books by Michael Ruhlman called The Making of a Chef and "The Soul of Chef" and bought them. I got a little delayed on my flight to Salt Lake City and started reading. And never stopped. Sorry Vince! I made Chris read them after I got back and we quickly started reading the rest of his books. If you enjoy reading about food and/or good writing, try Ruhlman. He also has a website and blog that's fun to read. He's also good friends with Anthony Bourdain who likes to comment on the blog. Ruhlman dared Bourdain to come to Cleveland and check out the food scene, which Bourdain did! They recently aired an episode of No Reservations from that escapade!

Michael Ruhlman's chef trilogy is:
- The Making of a Chef
- The Soul of a Chef - helped us become fans of Michael Symon and we are dying to go to the French Laundry
- The Reach of a Chef

He also wrote about Cleveland based things:
- House - Renovating his century old home in Cleveland Heights. We discovered afterwards that it was within walking distance from our apartment in Cleveland Heights!
- Walk on Water - Exploring the world of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Not a fan of the Clinic but I respect the writing and the players in the book.

There are a couple more books we haven't gotten to yet but it's only a matter of time.

So why the blog? Well, book suggestions for one. But, what's much more exciting is that we are going to meet Michael Ruhlman this weekend! He's coming down to the Triangle to meet with some bloggers, check out his old stomping grounds, and check out the local food scene. Since Chris regularly checks out the ruhlman.com blog, he found out about it and now we get to have dinner with Michael Ruhlman and check out some of the great food around here! This is good as we've really only been exposed to the North Carolina barbeque and Bojangles fried chicken (so good!). So exciting!

Woe is Michigan

This is my first post on this blog that I created a while ago. I've gotten caught up in trying to keep up with my own life so I never actually got around to posting anything. But, on a day where I really had time to do nothing (for the first time in months), it turns out to be a depressing day...if you are a Michigan Wolverine. We all had such high hopes for the season, but Chris always did prefer it when Michigan was the underdog. We always outperformed expectations that way. I suppose that we outperformed expectations these past 2 weeks as well....just in the worst way possible. So, physically it's been a relaxing day but mentally quite stressful. Especially thinking about how I will get teased by all the non-Michigan fans for the forseeable futures....better try to look for happier things to blog about now......