My weekend started Thursday because I took Friday off. Thursday night I went to see my coworker Roman’s band One Drum at the Jazz Estate up by North Ave. It was a good time and the music was kicking. The small place was packed and alive with fun. I was going to head home at midnight but it was such a good time I stuck around until the end. When the show was over I helped Roman break down some of the band gear. He was a kind soul and gave me a ride home sparing me from the winter elements. When all was said and done I ended up getting to bed around four in the morning.

Friday I had the day off so I spent it doing absolutely nothing. I did go meet Roman for lunch and hung out at our normal Friday lunch stop, the Ardor. Since I wasn’t working I was able to enjoy a beer with my lunch. Once Roman headed back I stayed and talked with the patrons a bit. On my way home I was stopped by three limos of drunken people in Santa hats. They were on a scavenger hunt and had all arrived at the same place at once. I had to take their pictures by a statue in Cathedral Square. Once I finished taking their pictures they all started running around tackling each other, one person got tackled in the street. I guess if you steal the other teams Santa hats you get extra points or something. This was too much craziness for my day off so I walked home. Friday night we just relaxed and got ready for the weekend. This weekend was Jocelyn’s dad’s second annual holiday gathering/celebration of her sister Arianne’s birthday in Chicago. Saturday we drove to Chicago and dropped our stuff off by our hotel about noon. I was starving so J and I headed to Miller’s Pub and got a bite to eat and a beer. While we were there the waitress told us about a German festival going on up the street so we figured we’d hit that once we were done. Once we finished we set off to find the outdoor German festival. We got a block and then decided to stop at the Berghoff Tavern. It looked like a historic place so we went there and had a Berghoff. From there we walked up and found the festival. Once we were there we both regretted eating because the food smelt delicious. We made it to one of the heated tents and got a little cup of glog. We sat in the tent a bit and then walked around and looked at some of the German crafts. Upon finishing there I went and showed Jocelyn the hotel that I stayed at when I was in Chicago. From there we headed back to our hotel with a brief stop at the new Millennium Park. Back at the hotel I took a nap for about two hours and watched some TV while J talked with her dad and sister. Then we decided to go eat a Giordano’s pizza that we saw on our way to Miller’s Pub. Once we got there we found out that it was closed. Never fear, Ryan is here! I remembered where another one was at. I ate at this one when I was down in Chi the last time, not to mention it wasn’t too hard to find because it’s right next to the Sears Tower which is kind of hard to miss. We then ate too much. We took a cab home because the snow was really starting to come down. We got to the hotel and called it a night.

Sunday we all woke up and put on our best thermal underwear for the Bears v. Texans game. The temp was in the single digits with wind chills in the negatives, it was cold. We all got bundled up and walked to the stadium which was a mile or so away. The walk wasn’t bad but once we got to our seats things really started to get cold. The not moving around made things pretty bad and the Picl family was frozen to the bone. To make things worse the first half of the game was utterly boring. Once the first half was over we left and went back to the hotel to warm up at an Irish Pub. We warmed up there and got our cars and headed to the ESPNZone to watch the Packers game and the Illinois game for J’s dad. It turned out the Illinois game wasn’t on in the state of Illinois so we didn’t want to stay there because it was too crowded. We went to Pizzeria Due, which is down from Pizzeria Uno. I called my cousin Steve and he met us there and we all talked, drank, ate and watched the Packers lose to Jacksonville (but they still clinched a playoff berth). Once we finished there we went to pick up Jocelyn’s other sister from O’Hare. We got her and went to Gibson’s Steak house to eat. I had the porterhouse and the food was good. Schwarz’s steaks are still the best but this was good. We were stuffed once again thanks to J’s dad, thanks. After dinner we all said our goodbyes and headed home. We got lost on the way home because we couldn’t find N. 294. We saw a hundred S. 294 but no N. Finally we got on and I drove home so J could sleep. End of weekend.