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Or what I did on my summer vacation. So, it’s been a while since I last posted anything of meaning here. The summer has been pretty good so far. I have enjoyed having my Saturdays to myself, free from the troubles obligations of grad school. I’ve also enjoyed many Sundays watching NASCAR and IndyCar races regularly for the first time ever.

Speaking of TV, let me start by saying that I have now picked up a few series over the past two months. The biggest series I’ve been watching all summer is NCIS. With USA airing 3 reruns back-to-back-to-back every weekday, I started watching the show with Chris when I would get home from work. We’ve completed the first season thanks to Netflix. I’ve even gone so far as to create episode lists in Evernote to check off episodes as I’ve watched them. I have also gotten hooked on Burn Notice, Big Love and True Blood. I don’t know that I will get very far into these shows before I kiss my free time goodbye, but they certainly are entertaining me until then.

At the end of June, Chris and I flew out to DC for NECC 2009, an educational technology conference. While I had my trip paid for by work, we had to pay for Chris to attend the conference out of our pocket. The conference was pretty good, and we got to see a little more of DC once again. If you’re in DC, I would recommend Matchbox – not for their mediocre pizza, but for their delicious mini burgers. While we were out there, we also saw the Independence Day fireworks on the National Mall. I was disappointed, especially when compared to the Taste of Chicago fireworks. Hell, I think even the Septemberfest fireworks were better, even with the historic surroundings of DC. You can check out my Flickr photo set to see what I mean.

Shortly after returning from DC, we spent a weekend downtown at the Omni Hotel for our anniversary. Over the past few years I have stayed at all sorts of hotels, and I was very impressed with the Omni Chicago. For starters, @OmniHotels was quick to welcome us after I tweeted that we were heading to the hotel for the weekend. When we were at dinner the first night, Jennifer Avellana, the Loyalty Ambassador, surprised us with a bottle of champagne and a slice of chocolate cake for our anniversary.

The day of our anniversary, we had a couples massage at Asha Salon Spa at the James Hotel. It was very relaxing, getting us ready for our anniversary dinner. That night, we went to dinner at Smith & Wollensky, with a great view of the Chicago River. Since it was our anniversary, we went all out, of course. We split a bottle of wine recommended by the somelier. The wine was a perfect pairing with Chris’s rib eye and with my fillet mignon and lobster. We passed on dessert because we had stuffed ourselves. Later that night, while watching a movie, we ordered ice cream from room service. The lavishness of the day brought us back five years to our honeymoon cruise.

As summer is starting to wind down, I am playing catch up with several things I want to accomplish before the fall. For example, I am still slowly cleaning my office, a painstaking task that is three years old. I am also prepping my computers for OS upgrades. Outside of my office, I am trying to be social, helping out with Normal Moments publicity (want to buy a raffle ticket for The Little Things in Life walk?), and just enjoying what’s left of my free time. The other day I spent most of the day downtown with Herschell and Liana, seeing the sights, taking some photographs (which I promise will be posted soon). I’m hoping I will have some more days like that before classes start up, because I’m sure that I will once again have zero free time.

Anyway, my rambles have gone on long enough. After I finish assisting Chris with an Access project for RtI, I’m heading to bed.

In the northwest suburbs, I frequent several sushi restaurants: Nobu’s Japanese Restaurant in Schaumburg, Sushi Station in Rolling Meadows, and Wild Fish in Arlington Heights. I like something different about each of them, so it’s hard to pick a favorite, but Sushi Ya in Schaumburg is quickly becoming my new favorite.

After opening about a month late due to construction delays, Sushi Ya is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Michelle and I stopped by the restaurant for dinner Wednesday night, their second night of operation. Two days later I stopped by for dinner with Josh and Marsha before poker night. The staff is very friendly, and I thought the speed of service was pretty good for the first week in business.

Last night Chris and I went out to an early Mother’s Day dinner with my mom and Michelle. After some discussion this afternoon, we had decided on Zed451 in Schaumburg. It turned out to be a very good decision.

The first bit of goodness came when I reserved a table using OpenTable.com. Normally, reservations are just 100 points each; however, with the relative newness of Zed451, the reservation was 1,000 points. This reservation pushed me over the 2,000 point mark, the lowest number of points required to get a gift cheque from OpenTable.com.

For a while now Grant, Brad and I have been talking about going to India House in Schaumburg. I think we should go soon. According to this article from IndiaPost.com, India House is under new management and has been redone recently. I’d like to try the lunch buffet so that I can get at least a little taste of everything. That will hopefully make it easier to decide on an entree when visiting for dinner. If anyone is interested in going to the lunch buffet, name a day in the comments of give me a call.

Yesterday Chris and I celebrated our third anniversary. I took the afternoon off to take her downtown to Behind the Emerald Curtain, a behind-the-scenes look at Wicked. We were able to take a close look at several costumes and masks, as well as find out a little more about the production’s and the theatre’s history.

After the tour, we headed to Scoozi! for a nice quiet dinner for two. Chris had the Gnocchi Bolognese and I had the Prosciutto and Onion Ravioli. Both dishes were quite delicious, and just the right portions, too. After dinner, the valet brought me the correct car this time, instead of a $50k upgrade, and we were off to check out the lake.

Unfortunately, there were a couple of things going on in Grant Park, so we couldn’t find any parking anywhere and just headed back out to the ‘burbs. We turned in early because we both had to be at work early this morning. We’re both looking forward to Saturday, when we actually get to see Wicked for the third time. Afterwards, we’ll be dining at 312 Chicago.

The standard reply around our house to the above question is, "I don’t know." A couple of years ago, I modified a random number generator that a student worker had made for class so that it spit out random restaurants in the area to help answer the question that could plague us for an hour. Someone has made a Web 2.0 version of that program, but much more helpful.

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At Miniature Cube, you tell them your location, the restaurant style, your budget and the cuisine, and click on the Decide! button. The site will spit back a restaurant decision for you. If you don’t like that decision, use the Re-decide? sidebar to have the site make another decision for you. The site is still in its infancy, so the reviews are are sparse. Hopefully the site will grow, and it will become more useful. Only time will tell if it will be another bust.

I was catching up on my RSS feeds today when I came across Stephen J. Dubner’s May 9th post on the Freakonomics Blog. In the post he writes about Sushi Para II in Chicago, where they have a sushi buffet. You can order all the sushi you want for $17, but if you have any leftovers at the end of your meal, you pay an additional charge for them. It’s an interesting, albeit not new, twist to buffet pricing. Several comments tell of other restaurants with similar policies.

While I love sushi, after looking at the Center Stage user reviews, I’m not sure I’d want to trek all the way out to North Clark Street for what many have said is a bad experience. A few of the reviewers report having been overcharged, which is why I try to keep my dining receipts until the charges get posted to by my bank or credit card company. And if this restaurant is related to Sushi Para in Palatine, I can believe that the service is slow.

I’m glad we’ve got Sushi Station in Rolling Meadows. I just wish they would open one up in Schaumburg.