Chicago Chi-Nanigans!

Last week I flew to Chee-cago to visit The Sweet Lovin' Man.  It was a jam PACKED week of fun & productivity.  Only a month & a half til I leave Los Angeles (*sniff, sniff*) and haul all 8,000 lbs (just kidding, honey!) of baking equipment to Chicago.

Because I'm Little Miss Productivity, I tried to make this trip as business-y as possible.  So I had two commercial kitchen meetings, we spent a day going to three different craft fairs to see how MandiCakes might do there and The SLM & I sat down to really discuss the best avenues to take from there, etc.

VERY EXCITING.  :)

But we did make room as best we could for some fun!  First things first:  'Million Dollar Quartet!'

Million Dollar Quartet is a musical based on the true story/recordings of the magical December 4th, 1956  evening when music's most famous rock and roll legends found themselves under the same roof at Sun Records:  Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins

It was AWESOME!  Tappin' my toes from the first chord!

I have no idea if the below link will work.  If it doesn't, go here!

Our family friend, Levi Kreis, plays Jerry Lee Lewis & he is phenomenal!!

(This picture of me, however, is NOT phenomenal).

Lance Guest, the actor/singer that played Johnny Cash was SO SPOT ON I felt like I was getting to hear the real Johnny sing years after his death.  SO COOL!!

Later in the week, the SLM took me to this place:

I've decided I am officially (if I wasn't before) a cupcake snob. 

You've really got to wow my socks off, folks.

And to be even MORE holier than thou-- I just don't like their 'signature flower' frosting design.  I don't know why but it just doesn't appeal to me.

Our favorite was the strawberry.  That was delicious!  It had decent chunks of berry in it and the cupcake was pretty moist.  The others were fairly lackluster.  The flavor choices weren't very exciting either.

 I didn't like how a Smores cupcake was chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and then a marshmallow & piece of graham cracker stuck on the top.  Like the little decoration is what made it a Smores. 

Ummm... Just because I pincurl my hair & wear red on my lips, doesn't mean I live in the 40's.  Pssh-shuh!!! 

That makes no sense.

I'm weird.

But who knows...  Maybe when I have my own place someday I, too, will have dry cupcakes. And I'll whine when MandiHines (see what I did there?) decides to write a blog about me!

On Saturday night we went to the Bulls-Sixers game. 

These are the most horrible photographs!

A)  We had AMAZING seats.  Truly. 

Section 101, Row 2.

Cry me a river!

B)  These pictures don't do it justice.

But here it goes!

The flying bull... looks more like a pig floating off into the middle distance to me but whatever.

"Some dude" (I imagine he's famous & he makes a ton of money) shooting a free throw:

The intense action shot of the game!

Oooh... or maybe this is it!

Nope.  We have a winner. Zzzzz....

I like Benny the Bull, Chicago's mascot.  He's kinda fun. 

Dude- er, I mean Bull can dance!

He's what the french would call a 'real crowd pleaser.'

This was one of those 'Race-As-A-Balloon-Bull' games ticket holders play to win a free donut or something.

And here we have #13.

  I imagine his name is Stefano Federique.

I'm pretty sure I'm wrong.

I'm pretty sure my boyfriend is calling me right now with the correct information.  Not just with his name of course, but with his height, shoe size, blood type and his favorite scent at Yankee Candle!

They look enthralled.

Truly.

+"How much do we make?"

-"A zillion dollars."

+"Oh. We should play hard-- zzzzzzzzz."

Stefano looks like he's text messaging!

Despite not knowing any of the players currently playing on the Chicago Bulls, it was a great time.  I love to go to basketball games! 

Wait... Michael Jordan doesn't play anymore, right? 

IT'S A JOKE, HONEY!!!  :)

And that's it.  We did a ton of other stuff, ate at some great restaurants but I can fill you in further when I'm LIVING in Chicago.  As for now, this yahoo needs to go to bed!!

Goodnight, y'all!  :)