*blink* What?

September? What?

Yup, it's back to school time! Whee! Ames started PRE-SCHOOL! She was adorable...I just got back from Chicago and...so want to be there!

Not much to update beyond that: G-Ma was here, G-Ma flew home after a lovely BBQ here at the house. I got a migraine and went home sick. I flew to Chicago with AJ1 and hung out with the kid for AJ1's birthday...mmm, Sweet Mandy B's!

In the works: Cookie day plans! WDW plans! Georgia plans! Italy plans! (note to self: PASSPORT!)

Hugs to all...

Mmm, cake! Dinkels Bakery

Awww, Dinkels. The Aunt and Uncle better not move from Lakeview, because I love Dinkels. It's sooo cute and old-fashioned.

Dinkels is famous for their butter cookies and other baked goods. Me? I love the huge-o cupcakes! Hee.

This is a Dinkels Chocolate Chocolate Dessert Cake - it's awfully cute. It came in a little round saucer container and I fell for it immediately when I saw it in the case.

It's a 3-inch round mini layer cake; it has layers of yellow cake with chocolate buttercream filling. It's iced in another layer of chocolate buttercream and then has a layer of chocolate ganache with a cute little design in white chocolate on top.

The cake was super yummy and moist. The chocolate buttercream was light - it's real buttercream, as opposed to the toxic faux-buttercream stuff. It was slightly chocolate and balanced well with the cake. But? The ganache, which I LOVE, was grainy. It tasted grainy, it looked grainy, it was grainy.

I did some research online - grainy ganache is due to over-mixing it, this caused the cream/chocolate mixture to actually get too cool too quickly. Who knew?

So, the cake kind came across as ehhh....Props for the cake and buttercream, major points lost for the ganache.
Dinkels - B- (for the ganache, basically).

Dinkels Bakery
3329 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657
800) 822-8817
http://www.dinkels.com

Chicago, continued...

Ah, where were we? Oh, yes.

Sunday, Mother's Day: We all woke-up rather slowly that morning. The Uncle made all the Moms a great breakfast, lucky for me, cousins/faux-Aunties could have it also - fruit, eggs, bagels and bacon. *thud* Ames got her Mom a new cell phone, mine got a Starbucks card. Ha!

We went to Armitage (neighborhood/street) to shop, where I got a great new blouse and a custom designed handbag. *drool* I don't have an addiction, I don't! Then we went to the Aunt's parents house for a Mother's Day/Birthday dinner. It was yummy (Pompeii!) and fun to catch up with them all. I love hanging out with her family, it's soooo....filled with brothers and sisters! ;)

Oh, and there was Dinkels. *thud*

Monday: Going home day. The Aunt and Uncle went to work, Ames went to Grandma's (with syrup on the back of her dress, how I ask you?). The Mom and I went to Dinkels to search for chocolate croissants (weekends only!), then had breakfast at Wishbone. Mmm, warm banana bread...

And? The waiter at Wishbone told me I was the healthiest ever - carrot juice (interesting), banana bread and a big bowl of fruit. *snerk*

Anyway, we went to Whole Foods to stock up on travel supplies, then dropped the stuff off before going to Starbucks. And Su Van's, a neighborhood bakery I hadn't been to, for a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, because HELLO....?!?! That's when the fire erupted, after we got back to the house and we were waiting for the town car...

Sirens, fire trucks, traffic, helicopters...Lakeview is relatively quiet and suddenly? Smoke, confusion. Luckily it wasn't any neighborhood icons. Whew.

Onward to O'Hare, then a LONG flight home.

I want to go back. NOW!

Chicago...what we did...

It was a fun weekend, for sure. After getting up way too early on Friday and watching two American Airlines employees fight in the Starbucks line (*seriously*), we hit the Windy City.

Friday: Airport Express stood us up and we took a taxi to the house. Ahem. We dropped our stuff and the Mom got to look around the newish house before we headed for coffee and...well...cake. Ah, Dinkels. Mmm, Dinkels. The Aunt came home and we headed to pick-up Ames. Dinner was a nice place in Bucktown, Jane's Restaurant. People kept telling us how cute Ames was. *snerk* Got custard at Scooters and fell asleep.

Saturday: Woke-up and headed to breakfast at Victory Banner. Where I resisted the peanut butter and jelly-stuffed French Toast. Hee. We headed to the Lincoln Park Zoo, where every animal was asleep. Hee. On the way back home (*nap time*), we stopped at Vanille Patisserie, which was very French. Got a treat for dessert, then on to Whole Foods to prep for our baby-sitting gig.

The Lakeview Whole Foods is so much bigger and well-stocked. I'm just saying. Dinner was, of course, a pb sammie. Ha! The tiramisu was OK, very light and airy and yummy...just not what I was expecting. We crashed shortly after the kid did and the parents? They made it home from the fundraiser at like1:30am. Ha!

To Be Continued...

Um, FIRE!!!

For a minute there, I was really worried...
Massive amounts of black smoke and fire trucks and news helicopters...
Dinkels? Starbucks? Whole Foods? Wishbone?

Actually, an office building across the street from all those places, right near the M&M house though.
Dude. We need to get to the airport soon and Lincoln is shut-down. D'oh!

Chicago, the Windy City...Brrr!!!

Well, we made it. And so far we gotten coffee and I've gotten cake at Dinkels, so life is normal for the Mom and I...
Ha!

The flight was good, I read the whole way. It was a huge 767, but not totally packed. Nice.

I'm not quite sure what the plans are, but O'Hare is lovely, as always. It's sunny, but very windy and chilly. Well, chilly to me, at least.

And? Dinkels! Hee.
Updates to follow!