Weekend in Chicago: Both a Success and a Failure

This weekend we traveled to the Windy City to visit friends and go to the Purdue/Northwestern basketball game.

With Brian all set for the weekend, we took off.

Don't move, buddy!

The day started out fun with Catchphrase and Ride the Bus as per our usual pre-drinking activities.

In every Catchphrase game, there are always rounds that we continue talking about the rest of the weekend. In this case, the words were: 1.) Iwo Jima, which Jill thought was an island by Cuba. 2.) Lineskeeper, which I did not know what that was until someone made me read it as lines keeper, not line skeeper. Is it scary that I thought skeeper was just some word I didn't know? 3.) Chin Music, which Lower thought was anything that comes near the chin, not just a pitch near a batter's chin. He ended up being right. His reference to "Sweet Chin Music" has to do with Professional Wrestling. You can imagine the fun we had with that. 4.) Funnel Cake, which Lower thought was a breakfast cake.

After that we jumped on the L train and headed out to Evanston.
Since we can't go very long without drinking, we brought some beverages on board. With all the announcements of everything else that was illegal, we thought it might be best to hide the bottles.

Pretty inconspicuous, huh?

Not hiding so well anymore...

Not obvious at all.
















Yep, that was on the way TO the game. We needed it more on the way home (but more on that later).

There were some nice signs on the way to Evanston. (You will probably have to click on the picture) Volunteer to Fight Poverty AND Tooth Decay!













Did I mention anything about Lower's pink overnight bag?? Oh I didn't? Oh. Well he brought a pink overnight bag.

Okay, okay, I'll get to the game. I didn't take any pictures at the game but that was because we sat at the top of a small high school gym and it was completely dark. See the dark area near the ceiling in the picture below?

No? Yeah, we couldn't see either. It was awful. We couldn't find our seats. Then when we did, we still couldn't fit everyone into the seats we purchased. We had to rotate at least 2 people at a time from standing in the back. Sad.
Then the game started out okay but quickly turned sour.


As told by the headlines, Boilers Lose 3rd in a Row and Purdue All Fouled Up. So yeah, we lost. We left before we had to watch the Northwestern student section rush the floor. Ugh. Gross.

But don't worry, Painter's not mad or anything...

Asked if changes were coming to the starting lineup, Painter said, “I’d like to start E’Twaun Moore, E’Twaun Moore, Robbie Hummel, Robbie Hummel and Robbie Hummel. No one else deserves to start, but with that being said, E’Twaun Moore needs to get some rebounds.

So as a very positive fan, hopefully things will start to look up. Gotta look at the silver lining, right?

We still had a blast this weekend. We went to the Red Ivy for dinner and to watch the Colts game. The Colts won, thank goodness for the people we were with. I think at least one member of our party might have had a breakdown. Then the Red Ivy turned into a bumpin' club with terribly loud music and we had to get out of there. We walked down to the Piano Man just north of Wrigley. Wow, that place reminded me of a couple scary bars in Lafayette. Plus there was no Piano Man. Not even a piano or a stage or anything. Weird. We of course got obnoxious and played Zoomie Zoomie as loud as humanly possible. Because that's just what you do when you're nearing 30 and you don't want to admit it.

All in all, we had a blast (except for the game). I didn't take many pictures so I'm going to need to step it up for next time.