We said good-bye this morning before I headed into work, and I only cried a little bit.

This weekend was a perfect Chicago weekend, and I hate to sound like an entitled spoiled brat, but it was about time! It was sunny and summery and lent itself perfectly to having a visitor.

It was a whirlwind weekend and I'm exhausted

Today is my last day of Aspen Food and Wine Picture Posts! There are more pictures and I'm sure I'll upload them to my Flickr account any day now.

Sunday night is the pool party at the Sky- a fun party with mixologists whipping up lots of creative cocktails, and a couple of dj's spinning very loud beats. Last year we cut loose a bit more, but this year we had to head back down the mountain (I had an early flight home Monday morning), so we were a little more low-key and a lot more sober.

It was so nice to see Meg again this year!

Funny thing is these pictures look JUST like the pictures from last year...

I miss that blue sky- and these great girls!

It was not the kind of pool party where people were in the pool- but I wish I'd bucked the norm and brought my suit- it wsa a beautiful day and a nice dip would have been heavenly.

Classic Kate- I love they guy next to them, his name is Ilan Hall, and he won Top Chef 2. There were a lot of Top Chef-testaints at this party, but to be perfectly honest, when I only see my girls for a few days a year, I could care less who else is at the party. I didn't even notice him there until I uploaded the pictures onto my computer.

Seriously- doesn't that look wonderful?

I almost titled this post "girls gone wild" but since the youngest of us just turned 29, it seems inappropriate. You'll probably only get a kick out of these posts if you are Jill, Kate, Shelly or myself since they are heavy on pictures and not much else, so carry on, and come back next week if you aren't interested.

Shelly and I didn't have a lot of time to enjoy the Saturday morning tasting this year- and we were on a mission. We spent most of our time in the Spanish wines tent sipping cava and giggling like little it was our lucky day (it was).

On our way out we saw Jacques Pépin and Giada De Laurentiis posing for one of the most awkward photo shoots ever. Pretty much they stand around having a private conversation and drinking wine all the while facing forward and pretending like a hundred people aren't taking their pictures. I am so glad I'm not famous. I wouldn't mind being rich though...

My BIL gave me this flaccid silicone penis as a little gift- I think he thought it would be funny... and he was right. This limpy made numerous appearance this weekend, popping up in peoples handbags, delivering the occasional mushroom tattoo, sliding down the shuffleboard table... We were the height of impropriety- and loved every minute of it.

I love this guy dressed as a box of wine- it just sort of reinforced the feeling that we were at some sort of amusement park for grown folks.

Last Friday I woke up bright and early and headed out to the airport for a quick trip to Colorado. My plane landed around 7 in the morning and I spent the day with my parents hanging in their garden. It was heaven.

About midday my favorite girl Jilly picked me up and we began the long drive up to Mak and Katie's place in Basalt.

We picked Mak's sister up along the way and spent the four hour drive catching up on everything that's happened since we made the trip last year; two weddings, one breakup, one new relationship, two new jobs, a new city and a new season of Top Chef for starters.

We pulled in to the drive and joined Mak out on the deck. The afternoon light made the mountains glow green. A soft breeze and a cold beer made for the perfect welcome.

We surprised Katie when she got home from work and headed out to celebrate her birthday.

It was all perfect. Well, except for one teeny, tiny thing...

I lived in Colorado for 29 years, after less than one year in Chicago I came home to unbelievable altitude sickness! I was out of commission for the rest of the night.

I have a bunch of pictures from this weekend- and no worries, I'll get around to posting them, but first, this is one of my favorite pictures.

There was a party hosted by Parton Saturday night and they had a photo booth installation. Who doesn't love a photo booth?

Thanks K for taking us to the fancy pants party!

Photo Credit www.markvans.com/patron.

I've spent several months lamenting the loss I feel, the huge hole in my heart that used to be filled with laughing and lounging with my lovely, lovely friends. I couldn't have been more excited to visit them this weekend. I was, however, wholly unprepared for how much I'd miss my sweet husband. I saw him for only a brief moment this morning when he picked me up from the airport (and then took the bus home so I could get to work. Um, jackpot?) and I swear to god my heart leapt right out of my chest.

I am so happy to be home. There I said it. Home. Because I guess home really is where my heart is, and my heart has always been wherever my Joshy is.

My baby's always dancin'
And it wouldn't be a bad thing
But I don't get no loving
And that's no lie

Now click here to check out my baby's smooth moves...

Well, yesterday I started out expressing my love for Ribfest and it turned into a big old love letter to my husband. Oh, the power of the meaty rib; inspiring love around the world.

I got a lot of flack about not posting any pictures of Joshy, well, frankly, I didn't have any. Josh played shutterbug all day while Byron and I hammed it up.

I do have this one picture of Josh from our Friday night date. We were sipping Greek coffees trying to stay up later than ten. I don't think we made it.

We try to have a date once a week, and it is usually on a Friday night. I always feel like going out on a Friday night instead of just melting into the couch makes for a longer weekend.

Lately we've been picking a neighborhood and exploring. Walking around this time of year is lovely, trees are full, and people are spilling out onto patios all over the city. We take the bus or he train somewhere and walk around un til we feel like grabbing a drink and a snack, then me move on. This way we get to try a few different restaurants and make the night last a little longer.

Last week we went up to Lincoln Square, we stopped at a few different restaurants, had drinks with some real characters (One of the perks of living in a big city) and at the end of the night we ran into this little treasure- a fountain overflowing with bubbles!

Last weekend was Ribfest again here in Chicago. I love the festivals here, but Ribfest is probably my favorite- I love and entire fair devoted to smoked, sauced, crispy, salty, sweet charred meat.

Ribfest is the first thing I've done since moving here that wasn't a brand spanking new experience. The first time I experienced any nostalgia, of any sort, and it felt so nice. I'm a gal who loves her routines, and I suppose I didn't realize how much additional stress I've felt from something as seemingly benign as that.

Last year Josh and I had one of our first dates at Ribfest, I was so excited to meet Josh's best bud Byron (about whom I'd heard so much), get to know his brother a little bit and see what Josh loved about Chicago.

Looking back at those posts right now I can remember, palpably, how exhilarating falling in love with Josh was. How exciting it all was, how easily he took my breath away.

One year later I'm no longer breathless, but still exhilarated.

Just now, I'm not feeling quite so shy.

250+ people in various stages of undress riding bakes through Lincoln Park Saturday night.

I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen so much peen- and dude- y'all know what happens at COD FISH... I've got clearer pictures, but I didn't want to post them.

Turns out I'm a bit of a prude. Who knew?

I have developed a very bad habit of taking very few pictures and then forgetting to post them until the last minute. Here are my favorite pictures from last weekend.

Last weekend my friends Ivory and Jamie were in town and we got to spend a bit of Saturday with them. We had breakfast and did a little shopping. I am so used to not having any friends here that seeing them kind of took my breath away. Before I get any nasty comments let me just say that Josh's friends are wonderful, but they are JOSH"S FRIENDS. I'm going on 10 months of polite conversation with strangers and it's exhausting. I miss my pals. A LOT.

Sunday we had some folks over for a fun (and very bubbly) brunch. I will miss that huge window when we move. Also, you can almost make out the placemats and napkins I made.

The food was good, and the company was fantastic.

"Josh, we're out of Champagne."

"Should I pick up 2 bottles or 3? Best grab 3 to be safe."

The me show, ad nauseum.

Seriously, we are dancing fools. Emphasis on the 'fools' part.

Don't worry, that's not Kitty Byron is about to throw for Murph, it's his new favorite toy (thanks Ed!).

That goofy dog face!

Aw, shucks. Good times.

Josh and I go to bed early- we also get up early. I can't speak for him, only for myself, but after years of working in bars and living a night life, it is a pleasure to be a bona fide morning person now.

Since this rain seems never ending, I'm trying to think of the bright side to all this gloom- my favorite being the sound of the rain on the roof and the skylights in the early morning hours. Oh boy- all this rain sure maks it hard to get out of bed, but it makes keeping those daisy's I mentioned yesterday alive a whole lot easier.

This rain is depressing. I thought it was summer. All miserable winter long people said "just wait for summer- it's awesome and makes all this totally worth it."

I'm here to say they lied.

Josh and I had tickets to the Gypsy Kings Saturday night and decided not to go because we did not want to be stranded in the suburbs in the rain, we have tickets to see the BoDeans this weekend, so hopefully that elusive bitch- the sun- can make an appearance so we can enjoy our-damned-selves.

The one bright spot in all this extra spring time- my little garden!

I have been waiting oh-so-patiently for my roses to bloom, and look! I have three gorgeous flowers!

The Mandevilla blooms like gangbusters; gorgeous flowers on this quirky, vine-y plant.

Tomaotes...

And more tomatoes!

I've also got mint, flowers galore and some gerbera daisy's that are just hanging on for dear life.

Pfew! Thank god it is Monday- this weekend was exhausting!

Friday thru Sunday we were go-go-going. But I was also asleep by 8 pm 2 out of 3 nights this weekend.

OK, asleep might be a generous term- I was passed out. And thank goodness, I had two solid days of day drinking and nary a hangover. So that's the secret. Drink as much as you want just don't be surprised if you are asleep before the sun goes down.

I did and I was. And it was good.

I'm excited.

Like, really excited.

Like whoa.

Why am I excited?

Well Josh and I are going out to breakfast this Saturday.

That doesn't sound exciting to you?

Oh, did I mention it's with these guys?

Yippeeeee!

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to seeing a couple of friendly faces, even if it's for just a little while.

See you guys Saturday!

I don't usually tell people about my dreams, because I HATE listening to people tell me about their dreams, but I'm making an exception.

Last night I dreamt that Librarian Girl and Nordic Boy came to visit. We all got drunk and slept on the lawn. I was wearing 80's type slouch boots made of live kittens. They were very soft. Nordic Boy didn't like me.

That's the short version. It was a very long detailed dream, a good portion of which was devoted to shopping for the kitten boots.

p.s. We don't have a lawn in real life. I only wish we had a lawn.