Last weekend I visited Chicago, IL with some good friends. The weather was perfect, except whenever we went out to eat dinner, then it would rain. As we were walking around Chicago, I realized how big of a city it is and how small Washington, DC is. Washington, DC is a real city but feels very small compared to both Chicago and NYC. I appreciate that all three cities have a variety of things to do, but sometimes I wished I lived in a bigger city. But, then I realize how much I love DC and all it has to offer.

You can not go to Chicago and not eat. I felt like we never stopped eating. Ironically, the food I liked the most was at a place we didn't plan on eating at. It was Friday night and we were hanging out at a bar during Happy Hour. Earlier in the day we had stuffed pizza, so I wasn't hungry to eat anything at the bar. After Happy Hour we went to Silvie's to watch a friends band play. When we got there, we found out that they wouldn't be going on for another 45 minutes. So we decided to find some food. It was around 11pm and most of the places were closed. We found this one bar and luckily the kitchen was closing at midnight. We sat down and ordered, stuffed pretzels, this great cheese dip and something else. The food was amazing and was arrived quickly. We were able to eat and get back to watch our friend play.

Another interesting thing we at is Pizza Pot Pie. It's pizza like a pot pie. It was very good.

Adam put up some great pictures from our trip, click here to see them.

People in chicago also like vanity license plates. Unfortunately, I only remember one.

Stupid License Plate - Chicago Edition
PNUTMNM

My parents are currently on a cruise to Alaska. My dad called me and we were talking about their trip. We were discussing the glaciers and then out of nowhere my dad asked me "Do you know what Himbo's are?"

Shocked, I responded they are the male equivalent of bimbos. My dad then went on to say that he thought the word was quite funny and cute. We then went back to discussing the glaciers.

Welcome to my family!

This past weekend I drove up to NYC for a family function. I thought this would be a great opportunity to see many stupid license plates. Alas, I was wrong. The folks in New Jersey and New York do not have as many stupid license plates as the folks in DC/MD/VA (especially Virginia). Here are a bunch that I saw.

Stupid License Plates
RDY2ROLL
BOOKPR
LUX CAR (on a lexus)
BMMEOWW
ILVRTN

and here is a billboard I saw:

SAVEROBBINSVILLE.COM

I saw the billboard in Robbinsville, it looked like a nice town, not sure why they needed to be saved though.

WMATA - how much I wish to love you. You served me real well during the major rain storms that hit the DC area. I was actually thinking, I can commute using public transportation every day, this isn't too bad.

But, something had to go wrong. My SmarTrip card broke. Unbelievable, I know! Let me set up the scene for you. I get to the gate and wave my SmarTrip card and nothing happens. I try bending the card a little to get it to register, no avail. I then get the attention of the Station Manager. I let him know that my SmarTrip card is not working. He takes the card and tries it out in his booth and returns to me and lets me know it's not working. (At this time, I'm thinking "No Sh*t, Sherlock). He then told me that I had to mail it in to get a replacement card. I nodded my head. The Station Manager then asks me if I wanted the form? (In my head, "Well, duh? How else was I going to send the card in).

I then remembered reading somewhere, you can take broken SmarTrip cards to Metro Center and they can replace it. I asked the Station Manager if that was true. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "You can try".

I take the form from the Station Manager and eventually get through the gates. The next day I am looking at the form, the whole top part needs to be filled out by the Station Manager. At that point, I just had to shake my head at WMATA's ineffectiveness. Anyway, I filled out the form and mailed in my broken card. Let's see how long it takes to receive a new one. I'm not holding my breath.

Why is it so hard for all the employees that work for WMATA to learn how to handle various problems? Or at least know something about their jobs? My SmarTrip card not working is not an unusual problem.

WMATA - you won. I broke down last night and bought another card.

I wasn't going to post about this but I was really annoyed this morning when I saw my bus arrive at the bus station 3 minutes earlier than it should have. Needless to say, I missed the bus. Don't worry, I won't rant about the bus, there are plenty of folks doing that already.

Stupid License Plate Watch
LES'S LEX
JIM BMW
(I don't understand the need for people putting their names on License Plates)

HIM8NCE
4PETESK
4MY40TH
DSNYWLD (minivan with multiple mickey stickers)