--- those are pics from couple of weeks back. Demon Dogs sits right under the El stop at Fullerton, and for years has been providing one of the best deals in town, a hotdog with fries for $1.80 (that's with tax). The owner, Pete Schivarelli, has been a fixture on the north side ... at one point being the very popular Streets & Sanitation boss for the 43rd Ward (before being chased out of the job by an over-zealous TV reporter) ... as well as being the manager of the classic rock band Chicago. One of the reasons that Demon Dogs are such a value is that Schivarelli cut a deal "way back when" that lets them pay just for leasing out the equivalent of the empty space under the tacks (he built the building there). The current CTA board has a vendetta out for him, but it keeps costing the system money, since every time they sue him they lose and have to pay up! Due to the re-construction project coming for the Fullerton stop, Demon Dogs is going to have to re-locate, but Schivarelli has such strong support with the community (including DePaul U., which he's in the middle of), that it looks like he'll be staying at least close to the current spot. If you're in Chicago, you really need to make a visit to Demon Dogs ... the place is full of music memorabilia, with Chicago's gold and platinum records, etc.
Anyway, so on the way back from Dojo we got off at Fullerton and went down to Demon Dogs. Now, Daughter #1 is quite fond of DD's cheese fries ... in fact, she typically doesn't want anything BUT the cheese fries, so I will get 3 hotdogs with everything, have one in the standard format of dog-with-fries in the cardboard basket, and the other two being 2 dogs and a double order of fries with the cheese sauce. #1 shocked me by also wanting a hot dog after she was done with the fries ... so we pigged out! Too bad for her that she's been "ruined" for anything less than Demon Dogs ... a little hot dog & gyros place opened up kitty-corner from her school a couple of months ago (it's already closed) and she tried the cheese fries there once and pronounced them far inferior ... I'm afraid she has a hard standard to meet.
Last night I was up into the wee small hours getting stuff ready for Mothers Day. I don't know how other people do it, but how does one "sneak" flowers into the house? Fortunately, our local Jewel has a very good floral department, and they're open pretty much 24/7, so it's no problem going out to get roses at 3:30am, which is what I did last night. Got the flowers set up in a vase, and all the goodies that The Girls had made (plus a few other gifties) set out, so The Wife would have that as soon as The Girls dragged her out of bed.
I'd made brunch reservations again this year at Roy's, which is "Hawaiin fusion" cuisine. The Girls like it well enough and the food there is fabulous, plus very reasonable if you go with their $30.00 prix fixe menu (appetizer, entre, and dessert for thrirty bucks!). I wish we were able to get out more frequently (both form a $$$ standpoint and dealing with the kids), as we'd like to make Roy's a habit. It was a bit sad/strange to not have my Mom along. This is, obviously, the first Mother's Day without her, and we'd always had "combined" celebrations with her and The Wife, so the absence was hanging heavy on me today.
It was nice that it was a beautiful day today (almost too warm) as the forecast had been for this being in the middle of five or six days of non-stop thunderstorms ... while there was a late afternoon storm, most of the day was perfect.
My main gift to The Wife was tickets to the upcoming Luna Negra Dance Theater's Tierras de Fuego at the Ruth Page Center (where Daughter #2 takes her ballet classes). The show doesn't premier until next week, so we ended up getting matinee tickets for next Sunday, which is going to make next weekend quite "artsy", as we'll be attending Daugther #1's school production of Fiddler On The Roof on both Friday night and Saturday afternoon! I'm hoping that The Girls will like the dance program ... obviously #2 is taking dance, but you never know (another thing that The Wife and I miss from our "pre-parent" days is going out to theater/arts events ... I hope once I get gainfully employed we'll figure out a way to make that work again!).