Well hello there – has it really been that long?  What, you want content?  Stop pressuring me!! 

There are no real reasons as to why I haven’t posted here in so long – just the beauty of summer and daylight savings time mixed with the busyness of life. Life has been extremely busy lately – just living has taken up a ton of time.  Between toddler wrangling, social lives and us both trying to exercise a lot more there isn’t much time for anything else. 

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One of the things that is a constant source of discussion around here is how much there is to do in Cleveland!  We are trying to experience our new town to its fullest this summer but wrapping your head around it can make you very tired.  Add to that the seemingly endless list of Cleveland restaurants gaining national media attention and our desire to try them all and things can get a bit out of hand. We’ve managed to get to a ball game already, and had dinner at a couple of great restaurants.  However, affording a babysitter along with a dinner bill can make these things out of reach.  

But this is shaping up to be a very fun week ‘round these parts.  M’s grandma has been dying to get her hands on her since she was born.  But, since M had no desire for nourishment that didn’t come straight from the source, this nursing mama was tethered to her side for well over a year.  She’s been weaned for several months but grandma (who is a teacher) didn’t have the time, not to mention energy to take our knee-biter off our hands.  That is until the beauty of summer break for teachers – now my mother has nothing to do but dote on our little angel.  Not really, but she is making the 3 hour trek here on Thursday and taking M home with her until Sunday afternoon.  Whoo-hoo!  Two and a half days of sleeping in and livin’ the pantless life!  

In reality we are in dire need of some time to work on the house.  We are stripping the wallpaper off every stinkin’ wall of the first floor and that’s the kind of task that goes much faster with two adults and no toddlers.  But things will not be all work and no play in the household – we do plan to go out for dinner each night, and maybe catch a lunch or 2, too.

As soon as my mom confirmed the dates I called Lola and snagged reservations for Saturday night.  I am beyond excited.  To add to the excitement I caught an Iron Chef America with Lola’s Michael Symon last night (our almost-neighbor Ruhlman was a judge – Cleveland represents!) and I now am positively vibrating with the anticipation of dining there. 

That left Friday up in the air and leads us to our dilemma…do we try something totally new (the Flying Fig) or go back to Bar Cento for a full dinner?  We know that we will love Chef Sawyer’s full menu and he even commented on my post about our first visit so how could I not go back?  But, the sheer number of places to try on our list is so overwhelming that it’s hard not to use the free babysitting to check out a new spot. So it will all come down to reservations – if the Fig can’t accommodate then we will happily check out Sawyer’s dinner fare.

Either way it will be a great weekend and I can’t wait.  But before we even get to that we have one more fun, kid-free activity planed.  On Wednesday night we are going to the Cure concert downtown.  Again, this is something we are both hugely excited for.  I’ve got my black eyeliner all ready to go.  

Ah… it’s like the revisiting the heady, reckless spending, late night days of pre-parenthood. I have a feeling I will be exhausted when it’s all over!