Ben's bday and leaving Chicago

July 26-29, 2007--I drove back up to Chicago for Ben's birthday celebration on Thursday. We went to the local bar, Mickey's, where everybody knows your name (or at least Ben and Tommy's). It started innocently enough with rounds of beers and mixed drinks...



















Then came the round of Irish Car Bombs provided by the bartender (gotta love Tommy's face in this one...)



















And then someone had the genius idea of buying Ben a Three Wisemen.... and I still haven't forgiven that person!


Heather checks out the wisemen and Ben stares down his adversaries...
























And then Ben feels the after-effects....



There was much drunken love passed around-- Tommy and me...


Ben and Dan...



















And of course, Ben and me :-)


We had a lot of fun the rest of the weekend, too, but sorry, apparently no pictures! I flew back to Seattle on Sunday, luckily sitting next to a Southwest pilot who kept me entertained for most of the long 4-hour flight (I'm sure the Dewar's scotch helped, too). Together, we won the in-flight competition of who could come up with 10 body parts that are 3-letter words (there are 5 above the neck and 5 below... ready.... go!!). When my prize turned out to be bags full of honey-roasted peanuts and mini pretzels (he couldn't have any, being an employee of the airline), we decided that maybe I would get stuck somewhere on my trip, survive off the pretzels and peanuts, and then I could write in to Spirit magazine about how Southwest saved my life!!