Lost Wisdom, Fried Fish & Getting Derailed

March 30, 2025

A week of lost wisdom and railway drinks with friends.

It sure feels like our weeks are filled to the brim every week, and every weekend. I know it will only be a matter of time before we find ourselves looking for things to do, but right now it is nothing but “Go! Go! Go!”

Lost Wisdom (Teeth)

The week started with Mia getting her two lower wisdom teeth taken out. The surgery went well but according to her the anesthesia didn’t have any effect on her, she wasn’t loopy at all.

Sorry to report Mia, you were out of it and could barely walk but we just smiled and helped you get where you needed to go.

She quickly returned to normal and aside from not liking protein smoothies (she much prefers ice cream milk shakes), her recovery seems to be going well.

Family Fish Fry

Come Friday we were off to Gilbert, IL to meet my sister Karin and her family, Grandma Kathy and my Uncle Fred and his kids and their families for a fish fry dinner at the Eagle’s Club.

This is I think our third year getting together at the Eagles and it’s a nice Non-Holiday get together that we can all make. Sadly Maverick couldn’t make it this year, but we surprised to see Z-Dog and his girlfriend!

Last year we like to joke about the service, half our group got their food order and the other half’s order didn’t come from another hour. This year it was much better with only a few minutes between groups being served.

Grandma Kathy provided desert with fresh baked brownies and cake which almost immediately was eaten. No leftover here.

Derailed Pub Crawl

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This weekend was the annual “Derailed” pub crawl that our friends Rachel & Bill (and others) have been organizing for some time now. It is always near St. Patrick’s Day, but this year was the latest it has been.

And I have to admit that it was a lot nicer for two reasons. First the weather was better. The day, while cloudy was in the high sixties, lower seventies. Absolutely perfect weather for bar hopping.

Basically we ride Metra BNSF line toward Chicago and get off at Brookfield for our first pub stop, Irish Times. This is a fun bar with great food and at times slow service. But this year it was much better.

I split a burger with Karin and had a few libations over the two hours that had been allocated for this stop.

What followed was another three stops heading back toward Aurora. The second to last bar I have to mention, the Uptown bar in Westmont.

The Uptown is a tiny dive bar, quite possibly the biggest dive bar of all dive bars. If has no charm, doesn’t pretend to have any and seems fairly welcoming.

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I always find myself wondering “Why do we keep coming to this shithole?” But it’s a shithole that has some undefinable charm that keeps it on the list every year.

Our last stop was in Lisle at Evviva Bar & Eatery. Great pizza, worth the order. We ended up heading to Lisle before the group’s schedule departure to grab some tables for everyone and more importantly get some pizza.

Stuffed and slightly buzzed we found ourselves on the 7:33PM train back to Aurora. We had zero desire to hit up the Roundhouse for drinks as we pulled into Aurora. To be honest we were pretty tired by that point and looking forward to getting home.

All in all it was a great time out with friends. And aside from a Metra patron (not with our group) getting into a verbal altercation with the conductor, no drama or excitement to note.

Election Work

We both slept in late (for us) on Sunday. Made our dinner plans for the week and grocery list. Today Karin had planned to walk around and put election material on doors for the Kendall County Democrats so I volunteered to drive and check off houses.

We happily finished before it started to rain and dropped off our friend Laura who helped distribute packets. Then it was off to Meijer for grocery shopping. Once again tired but ready for the week!