Category: everyday life

Monadnock Bistro

I have a list of Chicago’s new restaurants which I want to check out, but I am increasingly rarely have opportunities to do so. One of these places was Bistro Monadnock. I love the building and it’s story, so I was excited to see this new restaurant. Their web side says:

This project is a homecoming for the bistro’s owners – John, Karl & Graeme Fehr. The three brothers previously operated a boutique law firm in the Monadnock Building from 2011 – 2017. Ditching the courtroom for the dining room, this is their third hospitality concept in 6 years. They considered no other building for this restaurant.

Since Boris is in town (he arrived on Sunday), but I still needed to work from the office (not like I absolutely needed to, but it was easier to organize everything that way, and I had other things to do in the Loop. One of these to-do things was near DePaul campus, so I suggested we go there for dinner.

The menu is all in French, and I knew only a couple of dishes. so I had to Google them to get an idea. After googling, the pictures on the website started to make sense :).

That was Jacques Rose, very nice fruitie and tart cocktail
Frisée aux Lardons salad: “potatoes” in this salad are these very thin laced chips:). I was trying to imagine, how warm bacon could pair with greens, but it was really great.
Bouillabaisse was one of the few dishes I didn’t need to google:)
Beef Bourguignon – I didn’t know that the meet was boneless ribs (it was Boris’ choice after we got instructions from the waiter)
They ran out of a dessert I wanted, so we both got profiteroles with pistachio gelato

The Lifestyle Creep

This is a part of a newsletter from my wealth management company. I was hesitant about sharing this article because the way it is written implies it concerns only very well off people, so I felt like it will be perceived as “rich people problem.” Still, I believe that the issue is rather universal, and that any time someone experience a substantial increase in income, there is a possibility of the “lifestyle creep.” I think, that stories about people who won a lottery and soon found themselves broke, can be attributed to the same effect.

Here is how this article starts:

Lifestyle creep happens when your expenses increase alongside your income. As you earn more, it’s easy to spend more freely, perhaps without much thought. As income increases, it’s only natural to want to improve your lifestyle, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, either, up to a point. Without keeping tabs on the cumulative effect of daily financial decisions like business class upgrades or pricey dinners, it’s easy to lose track of how much you’re saving versus spending. After all, as the name suggests, lifestyle creep happens slowly.

For high earners, there’s enough cash coming in that makes it easy to cover just about any upgrade, so the cost can seem small when considering the big picture. But unless you’re tracking your saving and spending, you risk getting used to a lifestyle that you can’t support once you stop working. So the key to enjoying your success now — and maintaining that standard later — is ensuring your savings rate increases at least as much as your additional spending.

I do not want to cite practical calculation examples from this article, because most people do not have that kind of money, but the general idea is that when a person ‘s income increases substantially, they should use not more than half of this increase for “quality of life improvement” (actually, they recommend 30-40%), and the rest should go to increasing the retirement savings. Again, the principle behind it is that people expect to maintain the same lifestyle after retirement as they had before, so they should budget for that.

The final paragraph of the article reads:

You can only spend a dollar once. But there’s also no prize for being the richest person in the graveyard. Being intentional about how you spend and save your money can help you maximize both. So before upgrading to business class, run the numbers to see how all your incremental lifestyle improvements add up relative to your savings.

I think that balancing between these two (“enjoy the day” and “richest person in the graveyard”) is indeed difficult, and I do not think I always make right decisions. But I know since the time I was very poor (and it happened to me more than once during my lifetime) that budgeting is critical, and good budgeting can improve one’s life more than moderate pay increase. Of course, I am not talking about people leaving below the poverty level, and of course, I am not implying that everyone should be happy with what they have. It’s the season of giving, after all.

Well, I really hope I didn’t offend anybody, and I hope that I was able to express my thoughts.

ZooLights 2025

I never went to ZooLights in the Lincoln Park Zoo until last year, and last year I went because my friend Y. asked me to go with her, but then she canceled, so Igor and I went. This fall, I was researching summer camps for next summer, and found that Lincoln Zoo has some, and I decided to become a member. I never thought of joining the Lincoln Zoo, because the admission is free, and I do not need parking. But this year I realized, that the membership cost is very low, and you have access to member-only events, like the opening night of the ZooLights.

I got my free tickets, and invited Y., and this time, she was able to join me. I think that the pictures are better this year not only because I have a better phone, but also because I had a better experience overall. My only bad experience was getting back home. I was very lucky to get from work to the zoo just in 40 minutes, becuase both buses arrived on time, but on the way back, there was no promise of the bus for the next 30 minutes. I hailed Uber, but as usual, they mixed up how to get to the right entrance, and it was all not that much faster.

Anyway, here are some pictures and videos – enjoy!

Matter Does Not Disappear

Last Saturday, my neighbor R. asked me whether I saw her Amazon package: she saw a deliver photo, but when she came home, the package was not there. I didn’t see anything, so I couldn’t help her, but then, a similar thing happened to me: I received notification about delivery, but when I came back home, there was nothing. I even walked to the adjacent building to check their lobby, because sometimes, we receive their items and vise versa, but I saw through the glass door that their mailroom floor was empty.

Mine was rather expensive delivery (from Apple), and in addition, the item was personalized, so naturally, I was rather upset, and blamed myself for not texting R. and not asking her to pick up the package, and for being so careless, etc. Next, since the photo showed multiple parcels, I decided to email our condominium mailing list. I rarely do that, but I felt like that was a good reason.

My neighbor R., who’s package was missing two days earlier, followed up with her email, and about 10 minutes later, one of the adjacent building residents responded: there was a pile of packages in our mailroom today! Even though I already checked them, I went back one more time, and this time, entered the building. There was nothing on the floor, but when I looked up, I saw to packages on the first landing up, and guess what – those were my and my neighbor’s packages. I picked them up, returned to our building, and emailed a thank-you note, saying that it would never occur to me to go one flight up. The person, who pointed me originally to the right direction, replied:

We always walk them up.  Till they make their way home.  I saw a bunch and wasn’t sure who was who.  Glad you got them!

Having that both myself and R. are on the third floor, it would take a while until people would realize it was the wrong building!

Revolution(s) At Goodman

I am writing this post during the intermission, sitting in the first row of the Owen Theater in Goodman.

I am glad I decided to go, and made time to see the one before last performance,

I am glad I went on my own, not inviting any of my girlfriends.

The play is extremely loaded. A part of me wants to leave and not watch the second act, because I think it will be even more intense, but I won’t.

I worked from home today, so that I could see mom after work, and still go to Goodman. That scenario worked surprisingly well, so I think I will be doing it sometimes.

I am glad I am here. The second act is about to begin, unveiling a drama that’s way too close to what’s happening on the streets outside the theater. It’s a call for action, but I am not sure which one.

Digital ID

Starting from yesterday, digital IDs are in use in Illinois, and guess who was clicking on their Apple Wallet starting at 7 AM, waiting for a new option to appear!

And guess, who already has it approved 😊

Rogers Park: The Movie

Now tell me, why I didn’t know about this movie?! I dropped everything I was doing (and trust me, I had enough to do!) and started watching! (That was on Sunday, and I just finished it)

Watch here!

***

I thought my last week was “too much,” but this week was even worse because of several major incidents at work. Once again, it’s not like I work long hours, but how I work. During these two weeks, I had to pack a lot into each minute of my workday, and then, there were also multiple non-work urgent matters.

I ordered several new devices, which were on my list for a while, but I didn’t want to upgrade anything before my trip, so I ordered a bunch a day before my departure. And just to give you a picture of my overload: I received a new laptop on November 5, but it was not until November 13 that I opened it, and not until this morning that I migrated my previous Mac to the new one.

My previous was Mac Air, and it was super light. I consciously switched back to Mac Pro, but I already slightly regret it because it’s way heavier, even though it has almost the same dimensions.

A funny thing happened with my iPhone. I am on an Apple upgrade program, so I had to return my old phone back to Apple when I received a new one. When I took my old iPhone out of it’s case, I saw that it’s back was massively cracked. I dropped in multiple times, but I never had a need to take the case off, and the screen was fine. I still packed it for return, and was anxiously waiting for a note from Apple about how much they will charge me for repair. Miraculously, the repair cost was only $31, so now I am a happy owner of iPhone 17 🙂

I also got a new smart scale, and same story, I had to wait for the weekend to switch to it, because I couldn’t find twenty extra minutes in the morning to connect the new device to my account and to run the firmware update.

Things are finally sorted now, and I think I am done with new devices for some time 🙂

My old and new macs talking to each other 🙂

Weekend With The Girls

Since we spent most of Friday waiting for the heater to be repaired, we didn’t go to the Navy Pier as we originally planned. However, the weather was great, so I insisted on going outside at least for a little bit.

Kira is great in spotting little things, like noticing this ladybug in the fallen leaves
Also, if it weren’t for Kira, I wouldn’t notice how beautiful the ginkgo yellow leaves are!
And I never paid attention to the ginkgo fruits
Continue reading “Weekend With The Girls” →

Two Days Of Disasters

My plans for this first week back from Helsinki included some cultural and volunteering activities each day of the week. On some days, I had several to choose from, and I was doing my mental Tetris to fit in at least two things in one night.

On Wednesday, I was going to attend a concert, but I decided against it at the very last moment. I had zero time during the day to do anything except work, and the conference things began to pile up. Also, I knew that my upgraded phone and my new laptop had arrived, and I needed to start the transition.

When I returned home, I immediately noticed that it was a little bit colder than it should have been. Sometimes this happens when my Ecobee knows I am not at home, but it didn’t look like it was the case that time. I heard the HVAC working, but no heat was coming out of it. At first, I thought that I would wait till morning to call the service, but then I decided to leave them a message. It was already after 9 PM, and their AI assistant took my call. I told them that it could wait until morning, but asked them to leave a message for the staff.

On Thursday, I planned to work from home anyway. Since Anna was bringing the girls in the evening, and I was planning to attend a concert, I figured I would work from home, visit my mom during the lunch break, get the house ready, and then head to the concert. So at a glance, it was not a huge plan interruption. Except for when they called me at 7 AM, they said they only had afternoon appointments available, but they could put me on standby if someone canceled. I didn’t go to my mom because I was waiting, and finally, they called me after four to say that they were 45 minutes away.

I decided to visit my mom briefly, and messaged my neighbor that, most likely, I won’t be able to go to the concert. FInally, the repair person arrived and informed me that one really expansive part broke, and that he didn’t have it in his trunk, and hopefully tomorrow.

Theoretically, I still could go to the concert, but I was in a completely wrong mood for that, so I tried to do some more work and to get the house ready for the weekend. Things never break “on time,” but retrospectively, I was lucky that it was not too cold yet, so all of us didn’t get cold overnight. The bad part was that we couldn’t go anywhere far from the house, because the service was scheduled for “between 10 AM and 2 PM.” We went to the playground for a little bit, and returned home to wait for the repair. When a repair person arrived, they found one more problem and fixed it. It was great, but by then, it was already 2 PM so we couldn’t go to any of the museums.

In addition to this heater saga, my mom was upset that they were going to do a repair in her bathroom (do not ask me why she was upset about fixing things!), and there were several major issues at work.

However, today, four days later, I am glad that all of this ahppened when the outside temperature was 50F, not yesterday, when it was barely 30F with the wind making it feel even colder and several inches of snow overnight!