Surprise Saturday.

On Saturdays, Tim takes our vehicle and teaches lessons till 4 p.m. Yesterday, I got up early and went grocery shopping before Tim even left the bedroom. As a special bonus and lover treat, I got him two fresh doughnuts from the bakery at Tony's, which are as light as...light. I think this good deed paid forward.

I spent all day mopping, re-organizing, and cleaning up any trace of our dog fostering experiment, including random piles of cat vomit and actively ignoring the wet spot on the carpet from Pepper, dear Pepper, who left us on Friday for her photo shoot. We really loved having Pepper stay with us, but our cats just weren't happy. And neither was the wet spot on the carpet---I tried to clean it, and it ended up bubbling up when it dried, and I was afraid I had ruined this borrowed area rug that just really tied the room together (heh). It's okay now.

Anyway, after long hours of working with a ripped mop and balls and balls of fuzz, I was eager to leave the house and have an "experience." I was even up for sitting down to enjoy a few hours of live jazz---I KNOW. That's a leap for me. But we were too late on the ball---things that looked interesting had already started for the evening, so we decided to leave the house, buy a bottle of wine, and do something I've wanted to do for a while: record a quick cover song with Tim.

Our favorite liquor store (that sounds worse than it actually is, MOM) didn't have Tim's favorite 20 oz of Fat Tire or my favorite cheap bottle of Chilean wine. So we went to the store down Milwaukee Avene, and decided to stop in at a local bar to have a drink before going back to the apartment.

We walked down California, where this young blond man gave me the stink eye for like, 15 seconds, and decided to walk into this tiny dark bar name Pancho's. We walked past a couple times before we decided to go in, and Tim literally said "there's no white people in there." As in, we're going to STICK OUT.

But I was all "ADVENTURE!" so we headed in. And. It was the BEST PLACE EVER. Here is why.


1. We walked in, and the bartender said "I make a the best mojitos." And you know what? He did. Fresh lime, lots of ground mint, and fresh sugar cane. It makes the mojitos at Juanos taste like kool aid (oooooooh yyeaaaaaaah!)
2. The bartender WAS Pancho, the owner of the bar (open for four years) and the restaurant, operating for 20 years. He's also been married to his wife for 43 years, and they came to America because their son had leukemia. He is healthy now and works for the state of Illinois. We're pretty tight with Pancho now. Tim interpreted about 40% of the conversation for me---he kept slipping back into Spanish. If he would have mentioned milk or forks, I would have totally known what he was talking about. Leche. Tenedor.
3. He immediately called over his good friend, Rey Sanchez, former Cubs player (91-97) that lived on Rush when he lived in Chicago. Rey talked to us for like, 15 minutes and also informed us that he prefers Blue Label Whiskey, which we later saw was about $200 a bottle. Oh, that Rey, he's a high roller!
4. Rey told us that when he played for the Cubs, he would have Poncho bring food down for all the Puerto Rican and Cuban players on the team. Now Pancho serves both ends of the Red Line---Cubs and White Sox players.

5. We asked Pancho and Rey were we should go when we visit Miami next month. They suggested Mango's Cafe, which is a bar apparently where all the go-go dancers wear bikini tops and no pants. Don't worry, men are also encouraged to leave their shirts behind. Hmm.
6. Both men started talking to Tim about music. Pancho said, "hey, you play guitar?" and pulled out a tenor saxophone, mouthpiece on, ready to go, from under the bar. Best move by a bartender, ever.
7. Tim knew all the artists they were talking about, and impressed them by noting that he'd played with Arturo Sandivol and Bob Mintzer.
8. Pancho's best friend walked in, and told us a story about Pancho using a chain saw to cut down a branch outside the restaurant, and then slicing into this knee, but signing himself out of the hospital because he had a catering order for 300 people that day.
9. We also heard a story that involved a patron of the bar, a gun, someones head, and a stroke. But at the end of the story, everyone was okay. We couldn't really follow the story line. If it had involved a library or pencil sharpener, I would have been all over it. Bibliotecca. Sacapuntas!
10. We ended the night talking about how every one in Puerto Rico plays music, and how they only reason you should be playing music is to enjoy it.

When Tim and I left, I skipped down the street. A REAL ADVENTURE! I felt like I had just been at the Puerto Rican Mad Hatter's tea party for grown-ups. We went home and recorded a cover of "Julia." We will post it later. It was such a great day. Sigh.