Chillin’ Like A Villain

Our first week as Arizona residents has proven to be quite an adventure. The desert wildlife has greeted us in some very unexpected ways. Namely:

• A desert “roof rat” decided that our soy-coated Volkswagen wires (don’t ask me why they coat them in soy) looked delicious enough to chew through overnight. Literally between Tuesday night and Wednesday, our car went from being fit to drive 1,800 miles to warning light central. Fortunately the warning lights are not for real problems – it’s just the tricked wires. Unfortunately, fixing chewed wires is expensive! If there is a bright light in all of this, it is that our insurance will cover it and it makes for a pretty funny story. 🙂
• I was greeted by a baby snake when walking out onto the porch yesterday. I quickly ran back inside and as a result, didn’t see where he went. A few minutes later my dad and brother came out and it appeared as though he was gone. That is, until our skinny little friend decided to show up again last night. Apparently he had been hiding in the water pipes (not unlike a basilisk…). We called and had someone come to pick him up and take him back to his desert home. Thankfully, he was able to reassure us that it wasn’t a rattler but rather a king snake.

Good times in the desert! We also saw a coyote on our way to the gym. We’ll never have adventures like these back in Chicago and I have to say that after the fact, they are hilarious.

On the positive side, we did some serious house searching last weekend and found a neighborhood we love! We’ll be going to look at a few more houses in the area tomorrow. Although we are not jumping into something by any means, it’s a lot of fun to start thinking about where we’ll end up.

I also had the opportunity to meet a fellow AZ blogger in person yesterday. Nicole is awesome and we chatted for a little over an hour about life here and everything there is to look forward to. She is also the co-creator of the Arizona Bloggers Network, which I can’t wait to sign up for!

And so ends the Arizona update for now. More to come soon!

***

One of our goals during our last week in Chicago was to finally pay a visit to our neighborhood bar, Villains. When we first moved to the South Loop three years ago, the running joke was that the bar was called Villains because we were a mere three blocks from a city jail. (We were in a very safe part of town, but it was the one block to avoid late at night.)

Eventually, we figured out that it was called Villains to commemorate all the old Chicago gangsters – Al Capone, Bugs Moran, John Dillinger and the like. We kept promising that we’d go in to see what it was all about, but it took a cross-country move to finally get us there.

I’m so glad it did, because this place was amazing! Between the eerie decor, antibiotic-free beef and extensive beer menu, Villains was a big hit. I can never resist a pumpkin beer (clearly), so I started out with the Southern Tier Pumking. It was a bit darker than I usually like but definitely tasty.

For dinner I went with “The Loot” burger, which came with Swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms and red peppers. I ordered the tater tots on the side, which proved to be a yummy choice. This burger was amazing! (Please excuse the horrible flash photo – it was dark in there.)

At the end of the meal, I found myself wishing that we had come to Villains more often. And yet there is also something special about knowing that it was one of the last memories we’ll take with us from our time as South Loop residents.

The grass-fed beef is pretty good in Arizona, too.

Papa Bender made some delicious feta-stuffed burgers for us this past weekend. Combined with a fresh Caprese salad and veggies, I think it might have been a little healthier than the tots. But not getting them at Villains would have been a crime. 😉

What are you looking forward to this week?

Abrazos,