2011 started out with PJ and I finishing our trip in Colombia and while we were away enjoying ourselves my good buddy Sol happened to have lunch with an old friend of his that he went to High School with and had not seen in about 8 or 9 years. Sol was enjoying brunch with Christine whom I had known about 15 or so years ago but mostly just as Sol’s friend that I would see from time to time. While they were at brunch catching up they started talking about dating and what she was looking for and somehow the list of what she was looking for instantly brought my name to Sol’s mind. Sol asked Christine if she would consider going out with Dave and she said Dave Jacobs? Your buddy Dave? Sol was like yes, you just mentioned all of his qualities. When I returned from Colombia a few days later Sol asked me if I remembered Christine and I would want to go out with her. Of course I remembered her and Yes I would be interested in going out with her. I totally remembered her and how cute and nice she was, I waited about a week and sent her a text and caught up a little bit and we made plans to go to Sunda for dinner January 19th…

Christine and I had our 1st date 1/19 and since we knew each other from the past we were very comfortable right away and got together a few more times right away. Well all I can say is 2011 will go down in history as an amazing whirlwind that continues to be incredible almost a full year later. We took our 1st vacation to early March to Beaver Creek and got Engaged in Paris middle of April followed by a couple trips to Salt Lake City and then Turk and Caicos to pick a spot to get married on the beach. We decided that Mexico would be easier and more fun so we chose The Grand Velas in The Riviera Maya and we had an amazing beach wedding with 40 friends and family on August 6th. The following weekend we had the party of the year for about 130 people on the rooftop of my dads building that was so much fun with awesome food and friends and family and was beyond perfect.

The whirlwind year included so much more than those few highlights. I started running quite a bit when Christine and I started dating and ended up running many small races. We ran multiple 5k’s and 8k’s a 10 miler and 6 1/2 marathons which I never even thought I was capable of running and to finish off the running season I Ran the Chicago Full Marathon and less than a month later I ran NYC Full Marathon with Christine. The year was full of dozens amazing meals at restaurants in Chicago, NYC, Colorado, Turks & Caicos and also Mexico. We went camping, apple picking, hiking, runs and Yoga. We spent the holidays in Salt Lake and New Years in Chicago with friends. We are now starting 2012 celebrating my 40th birthday in Jamaica and I now that 2012 is going to be an incredible year also.

Outside of the amazing new relationship that quickly turned into an engagement and shortly after became a marriage I have had a busy year in many other ways. Lockdown has grown into exactly what we had hoped and becoming a favorite place for the neighborhood and all of Chicago. We are looking forward to spring and all the hard work to paying off. We have decided to open up a new dream of a late night hot dog stand serving a small but amazing menu. We are opening up Phil’s Last Stand around the 3rd week of January and we are sure it will be a winner. I will be putting in a lot of time and love into PLS with Phil’s food expertise and personality keeping the people happy and coming back.

Well that is my end of the year post and even though I have missed many things that we dad and happened I know that 2011 will go down as one of the best years of my life and I am excited for the future and to continue living my dreams and making more of them come true.

I promise to post more often this year and share a little piece of our lives

Till next time

Another big change going on this year is we are opening up a new restaurant on Chicago Avenue and it is the life long dream Hot Dog Stand. We are opening up Phil’s Last Stand and it is going to be a combination of Poochie’s and The Wiener Circle serving Char Dogs, Polish, Burgers, Char Salami, Mac & Cheese, Fresh Cut Fries and Fresh Made Fried Shrimp. We are in the middle of remodeling and adding granite counter tops and a few new windows and we should be open early December with the best late night fast food around.

Well that is about it, married life is great and I wish winter was not coming.

Till Next Time

Married life is great and the weekend in Chesterfield was so much fun and Hoober had the best time ever that started with 5 mile morning run with Tine followed but 5 hours playing with Ella and then a hard hour of swimming in the creek behind Betsy’s house. We are busy with the new venture of opening up Phil’s Last Stand on Chicago and Oakley and getting ready to give the Wiener Circle a run for the money for late night Char Dogs.

Till Next Time

During training a few times I said that once I complete Chicago I will not be doing any more Marathons and really like Half’s instead but 2 days after finishing I am already looking forward to completing another Full. I am working on getting a BIB for NYC 11/6 and planning on running it with Christine. Well I am not sure how long I will have the running bug but I am going to take advantage of it while I do.

Not much more to report but lots of interesting things coming soon….

Things have been great since all the wedding stuff passed and Christine and I are settling into our new life together very smooth besides being a little short on closet space.  We have been cooking quite a bit at home and I have actually been helping with making some salads such as Pasta, Egg and Tuna for our lunches and we have been making lots of brown rice as well.  Couple nice dinners out along the way and we never miss a great brunch on the weekends.  Hoober is doing great and really maturing into a great dog,  he has been out of the crate for over a month without one issue with him chewing or being bad in any way.   Couple food highlights of the month were Gilt Bar, ROKA and few of the regular spots.

That is it for now

Couple highlights the last few weeks would be Navneet returned from San Fran and we enjoyed a few days in Chicago showing him around.  We took him to Kitsch’N in Roscoe Village for brunch and then went to Natalia’s bowling part in Oakpark and nav bowled for his 1st time followed by more shopping and late night dinner at India House.  We took Nav to the airport Sunday and Christine and I ran my longest run on the lake that started at my dads and we ran 15 miles.  The running has continued and Christine has been a huge help running with me and I am not sure I could do these long runs without her,  we ran 16 hard trail miles in Palos Heights this last Sunday.   We have enjoyed some nice dinner at home and out over the last couple weeks and pretty much just trying to settle into married life.  Christine is busy with the school year starting and I am busy with LookLocalNow and my other small projects.

That is it for now.  Till Next time!!!

August 6th Christine and I flew to Cancun to start the wedding weekend in Play Del Carmen at the Grand Velas with 41 friends and family.  The entire stay was great and we had such a good time hanging with friends and family.  The hotel was an incredible 5 start all inclusive resort with some of the best food and best service I have ever had.  I golfed, fished, learned to SUP and had an amazing and fun time with our friends and families.  Saturday August 6th we got married on the beach and the weather was perfect.  After the ceremony we had cocktail hour on the beach followed with a dinner and dancing also on the beach.  Christine and I had the perfect destination wedding with a couple days alone after everyone left Sunday.

August 13th we had a huge party downtown at my dad’s rooftop at 530 N. Lakeshore Dr. with about 135 of our closest friends and family and after a shaky rainy start inside the weather broke and the party moved to the roof for the best party ever.  We had passes appetizers then some speeches and dancing followed by 2 amazing food stations opening.  We had one station serving Jewish mini dishes including hot dogs, corn beef sandwiches, brisket sandwiches, Kugel on a stick and some other Jewish finger foods.  The second station was a Korean table with a bunch of really yummy Korean dishes that were all very amazing also.  We then had a French dessert table with some of our favorites from Nutella and banana crepes, French Macaroons and many other little French pastries.  We closed out the night with Lou Malnati’s delivered and Garretts Popcorn.  The dancing went all the way to about 11PM with some rain making it even more fun and OH!!!  don’t forget about the fireworks at Navy Pier that we got to enjoy.   Everyone that was still around and wanting to party made there way across the street to Quay for a couple more hours of drinking and dancing.

Well the entire wedding experience was a fun amazing success and I am sad it is all over but looking forward to everything that comes next.  Thanks to all my friends and family for making it the best wedding ever..  Sorry for rambling but wanted to get the last 3 weeks recorded and shared.  Look for a few great galleries of all the pictures very soon.

Lots of dinners and a couple BBQ’s and got to try out a new place called Quay and even snuck in a night at Cirque Ovo with my dad and Janice.   This weekend we have a wedding shower for Christine to meet a bunch of my relatives hosted by my Sister and my Mom at Jilly’s.  Next weekend it is Bachelor party weekend with all my boys taking me to Lake Geneva for a couple days of fun and Tine is going out with all the girls for her fun night.  Then it is off to Mexico to tie the Knot with 39 friends and a family with a big Chicago party the following weekend.

Well that is a little catch up for now and life is about to get very very interesting and we are adding a new Jacobs to ChicagoJacobs.   Until next time!!!

Well there is plenty of other things going but its very hard to catch up.  I am going to try to post a more but after 5 years of saying that it probably wont happen till after the wedding.

Till Next time