About two weeks ago I finally got around to tiling our kitchen backsplash — something we have been talking about doing for a year or so. Have I ever tiled a backsplash you ask? No. In fact, I’ve never really tiled anything, but like any good husband I confidently told Alex, ‘No sweat. I can get this done in a weekend!’

The Tile

We had picked out the tile months ago and had it sitting in the garage all summer. Funny how household projects all seem to follow this pattern. We (when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘Alex’) chose multi-color glass tiles that came in 12in x 12in mesh sheets from a tile warehouse in Niles where I was mistaken for a Romanian forklift worker. I was waiting next to the forklift as one of the workers was in the back of the warehouse getting our tile when another customer walked up to me and said, and I quote ‘Are you Romanian?’ while handing me his receipt. Interestingly enough this is not the first time I’ve been mistaken for a European. On a flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, I had a flight attendant recite me my full dinner and drink options in German before I stopped her and explained that I don’t speak a lick of German.

The Plan

As I said, I’ve never tiled anything before so I went to the best source of how-to information in the world, the internet. In a matter of minutes I was a tiling expert and was pretty confident I could build an extension on the back of our house with the help of the internet, but that’s another story. With my list of materials in hand I set off to the best source of tiling materials in the world, Home Depot.

The Execution

Three things I learned while tiling.

• Tiling is a Mess

The grout was flying everywhere, behind the stove, on the countertop, in the sink and in my hair. Everywhere!!! What a mess, I swear it took me longer to clean up than it did to grout the tile.

• Cutting Small Glass Tiles is Impossible

The glass tiles were approximately 3/4in square in a 12in x 12in mesh sheet making them flexible and very difficult to cut with a wet saw. To make matters worse the clamps provided by the almighty Home Depot saw weren’t made to fit our specific tile. Lets just say that safety flew out the window after a few scrap sheets were wasted. It wasn’t pretty, but with the help of a pair of vice grips, a couple of shims and a home made clamp I was able to cut a few tiles to fit in the corners.

• Glass Tiles Look Wonderful

You can judge for yourself, just take a look at the before and after pictures, but I think it made a huge difference. The kitchen looks great and it was well worth the effort!

The Aftermath

Unfortunately for Alex, I’m ready to take on any tiling project. I already have plans for the kitchen floor, bathroom floor and shower. Watch out world, tile man is coming! Now I just need a cool green spandex suit like the guy on Always Sunny.

Dave and I went to Ravinia on Friday night after work, or should I say Raveenia as Nelly Furtado (the act we saw) did. You would think they would tell her the correct way to pronounce it, but whatever. I haven’t been there in a few years actually. We were going pretty consistently for a while, but then it got sooo crowded and a bit obnoxious.

All in all, though, this time was pretty good. It wasn’t a sold out show, so we had a little breathing room. And we got the tickets for free, so we only had to pay for our food and booze, most of which we purchased before and brought with us. It ended up being quite a chilly night though! It was only in the 60s to start and then the temp definitely dropped down to the 50s by the end. The gift shop was doing particularly well selling Ravinia sweatshirts and blankets that night. We saw several suckers walk by as we ate our picnic! I guess summer is officially over in Chicago.

The food we brought consisted of a few varieties of artisanal cheese (gouda, goat cheese, huntsman) some sea salt and rosemary crackers, french bread, hummus and peppers, a nice bottle of red wine, and 3 brownies that I hate to admit I polished off myself after Dave only took one or two measly bites (wimp!). We did end up buying a margarita style flatbread pizza from one of the restaurants at Ravinia, which I have to say was just OK. It could have been a bit warmer. Wait—maybe just warm in general since it was ice cold when we ate it. But it was still tasty.

If you didn’t want to pack your own food, you could certainly choose from a wide assortment from the restaurants there, as long as you are willing to pay for it! Prices, like any concession, are a bit more money. There were several people walking with chinese food containers from one restaurant, and they also had burgers, salads, and sandwiches. We looked into a second bottle of wine (we only brought one) and it was going to be at least $35, so we took a pass. There were even a few brave souls eating ice cream, which I cannot believe considering it was freezing outside.

Another great thing about finally going back to Raveenia, I mean Ravinia, was that Dave and I finally got to use our picnic basket/backpack we got as a wedding present from my neighbor almost 4 years ago. That thing is awesome! I should have brought it down from the attic ages ago! Williams Sonoma definitely has everything figured out. We had everything we could possibly need in that thing—plastic plates, wine glasses, silverware, tablecloths, napkins, knives, containers, even a teeny cutting board for the cheese! In fact, there were several parties around us who kept coming over to borrow our wine opener because they had forgotten to bring their own.

And for the entertainment, Nelly Furtado put on a pretty good show. Although I only know her popular music from Kiss FM, I guess she does some spanish stuff too which wasn’t all that bad. She kept saying stuff in her cute but strange Canadian/Spanish accent, which was a little hard to figure out. And I told Dave that I think she’s from Portugal as well, but he said she couldn’t be FROM Portugal AND Canada, which doesn’t make sense to me at all. Dave doesn’t make sense most of the time. The best part? Nelly yelling over the mic that it didn’t seem so cold out tonight. Yeah right lady. You are up on stage jumping around with 10,000 watt bulbs shining on you. We are all out on the lawn in 50 degree weather with the wind whipping up trying to keep our pretty tea lights from blowing out.

Maybe next summer we will go earlier in the season!