Church bowling

Tonight Andy and I took L and her friend, R, to the church's bowling outing/pizza party.

L bowled on the lane with a bunch of youth group kids. She scored a 31. I noticed she was bowling with her phone in her other hand. Probably not the best idea.

Andy celebrates a good frame.

As you can see, none of us bowlers was very good. I tried to get a picture of the scoreboard before the timing reminder came up, but I was too slow. Look closely, though, I won with a whopping 122. Kinda sad. I was throwing the ball pretty well, but I got a lot of splits. And with six of us sharing one lane, we only got to play one game.

Cable problems

This is not what you want to see when you turn on the TV. Fortunately, it fixed itself.

College freebies

E picked up a few freebies from Google on campus yesterday.

My cropping buddy

It's nice that August wants to be near me, but it's hard to scrapbook when he's sitting on my album ...

and when I got him to move, he sat on my supplies.

Seed pods

A first for us - our milkweeds have seed pods and lots of them. Can't wait for them to dry and burst open.

College homework

E sent these pictures yesterday of her homework for a coding class. Last week she asked me to email her some pictures of the cats for a project she had to do. Apparently, she was coding her own version of PhotoShop and came up with these photos. At least her project worked!

Oh, the shoes!

L saw these shoes at JCPenney Friday night before we met everyone at the Oktoberfest in Glendale Heights. We didn't get them that night; I thought the heel was too high and they're something she'd never wear again. She wants them for the homecoming dance. That night, she showed pictures of the shoes to her aunts, who agreed they were cute and would provide a little pop of color to her outfit. On the way home she said she loved how her aunts agreed with her that the shoes were cute. We bought them yesterday.

Oktoberfest No. 3

This afternoon, while L was shopping with a friend, Andy and I went to our third (!) Oktoberfest to meet up with one of Andy's golfing partners, his wife, daughter and her boyfriend. The festival was hosted by Dovetail Brewery (1800 W. Belle Plaine) and Begyle Brewing Company (1800 W. Cuyler), two of Chicago's most popular craft breweries (according to their press release, at least). I have to say, of the three Oktoberfests we've been to this season, the beer was the best here.

This picture doesn't really show how many people were there. It was really hot again today, in the low 90s, so a lot of people were inside. Little kids were spraying each other with water guns and it looked really inviting.

Oktoberfest No. 2

Tonight we went to the Oktoberfest in Glendale Heights and met Julie and Kevin and Allison and Pat for dinner and conversation. When we pulled into the parking lot, Julie and Kevin pulled in right behind us. What are the odds of that?

L came along. Here she is making a video of the surroundings.

After Allison and Pat arrived we moved to a table outside of the tent. It was so warm; too warm for the first day of fall. About 20 degrees warmer than it usually is this time of year. According to a news source I found, today was the third consecutive day of record-breaking high temperatures for Chicago. Friday's record was 92 degrees and by early afternoon, the temperature had already climbed to 93. Ugh.

A big tent, a German band, people dancing and the smell of sauerkraut in the air. Much more German than the Oktoberfest we went to last weekend.

Here's Andy's dinner - a bratwurst covered in mustard and a huge pretzel. We probably wouldn't have bought the pretzel but it was part of a Groupon we purchased to get in (admission for two adults, two beers and two pretzels, a $34 value, for $19. And we had a code for 20 percent off).

It certainly was a big pretzel. I didn't finish mine.

L played a balloon-dart carnival game and won this Pikachu.

Conference freebies

Andy got back from his conference in Texas late last night so when I woke up this morning I was greeted with a table full of freebies. He brought home fidget spinners, flashlights, a back scratcher (really?), reusable shopping bags, a stress ball, chip clip, sponge and lots of candy and cashews.

Stash of hairbands

August loves to play with L's hairbands and I saw him bat one under the shelf. I got out the yardstick and fished it out for him, and found a whole lot more! He must have thought it was Christmas morning ...

and he went right back to playing with them.

Treats for free

Andy's out of town for business again, so L and I decided to get Culver's for dinner last night. While we were waiting for our order, one of the employees asked us if we'd like two chocolate sundaes. Um, sure. As L said, their mistake is our treat.

Take it away

So nice that AmVets calls me every month to see if I have anything I want to donate. Love that they pick it up from my front lawn. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Back to campus

Andy, L and I headed to Champaign this morning to take the kids some of things they wanted that didn't fit when we moved them down last month. We told them to pack light, but didn't expect B to leave his jacket at home. Guess he was hoping summer would last forever. We also took B the rest of his video gaming systems, a bunch of Clif Bars, some cookies I baked and I snuck in a few root beers. We brought E a pillow, sleeping bag for a sorority outing, a frying pan, corn tortillas (they haven't been able to find the "good" ones there), sauce pot and a camera.

Here are all my kids together again as we headed out to find lunch.

We ended up at Guido's for burgers and club sandwiches.

Then we did a little shopping. L couldn't resist trying on this cat head costume in Target ...

or this unicorn one. After hitting the mall to find E some dress shirts and running into one of B's new friends (what are the odds of that?), we dropped the kids off.

Andy had to stop for gas before we got back on the highway and, how lucky are we that the gas station had a Dairy Queen ... and they were already serving his favorite - a pumpkin blizzard. He was a happy guy.

Mitsuwa and the Cubs

L had her friend, T, sleep over last night and they were talking about all things Japanese when L realized T had never been to Mitsuwa. What? So we did a little road trip and the girls picked up lots of Japanese candy and ingredients to make rice balls.

The Japanese the girls put on this photo is "Totoro is inside Mitsuwa." At least that's what they think it says. We brought the girls home so they could make their rice balls while Andy and I ...

went to the Cubs vs. Cardinals game at Wrigley Field with the tickets he won earlier this week.

It was a beautiful day for a ballgame. Sunny and 85 degrees, but even sitting in a shaded seat, we were getting pretty warm.
L was fine being left at home until we told her Fall Out Boy led "Take Me Out to the Ball Park" during the seventh-inning stretch.

I was hoping the Cardinals would win, but it wasn't to be. They lost 4-1.

Oktoberfest

Andy and I went to Berwyn's Oktoberfest tonight. We picked this fan at the mayor's food booth, where we also got some Italian sausages for dinner.

I wanted to hear the '80s band, Sixteen Candles, but they didn't start performing until 8:30 and L was texting us, asking us to bring her some dinner so we left before they even got on stage.

We did get to see R Gang perform, and they were good. A few brave souls were dancing and it was quite entertaining to watch them.

How dangerous is this though? The festival is on both sides of busy railroad tracks. You can see the red warning lights of a train approaching in this picture. I don't think beer and railroad tracks are a good combination.

Meeting an '85 Bear

Andy's had a rough work week. Forced to have cocktails and dinner Monday on a beautiful summer night, then dragged to the golf course Wednesday for a "work-related" political charity benefit. He was pretty excited, though, to meet Dan Hampton, a member of the 1985 Chicago Bears team that won the Super Bowl in '86! That doesn't happen every day. Even Pat Quinn was there ... remember him? He's E's old pal.

We were planning on visiting our college kids Saturday, but Andy called and said he won tickets to the Cubs/Cardinals game Saturday so we're pushing the kids' visit back to Sunday. He also won a $100 gift certificate to Beatrix. Looks nice.

He was golfing with the editor (?) of the Chicago Law Bulletin and thinks his picture might make it in the paper today or tomorrow. If it does, I'll post a picture here.

Disney's thank you

Spend a week at Disney, get a drawing of Dumbo. Not sure what I'm supposed to do with this.

Beautiful night

Andy and his work partner just had to meet a client last night for dinner and drinks at the London House hotel, across from their office. They sat in this outdoor rooftop garden and enjoyed the nice weather. (Meanwhile, I was home with L eating a frozen pizza). At least the view this way is better than the other view:

One more fall decoration

I couldn't resist. It's kind of cute, right?

I was able to resist buying any (or all!) of this silver Christmas display at Hobby Lobby, even marked 40 percent off the regular prices. I like silver Christmas decorations because it matches our china. It's so tempting. I might have to go back!

Mission trip recap

As promised, L went to church today and delivered five of the six blankets she made for church members. (She'll deliver the sixth one Wednesday). She's made enough money to help her friend join us at Tower Hill next month!

After church, the youth treated the congregation to a pizza lunch and told us about their mission trip last summer to Benton Harbor, Mich. Little did I know this picture would make it into their slide show. Andy and I skipped a party in a downtown high-rise to celebrate the Bears' season opener (they lost). Maybe we'll be invited back next year.