A sign of fall

It's officially fall in our house when Andy makes his tortellini and sausage soup.

Fall visitor

A big praying mantis on our back porch.

Weekend yard sale finds

I didn't get anything too exciting at yard sales with Allison this weekend, but these two, lighted wreaths for $5 was too much of a deal to pass up. The seller said they worked and after putting in new batteries - they do. I dont really need two wreaths but Allison pointed out that we do have two doors lol. Sold.

And I bought this Mikasa crystal candle/wine bottle holder. It's pretty for $2. I'm not sure what it would cost in a store but it wouldn't be $2.

A perk of going to fall yard sales is seeing how people decorate for Halloween. This was too cute. The homeowner said a nearby preschool brings kids by for fall photos. How could they not?

Another project done

This was one of Andy's weekend projects - spreading rock underneath the new front stairs. I didnt want the contractor to put lattice up but now passers-by can see under the stairs so our solution was to add rock so it would look better and still drain.

We were fortunate to find enough bricks in the back yard and garage to make borders to contain the rocks. My job was to toss the bags at rock to him while he was under the stairs ooening bags and spreading it around. We used eight bags of rock. And look at that shiny gutter he put up this morning.

Another project done!

Oh, and Andy did this too - reframed a porch window in the gangway. I'm sure the neighbors will be happy once we get it painted.

Nice night

A fire ...

Schubert ...

and my Halloween decorations.

Fall decor

I put up some fall decorations and August just had to check them out. He looks like he knows he's in trouble for being on the mantle.

Heath asters?

I always thought these tiny flowers were weeds. Apparently they're Heath Asters, a native prairie flower. They can become invasive so I guess they could be considered a weed.

Pretty little flowers though. We saw a lot of them on our walk this evening.

Emergency root canal

What a day for L. She had been complaining since Thursday of her mouth hurting so she went to see a dentist today. They said she needed a root canal, and fortunately, were able to do it today. She sent this pic on her way to Walgreens to pick up some pain meds and antibiotics. Funny, she said the dentist and staff were gentler and nicer than the dentist she sees at home. She needs to go back two more times for a crown so it's good she found a dentist she likes.

Bike vs. mirror

When Andy went to put my car in the garage last night he noticed a note under the wiper. Apparently some kid hit my driver's side mirror with his bike. Ouch. Fortunately, the dad left a note and his phone number. Andy took the car to the local body shop this morning and got an estimate to repair it with used parts for $368. He called and talked to the dad who immediately sent us $368. Wow.

And look who was back for breakfast this morning. His mom texted L last night to say he had returned home after being gone for the day.

Heavy metal

CVS sent me a $5 coupon to use toward a cosmetic or nail product. I found this Sally Hansen nail polish in "heavy metal" and thought, why not? Gray is a nice fall color. Not sure I liked it at first but it's growing on me. On a sad note, I talked to Schubert's mom this morning and he didn't go home last night. Hope he's OK. We haven't seen him today.

The lights are back

Andy was busy this morning putting our vackyard lights back up. He took them down before work began on the roof. He also painted more trim and reglazed some windows. I painted the trim around the front door while he watched the U.S. Championship.

So we lit a fire tonight ...

enjoyed a margarita. It was a perfect fall night.

Thanks from the gov

L sent the governor one of her handmade masks back in May and today got a thank you letter from his office. Kind of surprised it took so long but I guess he's a busy guy.

Super grower

This was the Wandering Jew plant when I bought it in May thanks to a gift card from the Triangle Room kids. Look at it now:

We plan on bringing it in the house before the first frost. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it alive. We might try to split it up into two pots.

Time to unsubscribe

Guess I don’t need to be reading these daily OPRF bulletins anymore. I also got a Google classroom update for L's high school calculus class.

Smoky vs. hazy

The TV stations are reporting that smoke from the West Coast is rolling in, making the sky hazy. Andy and I thought it was slightly hazy on a walk we took last night. I sent the photo to E and she sent one back:

This is smoky, taken from her rooftop dog area.

Good news for E

Saw this on WGN Morning News. Microsoft is one of the top five tech stocks. That’s good news for E who gets company stock as part of her compensation package.

And E posted this picture (taken by D, of course) on Facebook today. Azula is 5 months old!

Stucco work Day 7 - Done!

Today the stucco guys got around to doing the front porch. I could see one crack they needed to repair. They obviously saw a lot more!

Looks so much better. Just have to wait till the coating dries to put the shelf and flag back out there.

Front of house is done. Yes, we have lots of trim to paint.

And the back. We're happy with the color. And see Schubert? He's happy the workers are gone so he can get to our back porch.

Repainting the trim

It rained yesterday but today was absolutely perfect fall weather. We took advantage of the nice day and painted the trim on the first-floor, south side of the house. This is a "before" shot.

So is this.

Andy and I took turns scraping and painting. It helps to have a left-hander and a right-hander on the job. We make a good team.

Here's an "after" shot.

We celebrated the end of the project at Goldyburger's. Yes, he's watching golf.

We'll consider this lunch - cheddar cheese balls. Delicious!

Summer 1978

Darla sent me some old pictures last night. This is us at the Staunton Country Club, summer 1978. Darla's family belonged to the club and she'd take me as her guest to swim while her parents golfed. The girl behind us is Jane who is a year younger than us. Andy met Jane a few years ago when he was doing a golf outing during a conference for work. Small world.

This was Darla's family car at the time. I remember sitting in the very back seat, staring out the back of the car, so many times. Darla and I took lots of shopping trips in that car!

I need a new mug

My U of I Mom coffee mug slipped out of my hands when I was unloading the dishwasher. Maybe I’ll get a new one at Christmas. Hint, hint, my Illini kids.

Stucco work Day 6

This was the view on our back porch most of today. The workers continued patching, adding texture and painting on the new color. Here the worker is rolling on the color while stashing his paint brush in a ladder rung.

The stairs to the basement. We didn't expect them to put the new color there but it looks so much better than it did.

Back porch area is done and the missing stucco above the door is repaired!

More patch work on our upstairs area.

E sent this picture of the parking lot adjacent to her apartment building. You can see how smoky it is. She thinks the smoke today was from the wildfires near Portland. There are fires in Washington but they're on the other side of the Cascades. She said she took Azula for a walk and then her hair smelled like smoke. They're not predicting any rain for the coming week.

Stucco work Day 5 - Color!

Workers started putting the color, Prairie Dusk, on the south side of the house today.

With one coat you could see some color variation.

This shows the color difference of the old on the top right to the new on the left. Just after one coat though.

This is after two coats. The color variation is gone, as we expected.

Up-close shot of the color. They even stuccoed the electrical conduit. Looks like our next project will be repainting the trim.