Making chocolate frosting

Today was the last farmers market of the season and that means it's time to sell Andy's chocolate-frosted doughnuts. We're not sure when he started this tradition but it's been at least 10 years. We decided to document the frosting-making process:

First step is a trip to Costco to buy cocoa powder, 28(!) pounds of powdered sugar and eight pounds of butter.

Then Andy goes to church to pick up two huge stock pots.

Melting the butter.

Then he carefully measures out the cocoa powder and whisks it in.

Lots of powdered sugar, and a little milk and vanilla.

Time to use the hand mixer. Last year he burned out the motor of my hand mixer.

Ready for church!

Making the doughnuts.

Coating the doughnuts.

Out of frosting.

The line is long. Sales started at 7:30 a.m. and Andy said the line extended about six houses down on Scoville, with social distancing, of course.

Let the sales begin!

At home by 8:30 a.m. and Andy gets to enjoy a doughnut. He also brought some home for me. Delicious!

Patiently waiting

Andy and I are on the patio enjoying a fire but Schubert is waiting for us at the top of the stairs. I think he wants some food.

Pumpkin Spice Twinkies

Andy doesn't eat a lot of sweets but picked these up at the grocery store. He said they're tasty.

National Cat Day

Very rare picture of both cats looking at me at the same time! (Isn't every day cat day?)

And this was seconds later.

Andy found a Conservative

Andy found a Trump sign in the nrighborhood on his late afternoon walk today.

More political signs

I'm not searching for Biden signs, but I haven't seen a Trump sign yet.

It's hard to read but the middle sign says, "Grab them by the ballot."

Same sign, different color.

Andy in action

The donut team on Saturday was a Latvian dance troupe Andy's coworkers belong to. One of them sent pictures of Andy doing his donut-captaining thing. Here he is, in the orange sweatshirt (I-L-L...), talking to the volunteers.

And here he is adding grease to the fryer. Donuts aren't a low-cal snack.

A hug for L

Back in September, Penzey's Spices did a "Who needs a hug?" promotion. I sent the link to L - the girl who went to college without a blanket - she filled it out to nominate herself (for dealing with her first roommate, missing high school graduation, etc.) and the other day she got the blanket in the mail!

The picture L sent me wasn't great. This picture is from Penzey's Facebook page and shows how pretty the blanket is and says the word "hug." They committed to giving away 10,000 blankets and shipping them for free. Last I saw they received over 30,000 nominations. Guess a lot of people need hugs. They are selling the blankets on their website for $24.95. For each one they sell, they give one to someone in need.

Fabulous fall

I was surprised to see my hibicus is blooming again.

The neighbor's tree is changing color...

and their bush/tree in the front adds a little fall color to our house too.

The trees are beautiful this year. I thought all the leaves would have fallen off in the rain we had this week but they're hanging on!

Sleepy boys

I should be croppin’

I was texting back and forth this morning with Darla and our friend, Alice, today. In a normal year this would have been our weekend (with Cindy) to stay at a hotel in O'Fallon and scrapbook (and shop!) I said I wasn't motivated to do much but Darla said I had to do at least two pages. Meanwhile she and Alice were sending pictures of their completed pages. OK, so this was my first page today - L's Sweet 16 and our anniversary dinner.

Might to easier to scrapbook without this guy reaching out to me to pet him. Darla said her cats were bothering her too.

And page No. 2 - the start of our Hilton Head Island family vacation in 2018. I was productive in other ways today. I made soup for dinner, put together a breakfast casserole for tomorrow morning, did a quick grocery run, cleaned the house some and Facetimed E.

Champaign Costco

L went with a friend to Costco's opening in Champaign yesterday. She said these bears are bigger than the big bears we've seen at our Costco around Christmas. She said these are about 7 feet tall and cost $89.99. Wow.

L is a tall girl so that's a huge bear!

They did have a good supply of U of I items. A quarter-zip which Andy likes ...

and lots of hats.

Picture of L and her Costco-member friend, A. These girl were up and shopping early!

L has her eye on these $150 Ugg boots. She didn't buy them but I bet she goes back for them, probably buying them in tan. We'll see.

Lots of liberals

Walking around the neighborhood it's pretty obvious Andy isn't the only liberal in town.

This one is just down the street from us.

I like this one.

Andy saw these on one of his long, morning walks.