More snow pics

Such s pretty snow I had to take more pictures. I like this better with a fire in it.

Hope that snow doesn't land on anyone when it falls. It's a precarious situation. This is the most snow Chicago has received in five years.

A narrow path cleared to the house.

What's left of our coneflowers is now covered in snow. Andy and I picked up a pizza for dinner (so much for not going out in the snow!) so we snapped a couple of pictures of the church covered in snow as we drove by.

Big snow

It was a little hard to find the newspaper this morning.

There it is!

Andy was out early to snowblow. He thinks we got at least 8 inches with drifts up to 12 inches. He cleared the sidewalk for the entire block. He got his exercise in for today. And it's expected to continue snowing all day.

The snow must have been blowing sideways overnight. It stuck to the window screens on the back porch.

Couldn’t resist

We couldn't resist buying this advent calendar at the liquor store. Regularly $39.99, marked down to $9.99. It was the last one on the shelf.

It has 24 little airplane bottles of various liquors and a decent size bottle of Irish cream (for Christmas Eve).

Just a few of the bottles. Andy will have fun working his way through these.

Happy dev

E and I were Facetiming when she had to hop back on her computer and finish up some work. She's a happy software developer. Latest word is that they may be back in the office early fall. Fingers crossed!

My napping buddy

Muffles must miss the kids. If he's not laying on my chest ...

he's napping on the sofa right behind me.

First in-person class

L has been in college since August and today is her first in-person class. It's RST 200 Leadership in Recreation, Sports and Tourism.

First Freddy’s visit

We were going to order out Italian good for Andy's birthday but got home too late from taking the kids to college so we had tacos instead. Last night I finally got the chicken Parmesan I've been thinking about since. We went to Freddy's for the first time and it was really tasty. One order was plenty for both of us. We had cheese ravioli with it and that was really good too. We'll be back.

Snowy day

Andy checked to make sure the snowblower worked this weekend and this morning he was up early to yse it. He was ready for the 4 inches of snow we got overnight with snow expected to continue all day.

Let him eat cake

A week late but Andy finally got his birthday cake. And I got the annual birthday picture with the number candles. It's his favorite yellow cake with chocolate frosting. (He was wearing the same shirt in his cake picture last year lol.)

New mail slot

The spring on our mail slot broke a long time ago. We removed the mail slot and L had been stuffing the hole to keep squirrels from getting inside the porch.

We recently ordered a new mail slot but it was too little for the hole we had. We returned it and got a larger one but then Andy had to make the hole bigger and cut it too big. Plan B was to mount the new mail slot on a wooden base and screw that over the hole.

It's not the prettiest mail slot but it gets the job done. We'll wait for a warm spring day to paint.

Found the candles!

I went through the corner cabinets in the dining room and found the number candles I was searching for to use on Andy's birthday. They were a little hidden, but in the cabinet I expected them to be so that's a win.

Bernie is everywhere

Sen. Bernie Sanders was quite the internet hit after his fashionable appearance at Wednesday's inauguration. The morning news featured a website that lets you type in any address, and Bernie appears. Here he is front of our house ...

B's apartment ...

L's dorm ...

E's building (when it was under construction. Time for a new picture)...

and he's even at the farm! I tried Cindy's address but it didn't work. Gillespie must be off the internet grid.

Illinois antiques

Classes for L don't start till Monday so she's enjoying the week being back with her friends. She sent me these pictures from an antique store they visited. They wanted $16 for this Coke bottle.

She said this Jim Beam decanter had liquor still in it.

Mug with vintage U of I logo, called the "Ricker logo" designed in 1888. L found out the logo was dropped because it's too similar to Indiana University's logo. Sure is.

U of I matches, anyone?

They were trying to sell this helmet clock for $35. Yeah, but your football team sucks.

She did buy this Illini Pillow Pet fir $13. A girl can't have too many stuffed animals I guess. She also bought the mug.

Inauguration Day

Last night Andy and I turned out the lights and lit a candle on our front porch in remembrance of the 400,000 Americans who have lost their lives to Covid. It started at 6 p.m. for 10 minutes in a national moment of unity, led by President-elect Biden. Our neighbors across the street had a candle lit too.

You've got to hand it to L. The girl is creative. She made this inauguration/advent-type calendar back in early December. She filled every box with candy but got distracted (as she does) with other things and didn't really use it to count down to today's inauguration. Andy has helped himself to a few pieces of the candy.

L sent this (kind of awkward) photo of her wearing her Converse shoes in honor of Vice President Harris who apparently has quite an extensive collection of Converse sneakers.

It’s where they belong

Before B went back to school he was going downstairs to do his laundry. I asked if he could toss in some dish towels and potholders. I realized while folding L's clothes yesterday (the ones she didn't take to school) that I never folded the dishtowels B washed. So I texted him, asking what he did with them. He folded the dish towels and out the potholders away. I wasn't expecting that.

This is not where it belongs - L's leftovers in the trunk of my car. Ewww. At least they stayed cold.

Trip tidbits

While driving the kids to school yesterday the Buick hit 44,444 on the odometer. It's the little things that amuse us.

This sad plant was in B's apartment. It was almost dead when we dropped him off after Thanksgiving. Now it most certainly is.

Safe pod dining in downtown Champaign. Why can't the restaurants here do that?

A different style of restaurant pod but still gets the goal accomplished. L said she wants to take her friends and eat in a pod.

This is (supposedly) the world's largest glass Christmas tree at Mack Glass. It spins! And, best of all, created by an ISU grad.

And I wasn't quick enough to get a picture but the person who has had a Trump sign on his property just south of Kankakee for years has switched it out for an "election was stolen" sign. I'll have my camera ready next time we pass by.

Andy’s birthday

Andy's birthday wasn't too exciting. We drove B and L back to college. We drove through a McDonald's for lunch. I had a big decision of who was getting the pickles from my burger - B or Andy? Andy won since it was his birthday.

We got some Mexican good at Taco Yo once we got home. Andy made margaritas. I wanted him to hold the "5" and "4" number candles in his hands since we don't have cake but I couldn't find my bag of candles. L had the last b-day and I was in Seattle at the time visiting E. Hmmm. Guess I'll be sorting through some cabinets this week to find them.

Back to U of I

B and L went back to college today.

B packed light but L loaded up the Buick. We don't expect to see them until May ... for B's graduation. And if there's no ceremony we plan to drag him around campus in his cap and gown for some pictures.

Unpacking.

Had to stock B up on groceries before he'd let us drive back home.