Neighborhood sightings

With the snow melting and temperatures rising, Andy and I are trying to get back into a walking routine. Time to shed some Covid pounds. This was painted on the side of a garage. Pretty impressive.

This house near us is getting a second story put on but the village slapped them with a stop-work order. We were surprised to see a squirrel looking down at us from the open second floor.

Irving had reflectors running all along the sidewalk. We're guessing it's so the plows that clear snow from the sidewalk don't go too far into the grass.

And I love a pretty sunset.

Which buffet?

Andy and I have been searching for a dining room buffet to go where the piano was.

We've searched stores, resale shops, online and antique stores trying to find something that will complement our woodwork and dining room hutches.

We bought one but can't get it delivered until late March. Any idea which one was the winner?

Puzzle downsizing

After having no luck with a couple of the 1,000-piece puzzles I have, I decided to try a couple 500-piece puzzles. This was my progress after one day.

On the second day I finished it in a few hours. Perhaps too easy? It was from a resale shop so I got lucky that all the pieces were there. They even tossed in an extra piece:

At least it was obvious that it didn't belong to this puzzle.

E’s quilt

She finished the binding so now she sent me a picture. She's considering buying a really fancy sewing machine. If she does I told her I don't want to know the price. Yikes.

Homemade pizza

Andy was back in the kitchen last night making deep-dish pizza for dinner.

He hasn't made pizza since last May.

Delicious as usual!

Cool clouds

These clouds look neat with the setting sun reflecting off them. And I really like the vintage Cermak Plaza neon sign.

And a pretty moon. It will be a full moon on Saturday.

Yummy surprise

When you're looking for a legal pad and find the Reeses Pieces candy canes you bought during the Christmas clearance sales!

Kids’ update

E made a quilt top and sent it to Missouri Star to have it quilted. She chose the stitching pattern and let them choose the color of thread. The finished quilt was delivered yesterday and E said she's happy with how it turned out. Andy said Grandma would not have approved of machine-quilting lol. E needs to bind the edges. She could of have that done for her too, but she said she enjoys binding so she wanted to do it herself. She promised to send a picture of the quilt but later said she'll wait until the binding is on so it looks better.

Aw, Danny was playing with Azula while E and I were Facetiming the other night. E and Danny (not Azula) went out for sushi the other night and since they usually eat in, it was a nice treat.

B accidentally left the burner on while he was eating dinner and his plastic colander melted. Oops.

He redeemed himself in the kitchen by baking a strawberry cake. No frosting necessary.

L has been working her new job at Journeys and bought these socks. She had a sales goal of selling five pairs the other day (her first day on the sales floor) and sold 10! The other employees were asking her if she's worked in retail before. Her manager told her she's doing a great job and has a "strong work ethic in getting things done."

She's already bought these shoes and has another pair (that I know of) on order. I'm concerned she'll spend her whole paycheck on shoes.

Temps in Champaign were over 50 today. L is sporting sandals and said lots of boys were wearing shorts. It was our warmest day of 2021.

New faucet

Our kitchen faucet must have worn out and wouldn't give us hot water unless we turned it on a specific way. That got a little aggravating.

Andy's Sunday project was to replace it. (And get me to sort through our cleaning supplies).

All done!

Sassy sauces

Do Taco Bell sauces always have messages on them or were these leftovers from Valentine's Day?

Neighborhood icicles

The icicles hanging from houses all over the neighborhood are ridiculously huge.

Lots of people are worried about water getting into their houses.

It should start melting this week. Just wondering if the gutters are going to survive.

It looks like icicles you'd put on a house if you were drawing a winter scene.

Giving up

I spent two days trying to put the frame of this puzzle together. The pieces are big and colorful so I thought it would be easy. I wasn't having fun with it - lots of odd-shaped pieces and difficult to determine which are edges - so it went back in the box.

I'll save it for B. He said he'll give it a try.

Carnivale dinner

Andy and I went downtown last night to meet our friends Tim and Betsy for dinner at Carnivale. The restaurant wasn't as busy or loud as they say it usually is because of Covid but it's still quite festive.

The appetizers were delicious - an empanada and ropa viejo.

For dinner I had Charcoal Roasted Chicken (Criollo-marinated Amish chicken, potatoes, baby carrots, peas, chicken jus). Andy had Fideos (House-made linguini, roasted tomato arrabbiata, basil, Parmesan cheese) with chicken.

The neighborhoods we drove through seemed to have less snow than we did. We saw lots of cars that haven't been moved in quite a while. So glad we have a garage.

And speaking of our garage, we're waiting for this snow to fall.

Snow Corgi

E said the snow they got has melted. She did manage to enjoy the rare snow, carving this Corgi with a spoon in her apartment's courtyard. At first I thought it was a pig laying on a table like at a luau. She said she made the snout too long lol. She was in a good mood yesterday. She got a raise and promoted to a level higher in Microsoft world. Way to go, E!

Snow at UIUC (and a sunset)

L sent these photos yesterday as she walked to breakfast.

Not bike-riding weather.

Looks like the school did a good job of plowing and shoveling.

And our pretty sunset yesterday:

Before, during & after

Lots of snow.

Snowblowing a path in the sidewalk. He walked down the whole block!

All clear ... until the snow resumes.