Golf swag

Andy likes to tease me about my love for freebies but judging from what he brought home from the golf show last weekend, he's a fan too.

Painting at Pilgrim

Today was the first day the church needed volunteers to paint the kitchen and fellowship hall which are being renovated. I painted the gray. I thought it would be too light but it looks ok. I signed up for a three-hour shift but left after two hours. I accomplished enough (more than this) and my hand was hurting. I also got to see my old teaching partner who brought some of her students out to see what we were doing and to look at the workers' many tools.

While I was painting the wall our friend K was painting window trim.

The renovation is moving along. The tile has been laid in the kitchen.

These green cabinets will be used in fellowship hall for storage and the top of the cabinets will be our surface for serving potlucks.

Hurry up, spring break

Missing my college girl.

And I'll be missing her this summer when she's interning in Hershey, Pa.!

L was only 2 and doesn't remember but we took a family roadtrip to Hershey and stayed in the Hershey Lodge. L thinks she'll be working at the Hershey Hotel which is much fancier.

A toy for me?

Went to put my boot on the other day and found a cat toy inside. I think it was left by Muffles.

Trivia night

Andy and I went to the Nineteenth Century Club last night to play in a trivia game with a few of his golf buddies. It was a fundraiser for Wonder Works, the local children's museum where B had his 5-year-old birthday party.

The room was packed. Andy thinks there were 42 tables with teams of six. They had chips and candy on all the table, drinks all night and food.

They started with a cocktail area where we had meatballs and sliced meats like salami, etc. We were in the second-floor ballroom for the games and they had veggies and cheese, little BBQ pork sliders, chicken nuggets and an open bar all night.

They also had a silent auction, a short live auction and a heads or tail game you could play if you bought beads ($20 each or three for $50). Wow.

Team picture. We all thouht the questions were pretty hard.

We ended up in twelth place. Not bad considering how many teams there were.

Quickest puzzle yet

After August puked on my other puzzle I pulled out this one. Only 500 pieces and I put most of it together in an afternoon. I left to pick up Andy from the train and B was finishing it it up.

When I got back B and I were grabbing pieces to see who would be the one to put in the last piece. It was him this time.

When I bought this, I thought it was a puzzle of balls. It's actually cakes.

Candy puzzle

I thought August was resting upstairs but the minute I get ready to sit down to work on a puzzle he pops up from a dining room chair.

Another day he decides to sit in my chair!

And then he puked on it so we tossed it in the trash. Ick. Guess he really didn't want to do this puzzle.

Paczki Day

Fat Tuesday in Chicago means it's Paczki Day. We bought the chocolate-frosted, custard-filled ones. Delicious.

B had one but didn't like the custard. Silly kid.

And a beautiful sunset to end the day.

B-day celebration

Last night I went to my friend M's house for her birthday celebration. The party was with my women friends from church (we all have kids the same age) and we decided whomever the birthday girl is should host a dinner at her house. I missed my friend J's party in December because we were in Jamaica so it was nice to get together.

M made chicken enchiladas. I brought the ready-to-drink margaritas. Wasn't sure how much to get so I settled on two bottles thinking we could have a taste test between the Chi-Chi's brand and the Costco brand. They were both acceptable. So little was left in one bottle I left it for our birthday girl.

Easy peasy

This 500-piece succulent puzzle was so easy I had it finished before I got a picture of August lounging on it.

No blessings?

One of the local grocery stores offers a Friday Freebie. Last week it was a box of cereal. I couldn't find the flavor I wanted so I picked up the apple cinnamon one and decided to donate it to the church's Blessing Box.

When I dropped it off the box was empty.

Vintage groceries puzzle

August enjoyed this puzzle, maybe a little too much.

B finished it while on a short work break.

This was a fast one to put together. Only took us a couple of days.

Nice surprise

Not sure how I took a picture of E when we were FaceTiming the other night. I was pleasantly surprised to see the photo in my camera roll when I was scrolling through my phone.

Of course I had to play around with the photo.

Wowza

Not sure what's going on with these limes. They're huuuuge.

But these Gala apples are sooooo tiny.

Valentine’s Day car show

Our exciting Valentine's Day was Andy working from home so we could go to the Chicago Auto Show in the afternoon.

This was a Toyota photo opp. We sat on a ski lift bench and they took six pictures then thread them together in a silly video.

A Valentine's Day kiss.

Snowing at the Nissan display. It was the least crowded we had ever seen at the show. We were able to do test drives with no waiting - Toyota and Cadillac.

There was quite a bit of advertising for the Nascar street race coming to Chicago this summer and lots of electric cars on display. Definitely going on a weekday has its advantages. Maybe because it was Valentine's Day and most couples would be out enjoying a nice dinner?

This is a really nice Corvette. I like the color.

We agreed Suburu had the best display, very outdoorsy. The fake fire even made a crackling noise. I wanted to test drive a Suburu Crosstrek when I bought the Encore but we never made it to the Suburu dealer. They have some really nice colors too. Yes, I pick cars based on their color.

And on the drive home R.E.M. came on the radio. Our first real date was the R.E.M. concert at U of I. Aw!

Morning cat portrait

Two of my valentines, August and Muffles.

Cat puzzle

I think August is wondering why the cat on this puzzle looks more like Muffles than it does him. He doesn't look happy about it.

Done. And all 750 pieces were there. That's a win!

Super Bowl party

Andy and I went our friends B and G's house for a Super Bowl party.

We had four squares from Andy's office and won $100 for the score at the end of the first quarter, Chiefs and Eagles were tied 7-7. We were rooting for the Chiefs to win since they were the Midwestern team and they won 38-35!

I took red velvet cookies with cream cheese chips. They served pizza, Italian beef, sausages, chicken tenders and salad. It was a fun party and a great game.

Feeling cultured

Our friends, L and B, invited us to the Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier yesterday afternoon to see "Wuthering Heights."

The play was interesting and a bit confusing ... and really long, almost three hours. The theater, though, is intimate without a bad seat in the house. The seats were nice and we had decent leg room - something you don't always get at shows in Chicago's older theaters.

After the play we stayed at Navy Pier and had dinner at Giordano's. It had been a long time since we had their pizza.