‘First Kings of Europe’

Allison, Cindy and I went to the Field Museum last night for a reception and viewing of the "First Kings of Europe" exhibit. Andy left Thursday afternoon for a golf trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

They had brew beered specifically for the exhibit. The "king" beer has a higher alcohol content than the "commoner" beer. I tried both and the king beer was better. It's good to be king, right?

Lots of food I assume from southeast Europe which the exhibit focused on - chicken sliders, roasted vegetables, risotto, mushroom flatbread, a goat cheese and vegetable flatbread, pita bread and cevapi (essentiallly sausages, but I had to look that up).

This plate of desserts was shared amongst the three of us. The chocolate-covered tiramisu cream puff was my favorite.

The exhibit starts with the only replica.

Cindy and Allison learning about different metals.

Random exhibit pics ...

First Kings of Europe brought together the work and stories of 26 museums and 11 countries throughout southeastern Europe.

The security guards came into the exhibit at about 8:35 p.m. and told everyone the exhibit is closing, we have to leave. Allison and Cindy were told the woman working in the gift shop at the end of the exhibit wanted to go home. We were all in the hall and the bar was closed. It was the first time that's happened. Usually things shut down closer to 9.

Being rushed out, I missed this - a real skeleton wearing various metal jewelry. Allison sent me the pic. Andy would like to see the exhibit so maybe I'll see it then.

Group pic at the end of the evening. We took some photos at a photo booth so I'll add those when the museum sends them out.

Goodwill finds

Cindy and I spent this morning and early afternoon doing a shopping tour of area Goodwill stores. My deal of the day was this fall hurricane candle holder. Priced for $4.99 but half off so I bought two. The best part was that each had a Luminara flameless candle inside ... with batteries ... and they worked. I'm pretty sure the candles are worth more than the holders and well over $2.50 each.

This 99-cent Tervis ISU cup had to come home with me.

Found a few Christmas items.

Got this Hershey mug for L's internship this summer - 99 cents.

And interesting that I saw this Trump thing and then he was indicted in New York this afternoon.

Even Trump toilet paper. Very fitting. Didn't buy either one.

Burger night

Cindy is in town for a few days.

Had to go to Babygold's for $5 burger night on Wednesday. Best deal in town. After chatting with our waiter, we learned he's from Cairo and knew where Staunton was. He even knew it was in Macoupin County and tried to remember the county seat, but couldn't, but did remember it has a beautiful courthouse.

Lunch with a friend

My former coworker is on vacation this week so we met for lunch yesterday in Park Ridge. When I started working at Pioneer I was in the Park Ridge office, just a couple of blocks away from The Harp and Fiddle, where we had lunch. It's probably been almost 30 years since I've been there. A lot has changed.

The restaurant had its Easter decorations up.

I had a ranch chicken wrap for lunch. After lunch we stopped at a coffee shop next door. We were parked in three-hour spots and spent three hours catching up.

I wanna hold your hand

Sometimes August is too cute. Here he is holding my hand. When I moved my hand, he'd grab it again.

And he held Andy's hand too. Aw!!

Donut puzzle

I thought this puzzle would be easier than it turned out to be. It didn't help that the picture on the cover was sharp while the pieces seemed a little blurry to me.

Done and complete!

Women’s breakfast

I prefer the church's wine and cheese afternoon socials but my friend L was hosting the women's breakfast yesterday so I thought I should go. I made a new dish - a sausage casserole made with English muffins. Several women said it was good.

Food, friends and conversation.

Table decor?

Woke up to find August sitting with the ceramic rabbits on the dining room table. Guess he's an Easter cat.

Fun read?

Saw this in a Little Library on my walk and had to bring it home for Andy.

Work at church

Andy and I had to go to church last night for him the sign some checks (the joy of being treasurer!) so we peeked in on the renovations of the kitchen and Fellowship Hall. The sconces light up the basement without any overhead lights turned on. Nice mood lighting.

New chair storage on the hall's south wall. The cabinets are a light green and the walls, which I helped to paint, are a very light gray.

This is storage for plates, cups, etc., along the north wall. The countertop will be used for serving buffets. The contractor thinks the work will be all done mid-April! Andy and the other finance gurus just secured a bridge loan to,pay the contractors u til the remaining pledges are fulfilled.

My morning routine

Coffee, Wordle and August.

Judaica puzzle

I bought this puzzle because I thought it was a colorful owl, which it is. I didn't realize until later that it's Judaica art. So pretty and easy with 750 pieces.

Grab a piece, pet August, grab a piece, pet August.

B is getting better about saving the last piece for me.

Perfect timing

Andy broke my Pampered Chef mini spatula last week (he was cutting brownies with it - why?) and a couple of days later, a high school friend invited me to her online Facebook Pampered Chef party. Guess it was meant to be. Go ahead, take my money.

Bumpy ending for spring break

L went to visit her friend, J, on Thursday and stayed at his apartment Thursday and Friday night, when he had a birthday party. They know each other from Journeys so she was getting paid to work in his Chicago Ridge Mall store and to help with inventory at Fox Valley Mall.

Saturday morning she texted us to pick her up, saying she couldn't open her eye and she thinks she has pink eye. It's always something. Instead of taking her to an urgebpnt care we convinced her to go to health services Monday when she's back on campus. She went to the pediatrician in first grade when the school nurse thought she had pink eye and we were prescribed $80 of eye drops. Her eye cleared up in a couple days, pretty much on its own barely using the drops. Lesson learned.

She was pretty miserable this morning. She barely ate bacon (!) Andy made for breakfast.

Once we got to Champaign we went right to an urgent care that she's visited before.

We weren't even in the care center 10 minutes when she saw the doctor and was prescribed eye drops. This time they only cost us $35.

It's always fun to drive around a college town. We all got lunch then we dropped her off at her dorm.

Driving home we saw this Tonka truck. Apparently they're pretty rare. Found this online - Officially, Ford claims that 500 Tonkas were made between 2014 and 2016. However, the Tonka truck edition was re-released in 2020 with an extremely limited run—only 100 Tonka trucks were made! Only 100? Rare indeed.

Spud

E and I were Facetiming last night when Spud jumped up by her to get some attention.

He even gave E kisses.

Cozy cats

L has started thinking of getting rid of some of her Squishmallows. She thought about sitting on the front stairs and handing them out to kids as they left school. So far, they're still sitting in the living room. We did reach out to Schubert's family and they said they'd take two.

When I was chatting with Schubert's mom to set up a drop-off plan, she sent me this picture or Schubert and Pina, formerly known as Mango. How cute is that? She said Pina is Schubert's shadow. He's settled in well.

No shopping?

August doesn't want me to go grocery shopping.