It’s Tower Hill time

I left work at noon yesterday so Andy and I could try to beat the traffic to Tower Hill Camp in Sawyer, Mich. Our first stop was at the Church Brewery in New Buffalo. We sat on the upstairs, outdoor patio and had a drink. Then we decided we needed some food so we went to our next stop.

This was our second stop - Ghost Isle Brewery. We sat outside. It was a beautiful day and had some wings.

We got to camp then had a group of about 20 go back to New Buffalo to eat at Stray Dog. This is half of our group ...

The other half was at a table next to ours.

I had a tasty club sandwich.

Our cabin, Cottage B. We're staying with our friend L and her husband and daughter.

Starting to bloom

Just noticed that the sunflowers were starting to open up the other afternoon. Eventually I should have three blooms.

Busy back door

Thankfully, our back door Ring camera doesn't catch much nefarious activity. It does give a glimpse inyo the neighborhood. We get to see Schubert and Pina (aka Mango) march up the sidewalk for an afternoon treat.

I saw a cardinal perch on the railing.

Schubert's mom comes and carries him home for the night.

At night we usually see raccoons and the occasional oppossum.

This is another neighborhood cat. We call him "loud cat" because we don't know his name and he's really loud. Here he is stretching while he waits for us to bring him food.

Halloween puzzle

August really likes napping in this box for our Halloween puzzle.

He's so sweet and a little annoying.

Thought this piece was missing but found it on the floor under a chair. I left it out so B could finish it.

Complete!

It closes?

We've been in this house for 27 years and this could very well be the first time I've been able to fully close this closet door. The trick, apparently, is to slightly lift the door as you close it. Gotta love an old house.

Wedding weekend

I couldn't let E and D be home for the wedding without some random pics of the festivities.

E slept here Friday night (D was at his parents' house) and decided she needed my car to go get her nails done. I drove Andy's car to work so she could use mine. Her nails turned out nice. Maybe it will encourage her to stop biting them. I know that's a tough habit to break.

She forgot to bring a decent shirt home for the rehearsal but found this one. She's wearing the sweatshirt because she was cold ... always cold.

Here they are at the rehearsal dinner at D's sister's house. Notice the mug D received for being a groomsman. (I pointed out that his mug was empty.) Dinner was fajitas and quesadillas. Sounds like a party.

She had her hair done Saturday morning.

Danny sent these pics of them dressed up.

They look nice. It was a perfect fall day.

The reception in full swing. We drove past Cheney Mansion on our way home from Oktoberfest to see what we could see. We didn't see much but heard music.

E and D had a Sunday morning post-wedding brunch at Citrine, then had some places to go, then came home to drop off the car. We chatted with them a bit and B came out to see them (we had a fire going) and the we drove them to O'Harw.

Dropping them off. We'll see them at Christmas.

Oktoberfest

Andy, Allison, Pat, Julie, Kevin and I met up at the Glendale Hieghts Oktoberfest last night.

We listened to German music...

had some beer ...

and ate a really big prtezel. Even brought a pretzel home for B.

Julie and Kevin.

We're thinking 2024 might be the year we actually go to Oktoberfest in Germany. We'll see.

Switching stores

L wasn't thrilled when she returned to school and was told she was going to work at the kids' Journeys store. I don't know the whole story but today was her last day there. She's moving over to the "adult" store. Here she is with the kids' store manager. L said the manager was sad she's leaving ... and moving to the store literally next door.

Waiting to bloom

I wasn't sure if any of the sunflower seeds I planted were going to grow. We came back from Disney and noticed three stalks had shot up.

Hope we get to enjoy the blooms before the squirrels get to them.

Dinner and a quilt

E and D flew in yesterday for his brother's wedding weekend. Andy picked them up from O'Hare and even though they're busy this weekend, he brought them here to have dinner with us at Margarita's (and to see B).

E slept here last night and will take my car when I'm done with work today so she and D have a way to get around this weekend. She'll be taking home these patterns for dog clothes (surprise!) I was looking at them at a yard sale and the woman told me to just take them. And E needs the quilt, of course ...

E pieced this colorful quilt to give J and A as a wedding present from her and D. She brought it home in July when they came in for the bachelor and bachelorette parties. She transported it in a medium Vera Bradley duffle and it was a challenge to get it out. It's a king-sized quilt. She and D paid someone to machine-quilt it.

By some miracle I found this "Just married" ribbon and wrapped up the quilt. I even printed out a little tag so they know who the quilt is from. I put it in a reusable shopping bag and told E she could set the quilt on the bag at the wedding so the bride can put it back in and make it easier to carry out of the reception.

I’m being watched

I've been working for over a month now and just noticed this painting above the door to my "office." I'm not sure who it is and can't read the little metal plaque on it.

I was searching around the museum's web site yesterday and noticed that my bio and pic has been posted. I feel so official.

Yard signs

We ordered yard signs for the church's 150th anniversary last week and they arrived at church yesterday. Andy and I picked them up and brought them home. Even with the best intentions, we didn't want signs to be mysteriously and freely given away. I thouht there would have been more boxes for 100 signs and stakes.

We need to sell 30-something signs at $20 each to break even. I'll unveil them at Tower Hill soon and start selling them. I was a little nervous about spending so much money and looked at the proof probably 10 times the day we placed the order.

Mr. Rogers puzzle

I usually do the frame of a puzzle first but B convinced me this would be easiest by putting quotes together first. He was right. It came together in a couple of days, even with our "helper," August.

This time I left the last piece for B.

I got this puzzle from the local puzzle exchange FB page and Schubert's mom commented that she'd like it when we're done. Happy to pass it along.

It's full of positive messages.

I wasn't much of a Mr. Rogers fan (face it, those puppets he had were scary) but he did have a good message.

Goodwill goodies

You never know what you'll find at Goodwill. This is one of my latest finds. It's a tealight holder ...

and how cute is this snowman drink dispenser? Hope it works. Andy's job will be to figure out what to fill it with.

Who would donate this? Someone's parents are mad lol.