House Walk

Yesterday was the Historical Society's annual Spring House Walk.

Andy went golfing so I took Allison.

The houses were nice. Of course, I had edited all of the write-ups so I knew all of the stories the volunteers were telling as we went through the houses.

No indoor pictures were allowed so the front porch as as close to inside as I could get.

Nice booties we had to put on to enter each house.

This flier I made shows all five of the homes that were on the House Walk. The porch picture from above was taken at the house that's in the middle on the left side of the flier. It would be nice to have a porch like that. Andy came home from golfing and we went to the after-party long enough to talk to my boss, have a beer and a sandwich.

More spring blooms

The Bridal Wreath were blooming early this week and now they're pretty full.

We think this is some sort of lilac. They smell great.

Schubert and Mango strolling up the walk for some food before the rain came last night.

Our Lily of the Valley. They smell good too. And my clematis behind the garage have so many buds. It already has a few blooms but I'm expecting a nice show this year.

My sweet August

When he's not annoying me when I'm working on a puzzle, August is a very sweet cat.

Disney surprise for L

Somehow L knew Disney was sending her a package. She even said I could open it and let her know what it was. It arrived yesterday while I was working from home to make event flyers for the museum. It's a welcome to the College Program gift, a magnet shaped like their nametag, and a card with all the information she needs about the program. She goes to Florida in August for Round 2 of the College Program.

First-name basis

My co-chair and I have been sending so many posters to the library to print (for free!) to promote the church's anniversary events we are now apparently on a first-name basis. We get one free poster a month.

Trying to hide?

Ignore everything on the table (lol) and look at Muffles getting cozy on the sofa. Purely by chance, I tossed the pillow there and it created just enough space for him to crawl in. Weirdo cat did it several times.

Bridal Wreath in bloom

These bushes are pretty when they're blooming but it doesn't last long.

More spring flowers.

A tree, a potluck and a party

After church yesterday we had the anniversary tree dedication on the front lawn.

Fortunately, it did not rain on us.

My friend Leslie and her husband donated the tree, he planted it on a snowy day in October (Halloween) and they bought a plaque for it. They actually bought three plaques in case one "goes missing" or gets damaged.

I "wrote" the dedication, lifting from some things I found online, which I credited, of course, and made this insert for the bulletins.

After the dedication was a vegan/vegetarian potluck.

I brought a Costco kale salad (in the glass bowl) ... then came home and had a ham sandwich lol.

Decorations by my friend Maureen were on point, as usual.

I was pretty proud of the Facebook graphic I made for the day.

Then, last night, it was Leslie's birthday gathering with the church lady friends. She made ribeye steaks. She brought out the china. I might have to up my game.

Too many yard sales?

Brookfield, a nearby suburb, had its community wide yard sale yesterday. This was the list of addresses and I thought I read somewhere there were over 300 homes participating. Allison and I went to quite a few but it was a lot of ground to cover.

I did find a few things - a big Christmas tree candle, a Christmas pillow, other Christmas stuff (ornaments and placemats), a Longaberger basket for $3, a Creative Memories 12-inch trimmer and a 750-piece cat puzzle. I am kind of kicking myself for passing on the $2 Williams Sonoma wooden salad servers marked with a store price tag of $38. I thought they might be too big to store and I've survived this long without salad servers so I passed them by.

Eight years

Chicago puzzle

August was back to his tricks of thwarting our puzzle efforts.

I tried to finish this while Andy was on a Zoom call for his church council meeting, but then E called so I was distracted. B finished it up the next morning. All the pieces are accounted for!

Two of my favorite Chicago things - Lou Malnati's pizza and Goose Island beer - and a common destination ...

the Field Museum.

College protest

L texted me yesterday that college students were protesting in favor of Palestine in the Palestine vs. Israel conflict. They were blocking off Green Street, a major street by campus, to protest the United States' funding of Israel. I told L to stay away but she went to take pictures. This one is pretty good.

Quite a crowd.

Elephant collection

Pretty obvious someone died and their expansive elephant collection ended up at Goodwill. There were so many more on the shelf than I was able to fit in this picture.

Pink Moon

L sent his picture of the moon tonight. "The moon is huge tonight," she said. Well, then I had to go see for myself.

Yep, it's huge and beautiful. Our Pink Moon. It was earlier last year.

Easy renewal

I was relieved to see I can renew my driver's license online ... no vision test! Yay! The only downside is that I'll be keeping my lovely 2020 Covid hair picture for another four years.

Skipping town

Our church had its big biennial choral concert Sunday afternoon. They perform a big concert bringing in soloists and musicians every other year but since this year is the 150th anniversary of the church, it ended up on "our" calendar and we got the privilege (?) of paying to advertise it. I still don't understand paying to advertise a free concert, but we did. We'll see if anyone drops any cash into the freewill offering.

However, after years of sitting through church services, Andy and I have come to the realization that we really don't enjoy choir music. So, we headed west and spent the afternoon with Julie and Allison at Wolfden Brewing Co., in Bloomingdale, near their house. (Go to the website and read about the haunted taproom).

It's in Bloomingdale's "Old Town" area.

Nice beer garden. It was sunny but it would be nice to go back when it's a bit warmer.

Inside is nicely decorated too.

Lots of wolves, of course.

Andy's golf buddies said he takes bad selfies. I think he just doesn't know where to look? We'll have to work on that.

Clearing out the fabric

I asked L what to do with all the fabric she had in her room that was left over from her very successful mask-making business during the pandemic. She said donate it. Alrighty! Maybe the decluttering talk Allison and I went to last week spurred me to purge. This pile was divided into two bags for neighbors to pick up.

Of the solids, my quilter friend Joycelin said she'd take the navy, white and beige but the others were too bright for her. My friend Maureen, though, said she'd take them! Out the door they go!

I'm passing this Christmas St. Louis Cardinals fabric along to Darla. Her husband is a huge sports fan and she thinks she can find something to do with it.

Bird puzzle

I thought this would be a nice, springtime puzzle. It was, but it was pretty hard. B and I did the birds first and saved the rusty sign pieces for last. It was challenging. At least all the pieces were there.

Back on the route

Since Schubert and Pina showed up last week for the first time this spring, they've seemed to have made us part of their daily neighborhood route. Interestingly, though they're roommates, they usually show up separately.

Schubert's mom picked him up one night around 8:30. Shortly therafter Mango arrived and stayed all night.

He was happy to see me with food that morning.

So happy that he hung out in the yard awhile. He lets me pet him sometimes.

Then when Mango left, "loud cat" stopped by for breakfast.

Schubert and Mango relaxing together on our back porch.