Destroyed by cats

L came home from class yesterday to find her TV on the floor and broken, of course.

She bought a new TV and a mount, had her friend Tyler come over with a stud finder, got out the drill and successfully mounted it where the cats (hopefully) can't get to it. She said she felt very accomplished.

Handsome Muffles

So relaxed

August was so relaxed lying next to Andy and having his belly rubbed.

Educational upgrade

Just a trip to Goodwill can upgrade your education from a state school to an Ivy League for $2. We didn't buy it.

I thought these pencils were really cute ... and accurate. I would have bought them if they were pens. I rarely use pencils.

House concert

We went to our friend L's house last night for a house concert with the Rachel Drew Band. She set out a chili bar and I brought a corn casserole.

Hard to see in the first picture but there is a drummer in the back.

Busy, rainy night

Yay! The frame for the proclamation from the governor for the church's 150th anniversary came yesterday and it fits perfectly and looks good!

We have plans for tonight so we did the grocery shopping and errands last night ... in the rain. Stopped by our local library and saw that the flier I submitted for a church event in late February was posted. (Didn't see the one I sent for the museum though. Hmmm.)

We stocked ip on lemonade for an upcoming church pizza party (on sale two for $2) and dropped it off in the church fridge. Nice that Andy has a church key.

I updated the anniversary binder while I was there with pictures from the night we received the village's anniversary proclamation.

And the ground has thawed enough we were able to put an anniversary yard sign at the church entrance. We didn't ask anyone where we should put it, or if we can, so I put it where I wanted it. Fingers crossed it stays there lol.

Beer label puzzle

This was a fun, quick puzzle. I did most of it myself.

Missing one piece and August puked a little on it so in the recycling bin it goes.

Village proclamation

A small but mighty group of Pilgrims attended the Oak Park Village Board meeting last night to receive a proclamation from the village for our 150th anniversary.

Trustee Robinson read the proclamation.

The village president presented the proclamation to my co-chair.

Mission accomplished! We celebrated with drinks at Margarita's afterward.

Very nice that they gave us to it in a frame.

We received this proclamation from the governor's office on Monday. Now to find a frame for it.

Oh, no

E got this mug when we took the kids on a road trip to Gettysburg and Hershey, Pa. - maybe 2005? This was from the Strasburg Railroad that we rode through the Amish countryside. We had been using for years to store paint brushes on a shelf above the dryer. The other day I was doing laundry and saw the brushes on top of the dryer and the mug broken on the floor. We don't let the cats in there so we're not sure what happened.

Surprise, L’s home

Without any warning, L showed up Saturday night - with a friend - because she wanted to pick up her iPad. Here they are having dinner at Lou Malnati's. Initially they planned to go back to Champaign Saturday night but we convinced them to spend the night and drive home in the daylight. It was a nice surprise to see her but I'd appreciate some notice next time.

Cat puzzle

A cat, Muffles this time, sitting on a cat puzzle. It's the one Darla sent me for Christmas. It's a nice, sunny beach scene.

Lots of pieces that just slide together.

Mission accomplished. It's nice having a new puzzle and you know all of the pieces will be there. B even found an extra piece. Turns out, it was from the zodiac puzzle we just finished. So I guess it was just missing two pieces.

Christmas napkins?

I must have picked up this tablecloth at a yard sale. I love its vintage look. However, it's too small for any of the tables I use. I offered it to E when she was home thinking she'd want to do something crafty and make me napkins. She made dragon eyes instead lol. So I asked my friend Joycelin if she'd like it for whatever and she said she'd make napkins for me. Not the response I was expecting but what a sweet offer!

The kids

E in her ski gear. The mountain looks so pretty.

D skiing. He's the one at the beginning holding up his skis.

L made herself black bean pasta with grilled chicken. She's trying to cook more.

Birthday dinner

One of B's (many) benefits of living at home is that he gets to celebrate birthdays with us. It's nice for us too, of course. Andy chose to go to Salerno's last night for his birthday dinner and we all had chicken parmesan. We also all had leftovers so we'll all be eating it for lunch today.

And it's been so cold out I didn't get Andy a birthday gift but the museum got a bunch of OPRF items to sell for the Booster Club so I got him a new hat. He can never have enough hats.

Zodiac puzzle

August loves a good box ... even better with a puzzle inside it.

All done but missing three pieces so it's going in the recycling bin. Too bad. The stars were flow-in-the-dark so it was a pretty neat puzzle.

Where’s Muffles?

Temperatures around zero, if not lower and wind chills at least 20 below. Even Muffles knows it's cold.

Puzzle exchange

Our library hosted a puzzle exchange on Saturday. I took in these three puzzles I thought I'd never put together ...

and picked up these three. The staff members said I could take as many as I wanted. Didn't want to get greedy even though the event was almost over by the time we got there because we went to the travel show and stopped at Costco on the way home.

We went to the Melrose Costco instead of "our" Costco and they had goat cubes in the freezer section. Eww.

Rick Steves at the travel show

Andy and I went to Rosemont yesterday for the Chicago Travel and Adventure Show. Rick Steves was speaking at 10:45 a.m. (his first lecture of the day) and it was packed.

We were standing in the rear so we didn't stay for the whole talk. He is quite entertaining and hawked his tours, which look fantastic and a bit off the beaten touristy path.

We walked around, talked to a lot of travel professionals and picked up lots of freebies. We got kettle corn from Dollywood, bourbon chapstick from Kentucky, little bottles of Limoncello from Italy (handed to us by quite attractive Italian women), flamingo socks from Winona, Minn., a few jar openers, mints, hand sanitizers and luggage tags. I love a good freebie.

The friendliest were the women at the Southern Illinois booth. Effingham and Jefferson (where Mount Vernon is) counties were left off their map so Andy asked what did those two counties do to piss you off? They laughed and said they have their own tourism bureaus. I said I was from Staunton and she said the town is covered by the next booth (Great Rivers and Routes) where I got the Route 66 keychain ...

and this flier. Those places look familiar. The women weren't as friendly though.

This Maui scraper should make the snow a bit more bearable.

Andy chatted it up with the man at the Jamaica booth and the guy pulled put this hat. The bags are full of lots of reading materials from all over the Midwest, Florida Keys, Alaskan cruises and Europe trips.

It’s a goner

Found this in the garbage disposal. Andy said it was probably L. I texted her and he was right, She said she used it for butter. But he was the one shoving food in the dispoal and apparently the little spreader fell in. I say they share the blame.

Baby quilt

E made this baby quilt for her cousin and his wife who is due in early May. E didn't want to use typical baby colors and had it started before we knew they are expecting a girl, not that knowing that would have changed her vision.

She's gifting it to her in this Vera Bradley diaper bag. It's used, but in good shape. I said it could come in handy as a second diaper bag. We always had two diaper bags and it worked well. She sent it home with Cindy so she could avoid shipping it. However, Cindy came up on the train so L took several of her bags and Cindy will make a trip to Champaign to pick them up.

Museum night

Claude met us last night at Babygold for $5 burger night before we all went to the Oak Park River Forest Museum for a free chance for them to see the OPRF High School anniversary exhibit.

Here they are looking at the hand-printed class schedule for the entire school that happened to be their senior year. It was good to see Claude and catch up. We said we'd have to get together this summer when we can sit outside at Fitzgerald's patio.