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.

Case of baking soda?

B got a surprise when Amazon delivered a package the other day that he never ordered. Turned out to be a case of 12 boxes of baking soda. He called Amazon to ask who sent it but they wouldn't give any information. He checked his orders and credit cards and nothing strange was there. I suggested that he cancel his credit cards and request new ones. He doesn't think that's necessary. Guess time will tell.

More signs of spring

Pretty purple blooms on my money plant.

Muffles is glad it's warm enough that we can open the windows.

And our one and only tulip in oir yard bloomed. Pretty sure the squirrels ate all of the other bulbs.

We also have one blooming in our parkway.

The bush by our back stairs is blooming too. It only blooms for about a week.

Welcome, neighbor

Our new neighbors have a fluffy black cat, Frank, that likes to hop into our yard. He is scared of us though.

I like cats and the ocassional visit from neighbors' cats but they need to let me pet them. Maybe this one will warm up to us. The neighbors also have a tabby, Olive, but she stays in their yard.

Making his escape. He was sitting under our glider and when I tried to coax him out, he ran back home.

Happy b-day, E!

How it is possible that E turned 27 yesterday? I baked her this cake Saturday (though we'll be the ones eating it). It's chocolate with rainbow chip frosting.

When she called Sunday we all (B too) sang Happy Birthday to her and had her "blow" out her candles. Danny took her out for her birthday dinner Saturday night to a Korean BBQ restaurant and we sent her a $25 Starbucks gift card.