My girls and hostas

L texted us on Wednesday that she couldn't find her front license plate. The car she has was last registered in Michigan where they don't have front plates so the car was purchased without a front plate bracket. She had her plate in the front windshield but it was rattling too much so she tossed it in the backseat. She drove home that night with her friend T to start going through the things in her room. On Thursday, they were in the drive-through at Dunkin' when she looked over to ask T what he wanted to order and she saw her license plate behind the visor. At least the plate has been found. She's back in Champaign and will be going to the dealership today to get that front plate bracket installed.

This pic made me laugh. Could E look more miserable? She had just finished golfing with the work team on the rain. She called it "post-round hair."

Nothing to do with the girls but Allison and I went to a house last night and dug up some hostas and ferns they were offered on FB for free. It's nice that people do that instead of just tossing plants they no longer want.

I transplanted them by our air conditioner in four clumps (the middle clump has two plants) I could have split the big one more but I think I'll do that next spring if it survives that long.

Field trip debut

We had three third-grade classes come through the museum and my director said I should observe how he does the primary-source exercise so that I could do it too. What?!? I did it three times and it went ok with him jumping in at times with more info but the last group I had was a bit rowdy. Their adult chaperone wasn't even in the room, but it was near the end of the school day, near the end of the field trip so maybe that was why they were distracted? Overall, it was fine.

These are two of the pictures we show to the students to see what they can identify to try to figure out when, where and why the photo was taken and what they can surmise from it.

A little research and I found the wading pool picture in an 1927 local newspaper.

The kids enjoy this picture of a slide. It's so tall and dangerous, they say. Exactly.

A meeting?

Andy had to go to church to sign some checks (the life of the treasurer) and I said I'd ride along - in clothes I've had on for two days, gross, dirty hair and no bra - and we walked into a Finance Committee meeting that Andy was supposed to be at. (Had he put it on the shared online calendar I would have been able to remind him). He already missed a half-hour but I said if he wanted to stay I could occupy myself.

I organized the pile of free puzzles in the parlor and found three to being home. I opened each one to see if the pieces were in a bag and this one didn't have a bag, but it appeared all the pieces could be there. However, the puzzle wasn't taken fully alart (one of my many oet peeves) so I sat in the parlor and painstakingly separated all of the pieces.

These are the three puzzles I brought home.

Wright’s George Smith House

Allison and I went on the Historical Society's tour yesterday morning of the Smith House, an early Frank Lloyd Wright house that was in disrepair before a couple bought it last year and totally renovated it.

I loved all the huge windows throughout the house. The fireplace definitely has Wright's design. This site has pics of what the house looked like before the renovation. Unbelievable transformation.

Kitchen before and after.

House was very bright inside. This is the dining room.

We had a really good turnout for the tour. This site tells some of the home's history.

Second-floor bedroom.

View of the landscaped back yard ... and Big Foot on the right. Here's a story from Architectural Digest. And here's a news report from when the home was on the market.

Third-floor bedroom ...

and bathroom. Floor tile and shower were very nice.

One of the homeowners who led the tour and answered everyone's questions. This was in the basement.

Beautiful back yard.

They did a great job renovating the house. Glad I got to see it.

Crafty cat puzzle

This was fun and easy to do. It had all 750 pieces ...

and two extras.

Cicadas are here!

Still haven't seen many cicadas at our house but Allison and I went to some yard sales Saturday morning and they were everywhere.

Here's one moving up a tree. They're not good at flying and landed on my arm and foot. A lot of them were squished on sidewalks or flipped over on their backs. I guess people like to step on them and birds like to eat them. It's rough being a cicada. There's a constant humming which, I believe, is supposed to last into July.

A friend took this picture of the 150th anniversary tree at church. We were debating whether it needed to be covered and decided it's better to do it and not need it than not do it and have the young tree die. Looks like we made the right decision!

At home, I found a couple of cicada shells on our parkway trees.

This guy was on our plants. We don't hear any sounds ... yet.

Free firewood

Heavy winds recently brought a huge branch down from our neighbor's parkway tree. It doesn't look too big in this picture but cars couldn't get through. A police officer roped off the tree and a few hours later the tree was chipped away and the street cleared.

The next morning Andy had to clean up all the branches that fell in the yard from our parkway trees. I usually toss them into the street for the village to haul away but Andy kept them and said they'll be good for firewood.

Pizza city talk

Andy, Allison and I went to the River Forest Library last night to hear Chicago TV food journalist Steve Dolinsky talk about pizza.

The library said he would "talk about the history of deep dish as well as a multitude of other pizza styles found in and around Chicago. As the author of two books on the subject, including his latest, 'The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide,' Steve is uniquely qualified to teach us why Chicago is Pizza City USA."

They even had samples of local pizza for us to taste after the talk.

The pizza was cold and some people took a lot, like this guy from the picture I took of the pizzas in the room. It was a taste, not a dinner, buddy. Pretty sure people at the end of the line didn't get any. I had a deep-dish slice (from Lou Malnati's), a sicilian slice and a tavern-style slice. We did agree we should have some family pizza outings to places in the city we've heard good things about but never visited.

First cicada sighting

I've been patiently waiting to see the cicadas. I've even had friends invite me over to see the cicada invasions in their yards. On way way into work today, I saw one on a tree by the museum. Couldn't tell if it was alive but I wasn't going to touch it. We still haven't seen any in our yard or parkway.

L’s new-to-her car

L is impulsive and persuasive. Yesterday it paid off for her. Last weekend she called to ask if we'll be paying her rent while she's in Florida and still in college. We said sure (after a long, somewhat heated discussion) but she needs to graduate in December. Then, she mentions it would be nice to have a bigger car. Um, not the best time to bring that idea up, kid.

So later I asked her more about it and she found a local dealership that had a Buick Encore with 10,000 miles on it. That's certainly better than the 62,000 on the Verano she's been driving since May 2021. (We were looking at buying her a used car then but because of the pandemic there was a used car shortage and if someone was getting a new car, it was going to be me so that's what we did). In addition to wanting a larger car, she wanted Apple Play. I told Andy it doesn't make much sense to wait until she's in Florida to get a different car when he could help her do that here. She and T even cleaned the Verano so it would get a higher trade-in value.

Andy drove to Champaign yesterday to see the car, bring the title and his checkbook lol.

She was a little sad to get rid of the Verano though she doesn't look too upset in this picture.

She's had the car since her sophomore year of college and it went to Pennsylvania with her for her Hershey internship.

It was her first car, which I kept reminding her it was actually our car, not hers. She was even with us when we bought it and still raves about Andy's negotiating skills that day.

She looks happy ... until she has to start making payments. It's a silver, 2021 Buick Encore with low mileage and she looooves it.

She promises to keep it clean and not fill it with stuffed animals and trash.

Aw! Good dad and happy daughter.

Back to the vet?

I was slow in putting the cat carrier back in the basement after August's recent vet visit, but he's decided it's his new favorite resting place so now I'm in no hurry to put it away. Maybe he liked the vet so much he wants to go back?

Happy to report he is no longer constipated and seems to be feeling much better.

We’re helpers

A woman at church popped her lung (I didn't even know that could happen) and she can't lift anything for three weeks. She asked for meals to be made for her family of five so I took two nights. First night I made tortellini tomato basil soup and sent along a salad and sprinkle cookies. She was actually out of the house for a dentist appointment so she swung by and I took it out to her car.

The next night I made mini-meatloaves. I was going to make green beans but she had some left over from a previous meal so she said not to bother. I made extra so B could try them (he ate one while I was delivering the food and had the other two for dinner) and he said they were better than my usual meatloaf that I make in the crockpot ... and B is the one who gave me that crockpot recipe. Hmmm. (She dropped off my plate and told me she didn't get any meatloaf because her boys ate it all before she had the chance. At least they liked it).

And we fed our neighbors' two cats while they were on a trip to New York. This is Frankie and he was scared of us and still is. This is as close as he'd get to us but he was hungry. Their other cat, Olive, demanded to be petted.

And they brought over a thank-you gift - which they didn't have to do - wine and two New York shot glasses.