Soft opening, free sandwich

Andy worked from home Monday to go to his doctor's and dentist's appointments. I saw on FB that a local sandwich sandwich shop was having its soft opening and offering free sandwiches so he stopped in on his way back from the dentist. I wasn’t planning to get one myself, but later I had to run to Jewel to grab a tomato for dinner. And since the sandwich place was right a ross the street ... well, it only made sense to stop in. One free sandwich later, no regrets.

Alarmist Brewery

Our latest installment in our brewery tour was Alarmist Brewing. We stopped there Saturday after dropping B off at his apartment. Andy was wondering if it is named Alarmist because it is next to the People's Gas office? Surprisingly they don't tell the brewery's "story" on their website so we'll never know.

The tap pulls were little sticks of dynamite.

This is Andy's fancy beer shot. He ordered the Pantless Pale Ale. The beer glass says, "Come for our beer, Leave because of our people." They were all quite friendly, actually.

We sat inside for a while then we went outside onto their grassy patio area.

Hard to see because it was so sunny, but there's a huge grill and a guy cooking food. Too bad we already had lunch. It smelled good.

Early Mother’s Day

B had a dentist appointment in Oak Park yesterday morning so Andy went to pick him up. Bonus for me is that I got to have an early Mother's Day lunch with him!

We went to Mother's Day restaurant in North Riverside where every day is Mother's Day - even the menu says so. It was busy but we only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table.

The menu is like reading a book. You can have breakfast at any time, lunch, dinner. B had a burger with egg and bacon, Andy had a club wrap and I had a club sandwich. Something for everyone. (Yes, B is wearing a new shirt and made a point of telling me he bought himself a new shirt lol.)

The three of us. Quite the sunny day. We stopped at Costco so he could buy some eggs and rice and the it was time to take him home.

Beautiful day for a drive into the city.

It was the first day of the season that Buckingham Fountain was turned on!

How sweet is this? B napping in the backseat. The kids are sending me a present but the shipping is slower than anticipated. B said it was ordered a couple of weeks ago and now it's expected by the end of the month - something to look forward to.

Homegrown pope

The pope, the first from the U.S. who happens to be from the south Chicago suburbs, chosen Thursday prompted a lot of Chicago-centric memes - and so quickly.

Most of the ones I've seen are pretty clever, but of course, there are some that are just bad (like anything with Malort). These are a few of the funny ones:

This one below randomly popped up in my Facebook feed. It caught my eye because I'm very familiar with the Brooks catsup water tower in Collinsville. I even have it on a magnet.

I had to laugh when I read through the comments and someone asked if it was on fire. Can someone be that clueless to world news? And don't they realize the picture is Photoshopped?

Puzzle fail

I thought this puzzle would be fun - words and typewriters. What's not to like?

I spent a week and a half on this puzzle, and these photos - taken four days apart - look identical. I’d find one piece, celebrate, then stare into the void. At this rate, I’d finish by retirement. I gave up. Bring on the cat puzzles.

Early Mother’s Day?

Andy sent me this picture from his office yesterday afternoon. An early Mother's Day gift? Not quite.

It was his office's "spirit" day - this time with after-work tacos and margaritas. One of the women gave a rose to each of the moms and she had three left over so Andy brought those home.

They're a nice addition to my buffet.

Sorority stickers

My sorority sent out stickers to promote its Day of Giving on May 15. Now I just need to figure out where to spread the love - my iPad case, some notebooks?

Full-time employee!

Big news! You’re looking at one of the newest full-time Cast Members at Disney! She got the call Monday afternoon — she landed the DVC job! I told her that was the best Mother’s Day gift she could have ever given me. Dreams really do come true!

To celebrate, she feasted on an authentic Mexican dinner (sorry Taco Bell, you don't count) while soaking up the sunset from her patio. A perfect dinner on cinco de mayo.

House Walk

Sunday afternoon was the Historical Society's House Walk. Andy and I went to take pictures. Guess who designed this fabulous cover for the program booklet.

This was the first house we went through. It's the home where Chicago mobster Sam Giancana was murdered in the basement while frying sausages. The murder remains unsolved.

It's a beautiful brick home on three lots. One of Andy's golf buddies lives next door.

Here's Andy in his photographer role. (I was setting up an artsy shot with the tulips when Andy walked into the frame.) This was McDonald's founder Ray Kroc's boyhood home.

I like the picture of this Gunderson home that shows more of the homes on the block.

This house at one time had a family with six daughters and one bathroom. Hmmm.

The hardest part of the walk is putting these paper booties on and off at every house, especially if there's nowhere to sit down.

This house was smaller inside than it looks from the outside. I suppose that big porch is deceiving. The garden in back is beautiful.

We were in line for our sixth and final house when it started to rain. We were going to wait but as the rain got harder we decided to go home.

Andy dodging raindrops. We skipped the volunteers' after-party at the museum.

Morning thrifting

I ran out Saturday morning to grab some groceries, and since Goodwill is right on the way, I figured I might as well stop in. I ended up finding this Longaberger Snapdragon basket. It's in great shape, and even though I’m not sure what I’ll use it for yet, there was no way I was leaving it behind. I also grabbed these three little bunny egg holders that’ll be cute for Easter, and a cat puzzle because, well, cat puzzle. And the best part? I didn’t even have to spend any money because I used some points from all the shopping Cindy did when she visited. We might have to do that again.