Small but mighty, hopefully

I've been slowly packing for my upcoming Alaskan cruise and had been searching for a small pair of binoculars. I wanted them small enough to fit in my everyday bag but powerful enough to see some bears. I found these and knew they'd be small. Hope they do the job.

Oh, the Vidette years

Hanging out with our fellow ISU Vidette staffers last weekend had Andy and me searching through our college photos. There were lots of Vidette parties and this one - our Christmas 1987 party at Guy's house - was among the best.

We're all wearing Xeroxed sixth-grade pictures of Jeff, one of our photographers who was celebrating a birthday. I'm guessing he turned 21. How we got the picture, who copied them and handed them out to everyone is a mystery.

Why was Mike, our editor, wrapping our features editor in toilet paper? Another mystery.

And, yes, there was dancing on the coffee table. As I said earlier, it was a good party. I texted these to our friend, Kathy, who went to the reunion with us and she replied, "So sad that we had no fun." Yeah, lol.

This picture was a different nightt at the Sig Tau house where Kathy was a little sister. Why we were all there, I don't recall. I wish I could see my whole outfit because that big yellow sweathsr and those tight acid wash jeans with zippers at the ankles were the epitome of '80s fashion.

An evening with B

B took the train downtown Monday afternoon and got a ride here with Andy for his dentist appointment. He really needs to find a dentist in his neighborhood, but I do like when he visits regardless of the reason.

It had been storming all day - lots of trees and branches fell down - and at the end of it all was a rainbow. Andy took this driving over the Eisenhower.

Of course we took him out to eat before driving him back to his apartment. We tried to go to Salerno's but their power was out so we ended up at the Avenue Ale House. (Not great. I had to ask for new fries because mine were served cold. Andy was already in a mood because the appetizer of onion rings was $9 and they gave us six onion rings, $1.50 per ring, and one was barely a ring, is crazy high. Lesson learned).

We saw a tall ship on the kake as we were driving back to his apartment.

We're usually driving him during the day so these sunset views were different to see.

You can see the sunset peeking between these buildings.

I even gave B a parting gift - a magnet for his fridge reminding him to call his mom. We'll see how that works.

Gotcha day anniversary

Yesterday, July 26, was the cats' one-year anniversary of being with us. They've grown a lot. They're still more skittish than I'd like but they're still young. Maybe in another year they'll be calmer?

Here's Ruby. She loves to sit like this on the back of the dining room chairs. She seems to like me more than Andy and sits with me in the evenings. She's cuddly but still likes to lick me ... too much.

Piper seems a bit more adventurous. Here she is on the kitchen counter. When I'm getting ready in the morning, she hoos up on the bathroom sink and waits for me to turn on the water so she can get a drink. Usually when I get out of the shower she is sitting on the bed waiting for me. She sits with Andy every night so we say she's "his cat" but she sleeps by my legs. Ruby comes to bed with us too but usually wakes up and starts licking our faces so she gets tossed out.

They both like to play, like treats, enjoy sitting on my puzzles and follow me around all day when I'm home. They're both scared of loud sounds and sudden movements. Let's hope they get calmer and cuddlier in the coming year.

Vidette reunion

What a fun evening we had last night. Our college friend, Kathy, came over and the three of us went into the Fulton Market area of the city for an ISU Vidette reunion. Here's me with Kathy at The Bandit, where we had dinner.

Class of 1988 - Mike S., Kathy, Jeff and me. Last time we saw Kathy and Jeff was 10 years ago. Where does the time go?

Talking and reminiscing. We all agreed we were glad we were in college before everyone had cell phones - not much evidence of the many crazy, funny things we did.

Group photo!

This is such a cute neighborhood. After dinner we walked to Haymarket Brewery where we talked some more before calling it a night.

Mike, Mark and Scott.

Jeff, who was one of the groomsmen in our wedding, and Andy.

Vidette party at homecoming 1987, where our story began.

Several people told us we haven't changed at all. I see quite a few changes so I'll take that as a compliment.

Oopsie

I went on my Bird Buddy app to see a live stream of the camera and this is what it showed me - an interesting view of my kitchen. That's when I realized that I had charged the battery but hadn't yet put it back in the feeder.

I can't see the many sparrows that love my feeder without having the camera in! I never post their pictures because they visit so often, but this was a funny pose.

Cute cat puzzle

I thought this was going to be my next puzzle. I opened it up and all of the edge pieces had been placed in a bag. I started putting the frame together and it was missing pieces - unless those pieces never got put in the bag. I decided the wait of putting it together and the frustration if those edge pieces are never found just wasn't worth it. Into the recylcing bin it went. So I started another cat puzzle.

Only 750 pieces so it didn't take me long to finish. Yay, it's complete!

The question I have, though, is whose tail is this?

Dinner with neighborhood friends

Andy and I met our friends, Nancy and Vic, at Fitzgerald's last night for dinner. We were too busy talking to get many pictures but I snapped this bad photo of the band. We went to Nancy's retirement party in June but this was the first time we were able to sit and talk since we got together for dinner last August. They're going to Italy in September so we'll bet to hear all about and see their photos next time we get together.

In other news, I got our cabin assignment for next month's Alaskan cruise. Could be noisy, apparently.

My mahjong bag

Allison found the mahjong reusable shopping bags at Marshall's and got me one! I plan to keep it in the car for any yard sale treasures I find.

Andy and I have been going to the Monday mahjong nights at her church. We were at different tables on Monday and I didn't win at all. Andy won one game.

Is it dark in here?

It seems Piper wanted to turn light but I think she was chasing a fruit fly.