October sunset

This picture doesn't quite capture how pretty the sky was.

Four years older

Facebook always asks for "now" pictures to compare with "then" pictures. Sometimes I put a recent picture in but I rarely post them to my feed. Here's the latest - Andy and me four years ago and at Tower Hill last month. My "now" hair could be better but it was a church camp picture (no curling iron, no hairspray). We seem to be holding up pretty well.

Scrapbook surprise

I usually flip through scrapbooks before I buy them resale to make sure all the pages are empty. I was gathering things for my upcoming scrapbook weekend and stumbled across these pages in an album I'm planning to use for E's wedding photos. At least I only lost two pages.

Hop Toi night

Andy was out of town so it was women only last night at Allison's church mahjong. My group had an interesting night with Hop Toi. According to the internet, Hop Toi is an American mahjong superstition "during the initial tile deal when a player's tile draw bridges two different walls—specifically, taking the last stack or tiles from one wall and the first stack or tiles from the adjacent corner wall. Hop is said to mean 'shut in' and toi means 'table,' symbolizing locking in good fortune or dragons." So when that happens, the player who is taking the tiles, says, "Hop Toi, I believe" and that person is expected to win that round.

Well, we had Hop Toi in three of the four games we played and the person who had Hop Toi won their round each time! Here's my mahjong when I had Hop Toi. I'm a believer.

And here's the duck I chose to add to our collection.

Yard sales still?

Allison and I were both surprised at how many yard sales were still happening last Saturday. It is fun to see everyone's Halloween decorations. And look at that - these skeletons were playing mahjong!

This enamel Christmas tray was my find of the day - not because I had been looking for it, but because it was marked for 10 cents. I asked the woman who was running the sale if the price was wrong and she said no, 10 cents was fine. How could I not buy that? Allison found a pair of battery-powered Sur La Table salt and pepper grinders for $6 (I think). They retail for $100 so she easily won "deal of the day."

I'm not sure what to say about this except that it got me to look through the box. No porn (or anything interesting) to be found.

The other things I found - some mini candle holders, Christmas hand towels and paper napkins, a puzzle/mind benders Advent calendar I plan to give B, and two rabbit candle holders for a future Easter dinner.

Obama Presidential Center

Andy's office helped host an event at the Obama Presidential Center last night so we were invited! "Great Gatsby" was the theme so after having Andy ask his female coworkers if they were dressing up, I decided to pull out my flapper dress too. I brought home some 1920s-inspired headpieces from the museum, and I was set to go. There were others dressed up, but not as many as I would have liked.

We started the night in the museum's restaurant, Tafari's Kitchen, where his firm was hosting a meet-up with clients. We had a few drinks (Andy had the Obama Old Fashioned) and they ordered some food - ribs, grilled cheese sandwiches, fries and tuna melts.

I didn't have the tuna but the ribs, grilled cheese and fries were good.

Here's his partner, Ken, giving the crowd instructions on how to get through security and where to go once you're inside.

Nice portrait of the Obamas right after you walk in.

Our first stop was the fourth floor where they have a replica of the Oval Office (actual size) when Obama was president.

They had a professional photographer taking pictures of all of the guests behind the Resolute Desk.

Some of the First Lady's dresses and gowns were on display.

The museum was interesting.

We went through it pretty fast.

I get a little bored reading all the captions in the exhibits. I did like all the quotes incorporated into the exhibits.

It was nice to see all the quotes from a president with a vocabulary ...

and hopeful messages.

We checked out the gift shop. I thought these were on par with Disney prices but they're even higher - $35 for an on-the-rocks glass? Highway robbery.

We left before the after-party got going. We grabbed these favors on the way out. I was hoping they were chocolate. They were buttermints.

On the drive home we saw the Sears Tower antennaes lit in blue and orange (looks red though) in memory of Bears Coach Ditka who died Friday.

Flashback photo album

I was at work yesterday when the boss came in to show me some old photos and mid-1970s newspaoer clippings for something I was working on. "I'm pretty sure I had that same photo album," I said. Filled with childhood pictures, he asked. Most likely, yes.

And this is an artsy picture of my "office" earlier in the day. The construction crew had shut off the power to the second floor but my computer was still connected so the boss figured out how to get power to my little lamp. At least I had some light.

Door County coffee

My boss just got back from a long weekend in Door County and brought me some coffee, "Wisconsin Cherry Pie," that was served on screen in the Hallmark Christmas movie, "A Cherry Pie Christmas," that was filmed in Door County. Funny that I recently recorded the movie and watched it one Saturday. It was cute, but predictable as most Hallmark Christmas movies are.

Last Disney day

This little towel bird was sitting on the tub in the restroom we haven't been using.

We're used to Florida's afternoon showers, but it was raining all day Wednesday.

When we were leaving the resort we saw this bag of candy on a table with a "for free" sign so I took it for L (after pulling out a small Twix for me and Andy).

We picked up L from her apartment and she got us into Cast Connections. She found an office chair for her game room for $5 (!). Andy got a Tommy Bahama shirt and I got a DVC hoodie that glows in the dark - we'll see.

We had planned to spend the morning with L in Hollywood Studios but since it was raining we went to L's apartment to kill time. Here's Vader, the cat she found and brought home from her Hershey internship.

And Houdini, adopted while she was in Champaign. Funny that this overweight cat likes to sit on her walking pad.

And Sully.

Family photo! We were driving to the airport and got close when L texted and asked if she had forgotten her umbrella in our rental. Sure enough, she did. We drove back and gave it to her. Good thing we had plenty of time.

Here's Andy in the United Club planning our next Disney trip ... stay tuned.

Disney Tuesday

Andy and I were up early Tuesday and headed to Hollywood Studios. We rode the recently re-imagined Rock 'n Roller coaster. It's OK but I miss Aerosmith. We must be getting old, though, as we both thought it was jerkier than we remembered.

We went to the Pixar area because we thought L was working there, but she switched to Port Orleans resort. We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride (yes, he outscored me again) and the Swirling Saucers.

This was new (we think) so we watched the Villains show.

It highlighted a few of Disney's villains before the audience decided ...

Malificent was the best villain.