Garden is going strong

We bought two Black-eyed Susans a while ago at Costco on clearance. One has started to bloom and has lots of blooms in waiting. The other one ... not yet.

This is a project I've been putting off for at least a week. Andy cleaned up the yard and decided for some reason to move this huge terra cotta pot. Of course it broke. Now I'm supposed to plant all of these Chicks and Hens in different pots.

Yard sale poster finds

I found these picture posters at a recent yard sale being sold by the photographer himself, Bob Gally. When he saw I picked out two U of I photos, he went into the house, saying he had another, but it was the football stadium I had already found. I considered getting three, one for each of my Illini grads, but I figured they probably wouldn't want something to hang on their walls. They haven't even taken their diplomas.

So I spent $1 each on the photos then found frames for about $8 each. I hung them in L's room, now our guest room. They're not quite level with each other but as long as I don't have to see them everyday, they're fine.

Nashville treat

Nice to go to work and find a treat on your desk. My co-worker, R, went to Nashville for the weekend and brought this back. Looking forward to trying it.

36 years

Where does the time go? Andy and I celebrated our 36th anniversary last night with dinner downtown at Frontera Grill. We got there before our dinner reservation so we could each enjoy one drink at happy hour pricing.

We were seated on the patio, as we requested. It was a good-weather night.

We werent sure whether Rick Bayless was at the restaurant a dd I said if we sat on the patio, we'll never know. However, here he is in the driver's seat of a car parked right by us. I know it seems a bit stalkerish.

I ordered two small dishes from the happy hour menu. Andy had the steak. Mine was OK but I wouldn't order it again. We both had leftovers and didn't have any room left for dessert. Boooo.

Fate and a mixer

This is a crazy story. I woke up Sunday morning to a text with this photo from L. She said she found Kitchen Aid mixer in the dumpster - nothing she does surprises me anymore - and it works. I told her to look for the model number and we figured out it was a five-quart lift mixer - just like mine. We looked at bowls online and they were around $70 minimum. The tilt-head bowls are significantly less but, no, she found a lift head.

I was mindlessly scrolling on Facebook on our drive home from Old Irving Brewing Co. Sunday and saw a five-quart bowl for a Kitchen Aid lift-bowl mixer on our local free page. What are the odds of that? I claimed it and we picked it up before coming home. It's in great condition.

It passed Ruby's inspection. L wants me to ship it to her but I don't know that I will. (We're going to visit her in October). Now she needs a mixing paddle and she's good to go.

Old Irving Brewery

After church Sunday Andy and I continued our local brewery tour. This time we went into the city and stopped at Old Irving Brewing Co.

It was lunchtime so we split some cheese curds. Service was great and the bar was cool.

I thought this was interesting - a quote about beer from Washington Irving, the man that the elementary school our kids went to is named after. "They who drink beer will think beer." They even had the quote printed on their growlers.

They even changed the TV station so Andy could watch the PGA golf tournament. If we were in the neighborhood again, I think we'd stop in.

Fair puzzle

How about this? A completed puzzle with no pictures of cats sitting on it. Maybe that's why all the pieces were there.

Success

I put the "call mom" magnet in a bag of things I had for B so I asked him the other day if he found it. He sent back this picture of it on his fridge. Success! Now, we'll see if he follows that advice.

Sleeping beauties

Piper ...

and Ruby.

Togetherness.

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.