New (used) car

W's car has been giving him problems so he and L went car shopping the yesterday. They went in to look at a car advertised online for around $17,000 but get to the dealership and find they're asking thousands more. L, of course, calls Andy and has her get the salesman on the phone, telling him that's a bit if bait and switch, etc. Andy negotiated a few thousand off the price until the payments were acceptable for W. During the financing, L kept texting Andy - Does W need the extended warranty? No. Does he need gap insurance? No. It's good to have a lawyer dad who's willing to help out (and gets an odd satisfaction when he successfully negotiates with car dealers). I'm not sure if W ended up with the car they went to look at, or a totally different car, but everyone left happy. Let's hope it doesn't give him any problems.

House possessed?

We cheaped out on our latest version of backyard patio lights and they might be possessed. I turned them off yesterday morning when I noticed they were on and when I got back from a doctor's appointment that afternoon, they were on again! (It's not the first time we've found them turned on when we know we didn't turn them on.)

And then when I was taking my coat off, I noticed that Alexa was magically turned on, playing Zac Brown songs from his new album. Maybe the cats are fans too?

Weekend work

I'm working on the next museum newsletter and need pictures of the houses that will be on our house walk so Andy and I went out and got pictures Saturday afternoon. Let's face it - he's the photographer in the family. My boss jokes (I think) that they hired me and got Andy as a bonus photographer.

I did, though, take this picture of the sunset over the Eisenhower on our way home.

Thin Mints

I knew I was in trouble when we pulled into the Jewel lot yesterday and saw the little Brownie Scouts holding their signs high and yelling that they had Girl scout cookies for sale. How can someone walk past those cute little girls, hawking their cookies in the cold and snow? I'll take two boxes.

Sixth-grade fashion

I stumbled across a website that had pictures of many Sears catalogs and found this beautifully groovy orange pantsuit in the Spring/Summer 1977 edition. I had the vest, the pants and even the flowered shirt. I wore the whole ensemble for my sixth-grade picture. I didn't remember so many flowers embroidered on the pants leg, but it was the '70s. I was stylin'.

I also found this Fisher-Price schoolhouse ad that Santa brought me in first grade. This was in the 1972 Wishbook.

This more enticing ad was in the 1971 Wishbook. And then I found lots of toys I wanted that Santa never delivered, like the big Barbie head that you could do her hair and make-up.

That's my dollhouse, or one very similar to it, at the bottom left of this page in the 1972 Sears Wishbook.

Chasing the sun

I thought Piper was chasing a gnat, bit she was chasing a sun reflection.

Silly cat.

‘Cheeseburger in Margaritaville’

Maybe we were chasing a beach vibe despite temperatures stuck in the teens yestedray. We ended up at our neighborhood spot, Babygold, for $5 burger night and a screening of the 1986 Jimmy Buffett film "Live From the Bay," featuring footage from two of his 1985 concerts. The evening was advertised as "Cheeseburgers in Margaritaville."

Imagine our surprise when a server gave us each a margarita ... which we didn't order. They were the "special" drink for the night ($8 each) and we thought maybe they weren't selling a lot so they were giving them out free to the customers they could tell were there to see the movie. A parrot head freebie lol. Our waitress, though, crushed all of those fuzzy feelings when she said she didn't charge us for them because they were intended for a table across the way and were misdelivered. Their loss, our gain, I guess.

This was my view, scrunching down in my seat. Most of the time, there was a family of four sitting there so I could only see around them.

We're not sure if they painted the walls since we were there last, but they did redecorate. There are clocks everywhere, a few musical instruments hanging up, a Roosevelt Road street sign that looks old (whether it's from the area, I don't know) and weird stained glass lamps that resemble 1980s Pizza Huts.

Bad cats

These two cats are something.

Good Times Brewery

Our plan was to go back to the 'burbs after lunch with B on Saturday and go grocery shopping but traffic was so light - and parking was so plentiful (because it was so cold)- we decided to stop in at Good Times Brewery, our first brewery stop of 2026.

Their beers were all Chicago-themed. Andy asked the bartender about the Alex Foley connection, but, aha, that's a guest draft so no connection.

I had the Walking Man IPA and Andy had the Weeghman Field (previous name of Wrigley Field) British Amber.

It's a big restaurant and the pizza looked really good.

We hadn't seen this before - a phone charger built right into the bar. Andy just set his phone on it and it was being charged. That's handy.

I've never seen the flag on the left before. Lots of rainbows near Boystown.

The sabbatical starts

Our minister is going on sabbatical until April so we held a potluck going-away picnic for him after worship Sunday. Turn-out was good considering we were in the middle of a big snowfall. The church parking lot wasn't even plowed (that's the village's job and I suppose they were more concerned about the streets).

The chicken and ribs were catered in. The chicken was OK. The ribs were lackluster, or I got a bad, bony piece. I brought baked beans and they were all eaten. I did get a piece of Portillo's famous chocolate cake for dessert and it lived up to its reputation - chocolately deliciousness.

Our snow-covered church as we were leaving. We should have went home but we grocery shopping.

The streets were a mess and slick ...

but the snow was light and pretty.

This snow is gently piled up on what's left of the coneflowers in our yard.