House concert

My cookies are ready for my friend L's house concert Saturday.

She made corned beef and I had the last slice.

Alice Wallace performed. I think we've seen her before at L's house.

End of the night and half of a cookie is left. That's a success (and I have a few at home that didn't fit on the plate).

Road trip to Miami

This young lady texted me Thursday morning to say she and T were taking a trip to Miami.

Bathroom break in Palm Beach Gardens. They made it to their AirBnB in the afternoon. She Facetimed me to give me a tour.

I assume this was taken at dinner. She sends pictures but she's not good about telling me about the pictures.

They found the beach.

Friday morning they were (back?) at Miami Beach.

Nice shirt, T.

Well, this is adorable.

This is the Sky Views Miami Wheel at Bayside Marketplace.

Port Miami. They drove back to Orlando on Friday. She said they might go back to Miami when T turns 21 in May.

St. Paddy’s Day cookies

Andy and I are going to a friend's house concert tonight. She's serving corned beef so I thought I'd keep with the St. Patrick's Day theme and make some sugar cookies in the shape of shamrocks.

They're huge! My full recipe didn't even make two dozen.

Some have green sugar and some have green sprinkles.

Museum gala

Last night was the museum's annual gala.

We get comped tickets but Andy took photos all night.

With our friends, N and V.

During the boss' speech they showed a video for our anticipated expansion and elevator addition.

I didn't like the linen choices (these are yellow, but the bigger tables were white. Never choose white when you can do colors for the same price) but the flowers were pretty, as usual, so I took a bouquet home.

A key for me

I've been given a key to the museum (finally!) Guess they got tired of opening the door for me. Now the trick will be to successfully reset the alarm when I come in.

Enough nail clippers?

I don't know where my nail clippers go. I like to have clippers in each of my purses (and I have a few of those). I bought three at Walgreens about a month ago and can't find them anywhere so I ordered this pack of 20. They're a little smaller than the ones from Walgreens, and feel cheaper, but I'm hoping they last (and stick around) for awhile.

Mystic cat puzzle

Whoever had this puzzle before me put the edge pieces in a separate bag. However, the pieces I set on the poster, obviously not edge pieces, were in the bag too. Fortunately, all of the edge pieces were in the bag. Weird.

My "helper."

This was a pretty puzzle ... and it's complete!

A puzzle find

We used to go to Door County every summer, so I had to nab this puzzle for $1.99. Maybe I can use it as my hint for Andy to start planning a trip.

Found out it's still for sale on the Wisconsin Historical Society's website for $28. Ouch.

Busy Saturday

Andy was up crazy early yesterday morning to go to the golf practice facility. He got home and we drove to Addison to bet my car's emissions checked. It opened at 7:30 a.m. and there was a line when we got there, a few minutes after opening. My car passed. Then we got an oil change and new air filter, stopped at a post office to mail things to E, and went to a lame church rummage sale.

By 11 a.m. we were in the city taking things to B and taking him to Costco.

After dropping B off, we continued our local brewery tour at Maplewood in the city.

We didn't eat there, but their description of Home Run pizza was funny: "If tou don't know Home Run Inn you may as well move to the West Coast where they don't know anything about pizza!"

Inside brewery shot.

It was a gorgeous day to be in the city!

Then we met friends at the local brewery, Kinslagher, which was celebrating its ninth anniversary. Our neighbor is their head brewer. It was packed and we had to stand the whole time we were there. Last year, at least we had seats.

Here's my friend, C, buying me a beer.

Egg price watch

Price at Jewel yesterday. We didn't need eggs on this grocery trip.

Um, 250th

I was told at work to read through this booklet to see if any ideas pop out to me for an event(s) or activity we could do to celebrate the United States' 250th anniversary in 2026. (I was told the 250th won't be as big of deal as the nation's bicentennial in 1976, which I clearly remember). Pilgrims had trouble pronouncing sesquicentennial for the church's 150th anniversary. It certainly seems easier than semiquincentennial. Regrdless, we've decided we'll be sticking with "250th anniversary."

Waiting for his treats

August seems so lonely as the only cat in the house so I've started giving him a few treats whenever I leave. It might be my imagination (because I don't think he's that smart - sorry, cat) but if I sit down to put my shoes on, he walks over to the cabinet where I keep the treats and waits for his treats.

New Disney card

I decided it was time to request a new design for my Disney Visa card and I thought this one with all of the characters was cheerful.

This was my previous one - a retro image of Magic Kingdom.

Paczki Day

Today is Paczki Day! The Jewel has had these on sale for weeks and we finally gave in and bought a box. Not as delicious as the ones from a real bakery, but not horrible.

Quilting finds

I found these at the thrift shop on Saturday and they were marked $3.99 each. I know E uses them so I picked them up, not really know how (or if) she would even use them. (Look up jelly roll race quilt and mondo bag). The batik one, I noticed later was marked $42.50 retail.

It was offered online for $55 Canadian. The cashier told us someone who ran a craft shop recently donated a lot of merchandise. There was a lot there.

On Sunday, E and I went back and she found a couple of things of fabric and some rulers to buy. There were two other packs of fabrics she bought that were not set out on the dining room table. Pretty good haul for her.

Dinner with the kids

We had been meaning to have dinner with B and since E was in town, last night seemed like the perfect time. He picked a restaurant in Andersonville so it was a bit of a drive from his apartment. The restaurant he chose had an hour-plus weight so we out our name on the waitlist but walked around the neighborhood and found an Italian restaurant, Calo Ristorante, with about a 20-minute wait.

B looks good and seems happy to see his big sister and to be living on his own. Nice, tasty bread.

We thought this appetizer would be mozarella sticks but it was one glorious slab of breaded, melted mozarella.

B and I had the chicken parm, Andy had sausage and rigatoni and E had pasta carbonara. It was very good.

The restaurant was cute. There was a dining area by a very long bar and this was the main dining area. I think there was a third dining room too.

I had to get a pic of the kids, who never go to church, under the "Jesus Saves" sign.

Beautiful drive home on Lake Shore Drive. Here's the Drake Hotel.