The Weinermobile!

The museum operations manager told me yesterday afternoon that the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile was at the grocery store about a block away. I left a few minutes early from work to see if it was still there (and to grab a loaf of bread for dinner) and it was! I've seen it before but it's always fun to see. The girls enjoyed it back in 2011.

And, yes, I got a whistle.

Free vacation magnet

Walgreens had a special to create a free photo magnet so, I thought, why not? I used a picture from our recent Key West vacation and added the date.

Phase Three

Took a break from Easter prep on Saturday, did some shopping and grabbed a beer at Phase Three Brewery in Elmhurst.

We had been here once before but I never blogged about it as part of our self-created local brewery tour, so we decided to go back. They mostly brew hazy IOAs and I din't really like hazys (Andy dies though) so I had tgeir lager.

I do like their logo, explained here.

Easter celebrations

Our Easter started, as usual, with the potluck breakfast at church. Andy made pancakes with a friend. I was busy chatting and they were done cooking the pancakes by time I got into the kitchen. Fortunately, my friend L snapped a pic of them cooking.

I brought a Mexican-style egg hashbrown casserole. I followed the recipe and used ham but I think hot pork sausage would be better. Regardless, I came home with an empty dish.

Lots of people showed up.

I took a few pictures of the Easter egg hunt. It was over in minutes.

The sanctuary looked nice. It was good to see the white ribbon back. That hasn't been hung up in years.

I set the table with my 99-cent tablecloth and (very bright) green napkins.

Appetizers are ready.

My boy is home!

Enjoying Easter dinner.

Recognition for L

L was recently selected by the Yacht/Beach Club for an "Above and Beyond" award for guest relations. She's our superstar.

Yay, L!

My first exhibit

This Farmers' Market 50th anniversary exhibit was the first one I've "curated." I had help from a volunteer in choosing items and our operations manager moved things around a bit, and after all of that, it looks ok. I even wrote the captions in the display case. Yes, that is Andy's donut shirt and I designed the six "timeline" fliers under the shirt.

I included this newspaper article because it features the market's founder. Interesting that it just so happened to be an article I wrote back in my newspaper days. Next Saturday, the museum is hosting a panel discussion about the market. Andy is helping at church on Friday night to make donuts for the event. My worlds are colliding.

Lucky ladybug?

I was looking out the window at work when all of the sudden, this ladybug flew down in front of me and landed on a box I was leaning on. Hope that's a good luck sign.

Different tomato

Brought some grape tomatoes for my lunch to work the other day and pulled this cutie out.

Door County puzzle

This Door County puzzle was fun but the pieces were so oddly shaped.

Again, my "helper."

I thought it was done and missing five edge pieces, but I lifted the box off the table ...

and there they were! We haven't been to Door County in years. It might be time to plan a trip.

Broken Tee Brewery

Andy and I had some time to kill before his law partner R's concert on Saturday so we stopped in Broken Tee Brewery in Highwood. It's right by the Metta tracks and certainly doesn't look like much from the outside.

Inside was nice.

The bartenders were super friendly, so that's a bonus. Cute logo of the hop and broken tee.

The broken tee lol. All of the food, and some of the beer, had golf-themed names. The owner, I read, is a former golf pro.

Cheese curds to keep us from being "hangry" at the Latvian concert.

Oh, and the Masters tournament was on all of the TVs, of course.

Happy 28th!

E is 28 today! She and D went to tulip festival over the weekend.

A raclette b-day

My friend, L, had the church ladies over for her birthday Sunday night and treated us to what was a new experience for me - raclette. I brought sausage, cheese and crackers. In retrospect I should have brought a veggie tray as the meal was very meat and cheese heavy.

My yummy sandwich and potatoes.

I picked my friend, C, up and she made this no-bake cheesecake dessert. She said it was finicky so we set it in the back of the car. It didn't set up like it was supposed to and it kept spreading during dinner, but it tasted good.

Latvian culture

Saturday was quite the interesting day. Allison started out our yard sale season early with an eatate sale. I got these two ties for Andy for $2 each (Brooks Brothers) ...

And these wine stoppers - $2 total.

We saw this goose on her nest in the Goodwill parking lot in Glenview. They had signs all around for drivers to slow down for the nesting goose.

This goose was just sitting in the parking lot. We had some time to kill so we went to Broken Tee Brewery in Highwood (that will be in a later post.)

And the reason we were up north - Andy's law partner was singing in this Latvian choir.

The program was written in Latvian. Hmmm.

Lots of dancing and singing. Andy's partner, R, is third from left on the stage in this picture.

R's mom brought me some Latvian sausages (ham?) wrapped in dough. They're so good!

Cat baking puzzle

This was a cute ouzzle about cats baking a kitchen.

Now to decide if I have time to complete another puzzle before Easter.

Epcot Flower and Garden

L and T spent a day off exploring the parks. Here they're striking a pose at Hollywood Studios.

Then they drove to Epcot for the Flower and Garden Festival. Makes me excited to go see her in a couple of weeks.

So many fun topiaries of Disney characters ...

and interesting food booths. She had grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch.

Could they have been parked any farther away in the Epcot lot? You can barely see Spaceship Earth.