Graduation party

Andy and I went to our friend M's daughter's graduation party yesterday afternoon in the church hall. She recently earned her master's degree and will be teaching kindergarten this fall.

A cute "how well do you know the graduate" game and a coloring sheet if the grad, drawn by her friend based on the picture with the pigeon book.

M makes adorable table decorations. Always adds a festive touch. The ribbon says, "hooray."

Tasty lunch.

Shirts to sell

One of Andy's weekend projects was (finally!) ironing and photographing some of his Tommy Bahama shirts to try to sell them on eBay. They've been sitting on the bench at the end of our bed since the beginning of the year. Some are too large and some he just doesn't like any more.

The photographer at work.

Now the shirts are stacked in the dining room - all 13 of them - waiting to be bid on and shipped to new homes.

Latte Cats puzzle

I wanted to do a quick puzzle before I need to get the dining room in order for my church ladies' birthday party, so I did this 750-piece Latte Cats puzzle. All the pieces were there!

I had to text a picture to my former coworker, C, who regularly seeks out and post photos of latte art when she's out an about.

I figure she'd appreciate it.

Close enough? They’re both green

Had to laugh when I was at Jewel and saw broccoli marked with a green bean sign. It's the little things that amuse me.

Is that you, Susie?

So my Bird Buddy lets me name the birds that come to the feeder. On a whim, I named a female cardinal "Susie." Now, everytime a female cardinal visits, the app asks if it's Susie. It might be? A friend from church recently dropped off her camera bird feeder because her condo won't let her out it up (Boo!) but we're hoping to find a location that will finally (!) attract a male cardinal. Stay tuned. I named an earlier female cardinal Ruby but Bird Buddy hasn't said she's returned. Perhaps Ruby is Susie?

And, finally, a male cardinal, possibly Susie's husband, stopped by the feeder long enough to grt his picture taken! He's been hanging around, but June 21 was his first glamour shot.

Cherry cheese coffee cake

I walked over to Irving Monday morning to pick some cherries for my annual cherry cheese coffee cake.

I had lots of dishes to clean up!

I'm not sure the center is baked enough, but I'll take my chances.

Candy cane napkin rings

I found these vintage napkin rings at a church rummage sale Allison and I recently hit up (St. John of the Cross in Western Springs). The boxes showed four different festive designs, so I thought I was getting a fun little mix, like a holiday sampler platter for my Christmas table. And they wanted $1 for all three boxes? Sold. When I got them home, I opened one of the boxes and it was full of candy cane napkin rings. Then I noticed that each box actually had the candy cane design checked. Ah, it all makes sense and turns out to be perfect, actually with 12 matching napkin rings. I put it in my future "peppermint" Christmas drawer.

Celebrating B’s 26th b-day

We're in a heat wave. On Thursday, when the weather forecasters began predicting high temperatures (heat indexes near 100) for the next three or four days, I asked B if he wanted is to bring him the air-conditioner from his room. He declined, but after a sweltering Saturday, he texted Sunday morning and asked if we could bring the AC to him. Andy did, helped him install it in his living room window and brought him two fans too. Hooe that keeps him comfortable.

Then that afternoon Andy and I drove down to his apartment to take him out for his birthday dinner. The beaches were packed and so many people were on their boats. The water looked so refreshing.

B wanted deep-dish pizza and chose to go to Gino's East by Water Tower Place.

I usually get a picture on the kids' birthday with number candles showing their age. I didn't have a cake to stick the candles in (or, in B's case, usually brownies), but I brought along the candles and B indulged me with a picture. He's a good son.

We had mozzarella sticks for an appetizer and a large sausage pizza - half with fresh garlic, B's request. The garlic was a bit strong for my taste. Anyway, we ordered a large with the intention of giving B the leftovers. He's on his interesting weight-builing diet so said we could take the leftovers home. Now we have lunch for tomorrow.

The three of us after dinner on a hot day in the city. Nowthat I see this picture and notice how I was juggling my phone and the leftover pizza box, I understand how I got pizza sauce on my shorts. Mystery solved.

Raccoon vs. cat

This isn't what you want to see when you walk out the door in the morning. I had just transplanted a chick and hen in this pot and now it's knocked over. Andy suspected a raccoon. I suspected our neighbor cat, Frankie. A review of the Ring camera showed a raccoon on the porch eating the cat food that I set out for neighborhood cats, but it also shows Frankie at the bottom of the stairs. The raccoon got spooked by Frankie and scurried off the porch, knocking the pot over. I found the chick and hen on the side of the stairs.

The stand-off with the raccoon looked very similar to thismincident the other day. This yellow cat wandered into the yard while Andy and I were sitting outside. Then Frankie hopped over the fence, they both started hissing at each other and I thought things were going to get ugly. Frankie may be scary to neighborhood animals but he's essentially a scaredy cat, at least when it comes to me, so I walked over and he jumped back into his own yard. Crisis averted.

June yard

Our flower boxes on the garage look nice. The hanging baskets on the garage have petunias in the matching purple color.

The "ditch lilies" are blooming.

The cana bulb I got at the museum is growing.

A female cardinal visited the feeder while we were sitting outside.

Andy thinks he found a pine tree growing in the yard. I'm not sure, but I'm willing to let it grow.

Museum nametag

The boss surprised me today with my official nametag! Just in time for the museum's annual meeting Tuesday night. Now I have a nametag and business cards.

Cat painting

Missing my cats so I asked ChatGPT to turn this picture into a painting.

That's both amazing and scary.

Rainy dinner

We had been wanting to check out Fitzgerald's new patio for a while so yesterday - when it was forecasted to possibly rain a bit around 4 p.m. Wednesday - we made dinner reservations on the patio for the $5 burger night. The patio is mostly covered, which is nice, but it was a bit harder to hear the music.

In addition to the new covered patio, they also put lights on the tables and bought new all-weather picnic tables.

Sometimes my burger isn't cooked enough but last night it was. They put pickles on mine, when I requested no pickles, and then Andy and I both noticed they didn't put slaw on either of our burgers. Pretty sure we got someone else's order but the waiter brought us slaw so it all ended well.

We were there about two hours and it rained constantly the entire time, and had been raining a couple hours before we got there. Water was pooling on the pavement and even with the shelters, it was kind of miserable. The forecasted "slight shower" was way off.

Field reception

What a beautiful night to be in the city.

We went to the Field Museum last night for the preview of the "Reptiles Alive!" exhibit. The caterers really leaned in to the theme with these table linens and the waitstaff were all wearing snake print shirts.

They even had reptiles on our nametags.

Now, this is how you serve appetizers.

They had cocktails and appetizers for an hour before they moved us into the auditorium for the program.

Learning all about the exhibit.

We sat near the back so we could skip out a bit early and see if they were serving food. I had the salmon (why??) and the chicken. Those gray things to the left of the salmon are mushrooms, I think. Mushrooms are ok on pizza but not like this.

Then we hit up the kids' buffet - little hamburgers with dried out buns and cold mozzarella sticks. Yum lol. (Andy heated up some soup when we got home).

I think they said there are 22 live reptiles throughout the exhibit.

This reptile was brought out, I believe, just for this reception. The handler said it's kind of like a cat. Um, no.

Catching up with L

This is the shirt of L's new uniform. She called this a sneak peek and promised to send a picture of the whole outfit ... eventually. Anyway, it's designed by Johnston & Murphy, a company I hadn't heard of before, but it's fancy, apparently.

One of the last few full days of training last week. The group is now doing half-days of training and half-days on location. L will be going to Beach Club, Saratoga Springs, Cooper Creek and Pop Century.

L and T had the day off Monday so they took a trip to Madeira Beach.

I said I wasn't sure what to think of this picture ...

then she sent this one. Oy.

Another "Welcome to Florida" sign.