Early morning spider

Andy was leaving at 4:20 a.m. (yes, you read that right, 4:20 a.m.) to go to the local driving range (of course) when he saw this huge spider web. He was so impressed he took a photo to show me.

He told me he knocked it down - he's scared of spiders - but it wasn't until I looked at the Ring doorbell footage that I saw he went back inside the house to grab a golf-swinging tool and used that to knock it down. I assumed he used his hands. A litle warm-up for the range, I suppose. By time I woke up the spider was rebuilding the web.

Carrots without asking

Margarita's, our go-to favorite neighborhood restaurant, knows us so well that even with Andy in the restroom, they brought us a bowl of complimetary pickled carrots. Years ago, they'd automatically set carrots on every table when they brought the chips and salsa, but for the last few years Andy always has to request them (and he does every time we're there). They're not my thing but Andy loves them. Apparently, staff knows that.

Summer ‘seas’ puzzle

I buy my puzzles at thrift stores and thought this one had a good summer theme, "Seas the Day." It's over-sized so I had to put my puzzle table away as it was going to be too small for it. I've seen this a few times - people put all of the edge pieces in a bag separate from the other pieces. That feels like cheating to me, but I'll take it as a head start. Wouldn't you know though? The bag didn't have all of the edge pieces in it. I thought it looked a little skimpy considering how large this puzzle is going to be.

While I was working on this puzzle, Andy handed me a puzzle piece that he found on the floor. It doesn't belong to this puzzle and I'm pretty sure it's from this bird puzzle I did back in June. That could be a sign I need to vacuum the dining room caroet more often. Anyway, I'm sure the bird puzzle has long been recycled since I don't pass along puzzles with missing pieces.

Such a pretty summer puzzle ... and all of the pieces are there! So far, Piper and Ruby have no interest in the puzzle area, which is a good thing.

Creative Memories find and cats

This was a surprise Goodwill find - two Creative Memories album (old style) with tan pages, one new in the wrapper. They wanted $3 for the opened one and $4 for the other, but with my points earned from previous purchases (mostly puzzles), I got them both for about $2.50.

Cat update - This one was brave enough to come into the living room Sunday morning ...

and spent much of the day in my lap, ocassionally jumping at my face. Weirdo. We named her Piper.

How sweet is this? The neighbors dropped off a gift bag full of toys and treats. I used the wand to play with Piper and she yanked it out of my hand and ran upstairs with it, hiding it under L's bed.

Later in the afternoon, after Andy lured her out from underneath L's bed with a treat and food, this one came downstairs. Still scared, of course, but starting to explore. We've named her Ruby, for the July birthstone. Kind of like how we named August because he was adopted in August.

We have kittens

Andy and I went to CatNap in LaGrange Park yesterday morning to look for new kittens. Our only requirement was that we wanted shorthair cats. These two were bonded as siblings so we asked staff to bring them into the kitten room so we could play with them. The shelter was having its "Christmas in July" adoption event and bazaar so all of the cats seemed pretty overwhelmed. They were fostered in a home with kids and we were told they did well there.

We decided to adopt them. We had them in the carrier in the back of Andy's car but I forgot to latch the carrier. We were a few miles from home when Andy noticed one had escaped.

I tried to hold her so Andy could drive.

Then the other one escaped. The first escapee is on Andy's shoulder in this pic. They're both girls. At least that's what we were told when they double-checked them.

Pretty kitten. So far, no name though.

We settled them in L's room but left the door open so we're hoping they'll feel comfortable enough to wander onto the main floor.

She needs a name too. They didn't tell us how old they ate but we're guessing three months since they were around the size of other kittens that were labeled three months. Not an exact science to a shelter, I suppose.

The shelter gave us a goody bag with some toys and food and an Advent cat calendar.

I went upstairs around 6 p.m. last night to check in on them and found them sleeping together in a bin of blankets in L's room. Don't they look like they just woke up?

Summer scenes

A Monarch came to visit our milkweed.

I thought we had one house finch who kept visiting, but we were sitting in the yard one day and saw several at the same time. Why was I convinced there was only one? Guess it's the same with the cardinal too. There could be more than one stopping by.

My first sunflower bloomed while we were in Key West. It's a small one. I have a couple ones that are growing taller but haven't bloomed yet.

And look at all of the Black-eyed Susan blooms!

The phlox I picked up from a neighbor's house in May and planted along our fence is blooming too.

Happy birthday, L!

It's L's 23rd birthday today! Here she is with her friend, A, who she met in the College Program, on Wednesday celebrating their birthdays in the parks. - checking in with the boss Mickey and Goofy. L's b-day is today and her friend's was Thursday so they celebrated together, both sporting their Disney "I'm celebrating" buttons.

At lunchtime, L sent this picture saying they got "pixie dusted" with a free dessert. Then, the server brought over two more free desserts. That's the magic of those "celebrating" buttons.

This was at the new villians show in Hollywood Studios. I'm awaiting her review.

This was a few days earlier - enjoying a keylime pie margarita at Disney. She said it was "amazing."

Random Key West

Random Key West pictures that didnt't make it into the other posts:

Strip club/husband day care lol.

So many Gulf of America shirts.

This might be my favorite.

A Margaritaville cruise ship was in dock Monday.

On Tuesday, we saw this Carnival cruise ship.

A rooster shopping.

A sign on Zachary Taylor Beach showing Chicago's distance from Key West.

A turtle nest on the beach.

Drinks on the second floor of the Bull and Whistle bar. The third floor is the clothing optional bar. Andy joked we should go up there and the bartender was saying, yeah, go on up. Um, no.

This dive bar was right by our resort. The cheesesticks were delicious.

This tourist magazine we picked up surpringly still had the "Gulf of Mexico" identified.

Leaving Key West

We had to be out of the resort by 11 a.m. so we didn't do anything too exciting. We packed up, held our bags at the resort and rode around on the scooter.

We found a really fat cat - even his tag says so. He was friendly

Then my Disney sunglasses broke. I bought them on a sisters' trip when the sunglasses I had brought on the trip broke. Maybe it's a thing that whatever sunglasses I take on vacation end up breaking.

We had a taci take us to thr airport. United has one flight out a day and we had to wait until close to the flight for the ticket agent to show up.

Woo-hoo! Our United card status got us upgraded to first class! I'm wearing a very thin sweatshirt I bought in Key West because the flight down was cold and I didn't want to be cold on the flight home.

We both chose the "ricotta pasta" for our on-flight meanl (essentially a cheese lasagna) because neither of us knew what "Peruvian chicken" was.

We had a two-hour layover at the Newark Airport. Here's Manhattan on our approach. We agreed Chicago has a prettier skyline.

We saw the Statue of Liberty as we were landing. Chicago doesn't have that.

Monday in Key West

The only way this breakfast view could be better would be if we were looking out to the gulf.

We went to Zachary TatlorState Park this morning. That's Andy in the water. I went in but it was smelly and rocky. I'm a pool girl.

We went to the Zachary Taylor Fort and did a self tour.

There's a joke here but I'm not that clever.

See the big iguana?

The fort was pretty interesting.

These cannons are big ... and heavy.

Cute picture on the scooter.

We went to First Flight Brewery in the afternoon. Interesting story of the building. We didn't like any of the beers we tried.

Cheers!

Live music at Irish Kevin's where we had dinner.

Our last Key West sunset.