Thanks, neighbors

Our neighbor, M, stopped by last night to give us some treats in exchange for letting them have packages delivered to our house. It's a homemade onion and cilantro flatbread and an Armenian honey cake.

The flatbread was warm so I had to try it. I tasted more cilantro than onion, but I like both so it's all good. The "kids" are alright.

More spring blooms

We never planted this, but it shows up every spring - Woodland Phlox.

The darker purple flowers are lunaria, the money plants.

And our Bridal Wreath is blooming.

And look at the progress my clematis has made in less than two weeks!

Learning mahjong

Allison hosted a mahjong lesson at her church last night and had a great turnout. She opened it up to the public and it was sold out almost immediately.

I helped her set up and brought homemade cookies, a veggie pizza and wine, oh, yeah, and leftover bread slices.

My charcuterie creation with Allison's ingredients.

Learning the basics.

So deep in thought lol.

After the lesson, each table played a game and, shockingly, I won at my table.

The instructor gave me a little gold duck for my win.

Ten years

Birthday concert

Our friend, L, celebrated her birthday with a house concert by Michelle Malone on Sunday night. She said it was her fifth time hosting the artist and her 40th house concert. Wow.

For dinner L made lasagnas and had people being drinks or sides. We brought a lot of baguette slices (I said two loaves would be plenty; Andy insisted on buying four. I sliced three and there were plenty of leftovers).

Two birthday cakes are better than one, especially when the one is coconut.

That’s a fire

Rather than stuff this dried, decorative grass in yard-waste bags, we had a fire and burned it.

Turned out to be quite the fire.

It’s getting warm

We came home from running an errand the other night and both cats were sitting in the open window waiting for us.

New ‘do for Lou

L asked me a few days ago if I would have an aneurysm is she got her hair done like this. With Cousin C's wedding coming up I just replied, "Don't." Well, she already checked with C who said it looked cute so with her and W liking it, I was clearly outnumbered. It's even Disney-approved.

So, of course, she got it dyed. This is the "flat" version ...

and the "curled" version. She said she got lots of compliments from guests, coworkers and her leaders. Her exciting news Friday was that she was one of six people with her job chosen to train the next group of incoming coworkers!

I'm glad this is the back, significantly toned down from what she had shown me earlier.

Cat library puzzle

Piper usually doesn't bother my puzzles, but this one must have been particularly interesting.

Ruby prefers puzzles with bigger boxes. This one doesn't quite fit her.

All done with one piece missing.

Parkway tulip

Our second parkway tulip on April 16, getting ready to bloom.

In full bloom Tuesday.

A 250th passport

I forgot that I had ordered a 250th Illinois passport (it hasn't yet arrived ... if it will at all) when I was at a work meeting about possible 250th events and a woman running the meeting had a whole stack of them. It's a way to encourage people to travel the state this year and visit various sites. The book includes an interesting mix of sites but I've been to quite a few of the more well-visited ones - Route 66, Great River Road, Cahokia Mounds, Lincoln's home, Hull House, New Salem, Old State Capitol, Vandalia capitol and the Lincoln Museum.

An improvement

This basket corrals everything on my coffee table. When we host parties I move it to the shelf and it's quite floppy and fragile.

I've been on the hunt for a replacement and came across this. It even has handles which will make it much easier to move around. I realized, though, when moving everything to the new basket (tray) that I have a lot of stuff in there that could be stored in their proper locations - Post-it Notes, lotions, nail clippers, pens, hair clips, a razor lol. Putting those things where they belong will go on my to-do list.

Make me move

Piper loves to sit on this countertop despite our many efforts to make her get down. We think the dishwasher makes it warm and toasty for her.

It’s yard sale season

Yard sale season isn't in full swing yet but Allison and I did score a few finds yesterday. I bought Andy a Braun immersion blender for $3 that he's been wanting for chocolate-covered donut day. The set of holly candles are cute ($3) though I might have to paint the tray silver to match my china and the cardinal Christmas towels were $1 each. The spreaders have little golf balls on them and one is a peppermint design that I can use this year so for 50 cents for four I had to grab them. The two bags on the right were free. I think they're travel bags but they'll get used for something.

Hopefully this Talbots dress will fit and for $3 it's worth the gamble. I like the colors. It sells for around $50 used online.

This is in the top picture though it's hard to see. It's a handpainted farm scene on a wooden iron shape with a clothespin on the back where I stick a photo. Allison made me spend 10 cents to buy it lol.

Under construction

Construction on the long-awaited museum addition started this week. They've blocked off street parking for their trucks that are hauling away dirt so it takes me a bit longer to find a parking space. So fun to watch them work and I'm excited to see the finished project.

The outdoor stairwell has been moved so this second-floor door by my office is blocked off.

This is the note on the chair. Good reminder.

We had a staff meeting to pick tile for a single stripe in each of the two new restrooms. These were samples of the colors we previously chose. Good to see them in person vs. on a computer screen. I liked the lighter blue, called Lake, just above the yellow tiles in this picture. The red would tie into the fire house theming. The orange would be a nod to the high school's colors. I don't want to say what we decided on ... and it may change ... you'll have to wait and see.

The first-floor side exit is blocked too because on the other side is the hole they're digging and it's deeper than our existing foundation. Don't want to fall into that.

From this angle you can't tell anything is going on.

Uh oh. See that big pipe? That was an unexpected discovery and shut work down on Friday.

More spring flowers

While we were away our tulips decided to bloom. This is one of two tulip plants we have.

As did this bush by the back porch.

Just a few weeks ago I cut back our clematis to about one foot. I tore out the remaining wooden trellis and replaced it with a metal one. The recent warm weather has helped it grow. I've been trying to weave the plant through the trellis.

I checked the 30-day weather forecast and decided to take all of my plants outside. They didn't winter well in the basement and they look dead but sometimes they miraculously come back. We shall see.

When I left for work I noticed a tulip bloomimg in the parkway and another one ready to bloom.

This is in the parkway by our garage apron. We can't remember what we planted there, but it's growing. Suppose we'll be surprised.

Random Disney

I took this picture at the Fort Wilderness Campground. We thought it was a hummingbird but it was a hummingbird moth. There were quite a few buzzing around.

This is Lakeshore Lodge, a huge DVC resort currently under construction by Fort Wilderness.

This was a restroom at Wilderness. I do like how Disney embraces a theme and runs with it - the lanterns as lights, floor tile that looks like a quilt, the rope design on the backsplash tile and the wood around the mirror.

Speaking of theming - this was the pillow in our room at Boardwalk. See the Mickey?

And this was the curtain in our bedroom.

We do like the beer garden in Epcot's British area. Such great people-watching.

This shows how full the seats were at the Rick Springfield concert and this was before everyone was seated.

L gave Andy his belated birthday present - a Disney Vacation Club quarter-zip shirt.

An Easter tree at the Orlando United Club.