Bird puzzle

Ruby was trying to help put this bird puzzle together.

I got it new so all of the pieces were there and was able to finish it before I leave for Alaska!

Garden is going strong

We bought two Black-eyed Susans a while ago at Costco on clearance. One has started to bloom and has lots of blooms in waiting. The other one ... not yet.

This is a project I've been putting off for at least a week. Andy cleaned up the yard and decided for some reason to move this huge terra cotta pot. Of course it broke. Now I'm supposed to plant all of these Chicks and Hens in different pots.

Yard sale poster finds

I found these picture posters at a recent yard sale being sold by the photographer himself, Bob Gally. When he saw I picked out two U of I photos, he went into the house, saying he had another, but it was the football stadium I had already found. I considered getting three, one for each of my Illini grads, but I figured they probably wouldn't want something to hang on their walls. They haven't even taken their diplomas.

So I spent $1 each on the photos then found frames for about $8 each. I hung them in L's room, now our guest room. They're not quite level with each other but as long as I don't have to see them everyday, they're fine.

Nashville treat

Nice to go to work and find a treat on your desk. My co-worker, R, went to Nashville for the weekend and brought this back. Looking forward to trying it.

36 years

Where does the time go? Andy and I celebrated our 36th anniversary last night with dinner downtown at Frontera Grill. We got there before our dinner reservation so we could each enjoy one drink at happy hour pricing.

We were seated on the patio, as we requested. It was a good-weather night.

We werent sure whether Rick Bayless was at the restaurant a dd I said if we sat on the patio, we'll never know. However, here he is in the driver's seat of a car parked right by us. I know it seems a bit stalkerish.

I ordered two small dishes from the happy hour menu. Andy had the steak. Mine was OK but I wouldn't order it again. We both had leftovers and didn't have any room left for dessert. Boooo.

Fate and a mixer

This is a crazy story. I woke up Sunday morning to a text with this photo from L. She said she found Kitchen Aid mixer in the dumpster - nothing she does surprises me anymore - and it works. I told her to look for the model number and we figured out it was a five-quart lift mixer - just like mine. We looked at bowls online and they were around $70 minimum. The tilt-head bowls are significantly less but, no, she found a lift head.

I was mindlessly scrolling on Facebook on our drive home from Old Irving Brewing Co. Sunday and saw a five-quart bowl for a Kitchen Aid lift-bowl mixer on our local free page. What are the odds of that? I claimed it and we picked it up before coming home. It's in great condition.

It passed Ruby's inspection. L wants me to ship it to her but I don't know that I will. (We're going to visit her in October). Now she needs a mixing paddle and she's good to go.

Old Irving Brewery

After church Sunday Andy and I continued our local brewery tour. This time we went into the city and stopped at Old Irving Brewing Co.

It was lunchtime so we split some cheese curds. Service was great and the bar was cool.

I thought this was interesting - a quote about beer from Washington Irving, the man that the elementary school our kids went to is named after. "They who drink beer will think beer." They even had the quote printed on their growlers.

They even changed the TV station so Andy could watch the PGA golf tournament. If we were in the neighborhood again, I think we'd stop in.

Fair puzzle

How about this? A completed puzzle with no pictures of cats sitting on it. Maybe that's why all the pieces were there.

Success

I put the "call mom" magnet in a bag of things I had for B so I asked him the other day if he found it. He sent back this picture of it on his fridge. Success! Now, we'll see if he follows that advice.

Sleeping beauties

Piper ...

and Ruby.

Togetherness.

Small but mighty, hopefully

I've been slowly packing for my upcoming Alaskan cruise and had been searching for a small pair of binoculars. I wanted them small enough to fit in my everyday bag but powerful enough to see some bears. I found these and knew they'd be small. Hope they do the job.

Oh, the Vidette years

Hanging out with our fellow ISU Vidette staffers last weekend had Andy and me searching through our college photos. There were lots of Vidette parties and this one - our Christmas 1987 party at Guy's house - was among the best.

We're all wearing Xeroxed sixth-grade pictures of Jeff, one of our photographers who was celebrating a birthday. I'm guessing he turned 21. How we got the picture, who copied them and handed them out to everyone is a mystery.

Why was Mike, our editor, wrapping our features editor in toilet paper? Another mystery.

And, yes, there was dancing on the coffee table. As I said earlier, it was a good party. I texted these to our friend, Kathy, who went to the reunion with us and she replied, "So sad that we had no fun." Yeah, lol.

This picture was a different nightt at the Sig Tau house where Kathy was a little sister. Why we were all there, I don't recall. I wish I could see my whole outfit because that big yellow sweathsr and those tight acid wash jeans with zippers at the ankles were the epitome of '80s fashion.

An evening with B

B took the train downtown Monday afternoon and got a ride here with Andy for his dentist appointment. He really needs to find a dentist in his neighborhood, but I do like when he visits regardless of the reason.

It had been storming all day - lots of trees and branches fell down - and at the end of it all was a rainbow. Andy took this driving over the Eisenhower.

Of course we took him out to eat before driving him back to his apartment. We tried to go to Salerno's but their power was out so we ended up at the Avenue Ale House. (Not great. I had to ask for new fries because mine were served cold. Andy was already in a mood because the appetizer of onion rings was $9 and they gave us six onion rings, $1.50 per ring, and one was barely a ring, is crazy high. Lesson learned).

We saw a tall ship on the kake as we were driving back to his apartment.

We're usually driving him during the day so these sunset views were different to see.

You can see the sunset peeking between these buildings.

I even gave B a parting gift - a magnet for his fridge reminding him to call his mom. We'll see how that works.

Gotcha day anniversary

Yesterday, July 26, was the cats' one-year anniversary of being with us. They've grown a lot. They're still more skittish than I'd like but they're still young. Maybe in another year they'll be calmer?

Here's Ruby. She loves to sit like this on the back of the dining room chairs. She seems to like me more than Andy and sits with me in the evenings. She's cuddly but still likes to lick me ... too much.

Piper seems a bit more adventurous. Here she is on the kitchen counter. When I'm getting ready in the morning, she hoos up on the bathroom sink and waits for me to turn on the water so she can get a drink. Usually when I get out of the shower she is sitting on the bed waiting for me. She sits with Andy every night so we say she's "his cat" but she sleeps by my legs. Ruby comes to bed with us too but usually wakes up and starts licking our faces so she gets tossed out.

They both like to play, like treats, enjoy sitting on my puzzles and follow me around all day when I'm home. They're both scared of loud sounds and sudden movements. Let's hope they get calmer and cuddlier in the coming year.

Vidette reunion

What a fun evening we had last night. Our college friend, Kathy, came over and the three of us went into the Fulton Market area of the city for an ISU Vidette reunion. Here's me with Kathy at The Bandit, where we had dinner.

Class of 1988 - Mike S., Kathy, Jeff and me. Last time we saw Kathy and Jeff was 10 years ago. Where does the time go?

Talking and reminiscing. We all agreed we were glad we were in college before everyone had cell phones - not much evidence of the many crazy, funny things we did.

Group photo!

This is such a cute neighborhood. After dinner we walked to Haymarket Brewery where we talked some more before calling it a night.

Mike, Mark and Scott.

Jeff, who was one of the groomsmen in our wedding, and Andy.

Vidette party at homecoming 1987, where our story began.

Several people told us we haven't changed at all. I see quite a few changes so I'll take that as a compliment.

Oopsie

I went on my Bird Buddy app to see a live stream of the camera and this is what it showed me - an interesting view of my kitchen. That's when I realized that I had charged the battery but hadn't yet put it back in the feeder.

I can't see the many sparrows that love my feeder without having the camera in! I never post their pictures because they visit so often, but this was a funny pose.

Cute cat puzzle

I thought this was going to be my next puzzle. I opened it up and all of the edge pieces had been placed in a bag. I started putting the frame together and it was missing pieces - unless those pieces never got put in the bag. I decided the wait of putting it together and the frustration if those edge pieces are never found just wasn't worth it. Into the recylcing bin it went. So I started another cat puzzle.

Only 750 pieces so it didn't take me long to finish. Yay, it's complete!

The question I have, though, is whose tail is this?