Retreating time

We left about 1 p.m. for our annual church retreat in Michigan. The one good thing about driving through Indiana is lower gas prices.

Our first Michigan stop was the Church Brewery in New Buffalo, Mich.

We drove our friend Leslie to the retreat and here we are enjoying our first drink. Cheers! Her husband went to camp a few days earlier to help with some landscaping so he drove over and joined us.

We checked in at camp then went to the Red Arrow Roadhouse for dinner.

I had the beer special - an Alaskan amber - just like I had on the Alaskan cruise.

We're staying with Leslie and Byron in a cabin with a full kitchen ...

it's nice because we have a comfortable sitting where we can all relax and talk.

Thursday sunrise

Andy left early for work on Thursday and sent this picture of the sunrise from the train station.

Mahjong lesson

I have some friends who wanted to learn how to play mahjong so I invited them over Tuesday night for a lesson by Allison. It was my friend, N, from the neighborhood, and a mix of golf and church friends.

I was expecting seven with three maybes who were getting home from trips. we ended up with eight, so two tables of four, with me and Andy floating around to try to help. I think everyone got the gist of it so we'll see if they want to play again.

Piper was not thrilled I moved her cat tree out of the living room.

Lunch with the kids

I had asked B a while ago if he would be willing to have lunch with us over Labor Day weekend and since E and D were visiting, we thought we'd make it a family outing Sunday. After checking to make sure the Cubs weren't playing at home, we chose Rizzo's next to Wrigley Field. However, there was a Big 10/SEC volleyball tournament being held there and before we knew it the restaurant was filled with Nebraska fans. Andy lucked out with a parking space right in front of the restaurant.

The atmosphere would be fun for a bar visit on a game day but I'd skip the food.

I had to take the divided brownie pan to B that he requested I find (mission successful), a cartoony ramen cookbook I took from a free box at a yard sale and a few things from my Alaskan cruise - some jerky with reindeer meat, a maple cream-filled cookie and a Virgin Cruise hat he probably won't wear. After lunch we dropped him back at his apartment and drove E and D to the airport.

E left her gym shoes at the bride's apartment so she asked me for a pair to wear home and keep until Christmas. Here you go. And I told her she can keep them if she wants.

Saw this billboard along the Kennedy. Not sure they needed to hate on the Cardinals to get their message across.

Cute Saturday

We have visitors - the cute newlyweds are in town for their friends', W and T, wedding. Here they were Friday night coming back from the welcome dinner.

This is a really cute guidebook I assume the wedding couple designed. I found it on the coffee table when I was up early before my 6:30 a.m. coffee server donut shift (Andy did the 3 a.m. donut captain shift).

After donuts and a shower, I went to Allison's and we went to a few garage/estate sales. Maybe because it's a holiday weekend there weren't many sales. Two of the things I found were this Avon turkey votive candle holder and this music box nativity. I think the nativity is handpainted; I found similar ones on ebay with different paint schemes. Cute holiday decorations.

After yard sales, Andy and I finished up the grocery shopping for the week and picked up tortillas for the kids to take back to Seattle.

E had been in the city since 9 a.m. getting ready for her role as a bridesmaid so we drove D to the wedding/reception location at Schuba's/Tied House. Looked cute from the outside. I didn't get a picture of that but I did snap one of this interesting "green wall" of a Whole Foods store. Chicago's neighborhoods are full of interesting things to see.

On the drive back home we came across Suncatcher Brewing (at Chicago and Grand avenues) so thought we should stop in.

Perfect weather (sometimes a bit chilly with the breeze) to sit on their patio and enjoy a beer. How cute is this building? It's a former service station. I like the Art Deco-looking entrance.

Mahjong Monday

Back from the cruise, I'm getting back into the regular routine. Laundry, unpacking and grocery shopping were the priorities for the day and it was Monday, so it was mahjong night. We played with Allison's new tiles - pretty but not lucky.

Andy took the picture so he's not in it. The woman on the right won all four games we played (she also teaches mahjong).

And while we were out playing games, L was at her first MBA class. It's a four-hour class. Oy.

Sister in town

Andy and I went downtown Monday night to pick Cindy up from the train station. Yesterday we did the Goodwill circuit, starting in North Riverside and ending in Melrose Park (that's five stores lol). We stopped for lunch at Lou Malnati's because when you're in Chicago you should have deep-dish pizza.

We were at Westchester when heavy thunderstorms rolled through. There were tornado warnings and I wasn't going to drive in that so we browsed ... a lot. Andy's office had to shelter in the hallway. We spent so much time there lunch was our next stop.

Shopping, shopping. She got some good bargains - a big wicker sled, a Ruggable holiday runner for $3.19 (they retail for $200 and they had so many designs and shapes), some puzzles, a Disney T-shirt, a Creative Memories album with pages, a set of four "Christmas Story" pint glasses and a Vera Bradley medium duffle she'll take on the cruise in case she needs souvenir space.

I found a few things - two Creative Memories storage bags, a Kitchen Aid juicer attachment for $2 which should make margaritas a bit easier to make, and a Chicago Metallic brownie pan with dividers B had asked for ($5 but retails for $30-something. It's really heavy).

How cute is this? The longer you look, the more things you find.

Western ‘burbs adventure

With nothing pressing to do Sunday, Andy and I took a drive out west. We were still in the suburbs but you know you're pretty far from the city when there's a horse crossing sign ... and corn and soybean fields.

It started raining and looked like it was going to storm (it did) so we stopped at this brewery, Tangled Roots. We were in South Barrington. Nice restaurant but a bit odd that it was part of an outdoor shopping mall.

Cheese curds for lunch.

The rain cleared up on our drive home and what a cool cloud. If you look closely you can see the flat bottom on it.

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.

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.

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.

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.