Our student

L had the orientation for her MBA Program last week at UCF. The mascot's name is Knightro. I suppose there's a story behind that (later realized it's Nitro, just as an unfortunate spelling tragedy). Let the studying begin!

She's official.

Some new student swag.

She looks ready to begin!

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.

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.

Easter prep

Good thing I have a clean napkin I will put in this bread basket.

Yesterday I pulled out all of the dishes I'll need for Easter dinner, put together the hashbrown casserole, made a breakfast casserole for church, and cleaned (Andy helped). He even made deviled eggs for the church breakfast and since we were running low on refrigerator space, we took them to church and put them in the refrigerator there. I thought it would be fun to have everyone bring a new recipe to dinner tomorrow. I settled on a pea salad so I tossed that together too.

Fellowship Hall is ready for the breakfast and it looks like they found the tablecloths I donated from E's rehearsal dinner. I wanted to borrow one for Christmas and they couldn't find them ... thought they may have been mistakenly tossed out after the Thankoffering Dinner. Yikes. It was good to see them found and being used.

L sent this picture of the Easter basket W made for her.

Here's the picture of Sully upclose. I thought W had that taken as a surprise when he took Sully to the vet last week for his shots (pic below) but L said the groomer did it. I'm sure her cats are looking at him like he's silly but it's a cute picture.

We had to have everything done so we could eat dinner while watching the Illini in the Final Four (!!!) play Connecticut. I rooted for the Illini but I have Connecticut winning it all in Andy's office pool. The Illini lost but I've moved up in the office pool.

What a game!

It didn't look great for the Illini in the first half against Iowa yesterday, but they won 71-59!! They're going to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament. I-L-L...

Sorority stickers

My sorority sent out stickers to promote its Day of Giving on May 15. Now I just need to figure out where to spread the love - my iPad case, some notebooks?

Made it to Disney

Allison drove us to O'Hare Saturday morning to head to Florida. This was our view from the United Club. I like to sit where I can see the planes.

The flight was good (we both watched the Bob Dylan movie, "A Complete Unknown." so good!) but when we got to the Orlando airport, the luggage belt broke so they couldn't get our bags into the baggage claim. Our flight waited around an hour and a half for our bags to come inside and they moved the baggage claim number for us too. Argh. We didn't get to Saratoga Springs until 4 p.m. L and T were already in the room waiting for us.

L got her cake. Mission accomplished.

We took her outside for a few graduation photos.

This is my favorite.

This is nice too.

Aw, the roomies.

On the way to Disney Springs for dinner.

L and T met us for dinner at Frontera Cocina.

Very pretty inside.

L had a fancy, pink margarita. T isn't 21 until the end of the month so it was water for him.

Dinner is served - chicken enchiladas for me, steak quesadillas for Andy, steak tacos for L and shrimp tacos for T.

Congratulatory cake for L

A bundtlette cake and a homemade graduation sign are on their way to Florida (with us!!) today to celebrate our latest, and last, U of I graduate! We'll be taking some graduation pictures for her with Disney as our background.

Our third college grad

L graduated in December and her diploma just arrived. We got it the day before the diploma frame I ordered from Etsy arrived. Perfect timing. They had several U of I scenes to choose from and she liked the same one I did - Alma Mater. E and B's diploma frames both have pictures of the quad.

L was all set to fly home for her December graduation but we found out her college didn't have a December ceremony. She could come home for the May ceremony but that's a long way off so I let her order a 2024 tassel in U of I colors. If she does come to walk in the May ceremony, she'll get a tassel with her robe rental but it will say 2025. She also had me mail her E's U of I graduation stole so she can take some graduation pictures at some point.

Allison picked these up for L when she was at Disneyland in California in early October. Apparently, L said, they don't have graduation pins at Disney World. Wonder why?

I-L-L impulse buy

How could I resist? Ninety-nine cents for two.

Founders Day

My sorority sent a cute card and a sticker for Founders Day, Nov. 26. I got it a day late and, of course, it came with a request for money. I'm sure they'll accept a late donation lol.

Fabulous news and a guest

U of I is asking how L wants her name printed on the diploma!!! Looks like graduation is going to happen!

And she and T have their first houseguest, a friend of T's from Champaign. They went to breakfast at the Beach/Yacht Club.

L was also able to get a couple of park tickets for the guest. Should be a fun few days.

Illini things

I was surprised to find this while thrifting recently. It's rare to find things with Chief Illiniwek on them.

I found this U of I engineering hat for Andy.

August approved.