Mahjong hat trick

Andy was lucky last night at mahjong. We played four games - one was a wall game (no winner) and Andy won the other three.

Apparently winning three games in a night is a hat trick so he got three ducks and one of those is wearing a hat.

We were playing with Allison's newest set which apparently was lucky ... at least for Andy.

To Darla’s

I left late Thursday morning for Darla's house to start our belated 60th birthday road trip adventure!

Can't head south and not drive through Normal.

This was gas in Normal. Most of the stations on the way down were $4.79. Yikes.

The clouds on the drive were interesting.

I stopped at Cindy's on the way down to drop all her many finds from the thrift shopping we did before we left for our Alaskan cruise last month. This was the pile of things sitting on my back porch for the week. Looking through it, she said it was like Christmas because she had forgotten about some of the things she bought.

Along with high gas prices, the temperatures will be hot this weekend. We can certainly pick a weekend lol.

I drove to Cindy's, dropped off all of her things and we went to Litchfield ao I could get some Diet Coke ... and we stopped at Goodwill.

This was a surprise. Cindy picked up bricks in Staunton from our high school that was torn down to make way for new school. She even had one for me to take to Darla.

Of course, I had to drive by and see the new high school.

This is just phase one. There's more to be built.

Just like when I was in high school, I was driving on Route 66, one of its many versions that went through and around my hometown.

These are the farmers who farm my land, though this isn't my farm. They farm a lot of land in the area. Not a great picture but I was driving. I love seeing the farmers at harvest time, easily the best time of the year. It's been dry so they were stirring up a lot of dust. I made it to Darla's! Friday the adventure begins.

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.

Two cereal puzzles

I found this White Mountain cereal puzzle on a yard sale for $1. Can't beat the price but they're one inch bigger than my puzzle board can hold. I got it anyway and decided to add it to the pile of things Cindy bought when she was here.

I added it to her pile and noticed that one of the puzzles she bought when she was here was a White Mountain cereal puzzle. Oops.

But wait. On closer inspection, the two puzzles have different pictures of cereal boxes even though some of the cereal included is the same on both. Who would have thought?

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.

A good human

Apparently when Allison and I were at garage sales Saturday my credit card slipped out of my wallet. I didn't even realize until I received a FB message from a stranger. She had the card and said I could stop by Sunday and retrieve it, which I did, of course. It's instances like this when it's good to have an uncommon name that makes me easy to find. Restored my faith in humanity.

I prefer the old Uno cards

On one of our "at sea" days on the cruise, Cindy and I were playing Uno with the kids when I had to ask what this green card was. I was told it was the "skip" card and when I said the "skip" cards have an S on them I was told no, it's always been this symbol.

Well, here's my easy-to-decipher Uno cards, with the S on the "skip" card. I read that distribution of the game was scaled nationally in 1981 and I'm pretty sure I first played it in high school, which was a few years ago.

Neon sign puzzle

This is a puzzle Cindy bought at a Goodwill when we went thrifting before our Alaskan cruise. I figured I can get it done before she comes to pick up the rest of her shopping finds or before I go visit her and drop them off. I was a little disappointed to pull pieces out of the box and find many still together. You can bet when I give it back to Cindy every one of the 1,000 pieces will be separated.

Ruby kept coming over, wanting to be petted and eventually settled in this sad position on the back of a chair (her favorite place to sit).

And it's done and complete. The edge pieces on this brand (Springbok) are so hard to find. The interior pieces are weird shapes too.

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.

Guests are gone

We took Cindy to Union Station on Sunday afternoon to catch her train home, delayed departure several times though.

E was in town for her friend T's bachelorette party so once we dropped of Cindy we drove into the Loop to pick up E - at a Dunkin', of course.

A good-bye hug for dad. E and D will be home in a couple of weeks for their friends' wedding. Cindy's train was delayed and she got home four hours late. E's plane had a cockpit window that wouldn't shut and got home an hour and a half late. Not a good day for trains and planes.

More random Alaska

Thursday night at E and D's we went to dinner then stopped by Snoqualamie Falls around sunset.

Pic of the newlyweds.

Friday we caught our flight from Seattle and managed to get into the United Club on the passes I had. Here's the last of random Alaska (and Canada) pictures:

This sign was in the bathroom on the boat we cruised on durng our Sitka excursion.

And the bathroom sign at the brewery in Prince Rupert.

Fishing boats in Prince Rupert.

E with one of the glowing fish on Scarlet Night ...

and Cindy with a fish.

Cindy and me at a pier in Prince Rupert.

This was another the murals, painted by the Prince Rupert artist around town ...

and an eagle.

Speaking of eagles, this was in Prince Rupert. I posted the close-up picture of him earlier but look how big he was from a distance.

The burger place on the ship does an interesting sandwich each day. This pork patty with chorizo, pickled red onions and a couple other toppings was offered on Tuesday. E had it and said the black bun tasted like any regular bun. Kind of strange.

Cindy enjoying a boozy drink and a pretzel.

Lol. This was above a sofa in Sailor Services. We visited that a few times and they answered all of our questions.

Russian Orthodox church in downtown Sitka.

Eagle carving at the Sitka dock.