Mayu's tacos

Mayu is back at home in Japan and sent an email last week asking for my taco recipe. I had to admit that I just brown ground beef and add a packet of taco seasoning. I said I could send her some, but then she sent me a photo that she found some there. And she made tacos for her family!

What a deal

You can't pull one over on L. Walmart learned that the other day. L couldn't believe she found a pack of 48 Pop-tarts that were s'more and chocolate fudge flavor. Then she saw the price, $3.98. What!?!?!? E said there's no way they were less than $4. L scanned the price and they came up $9.98. As we all know, how a product scans is the price you pay, regardless of what the signs say. So, L took a picture of the display.

She explained the situation to the cashier, who called over another employee, who called over the manager who looked at the photo and checked the date and time of the photo. He agreed she should get them for $3.98. And he told an employee to remove the price sign. Way to go, L!

And how goofy is this? A big Batman head. For Halloween?

More volunteering

Andy was up early today, ready to work his first volunteer shift at the Women's U.S. Senior Open at the Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton. His shift was scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. but he had an email this morning (sent about 9 p.m. last night) that they pushed his starting time back to 10:30 a.m. Of course he didn't see that until he was dressed and ready to go. He said if he's lucky he'll see Nancy Lopez.

Angel food cake

Since B's attempt at making my angel food birthday cake didn't turn out so well, E went to the store and bought a confetti angel food cake mix (my favorite!) and whipped up a cake today. She also gave B a primer on what an angel food pan looks like.

She even frosted it with pink frosting, as I requested, and sprinkled on a little red sugar. Yum.

July flowers

I leave for a few days and return to a yard full of flowers. These coneflowers have bloomed a lot since last week.

Most of these are the neighbor's daisies, but they're spreading into yard which is fine with me.

This pretty bird , I think it's a goldfinch, was sitting on our fancy fountain when I got back from an early morning walk last Sunday before driving to Darla's. There was another one on the neighbor's gutter. Usually the prettiest birds I see in the yard are cardinals so the goldfinches were a nice surprise. I saw a hummingbird at Darla's, and the duck couple that comes to visit her feeder everyday.

My birthday

It was time to leave Darla's and give her a few days of vacation to do the things she needed to do. I left around 9 a.m. My first stop was Litchfield Walmart where I found the capri leggings she's been looking for so I had to text her a picture. She drove up later and bought some. Didn't find any of the fake flowers I was looking for though. Maybe next year. I got to Normal just in time for an Avanti's gondola lunch.

L was already gone to her youth retreat by the time I got home. I was slowed down north of Normal with an incredibly heavy rain storm. I was going to pull off the next exit, but I couldn't see the exit so I kept driving very slowly, very close to the car in front of me so I could follow its taillights. That was scary. It was sunny when I got home and L had hung a "Happy Birthday" banner in the living room.

B made an angel food cake but mistook a bundt pan for the angel food pan. We're going to buy another mix and I'm going to show him how it should have been baked. It does taste good even if it won't come out of the pan. He gets points for trying and for cleaning the living room.

Andy took me to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. I thought we were going without B and E but he said to bring them along.

After dinner, E drove to Oak Brook and turned in my old iPad for credit for a new one. She transferred everything over to the new one. My old one was a dinosaur, she said.

Fourth of July

We've been running around for two days so today we took it easy. We watched the St. Louis Fourth of July Parade and here's the Staunton Marching Bulldogs!

Cindy came over in the afternoon and we played a game (new to us), Tenzie. We're going to add it to our list of Christmas games we play.

When Darla and I were out with Sharon last night, Darik kept sending me funny photos of himself. He told me today that they were filters from Messenger. Here's one I showed to Cindy. She's a cowboy!

And since we saw the band this morning, Darla pulled out her old Sweet Sixteen uniform and her band jacket. Cindy was in the flag corps and had the same dress but with a black band. They're so short!

Darla goes all out decorating for the holidays. Here her cat Sammy was pretty interested when she turned the lights on for the mantle decorations.

Cindy left after Darla made us a taco dinner. Darik bought sparklers for us to set off. We missed her subdivision's fireworks last night because we were talking to Sharon till 11 p.m. I'll choose friends over fireworks.

Darla does a little dance with two sparklers at once.

We may be turning 50-something this week, but tonight we're 8 years old. What a cute picture of us!

More shopping

Today was our big shopping day. We went to Fairview Heights with our list of things Darla wanted to find. I took her into Ross, Marshall's and Famous Footwear, telling her how fun it is to find a bargain. She found an adorable pair of shoes on sale at Famous and I was able to pull up a 15 percent off coupon on my phone. Score!

We stopped for lunch at Chik-fil-A before heading over to the mall.

Then we were on the search for silk flowers for me and capri exercise pants for Darla. Both we needed from Wal-mart. We went to three Wal-marts with no luck. I did get a nice tour of the metro east area though. Here we are cutting through SIU-Edwardsville.

And driving by the industrial areas/oil refineries ...

On the way back to Darla's house we were outrunning a storm. I love how open the landscape is. Makes for some interesting photos.

We were able to contact another classmate and friend tonight and met up at Rooster's in Staunton. Here's Staunton's Main Street. Hasn't changed too much in the last 30 years. The old buildings are so cool.

This was my funny picture of the night - shoving all the beer bottles in front of Darla. She only had one drink though - a Bud Light Orange. Tasted like Orange Crush to me.

And Sharon took this selfie of us before we said our good-byes. So good to see hear and catch up.

Driving around

This morning Darla and I went to the cemetery to see Mom and Dad's tombstones and the others that are there. Some are so elaborate. She took this picture of me by the corn that butts up to the cemetery. It's actually on Aunt Lorene's part of the farm, but we split the rent. It's so tall.

That afternoon we drove to St. Louis in search of the Ikea store ...

... and we found it! Darla wants to get some tables for her scrapbooking room so we were taking measurements and checking out what they had.

For dinner, Darla and I went into Worden to go to the Yellow Dog Saloon. I drive by it to get to her house and had never been. Lucky me, tonight was 50 cent chicken wings and $1.50 bottles of beer. Can't get that at home - not to mention free street parking.

Lots of signs inside the building.

I had the honey barbecue wings and onion rings. Yummy.

And surprise! We ran into two high school classmates. Love a small town.

Birthday week getaway

I left this morning to spend a few days with Darla. The family is on their own until Thursday.

I stopped by my farm to take a picture of the corn. It's doing way better than knee-high by the Fourth of July!

Darla, her husband Darik and I went bowling in Bethalto. Look at our snazzy shoes!

A bucket of beer and we're ready to bowl. Five bottles for $10 because the Cardinals were playing at home.

We played two games and Darla was the only one who broke 100. We're not good bowlers. We played some video games in the alley's arcade before they took me to dinner at Castelli's Moonlight in Fosterburg. She had mentioned it before and I had never heard of it. They both have been going there for family dinners since they were kids. I had the fried chicken and it was really good.

I thought these were matches I grabbed on the way out, but they're toothpicks. Those will come in handy.