Extended Weekend Recap (04/17-04/18)

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Joe took Friday (04/17) off work so we could get out in nature and enjoy the beautiful weather. Our first stop was the arboretum, naturally. We didn’t see any unique birds, but the turtles were out in abundance and a robin was chirping loudly in the tree by our car when we were getting ready to leave.

Our next stop was Whalon Lake because there had been reports two days prior of an American Avocet along the shore. Spoiler alert: we didn’t see it. We knew it was a longshot, though, and were both too tired to make the trek around the lake to look everywhere, so it may have still been there (although the lack of further reports on eBird suggests it wasn’t).

That was ok, however, because it gave us the excuse to stop at Minnie Bird again to get more delicious pimento cheese wraps! I tried a dirty soda called The Peachy Pibb. Thank goodness there isn’t a location too close to home because it had been less than a week since our last visit.

We took the food to a nearby forest preserve so we could people watch before heading home.

Saturday (04/18), after a trip to the library, we tried a place called Jollibee for lunch. We weren’t impressed with their chicken, but their take on spaghetti is pretty unique – it includes cut up hot dogs, which sounds gross but is actually good.

It’s Sheldon approved! IYKYK

Sunday (04/19) after grocery shopping we stopped at a new coffee drive-thru called 7 Brew. It opened last month so there’s usually a massive line, but at 7 am there were only two cars so we figured why not. Joe got a large hot vanilla latte and I got a medium cookie butter iced latte. The person who took our order did so on an iPad so we had no idea what anything cost; the $13 total was a bit of sticker shock. Those are Starbucks prices, damn!

Someone also drove past the people taking orders basically cutting the line so we had to sit behind them and wait for them to get their order since they brought ours out to the car. I really can’t stand people like that who think they are more important and don’t have to follow the rules.

That being said, I thought my drink was very good. Joe wasn’t impressed with his.

We were pretty lazy the rest of the day, watching 90’s comedies on some a Roku channel called National Lampoon. Never heard of Senseless, starring Marlon Wayans and David Spade, before but it was pretty decent. Even bad 90s comedies seem to be more interesting than good comedies these days.

Weekend Recap (04/11-04/12)

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Saturday (04/11) we headed to the Schaumburg Container Store to pick up an order I had placed. They were having an online only 30% off sale and I wanted a few more multi-purpose bins like I bought years ago. I also bought a reusable microfiber duster. I had to pay for everything though because at some point Discover removed them from their gift cards offering. Our cash back balance keeps increasing because most of the gift cards now being offered by Discover are for places we don’t frequent. I joked with my friend I’m going to be ordering $500 worth of Taco Bell since they are one of the gift cards we actually use. I also can’t believe they added McDonald’s when those jerks won’t even let you pay with the gift card in their own app. I submitted feedback to Discover how I don’t like that they added McDonald’s for that reason.

Afterwards we hit up a nature center I used to frequent when I worked in Schaumburg and needed to get away from the office for a bit. It was surprisingly crowded, and other than briefly spotting what I think was a winter wren, it was a dud bird-wise.

Since we ran errands earlier in the morning, it was after 1 pm by that point so we headed over to KD Market (a Polish store) where we loaded up on all the things like stuffed cabbage, pierogis, soups, Polish sausage, etc.

We stuffed ourselves silly when we got home and not one, but two hermit thrushes showed up in the backyard while we were eating lunch. There’s something about seeing uncommon birds in your own backyard that is so thrilling!

Sunday (04/12) we headed over to a hidden gem near the house to see the white pelicans a fellow birder texted me about the day before. Luckily they were still there!

Afterwards we went to the arboretum. We spent three hours driving around and hiking some of the trails, one of which we hadn’t been on before but might be perfect when the warblers make their appearance soon. Also, we’ve been hearing frogs calling in big puddles for weeks now but can never see them. Well, I thought I had finally spotted one and got a photo, so I was excited!

Upon checking my photos I see it was a northern leopard frog. I guess it was hanging out with the chorus frogs who were making all the racket.

After the arboretum we stopped by At Home to look at a container (are you sensing a theme here?) I was interested in. I decided to pass after seeing it in person (looked cheap even though it was more expensive than The Container Store stuff I got).

Next we visited Whalon Lake in Naperville which had been a goldmine in waterfowl the first time we visited it last month. Unfortunately it was a bit of a dud this time around. The migrating ducks are moving north and won’t be seen again until late fall.

Our next stop was a place I’ve been wanting to try for awhile – Minnie Bird. It’s basically a chicken place that has an extensive dirty drink menu (sodas and coffee). We split a 3 wrap combo and tried a dirty soda called The Marshmallow which is basically Mr. Pibb with marshmallow cream. It wasn’t my favorite, but the chicken wraps (especially the pimento one) and fries were so good we’ll definitely be going back soon and will try a different dirty soda flavor. Or maybe a coffee since those look delicious.

Across the parking is a Korean store called H Mart that we’ve been wanting to check out so we ended up buying a bunch of things there before heading home in pure exhaustion. Now the freezer is full of leftover Polish food and dumplings, and the fridge has Asian drinks and desserts. Not sure what to try first!

Easter

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Sunday morning we were going to go to the arboretum for a bit to drive around since it was so cold out. Luckily I remembered they were doing an Easter Brunch. I checked Google Maps and sure enough, the streets over there were full of traffic.

Then I remembered this area not far from us in an industrial park where there is a large body of water. Well, I don’t recall there being these two islands out on the water but they must have been there before. In any case, they were FULL of egrets, herons, and cormorants. On top of that, there were Canvasbacks (a type of duck) in the water which we’ve never seen before, so those were lifers. Unfortunately they were across the lake and there was no way to get closer, so my photos were awful, but I could identify them based on their coloring.

We left and drove around to some other bodies of water but came back a little later and there was an SUV there. I told Joe, “I wonder if that is T”, a fellow photographer we used to run into all the time at various places in the area because she lives in a neighboring town. She also likes all my photos on FB. Sure enough, it was her! So we chatted with her for a while.

It was really nice to get a little nature fix despite the cold, and I saw my first Kinglet of the year too!

For dinner I reheated some ham (on the stove) and mac and cheese (in the toaster oven) that has been in the freezer since Christmas. I made green beans too, and we had some potato salad. Everything but the potato salad was good.

March 2026 Recap

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03/05 (Thu)
Sofi Tukker did a surprise livestream which we haven’t had in a long time. It seriously made me weep with happiness because it reminded me of 2020 when I was recovering from my mysterious health issues and they were streaming daily. I had missed them so much!

03/06 (Fri)
Switched our hosting plan to something a little more affordable. I want to archive two of the sites I’m paying for but no longer using so that maybe I can move this blog to a less expensive service. Trying to self-host doesn’t sound like something I really want to deal with but I’m tired of spending in excess of $100 annually just to have an easily accessible records of my life. Hardly anyone reads this so I write mostly for myself but having this blog to look up past events or just reminisce has proven invaluable so I don’t want to get rid of it.

03/09 (Mon)
Ran errands by myself for the first time since May of last year! It was nice gaining some independence back but I also missed having Joe with me. He makes shopping easier since he handles the driving of both the cart and the car.

Later went to Costco with Joe where we picked up these awesome vanilla Biscoff cookies. They will come in handy when we start birding hardcore soon.

03/10 (Tue)
Finally watched a couple of episodes of the Scrubs reboot on the heels of a complete re-watch of the original series. Not loving it thus far, but it might take time for it to hit its groove.

03/13 (Fri)
Joe took the day off work so we ran a bunch of errands and did some shopping.

We also tried a new place called Fry n Wings which was pretty decent.

03/14 (Sat)
Visited my parents and helped my brother look for a new car.

03/15 (Sun)
Ordered a cell phone for my brother. My mom finally agreed it would be good to have one in the house and for when my brother runs errands for our parents.

Was annoyed to find out that the Illinois Tollway charged us $1.50 for not having our transponder up when we went through one of the tolls when visiting my parents. They knew that I had an account because they added the fee to it, so why couldn’t they have just charged me the regular toll price of 75 cents instead of doubling it and marketing it as unpaid, thus forcing for me to pay it manually when there were funds on the account? I hate them.

03/17 (Tue)
Made corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day. Bought the very expensive and delicious Vienna Beef corned beef like we did last year. It was nearly $30 but so worth it.

03/19 (Thu)
Decorated for Easter and went to the marsh to look for birds where we saw two Brown Creepers.

I still think they should rename that bird since it moves so fast the name just doesn’t fit.

03/21 (Sat)
Had my annual eye exam at LensCrafters. I didn’t end up having to get my eyes dilated like I expected because they offer a digital retinal scan/photo that can detect most issues. Insurance doesn’t cover it so it’s $39 but it’s well worth the price not to be light sensitive and or see clearly for hours. We were able to run some errands and go birding afterwards as a result. We saw so many Sandhill Cranes migrating overhead.

This is actually a small group compared to many we spotted.

03/22 (Sun)
We went to my parents’ house to give my brother his new cell phone and show him how to use it.

Let me tell you, if you’re trying to find a low-cost carrier, skip Mint Mobile. Their website stinks! I had issues getting it to even let me set up service because the phone I bought wasn’t in their drop-down box where they require you confirm the eSim (which I knew it had) before letting you choose a plan. Even the page where you can enter the IMEI to confirm the phone is compatible with their service re-routes you to the page with the infuriating drop-down box which hasn’t been updated in several months. My brother’s phone was released in October of last year! Whomever designed that website needs a swift kick in the ass.

I got so fed up, I found a different carrier called Tello. Not only is it cheaper ($10 monthly for unlimited calls/texts and 2 GB of data, which is more than enough for my brother who will rarely use the phone), but setting up service couldn’t have been easier. It was five minutes, if that, to enter all the info, choose the plan, and get the phone working.

I feel like Mint Mobile owes me money for dealing with their bullshit.

On the way home from my parents house Sofi Tukker announced another live stream and we got home just in time to watch it. What a great way to end the weekend!

03/23 (Mon)
Dropped our microwave off at the only repair center in the tri-state area authorized to repair it under warranty.

We were driving around the area afterwards when Joe let out a gasp – there was a KFC Long John Silver’s. Needless to say, we grabbed an order to go and reheated it in the air fryer when we got home. I grew up eating LJS and love their chicken planks, but even the fish was pretty good. I could do without the fries and hushpuppies, though. We might grab more LJS when we go back to get our microwave in a couple of weeks.

03/29 (Sun)
While walking into the grocery store there were two Canada geese flying low overhead. The one in the rear nipped the other one’s butt and also stuck its feet out like it was going to land on its backside. They were squawking at each other as if they were arguing, while still flying. It was pretty funny.

Visited Whalon Lake and had a poor lunch experience after.

03/30 (Mon)
Went back to LensCrafters to order new lenses for my existing frames since they said they send the blanks with the prescription in them to the store and then cut them to fit my frame right there, thus only taking my frames for 30 minutes. That’s much better than having my frames sent somewhere for a week or two, especially since I need them to see! I would happily buy new frames if it was easier to find some that fit my small face/head. I always have so much trouble since most adult frames are too big and kids’ frames are too small. I am the Goldilocks of glasses and it sucks.

Afterwards we went to a nearby lake where we looked for Common Loons but didn’t see any. We went to Beef Shack for dinner and also grabbed some rice balls from Atlas Chicken in the same strip mall area. We end up eating our food in the Atlas Chicken patio area since it’s so nice. Someone from Atlas came to our table to let us know the seating was for their restaurant only but Joe showed them the bag from their restaurant and they backed down. I felt pretty uncomfortable about it though since we had more food from Beef Shack than Atlas (the BS logo is more prominent than Atlas on their respective bags), so next time we’ll just eat over by Beef Shack instead.

Whalon Lake

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I’ve heard Whalon Lake in Naperville is one of the best places to see Common Loons this time of year, so Sunday afternoon (March 29th) we headed out there to explore.

Upon arrival we spotted a group of American Coots near the shoreline. Shortly thereafter we saw Lesser Scaups, Buffleheads, Red-breasted Mergansers, Horned Grebes, Ring-billed Gulls, and way too many Canada Geese. It was a treasure trove of waterfowl, all on the parking lot side of the lake no less!

Some guy started talking to us and very confidently pointed out that a few of the birds were a species called Goldeneye. I wanted to correct him, having already identified them as Lesser Scaups, but I didn’t bother in case I was wrong. But after going through all my photos, I was in fact correct.

Just because it HAS a golden eye, does not make it a Goldeneye. Although that would have been cool because I don’t think I have that one on my life list yet.

In any case, we decided to walk around the lake to see what else we could spot, but other than the exercise from our 1.5 trek, it was pretty pointless: just more gulls and geese.

I was happy to see so many water birds in one place, but disappointed there were no loons to be found. Until…

I was going through my photos the following day and found a few I took of a bird we spotted way out in the middle of the lake. Even with our binoculars and my camera zoomed in, we couldn’t identify it in the moment. However, with my software zoomed in another 300%, I could tell it was a common loon! Even with the pixelated blurry image, those markings around the neck are unmistakable. It’s too bad it disappeared from sight and wasn’t seen again as we made our way around the lake.

I really wish this place wasn’t a 40 minute drive because I would be there often. It even has a big dog park nearby.

After our little birding adventure we were starving. On our way to the lake we had passed a Mexican restaurant called Guzman y Gomez. We had wanted to try them one day, so we decided to pick up some food and take it to a nearby forest preserve. It was a whole ordeal signing up for their rewards program and trying to take advantage of their free burrito offer, but what was even worse was the food wasn’t good. It was like it was trying to be Chipotle but failing miserably, or at least how I remember Chipotle since I refuse to eat there after they stole my reward points and ignored my messages asking why. In any case, we won’t be ever eating there again because the food wasn’t good and the portions were pathetic.