October Recap

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10/02 (Wed) – Discovered the deliciousness of pork schnitzel.

10/04-10/06 – Extended Weekend Recap

10/06 (Sun) – The first dark-eyed juncos of the year were spotted behind our house.

10/08 (Tue) – Started using eBird checklists which can be fun, if not a bit frustrating when entering species into the app. I like being able to add my photos to the checklist later on, though. I’m very much into documenting things, so I’m not sure why I didn’t get into birding checklists sooner. It’s like Pokemon Go, but with birds!

Finally saw the Northern Lights, aka Aurora Borealis.

10/09 (Wed) – Updated my iPhone to iOS 18. Liking the new photos app in particular. I think it’ll be time for a new phone next year as I heard this is the last iOS that will be available for the iPhone 11. I haven’t had any issues with this phone, but I am looking forward to getting one with better cameras.

10/10 (Thu) – Pulled out my newest Halloween decor purchases. The ghost solar light (Dollar Tree) ended up being a cool white LED which I didn’t care for, so no more were purchased. The towel (also Dollar Tree) was hung from the oven handle, and the bat (from Old Time Pottery) was hung from the left side of the fireplace mantel.

Shared a photo on Facebook of the orange mums from Meijer still looking good, with an owl I added to the hanging basket.

Took another stab at photographing the Northern Lights with my phone.

10/11 (Fri) – Decorated for Halloween inside.

Went to Mallard Lake after Joe got off work and spotted this beautiful juvenile bald eagle.

The sky was also pretty at the end of our walk as the sun was getting closer to setting.

10/12-10/13 – Weekend Recap

10/15 (Tue) – Got a halfway decent photo of the comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS.

10/16 (Wed) – Lincoln Marsh

10/19-10/20 – Weekend Recap

10/20 (Sun) – Started practicing standing on one leg to see how long I could do it since reading it’s good for one’s mental and physical health. Proud to report I was able to go a full minute on each leg and only 40 seconds was needed in my age group.

Also saw my first ever Blue Jay behind the house. It was eating some of the bird seed I had put by the tree. I could not grab my camera quickly enough to get photographic evidence.

Went to Aldi, only to find they rearranged the majority of the aisles. Nothing makes sense anymore!

10/21 (Mon) – Got our first male downy woodpecker at the suet feeder. He has a spicy attitude and will peck at any sparrow trying to access the feeder, so we named him Loki. Our talkative female downy is named Lulu, so we are doing L names I guess. We haven’t yet named what we think is a second female downy.

10/22 (Tue) – We had a hawk sneaking around out back looking for a meal.

10/23-10/27 – Anniversary Extended Weekend

10/28 (Mon) – Spent a lot of time sitting out on the patio knowing the last nice day was coming soon. I don’t know how I’m going to make it through winter.

10/29 – Air Fryer review

10/31 – Halloween

New Food & Beverage Recommendations

7-UP Shirley Temple.

I’m not sure what it’s supposed to taste like, but I liked the flavor, so I plan to get more.

Trader Joe’s Sesame Honey Cashews

A little pricey at $8, but very yummy! We only eat a small handful at a time.

Notable movies this month:

We watched 1-2 horror movies every night in October, and these are the ones we had never seen before which I thought were the best.

Don’t Hang Up – I had some issues with the killer’s motive, not to mention a few plot holes, and I wasn’t scared by this, but it was interesting enough to keep me off my phone so that’s a successful movie in my book.

Gonjiam Haunted Aslym – Actually creepy, if not predictible.

Late Night With The Devil – Very unique premise that kept us glued to the TV trying to figure out where it was going on.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil – Horror comedy that kept us entertained.

A Very Cure Halloween

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I was watching a YouTube video the other day that was sponsored by Opera, the web browser.

I admit, I completely forgot it existed, but decided to download it this morning to see whether I prefer it to Google Chrome. So far, I do. I really like the left-hand sidebar in Opera where your chats and music live, instead of having to keep open tabs for them. As far as performance, time will tell whether it hogs more resources than Chrome did.

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I had a really nice Halloween afternoon – I edited a backlog of photos while listening to The Cure on the BBC Sounds radio app. They were streaming them in celebration of their new album being released November 1st.

The first show I listened to was pre-recorded recently and included songs from the upcoming album.

Tracklist from the BBC 2 Radio set:

1. Alone
2. Pictures of You
3. A Fragile Thing
4. High
5. A Night Like This
6. Lovesong
7. The Walk
8. In Between Days
9. Just Like Heaven
10. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
11. Endsong

The second show was a live stream of them playing at a small venue in the UK.

Tracklist from the BBC 6 Live set (which is listed incorrectly on the BBC website):

1. Plainsong
2. Last Dance
3. I Can Never Say Goodbye
4. Burn
5. And Nothing Is Forever
6. At Night
7. A Forest
8. All I Ever Am
9. Prayers for Rain
10. Disintegration

They sounded amazing, as usual, and it was a wonderful listening experience.

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We got about the same amount of trick-or-treaters this year as past years, definitely no more than twenty total kids, most of them between 5 and 7 pm, with one boy coming around 7:20. I ended up closing the door at 7:30 because technically the official hours are until 7. The neighbor across the street brought her two boys this time (they didn’t show up last year) and I had made a treat bag for them. I just gave loose candy to the rest of the kids, but next year maybe I’ll make bags for everyone. I usually do, but just didn’t feel like it this year.

We got the big bag of Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, and mini Oreos since we like them all and knew we’d have leftovers.

I think the uneven distribution with the Oreos is partially responsible for me not making the treat bags.

I was worried I’d have a big group of kids where some would get three types of treats and then others would get only two. I hate the idea of disappointing anyone.

New Air Fryer

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We picked up a new air fryer from Costco on the 23rd after we noticed the old one’s cord was getting really hot when in use. We’ve only had it a handful of years, but it was a free gift Joe got from his old job, so it could be worse.

The new one, a Gourmia, was $40 on sale, normally $50.

What I like:

It has a larger capacity (8-QT verses 3-QT) even though physically it’s not much larger than the old one.

It has a window so you can check on the food without opening it.

The beeps when you make selections are much quieter than the old one, and can be turned off if you want (I knew this going in because I downloaded the user’s manual before deciding to look at it).

The air fryer fan is much quieter than the old one.

It came with a very nice laminated cheat sheet of cooking times for a variety of foods.

It has although cooking modes besides air fryer, like bake, dehydrate, keep warm, although I’m not sure how frequently we’d use those.

It has a cord wrap on the back.

What I don’t like:

When using the preheat option, it will only beep a couple of times to remind you to add the food and gives you something like ten seconds to do so before it just starts counting down the time as if the food is already in it. It does the same thing when it beeps to remind you to turn the food halfway through the cooking time. I wish it would give you more time like our last unit.

When you wash it, water gets in-between the glass and unless you literally unscrew and take it apart, you cannot easily dry it. Owners have also complained grease gets in-between the glass too which means it’s going to look dirty like our toaster oven. The difference is the toaster oven doesn’t live on the counter so I don’t have to look at it.

There aren’t any protective rubber feet on the bottom of the basket so you can’t pull it out and set it down on a bare counter, you’ll need a pot-holder or something. The old one didn’t have this issue.

The stainless steel parts around the basket are difficult to clean without creating streaks, so it looks dirty even when it isn’t.

It has a screen instead of buttons so those get dirty the second you touch them.

The machine was only $40 though, so perhaps I’m expecting too much. Overall I guess I like it, but I don’t love it, and if anything else comes up that is super annoying we might take it back to Costco and look for something else. I like Ninja’s options and watched a video where they don’t beep at all and have physical buttons instead of a screen, which I like, but it’s twice the cost.

Anniversary Extended Weekend (10/23-10/27)

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Joe took multiple days off from work so we could have a nice staycation to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary, which was on October 23rd. I can’t believe how much time has passed. As I wrote on Facebook, it’s been a tough year with Wookie’s passing, but if there’s anything positive that came from it, it was Joe and I growing even closer in our shared grief. I’m so thankful to have a supportive partner and best friend throughout all these years. I’m truly very lucky.

Wednesday (10/23) we ran several errands in the morning (including TJ Maxx where I got a new watch band) before going to Texas Roadhouse at 3 pm for dinner. We wanted to get there when they opened to minimize how many people we’d be around as we are still not comfortable eating indoors and possibly catching COVID. We got boosters a few weeks beforehand, though, so we felt the risk was minimal.

The dinner started out rocky when we were seated by the restrooms and Joe noticed an awful smell come wafting our way. We asked to be seated elsewhere and were moved, so everything was good from there. The steaks we ordered were good and since I had gotten a gift card from Discover, I wasn’t stressed about the bill. It’s not like we can’t afford it, we’ve just had bad experiences where we paid a lot for a meal and didn’t feel it was worth it. That’s the reason we didn’t go to Cooper’s Hawk across the street (no gift card via Discover).

That being said, while we did enjoy our meal (minus the louder than necessary music in the restaurant), we both felt we really haven’t missed eating out. Food prices have increased too much and we’ve been just fine getting takeout when we don’t feel like cooking.

Thursday (10/24) we headed into the city to visit Lincoln Park Zoo. Since we wanted to beat the morning rush, we got into the city before the zoo opened, so we first went to Montrose Point where we watched the sun rise.

Sunrise from the bird sanctuary

Instead of trying to find street parking like in the past, we decided to park in the zoo lot even though it’s pretty expensive at $35 for the four hours we were there. But since the zoo admission itself is free, and I read the parking fees go to the zoo, I felt like it was the right thing to do since we’ve enjoyed many free visits over the years.

Since we were at the zoo when the gates opened at 8 am, and the zoo buildings don’t open until 10 am, we walked around the entire zoo, the nature boardwalk, and the farm in the zoo (which is even more boring than before now that the baby chick exhibit is gone) for the first two hours. One of our favorite parts of the zoo is swan pond and waterfowl lagoon area over by the small mammal house. I saw some new species of birds but didn’t add them to my life list since I don’t think they would count not being in the true wild. We sat on a bench by these bodies of water and had a morning snack of banana bread I had baked earlier in the week for our excursions. We always bring some snacks with us so we’re not tempted to buy overpriced food. Also it prevents us from wanting to leave too early because of hunger.

Once 10 am came we went back through the zoo a second time, this time seeing all the indoor exhibits. The only one we could not access were the gorillas since that building was closed for some unexplained reason. We sat outside that building for awhile just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather. I told Joe before we left I wanted to swing by the snow leopard for a second time. I’m glad I did, because while the leopard was nowhere to be found, the red panda was out, and I got the single best photo of a red panda I’ve ever gotten!

I’m pretty sad that my photo didn’t get many likes online because I really think it’s a fantastic photo, so much so that I set it as the background on my PC.

We thought about heading to Chinatown for lunch but I want to do more research on the best restaurant to try, plus we plan to visit Jackson Park during spring migration which would be a closer drive, so we decided to save that trip for another time.

As we took the scenic/long drive home, we could not think of a place to stop for lunch until we were much closer to home and we passed this Polish deli called Helen’s. We stopped inside to grab some potato pancakes, stuffed cabbage, soup, and a dessert. Unfortunately they don’t have pierogis or blintzes during the week, or we would have gotten some of those too. We also stopped at A&W for a root beer cream freeze since they are delicious (and it was; we drank it as we drove home). The Polish deli food was really good, especially the pancakes and vegetable soup. I didn’t think the cabbage rolls were as good as the Polish deli closer to home, though.

Friday (10/25) we went on a morning bird walk with the DuPage Birding Club at Fullersburg Woods. I opted not to bring along my camera as I was still tired and sore from all the walking at the zoo. Our guides were a married couple who were both extremely nice and knowledgeable. They made the walk fun despite my aches. They showed us where to find a screech owl and I swear I spotted its side profile for a few seconds, but it’s hard to say for sure. They really blend in well with the tree bark, plus it was inside a tree cavity which makes it even harder to see fully.

After our walk we stopped at Trader Joe’s and Target for a few things and then got Chinese food for lunch (and dinner, and dinner for the next two days too since we always order three large dishes).

As if we didn’t want to torture ourselves enough, we went on another bird walk on Saturday (10/26) to Busse Woods in Schaumburg. Luckily the main walking portion was in the first area we visited and the other two spots were close to each subsequent parking lot. I left my camera at home once more but kinda wished I had it with me so I could contribute to the group checklist on eBird.

When we were at our final spot, I suddenly had a craving for a corndog, and started looking on Yelp for somewhere to grab lunch after our walk was complete. We ended up settling on Sonic of all places. The corndog was ok, but the other things we tried were even better.

The grilled cheeseburger (an app exclusive) tastes like a Wendy’s doublestack but on Texas toast. Very tasty! Their Philly cheesesteak was impressive. We weren’t expecting it to be as good as it was, or as large. The only thing that would have made it better was a little salt, pepper, and mayo. I dipped mine in Sonic’s signature sauce which is also very good.

I got a pretzel twist to take home and it crisped up nice in our new air fryer. The cheese dipping sauce it comes with is good; reminds me of the old school cheese you could get with an order of nachos at the roller rink (showing my age with that reference).

The highlight, however, was the Dirty Dr. Pepper, a drink you can only order in the app.

Very unique and flavorful. I’m not even big on Dr. Pepper, but made this way I’d drink it much more often.

Oh and a funny thing happened earlier in the morning. We had been discussing how ABT was having a customer appreciation sale and that we should really replace our living room TV (it has developed the purple spots of death which have been growing since earlier this year) and were leaning toward getting an LG TV. Joe placed a mobile order for an iced coffee at McDonald’s and the code to give at the drive-thru was LG24. Freaky, right?!?

Weekend Recap (10/19-10/20)

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Nothing much was done on Saturday (10/19) because Joe was still in Pennsylvania on a work trip, his first since Wookie passed away. It was really weird being home alone for days and not having my Wookie alarm on standby at night. I may or may not have put a knife under the pillow because I watch a lot of true crime and one can never be too cautious.

Joe got home fairly early Sunday (10/20) morning so we ate homemade breakfast burritos before heading to Lincoln Marsh. We saw the Great Egret again, and found the Great Horned Owl.

But the most interesting thing was when we were looking for the owl we noted how quiet it seemed. And then I looked up and saw something sitting on a tree branch but wasn’t sure at first it was a bird since it was not moving at all. So I took a photo and zoomed in and it was a red-bellied woodpecker staying completely still. I told Joe “there must be a predator nearby”.

I noticed it had its head turned toward the right, and when I looked at the other side of the tree, that’s when I noticed the Cooper’s Hawk sitting there, looking in the direction of the woodpecker.

No wonder it was so quiet! The birds were trying not to become a meal.

We also watched an egret fishing. Prior to this we were looking at something in the marsh and the egret very quietly landed very close to us without us knowing. Joe turned around and was startled by it. According to the chatting guy from the other day this egret isn’t really scared of people and will get close and let people get close to it.

After visiting the marsh, we headed to the arboretum. We got there so late (almost noon) there was actually a very long line of cars waiting to get in. Every parking lot was packed, but since we mostly drove around and could park alongside the road it didn’t affect us too much. I think everyone wanted to enjoy the last nice Sunday.

Over by one of our favorite sections, Turtle Pond, was a huge swarm of Asian ladybeetles, the ones that look like orange ladybugs. They were landing all over us; it was creepy! We had to flick them off us, so we got the heck out of there.